it a greater condemnation to our selves than men were aware of So could I wish the like Caution in all others also lest unawares they utterly exclude themselves out of Christianity For as Pope Gregory the first said unto some of the Bishops of his time concerning the Patriarch of Constantinople who had then took unto himself the title of Oecumenical or Vniversal Bishop viz. Si ille universalis or which is the same Catholicus est restat ut vos non sitis Episcopi so may we also say in the present case if we once grant them to be Catholickâ— we thereby do conclude our selves to be no Christians or at best but Hereticks Christian perhaps they have no fancy to be called the name of Christian in most parts of Italy being grown so despicable that Fool and Christian in a manner are become Synonyma Italico Idiomate per Christianum hominem stupidum stolidum solent intelligere as Hospinian tells us from the mouth of one Christian Franken who had lived amongst them Since then they have no minde to be called Christians nor reason to be called Catholicks let us call them as they are by the name of Papists considering their dependance on the Popes decision for all points of Faith And possibly we may gratifie them as much in this as if we did permit them the name of Catholicks For Bellarmine seems very much delighted with the Appellation flattering himself that he can bring in Christ our most blessed Saviour within the Catalogue of Popes and that he hath found a Prophecy in St. Chrysostom to this effect Quandoque nos Papistas vocandos esse That Papist in the times then following should be the stile and title of a true Professor Great pity it is but he and his should have the honor of their own discovery and Papists let them be since the same so pleaseth Now as the Papists make ill use of the name of Catholick so do their opposite faction in the Church of Christ conclude as falsly and erroneously from the title of Holy The Church is called Holy and is called so justly because it trains men up in the ways of godliness because it is so in its most eminent and more noble parts whom God hath sanctified by the Graces of his holy Spirit and finally because redeemed by the blood of Christ to the intent that all the faithful Members of it being by him delivered from the hands of their enemies might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives Not holy in the sense of Corah and his factious complices who made all the Congregation holy and all holy alike nor holy in the sense of some Antient and Modern Sectary who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or wrinkle a Church wherein there are no vessels of wrath but election onely and where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly for fear they should partake of the sins and wickednesses which they observe to be in some Members of it Our Saviour Christ who better knew the temper of his Church than so compares the same in holy Scripture to a threshing floor in which there is both Wheat and chaff and to a fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kinde of Fishes both good and bad and to an house in which there are not onely vessels of honor as Gold and Silver but also of dishonor and for unclean uses and to a field in which besides the good Seed which the Lord had sown Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his Tares In all and every one of which heavenly Parables our Saviour represented unto his Disciples and in them to us the true condition of his Church to the end of the world in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here In which erroneous doctrines are so mixt with truth that it can never be so perfectly reserved and purified but errors and corruptions will break out upon it Perplexae sunt istae duae civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae saith the great St. Augustine The City of the Lord and the City of Satan are so intermingled in this world that there is little hope to see them separated till the day of judgement Though the foundation of the Church be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in her superstructures and those so interwoven and built up together that nothing but a fatal fire is of power to part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray to God for the good estate of the Church Militant here on Earth but glory as in the Triumphant as they do in Heaven And yet the Church is counted Holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour Christ is professed and propagated Holy secundùm nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent for grace and piety And it is called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be Militant here upon the Earth and part Triumphant in the Heavens The same one Church in this World and in that â—o come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely Accordingly it is determined by St. Augustine Eandem ipsam unam Sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Ierom Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites False Teachers and Licentious livers will shroud themselves under the shelter of the Church and pass for Members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further than the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui The Lord knows onely who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandments and carefully possess their Souls in Truth and Godliness And yet some men there are as there have been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church in this present world without spot or wrinkle and dream of such a Field as contains no Tares of such an House as hath no Vessels but of honor sanctified and prepared for the Masters use The Cathari in
misunderstood dictates of those old Philosophers For where the Scripture saith They had all things common we are to understand it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use and communication and not in referenee to the right and original title The goods of Christians were in several as to the right title and possession of them but common in the merciful inclination of the owner to the works of mercy And this appears exceeding plainly by the Text and Story of the Acts. For the Text saith That no man said of any thing that it was his own no not of the things which he possessed which plainly shews That the possession still remained to the proper owner though he was mercifully pleased to communicate his goods to the good of others But this the story shews more plainly For what need any of the Possessors of Lands or Houses have sold them and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet to be by them distributed to the poorer Brethren If the poor Brethren might have carved themselves out of such estates and entred on them as their own or with what colour could St. Paul have concealed this truth and changed this natural community to a communication Charge them which be rich in this world saith he that they be willing to communicate a communication meerly voluntary and such as necessarily preserves that interess which the Communicators have in their temporal fortunes And so Tertullian also must be understood For though it be omnia indiscreta in regard of the use or a communion if you will with the Saints maintained with one another in their temporal fortunes yet was it no community but a communication in reference to that legal interess which was still preserved and therefore called no more than rei communicatio in the words foregoing The like may be replied to the other Argument drawn from the quality of friendship and the authority of Aristotle and the rest there named That which I have is properly and truly mine because descended on me in due course of Law or otherwise acquired by my pains and industry and being mine is by my voluntary act made common for the relief and comfort of the man I love and have made choice of for my friend yet still no otherwise my friends but that the right and property doth remain in me Quicquid habet amicus noster commune est nobis illius tamen proprium est qui tenet as most truly Seneca As for the practise of the Spartans and that natural liberty which is pretended to be for mankinde in the use of the Creatures It is a thing condemned in all the Schools of the Politicks and doth besides directly overthrow the principles of the Anabaptist and the Familist and their Confederates who are content to rob all mankinde of the use of the Creatures so they may monopolize and ingross them all to the use of the Saints that is themselves But the truth is that these pretences for the Saints are as inconsistent with the Word and Will of God as those which are insisted on for mankinde in general For how can this Community of the Saints or mankinde agree with any of those Texts of holy Scripture which either do condemn the unlawful getting keeping or desiring of riches by covetousness extortion theevery and the like wicked means to attain the same or else commend frugality honest trades of life and specially liberality to the poor and needy Assuredly where there is neither meum nor tuum as there can be no stealing so there needs no giving For how can a man be said to steal that which is his own or what need hath he to receive that in the way of a gift to which he hath as good a Title as the man that giveth it I shut up all with this determination of the Church of England which wisely as in all things else doth so exclude community of mens goods and substance as to require a Christian Communication of and communion in them The riches and goods of Christians saith the Article are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast therefore no community Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the poor according to his ability and there a Communion of the Saints in the things of this world a communication of their riches to the wants of others But the main point in this Communion of the Saints in reference to one another concerns that intercourse and mutual correspondency which is between the Saints in the Church here Militant and those which are above in the Church Triumphant The Church is of a larger latitude than the present world The Body whereof Christ is Head not being wholly to be found on the Earth beneath but a good part thereof in the Heavens above Both we with them and they with us make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head but one Spiritual Corporation whereof he is Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Chrysostom And if he be the Head of both as no doubt he is then must both they and we be members of that Body of his and consequently that correspondence and communion must be held between us which is agreeable to either in his several place So far I think it is agreed on of all sides without any dispute The point in question will concern not the quod sit of it that there is and ought to be a communion between them and us but quo modo how it is maintained and in what particulars And even in this I think it will be granted on all hands also that those above do pray unto the Lord their God for his Church in general that he would please to have mercy on Ierusalem and to build up the breaches in the walls of Sion and to behold her in the day of her visitation when she is harassed and oppressed by her merciless enemies How long say they in the Apocalypse O Lord holy and true how long dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth And as they pray unto the Lord to be gracious to us so do they also praise his name for those acts of mercy which he vouchsafes to shew to his Church in general or any of his servants in particular The joy that was in Heaven at the fall of Babylon which had so long made her self drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martys and that which is amongst the Angels of Heaven over every sinners that repenteth are proof enough for this were there no proof else We on the other side do magnifie Gods name for them in that he hath vouchsafed to deliver them out of the bondage of the flesh to take their souls unto his mercy and free
England as it was constituted and confirmed by the best Authority which the Laws could give it when I began to set my self to this imployment and had brought it in â— manner to a full conclusion And though some alterations have since happened in the face of this Church and those so great as make no small matter of astonishment to the Christian world yet being there is no establishment of any other Doctrine Discipline or new forme of Government and that God knows how soon the prudence of this State may think it fitting if not necessary to revive the old I look upon it now as in the same condition and constitution in which it shined and flourished with the greatest beauty that any National Church in Christendome could justly boast of In all such points which come within the compasse of this discourse wherein the Church hath positively declared her judgement I keep my self to her determinations and decisions according to the literal sense and Grammatical meaning of the words as was required in the Declaration to the book of Articles not putting my own sense upon them nor drawing them aside to propagate and defend any foraine Doctrines by what great name soever proposed and countenanced But in such points as come before me in which I finde that the Church hath not publickly determined I shall conceive my self to be left at liberty to follow the dictamen of my own genius but so that I shall regulate that liberty by the Traditions of the Church and the unanimous consent of the Antient Fathers though in so doing I shall differ from many of the common and received opinions which are now on foot For why should I deny my self that liberty which the times allow me in which not only Libertas opinandi but Libertas prophetandi the liberty of Prophecying t is I mean hath found so many advocates and so much indulgence Common opinions many times are but common errors and we may truely say of them as Calderinas did in Ludovicus Vives when he went to Masse Eamus ergo quia sic placet in communes errores And as I shall make bold to use this liberty in representing to thy view my own opinions so I shall leave thee to the like liberty also of liking or rejecting such of my opinions as are here presented Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim and good reason too for my opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As opinions I am not bound to stand to them my self as mine I have no reason to obtrude them on another man I may perhaps delight my self in some of my own fancies and possibly may think my self not unfortunate in them but I shall never be so wedded to my own opinions but that a clearer Judgement shall at any time divorce me from them As for the book which is now before thee I must confesse that there was nothing lesse in my first intention then to write a Comment on the Creed my purpose being only to informe my self in that part thereof which concernes Christs sufferings especially his descending into hell a question at that time very hotly agitated For having gotten the late Kings leave to retire to Winchester about the beginning of May An. 1645. I met there with the learned and laborious work of B. Bilsons entituled A Survey of Christs suffering for mans redemption c. which finding very copious and intermixed with many things not pertinent to the present subject though otherwise of great use and judgement I was resolved to extract out of it all such proofs and arguments as concerned the locall descent of Christ into hell â—o reduce them to a clearer Method and to add to them such conceptions and considerations which my own reading with the help of some other books could supply me with Which having finished and finding many things interspersed in the Bishops book touching the sufferings of Christ I thought it not amisse to collect out of him whatsoever did concerne that argument in the same manner as before and then to add to it such considerations and discourses upon the crucifixion death and burial of our Saviour Christ as might make the story of his Passion from the beginning of his sufferings under Pontius Pilate to his victorious triumph over Hell and Satan compleate and perfect And then considering with my self that not that Article alone of Christs descending into hell but the authority of the whole Creed had been lately quarrelled the opinion that it was not written by the holy Apostles being more openly maintained and more indulgently approved of then I could imagine I thought it of as great importance to vindicate the whole Creed as assert one part and then and not till then did I first entertain the thoughts of bringing the whole worke to that forme and order in which now thou feest it For though I knew it was an Argument much vexed and that many Commentaries and Expositions had been writ upon it yet I conceived that I was able by interweaving some Polemical Disputes and Philological Discourses to give it somewhat more then a new dresse only and that what other censure soever might be laid upon it that of Nil dictum est quod non dictum fuit prius should finde no place here But I had scarce gone through with the general Preface when the surrounding of Winchester by the forces of the Lords and Commons made me leave that City and with that City the thoughts and opportunities of proceeding forwards save that I made some entry on the first Article at a private friends house in a Parish of Wiltshire where I found some few tooles to begin the work with The miserable condition of the King my most gracious Master the impendent ruine of the Church my most pretious Mother the unsetledness of my own affaires and the dangers which every way did seem to threaten me were a sufficient Supersedeas to all matter of study even in the University it self to which I was again returned not without some difficulties where the war began to look more terrible then it had done formerly And I might say of writing books as the world then went as the Poet once did of making verses Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno Me mare me tellus me fera jactat hyems Carminibus metus omnis abest ego perditus ensem Haesurum jugulo jam puto jamque meo That is to say Verses proceed from minds compos'd and free Sea earth and tempests joyn to ruine me Poets must write secure from fears not feel As I do at my throat the threatning steel Yet so intent I was upon my designe that as soon as I had waded through my Composition and fixed my self on a certain dwelling near the place of my birth which was about the middle of April in the year 1647. I resumed the worke and there by Gods assistance as the necessity of my affaires gave me time and leasure put an end
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
f. 387. for consorti r. consortio f. 401. f. in their baptism r. in their infancy before baptism f. 414. f. most high Ghost r. most high God f. 391. f. Syrius r. Syria f. 396. f. a siquidem r. siquidem f. 397. f. Arminians r. Armenians f. 398 f. convenientem r. convenientium f. 416. f dum quo r. cum quo f. suppetas r. suppetias f. 456. f. declanative r. declarative f. 453. f an evitable r. unevitable f. 471. f. inventute r. injuventute f. 495. f. which continual r. with continual THE SUMME OF Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical CONTAINED IN THE Apostles CREED Or reducible to it IN THREE BOOKS By PETER HEYLYN 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Seile over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1654. A PREFACE To the following Work CONCERNING The ANTIQVITY AVTHORITY OF THE CREED CALLED THE Apostles CREED With Answer to the chief Objections which are made against it The Drift and Project of the WORK IT was a saying of St. Ambrose Unus unum fecit qui unitatis ejus haberet imaginem that God made only one in the first beginning after the likenesse or similitude of his own unity The creation of the World was the pattern of Man Man of the Church the Almighty of all Being one himself or rather being unity he bestowed upon the World not a being only but his blessing with it that being it should be but one One in the generall comprehension of parts and therefore by the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latines call it universum a name of multitude indeed but of a multitude united Universi qui in uno loco versi say the old Grammarians One also in opposition unto numbers and so maintained by Aristotle in his first De Coelo against the errors of Empedocles and Democritus two old Philosophers Now as he made the world but one after the similitude of himself so out of the world and according to that pattern created he man Made by the Lord according to his own image and made but one because the Lord was so that made him because the world was so out of which he was taken The severall parts and members in him do but commend the unity of the whole Compositum for though they are many members yet but one body saith St. Paul Which mutuall resemblance and agreement as it occasioned many of the old Philosophers to call man an Abridgement of the world so might it no lesse justly have occasioned others to style the world an inlargement of man Nay more then this seeing that only man was without an helper the Lord resolved to make one for him and to make her out of his own body only that so he might preserve still the former unity Nor stayed he here but he did give her unto man to be one flesh with him that to the unity of Original he might add the union of affections Magnum mysterium saith the Apostle but I Speak only as he did touching Christ and the Church For this Creation of the woman as St. Augustine tells us was a most perfect type of the birth and being of the Church of Christ Christum enim et Ecclesiam tali facto jam tunc prophetari oportebat The woman was created out of the side of man at such time as the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall upon him the Church was also taken out of the wounded side of Christ being cast into a deeper sleep then that of Adam And as the woman was one body both in the composition of her parts and one with Adam both in the union of love and unity of being so is it also with the Church She is at perfect union with him in the union of her affections being marryed unto him for ever one with him in the unity of her original for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bone and lastly one in the consent and harmony of all her parts acknowledging one Lord one Faith one Baptisme For though the Church consisted in those early days both of Iews and Gentiles Greeks and Barbarians bond and free men not alone of different countries but of different natures yet being all incorporated into that society of men which we call the Church they make but one body only as St. Paul hath testifyed And whence proceeds that unity of this visible body but in that uniformity which all those severall persons have which belong unto it by reason of that one Lord whose servants they do all professe themselves to be that one Faith of which they do all make confession and that one Baptisme wherewith they are initiated into that society the outward and uniforme profession of these three things which appertain to the very essence of Christianity being necessarily required of each Christian man Christians they neither are nor can be who call not Christ their Lord and Master From hence it came that first in Antioch and afterwards throughout all the world all who were of the visible Church were called Christians Autor nominis ejus Christus saith Cornelius Tacitus But the bare calling of CHRIST IESVS our Lord and Master is not enough to prove us to be Christians unlesse that we do also embrace that Faith which he delivered to his Apostles and was by them delivered unto all the world And though we are not reckoned members of this visible Church till we receive admittance by the door of Baptisme yet is the door of Baptisme opened unto none untill they make profession of their faith in Christ. It is not honestie of life nor morall righteousnesse which gives denomination to a Christian although the want thereof doth exclude from heaven because they are not proper unto Christian men as they are Christians but do concern them as they are men The moral Law was given to mankinde in the state of nature and after promulgated to the Iews in more solemn manner Hence was it that so many of the antient Gentiles not to say any thing of the Iews before the coming of our Saviour were eminent in so many parts of moral vertue But for the acts of Faith whereby we do confesse that IESVS CHRIST is Lord of all things and willingly believe all those sacred truths which he came to publish to the world and by confession of the which we carry as it were a key to the door of Baptisme that is the proper badge and cognizance of a Christian man by which it is made known unto all the world both to what Lord he appertaineth and by what means he was admitted for a member of his house and family Which faith or rather the doctrines of which faith being first delivered by our Saviour with this comfort and reward annexed that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have life
everlasting and after preached by the Apostles both to Iew and Gentile was finally committed unto writing to this end and purpose that by reading it or hearing it read and declared by others we may believe that IESVS is the CHRIST the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his name as St. Iohn assures us And though this be affirmed by him of his Gospel only I mean that written by himself yet we may safely say the same of all the rest of the Apostolical and Evangelical writings as being dictated by the same Spirit writ by men equally inspired and all conducing to this end to teach us to know IESVS CHRIST and him crucifyed and to enable us to give a reason to all that aske of the faith that is in us But being the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were of too great a bulk to be committed unto memory and that there were some things in them so obscure and difficult that many ignorant and unstable but well meaning men both might and did wrest them to their own destruction other things which related rather unto moral duties then to points faith it was thought fit by the Apostles to draw the points of saving faith such as were necessarily to be believed of all Christian people into a briefe and narrower compasse It was not for the ordinary sort of men to trouble themselves with doubtful disputations as St. Paul calleth them whereof many do occurre in his Epistles disputes of too great difficulty and sublime a nature for every man especially the weak in faith either to understand or conceive aright Nor was it possible that men of mean parts and laborious callings of which the Church consisted for the most part in the first beginning should either have so much leasure as to read over their writings or so much judgment as to gather and collect from thence what of necessity was to be believed that they might be saved what not or so much memory as to treasure up and repeat by heart the infinite treasures of divine knowledge which are comprehended in the same And if it were so as no doubt it was when the Apostles and Evangelists had left those excellent Monuments of themselves in writing which the Church hath ever since enjoyed to which men might resort as occasion was for their information and instruction how necessary then must we think it was for some such Summarie and Abstract of the Christian faith to be resolved upon amongst them which men of weak memories might repeat by heart and men of shallow comprehensions righly understand Those blessed souls knew well none better how to apply themselves to the capacities of the weakest men that there were many Babes in Christ who were to be fed with milk and not with meats and that if they became not all things unto all men they must resolve amongst themselves to save but few Upon this ground then which what juster could there be to induce them to it it is conceived they drew up that brief abstract of the Christian faith which we call the CREED and couched therein whatever point was necessary for all sorts of men in all times and all places of the world both to believe in their hearts as also to professe and confesse upon all occasions though to the apparent hazard of their lives and fortunes And why this might not be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that form of sound words whereof St. Paul saith to Timothy Hold fast that form of sound words thou hast heard of me I must confesse that I could never yet see a convincing reason Certain I am that Irenaeus who lived very near the Apostles times hath said of this confession of the faith this Creed which hath so generally and unanimously been received over all the world Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad fines terrae c. The Church saith he throughout the world even to the ends of the earth received from the Apostles and their Disciples that faith which believeth in one God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth c. and in IESVS CHRIST the Son of God incarnate for our salvation and in the holy Spirit which preached by the Prophets the dispensation and coming of God and the birth of CHRIST our Lord by the Virgin his passion resurrection and ascension with his flesh into heaven and his coming from heaven in the glory of his Father to raise up all flesh and to give just judgement unto all Which words lest possibly we might interpret of the doctrine of faith which questionlesse was alwayes one and the same over all the world and not of any summary or abstract which they had digested for the use and benefit of Gods people or think that they relate rather to the substance of faith then to any set and determinate form of words in which that substance was delivered let us behold what the same Father hath delivered in another place This faith saith he which the Church though dispersed through the world received from the Apostles and their Disciples yet notwithstanding doth it keep it as safe as if it dwelt within the wals of one house and as uniformly hold N. B. as if it had but one only heart and soul and this as consonantly it preacheth teacheth and delivereth as if but one tongue did speak for all He addes which makes the point more plain that though there be different languages in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the effect and summe of the tradition i. e. the faith delivered in that forme is one and the same and I presume he means not by tradition those doctrines of faith which are delivered in the books and writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Finally he concludes with this expression and it is worthily worth our marking in the present case that he amongst the Governours of the Church who is best able to speak saith no more then this and no lesse then this the simplest and the most ignorant person which certainly he had not said but that there was one uniforme and determinate order of words which every one was bound to learn and adhere unto Tertullian he speaks plainer yet and affirmes expresly regulam fidei unam omnino esse solam immobilem et irreformabilem that there is but one rule of faith at all and that unmoveable and unalterable How could he say that there was but one rule of faith in the Church if every several Church had a several rule or that it was unmoveable and unalterable as he saith it was if there were no certain form of words prescribed which men were to keep to but every one might change and alter as he saw occasion So that I take it for a truth unquestionable that in the first ages nay the first beginnings of the Church of CHRIST there was a certain form of words prescribed for the ease and benefit of the Church a summarie or abstract of the Articles
man can say that there was never any exact forme of the Nicene Creed commended by that Councell to the use of the Church because that in the Councell of Chalcedon and in the works of Athanasius and St. Basil it is presented to us with some difference of the words and phrases Of which the most that can be said must be that of Binius idem est plane sensus sed sermo discrepans i. e. that the sense is every where the same though the words do differ In the third place it is objected that the Creed could not be written by the Apostles because there are therein certain words and phrases which were not used in their times and for the proof of this they instance in these two particulars first in our Saviours descent into hell which words they say are not to be found in all the Apostolical Scriptures and secondly in that of the Catholick Church which was a word or phrase not used till the Apostles had dispersed the Gospell over all the world And first in answer to the first we need say but this that though these words of Christ descended into hell be not in terminis in the Scriptures yet the Doctrine is which we shall very evidently evince and prove when we are come unto the handling of that Article And if we finde the doctrine in the book of God I hope it will conclude no more against the authority and antiquity of the Creed we speak of then that the word Homousion in the Nicene Creed did or might do against the authority of that Creed or Symbole because that word could not be found in all the Scriptures as was objected by the Arians in the former times And for the second instance in the word Catholica there is less ground of truth therein then in that before But yet because it hath a little shew of learning and doth pretend unto antiquity we will take some more pains then needed to manifest and discover the condition of it Know then that the Apostles might bestow upon the Church the adjunct of Catholick before they went abroad into several Countries to preach the Gospel not in regard that it was actually diffused over all the world according as it hath bin since in these later Ages but in regard that so it was potentially according to the will and pleasure of their Lord and Saviour by whom the bar was broken down which formerly had made a separation between Iew and Gentile and the Commission given of Ite praedicate to go and preach the Gospel unto every creature Catholick is no more then universal The smallest smatterer in the Greek can assure us that And universal questionless the Church was then at least intentionaliter potentialiter when the Apostles knew from the Lords own mouth that it should no longer be imprisoned within the narrow limits of the land of Iewry but that the Gentiles should be called to eternal life Without this limitation of the word I can hardly see how the Church should be called Catholick in her largest circuit there being many Nations and large Dominions which are not actually comprehended within the Pale of the Church to this very day I hope their meaning is not this that there was no such word as Catholick when the Apostles lived and composed the body of the New Testament If so they mean although they put us for the present to a needless search yet they betray therein a gross peece of ignorance For the discovery whereof we may please to know that the word Catholick is derived from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth in universum as that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is totum all as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that I may sum up all in brief And so the word is used by Isocrates that famous Oratour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say generally or in a word I shall endeavour to declare what studies it were fittest for you to incline unto But the proper signification of it is in that of Aristotle where he opposeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a general or universal demonstration to that which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is partial only or particular Hence comes the adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. universal and so the word is taken by Quintilian saying Propter quae mihi semper moris fuit quam minimum me alligare ad praecepta quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant i. e. ut dicamus quomodo possumus universalia vel perpetualia Thus read we in Hermogenes an old Rhetorician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of usual and general forms of speech and thus in Philo speaking of the laws of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he ordained a general perpetual law for succession into mens inheritances Take which of these three senses they best like themselves and they will finde at last it comes all to one If the word Catholick do signifie the same with universal it also signified the same in and before the times the Apostles lived in and how the Church might then be called universal we have shewn already If they desire rather to translate it general Pope Iulius will tell us how the Church might be called General in the first days and hours thereof Quia sc. generalis est in eadem doctrina ad instructionem because it generally proposeth the same doctrine for edification or if by that of perpetual rather there is no question to be made but that our Saviours promise to be with them to the end of the world did most sufficiently declare unto them that the Church which they were to plant was to be perpetual There is another meaning of the word Catholicus as it denotes an Orthodox and right believer which whether it were used in the Apostles times may be doubted of it being half granted by Pacianus an antient writer sub Apostolis CHRISTIANOS non vocari Catholicos that Christians were not then called Catholicks But this at best being not the natural but an adventitious meaning of the word according to a borrowed metaphorical sense it neither helps nor hinders in the present business and in this sense we shall speak more of it hereafter when we are come unto the Article of the Catholick Church One more objection there remains and but one more which is worth the answering and is that which is much pressed by Downes namely that to affirm as Ruffinus doth that the Apostles did compose the Creed to be the rule or square of their true preaching lest being separated from one another there should be any difference amongst them in matters which pertain to eternal life were to suppose them to be guided by a fallible spirit and consequently subject unto Errour For answer whereunto we need say but this that the difference which Ruffinns speaks of and which he saith the Apostles laboured to avoid by their agreement on this sum or abstract of the Christian
the Apostles Creed it is said expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say I believe in the holy Catholick Church and in the Nicene Creed it was said of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in unam Catholicam Ecclesiam as the Translator of Socrates where that Creed occurreth And though the same be not expressed in terminis in the Latine Creed yet in the Grammar of the words it is understood For where the Latine Creeds run thus Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam c. that is to say I believe in the holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church c. as the English hath it either the word Credo must be interposed as Credo in Spiritum sanctam credo sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam i. e. I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the holy Catholick Church or else the Preposition In must relate to both as also to the rest that follow I know indeed that after Credere in Deum or in Iesum Christum was thought to be a different act and degree of faith from Credere Deo or Iesu Christo that men began to think it somewhat inconvenient to say as formerly Credo in sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam or Credo in Mosen Prophetas I believe in the holy Catholick Church or I believe in Moses and the holy Prophets which have been since the world began And so we are to understand both Ruffin and Paschasius when they speak thereof both fitting their expressions to such forms of words as were then authorized in the Schools of CHRIST The like is to be said of St. Augustine also viz. Credimus Paulo non credimus in Paulum c. We believe Paul saith he we believe not in Paul and we believe Peter we believe not in Peter Where note the Father speaks not of the property but of the use of the phrase according to the language of the times he lived in for ab initio non fuit sic that it was otherwise intended at the first beginning we have shewn already Whether the phrase be so peculiar an expression of the holy Ghost as that it is not to be found in the old Greek Writers I will not meddle at the present though I conceive the holy Ghost did dictate nothing of the Scriptures but the matter only and left the language thereof to the sacred Pen-men But for the Septuagint although they do not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preceding an Accusative Case which is the singularity of expression so much insisted on in this business yet use they other words to the same effect For those which stand so highly on singularity cannot choose but grant that many times they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes also though not often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which whosoever should translate in the English tongue could not translate it otherwise then thus to believe in God So that whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Deum or Credo in Deo it makes no difference in this case no more then that these words of the Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Beza are translated Crediderunt in nomen ejus but by the Author of the Vulgar in nomine ejus which come both to one This makes it evident in part that the said distinction between Credere Deo credere Deum stands not upon so sure a ground as was imagined but I must make it yet more evident that in the true intent and meaning of the sacred Pen-men there is no difference at all to be found between them For in the 16. chapter of the Acts the Iaylor did demand of Paul and Silas what it behoved him to do that be might be saved vers 30. to which they made this following answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crede in Dominum Iesum Christum c. believe on the Lord IESVS CHRIST and thou shalt be saved and thy house It followeth thereupon in the sacred story that being instructed in the Word and baptized with water he rejoyced greatly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credens Deo as both Beza and the Vulgar read it Believing in God with all his house vers 34. where if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 34. be not the same with that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 31 verse as to the act of faith which is one in both although the Object of this Act be given us in a different manner the Iaylor had fallen short of that way to Heaven and possibly might have been as far from the hopes of Salvation as when he first proposed the question And if they be the same as no doubt they be then Credere Deo Credere in Deum differ not at all and therefore neither the distinction nor the Explication so generally true and universally to be imbraced as hath been supposed which was the first thing to be proved The second was that howsoever Credere in Deum in some texts of Scripture may possibly admit that explication which is made thereof yet can it not be possisibly admitted in this place of the Creed My reason is because all Novices or Catechumeni which were to be admitted into the Church by the dore of Baptism all children formerly baptized which either came or were brought before the Bishop for Confirmation were first to give an account of their faith to make a publick profession or confession of it in the face of the Church according to the very words and Articles of this common Creed For which see proof sufficient in the former chapter Now if by Credere in Deum in Iesum Christum the Church intended such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an adhaesion unto God in IESVS CHRIST such an assurance and perswasion of our interest in him as the phrase is pretended to import the Church did very ill to exact it from the hands of Novices or from the mouths of babes in Christ considering how strong the meat was and how agreeable unto the stomach of the strongest faith My second reason is which before was touched at because if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe in God the Father Almighty in Iesus Christ his only Son and in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life import no less then such a dependence on them as is due from the Creature to his God and that too ex vi Phraseos out of the very prhase or form of speech in Deum credere the same dependence must all Christians have upon the Church the same on the Communion of Saints and the rest that follow Will you have a reason of this reason It is because the very same phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is extant still interminis in tearms exprest in all Greek copies of the Creed and necessarily implyed in the Latine
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
the Text as I think we need not yet might it give the Church a justifiable ground of commanding such a duty to all Christian people To the end that by those outward ceremonies and gestures their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord IESVS CHRIST the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the world in whom alone all the graces mercies and promises of God to mankinde for this life and the life to come are fully and wholly comprehended Which is the end proposed and published by the Church of England as appears plainly by the 18. Canon An. 1603. As IESVS is the name of our Lord and Saviour his personal and proper name by which he was distinguished from the rest of his Fathers kindred â—o CHRIST is added thereunto both in the holy Scriptures and the present Creed to denote his offices Christus non proprium nomen est sed nuncupatiâ— potestatis regni CHRIST saith Lactantius is no proper name but a name of power and principality It signifieth properly an anointed and is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to anoint and was used by the old Grecians for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a word of the same signification but more common use And so the word is used by Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. they washed and then anointed themselves with oyl The Hebrew word Messiah corresponds to this as appears evidently by that passage in St. Iohns Gospel where Andrew telleth his brother Simon this most joyful news viz. We have found the Messias which being interpreted is the CHRIST And ' â—is no wonder if Andrew ran with so much joy to acquaint his brother with the news for by the name of the Messiah the Iews had long expected the performance of the promise which God made to David that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore But the word CHRIST implyes more yet then a name of Soveraignty For though Kings antiently were anointed as is plain by examples of the Saul 1 Sam. 10.1 2 Sam. 2.4 yet not only they The High Priest also was anointed For it is said of Moses that he powred the anointing oyl upon Aarons head and anointed him to sanctifie him And so the Prophet seems to be in the Book of Kings where Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat to be the Prophet in his room Vngebantur Reges Sacerdotes Prophetae saith a learned Writer and each of these respectively in their several places might be called Christus Domini the Lords anointed or the Lords Christ but our Redeemer after a more peculiar manner was Christus Dominus the Lord Christ or the Lord anointed And certainly there was good reason why the Name of CHRIST should be applyed to him in another manner then it had been to any in the times before he being the one and only Person in whom the Offices of King Priest and Prophet had ever met before that time Although those Offices had formerly met double in the self same person Mâ—lchisedech a King and Priest Samuel a Prophet and a Priest David a Prophet and a King Yet never did all three concur but in him alone and so no perfect CHRIST but he A Priest he was after the order of Melchisedech Psal. 110. vers 4. A Prophet to be heard when Moses should hold his peace Deut. 18.18 A King to be raised out of Davids seed who should reign and prosper and execute judgement and justice in the earth Ier. 23 5. By his Priesthood to purge expiate and save us from our sins for which he was to be the Propitiation By his Prophetical Office to illuminate and save us from the by-pathes of errour and to guide our feet in the way of peace By his Kingdom or his Regal power to prescribe us laws protect us from our enemies and make us at the last partakers of his heavenly Kingdome Ieremies King Davids Priest Moses Prophet but in each and all respects the CHRIST Not that he was anointed with material oyl as were the Kings and Priests in the Old Testament but with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. 45.7 but with the Spirit of the Lord wherewith he was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek Esai 61.1 which he applyed unto himself Luk. 4.18.21 anointed with the holy Ghost and with power as St. Peter telleth us Act. 10.38 Anointed then he was to those several Offices and in that the CHRIST But how he doth perform these Offices and at what times he was inaugurated to the same shall be declared in the course of the following Articles which relate to him save that we shall refer the Execution of the Prophetical function to the Article of the holy Ghost by the effusion of whose gifts on the Pastors and Ministers of the holy Church it is most powerfully discharged The Name of CHRIST as it is commonly added unto that of IESVS to denote his Offices so in a sort it is communicated unto those whom he hath chosen to himselfe for a royal Priesthood a chosen generation a peculiar people and for that reason honoured with the name of Christians And the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch saith the book of the Acts. Called Christians what by chance I believe not that The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Original hath more in it then so We have the same word in the second of St. Matthews Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the Wise men that came from the East to worship CHRIST and there we render it that they were warned by God warned by him in a dream not to goe to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in this place of the Acts must have some reference to God and seems to intimate at least if not fully evidence that they took not this name upon themselves but by Gods direction The Iews had formerly called them Nazarites as the Mahometans do still in the way of reproach And though the Disciples were neither ashamed nor afraid of any ignominy which was put upon them for the sake of their Lord and Master yet they conceived it far more honorable to him into whose heavenly house and family they were adopted to own themselves by that name which might most entitle them to all those priviledges which did acrew uuto them in the right of Adoption A caution to which God more specially might encline their hearts that his dear CHRIST might look upon them as his own to whom he gave the unction or anointing of the holy Spirit The anointing which ye have received of him saith the beloved Disciple abideth in you and ye need not that any men teach you That God had a directing hand in it the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth perswade me which intimates at
Augustine doth informe us saying Id enim sacrificium est quod successit omnibus sacrificiis quae immolabantur in umbra futuri that this one sacrifice succeedeth in the place of all those which were offered in relation unto Christ to come But before him St. Ireneus did more plainly affirme that same who living in the next age to the Apostles is able to instruct us better in the mysteries of the Christian faith then any other more remote and of lesse antiquity And he tels us this viz. that as God caused his Gospel to be preached over all the world in stead of the innumerable ordinances of the Law of Moses so he ordained that for those several sorts of sacrifices which are there prescribed simplex oblatio panis et vini sufficiat the offering of bread and wine only should be held sufficient More plainly yet as plainly as he could expresse himself by words and writing he doth thus deliver it Sed suis Discipulis dans consilium c. Christ saith he giving his Disciples charge to offer the first fruits of every creature to the Lord their God not that God standeth in need of their oblations but that they might not be esteemed to be either unfruitfull or ungratefull tooke ordinary bread eum qui ex natura panis est and having given thanks said This is my body and taking the cup into his hands such as we use to drink of the fruit of the vine acknowledged it to be his bloud What then for this we know already It followeth Et novi testamenti novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo By doing which saith that old Father he taught us the new sacrifice of oblation of the new Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles doth offer unto God over all the world So that the holy Eucharist was ordained by Christ not only as a Sacrament but a sacrifice also and so esteemed and called by the most antient writers though many times by reason of several relations it hath either severall names or severall adjuncts that is to say a sacrifice a commemorative sacrifice an eucharisticall sacrifice a spiritual sacrifice the Supper of the Lord a Sacrament A sacrifice it is and so called commonly in reference unto the oblation or offering of the bread and wine made unto God in testimony and due acknowledgment that all which we possesse is received from him and that we tender these his creatures to him as no longer ours but to be his and to be spent in such employments and for such holy uses as he shall please to put it to In this respect it is entituled Oblatio panis et vini the offering or oblation of bread and wine as before we saw from Irenaeus the sacrifice offered by us Gentiles hostia quae ipsi a nobis Gentibus offertur of the bread and wine presented in the holy Eucharist as in Iustin Martyr Sacrificium panis vini the sacrifice in plain terms of bread and wine as Fulgentius hath it For clearing of which point we may please to know that antiently it was the custome of the Primitive Christians to bring their bread and wine to the Church of God and offer them to the Lord by the hands of the Priest or Minister part of the which was consecrated for the use of the Sacrament the rest being usually given to the poor and needy as having a letter of attorney from the Lord of heaven to receive our bounties For thus we read in Iustin Martyr who lived the next dore also to the Apostles Prayers being done saith he we salute one another with an holy kisse Then do we offer to the Bishop for such is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he speaks of there bread and wine mixt with water as the use then was which he receiving offered to God the sacrifice of praise and glory c. And thus St. Cyprian speaking of a rich but covetous Widow who came not with her offering to the Church as her poor neigbours did charged her that she came into Gods house without her sacrifice and eat of that which had been offered or sacrificed unto God by far poorer folke Locuples et dives Dominicum celebrare te dicis but there dominicum signifyeth the Lords day plainly qui corbonam omnino non respicis qui in dominicum there it is the Church sine sacrificio venis qui partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis are his words at large Where sacrificium in both places signifyeth the bread and wine which they used to offer to the Lord to be consecrated and employed in celebrating the memorial of our Saviours passion It is called next a commemorative sacrifice a Sacrifice commemorative and representative by Dr. Morton Ld. B. of Durham in his book of the Sacrament in regard that it was instituted by our Saviour Christ for a perpetual memory of that one perfect and al-sufficient sacrifice which he offered of himself upon the Crosse. And to this end it was that Chrysostome having called the Sacrament of the Lords supper by the name of a Sacrifice addes presently not by way of correction or retractation as I know some think but by way of explanation only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was the remembrance rather of a sacrifiâ—e or a commemorative sacrifice as some others call it Which word commemorative as I take it detracts not from the nature of a sacrifice as if it were the lesse a sacrifice because commemorative but only signifyeth the end to which it is specially directed For as the sacrifices of the old law were true and proper sacrifices in respect of the beasts or â—owles or other things which were offered although prefigurative of that sacrifice made upon the Crosse which was then to come so are the sacrifices of the Gospel true and real sacrifices in reference to the oblation made of bread and wine for the service of God although commemorative of the same great sacrifice now already past It was called thirdly a spiritual and Eucharistical sacrifice by reason that Gods servants therein make profession of their due acknowledgements for all the blessings which he hath vouchsafed to bestow on their souls and bodies especially for the redemption of themselves and of all mankinde by the death of Christ and therewith offering up themselves their souls and bodies as a pleasing and most acceptable sacrifice to the Lord their God For thus we finde in Iustin Martyr that the Bishop or President of the Congregation having received the bread and wine from the hands of the faithful offered by them the sacrifice of praise and thanks to God the Father of all things in the name of the Son and the holy Ghost for all those blessings which he hath graciously from time to time bestowed upon them And thus Irenaeus Oportet nos
to attone the difference The generall resolution is for this is neither time nor place to discusse it fully that the whole day amongst the Iews from sun to sun which the Astronomers call the artificial day was commonly divided into four quaternions of houres of which the first three had the name of the third houre the second three of the sixt hour the third three of the ninth hour and the last three of the evening or sun set Then that the sixt hour beginning where the third did end the same thing may be said to be done in the end of the third houre which was done in the beginning of the sixt inchoative in the sixt hour but completive in the third And so our Saviour may be said to be crucifyed in the third hour as St. Marke relateth that is to say in the end of the third houre complete and about the sixt hour as St. Iohn delivereth it that is to say about the sixt hour coming on Others conceive that Marke relates unto the time when Pilate did passe sentence on him and deliver him over to be crucifyed which was in the third hour of the day and that Iohn speaks as to the execution of the sentence which was done in the sixt And if this could agree with the other cicumstances it were undoubtedly the best and of most probability especially considering what good ground it hath from Ignatius who lived in the times of the Apostles By whom the whole story of the Passion is thus distributed In the third hour Christ was condemned by Pontius Pilate crucifyed in the sixt died in the ninâ—h and was buried before sunset And unto either of these two I should sooner yeild then hearken to the new devise of Daniel Heinsius who will have the third hour mentioned in St. Marks Gospell to be the third hour of our Saviours crucifying with which the circumstances of the text can no way agree and yet far sooner unto him then to an eminent Divine of great place and name affirming openly in a Sermon before the King on the credit of some old Greek copies that the text in Iohn had been corrupted Lesse difficulty far there is about the place of the Passion in which all Euangelists do agree in meaning though they use divers words St. Matthew Marke and Iohn do call it Golgatha according to the Hebrew name but St. Luke cals it Calvarie 23.33 according to that Hebrew name translated and made intelligible to the ears of the Romans In every one it signifieth the place of a skul and is so translated in our Bibles Matth. 27.33 Mark 15.22 Ioh 19.17 A name bestowed upon it as the Fathers say in regard that Adam was there buryed and his skul found there by the people many Ages after And though I dare not swear this for a Canonical truth yet certainly it hath as good grounds to stand upon as an old Tradition can confer For sure I am that such a Tradition there was in the time of Origen one of the most antient Christian writers whose works are extant Venit ad me talis traditio quod corpus Adae primi hominis sepultum est ibi ubi crucifixus est Christus There is a Tradition saith he that the body of the first man Adam was there buried where Christ was crucified Tertullian doth affirm the same amongst his verses So doth St. Basil also on Levit. 5. Epiphanius contra haereses n. 46. Chrysostom in his 84. Homilie on Iohn St. Augustine in the 71. Sermon inscribed de Tempore St. Ambrose Epistola 3. lib. 5. Hierom on Matth. 27. Theophylact in his Comments on the four Evangelists Nor do they only thus unanimously report the said Tradition but they give their reason for it too viz. that because all men dyed in Adam so by Christ all might be also made alive that so where sin took its beginning it should finde destruction and finally that ut super Adae tumulum sanguis Christi stillaret which was Hieroms conceit that so the bloud of Christ might fall upon Adams tomb And I remember I have seen a picture in an old peece of hanging in the stals at Westminster for we have our Testes fenestras too especially in such a case as this as well as Campian in a greater in which we finde the souldier piercing Christs side with his lance water and bloud issuing from the side â—o pierced and Adam starting out of his grave with a cup in his hand to receive the bloud Which fancy as it was conform to the old Tradition so did it hand somely express a good peece of Divinity the meaning of it being this that as Adam being the root of all mankinde had forfeited for himself and his posterity all those most excellent endowments of grace and nature which God had given him at the first so now he did lay hold upon Salvation for himself and his that all who were and were to be descended of him should have their part in the redemption of the World by the bloud of Christ. And this I call a piece of good Divinity howsoever expressed by reason that the universality of Redemption by our Saviours death was not alone the Doctrine of the Primitive times but is the genuine and confirmed doctrine of this Church of England which teacheth us to pray unto God the Son as the Redeemer of the world and every one of us to believe in the same God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankinde and finally to pray to God to have mercy upon all men even upon all Iews Turks Infidels and Hereticks that they may all be saved amongst the remnant of true Israelites and be made one fold under the same one Shepheard IESVS CHRIST our Lord. No truth more rightly stated more piously applyed nor more fully explicated It is now time we lay our Saviour in his Grave being the last degree of his humiliation taking along with us such preparatives as lead unto the same in the holy Gospel in which the first passage which we meet with is how some devout people repaired to Pilate and begged the body of their Lord that they might entomb it others in reference to the great festival ensuing had desired of him that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away to the end that their bodies might not remain upon the Cross on the Sabbath-day Which suit being granted and that the souldiers coming to Christ found him dead already they omitted the breaking of his legs for so had God disposed who before had signified that a bone of him should not be broken but yet to make sure work it seemed good to one of them to pierce his side with a spear and forthwith saith the Text came out bloud and water Ioh. 19.34 On this St. Augustine makes this gloss that by the bloud and water issuing from the side of CHRIST we are to understand the two
first it is objected out of Ruffinus that this clause of Christs descent into hell was not in his time in the Creed of the Church of Rome nor in those of the Eastern Churches His words are these Sciendum est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferos sed neque Orientis Ecclesiis This we acknowledge to be true what then Therefore say they it needs must follow that it was not in the Creed at all untill some time after But this by no means can be gathered out of Ruffines words who is not to be understood in the sense they dream of or if he be shall presently confute himself without further trouble And first Ruffinus could not say that the clause of Christs descent into hell was neither in the Apostles Creed before his time nor reckoned for a part thereof by the Church of Rome or by any Churches of the East For long before the times he lived in Ignatius Bishop of Antioch the most famous City of the East repeated it as a part of the Creed the like did Chrysostome one of the Presbyters of that Church and Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem both living in the same time that Ruffinus lived in Nyssen and Nazianzen and Basil his contemporaries or not long before him do reckon it amongst the Articles of the Christian faith and give us the true orthodox sense thereof as before was shewn all of them very famous Bishops of the lesser Asia one of the most considerable parts of the Eastern Church The like doth Epiphanius for the Isle of Cyprus and Cyril for the Patriarchate of Alexandria whereof this last was the great ruler of the Aegyptian Aethiopian and Arabian Churches the other though within the Patriarchate of Antiochia yet was sui juris an Independent as it were and of equal priviledge at home So also for the African and other Churches of the Western world it is most evident by that which hath been cited from Fulgentius Augustine Ambrose Tertullian Cyprian and all the rest of note and eminency that this of the descent into hell was reckoned for an Article of the Creed in those parts and times in which they severally and respectively did live and flourish And so it was esteemed in Rome it self when Ruffinus lived and in the Church of Aquileia not far from Rome where he was a Presbyter For otherwise neither he himself had so reputed it nor commented thereupon as upon the rest nor had St. Hierome being at that time a Presbyter of the Church of Rome so â—ar avowed this Article of the descent into hell or given us so much help and furtherance to the right understanding thereof had it been reputed by that Church for no part or Article of the Common Creed as we see he did Thus then Ruffinus did not mean and indeed he could not that this Article of the descent into hell was not accounted for an Article of the Apostles Creed either by those of Rome or the Eastern Churches No such matter verily His meaning is that whereas in those times diverse several Churches and many times particular persons of rank and quality did use to publish several Creeds to serve as testimonies of their right beliefe upon occasion of some new emergent heresies the Creed or Symbol made for the Church of Rome and some of those which were in use in the Eastern parts did omit this Article For well we know it was omitted both in the Constantinopolitan and Nicene Creeds which were of so much reputation in all parts of Christendome as being a point about the which no stir or Controversie had been raised Nor doth Ruffinus say if we marke him well that the Church of Rome denied this clause to be part of the Apostles Creed which he must either say or nothing which will do them good but that it was not in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo in the Creed or Symbol made for the use of the particular Church of Rome for some particular occasion such as was that of Damasus in St. Hieromes works where indeed it is not So that the omitting of this Article in the Creeds of those particular Churches which Ruffinus speaks of shewes rather that it was received in all parts of Christendome with such a general consent and unanimity that it was needlesse to insert it in those Creeds because no controversie or debate had been raised about it For otherwise it must needs follow by this Argument that being there is no mention of Christs death in the Nicene Creed nor of his burial in the Creed of Athanasius nor of the Communion of the Saints in the Constantinopolitan nor of many of the last Articles in the Creed of Damasus not to descend to more particulars therefore those Articles and clauses were not to be found in such copies of the Apostles Creed as were commended to the use of Gods people within the Patriarchates of Rome Constantinople Alexandria or the City of Nice or any of those numerous Churches over all the world where those particular Creeds were received and welcomed This project therefore failing as we see it doth the Devils next great care hath been to dispute down the authority and effect thereof such a descent as is delivered and maintained by the Church of England being neither possible nor pertinent as is objected And first say some it is not possible Why so Because say they our Saviour promised the penitent Theef that the same day his soul should be with him in Paradise What then Therefore Christs soul being to goe that day to Paradise could neither goe to hell that day nor the two days after An argument which hath as many faults almost as it hath words For first our Saviour was not of such slow dispatch as these men would have him but that he might carry the theefs soul to Paradise and yet shew himself the same day to the fiends in hell That both were done on the same day Vigilius one of the antients doth affirme expressely Constat dominum nostrum Jesum Christum sexta feria crucifixum c. It is most manifest saith he that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucifyed on the sixt day that on the same day he descended into hell on the same day he lay in the grave ipsa die latroni dixisse and on the same said to the Theef This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise All this might very well be done by our Lord Christ Iesus within lesse time then the compasse of a natural day unlesse we measure his omnipotence by our own infirmities But yet to take away all scruples which may hence arise St. Augustine and some others of the Fathers have resolved it thus viz. that when Christ said unto the Theef This day thou shall be with me in Paradise he spake not of his manhood but of his Godhead And this saith Augustine doth free the Article from all
Article by their corrupt glosses and interpretations since the first wrestling of it from the native sense came principally and originally from the Church of Rome But far lesse reason had he to impose upon them a more grosse absurdity in making Calvin and Brentius both to deliver this interpretation of it that to descend into hell was nothing else but to be utterly annihilated and extinct â—or ever A folly shall I call it or a frenzie rather which never came within their dreams for as much as doth appear by their works and writings from whence the Cardinal must collect it Nor was the scene so well contrived as it should have been for the acting of this grand Imposture the book of Calvins which it cited for the proof thereof being that entituled Psychopannychia purposely written as appeareth by the Preface of it against the Anabaptists of those times by whom indeed that monstrous Paradox had been lately published This therefore being flung aside as a fraud or slander the first of those three new constructions which have been made of this descent into hell by the writers of the reformed Churches is that thereby the Authors of the Creed whosoever they were meant nothing but our Saviours burial Bucer I take it was the first though otherwise a moderate man and one not very apt to follow any new devise that puts this sense upon the Article Ad infernum descendere nil aliud est quam recendi corpus sub terra to deseend into hell saith he is nothing else but for the bodie to be buried under the ground And presently he gives this reason why he so expounds it Sheol enim pro quo in scripturis nos fere infernum legimus sepulchrum significat that the word Sheol in the Hebrew which in the Scriptures we interpret commonly by that of hell doth properly signifie the grave What the word Sheol signifyeth in the Hebrew tongue is not now the businesse but what was meant by the Apostles in the Greek word Hades by which St. Peter did translate it and that we proved before in the former Chapter to be meant literally of hell of the place of torments Or were it so that the word Hades might be used in some places to expresse the grave yet were it very improbable that descendere in infernum in this place of the Creed should signifie no more then to be buried And in my minde Calvin doth reason very strongly against this construction where he affirmes that what an unlikely thing it must needs be thought that in so short an Abstract of the Christian faith that of our Saviours burial should be twice expressed First in plain termes and after by a figurative Metaphorical speech Non est verisimile irrepere potuisse superfluam ejusmodi battologiam in compendium hoc ubi summatim quam fieri potuit paucissimus verbis praecipua fidei capita notantur So he judiciously and to the purpose But then withall I needs must say that though Calvin did reject this interpretation as inconsistent with the nature of so short a Summary having indeed a new devise of his own to set up in stead of it yet gave he much incouragement to others to expound it so who were too apt to learn from so great a Master For whereas in the old translation of the Psalmes of David which has so long been generally received in the Western Church the words ran thus Non derelinques animam meam in inferno i. e. thou shalt not leave my soul in hell Calvin in his translation was so bold as to change it thus Non deseres animam meam in sepulchro thou shalt not leave my soul in the grave or sepulchre and then by soul expounds himself to mean the whole person of David Which coming unto Bezas hands he saw no reason as indeed there was not but that he might make as bold with St. Peter in the book of the Acts as Calvin did with David in the book of Psalmes And therefore when he first put out his new translation of the new Testament he thus translated Peters words into Calvins meaning and made the passage to run thus in Terminis without any disguise Non relinques corpus meum in sepulchro i. e. thou shalt not leave my body in the grave nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption But after finding how great clamour he had raised thereby in the next edition of that work he retained in words the old translation Non relinques animam meam in inferno but in his Notes or Annotations on the same did declare expressely that by infernus there he did mean sepulchrum and by anima the whole person whether Christs or Davids and then the glosse upon the text must in brief be this Non relinques animam meam in inferno i. e. Non relinques corpus meum in sepulchro A glosse like that of Orleans which corrupts the text and brings into my minde that with which we use sometimes to jeare the old glossary on the Canon-laws Statuimus i. e. abrogamus that is to say we do ordain that is we annul or abrogate A glosse not much unlike unto that of Bellarmine and hard it is to say which of the two is most absurd who being asked this question by some Protestant Doctors viz. to whom the Pope should make complaint when offence is given him if he be so supreme in the Church of Christ as they say he is returns this answer thereunto Papa potest dicere Ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi the Pope may tell the Church that is himselfe And indeed this interpretation of the Article seemed as absurd as either of these two fine glosses insomuch that Beza lived to see it every were deserted in some parts exploded And now and long before these times as Aretius very well observeth Tota Ecclesia ubique terrarum c. The whole Church thoughout the world doth receive this Article all opposition notwithstanding Et diversum a sepultura recitat and doth recite it as a different point from that of the burial Now that which Calvin said in the former case touching the unlikelyhood and improbability that in so short a Summary of the Christian faith the same thing should be twice repeated first in plain terms and presently in the very next words in a figurative speech the same may be returned to a second construction made by some late Divines on the present Article Who willing to be singular and in a way by themselves and finding that it would not down amongst knowing men that Christs descent into hell should be all one with his burial have ransacked all the Hebrew Rabbines to finde out their conceptions on the Hebrew Sheol and all the old Greek Philosophers and antient Poets to finde what they intended by the Greek word Hades And having made a general muster of collections out of several Heathenish and Iewish writers extracted out of them this sense of the
resurrection of our Lord and Saviour there came a signall benefit unto all the world which else had been fast bound for ever in the bonds of death without any hope of rising to a better life For being risen in our nature then our nature is riâ—en and if our nature be then our persons may be especially considering that he and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul hath told us so graffed into one another that he is part of us and we part of him And therefore very well said Bernard Resurrexit solus sed non totus Though he be only risen by his own proper power yet as yet he is not risen wholly nor will be untill we be raised together with him He is but risen in part by this resurrection and that he may rise all of him he must raise t is also In this respect our Saviour is entituled Primogenitus omnis Creaturae the first born or first begotten of every creature viz. first in the order of time he being the first that was ever raised from death unto life immortall and first also in the order of causality all others which have been or shall be raised or begotten to immortall life being so raised and begotten by vertue of his resurrection And in the same respect he is called Primitiae dormientium or the first fruits of them that sleep because his rising is not only the pledge and earnest of our rising also but that we shall be raised to the same state of happinesse and eternall glory which he hath attained since his rising The offering of the first fruits drew a blessing upon all the rest For if the first fruits be holy the lumpe saith the Apostle is also holy If then the first fruits of the dead be offered to Almighty God in Christ our Saviour no question but the after-fruits or the whole increase will be very acceptable and laid up in the barn of that heavenly husbandman according to the scope of our Saviours Parable And yet perhaps St. Paul might have a further aime in calling our Saviour the first-fruits of them that sleep then hath yet been spoke of it hapning so by the sweet disposition of Gods special providence that the day of his glorious resurrection did fall that year upon the second day of the feast of unleavened bread or the morrow after the Sabbath of that great solemnity upon which day the first-fruits were to be offered unto God by his own appointment Of which see Levit. 23.10 11. Here then we have the principall effect and fruit of Christs resurrection the resurrection of our own bodies from the power of death the resurrection both of soul and body to eternall life And yet there are some other intermediate benefits which redound to us some other motives and inducements which relate to him For his part first had he not risen from the dead he had still lain under the guilt of that imposture wherewith the Priests and Elders charged him when he was interred And who would then have preached his Gospel or embraced his doctrine or yeelded belief to any thing he had said before For if Christ be not risen from the dead again as St. Paul reasoneth very strongly then were our faith in vain and their preaching vain Had he not risen from the dead and manifested it by such signes and wonders he never had attained to the reputation of being generally accounted and believed in for the Son of God or such a God at best who doth die like men and fall like others of the Princes some earthly Magistrate at the most and no great one neither Nor was it necessary to his glory only but to our justification For how could we assure our selves of salvation by him or of redemption in his bloud had he been swallowed up in death and not appeared alive again for our consolation Manens in morte peccata non expiasset mortem non vicisset as the Father hath it and then how could we hope to be saved by him qui se ipsum servare non potuit who was not of ability to save himself How could we Christians of all men most miserable be possibly assured of this saving truth that Christ was delivered for our sins if he had not risen again for our justification that is to say if by his rising from the dead he had not setled and confirmed us in that assurance The reason is because the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour was as it were his actual absolution from those sins of ours for the which he dyed and his deliverance from that death which as the wages of sin we had all deserved Calvin hath very Orthodoxly resolved it so Resuscitatio Christi a mortuis ejus est actualis absolutio a peccatis nostris pro quibus mortuus est as he there determineth And he determineth it according unto that of the great Apostle saying if Christ be not risen your faith is vain yee are yet in your sins that is to say still under the command and the guilt of sin from which you have no other assurance to be absolved and quitted in the day of judgment then only by the vertue of his resurrection How wretched then is the condition of the Iews and those other Hereticks who either utterly denie the resurrection as did Simon Magus and the Maniches or post it off as not yet past till some further time which was one of the heresies of Cerinthus or make it but an allegory no true reall action as do the Family of love Assuredly the least we can affirme of them and the like vile miscreans is that they have no inheritance in the house of Iesse nor any portion at all in the son of David that they who wilfully deny his resurrection shall never finde other resurrection but to shame and torment But on the contrary the Orthodox Professors in the Chrrstian Church not only have believed this Article and stood up in defence thereof to the last drop of their bloud as often as the Princes of the earth have conspired together against the Lord and his anointed but for the better imprinting of it in the souls of simple and unlearned people and for perpetuall commemoration of so great a mercy did institute the feast of Easter A festival of all others the most antient in the Christian Church ordained and celebrated in the purest ages of the same while some of the Apostles were yet living A feast received with so unanimous affection throughout the world that though some difference happened about the time when it should be celebrated yet there was never any question made of the feast it self All of them kept an Easter though not all at a time some of the Eastern Churches in compliance with the Iews amongst whom they lived keeping it on the 14. day of the Moon as the Iews did the Passeover â—ll other
Civil State Not if the State were popular for there were then no popular States when that rule was made the Government of the Church should be also popular but that within such principal Cities as were assigned for the residence of the Civil Magistrate the Prelates of the Church should be also planted This I am sure no learned Romanist can deny And granting this I would have any of them shew when any Monarch having divers Kingdomes under his command did ever yet appoint one General Viceroy to command them all Certain I am that the Assyrian Monarchs had in their several Provinces several Governours as is apparent out of the Book of Daniel So had the Parsians too in the Book of Hester and so the Romans too in St. Lukes Gospel Not to say any thing of the Monarchs of the present times all using the same Arts of Empire And then what reason can there be considering that the Church is bound to follow the external Government of the Civil State that one Lieutenant General should be thought so necessary to govern all Churches in the World seeing one General Vice-roy was not thought sufficient to govern but a few particular Kingdomes Or were it fit and necessary that it should be so yet those of Rome can shew no more Commission from our Lord and Saviour for the appropriating of this Office to St. Peters Chair then a bare Tradition For Bellarmine although he laboured no man more in the search hereof could finde no Text in all the Gospel which would serve his turn and thereupon concludes at last that howsoever some Supremacy in sacred matters might seeme allotted to St. Peter tamen Pontificem Romanum Petro succedere expresse non haberi in Scriptura yet that the Pope succeeded Peter is not found in Scripture What then shall we conceive of the Popish Parasites who give their Pope the title of Vice-deus as Paulo V. Vice-deo the Numeral letters of the which make up 666 as one well observeth but that they are instruments to bring in the Antichrist What of that horrid blasphemie of Petrus Bertrandus who boldly taxeth Christ of great indiscretion in case he had not left behinde him such a Vicar General Visus esset Deus ut cum reverentia ejus loquar indiscretus fuisse nisi unum post se talem Vicarium reliquisset as his own words are and such they are as never any Christian durst pronounce but he If then it be so disagreeable to the Kingdome of Christ to have one General Vice-roy to direct the whole let us next see whether they have not somewhat better provided for him who would impose upon the Church as many petite Popes as there be Parishes if not three for one For by their Plat-form every Parish must be furnisht with a distinct Presbyterie and that Presbyterie to be absolute within it self having authority to censure excommunicate and what not else that appertaineth to Ecclesiastical jurisdiction By means whereof they make Christs Body far more monstrous then the monster Hydra not to have seven heads only but seven hundred thousand Yet this device both new and monstrous though it be must needs be reckoned a chief part of our Saviours Kingdome For as their Champions gave it out in their publick Writings their Controversie was not onely about Caps and Surplices as the world imagined but whether IESVS CHRIST should be King or not Their Discipline they honoured with the Title of Christs holy yoke his Scepter and their endevours as they said aimed at this end only to build up first the wals of Hierusalem and then to set Christs Throne in the midst thereof For why say they the planting of Presbyteries is the full placing of Christ in his Kingdome which whosoever shall reject I use their own words still no others refuse to have Christ reign amongst them and do deny him in effect to be their King Thus went the cry of old for the Presbyterians and now the Independents use the self same words appropriating Christs Kingdome and his Throne and Scepter unto their separate Congregations and Conventicular meetings And questionless it were an excellent representation of Christs glorious Kingdome to have a company of shop-keepers and inferiour handicrafts sitting upon the bench with their zealous Pastour as if they were the twenty four Elders in the Revelation pronouncing some sad judgement on the Tribes of Israel and after hasten to their Trades as Quintius the Dictator did unto his plough ut ad opus relictum festinasse videatur as my Author hath it And yet so highly do they magnifie this new Kingdome of theirs which they have raised up for themselves in our Saviours Name that Kings and Princes must be suffered to rule no longer then they submit themselves and their Supreme power to the divine authority of their new Presbyteries For Beza quarrelleth with Erastus and thinks him guilty of high Treason against God Almighty quod Principes Reges a Divina ista Dominatione exemerit because he doth not think it fit that Kings and Princes should submit unto this fine yoak the Iudgement seat of Christ as he idlely cals it And some amongst our selves have not spared to say that a true government of the Church there can never be till Kings and Queens submit themselves unto the Church subject their Scepters and lay down their Crowns before this Throne yea lick up the very dust of the Churches feet and willingly endure such Censures be they what they will as the Divine Presbyterie shall impose upon them Huic Disciplinae omnes Reges Principes fasces suos submittere necesse est as Travers once did state it in his Book of Discipline And could they bring it once to that as they much endevour it it were Regale Presbyterium a Royal Presbyterie to the purpose though not unto the purpose the Apostle speaks of To joyn these Foxes the Genevian and Roman both together which though they look two several ways as if they were to run quite contrary to one another do yet carry fire-brands in their Tayles as once Sampsons did and like them are combined to destroy our harvest I would commend unto them that Vice-roy or Vicar General for I perceive they will have one which once Tertullian did commend to the Primitive Church even the holy Ghost For in his Treatise de Virgin veland he calleth him in plain tearms Vicarium illum Domini Spiritum sanctum and doth assign this Office to him dirigere ordinare ad perfectum perducere Disciplinam to direct order and dispose of us in such a manner as may make us perfect at the last in all Christian piety But if they will have nothing to do with the holy Ghost as I think they will not in this business we shall then finde them lawful Vice-roys made of flesh and bloud and those too of Christs own appointment not of mans devising That he doth
rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
not then be cheated by this new distinction that Kings are Gods Vice-roys but not Iesus Christs though the distinction be much hugged by our great Novators Who intend nothing else thereby but to throw down Crowns and lay them at the foot of their Presbyteries and to set up instead of the Regal power their own dear Tribunal a Soveraignty in all causes Ecclesiastical to over-rule it first and extirpe it afterwards as the right learned Bishop of Kell-Alla very well observeth In these ways and by these several means and subordinate Ministers doth Christ administer the Kingdome committed to him And this he doth continually sitting at the right hand of God the Father and there to sit untill his enemies be made his footstool This David did fore-see by the spirit of Prophecy The Lord saith he said unto my Lord i. e. the Lord God almighty said to my Lord CHRIST IESVS Sit thou on my right hand untill thy enemies be made thy footstool This the Apostle also verifieth and affirms of Christ. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins is set down for ever on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool And this he also telleth us in another place saying of Christ that he must reign till he shall have put all his enemies under his feet Till then his Kingdome is to last and till that time he is to sit at the right hand of God in all power and Majesty If it be asked when that will be that all his enemies shall be subdued and subject to him we answer at the end of this present world when there is no enemie left to be destroyed Now the last enemie which is to be destroyed is death saith the same Apostle And thereupon we may inferre that while death reigneth in opposition to the Lord of life and sin in a defiance to the Lord of righteousness that hitherto we have not seen all things put under him and therefore must expect yet a little longer before he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father But then indeed when Death is utterly destroyed and all the Saints admitted to the glories of eternal life when all things are subdued unto him then also shall the Son himself be made subject to him that did put all things under him that is God the Father Then when he hath put down all rule and all authority and power then cometh the end and then he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father that God may be all in all This is the summe of St. Pauls argument in that point In which there being many things not easie to be understood I shall not think my time ill spent to make a short Paraphrase and discourse upon it that so we may perceive more fully the Apostles meaning And first he saith that CHRIST must reign till he hath put all things under his feet that being one of the especial parts of the Kingly function as before was shewn to save and defend his Church from the hands of her enemies and for the enemies themselves to crush them with a Scepter of iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel When this is done when he hath trodden under foot all his mortal enemies the persecutors of his Church false Prophets false Apostles and the great Antichrist himself which labour to seduce even the very Elect when he hath subjugated the powers of Hell and that sin hath no more dominion over us yet we shall still lie under the power of death untill the last and general Resurrection Death therefore is the last enemie to be destroyed that being delivered from his thraldome raised from the grave which is his prison and all those bonds and fetters broken by which we were held captive under his command we may be made partakers of eternal life and reign with Christ for ever in his heavenly glories When that time cometh when there are neither enemies from which to protect his Church nor any Church to be instructed in the wayes of godliness according to the Nomothetical part of the Regal Office then cometh the end the end of all things in this world which shall be no more the end of Christs Kingdome as the Mediator between God and man man having by the power of his mediation attained the end of his desires the guerdon and reward of his faith and piety This being done the rule of Satan and the authority of sin and the power of death being all broken and subdued he shall first raise our mortal bodies in despight of death pronounce the joyful sentence of absolution on them in despight of sin and finally advance them to that height of glory from which Satan fell to the confusion of the Devil and all his Angels And having so discharged the Office of a Mediator for executing which he sate at the right hand of God he shall deliver up unto God the Father the right and interest which he had in the Kingdome of Grace consisting in the building up of his Elect in faith hope and charity that they with him and he with them may reign forevermore in the Kingdome of glory Where there shall be no use of Faith for they shall see God face to face and faith is the existence of things not seen and less of hope for hope is the expectancy of things desired which being once obtained puts an end to hope Charity onely shall remain for that never ceaseth and therefore said to be the greatest of the three Theological vertues of which the Apostle there discourseth 1 Cor. 13.13 And so Primasius hath resolved it In this present life saith he there are three in the life to come onely the love of God and his Augels and of all the Saints That therefore is the greater which is alwayes necessary then that which once shall have an end The like St. Austin before him The greatest of all is charity because when every one shall come to eternal life the other two failing charity shall continue with increase and with greater certainty And finally before both thus St. Chrysostome and these three witnesses enough The greatest of these is Charity because they passe away but that continueth I must confess there is hardly a more difficult Text in all the Scripture then this of Christs delivering up the Kingdome unto God the Father nor which requires more care in the Exposition for fear of doing injurie unto God or Christ conceive me still of Christ in his humane nature For neither must we so understand the place as if God reigned not now at the present time nor was to reign at all untill this surrendry of the Kingdome by Christ our Saviour That were injurious to the power and Majesty of Almighty God by whom all things were made and by whom all made subject unto Christs command for he it is who did put all things
and Martyrs approving and applauding as before I said that most righteous judgement which CHRIST shall then pronounce against all the wicked saying Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This dreadful sentence thus pronounced and the condemned persons being delivered over by the Angels of God to the Devil and his according to the sentence of that righteous Iudge CHRIST shall arise from his Tribunal and together with his elect Angels and most blessed Saints shall in an orderly and triumphant manner ascend into the Heaven of Heavens where unto every one of his glorious Saints he shall bestow the immarcessible Crown of glory and make them Kings and Priests unto God the Father When all the Princes of the Earth have laid down their Scepters at the feet of CHRIST God shall be still a King of Kings a King indeed of none but Kings Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium always but most amply them For then shall CHRIST deliver up the Kingdom unto God the Father which how it must be understood we have shewn before And the Saints laying down their Crowns at the feet of Christ shall worship and fall down before him saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation and hast made us Kings and Priests to God to reign with thee in thy Kingdome for evermore Thus have I made a brief but a plain discovery so far forth as the light of Scripture could direct me in it both of the manner of our Saviours coming unto Judgement and of the Method he shall use in the act of judging That which comes after Iudgement whether life or death whether it be the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell will fall more properly under the consideration of the last Article of the Creed that of Life Everlasting and there we mean to handle all those particulars which I think pertinent thereunto In the mean time a due and serious consideration of this day of Iudgement will be exceeding necessary to all sorts of people and be the strongest bridle to restrain them from the acts of sin that ever was put into the mouths of ungodly men For what a bridle think we must it be unto them to keep them from unlawful lusts nay from sinful purposes when they consider with themselves that in that day the hearts of all men shall be opened their desires made known and that no secrets shall be hid but all laid open as it were to the publick view What a strong bridle must it be to curb them and to hold them in when they are in the full careere and race of wickedness when they consider with themselves that there will be no way nor means to escape this Judgement Though they procure the Rocks to fall upon them and the Hils to hide them yet will Gods Angels finde them out and gather them from every corner of the World be they where they will Though they have flattered their poor souls and said Tush God will not see it or have disguised themselves with fig-leaves out of a silly hope to conceal their nakedness or wiped their lips so cunningly with the harlot in the Book of Proverbs that no man can discern a stollen kiss upon them yet all this will not serve the turn God will for all this bring them unto judgement and apprehend them by his Angels when they go a gathering There shall not one of them escape the hands of these diligent Sergeants Ne unus quidem no not one And finally what a bridle must it be unto them to hold them from exorbitant wickedness as either the crucifying again of the Lord of glory the persecuting of the Saints their mischievous plots against the Church in her peace and Patrimony when they consider with themselves that he whom thus they crucifie is to be their Iudge and that those poor souls whom they now contemn shall give a vote or suffrage on their condemnation and that the poor afflicted Church which they made truly militant by their foul oppressions malgre their tyranny and confederacies shall become Triumphant And on the other side what a great comfort must it be to the righteous man to think that Christ who all this while hath been his Mediator with Almighty God shall one day come to be his Iudge What a great consolation must it be unto him in the time of trouble to think that all his groans are registred his tears kept in a bottle and his sighs recorded and that there is a Iudge above who will wipe all the tears from his eyes and give him mirth in stead of mourning What an incouragement must it be unto him in the way of godliness when he considereth with himself that there is laid up for him a Crown of glory which the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day and give it him in the fight both of men and Angels Finally what strength and animation must it put into them to make them stand couragiously in the cause of Christ and to contemn what ever misery can be laid upon them in the defence of Christs and the Churches cause when they consider with themselves that there is no man who hath lost Father or Mother or wife or children or lands and possessions for the sake of Christ but shall receive much more in this present world and in the world to come life everlasting For behold he cometh quickly as himself hath told us and his reward is with him to give to every man according as his work shall be Even so Lord Jesus So be it Amen THE SUM Of Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical Contained in the APOSTLES CREED or Reducible to it THE THIRD PART By Peter Heylyn 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one Spirit are we all Baptized into one Body whether we be Iews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit LONDON Printed for Henry Seyle 1654. ARTICLE IX Of the Ninth ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. IAMES the Son of ALPHEVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. I beleeve in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church CHAP. I. Touching the Holy Ghost his divine Nature Power and Office the Controversie of his Procession laid down Historically Of Receiving the Holy Ghost and of the severall ministrations in the Church appointed by him WE are now come unto the third and last part of this Discourse containing in the first place the Article of the Holy Ghost and of the holy Catholick Church gathered together and preserved by the power thereof And in the rest those several Gifts and special Benefits which Christ conferreth by the operation of
of sin as a general circumstance which may accompany any sin And many of those who have renounced the Faith of Christ under persecution or called his divinity in question did afterwards recant their Errors and became good Christians Final Apostasie indeed and a malicious resisting of the known Truth till the very last are most grievous sins and shall no question be rewarded with eternal punishment as every other sin shall be which is not expiated with Repentance but can with no more right or reason be called the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than unrepented Murder unrepented Adultery unrepented Heresie or any other of that nature Therefore to set this business right it is judiciously observed by my Learned Friend Sir R. F. in his Tractate Of the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost First That this sin so much disputed and debated in neither of the three Evangelists which record this passage is called The sin against the Holy Ghost but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Secondly That blaspheming according to the true Etymon of the Word is a blasting of the fame of another man a malicious detracting from him or speaking against him as both St. Matthew and St. Luke do expound the word Matth. 12.32 and Luke 12.10 Thirdly That these words were spoken by our Saviour Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Miracles affirming That that wondrous work of casting out Devils which he had wrought by the power of the Spirit of God as he himself affirmeth Matth. 12.28 was done by the power and help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Vers. 24. And Fourthly That the Scribes and Pharisees being the eye-witnesses of such miracles as might make them know that Christ was a Teacher come from God did notwithstanding lay that reproach upon them to the end That the people being beaten off from giving credit to his miracles should give no faith unto his Doctrine Upon which grounds he builds this definition of it viz. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was an evil-speaking or slandering of the miracles of our Saviour Christ by those who though they were convinced by the miracles to believe that such works could not be done but by the power of God did yet maliciously say That they were wrought by the power of the Devil And hereupon he doth infer these two following Corollaries First That we have no safe rule to conclude that any but the Scribes and Pharisees and their confederates committed in those times this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so condemned by Christ And Secondly That it is a matter of probability that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not a sin committable by any Christian who lived not in the time of our Lord and Saviour And to say truth If such a sin were practicable by us Christians since it must needs be a very great marvel if not somewhat more that the Apostles who were very precise and punctual in dehorting from all manner of sin should never in any of their Epistles take notice of this or give us any Caveat to beware thereof and in particular that St. Paul making a specification of the fruits of the Spirit and such a general muster of the works of the flesh as are repugnant thereunto should not so much as give a glance which doth look this way To countenance the opinion of this Learned Gentleman I shall adde here the judgement of two learned Iesuites Maldonates first Who makes this sin to be the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing our Saviour cast out Devils Manifesta Spiritus Sancti opera daemoni tribuebant ascribed the visible works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil Of Estius next who distinguishing betwixt the sin against the Holy Ghost and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost referreth to the first all sins of determined malice to the second onely such malicious and slanderous reproaches against the mighty works of God Quale erat illud Scribarum divina miracula malitiosè calumniantium As was that of the Scribes maliciously slandering our Saviours miracles And if it be a sin or blasphemy call it which you will not acted but by them and on that occasion it is not practicable now But leaving this to the determination of the Church of England lawfully and Canonically represented in an holy Synod to which that Learned Gentleman doth submit his judgement proceed we on in our discourse of the Holy Ghost concerning whose Divinity or Godhead there is not so much difference in the Christian World as in the manner of his Procession or Emission And here indeed the World hath been long divided the Greek Church keeping themselves to express words of Scripture making him to proceed from the Father onely the Latines on the Authority of some later Councils and Logical inferences from the Scripture making him to proceed both from Father and the Son And though these last may seem to have the worst end of the Cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain Text of Scripture yet do they Anathematize and curse the other as most desperate Hereticks if not Apostates from the Faith Nor will they admit of any medium towards reconcilement although the controversie by moderate and sober men is brought to a very narrow issue and seemeth to consist rather in their Forms of Speech than any material Terms of Difference For Damascen the great Schoolman of the Eastern Church though he deny that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son yet he granteth him to be Spiritum filii per filium to proceed from the Father by the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son And Bessarion and Gennadius two of the Grecian Divines who appeared in the name of that Church in the Council of Florence and were like to understand the meaning of Damascen better than any of the Latines affirmed as Bellarmine tells us of them That he denied not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as to the truth of his proceeding Sed existimasse tutius dici per filium quam ex filio quoad modum loquendi but thought onely that it was the safer expression to say That he proceeded by the Son than from the Son And Clictoveus in his Comment on that Book of Damascen l. 1. c. 12. is of opinion That the difference between the East and Western-Churches as to this particular is In voce potius modo explicandi quam in ipsa re More in the terms and manner of expression than the thing it self The Master of the Sentences doth affirm as much saying That the Greeks do differ from the Latines Verbo non sensu not in the meaning of the Point but the forms of Speech And more than so The Greeks saith he confess the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of the Son with the Apostle Gal. 4. And the Spirit of Truth with the Evangelist Joh.
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
30. And in his Regulae Compend Respons 310. St. Ierom in 1 Cor. St. Chrysostom also on the place Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius on the same Text also Nor is the word so used onely in the best Christian Writers but did admit also of the same signification amongst the best learned and most critical of the Heathen Greeks Of whom take Lucian for a taste who speaking of the adorning of the Court or Senate-house expresseth the place it self by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot possibly be meant of the men that met but of the place of the Assembly A thing which here I had not noted because not pertinent to the sense of the present Article but onely to encounter with the peevish humor of our Modern Sectaries who will by no means yet yeeld the name of Churches to those sacred places but call them Steeple-houses in the way of scorn But to proceed the word Ecclesia or Church in the Genuine sense as it denotes the Body Collective of Gods Servants since the coming of Christ is variously taken in the Book of God and also in the Writings of the purest times For first it signifieth a particular Congregation of men assembled together in some certain and determinate place for Gods publick service In this sense it is taken in those several Texts where St. Paul speaketh of the Church in the house of Nymphas Col. 4.15 To the Church in the house of Philemon Vers. 5. The Church which was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16. and 1 Cor. 16.19 I know that this is commonly expounded of their private Families as if the house and family of each Faithful Christian were in St. Pauls esteem reputed for a Church of Christ. But herein I prefer Mr. Medes opinion before all men else who understands those words of the Congregation of Saints which were wont to assemble at such houses for the performance of Divine Duties it being not unusual with some principal Christians in those early days to dedicate or set apart some private place within their own houses for the residue of the Church to assemble in And this he proveth first from the singularity of the expression which must needs include somewhat more than ordinary somewhat which was not common to the rest of the Saints whom St. Paul salutes in his Epistles For in so large a Bedrol as is made in the last to the Romans it is very probable that many if not most of them were Masters of Families and then must all their Families be Churches too as well as that of Aquila and Priscilla or else we must finde some other meaning of the words than that which hath hitherto been delivered Secondly Had St. Paul intended by those words The Church which is in their house nothing but the Family of Nymphas Philemon and the rest we should have found it put in the same expression which he doth elswhere use on the same occasion as viz. The houshold of Aristobulus the houshold of Narcissus Rom. 16.10 11. The houshold of Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 4.19 Patrobas Hermes and the Brethren which are with them Rom. 16.14 Nereus and Olympas and all the Saints which are with them Vers. 15. The difference of expressions makes a different case of it and plainly doth conclude in my apprehension That by the Church in such an house the Apostle meaneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church assembled at such houses as he there expounds it And though he cite no antient Author to confirm him in this opinion but Oecumenius and he none of the antientest neither Yet in a matter of this nature I may say of him as Maldonat doth of Euthymius in a greater point whose single judgement he preferreth before all the rest of the Fathers viz. Quem minorem licet solum autorem verisimilia tamen dicentem quam plures majoresque illos sequi malo But to proceed unto the other acceptions of the word Ecclesia it is also used to signifie in holy Scripture The Church of some City with the Region or Country round about it a National or Provincial Church under the Government of one or many Bishops and subordinate Ministers as the Churches of the Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Thessalonians Romans and the rest mentioned in the Acts and St. Pauls Epistles Thirdly It is also used to signifie not the Church it self or the whole Body of the people of a City or Province agreeing in the Faith of Christ but for the principal Officers and Rulers of it such as possess the place of Iudicature in the Court or Consistory In this sense it is used in the 18 of Matthew where the party wronged and able to get no remedy otherwise is willed by Christ to tell the Church that is to say to make his complaint to them who having the chief place and power in Spiritual matters are able to compel the wrong-doer to make satisfaction by menacing and inflicting the Churches Censures Tell the Church That is saith Chrysostom the Prelates and Pastors of the Church who have the power of binding and loosing such offenders which is mentioned in the verse next following And in this sense the name of Church became appropriated to the Clergy in the latter times and hath been used to signifie the State Ecclesiastick Ecclesiae nomen ad Clerum solere restringi as Gerson noted in his time not without regret as being men most versed in the Church affairs And lastly it is used for the Body Collective or Diffusive of the people of God made up of several Congregations States and Nations consisting both of Priests and People of men as well under as in Authority In this respect Christ is said to be the head of the Church Eph. 5.23 The husband of the Church V. 32. To love his Church and to give himself for his Church V. 25. That is to say not onely of a National or Provincial Church and much less of a Congregational onely but of the Universal Church which consists of all dispersed and distressed over all the World And this we do define to be the whole Congregation of Christian people called by the grace and goodness of Almighty God to a participation of his Word and Sacraments and other outward means of eternal life This Universal Church being thus found out is represented to us in the present Article by two marks or characters by which she is to be discerned from such Publick meetings which otherwise might claim that title Of which the one denotes the generality of extent and latitude and is that of Catholick by which it is distinguished from the Iewish Synagogue being shut up in the bounds of that Country onely and from the private Conventicles of Schismatical persons The other doth express the quality of the whole compositum by the piety and integrity of its several members and is that of Holy by which it is distinguished from the Assemblies of ungodly men from the
become so monstrous that it is grown bigger than all the rest of the Body For do not his own Canonists say that the Pope hath power of both the Swords that Christ committed to St. Peter and in him to them Terreni coelestis imperii jura The rights both of the Earthly and Heavenly Kingdoms Was it not openly affirmed in the Council of Lateran In Papa esse omnem potestatem c That in the Pope there was vested an authority over all powers both in Heaven and Earth And in pursuance of this power have they not frequently deposed Kings absolved the Subjects of the Oaths of Allegiance and disposed of Kingdoms till at last his Parasites came to broach this Tenet Papam esse verum Dominum temporalium ita ut possit auferre ab alio quod alias suum est c. That is to say That the Pope onely is the true and direct Lord of all Temporal States so that he may deprive whom he will of his estate without any remedy All Bishops and Princes whatsoever not being the Proprietaries of their own estates but Bailiffs and Stewards under him Thus also in Spiritual matters do they not teach that the whole World is his Diocess that he is Ordinarius omnium hominum and Episcopus totius orbis the ordinary Judge of all mankinde and Bishop of the whole world and that being thus possessed of this general Bishoprick Omnes Episcopi descendunt à Papa quasi membra à Capitè de plenitudine ejus omnes recipiunt All Bishops derive their power from him as the Body doth motion from the Head and that of his fulness they have all received That if the Pope should teach as he may and doth Virtutes esse vitia vitia esse virtuâ—es That vertue is vice and vice vertue we were bound to believe him And more than so That what crime soever he commit he is not to be censured or condemned for it Nec à Concilio nec à tota Ecclesia nec à toto mundo neither by a Council nor by all the Church together nor the whole World neither So privileged in a word he is that as one of them saith Si Papa innumerabiles populos catervatim secum ducat mancipio Gehennae c. If the Pope draw infinite companies of people with himself to Hell yet must no mortal man presume to reprove him for it Why so The Reason is most plain and evident Quia Papa Christus unum faciunt Consistorium because the Pope and Christ conjunct do but make one Consistory and consequently it must be as great a Sacrilege to question the acts of the Pope as those of Christ. We see by this to what a monstrous greatness this Head is grown how unproportionable to the Body his own Creatures make him And yet he is not onely greater than all the Body but he is all the Body too the Pope and Church being grown to be Terms and Convertible For so saith Gregory de Valentia Per ecclesiam caput ejus intelligimus c By the Church we mean her head and by that the Pope Dominicus Bannes affirms the same Pro eodem omnino reputatur autoritas ecclesiae universalis autoritas summi pontificis The authority of the Pope and that of the Universal Church is altogether the same The whole authority of the Church abideth in him saith Thomas Aquinas It remains all in him saith Silvester another of their principal Schoolmen Bellarmine is more plain than any Papa potest dicere ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi The Pope saith he may tell the Church that is himself His meaning is That lest the Pope should want Remedy when offence is given him he may be Judge in his own cause and on complaint unto himself see the matter mended But this he learnt of Innocent the Third Pope of that name who challenged to himself the cognizance of some points in difference between King Philip of France and Iohn King of England because it is written in the Gospel Dic ecclesiae as I have read in some good Author but cannot call to minde in whom Never did Text of Scripture meet with two such learned Glossaries never was Pope and Cardinal better matched nor need I adde more in so clear a case unless it be that commonly they call the Pope Virtualem Ecclesiam or the Vertual Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek because what power soever doth of right belong to the Body Collective of Christs Church the Church Essential as they term it is vertually contained in his person onely Me thinks it might have been enough for a single man to have been counted onely for a Chapel of Ease But such is the ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned for a Church at all And yet this of the two is the lovelier Error Better the Church be all head than no head at all And such a Church that is all body and no head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their later Platforms The Presbyterian Party first began this Monster which those of the Independent way have now fully perfected The Presbyterian Form being hatched in a popular state but such as did acknowledge a supream command in the great Council of that City first make all Ministers equal amongst themselves and then associate with each Minister two or more Lay-Elders whom they invest joyntly with all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which antiently and of right did belong to Bishops But this Presbytery thus constituted is not so supream but that it is accomptable to the Classis within which it is as that unto the Provincial Assembly and all unto that National Meeting which being made of the Deputed Ministers and Lay-Elders out of each Presbytery hath the name of General not such a General Assembly as St. Paul speaks of though possibly the name may allude to that For neither are they the Church of the first-born nor all of them at all times of the number of those whose names are written in the Heavens But let them call it what they will they have given us such a Model of Church-Government as was not known amongst the Antients and made it in effect but an headless body The Ruling Members being all equal in themselves and yet so Heterogeneous in the whole Compositum that the greatest part thereof are men of inferior quality men of Shops and Trades and consequently uncapable of Spiritual Powers Which if it do not make the Church to be all Body doth yet come very near it to a Tantamount But what the Presbyterians wanted to compleat this Monster hath since been added by the Brethren of the Independency who living in the waste and deserts of New England where every man was a king in his own opinion and had so much of Caesar in him
Successores sunt I have laid down the place at large because St. Ierome is conceived to have been an enemy to the Episcopal Function and to that end some fragments of him are alleged by our Innovators His meaning is That all Bishops whether of the greater or the lesser Cities were of the same Order and preheminence in the Church of Christ and that it was neither the pride of wealth nor the baseness of a poor estate which made a Bishop higher or lower in respect of Government all of them being Successors unto the Apostles And so Erasmus understands him who in his Scholies on the place gives this gloss or descant Hieronymus videtur aequare omnes Episcopos inter se c Ierome saith he doth seem to make all Bishops equal amongst themselves because all equally Successors unto the Apostles and thinks not any Bâ—shop to be less than another because he is poorer nor superior to another because he is richer making the Bishop of Eugubium a poor small City equal unto the Pope of Rome St. Cyprian speaks as plain as Ierome Vna est ecclesia c There is one Church saith he divided by Christ throughout the world into many Members Episcopatus item unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus And there is also one Bishoprick or Episcopal Office alike diffused over all the world by an agreeing or corresponding multitude of many Bishops And in another place to the same effect Episcopatus unus cujus à â—ingulis in solidum pars tenetur i.e. There is but one Episcopal Function in the Church of Christ whereof every particular Bishop doth stand wholly seized And this Pope Eleutherius doth himself acknowledge who in a Decretal of his let those of Rome look to the credit of the writing tells the Bishops of France and in them all other Bishops of what Realm soever Vobis à Christo Vniversalis Ecclesia est commissa That to their care the Vniversal Church was by Christ committed Every Bishop wheresoever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal care over all the Churches Which since they could not exercise by personal conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of general Councils by Letters Messages and Agents for the communicating of their Counsels and imparting their advice unto one another as the emergent occasions of the Church did require the same Examples of the which in the stories of those Elder-times are obvious to the eye of each careful Reader By means of which entercourse and correspondency they maintained not onely an Association of the several Churches for their greater strength nor a Communication onely of their Counsels for the publick safety but a Communion also with each other as Members of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is Head These Letters they called Literas format as communicatorias as in an Epistle of St. Augustine where both names occur And for the publick benefit which redounded by them we may finde it in Optatus an African Bishop who having made a Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter down unto Siricius who then held the place or as his own words are Qui noster est socius who was his partner or associate in the Common Government He addeth Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio formatarum in una communionis societate concordat i. e. With whom together with our self the whole world agreeth in one communion or society by those Letters of intercourse This as it cuts off all pretensions to Monarchial Government so doth it utterly destroy the Democratical or Popular Platforms The Publick Government of the Church belonging onely unto Bishops as Successors to the Apostles to whom Christ committed it For that the Bishops do succeed in place of the Apostles is the constant and received opinion of all the Antients What Ierome did affirm herein we have seen before but he affirms it more than once and gives it us again in another place where shewing the difference between the Montanists and the Catholick Church he saith That they had made the Bishops the third in order Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent but in the Church the Bishops held the place or rank of the Apostles St. Augustine saith as much as he deriving the descent or petigree of the Christian Faith by the Seats of the Apostles Et successiones Episcoporum and the succession of Bishops which were dispersed and propagated over all the world St. Cyprian as more ancient so he speaks more plainly who writing to Cornelius the then Bishop of Rome exhorts him to preserve that unity Per Apostolos nobis successoribus traditam which was commended by the Apostles unto them their Successors And before him also Irenaeus who lived very near St. Iohns time if he lived not in it who speaking of those Bishops which were ordained by the Apostles and shewing what perfections were required in them then addes Quos successores relinquebant c Whom they left behinde to be their Successors delivering over unto them their own place of Government Nothing can be more plain than this and nothing can more plainly declare unto us that neither the Monarchy of the Pope nor the Democraâ—y of the Presbyterians nor the Anarchy of the New-England Independents had any being or existence in the Primitive times The Government of the Church was wholly in the hands of Bishops who separately in their several and respective Diocesses or joyntly in Provincial Councils took order in all matters which concerned the same But this is to be understood with a salvo jure a reservation of the Rights and Privileges of such Christian Princes as God raised up to be nursing Fathers to his Church To them as God hath given the sword for he beareth not the sword in vain so are they made custodes utriusque tabulae the Guardians and Keepers of both Tables of the Law of God not onely in keeping them themselves as every private man is bound to do but in that they ought to have a care that all and every of their Subjects yeeld obedience to them and punish such as evil doers which offend against them And this extends as well to Bishops and inferior Ministers as to any Lay-subject of what rank soever who though they derive their Spiritual Function immediately from Christ himself yet are they not onely subject to the Rule of Princes in matter of Exterior order in the service of God but are to be accomptable to them in their Ministration if wilfully they neglect or transgress their duties The constant practise of all godly Kings and Emperors as well under the Old Testament as since the time of the Gospel makes this plain enough For if we please to search the Scriptures we shall finde David giving Rules to the Priests and Levites in matters which concerned the worship of God dividing them
the world is that blessed company of holy ones that houshold of faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the living God which is the pillar and ground of truth that so we may imbrace her communion follow her directions and rest in her judgment Very good counsel I confess and such as is to be pursued by all sober Christians But being this counsel doth suppose as a matter granted that the true Church is very easie to be found if it be carefully sought after which doth imply the constant and perpetual visibility of it however controverted and denied by some later Writers I shall first labor to make good that which he supposeth and prove that which he takes for granted that so we may proceed the better on our following search and rest the surer on the judgment of the Church being once found out And here I shall not need to look back on those who making none to be of the Church but the elect children of God do thereby make it altogether invisible to a mortal eye We have spoke enough of that in the former Chapter and therefore shall adde nothing now but that it may seem strange unto men of reason that when Paul and Barnabas came to Ierusalem they were received of the Church as is said Acts 15.4 and yet could not see the Church which did receive them or that Paul went unto Caesarea and saluted the Church as is said of him Acts 18.22 in case he had not seen the Church which he did salute We grant indeed the Church to be invisible in its more noble parts that is to say the Saints triumphant in the Heavens the Elect on Earth and that it is invisible in the whole latitude and extent thereof for who can see so great a body diffused in all places of the world at one time or in all the times of his life supposing him to be the greatest traveller that was ever known And yet this doth not make the Church to be more invisible than any particular man may be said to be invisible also because we do not see his Brain his Heart and his Liver the three principal parts which convey Life and Blood and motion to the rest of the Body nor because we cannot see at once both his back and his belly and every other member in his full proportion The visibility of the Church is proved sufficiently by the visibility of those several and respective Congregations or Assemblies of men which are convened together under lawful Ministers for the Administration of the Word and Sacraments to which men may repair as they see occasion for their spiritual comfort and instruction in the things of God with whom they may joyn themselves in his publick worship with reference to that soul and power of Government which animates and directs the whole And such a Visibility of the Church there hath always been from Adam down to Noah from Noah to Abraham from him to Moses and the Prophets from thence to Christ and from Christs time unto the present It is true the light hereof hath been sometimes dangerously ecclipsed but never extinguished no more than is the Sun when got under a Cloud Desicere videtur Sol non defiâ—it as the Father hath it Since God first had a Church it hath still been visible though more or less according unto times and seasons more in some places than in others although not always in such whole and sound condition as it ought to be They who are otherwise perswaded conceive that they have found some intervals or space of time in which there was no Visible Church on the face of the Earth of which times there are two remarkable under the Law and two as notable as those since the birth of the Gospel Under the Law they instance in the reign of Ahab of which Elijah makes complaint That they had laid waste the Church and slain the Prophets and that he onely was left to serve the Lord and in the persecution raised by Antiâ—chus King of Syrius of which it is reported in the Book of Maccabees that the Sanctuary was defiled the publick Sacrifices interdicted Circumcision and the Sabbath abrogated and more than so the Idols of the Syrians publickly advanced for the people to fall down and worship insomuch as all those who sought after righteousness and justice were fain to flie unto the wilderness there to save themselves But the answer unto this is easie For though those instances do prove that the Church at those times was in ill-condition in regard to her external peace yet prove they not that there was such a general defection from the worship of God as to make the Church to be invisible For first The complaint of Elijah was not universal in reference to the whole Church of God but in relation onely unto that of Israel where King Ahab reigned a Schismatical Church that when it was at the best and sometimes an Idolatrous one also The Church of Iudah stood entire in the service of God according to the prescript of his holy Law under the Rule and Government of the good King Iehosaphat a Prince who with a perfect heart served the God of his Fathers and who preserved the people under his command in the true Religion The Sun shined comfortably on Iudah though an Egyptian darkness had over-spread the whole Realm of Israel And if Elijah fled for safety to the woods and deserts and did not flie for succor to the Land of Iudah it was not out of an opinion that the two Tribes had Apostated from their God as well as the ten but out of a wise and seasonable fear of being delivered by those of Iudah into the hands of his enemies Iehosaphat being at that time in good terms with Ahab by whom Elijah stood accused for troubling of the State of Israel As for the other instance under King Antiochus the Text indeed describes it for a great persecution greater than which that Nation never suffered under but it declares withal expresly that there was no such general defection from the Law of God as was projected by the Tyrant For the common people stood couragiously to their old Religion and neither would obey the Kings Commandment in offering to the Syrian Idols or eating meats which were prohibited by the Law of Moses And as for those which fled unto the Woods and Wilderness they fled not thither onely for their personal safety in hope to finde an hiding place in those impenetrable desarts but as unto a place of strength or a fortified City from whence they might sally as they did against their enemies and in the which they might enjoy that freedom in the exercise of their own Religion which could not be hoped for in Ierusalem and other places under the command of Antiochus A persecuted Church we finde both before and here but the persecution neither held so long nor was so general as to make the Church to
be invisible And so it is also in those two instances which the Patrons of this invisibility have pitched upon since the times of the Gospel the one being in the prevalency of the Arian Heresie the other in the predominancy of Popish Superstition For the first it is alleged out of St. Ierom Ingemuit mundus se Arianum esse miratus est That the world groaned under the burden of that Heresie and wondred how she was become so wholly Arian But this admits of such a qualification and restriction as utterly overthroweth the thoughts of invisibility For that which Ierom calls Mundus or the whole world generally in Lerinensis is but orbis penè totus almost all the world Arianorum venenum non jam portiunculam quandam sed orbem pene totum contaminaverat The Arian poyson saith that Author had not onely envenomed a small part or portion but almost all the world it self And that which Lerinensis calls orbem pene totum almost all the world was onely almost all that part of the world which was under the command and power of the Roman Emperors Costerius in his Notes on Lerinensis doth expound him so saying Adeo incredibiles fuisse impietatis hujus successus ut omnes fere Romani imperii Ecclesias haec lues pervaserit And to this Exposition that of Gregorius Presbyter who wrote the life of Gregory Nazianzen gives a great deal of light who attributes the spreading of that powerful Heresie unto the countenance it had from some of those Emperors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who labored with might and main to promote the same so that the growth and spreading of the Arrian Heresie was neither over all the world nor almost all the world but onely over almost all the Churches in the Roman Empire and that but for the time onely when Constantius and Valens did possess the Throne There were then many Christian Churches in Persia India Aethiopia where neither Valens nor Constantius were of any power and many Catholick Bishops in France Egypt Italy and consequently Catholick Churches also to which an Orthodox Professor might have had recourse for the worship of God according to the prescript of his holy Word And though the Arian Heresie both for time and place was more diffused and longer-lived than any other whatsoever in the Church of Christ yet neither did it over-spread the whole face of the Church or made it for the time invisible to discerning eyes nor by denying the consubstantiality of persons in the holy Trinity did they so abjure the Christian Faith as not to be accounted Christians though defiled with Heresie by their greatest enemies The Orthodox Professors so esteemed them reckoning their Bishops Priests and Deacons to be lawfully called their Sacraments to be lawfully ministred by them their Forms of Divine worship nothing different from the rest of the Church except in the Doxology onely And if they did proceed against them in the way of punishment it was not as they were no Christians but as Arian Hereticks And on the other side holding entire all other points of Christian Faith and scrupling onely against that because they found it not in terminis in the holy Scriptures the Gentiles amongst whom they lived in the out-parts of the Empire persecuted them as they did the rest who professed the Gospel with fire and sword and put them unto grievous deaths insomuch as suffering for the Christian Faith not the Arian Heresie some of them had the honor to be counted Martyrs even by the Catholicks themselves Ita ut non-nulli ex Ariana secta Martyres fierent as it is in Socrates But the main difficulty doth relate to that space of time in which the power and superstition of the Church of Rome carried all before it and in relation unto that the Fautors of the Churches invisibility have most beat their brains For not being able when put to it by their Romish Adversaries to finde a Church agreeing in all points with the Protestant Tenets before Luthers time they betook themselves to this as their surest refuge That the Church was many times invisible and so had been immediately in the time before them Thus Luther pleased to place the Church in quibusdam reliquiis in a certain remnant of men whom the world took no heed of who were indeed the people and the Church of God though not so accounted And Calvin hides the same in uncertain corners where God did wonderfully preserve it from the sight of men Et mirabiliter Ecclesiam suam tanquam in latebris servasse as his own words are But this not giving satisfaction to the common Adversary who press upon us with this Question Where was your Church before Luther a pedegree thereof was fetched from Wicliff Hus the Albigenses the Pauperes de Lugduno and I know not whom who in their several times and ages had publickly opposed some errors and corruptions in the Church of Rome and thereby drew upon themselves the hatred of the Roman Clergy And by this means it was conceived That a perpetual visibility of the Protestant Churches might be fairly proved the fancy of an invisible Church beginning to grow out of credit with most sorts of men especially considering that besides the opposition made by those before remembred Clemangius Armachanus Lincolniensis had severally inveighed against the pride and vices of the Court of Rome and that there were many things also in the Church it self whereof St. Bernard and Pope Adrian wished a Reformation But this in my opinion will not do the deed For neither did Clemangius Armachanus or the rest that follow withdraw themselves from the Communion of the Church of Rome or if they had they did not thereby make themselves a distinct Church from it and least of all a Church agreeing in all points perhaps not in any with those which are defended in the Protestant Schools And as for Wicliff Hus and the Albigenses though they held some opinions which the Protestants do yet held they many others which the Protestants do not Some I am sure which are as much abominated by the Church of England as the extreamest dregs of the Church of Rome Nor can we prove the visibility of our Church from them from whom we neither receive our Baptism nor our Priesthood nor our Form of Worship nor any outward Rite and Ceremony nor any thing for ought I know by which we claim the name of a Christian Church Or if we did our visibility would fail us in those frequent intervals which were between Wicliff and the Hussites the Hussites and the Albigenses the Albigenses and the rest of those scattered companies from whom this goodly Pedegree is to be derived Whereof the one started up in England the other long before him in Bohemia the third in France and others in the Mountains of Italy not having a Succession from nor giving a Succession unto one another So that relinquishing
this plea as a sorry shift which onely seemed to be excogitated for the present pinch If any ask me Where the Church was before Luthers time I answer generally First That if the Church had failed in these North-west parts of the world as indeed it did not yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South the Greeks Nestorians Melchites Abassins with divers others with whom the first Reformers might have held communion though differing from them in some points of inferior moment And secondly I answer more particularly that our Church was before Luther where it hath been since in Germany France England Italy yea and Rome it self A sick Church then but since by Gods grace brought to more perfect health a corrupt Church then but since reformed of those particular abuses both in life and doctrine which seemed most offensive That the Church of Rome is a true Church though not the true Church no sober Protestant will deny Iunius grants it in his Book De Ecclesia cap. 19. and so doth Dr. Whitakers also Cont. 2. Qu. 3. cap. 2. as great an enemy as any of the Romish factions The like doth Dr. Raynolds in his fifth Thesis though he deny it as he might to be either the Catholick Church it self as they vainly boast or any found member of the same Nay even the very Separatists do not grutch them that as Francis Iohnson in his Treatise called A Christian Plea Printed 1627. pag. 123 c. A true Church in the verity of essence as the Church is a company of men which profess the Faith of Christ and are baptized into his Name but neither Orthodox in all points of doctrine nor sound or justifiable in all points of practise And a true Church in reference to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith which they maintain as constantly and defend as strongly against the several Hereticks and Sectaries of this present age as any Doctor of the Protestant or Reformed Churches though in the Superstructures they are faln aside from the received opinions of the Catholick Church A true Church too in which Salvation may be had for why should we deny the possibility of their salvation who have been the chief instruments of ours saith judicious Hooker by those especially who ignorantly follow their blinde guides and do not pertinaciously embrace any Popish error either against their Science or against their Conscience Of whom as of the greatest numbers in the Church of Christ we may very safely say with Augustine Coeteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit i. e. That amongst ordinary men it is not the vivacity of understanding but the simplicity of believing which makes them safe Of this Church were the Protestants Members before they did withdraw themselves from the errors of it before by this their separating from the errors of it they were schismatically expelled and thrust out of the communion of the Church of Rome by those which had the conduct of the affairs thereof in the beginning of that breach And from this Church do we of the Church of England derive immediately our interess in Christ by the door of Baptism the Body of the holy Scriptures the Hierarchy or Publick Government our Liturgy and Solemn Forms of Administration not as originally theirs but as derived to them from the Primitive times and by them transmitted unto us This Bristo doth acknowledge in his Book of Motives and this we think it no reproach unto our Religion to acknowledge also That Aphorism of King Iames of most famous memory deserving to be writ in Letters of Gold viz. That no Church under colour of Reformation for of that he speaketh ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony than she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Iesus Christ our Lord and Head And yet I know not how it hath come to pass but so it is that instead of reforming of an old Church which is all we did the building of a new Church will we nill we is by some Zelots of boâ—h sides obtruded on us Whereas the case if rightly stated is but like that of a sick and wounded man that had long lien weltering in his own blood or languishing under a tedious burden of diseases and afterwards by Gods great mercy and the skilful dâ—ligence of honest Chirurgions and Physitians is at the last restored to his former health No new man in this case created that is Gods sole privilege but the old man cured No new Church founded in the other that belongs to Christ but the old Reformed When Hezekiah purged the Temple and other godly Kings and Princes of the Land of Iudah did reform Religion as we know they did Neither did the one erect a new Temple or the others frame a new Religion but onely rectified in both what they found amiss And so it was also in the Reformation of the Church of Rome further than which we need not go to look where our Church was before Luthers time or to finde out that constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ which hath been hitherto the subject of this Disquisition But put the case the worst that may be and let it be supposed this once That the Church of Rome had so apostated from the Faith of Christ that it ceased to be a Church at all both in name and nature yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South all of them visible no doubt as they still continue which constantly maintained all those several Truths that had been banished and exploded in the Church of Rome For that the Vniversal Church should so fall away as to teach any doctrine contrary to the Faith and Gospel is plainly to the promise made by Christ our Saviour It is true indeed Christ hath not bound himself nor annexed his spirit so inseparably to a National or Provincial Church but that it may fall at last unto such desperate and dangerous Errors as finally may cut it off as an unsound Member from the residue of the Body Mystical The Candlestick may be removed as well out of any Church as from that of Ephesus if wilfully they put out the light which shined amongst them and so it is determined by the Church of England As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch hath erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith saith the Nineteenth Article But so it is not with the Universal the Body Collective of Gods people the Church essential nor can it be colourably inferred though it be the best Argument of Dr. Raynolds to evince his Thesis that because many of those who are outwardly called and some of the Elect themselves many of the Flock and some of the Pastors and that not
onely in their single and sole capacities but as convened in Council about sacred matters have held opinions contrary to the truth of God That therefore the whole Church or the Body collective and diffusive over all the world shall universally agree to betray the truth or be given over unto Error One might as logically conclude that because many of the Citizens and some of the Aldermen many of the Parishioners and some of the Ministers and that not onely in their Houses but the very Church or the Guild-hal were swept away at London by the last great plague that therefore the whole City was dispeopled by it not a man escaping Such Arguments as these need no other Answer than to demonstrate the non sequiturs and inconsequence of them But first before we do proceed unto further evidence it will be necessary to lay down the state of the Question which is the Litis contestatio or the point in Controversie And in my minde Becanus states it very rightly We will therefore use his terms though he were a Iesuite and propose it thus viz. An tota Ecclesia Christi vel tota multitudo Christianorum quatenus ex Pastoribus ovibus conflata est errare possit in aliquo Articulo vel puncto fidei that is to say whether the whole Church of Christ or the whole multitude of Christian people consisting both of the Flock and the Pastors too may erre in any Article and point of Faith or publickly profess any point of Doctrine contrary to the Faith and Gospel of our Lord and Saviour This we deny and we deny it on the credit of our Saviours promises Upon this Rock saith he will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Where by the gates of Hell as the Fathers say he means not onely outward violence but Errors Heresies and false Doctrines which covertly or openly do aim at the ruine of it And of this minde is Epiphanius in Anchorato Origen Tract 1. on Matthew Ierome and Bede upon the place St. Augustine also hence inferreth Haereses omnes de ecclesia exiisse tanquam sarmenta inutilia à vite praecisa ipsam autem manere in radice sua in vite sua that is to say That Heresies were to the Church like unprofitable branches cut off from the Vines the Church remaining still in the Root in the Vine it self How so Quia portae inferorum non vincant eam because the gates of Hell cannot overcome it He promised his Apostles to send them a Comforter who should teach them all things Iohn 14.16 who should guide them into all truth Iohn 16.13 Not that he bound himself hereby to teach them all things or lead them into all truths of what sort soever For it is sure that some things the Apostles were still ignorant of as of the day and hour of the General Iudgment And probable enough it is that there were many Philosophical and Historical truths into which the Spirit did not lead them All things and all truth must be understood of all things truly necessary to a mans salvation In omnem veritatem i. e. Omnem quae expedit ad salutem saith Dr. Raynolds very rightly A promise made indeed to them the Apostles personally for it was unto them he spake and to none but them but made to all the Church in them the whole Church essentially whereof they were at that time the sole Representatives Consolatprium est ex hoc loco cognoscere fide audire quicquid est promissum his Apostolis promissum esse toti ecclesia saith a learned and a modest Papist It is saith he a special comfort to learn and faithfully believe from these words of Christs that the promise made to these Apostles was also made to the whole Church to the Body collective It was not Peter onely as the Papists say nor the Apostles onely as the words may seem to bear to whom these promises were made touching the not prevailing of the gates of Hell and the conducting of their feet in the ways of truth but to the whole Body of the Church represented by them Hence I conclude That the whole Church in the full latitude and universality thereof is free from Error such Errors as do lead to the gates of Hell and are destructive of salvifical supernatural Truths The Church being so far privileged by our Lord and Saviour that when the truth is banished out of one or more particular Churches it is admitted into others and some still opposing those corruptions both in Doctrine and Practise which in the others are defended The Church in this capacity is secure from Error even in the points of smallest moment and so it is confessed by Luther a man not over forwards to ascribe too much unto the Church Impossibile est illam errare posse etiam in minimo Articulo It is impossible saith he that the Church should erre conceive him of the Church essential in the smallest Article But this perhaps will be made more apparent by the matter of Fact than by any other kinde of evidence in an Argumentative way And for this matter of Fact we will take those times in which the truth may seem to be most miserably oppressed by the predominancy of the Arian faction and the tyranny and superstitions of the Popes of Rome That the Arian Heresie did extend no further than the Roman Empire we have shewn before that all the Roman Empire was not poysoned with it we will shew you now For besides all the Bishops of Rome successively from the first rising of this Heresie to the fall thereof who constantly except Liberius onely did maintain the truth the stories of those times acquaint us with the names and merits of some Catholick Bishops who with their Churches did oppose that predominant faction And because it were an endless and indeed a needless labor to recite them all take but those three whom Ierome brings together in one line or passage O Siquidem Arianus victis triumphatorem suum Egyptus excapit Hilarium ◠praelio revertentem Galliarum Ecclesia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit i. e. Upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hilary he was Bishop of Poictiers coming home with victory from the battel and on the return of Eusebius Bishop of Vercellis Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to the vulgar eyes that not these Bishops onely did defend the truth but that it was preserved by their people also who never had received them with such joy and triumphs had they not been all of one opinion Or had but those three Bishops onely stood unto the truth yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the Faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in that particular
they were moved by the Holy Ghost It is not subject to the humor of a private spirit but to be weighed and pondered by that publick Spirit which God hath given unto his Church which he hath promised to conduct in the ways of truth and to be with her always to the end of the world Not that we do exclude any private man from handling of the holy Scripture if he come sanctified and prepared for so great a work if he be lawfully ordained or called unto it and use such helps as are expedient and necessary to inform his judgment nor that we give the Church such a supream power as to change the sense and meaning of the holy Scriptures according as her self may vary from one opinion to another in the course of times This is indeed the monstrous Paradox of Cusanus who telleth us That the Scripture is fitted to the time and variously to be understood so that at one time it is expounded according to the present fancy of the Church and when that fancy is changed that then the sense of Scripture may be also changed and that when the Church doth change her judgment God doth change his also And this I call a monstrous Paradox as indeed it is in that it doth not onely assubject the truth of Scripture but even the God of truth himself to the Churches pleasure How much more piously hath the Church of England determined in it who though it do assert its own power in Expounding Scripture yet doth it with this wise and Religious Caution That the Church may not so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Within which bounds if she contain herself and restrain her power no doubt but she may use it to the honor of God the setling of a Publick Peace in all matters controverted and the content and satisfaction of all sober Christians The last part of the Churches power consists in the decreeing of Rites and Ceremonies for the more orderly officiating of Gods Publick service and the procuring of a greater measure of reverence to his holy Sacraments Of this she hath declared more fully in another place First In relation to it self to the Churches power viz. Every particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Next in relation to the people and their conformity That whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be openly reproved that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and woundeth the Consciences of the weaker Brethren Which Propositions are so evidently and demonstratively true according to the constant practise of approved Antiquity that he must wilfully oppose the whole Catholick Church and all the famous National Churches in the Primitive times who doth not chearfully and readily assent unto them For who can shew me any Council in the former Ages wherein some Orders were not made for regulating both the Priest and People in the worship of God wherein the Church did not require obedience to her Constitutions and on defect thereof proceeded not to some publick censure of the party He must be utterly ignorant of all Antiquity and the affairs of holy Church that makes doubt of this Nay of so high esteem were the Churches Ordinances in matters of exterior order in the service of God that they were deemed as binding as the word it self And so St. Augustine hath resolved it Iâ— iis rebus de quibus nihil statuit Scriptura mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege Dei tenenda sunt as he in his Epistle to Casulanus The customs of the Church and the institutes of our fore-fathers in things of which the Scriptures have determined nothing are to be reckoned and esteemed of as the Word of God Our Saviour by his own observing of the feast of Dedication being of Ecclesiastical institution and no more than so shewed plainly what esteem he had of the Churches Ordinances and how they were to be esteemed of by the sons of men And when St. Paul left this rule behinde him That all things be done decently and in order think we he did not give the Church authority to proceed accordingly and out of this one general Canon to make many particulars Certain I am that Calvin hath resolved it so and he no extraordinary friend to the Churches power Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires saith he is not to be done without prescribing Rules and Canons by which as by some certain Bonds both order and decorum may be kept together Paraeus yet more plainly and unto the purpose Facit Ecclesiae potestatem de ordine decoro Ecclesiastico liberè disponendi leges ferendi By this saith he doth the Apostle give authority to the Church of Corinth and in that to other Churches also of making Laws for the establishing of decency and order in the Church of Christ. And Musculus though he follow the citing of this Text by Eckius in justification of those unwarrantable Rites and Ceremonies Quibus Religionis nostrae puritas polluta esset with which the purity of Religion had been so defiled yet he allows it as a rule for the Church to go by Vt quae lâ—gitimè necessario gerenda sunt in Ecclesia That all those things which lawfully and necessarily may be done in the Church should be performed with decency and convenient order So that we see the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies in things that appertain to order decency and uniformity in Gods publick service and which is more a power of making Laws and Canons to inforce conformity to the same and that too which is most of all in the opinion of those men which were no great admirers of the Churches customs and looked not so much on the Primitive as the present times Nor is this onely the opinion of particular men but the declared judgment of the eldest Churches of the Reformation The Augustane Confession published in the name of all the Protestants and onely countenanced and allowed of by Imperial Edict not onely doth ordain those antient usages to be still retained in their Churches which conduce to decency and order in the service of God and may be kept in force without manifest sin But it resolves Peccare eos qui eum scandalo illos violant c. That they are guilty of sin who infringe the same and thereby rashly violate the peace of the Church And amongst those
of the Church is confirmed unto them Those in the world to come are the fruits of these that is to say A Resurrection of the Body held by the chains of sin in the shades of death and a more full Communion with the Saints departed than in this life can be enjoyed that Fellowship which we have with them being here but inchoate and imperfect there compleat and absolute Of these the first is the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with Christ their Head whereof before I shall discourse as it lieth before me I shall first take the words asunder and shew what is the true meaning of the word communio then who they be that are presented to us by the name of Saints First for the word communio it signifieth that sacred action in which the faithful do communicate of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist Thus Hugo Cardinalis hath it Post hoc dicatur communio quae appellatur ut omnes communicemus i. e. After this let the communion be said so called because all should communicate or let it be so said That all my communicate Micrologus before him to the same effect Non potest propriè dici communio c. It cannot properly be called a Communion unless many do receive together Cassiodorus before either in his Tripartite History Stant rei velut in lamentationibus constituti cum sacra celebratio fuerit adimpleta communionem non recipiant i. e. They which lay under the Churches censures stood a far off full of great heaviness and lamentation and when the service was concluded received not the Communion but when they had fulfilled the course of their penance Cum populo communionem participant they were then suffered to communicate with the rest of the people More antient than them all is that Dionysius whether the Areopagite or not I dispute not here who wrote the Books De Hierarchia Caelesti Ecclesiastica in whom we do not onely finde the name but the reason of it Dignissimum hoc Sacramentum c Most worthy saith he is this Sacrament and far to be preferred before any other and for that cause it is deservedly and alone Meritò singulariter saith the Latine Copies called the Communion For although every Sacrament aims at this especially to unite those that are divided to the Lord their God Attamen huic Sacramento Communionis vocabulum praecipuè peculiariter contingit yet to this Sacrament the name of the Communion doth chiefly and properly belong as that which doth more nearly joyn us unto Christ our Saviour and entirely unite us unto one another And so his meaning is expressed by Pachymeres an old Greek Writer who hath paraphrased on the whole works of this Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore saith he did Dionysius call it the Communion because all which were worthy did communicate of the holy Mysteries From which Communion of the Faithful in those holy Mysteries not onely the profession of the Christian Faith but that sweet Fellowship and Conjunction of heart and soul which was amongst them got the same name also and was generally called Communio from that sacred Action which was most solemnly used amongst them at their publick meetings In this sense it is used by St. Augustine saying Mulier illa est communionis nostrae That the woman which he there speaketh of was of their Communion And in another place to the same effect Donatus non nisi in sua communione baptismum esse credit That Donatus thought that Baptism was onely to be had in the Churches of his Profession In the same sense it is used by Ierome speaking of his relations to the same St. Augustine It is not meet saith he that I who have been trained up in a little Monastery from my youth till now Aliquid contra Episcopum Communionis meae scribere audeam should presume to write against a Bishop of the same Communion or Profession with me and such a Bishop whom I began to love before I knew him The like he writes also to Pope Damasus where saying that he followed no chief but Christ he yet acknowledgeth Beatitudini tuae i. e. Cathedrae Petri communione consâ—cior That he was joyned in communion or in love and fellowship or consent of Doctrine and Religion with his Holiness or Chair of Peter In both acceptions of the word that is to say In the communion or communication of the holy Mysteries and in that union of affections which usually is held by those of the same Profession There is a Communion of the Saints whether they be Activè or Passivè Sancti whether triumphant in the Heavens or finishing their natural course upon the Earth For the word Sancti also hath its various notions and must be looked upon in each or the chief at lest before we can proceed to a certain issue And first the word Sancti hath been used for those who onely have the outward calling called to be Saints as they are stiled by the Apostle Rom. 1.7 and 1 Cor. 1.2 Though neither Saints by the infusion of inherent holiness nor by the piety and sanctimony of their lives and actions In this sense all the Romans and Corinthians to whom St. Paul wrote his Epistles were Saints by calling or called to this end and purpose that they might be Saints though there were many profane and carnal persons amongst them Next it is used for those who are Sancti renovati Saints by the renovation of the holy Spirit by which co-operating in the Laver of Regeneration they are washed and sanctified And such were also some of you But ye are washed but ye are sanctified saith the same Apostle that is to say By the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he hath shed abundantly in us as himself expounds it These are Passivâ— Sancti as before I called them because both in the outward calling and the effusion of the inward graces of the Holy Ghost we are simply passive But if we do obey that calling and manifest the grace which is given unto us by our lives and actions If from our hearts we do obey that form of doctrine which hath been delivered and yeeld our members as servants of righteousness to holiness then are we not passivè but activè sancti right Saints indeed walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord without reproof And if the fruit be unto holiness there is no question but the end thereof will be life everlasting when we shall stand before the Throne of the Lord our God and serve him day and night in his holy Temple advanced to those felicities of eternal glory which is designed by White Robes and the Palms of victory in the Revelation Never so fully Saints as then though we must first be Saints in the Militant Church before we can
Ancient Fathers The Rule is this That Custom is the best interpreter of a doubtful Law and we are lessoned thereupon to cast our eyes in all such questionable matters unto the practise of the State in the self-same case Si de Interpretione legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendum est quo â—ure Civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio Legis est Where we have both the Rule and the Reason too Which Rule as it holds good in all Legal Controvesies so there is a practical Maxim of as much validitie in matters of Ecclesiastical nature delivered by the ancient Writers This Maxim we will take from St. Augustines mouth and after shew how consonant it is unto the mind of the rest of the Fathers Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec in Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolica autoritate traditum rectissimè creditur i. e. Whatsoever the whole Church maintaineth which hath not been ordained by authority of Councils but been alwaies holden most rightly may be thought to have been delivered by Apostolical authority To this agreeth St. Hierom also saying Etiamsi Scripturae autoritas non subesset totius Orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret That were there no authority of the Scripture for it yet the unanimous consent of all the world were as good as a precept So doth St. Irenaeus also who telleth us that in doubtful cases Oportet in antiquissimas recâ—rrere Ecclesias in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab iis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est we are to have recourse to the Eldest Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and learn of them what is to be determined in the present question And to this Maxim thus confirmed not onely the Romanists do submit but even Calvin too who telleth us he would make no scruple to admit Traditions Si modo Ecclesiae traditionem ex certo perpetuo sanctorum Orthodoxorum consensu confirmaret If Pighius could demonstrate to him that such Traditions were derived from the certain and continual consent of Orthodox and godly men If then according to this Maxim it be made apparent that Infant-baptism hath been generally used in the Church of Christ not being ordained in any Council but practised in those elder Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and since continued in the constant and perpetual usage of all godly men we may conclude that certainly it is of Apostolical Institution though there occur no positive Precept for it in the Book of God Which ground so laid we will proceed unto our proofs for this general practise taking our rise from Augustines time without looking lower because his Authority is conceived to have carryed the Baptism of Infants almost without controul in the following ages First then for Augustine he is positive and express herein Infantes reos esse Originalis peccati ideo baptizandos esse That Infants being guilty of Original sin are to be Baptised and this he cals antiquam fidei regulam the old Rule of Faith and saith expresly Hoc Ecclesia semper habuit semper tenuit à majorum fide recepit That the Church alwaies held and used it deriving in from the authority and credit of their Predecessors St. Chrysostom a Presbyter of the church of Antioch where St. Peter sometimes sate as Bishop somewhat before S. Augustins time speaks of Infant-Baptism as a thing generally received in the Christian Church Hoc praedicat Ecclesia Catholica ubique diffusa The Catholick Church saith he over all the world doth approve of this Some what before him lived St. Hierom a Presbyter of the Church of Rome which questionless was one of the Apostolick Sees founded both by St. Peter and St. Paul the two great Apostles of Iew and Gentile as the Antients say And he is clear for Infant-Baptism Qui parvulus est Parentis in Baptismo vinculo solvitur c. Children saith he are freed in Baptism from the sin of Adam in the guilt whereof they were involved but men of riper years from their own and his And in conclusion he resolves Infantes etiam in peccatorum remissionem baptizandos c. That Infants are to be baptized for the remission of sins and not as the Pelagians taught into hopes of Heaven as if they had been guilty of no sin at all A little before him flourished St. Ambrose successor to Barnabas the Apostle in the See of Millain who speaking of the Pelagian Heresies who published amongst other things that the hurt which Adam did unto his posterity was exemplo non transitu rather by giving them such a bad example of disobedience than by driving on them any natural sinfulness doth thereupon infer that if this were true Evacuatio Baptismatis parvulorum The Baptism of Infants were no longer necessary And in the same age but before flourished Gregory Nazianzen who calling Baptism Signaculum vitae cursum ineuntibus a Seal imprinted upon those who begin to live requires That children should be brought unto holy Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest they should wart the common grace of the Church And though he afterwards advise that the Baptism of Children should be deferred till they be three years old that so they might be able to make answer to some Catechetical questions yet in a case of danger he doth press it home it being better as he grants that they be sanctified insensibly they not perceiving it by reason of their tender years than that they should depart hence without that signature Ascend we from the fourth to the third age of the Church and there we finde St. Cyprian the Great Bishop of Carthage as great a stickler for the Baptism of Infants as any one whosoever in the times succeeding He in an Epistle to one Fidus doth thus plead the case Porro si etiam gravissimis delictoribus c If saith he remission of sins be given to the greatest offenders none of which if they afterwards believe in God are excluded from the grace of Baptism Quanto magis prohiberi non debet infans qui recens natus nihil peccavit c. How much rather should an Infant be admitted to it who being new-born have not sinned at all save that they have contracted from Adam that original guilt which followeth every man by nature and therefore are more capable of the forgiveness of sins than others are Quod illis remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata Because it is not their own but anothers sin Nor was this the opinion of St. Cyprian onely but the unanimous consent of Sixty and six African Bishops convened in Council by whom it was declared as he there relateth That Baptism was to be ministred as well to Infants as unto men of riper yeers Before him flourished
Of the Eleventh Article OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. IVDE the Brother of IAMES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Carnis Resurrectionem i. e. The Resurrection of the Body CHAP. VII Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Proofs thereof The Objections against it answered Touching the circumstances and manner of it The History and grounds of the Millenarians WE are now come unto that Article of the Christian Faith which hath received most opposition both at home and abroad Abroad amongst the Gentiles of the Primitive times who used all their wit and learning to cry down this Doctrine at home within the pale of the Church it self by some who had the name of Christians but did adulterate the prime Articles of Christian belief by their wicked Heresies First for the Gentiles it was a thing much quarrelled and opposed amongst them that Christ himself should be affirmed to have risen again insomuch that St. Paul was counted mad by Festus and but a babler at the best by the great wits of Athens for venturing to Preach before them of IESUS and the Resurrection i.e. of Iesus and his resurrection for of that onely he did speak when they so judged of him but of this quarrel they grew soon weary and so gave it off For being it was a matter of fact confirmed at the first by so many witnesses who had seen him and converted with him after his raising from the dead and thereupon received in the Church with such unanimity that the faithful rather chose to lay down their lives than to alter their Beleef in that particular the world became the sooner satisfied in the truth thereof But for the Resurrection of the dead which was grounded on it and that his Resurrection was of so great efficacy as that by vertue of it all the dead should rise which had deceased from the beginning of the world to the end thereof that they accounted such a monstrous and ridiculous paradox as could not find admittance amongst men of reason For this it was which was so scoffed at by Cecilius in that witty Dialogue Reâ—ase ferunt post mortem post favillas they give it out saith he that they shall live again after death and that they shall resume those very bodies which now they have though burnt to ashes or devoured by wilde beasts or howsoever putrified and brought to nothing Putes eos jam revixisse And this saith he they speak with so great a confidence as if they were already raised from the dust of the grave and spake as of a matter past not of things to come And it did stomack them the worse in that the Christians did not onely promise a Resurrection and new life to the bodies of men which all Philosophers and men of ordinary sense knew to be subject to corruption but threaten and foretel of the destruction of the Heavenly Bodies the Sun the Moon and all the glorious Lights in the starry Firmament which most Philosophers did hold to be incorruptible as the same Cecilius doth object in the aforesaid Dialogue That Christ was raised from the dead besides the many witnesses which gave credit to it the Gentiles could not well deny especially as to the possibility of such a thing without calling some of their own gods in question For not onely the deity of Romulus did depend on the bare testimony of one Proculus who made Oath in the Senate that he had seen him ascend up into heaven augustiore forma quam fuisset in a more glorious shape than before he had but that of Drusilla and Augustus and Tiberius Caesar which were all Roman gods of the last Edition must fall unto the ground also for lack of evidence if either it were impossible for a dead man to be raised to life again or taken up into the Heavens as our Saviour was But that from this particular instance supposing it for true as it might be possibly they should infer a general Doctrine that all the dead should rise again at the Day of Judgement this would not sink into their heads unless it might be made apparent as they thought it could not that any of that sect had been raised again to confirm all the rest in that opinion Without some such Protesilaus no credit to be given to the resurrection preach it they that would It seems the Gentiles in this point were like the rich man mentioned in our Saviours Parable Except one rise up from the dead they will not beleeve It was not Moses and the Prophets nor Christ and his Apostles that could do the deed Leaving these therefore for a while and keeping those who did assume the name of Christians and yet denied this Article of the Christian Faith unto the close of this discourse Let us for our parts rest our selves on the Word of God and see what Moses and the Prophets what CHRIST and his Apostles have delivered to us in affirmation of this Doctrine For Moses first it is the general opinion of most learned men that he was the Author of the Book of Iob and that he wrote it purposely for a Cordial to the house of Israel whom he found very apt to despair of Gods mercies towards them and easily out of comfort in all times of trouble Which granted we shall have from Moses a most ample testimony where he reports these words of that Myrror of patience I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me St. Hierom notes upon these words that no man since Christs time did ever speak so clearly of Christs resurrection and his own as Iob doth here before Christs coming Nullum tam apertè post Christum quam ipse hic ante Christum de Christi resurrectione loquitur sua as the Father hath it And on the same a Reverend Father of our own makes this glosse or descant It is affirmed saith he by Iob that his Redeemer liveth and shall rise again which is as much as to say He is the resurrection and the life St. Iohn could say no more It is his hope He is by it regenerate to a lively hope St. Peter could say no more than that He enters into such particulars this flesh and these eyes which is as much as was or could be said by St. Paul himself There is not in all the Old there is not in all the New Testament a more pregnant and direct proof for the resurrection St. Hierom as we saw before was of this opinion St. Gregory comes not much behind who on these words of Iob gives us this short Paraphrase Victurum me certa fide credo libera voce profiteor quia Redemptor mens
our selves and lessoneth us not to set so high a price upon our lives but that we may be willing to lay them down as often as the preservation of Religion the safety of our Country or the necessary service of the State do require it of us A duty which we should not doubt to discharge most gladly did we consider as we ought that loss of life on such occasions is but like the putting off of our garments over night to be worn again upon the morrow For certainly those men acquit themselves with the bravest spirit who least regard the terrible approach of death Nor can there be a stronger Motive to induce us to it than that the Bodies so abandoned to the Sword of the Enemies or to the Persecutors of the Church of God shall be revived and reunited to the Soul again It is reported of the Druides whom before I spoke of that they taught amongst these Northern Nations not onely an immortality of the Soul but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmigration of it into other bodies And it was thought an happy error to be so perswaded for being throughly possessed with this opinion they never feared to run upon the greatest dangers to brave them with undanted courage and to encounter with the violentest and most terrible engigns which were then invented So poor a matter was it thought to be coy and sparing of those lives which they were sure to finde again in another body Felices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae Which may thus be Englished Thrice happy they whom the extreamest fear Of death afflicts not who upon the spear Dare boldly run and in their hearts disdain To spare that life which shall return again How brave a courage then ought we to carry with us in our Christian Warfare who have such excellent advantages above those Antients To us it is ascertained by the Word of God not that our souls shall be transmitted into other bodies but be conveyed immediately to a place of rest there to expect a Resurrection of those bodies which before they lived in To us it is ascertained by the Word of God that each several Atom of the body shall be recollected and married to the soul for ever that the bones which were broken may rejoyce and that the body and soul being thus united shall pass immediately into the glories of eternal life prepared for them before the beginnings of the world A brave encouragement to gallant and heroical resolutions Preciumque causa laboris in the Poets language The cause and recompence of all our labors But some I know have otherwise provided for themselves than so and found out a Terrestrial Paradise wherein they shall enjoy for a thousand years all the pleasures of Earth before they be admitted to the joys of Heaven A fancy if I may so call it of no mean antiquity defended by some principal men of the first times of the Church who took it upon trust without more enquiry and having made it better than at first they found it commended it unto the Church for good Catholick doctrine For some there were even in the infancy of the Gospel who being too much in love with this present world conceited to themselves such a sensual and voluptuous kinde of life after the Resurrection from the dust of the Earth wherein they should have use of women and wallow in all carnal and libidinous pleasures which the most Epicurean soul could affect or covet A fancy meerly Iewish in its first original afterwards entertained by some Heretical Iudaizing Christians and finally rather rectified than refelled by many of the Fathers in the Primitive times And first beginning with the Iews we shewed in our discourse of the Kingdom of Christ how much they were besotted with the expectation of a Temporal Monarchy looking for such a Messiah as should come with power restore again the Crown of Iudah to the house of David and make that Commonwealth more formidable to the Neighboring Princes than ever it had been in the times before And to befool themselves the more in this fond conceit there was no promise nor no prophecy in the Old Testament intended to the building up of the Spiritual Temple or to the raising of Christs Kingdom in the souls of men which they applied not to the founding of a Temporal Monarchy the repairing of Ierusalem the new erecting of the Temple and to the re-establishment of Circumcision and other of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law of Moses Concerning which consult St. Ierom in his Comment on Isai. 31. and on Ezek. 36. and on Micah 4. Tertullian in his third Book against Marcion cap. ult and divers others of the Antients not to say any thing in this place of the Iewish Rabbins who run all that way In which it will appear that they both did and do expect a restitution of their temporal power and all the pleasures of a rich and flourishing Empire which are most correspondent to a carnal minde Which fancy being taken up and so strongly fixed that there was no removing of it out the hearts of the Iews was forthwith entertained by some nominal Christians who out of a compliance with that obstinate people embraced not onely many of their Rites and Ceremonies but of their dreams and fancies also Whom therefore Ierom calleth Christianos Iudaizantes Iudaizing Christians in many places of his works in which Iudaei Christiani Iudaizantes or Iudaei eorum erroris haeredes the Iews and those that do inherit their Superstitions march along together Of these the first was that Arch-heretick Cerinthus who did not onely set on foot in the Church of Christ the Festivals and Sacrifices of the Law of Moses but also taught Regnum Christi post Resurrectionem terrenum fuisse carnem nostram Hierosolymis cupiscentiis voluptatibus carni servituram That after the Resurrection Christ should have an Earthly Kingdom in which his followers should enjoy in their New Ierusalem all the delights and pleasures of the flesh of what kinde soever And this not onely to endure for a little while the ordinary life a man or so but for a thousand years compleat as Nicephorus addeth Marcus another leading Heretick was of this opinion and so was Nepos also an Egyptian Bishop who teaching first That all the promises made by God in holy Scripture Iudaico more reddendas esse were to be understood according to the Iewish Glosses did thereon build this following Tenet That the Saints should for a thousand years injoy all manner of corporal delights and pleasures in the Kingdom of Christ which after the resurrection should be founded here upon this earth Against this Nepos and his doctrine in this particular Dionysius that great and learned Bishop of Alexandria wrote
us out the way unto life eternal both by thy Doctrine and Example Conduct us we beseech thee in the pathes of righteousness suppress that itch of curiosity which hath not left one Article of the holy Faith without stain or censure and make us chearfully submit our Reason to the Rule of Faith And thou O God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth send down thy holy Spirit into our hearts that by his Grace we may believe in thine onely begotten son JESUS CHRIST our Lord place all our hopes upon the merits of his most precious death and passion our comforts in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension That by his means and mediation we may be made true Members of thy Catholick Church enjoy a right Communion with thy blessed Saints and the remission of our sins in this present world That so we may be made partakers of the Resurrection unto Life eternal in the world to come So be it Amen FINIS Eccl. 12.12 Plautus Rom. 2.1 Eccl. 4.7 Tacit. Ann. Pag. 350. Pacian in Biblioth Patr. Whitac Contr. 2. q. 9. c. 8. Horat. de arte Poet. Ovid. Triâ—t Eleg. 1. Virg. Aen. l. 1. Ambros. in Hexaemer 1 Cor. 12.20 Ephes. 5.32 De Civit. dei l. 22. c. 17. Hos. 2.19 Eph. 5.30 Eph. 4.5 1 Cor. 12.13 Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. Joh. 3.16 Joh 20.31 2 Pet. 3.16 Rom. 14.1 Heb. 5 13 14. 2 Tim. 1.13 Iren. adv haeres l. 1. c. 2. Id. ibid. c. 3. Iren. adv haeâ—es l. 1. c. 3. Tertull. de veland Virgin Aug. Serm. de Temp. 115. Aug. de fide Symb. c. 1. Id. in Encheirid a Laur. Ruffin in Symbol Aug. Serm. 115. de Temp. Ambros. Serm. 38. Hieron Epist ad Pammach 61. Leo Epi. 13. ad Palcher De Eccl. Officiis l. 2 c. 3. Cap. 56. Terent. in Andria Aug. Encheir ad Laurent Id. lib. de fide Symb. c. 1. Epist. 61. ad Pammach c. 9. Lib. 1. c. 3. Tertul. adv Praxeam Ignat. Epist. ad Trallian Euseb. Hist. l. 1. c. ult Examen Concil Trident. sess 4. Articl of 1562. Art 134. Contra Donat. l. 4. c. 23. Field l. 4. c. 21. Vigilius contra Eutych l. 4. Hooker Eccles. Polit. l. 5. Apolog. pro Confess Remon Durand Rationale Divin Field of the Church l. 2. c. 1. Ruffinus in Exposit. Symb. Concil Agathens Can. 13. Aug. Homil 42. Conc. Foro-Iuliens Apud Binium Tom. 3. par 1. l. 1. p. 262. Durand Rational Divin Anast. apud Platinam in Collect. Concil Durand Rational Divin Baron Annal Eccl. A. 44. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Id. ibid. B. Bilsons Survey p. 664. August de doctr Christian. Id. de Civit. l. 11. c. 3. B Bilsons Survey p. 664. Binuis in Annot. in Concil Tolet. IV. Tom. Concil 2. part 2. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Mar. 16.15 Isocrat in Orat. ad Nicoclen Aristol Analytic prior Quintilian l. 2. cap. 13. Philo de vita Mofis l. 3. Iulii Etist decretal c. 8. Mat. 28 20. Paci Epist. 1. ad Symp. Downs of the Authors and Authority of the Creed Ruffinus in posit Symb. Lact. l. 2. c. 9. Act. 17.28 1 Cor. 15.33 Tit. 1.12 B. Iewels challenge Pet. Mart. de votis coelebat Chemnit Examen de Tradition c. 6. August Epist 19. Hieronyn ad Damas. Epist. 57. Vincent Lirin adv haeres c. 38. Id. ibid. c. 2. Augustin in Epist. 118. Id. contr Iulian. Pelagi l 2.9 Id. ibid. c. 10. Canon An. 1571. cap. de Concionator An. 1. Eliz. cap. 1. Saravia de divers ministerii gradibus Calvin Inst l. 2. c. 16. sect 1â— (b) Coke in Calvins case (c) Phocylid sentent (d) Rom. 8.38 (e) Philip. 1.6 (f) Valla in Annotat. in N. Test. (g) Zanch. de Natura Dei c. 3. (h) Melancht in Exam. Artic. de Iustificatione (i) Vrsin in Exposit. praecept 1. (k) Arist. in lib. Demonstrat (l) Joh. 4.39.41 42. (m) 2 Pet. 1.21 (n) 2 Thes. 2 10 11 12. (o) Heb. 11.1 (p) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (q) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (r) 2 Tim. 2.18 (s) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (t) Heb. 3.14 (u) Budaeus in Comment Gr. Linguae (x) 2 Cor. 9.4 11.17 (y) Ephes. 6.12 (z) Haymo in Heb. 11. v. 1. (a) Id. ibid. (b) Rev. 1.20 (c) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (d) August in Psalm 77. (e) Id. in Iohan tract 29. (f) Compend Theol. lib. 5. c. 21. (g) Zuinglius in Matth. 23.13 (h) Muscul. loci commun loco de Fide n. 3. (i) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. lib 2. c. 14. n. 3. (k) Mat. 8.26 (l) Mat. 28.2 c. (m) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 2. v. 11. (n) Joh. 4.39 (o) Davenant in Coloss. 2. v. 2. (p) Joh. 11.42 (q) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 11. v. 42. (r) Joh. 1.12 (s) Joh. 2.23 (t) Calv. in locum cap. 2. v. 23. (u) Joh. 2.24 (x) Muscul Loci commun de fide (y) Exod. 14. v. 31. (z) Muscul. ut supr (a) Exod. 19.9 (b) Basil. de sancto Spiritu c. 14. (c) Socrat. hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 25. (d) Ruffin in Exposit. Symboli (e) Paschas de Spirit sancto lib. 1. (f) August in Ioh. tractat 29. (g) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. l. 2. c. 14. (h) Joh. 2.23 (i) Act. 16 31. (k) Hermes (l) Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prooemio (m) Hilar. de Trinitate l. 10. (n) Symbol Caroli M. (o) Heb. 11.6 (p) Iewel Apol Eccles. Anglic (q) Act. 8.13 (r) Calvin Instit. l. 3. c. 2. â— 10. (s) Idem in Act. 8.13 (t) Act. 8.21 22. (u) Ignat. Epi. (x) 1 Tim. 1.19 20. 2 Tim. 2.17 18. (y) 1 Tim. 1.20 (z) Calvin Instit l. 3. c. 2. n. 11. (a) Rom. 6.22 (b) Act. 5.4 (c) Act. 8.23.21 (d) 1 Tim. 1.19 (e) Act. 8.22 (f) 1 Tim. 1.20 (g) 1 Cor. 5.4 (h) Rom. 1. 18.20 (i) Jude v. 6. (k) Mat. 25.30.1 (l) Mark 1.24 (m) Mat. 8.29 (n) Heb. 2.16 (o) Sect. 1. ch 2. (p) Vrsin Theses Theol. c. 13. (q) Id. ibid. (r) Iackson of justifying faith c. 2. (s) Vrsin Cutech part 2. qu. 21. n. 2. (t) Matth. 13.20 21. (u) Bucan Com. loc de Fide (x) Vrsin Catech part 2. qu. 21. (y) Mat. 17.20 (z) 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. (a) Cicer. in Tusc. quaest l. 1. (b) Lactant. l. 3.8 (c) Act. 14.16 17. (d) Tacit. de mor. German (e) Lactant. l. 1.2 (f) Ap. Morâ— de vera Relig. (g) Lactant l. 1. c. 11.13 c. (h) Lucan Pharsal l. 10. (i) Lactant. l. 2. (k) Iuvenal Sat. 13. (l) August de civit Dei l. (n) Minut. Fel in Octavio (o) Lactant. l. 1.6 (p) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (r) Mereur Trism in Paeman c. 2 3 4 c. El in Asclep c. 6 7. (s) Lactant. l. 1.6 (t) Id. cap. 7. (u) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (x) Clem. Alexand in Proâ—rept (y) Laert. in vita Socrat. (z) Tertul. in Apolog. c. 46. (a) Laert. in vita Socr. (b) Plato in Epist. 13. ad