creature as both are representations to mans mind and therefore in themselves of the same nature yet the one represents God incomparable to that which the other represents concerning the creature As for the outward signes of honour though they may be equivocall and ambiguous yet there wants not meanes to determine whether a man intend to expresse that esteem which is incomparable to any he can have of any creature or not This is the esteem which the propper name and worship of God signifies which if they who know not God should tender to a creature they must be thought Idolaters If they which know God they must know that God is in that creature as Christians know that God is in Christ whom therefore they worship for God When therefore we find the Fathers of the Old Testament worshipping the apparitions they had for God when the Scriptures call them God it is because God was in them for the time as for ever in Christ after whose coming we do not find any angel called God or worshipped for God Not that before his coming all angels that come from Gad are called by the name of God But that where they are so called so it was For I need not stand here to shew how many apparitions of Angels are mentioned in the Old Testament of whom there is none called by the proper name of God or said to be worshipped by the Prophets whom they deal with It is true S. John in the New testament two severall times tenders the Angel that appeares to him that worship which he refuseth Apoc. XIX 10. XXII 12. But though he saies in refusing it worship God yet doth it not appear nor is it of it self any way credible that S. John should be so surprized as to honour and esteem the Angel as God whom he knew to be sent by God For to bid him reserve unto God that honour which he refuses is to bid him reserve unto God that honour which is incomparably more then that which he refuseth And who is it that can say or imagine that Cornelius intended to worship S. Peter for God because he tenders him that honour which S. Peter refuseth Acts X. 26. Saying Arise I also am a man Being one whose Religion was to worship the onely true God whose servant be thought S. Peter to be And therefore I shall not need to say that which otherwise I should have said That S. John knew not this difference betwen the dispensation of God in the Old and New Testament nor the reason why the Fathers worshipped those Angels that dealt with them in Gods Name which out of this difference may be observed To wit because the Word of God who at this time had assumed our flesh in the womb of the Virgin subsisting therefore by the Word which assumed it and not to be dismissed any more formerly assumed an Angel subsisting afore to deal with man by and therefore dismissed him againe when the businesse was done Let us now compare that sense which these words create according to Socinus with that which followeth from the premises and then I will be willing to leave it to the reader to choose For is it not a great secret which the Evangelist discovers by these words in his sense that when S. John Baptist began to preach there was such a man in the world as he whom God had appointed to publish the Gospel Is it that which he needed tell them that knew all before that there was six moneths between their ages Or did it not concern them to know that the same Word of God which dealt with the Fathers which by and by he meanes to tell them was incarnate the same was from the beginning that is to say to the confusion of Arrius no lesse then of Socinus from everlasting Was it not to the purpose to settle that which Cerinthus undermined upon the same credit upon which they were Christians Proceed we now to that which followes and we shall finde that if we admit Socinus his sense when S. John saies The Word was with God and afterwards The same was in the beginning with God I say if we admit the sense of these words to be this That what time S. John Baptist preached Jesus was with God in heaven We shall not give an account of those things which he sayes of himself in the Gospel pertinent to Christianity Which according to the sense of the Church we shall do John III. 11 12 13. Our Saviour saith to Nicodemus Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that we know and we witnesse what we have seen but ye receive not our witnesse If I have said to you earthly things and ye believe not how will ye believe if I tell you heavenly And no man is gone up into heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Sonne of man that is in heaven Againe John V. 19 20 30. Our Lord giving a reason why he bad the man whom he had cured take up his bed and walk Answers and sayes to them Verily verily I say unto you the sonne can do nothing of himself except he see the Father do something For what he doth the same doth likewise the Sonne For the Father loveth the Sonne and showeth him all that he doth And will shew him greater things then these that ye may marvaile And to the same effect our Lord saith to the Jewes John VIII 38. I speake what I have seen with my Father and therefore ye do what ye have seen with your Father Or at your and my Fathers house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So John VI. 46 50 51 58. 62. Not that any man hath seen the Father but he that comes from God He hath seen the Father And This is the bread that commeth down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not dy I am the living bread that is come down from heaven And againe This is the bread that is come down from heaven And last of all What then if you see the Son of man go up thither where he was before Finally when our Lord now ready to leave the World tells his disciples John XVI 29. I came forth from my Father and came into the World Againe I leave the World and go to the father I demand of all the World that read and believe by these words that our Lord going back to the Father stayes there for everlasting whether they can understand when he affirmes in the same form of words that he came from the Father that he meanes onely that he had been with the Father since the Baptist began to preach Or that he had been there from everlasting before When he saith What if you see him go up thither where he was before That he had been there afore while the Baptist was preaching or that he had been there afore a while answerable to that while that he shall stay there after his going hence When he saith That they will
not believe him when he tells them heavenly things Because none of them have been in heaven as the Sonne of man who being come from heaven notwithstanding remaines in heaven Whether he mean onely That having been there in heaven and learnt the effect of his commission and being still there in heart as all Christians are he can tell them things from heaven which they will not believe Or that having been in heaven and not having forsaken it for his coming into the World he knowes the truth of all that he witnesses here by seeing the counsailes of God there even while he is here And that these are those things which he hath seen in his Fathers house to wit those counsailes which the Father out of his love to him had made him acquainted with and taught him to execute even as they had learnt in the devils shop their Father to execute his designes For can any man imagine that his being onely born of the Virgine by the power of God which is they say the holy Ghost is a sufficient reason why God should not onely shew him what he meant to do for our salvation but joyne him with himself in the work and that honour for it whereof no Angel that is the highest creature is capeable Or that all this is such an expression as manhood can bear of that participation of Gods counsailes which the Word having been acquainted with from everlasting was no stranger to while being in the World he was executing the same Surely when our Lord sayes that he is to leave the world to go back to the Father he declares an intent to abide in heaven for everlasting Therefore when he saies he came forth from the Father to come into the world To understand onely that he left the private life he had lived afore he began to preach to appear publickly to the World in his Office might justly be accounted a piece of frenzy if there were not haeresy in it The opposition between heaven where the Father is and the world being so manifest in the words that nothing but the vaine glory of maintaining a party could cause it to be overseen If these things be true we shall not need to go farre for the sense of our Lords words John XVII 5. And now glorify thou me O Father with that glory which I had with thee before the foundation of the World Because we see how many times in this Gospel by being with the Father our Saviour expresseth not his being in heaven when the Baptist began to preach but his being in heaven from the beginning of the World till he was born upon earth For can any doubt be made that the glory which he had with the Father from the beginning is that which he was to be exalted to at his rising againe As for that answer of his to the Jews that demanded of him having said Abraham your Father desired to see my day and saw it and rejoyced Thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham To which Jesus answered and said Verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am John VIII 56 57 58. I perceive the World is ashamed to hear what Socinus is not ashamed to answer That the sense of the words is and so they ought to be translated Before Abraham become Abraham Or before he become Abraham I am Meaning that here you see me before the calling of the Gentiles whereby the Prophesie of Abrahams name Father of a great people is fulfilled For the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make both the name of Abraham to go before the Verbe in sense and the verb to signifie the time past So that there must have been another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as this that goes afore and if there had been so it must have been translated before Abraham was Abraham or before he was Abraham not before he become Abraham But for our Lord to say before Abraham was I am to wit in the purpose of God is no lesse impertinent to their question then to say I am here before the calling of the Gentiles And to imagine that our Lord would give an answer utterly impertinent to their question I know not how it can stand with his profession though not to declare all that truth which for the present they were not able to beare may well stand with it CHAP. XIV The Name of God not ascribed to Christ for the like reason as to creatures The reasons why the Socinians worship Christ as God do confute their limitations Christ not God by virtue of his rising againe He is the Great God with S. Paul the true God with S. John the onely Lord with S. Jude Other Scriptures Of the forme of God and of a servant in S. Paul BUT the Apostle adds still more and goes forwards saying And the Word was God Though here the Socinians thinke they have enough to plead when they can say that the name of God which is here used is not proper to signify God himself which the name of four letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so signifyeth in the Old Testament that it is never attributed to any creature but by abuse That is to say as imployed to expresse the sense of such men as believe not in the true God alone but attribute his honour to some of his creatures For it is very well known and granted on all hands that the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translateth is attributed first to Gods Angels then to Gods ministers in governing his People The reason whereof I take to be this that having entred into covenant with God to have him for their soveraigne and to live by his Lawes they must needs be bound to acknowledge and to honour those who had commission from him whether immediately or mediately to govern his people by the said Lawes in stead of God himself as deputies Commissioners or Ambassadors represent the persons of those Soveraigns from whom they come This I suppose is a generall reason why this name of God in the Old Testament is communicated to the Governours of Gods people which the Socinians cannot with any reason refuse Neither can I imagine how it should be more evidently justified then by that of God to Moses Exod. VII 1. Behold I have made thee Pharaohs God and Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet For Aaron is made Moses his Prophet to publish his Orders to Pharaâ—h because he was a man of a ready tongue which Moses was not Exod. IV. 14 15 16. Prophet being no more then Interpreter or Truchman as Onkelâ—s translates it And therefore Moses is called also here Aarons God because he was to give the Orders which Aaron was to publish But Pharaohs God as Ruler and Prince over Pharaoh who was Ruler and Prinâ—â— of all Egypt as to those things which God should by him command Pharaoh to
exalted Neither is it any difficulty that Christ could not be exalted to any eminence that should not be due to him as God in mans flesh and therefore that which was due to him as incarnate could not be due to his Crosse For the assumption of mans nature being a work of God and not of nature the state which our Lord Christ was to assume in our nature was not determinable any way but by the voluntary apointment of God and the Father who ordered it So that nothing hindred the effects of the holy Ghost dwelling in our Lord Christ without measure to be exercised in such measure and upon such reasons as God should appoint nor the declaration of the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelling in our flesh to depend upon his obedience and suffering in it The declaration hereof is that which S. Paul calls that name above all names at which all things bow which the giving of the holy Ghost to our Lord Christ to convince the world of it upon his exaltation is that which effecteth So saith S. Peter Acts II. 33 Being therefore exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the holy Ghost of the Father he hath shâ—d forth this which ye now see and hear For it is true our Lord promised his disciples the holy Ghost John XIV 16 17 18. XVI 7 13 14 15. But this promise he received upon his advancement to the right hand of God being then and thereupon enabled to perform it And therefore it is that which our Lord signifies Mat. XXVIII 18. When he saies All power is given to me in heaven and upon earth Go ye therefore and make disciples all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost For the event shews that this power consists in sending the holy Ghost whereby the World was reduced to the obedience of the Christian Faith So that when our Lord saies Mat. XI 27. All things are delivered unto me by the Father he means the right to this power though limited in the exercise of it unto the time and state of his advancement which gave him right in it And though it be granted as I said afore that the generall terms of all power in heaven and earth and all things are to be understood of that which concerns his kingdome Yet seeing the ground thereof consisting in giving such measure oâ— the holy Ghost to his disciples as the advancement of his kingdom requires supposes the fullnesse thereof to dwell in his own flesh it imports no disparagement to the Godhead of Christ that the exercise thereof in our flesh is limited to that time and that state of his advancement which the Father appointeth S. Paul Ephes IV. 7-11 writeth thus Now to every one of us is grace given according to the measure of Gods gift To wit in which God pleased to give it Therefore he saith Going up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Now that he ascended what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth He that descended is the same who also ascended farre above all heavens that he might fill all things And he hath given some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors Where it is manifest that he sets forth the ascension of our Lord in the nature of a triumph after the victory of his Crosse as Conquerors lead captives in triumph and give largesses to their subjects and souldiers And that which S. Paul terms giving gifts to men David out of whom it is quoted Psal LXVIII 18. calls receiving gifts for men Our Lord being his Fathers Generall and by his Commission conquering in his name Receiving therefore of him who gave him Commission the gifts which he bestowes at his triumph can any man doubt that he receives them in consideration of the discharge of that Commission which he undertook And these gifts are the meanes by which the Gospel convicteth the World and taketh effect in it The same appears by the conquest of Christs Crosse and those Scriptures that speak of it Col. II. 15. Disarming principalities and powers he made an open shew of them triumphing over them through it To wit his Crosse to which he had said just afore that he nailed the decrees of the Law that were against us Heb. II. 14. Seeing then that Sonnes partake of flesh and blood he also likewise did partake of the same that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death even the devil and free as many as through fear of death were all their life long subject unto bondage 1 Cor. XV. 54-57 When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall immortality then shall that come to passe which is written death is swallowed up in victory Death where is thy sting Hell where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to the Lord which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ How doth God grant victory by our Lord Jesus Christ are we not and he severall persons by nature the conflicts severall what doth this conquest contribute to ours but by inabling us to overcome How that but by the help of God granted in consideration of it How are slaves to the fear of death freed from death by Christs death but because there is no condemnation for them that live by the Spirit of life granted them in consideration of his death And what is the triumph of the Crosse over the powers of darknesse but this that by the meanes of it they are disabled to keep mankind prisoners as afore And wherein consists the condemning or the executing of sinne in the flesh which S. Paul spake of afore but in this that by the death of Christ we are inabled to put it to death The Parable of our Saviour is manifest in this that as the branches bear fruit by being in the vine that is of it so Christians by being in Christ John XV. 1-8 and that force by virtue whereof they bear it not being conveyed but by Gods appointment why God had appointed the merits and sufferings of Christ to go before this conveyance but to procure it is not reasonable Therefore our Lord John VIII 31 36. If ye abide in my word ye shall be my disciples indeed and shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free And againe Verily verily I say unto you that every man that sinneth is a slave to sinne Now the slave abideth not for ever in the house but the Sonne for ever If therefore the Sonne set you free you shall be free indeâ—d The Sonne of God sets free the slaves of sinne not as the Sonnes of men by the death of their Fathers becoming heirs and granting freedome to whom they please but by dying himself and by his death helping them to their freedome And S. Paul 1 Cor. II.
not did so order the meanes by which this obedience was effected or not that he might know that it would or would not come to passe And this preaching of the Gospel and the meanes and consequence of it being granted in consideration of Christ that the reason why such meanes was requisite is to be drawn from the fall of Adam and the corruption of mans nature by it And to this sense seeme the words of our Lord to belong John X. 28 29. I give my sheep eternal life nor shall they ever perish nor any man snatch them out of my hand My Father who gave me them is greatest of all nor can any man snatch them out of my Fathers hand Although it seems that he inlargeth the same sense to another effect John XVII 6 -12 I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world Thine they were and me thou gavest them and they have kept thy Word Now know they that whatsoever thou gavest me is from thee For the words that thou gavest me have I given them and they have received them and know of a truth that I am come forth from thee and thou hast sent me I ask for them I ask not for the world but for those that thou hast given me for they are thine And all mine are thine and thine mine and I am glorified in them And I am no more in the world but they are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keep them in thy Name whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we When I was with them in the World I kept them in thy name These whom â—hou gavest me I kept nor is any of them lost but the Son of perdition that the Scripture may be fulfilled For afterwards it is said that our Lord spake to those that apprehended him to let his disciples go That the word which he had said might be fulfilled I have lost none of those whom thou gavest me John XVIII 9. But all this will not serve to make us believe that his then disciples alone were the men that the Father gave to Christ he having said expresly afterwards John XVII 20. I ask not for these alone but for those that shall believe in me through their word For this showes that he prayes for his then disciples in the common quality of disciples that is of Christians having other prayers to make for the world that is for those that were not As we see by and by John XVII 21. and Luke XXIII 34. But in that he saith so often that the Father had given them him from whose appointment the sufferings of Christ the power which he is advanced to the successe of the Gospel which he publisheth dependeth In that regard I conceive the helps of Gods grace by the second Adam whereby the breach made by the first is repaired necessarily to be implied in Gods giving unto our Lord Christ his disciples And of this sense much there is expressed by S. Paul Ephes I. 3. 11. Blessed God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that hath blessed us with every spirituall blessing in the heavens through Christ As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blamelesse before him in love Having foreappointed us to adoption to himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will To the praise of his glorious grace whereby he made us acceptable in the beloved Through whom we have redemption by his blood even the remission of â—â—nnes according to the riches of his grace which hath abounded to us in all wisdome and prudence Having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself at the dispensation of the fullnesse of times to restore all things both in heaven and in earth through Christ in whom also we have received our lots appoinâ—ed according to the purpose of him that effects all things according to the counsel of his will For not to insist upon the force of those terms and phrases which Saint Paul uses whatsoever blessings it may be said S. Paul hereby signifies to have been appointed to the Ephesians from everlasting as Christians I suppose it cannot be denied that he presupposes that they were also appointed from everlasting to be Christians to whom by so being those blessings should become due And all this so many times and so manifestly said to have been appointed in Christ or by Christ or through Christ that it cannot be questioned that not onely the Gospell by which they were brought to that estate but also the meanes that inforce it and the consequences whereby it takes effect all depend upon Christ and the consideration of his coming to destroy the works of the devil in our first parents CHAP. XIX Evidences of the same in the Old Testament Of Gods help in getting the Land of Promise and renewing the Covenant And that for Christs sake That Christianity cannot stand without acknowledging the grace of Christ The Tradition of the Church In the Baptisme of Infants In the Prayers of the Church In the decrees against Pelagius and other records of the Church IT remaineth now that I shew how the same truth is signified to us in the Old Testament whereof I will point out three sorts of passages tending to prove it and when they are put together making full evidence of it The first is of those wherein it is acknowledged that the inheritance of the Land of Promise is not to be ascribed to any merit or force of their own but to the goodnesse and assistance of God Then which nothing can be produced out of the New Testament more effectuall to shew that whatsoever tends to bring Christians to the kingdom of heaven is to be ascribed to the grace of God There being the same correspondence between the helps of spirituall Grace whereby Christians overcome their spirituall enemies and the help of God whereby the Israelites overcame the seven nations as between the kingdom of heaven and the land of Promise And therefore all those promises whereby God assures them of deliverance from their enemies and maintenance in the possession thereof all acknowledgements of Gods free gift whereby they held that inheritance argue no lesse concerning those helps whereby the children of the Church answering to the land of Canaan here are inabled to continue true spirituall members thereof and to attain the land of promise that is above I shall not need to produce many particulars of this nature whereof all the Old Testament affordeth good store That of Moses Deut. IX 3-8 I must not forget where assuring them of God to go along with them he warns them not to ascribe that favour to their one righteousnesse though he acknowledgeth that God imployes them to punish the seven nations but to his covenant with their Fathers And that God enabled them to cast
Imperial Lawes could never be of force to void the Power of the Church Evidence for it 125 CHAP. XV. Another opinion admiâ—ting the ground of Lawfull Impediments What Impediments arise upon the Constitution of the Church generally as a Society or particularly as of Christians By what Law some degrees are prohibited Christians And of the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Mariage with the deceased wives Sister and with a Cousin Germane by what Law prohibited Of the Profession of Continence and the validity of clandestine Mariages The bound of Ecclesiastical Power in Mariage upon these grounds 134 CHAP. XVI Of the Power of making Governours and Ministers of the Church Vpon what ground the Hierarchy of Bishops Priests and Deacons standath in opposition to Presbyteries and Congregations Of the Power of Confirming and the evidence for the Hierarchy which it yeeldeth Of those Scriptures which seem â—o speake of Presbyteries or Congregations 145 CHAP. XVII The power given the XII under the Title of Apostles and the LXX Disciples That the VII were Deacons Of the first Presbyters at Jerusalem and the interest of the People Presbyters appropriated to Churches under the Apostles S. Pauls Deacons no Presbyters No ground for Lay Elders 152 CHAP. XVIII The Apostlet all of equall power S. Peter onely chiefe in managing it The ground for the pre-eminence of Churches before and over Churches Of Alexandria Antiochia Jerusalem and Rome Ground for the pre-eminence of the Church of Rome before all Churches The consequence of that Ground A summary of the evidence for it 161 CHAP. XIX Of the proceedings about Marcion and Montanus at Rome The business of Pope Victor about keeping Easter a peremptory instance The businesse of the Novatians evidenceth the same Of the businesses concerning the rebaptizing of Hereticks Dionysius of Alexandria Paulus Samosatenus S. Cypriane and of the Donatists under Constantine 168 CHAP. XX. Of the constitution and authority of Councils The ground of the pre-eminence of Churches in the Romane Empire The VI. Canon of the Council of Niâ—aea The pre-eminence of the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople Some instances against the Superiority of Bishops out of the records of the Church what offices every Order by Gods Law or by Canon Law ministreth 175 CHAP. XXI Of the times of Gods service By what Title of his Law the first day of the week is kept Holy How the Sabbath is to be sanctified by Moses Law The fourth Commandment the ground upon which the Apostles inacted it Vpon what ground the Church limiteth the times of Gods service Of Easter and the Lent Fast afore it Of the difference of mâ—ats and measure of Fasting Of keeping of our Lords Birth-day and other Festivals and the regular hours of the day for Gods service 190 CHAP. XXII The people of God tied to build Synâ—gogues though not by the leter of the Law The Church to provide Churches though the Scripture command it not Prescribing the form of Gods publick service is not quenching the Spirit The Psalter is prescribed the Church for Gods Praises The Scriptures prescribed to be read in the Church The order of reading them to be prescribed by the Church 203 CHAP. XXIII The consecration of the Eucharist prescribed by Tradition for the mater of it The Lords Prayer prescribed in all Services The mater of Prayers for all estates prescribed The form of Baptism necessary to be prescribed The same reason holdeth in the formes of other Offices 211 CHAP. XXIV The service of God prescribed to be in a known Language No pretense that the Latine is now understood The means to preserve Unity in the Church notwithstanding The true reason of a Sacrifice inforceth Communion in the Eucharist What occasions may dispense in it Communion in both kinds commanded the People Objections answered Who is chargeable with the abuse 217 CHAP. XXV Prayer the more principall Office of Gods service then Preaching Preaching neither Gods word nor the meanes of salvation unlesse limited to the Faith of Gods Church What the edification of the Church by preaching further requires The Order for divine service according to the course of the Church of England According to the custome of the universal Church 273 CHAP. XXV Idolatry presupposeth an imâ—gination that there is more Gods then one Objections out of the Scripture that it is the worship of the true God under an Image the Original of worshipping the elements of the world The Devill And Images Of the Idolatry of Magicians and of the Gnosticks What Idolatry the cases of Aaron and Jeroboam involve Of the Idolatries practised under the Kings and Judges in answer to objections 282 CHAP. XXVI The place or rather the State of happy and miserable Soules otherwise understood by Gods people before Christs ascension then after it What the Apocalypse what the rest of the Apostles declare Onely Martyrs before Gods Throne Of the sight of God 302 CHAP. XXVII The Souls of the Fathers were not in the Devils Power till Christ Though the Old Testament declare not their estate Of Samuels soul The soul of our Lord Christ parting from his body went with the Thiefe to Paradise Of his triumph over the powers of darknesse Prayer for the dead signifieth â—o delivering of souls out of Purgatory The Covenant of Grace requires imperfect happinesse before the generall judgement Of forgivenesse in the world to come and paying the utmost farthing 310 CHAP. XXVIII Ancient opinions in the Church of the place of souls before the day of judgement No Tradition that the Fathers were in the Vâ—rge of Hell under the Earth The reason of the difference in the expressions of the Fathers of the Church What Tradition of the Church for the place of Christs soul during his death The Saints soules in secret mansions according to the Tradition of the Church Prayer for the dead supposeth the same No Purgatory according to the Tradition of the Church 325 CHAP. XXIX The ground upon which Ceremonies are to be used in the service of the Church Instances out of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Apostles Of the equivocation of the word Sacrament in the Fathers The reason of a Sacrament in Baptism and the Eucharist In extream Unction In Mariage In Confirmation Ordination and Penance 340 CHAP. XXX To worship Christ in the Eucharist though believing transubstantiation is not Idolatry Ground for the honour of Saints and Martyrs The Saints and the Angels pray for us Three sorts of Prayers to Saints The first agreeable with Christianity The last may be Idolatry The second a step to it Of the Reliques of the Saints Bodies What the second Commandment prohibiteth or alloweth The second Council of Nicaea doth not decree Idolatry And yet there is no decree in the Church for the worshipping of Images 350 CHAP. XXXI The ground for Monastical life in the Scriptures And in the practice of the primitive Church The Church getteth no peculiar interest in them who professe it by their professing of it
Church in time perhaps they may declare I have not hitherto understood Shall I say there is not sufficient argument for the sense of the Church in the Gospels It is no part of my meaning Shall I therefore say it is clear of it selfe in the Gospels that is to say by the sayings and doings of our Lord recorded in the Gospels Doth not our Lord plainly make himself equal to the Father John V. 17-23 Doth hee not answer again being questioned for this John X. 33 34 35. by the words of David spoken of meer men Psal LXXXIII 6. I have said yee are Gods Doth hee not say plainly again My Father is greater than I John XIV 28 Which things as it is plain by argument that they may stand with the sense of the Church so that those arguments are plain of themselves to all understandings is as much as to say That a seeming contradiction argues an intent in our Lord that all men should see the resolution of it Again that all that will be saved by our Lord Christ must take up his Crosse and professe him to the death is plaine by the Gospels But so long as the Disciples might and did believe that they should raigne with our Lord in his Kingdome over that people which should destroy their enemies was the intent of suffering death for Christ to raign with him in heaven plaine by the Gospels That the Law should stand for ever is it not plainly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel and is it not as plainly of the necessity of salvation to believe that wee are saved by the Gospel and not by the Law I appeal to S. Pauls Epistles Though I dispute not whether this be abrogating the Law as Divines commonly speak or derogating from it Certainly though I know not whether the Socinians would be content with the Leviathan that no thing be thought necessary to salvation to be believed but that our Lord is the Christ Yet I know they would be astonished to hear that hee who believes that and lives according to the Lawes of his Soveraign hath done the duty of a Christian and may challenge his share in the kingdome of heaven for it But this I must not dispute further in this place Onely here I must answer his reasons out of the Scripture and show you upon what a weak pinne hee hath hung all this waight Christ is the foundation 1 Cor. III. 11. Mat. XVI 18. which all the Gospels pretend to induce us to believe John XX. 31. as also the exhortations of the Apostles Acts XVII 2 3 6. by this the good thief was saved believing onely our Lord anointed by God to his Kingdome Luke XXIII 42. Everlasting life is to be had by believing this and the Scripture because it witnesseth this John V. 39. and XVII 3. XI 26 27. Which is all blown away with this breath That hee that admits our Lord to be the Christ cannot refuse any part of his doctrine And therefore salvation is justly imputed to that which whoso receiveth shall be bound to admit and undergo whatsoever his salvation requireth This is eternal life to know thee the onely God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John XVII 3. These things are written that yee may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing yee may have life John XX. 31. How have life believing Because hee that believes will be baptized and hee that is baptized must undertake to live as Christ teacheth professing to believe in the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost which believing in Christ coming from the Father to send the Holy Ghost implieth And therefore the Eunuch Acts VIII 36 37. is baptized upon this Faith as others into it Acts II. 38. VIII 16. XIX 5. The belief of the Creation of the world of Providence the Resurrection and Judgment to come not being introduced by Christianity but found in force among the Jewes when our Lord came So that limitation by which the Leviathan inlargeth his sense of that which the believing of our Lord to be the Christ implieth is not worth a straw It is not onely necessary to salvation to believe all that the Messias was to be or to do to be verified and to have been done by our Lord Jesus Unlesse we believe that wee are to believe and to do whatsoever hee taught us to believe and to do And that as I have showed is not determinable by any means but that which Christ by himself or by his Apostles hath provided us neither whether so or not and much lesse whether necessary to salvation or not That which hath been alleged to show That the substance of Christianity necessary to the salvation of all under the Gospel is not clearly contained in the Old Testament nor in the sayings and doings of our Lord related by the Evangelists Holds not in the writings of the Apostles For being directed to Christians already reduced into Churches constituted upon supposition of the knowledge and profession of Christianity there is no reason why they should be sparing in declaring the truth of it to those to whom they write True it is and evident by their writings that they used great reservation in declaring to those that were of Jewes become Christians the discharge of their obligation to Moses Law But whatsoever their proceeding was in that case not onely the reason of the truth but also the reason of that proceeding is clearly declared by their writings But if all their writings suppose in them to whom they write knowledge sufficient for the salvation of all Christians and none of them pretend to lay down the summe and substance of that whereof the salvation of all Christians requireth the knowledge evident it is that the perfection of none of them nor the whole Scriptures consisting of them and those which wee have spoken of hitherto requireth that they clearly contain all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians For the Perfection of every writing consisteth in the sufficience of it for the purpose to which it is intended If therefore the occasions of the Apostles writings and so the purpose of them evidently express not an intent to lay down clearly to all understandings the whole substance of that which is sufficient to render all Christians capable of salvation as evidently neither any nor all of them do then neither doth the perfection not sufficience nor clearnesse of the Apostles writings require that all things necessary to the salvation of all be clear in them to all understandings For let no man object That they were all of them necessary to the salvation of all or most of them to whom they were sent Unless it could be said That whatsoever was necessary to the salvation of those to whom the Apostles writ is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Which so long as there is a difference between necessity of means and necessity of precept That is between that which is necessary to the common
chargeth them that professing to honor the Prophets by building their monuments but hating himself and his Apostles they made themselves the heirs of those that killed the Prophets And pursuing the same discourse addeth That hee would send them Prophets and Scribes and Wisemen which were his Apostles and Disciples whom they should crucifie and scourge and persecute from City to City that all the righteous bloud that had been shed from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias might come on their heads The same is testified by the Apostle Ebr. XI 36 37 38. where having through the whole Chapter showed that the Fathers before and under the Law were saved by Faith as Christians are hee addeth Others had trial of mockings and scourgings and bands and imprisonment were stoned were sawed asunder were tempted died by the sword went about in sheeps and goats-skins wanting afflicted and distressed of whom the world was not worthy wandring in deserts upon mountaines in caves and holes under ground Which being the condition of the Christians to whom hee writes exhorting them by all that Epistle to indure persecution of the Jewes rather than to deny Christianity by turning to the Law which the Jewes indeavored to force them to by raising them trouble makes it manifest that the same righteousness for which the Jewes then persecuted the Christians was that for which their Fathers had persecuted the Prophets and other righteous men under the Law And hee that shall make trial to maintaine the truth of Christianity against the Jewes that acknowledge all the Old Testament as well as wee shall finde that the Fathers of the Church have reason when they allege this against the Jewes to show that the salvation which the Patriarchs and Prophets and other righteous men before and under the Law obtained was not by Judaisme but by Christianity Eusebius by name de demonstr Evang. lib. I. There was no need then that the Law should condition that this should be believed and it was agreeable to the immediate intent of the Law onely to suppose it For at that time by reason of their deliverance out of Aegypt they did acknowledge God to be the onely true God searcher of hearts and Judge of the world to come Though formerly they had been tainted with the Idolatries of the Aegyptians as by the Prophet Ezekiel XX. 7. and their often relapses to Idolatry upon occasion of the company that joyned themselves to them when they came out of Aegypt Exod. XII 38. Num. XI 4. Exod. XVI 2. XXXII 1. may appear Therefore this Law being tendred for the Civil Law of that people it is not sâ—range that hee should covenant with them no further than that they should expresly acknowledge him for their God in opposition to all other pretended Gods and serve him by such ceremonies as hee should appoint Governing their civil life by such Lawes as hee should allow an interest in the Land of Promise to those that should observe having appointed those to be cut off from it that should not observe the same Though this being the immediate intent of the Law another principal and utter intent of it must be acknowledged to make way for that inward and spiritual righteousnesse which the Gospel requireth For those who by the temporal punishment of the Law should be constrained to yield outward obedience to it and abstaine from such evill deeds as should put them out of protection of it being assured by the doctrine of their Fathers before the Law maintained by the Prophets under the Law of Gods particular providence and the immortality of the soul and the reward of good and bad according to that spiritual righteousnesse which they themselves lived in were thereby sufficiently obliged to obey God not onely as their Soveraigne in this world civilly but inwardly and spiritually as him whom they expected to be judged by and remaine with everlastingly in the world to come For as the necessity of Christs coming is necessary to the maintenance of Christianity so it is also necessary to the same purpose that wee maintain this coming of his to have been fore-told and signified by the Old Testament and yet the intent of it not covenanted for because the intent of his coming was to covenant for it Which had it been covenanted for by the Law hee should not have needed to come for the purpose of introducing and establishing a Covenant which was already effectually accepted and in force Nor to do the miracles which yet serve not to convince the Jewes that this was the intent of the Law so farre were they from being convinced without them True it is indeed that though this Covenant had been established by the Law and accepted by Gods people the coming and miracles of Christ would have been no lesse necessary to introduce the Faith of the holy Trinity But it is manifest that the revelation of that Faith was necessary as the means to procure this Covenant to be accepted as obtained by the Son and made effectual by the Spirit And therefore the coming of Christ tending to convince the world thereof it is manifest that the end for which the world was to be convinced thereof that is to say that the Covenant of the Gospel might be accepted was not in effect before not brought to passe without it I do therefore much approve of the comparison which Grotius hath made between Moses his Law and the Romane Lawes which had their rise from the Pretors Edicts Who being annuall Magistrates and having a great Jurisdiction in their hands were wont because at the first written Lawes were not provided to signifie at their entrance by posting up an Edict what pleas they would receive and give processe to But so that of course they retained the most points which their predecessors had declared which therefore being translated of course out of this yeares Edict into the next were called tralatitia and thereupon all things that are customary and usuall are properly called tralatitia in Latine Wee must understand further that the Fathers afore the Law had separated themselves from the Nations that had fallen and were falling away every day from the true God to the worship of Idols not onely by acknowledging and serving the onely true God but by very many Lawes and Customes whereby they ruled their Families and inferiors in religion and justice among themselves It must therefore be concluded that those principles upon which their Religion stood were not blotted out when they received that taint of Aegyptian Idolatries But remained in force and virtue among them at such time as by receiving the Law becoming a free State they undertook to serve God and to govern themselves according to the Lawes which hee should give For it is evident that divers Lawes and Customes which were in force among them before the Law are presupposed and further limited by the Law and therefore not introduced by it but derived from the Fathers as our Lord observeth of
easily finde that people were not governed from the beginning by written Lawes but reasonable and lawfull consent in some person or quality of persons whether of Gods designing or mans chusing to govern in chief was a first a Law sufficient to constitute any Commonwealth as being sufficient to produce all other Lawes which dissatisfaction should make requisite for determining cōmon differences either in writing or by silent custome Thus was the Commonwealth of Israel constituted under Moses so soon as that People had received God for their King and referred themselves to Moses for the man by whom they should understand his will and pleasure Neverthelesse because the wisedom of God easily foresaw how lightly those who presently received him for their King would be moved to fall away from him to other Gods that which was as easie for his wisedom to do hee gave them presently such Lawes in writing both for the Ceremonies wherewith hee would be worshipped as held the most particular difference from those which the Nations worshipped their Gods with and for their civil conversation as might best distinguish them from all other Nations that were fallen away to the worship of Idols And all this besides the secret intent of scretelling and figuring the Gospel in and by the same This was the intent of the Decalogue first then of those Lawes which Moses received in the Mount to be delivered to the people Exod. XXII XXIII XXIV and lastly of the ref which Moses received in the Tabernacle from Gods mouth speaking with him as God faith face to face When God the Father had sent our Lord Christ to publicsh his Gospel and to declare the intent of founding his Church upon it when our Lord Christ had declared his intent of leaving the world and the prosecution of his Gospel and gathering of his Church to his Apostles and Disciples then was the Society of the Church founded in as full force of authority as ever can have been in it since Though not yet actually a Church because the materials of it are not men but Christians that is such as by receiving Christianity should come into the communion of it Besides God intending one communion of all that should become Christians out of all Nations And therefore pretending to maintains the State of this World and all the Commonwealths in which the Church standeth on the same termes which it findeth dischargeth the Church of all that power to force men to obedience by harm of this world by which all States maintaine themselves Therefore the Church can pretend no more than to communicate in some certain particulars for which the Society thereof is erected and in the communion whereof it consisteth Suppose wee then the Law of Moses to be ceased as to the outward force of governing the People to whom once it was Law though not as to the inward intent of introducing the Gospel to which it was the Preface Suppose wee the Society of the Church to be ordained in the communion of those things which Christianity introduceth I say those Rules without which the Unity of the Church cannot be maintained whatfoever they be called have no lesse the force of Lawes than any that Secular States either inact or inforce Because as hee that once hath undertaken to take God for his God under a promise of being a free Israelite cannot so long as that prosession stands make question of undergoing the rest of Moses Laws howsoever troublesome they seem So hee that once hath imbraced the communion of the Church in hope of life everlasting is by the fame reason obliged to observe such Rules according to which the communion of the Church is in force and use But the communion of the Church not consisting in anything of this world onely in the Offices of Gods service for invisible communion in the faith and love of Christ and all for Christs take as Christianity requires is presupposed to the visible communion of the Church no reason can require that they should be many at least at the beginning Our Lord Christ having preached and declared unto his Disciples that Prosession of Christianity into which hee appointeth all Chrissians to be Baptized may well be said to have ordained the Sacrament of Baptisme for a Law to all Christians distinguishing the Ceremony by which the Prosession of Christianity is solemnized from the Prosession it self of Christianity which hee that comes to be baptized must have taken upon him for a Law afore As little question there can be that our Lord Christ at his last Supper instituted not his last Supper for what sense can there be in saying that our Lord at his last Supper instituted his last Supper but the Sacrament of his last Supper which is the Sacrament of the Eucharist for a perpetual Law to the Church Here then wee have for Lawes to the Church First the Rule of Faith containing the prosession upon supposition whereof the Corporation of the Church is founded Secondly the Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Eucharist Thirdly other offices of common Prayers and Praises of God together with the Hearing of his Word common to the Church with the Synagogue which God is to be served with And therefore thus farre I have proved that there is a Society of one Catholick Church founded by God upon the precept or the privilege of communicating in the service of God by there offices of Christianity equally charged upon all Christians And consisting in the obligation of maintaining unity in serving God by the said Offices Supposing then a visible authority settled in the persons of our Lords Apostles and Disciples in behalf of the community of Christians Supposing this community efected into a Society visible Body or Corporation of the Church whatsoever can become questionable not concerning mine and thine which Civil Government pretendeth to decide but concerning communion in those Offices which God is to be served with by Christians is virtually and potentially already decided by the right of doing such acts as being done oblige the Church for whom they are done Which therefore are the Laws of the Church Wee see that the intent and meaning of Christianity is many times quessionable in maters of that weight or taken to be of that weight that Christians are not to communicate with those who pretending to be Chistians do believe otherwise Here wee have none but the Apostles themselves to have recourse to None but they have convinced Christendom to believe that their word is Gods word For though Moses and the Prophets and our Lord Christ all spake by the same Spirit in as much as they all intended a secret which was not to be published till the Apostles preached the recourse wee have to them is with intent to argue and discover by their writings the truth of that which may become questionable in the preaching of the Apostles What then may appear to be deter-mined by the act of the Apostles as the writings of the
question that the sayings and doings of our Lord and his Apostles the matter of the Gospels and Acts and the writings of the Apostles contain the same which the man of God that is Timothy is to Preach and Teach Neverthelesse waving so evident a presumption I am ready to stand to all that the words understood of the whole Bible will argue For granting that all Scripture was inspired by God to this purpose That the man of God might be perfectly furnished to every good worke of edifying believers or convincing gain-sayers of instructing the sonnes of the Church or correcting the rebellious it would be neverthelesse in vain to inferre that therefore all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians are clearly expressed to all understandings in the Scriptures because it is evident that the man of God by being first made a Christian or else a man of God might be instructed in all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians or to the discharge of his particular trust which by learning the Scriptures he might afterwards be more plentifully inabled to know For granting that the Scripture is able abundantly to furnish him that hath learned all that is necessary for a Christian or for a man of God to know with all parts belonging to a man of God It followeth not that the Scripture clearly teacheth him that hath not learned the same all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Because he that transgresseth not the substance of Christianity may find in the Scriptures sufficient furniture both for the maintaining and for the advancing of that Christianiy which he acknowledgeth And yet he that trusteth his own sense to find out what is the substance of Christianity by the leter of the Scriptures may well miss of that which God never bade him trust his own sense to find by the Scripture Now if it be demanded how the Law can be said to give light or wisedom to the simple being of it selfe not to be understood I will answer from the peculiar consequence of my position concerning the double sense of the Law For it becometh a Christian to believe that the Law is thus highly extolled by the Brophets whom he is obliged to take for the fore-runners of Christ not for the outward and carnal sense of it as it was the condition of holding the Land of promise and the happinesse thereof but for the inward and spirituall sense as the means whereby the Spirit of God then enlightned them to discern the true inward and spirituall righteousnesse of Christians as I said afore And what is the reason that the Psalmist sairh XXV 11. 13. What man is he that feareth the Lord Him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse The secret of the Lord is among them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant The Covenant of the Lord being clearly expressed to all Israelites whose Ancestors contracting it with God had undertaken to teach it their children But that there was something more in it than all that were of it understood which God teacheth by the Psalmist all that were of it that he was ready to teach them that should come with his fear in their hearts to learn it The same which our Lord tells the Jews of his time Ioh. VII 17. If any man will do the will of my Father he shall know concerning my doctrine whither it be of God or I speak from my selfe For that which our Lord Christ shews shall be expresly received and acknowledged by those who by the Law had been conducted to be willing to do what God should command in point of inward and spiritual obedience To them that stand so affected nothing remaining to be done but to shew them that Christ was come from God with instructions what he vvould henceforth have them to do that vvould be saved Novv if the Prophets Esay and Ieremy promise that under the Gospel all Christians shall be taught of God If our Lord praiseth the Father for revealing to babes the secret thereof vvhich he had concealed from the great and learned of the world If upon the same account it was not flesh and blood but the Father that had revealed to S. Peter the Christ the Son of God I demand whether we shall imagine their meaning to be that God taught them these things without showing them reason sufficient argument to believe them to be true Or having shewed them such that he taught them by inclining them to follow that which he had showed them sufficient arguments to believe If we say that he taught them immediately without showing them any sufficient reason for the truth of that which he taught them to follow we expose our common Christianity to the scorn of all unbelievers whom by consequence we can show no reason why they should become Christians unlesse God make them so before they know why Nay we can show them no reason why we deal with them to become Christians why the Gospel should be preached at all or any man suffer for preaching or professing it in order to reduce the world to it unlesse we suppose that we can show them reason so sufficient why they should be Christians that it may by Gods grace become effectual to make them no lesse But this is the reason why our Lord Christ protesteth concerning the testimonie of Iohn the Baptist which every man sees how available it was to make him receivable of those who before had admitted Iohn to be sent by God professing himselfe sent expresly to bear witnesse to our Lord Christ I say this is reason enough why he professeth neverthelesse not to receive any witnesse from man For had not God provided afore-hand that the witnesse of Iohn should he accepted for the word of God that being so accepted it might leave no doubt in them that had accepted it so considerable a party that those who refused our Lord Christ durst not provoke it as we see by the Gospels that our Lord was come from God in vain had it been for our Lord to alledge his witnesse Wherefore when he alledgeth him alleadging not him but the Father who had procured him to be accepted well truly though alledging witness of Iohn Baptist be renounced the witnesse of man but professeth to speak those things whereby they might be saved only under the witness of God Neither is it strange that the Prophets Esay and Ieremy and the Apostle S. Iohn should say that those who had been thus taught of God should need no instruction from one another because they know all things already or because they had that within them that should teach them all things I confesse if we look impertinently upon that infinity of disputes that remains in the world either about action or about knowledge if we look upon the multiplying of controversies in Religion the least of which dispute of reason decides not and therefore faction determines it may appear a very
promises whereby it should please God further to declare the purpose for which he brought him from home That faith therefore which was imputed for righteousnesse to Abraham not as the Jewes challenge righteousnesse by doing the Law but as Christians expect it by remission of sinnes includes in it an ingagement of travailing that way that God points out to the land of promise upon the account whereof that faith which was imputed to the Patriarchs for righteousnesse proceedeth Now when S. Paul proceedeth further to argue that this imputation of Abrahams faith to righteousnesse came to passe while he was yet uncircumcised and no way subject to the law and that by virtue of Gods promise which proceeded upon consideration of this righteousnesse and not of the law the title of his inheritance stood which promise he argueth further Gal. IV. 18 19. that the Law coming four hundred and thirty yeares after could nothing derogate from I challenge all the world to say how all this inferrs any more But that the righteousnesse of Abraham comes not by virtue of the Law by doing whereof the Jewes pretend righteousnesse but by Gods free promise whereby Christians expect remission of sinnes To the same effect therefore S. Paul concludes Rom. IV. 23 24. But it was not written because of him alone that it was imputed to him but because of us who believe in him that raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead to whom it is to be imputed For the example of Abrahams faith in the promise of God to give him such a posterity by Sarah and that it was imputed to him for that righteousnesse whereby he became qualified for the promises upon which he left his country is written for the instruction of Christians upon this account Because so sure as we believe that the New Testament was intended by the Old so certaine we are that the faith whereby we undertake to follow God and the way to the world to come which he by Christ points us out qualifies us for the same But he that will have S. Paul upon these reasons to inferre that Christians are justified by believing that they are predestinate or by trusting in God not supposing that trust grounded upon that obligation which our Baptisme professeth in plain terms he makes S. Paul use arguments that do not conclude For if Abraham cannot bragge of his righteousnesse before God because of Gods account not of debt If David count happiness not to stand upon any title of purchase but by remission of sins If faith were reckoned to Abraham for righteousnesse before he was circumcised If the inheritance were due by virtue of Gods promise Then that righteousness which intitles Christians to the world to come stands by virtue of the Gospel which publisheth remission of sins to all whom it overtakes in unrighteousnesse and by Gods grace in acceping their undertaking of Christianity and living according to it as qualifying them for everlasting life not by doing the law without having recourse to that meanes which the Gospel tendereth for remission of sinnes and right to the world to come But it is in vaine to inferre from any of those assumptions Therefore Christians are justified by that faith in which no obligation of bearing Christs crosse or any consideration thereof is included With this which hath been said of that faith whereby Abraham was justified let us compare that which follows of the faith of Moses Heb. XI 24 25 26. By faith Moses growing great refused to be called Pharaohs daughters sonne chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time counting the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Because he looked upon the reward to be rendred The faith by which Moses was justified consists in this that he renounced his quality in the Court of Egypt that he might have a share in the promises made to Gods people And this the Apostle justly calls undertaking the reproach of Christ because it was the same thing in effect to the people of God then as now is the bearing of Christs crosse which Christians at their Baptisme professe and because the promises which the Fathers looked after are fulfilled in Christ as I shewed afore And herewith let us compare the faith of Enoch Heb. XI 5 6. By faith Enoch was translated not to see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he is witnessed to have pleased God But without faith it is impossible to please God For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he rewardeth those that seek him Well may we conclude from hence that Enoch was not justified by the Law nor by the works of it but by that perswation upon which he sought God as Christians by obliging themselves so to do not by that faith which includeth not nor supposeth any resolution and obligation so to do Compare now herewith the conclusion of the whole dispute concerning the righteous men and Prophets under the Law Heb. XI 32. 37. And what shall I say more For the time will saile me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jephtah and David and Samuel and the Prophets Who by faith conquered kingdomes wrought righteousnesse obtained promises stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the force of fire escaped the edge of the sword recovered of weaknesse became strong in war put to flight armies of strangers women received their dead raised to life againe others were tortured to death not expecting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection others had triall of mockings and scourgings and besides of bonds and imprisonment were stoned sawne asunder tempted died slain by the sword went about in sheeps and goats skins in want afflicted distressed wandring in deserts and mountaines and caves and holes of the earth Will this conclude that all these were justified by that faith which neither includeth nor presupposeth a resolution and obligation to righteousnesse who out of the hope of Gods promises to his people acted against the enemies thereof or suffered for righteousnesse the same things in that state of Gods people which Christians now suffer and do for the profession of Christs Crosse into which they are baptized In fine the whole dispute of the Apostle here and of S. Paul in so many of his Epistles concerning faith and the righteousnesse that Christians have by it is the same with that which the Fathers of the Church maintained against the Jews that Christianity is more ancient then Judaisme That as the Fathers before the Law obtained not that right which both Christians and Jews allow them to the promises of the world to come by the works of the Law So the Prophets and righteous men under the Law had not that hope by doing it but by the assurance which under the dispensation of the Law they had conceived as of reason they ought that God would not faile
the Father but of the World But what is there between God and the world but the old serpent and the leaven which he hath poisoned man with And this is that venim which we read of Psal LVIII 4 5 6. The wicked are estranged from their mothers womb as soon as they are born they go astray and speak lies They have venime like the venime of a serpent like the deaf addar that stoppeth his eare That will not hear the voice of the inchanters that inchant with charmes cunningly For if it be said that all this speakes onely of the wicked which of their own choice have addicted themselves to sinne and that by being bred to it by their Fathers and predecessor and so debauched from their own natural innocence I shall presently appeale to David himself and his confession with which he pretends to grace Psal LI. 7. 8. Behold I was formed in wickednesse and in sin did my mother conceive me But behold thou requirest truth in the intrailes and shalt make me to understand wisdome secretly I know it is said that this is nothing but an hyperbolicall expression of the Prophet whereby he chargeth himselfe with sinne even before he could understand what sinne was and that from the time of his conceiving in the womb were that possible he hath been liable to sinne and so left without mercy And to this purpose is alledged that of the Pharisees to the blind man John IX 34. Thou wast wholly born in sinne and dost thou teach us To argue that among the Jews it was an ordinary expression to aggravate a mans sinne by saying That he was borne in sinne And truly what the Jews of that time might conceive of the coming in of sinne is not alltogether so cleare in regard of the Apostles words to our Lord upon the occasion of the same man when they askt our Lord whether he was born blinde for his owne sinne or for the sinne of his parents John IX 2. Which our Lord answering for neither but for a particular intent of shewing a particular work of God upon him Denies not the common taint of our nature when he affirmes That particualr workes of providence upon particualr persons have particular reasons and ends for which God will have them come to passe But shews that there were severall opinions in vogue at that time through the nation and that there might be a conceit of mens soules sinning in other bodies or before they came into these bodies according to the position of Pythagoras or the conjecture of Origen Though the opinion of Herod concerning John the Baptist that he should be alive againe in our Lord Mat. XIV 2. doth not appeare to proceed from any such presumption as this but from an imagination that dead mens soules might come and live againe in the world whether in the same or other bodies From this opinion then the reproach of the Pharisees to this man that he was born in sinne may well seem to proceed And their error will not prejudice the truth that all men are indeed born in sinne But I observe further that the people of God as they were totally divided from the worship of Idols so from the consequences thereof which Paul in the first of the Romanes sheweth to have been all sorts of uncleanness in the first place and then the rest of those evils which towards the end of the Chapter he qualifies the Gentiles with For it is manifest that uncleannesse which contained no civil in justice was counted but an indifferent thing with all the Gentiles Let him that would be satisfied of this peruse what the Wise man hath said of the seed of the Gentiles which he compareth with the Jews whom they persecuted all along his whole work Wisdom III. 12-IV 1-6 Where it is manifest that he setteth forth the posterity of the Gentiles as defiled with the uncleannesse wherein they were bred and born And this is most certainely the reason why S. Paul saith of Christians married to Gentiles 1 Cor. VII 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband Else were your children uncleane but now are they holy To wit that a heathen husband or wife consenting to dwell in wedlock with a Christan is sanctified by a Christian husband or wife by whose meanes he is brought to this ingagement For when S. Paul adviseth the Christian party to continue in wedlock contracted with an Idolater before Christianity he presupposeth that the Gentile shall be willing to forbear the vulgar uncleannesses of the Gentiles for the love of a Christian yokefellow Otherwise it could not be honest nor for the reputation of a Christian among the Gentiles having power of divorcing as both parties had in the Romane Empire to continue in wedlock with him that acknowledged not Christian but onely civil wedlock That is the wife to be tied in regard of the issue but the man free to all uucleannesse which the Romane Lawes no way restrained And therefore their children so farre from being unclean according to the manners of heathen parents that they are holy upon presumption that they shall be bred in the instruction of Christianity by the meanes of that party which was Christian I observe againe that the Prophet David speaking of his wicked enemies the figure of the Jewes whom thereby he designeth aforehand to be the enemies of our Lord and his Church applieth the same expression to them being of the carnall people of God but farre from Jewes according to the spirit which the people of God other whiles use concerning the Gentiles when he saith that they are estranged from the wombe and as soone as they are born go astray and speak lies For it is manifest that he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal LIX 6 9. which by the title appeares to be written of the Jewes his enemies And so Psal XLII 2. Which word commonly stands in as ill a sense with the Jewes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gentes Nationes to the Christians not for people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for Ethnicks or Gentiles that is to say Idolaters And so to this day the Jewes call us Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Gentiles And upon these observations I am induced to believe that the Pharisees and those of the Consistory out of the confidence they had of their own holinesse which they presumed of upon the Curisity which they kept the Law with did judge of those that pretended not to the same as of people once removed from Gentiles and so sinners from their birth by the grossenesse of those manners in which they were bred But when David comes to confesse of himself that he was altogether born in sinne and conceived by his mother in wickednesse It is not possible that any such reason should take place but rather such a one as may make good whatsoever
That they were in being during the Apostles time Where and when the Haeresie of Cerinthus prevailed and that they were Gnosticks The beginning of the Encratites under the Apostles It is evident that one God in Trinity was then glorified among the Christians by the Fullnesse of the Godhead which they introduced in stead of it I Should have propounded that evidence for originall sinne which is drawn from the necessity of the Grace of Christ before that which is drawn from the Old Testament had it not been for that exception which the Socinians make to it by questioning the state of our Lord Christ before his coming in the flesh In regard whereof I hold it the shortest course to void this issue first and then see what witnesse the necessity of the Grace of Christ renders to originall sinne And because that Tradition of historicall truth which remaines in the records of the Church evidences that meaning of the Apostles writings which I shall advance I shall not make difficulty to propound in the first place some things upon undeniable record in the Fathers that may serve to argue the intent of the Apostles in this point I say then that it is a thing undeniable to common sense that what time the Apostles writ there were divers Hereses in being whether openly divided from the church or lurking within it under the common profession to get opportunity to pervert the simple and in fine to withdraw them from the Church The first whereof was that of Simon Magus who being discovered by the Apostles to have onely counterseited himselfe a Christian to get the power of doing those miracles which the Apostles did that he might draw followers after himselfe fell away from Christianity to declare himselfe among the Samaritanes who expected the Messias no lesse then the true Jewes to be the Christ whom the Apostles preached our Lord Jesus to be But withall it is certaine that he taught his disciples that he alone could reveale unto them God whom their Fathers knew not for that the world had been at first made by Angels in opposition to him who also gave the Law and brought in among men the difference between good and bad which he by that knowledge of God which he professed undertook to teach how men should become free from and by this freedome attaine the fellowship of God in the world to come It cannot then be said that the author of this heresie continued any longer in the Church because when S. Peter saies to him Acts VIII 22. 23. Repent thee of this thy malice and beseech God if perhaps this devise of thy heart may be forgiven thee For I see thou art in the gall of bitternesse and the bond of unrighteousnesse Though he answer Pray ye to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have said come upon me For we find not that his after behaviour deserved that he should be admitted to penance and reconcilement with the Church And when he declared himself to be the Christ as did after him his disciple Menander witnesse Irenâ—us Epiphanius and Theodoret when he being dead and gone his pretense appeared vaine then was he of necessity at defiance with the Church and all Christians But this must be said which upon the faith of historicall truth is averred by the same witnesses that of him and the seeds of his doctrine came afterwards many Sects the authors whereof not pretending themselves to be the Christ pretended all to make known God otherwise unknowne to their disciples and by that knowledge to save them in the world to come through abandoning them to all licentiousnesse in this Which sects were therefore called by the common name of Gnosticks or knowers though there was one of those Sects which had no other particular name besides Among these one was set up by Nicolas one of the seven Acts VI. 5. Or at least under his name For though some in Clemens Alexandrinus seem to hold him an holy man yet no man doubts that there was a sect of Gnosticks which either because raised by him or by others upon mistake of some things that he had taught bore his name Which though it be not requisite here to decide yet it is evident by S. John Apoc. II. 6. that then the Sect was on foot And though we dispute not the time when Basâ—lides at Alexandria Saturninus at Antiochia Valentine at Rome or in Cyprus and Aegypt Carpocrates Marke the Magician or others set up so as to affirme that they were in being when the Apostles writ yet it is evident that under the Apostles there were such as counterfeited themselves Christians with an intent to withdraw the simple sort of Christians to this doctrine which these Fathers of Hereticks in their severall times were the heads of whosoever then set them on work I will use but two arguments to evidence this The first is the common infection which they brought in every where of eating things sacrificed to Idols that is to say of worshipping Idols For the feasts and entertainments of Idolaters consisting of those things which had been sacrificed to their Idols to feast with them was to communicate in their Idolatries This cannot be more evident then it is evident by S. Paul 1 Cor. X. 7. Nor be ye Idolaters as some of them were as it is written The people sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play The Idolatry of the Israrlits consisting in the feast as well as in their sacrifices And by Moses Exod. XXXIV 15 16. Least thou make a league with the inhabitants of the Land and they go a whoring after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and invite thee and thou cat of their sacrifices And thou take of their daughters to thy sons and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods Which you see how punctually it came to passe in the businesse of Baal Peor Num. XXV Now it is manifest by the most ancient Writers of the Church Justine the Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Irenâ—us Tertulliane Origen that the Gnosticks did generally communicate in the Idolatries of the Gentiles whose testimonies have been produced by Doctor H. Hammond in divers of his writings And the reason is plaine by that old observation That the gods of the heathens are good fellows but the true God onely a jealous God That is to say That false gods never grutched one another the worship of God because all set up by the devil to whose service that worship redounded For the Gnosticks being themselves Idolaters and Magicians it is no marvaile that they communicated as freely in the Idolatries of the Gentiles as they in one anothers Idolatries But it is no lesse manifest that these Heresies which the Apostles writ against agreed all in teaching to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to communicate with Idolaters For the way of Balaam in which they are by the Apostles charged to go
power of all that is the Father he was content neverthelesse to be whatsoever they called him Hic igitur a multis quasi deus glorifi catus est saith Irenaeus docuit semetipsum esse qui inter Judaeos quidem quasi filius apparâ—erit in Samaria autem quasi pater descenderit in reliquis vero gentibus quasi Spiritus sanctus adventaverit Esse autem se sublimissimam virtutem hoc est eum qui sit super omnia Pater sustinere vocari sâ— quodcunque â—um vocant homines Where pretending first to be both Father and Sonne and holy Ghost Secondly to be worshipped for God it is manifest that setting up himself in stead of our Lord Jesus for the Messias whom the Samaritanes expected as well as the Jews he had no other reason to pretend to be also the Father and the holy Ghost but because he knew our Lord whom he counterfeited had taught that he is one and the same with the Father and the holy Ghost And so by what the counterfeit would be it appeareth what the truth is and taught himself to be To wit the Sonne of God to be worshipded as one God with the Father and the holy Ghost For we are not to think that Epiphanius contradicts his Master Jrenaeus when he saies that Simon who praetended to be the Father among the Samaritanes as the Son among the Jewes made his concubine Selena to be the holy Ghost whom he called also the Ennaea or Conceit of him the Father whereby he made the angels that made the world and mankind But rather to understand that intending to adulterate the Christiane Faith by bringing in a counterfeit imitation of it on purpose he pretended himself and his Conceit to be both one because he knew that according to the Christian faith both Father and Sonne both which he pretended to be as you have heard are one and the same God with the holy Ghost which he pretended his Conceite to be according to Fpiphanius but himself among the Gentiles according to Irenaeus The Heresie of his Scholar Menander is thus described by Irenaeus L. 21. Qui primam quidem virtutem inâ—ognitam ait omnibus se autem â—um esse qui missus sit ab invisibilibus salvatorem pro salâ—te hominum Mundum autem factum ab Angelis quos ipse similiter ut Simon ab Ennâ—a emissos dicit Who saith that the first Power is unknown to all and that himself was the Saviour that was sent by the invisible Powers for the salvation of men But that the world was made by the Angels whom he also like as Simon sayes were put forth by the Fathers Conceit Where you see above the Angels whom he maketh Creator of the world the unknown Father whom he pretendeth to make known his Conceit from whence the Angels came and the invisible Powers that sent him for the Saviour of the world Both these then pretending to be that which our Lord Christ indeed and in truth is did make themselves one ingredient or parcel of that unknown and invisible Godhead from whence they so made the angels to proceed that neverthelesse banding a faction against the same they make the coming of a Saviour necessary for this end to deliver mankind from the servitude of these Angels that made the world As for Saturninus pretending the father of all to be unknown otherwise then as he pretended to make him known it appears why he is among the Gnosticks But he pretends that two sorts of men were made by the Angels One by the good beeing an Image of the Power which is above which being infinitely taken with they said Let us make man after our image because it was instantly with drawn from their sight But so that it had not come to life had not the power above struck a sparke of light into it The other by the devils which the Saviour who is indeed unknown onely seemed a man came to subdue So Irenaeus l. 22. But Basilides Vt altius aliquid veriâ—imilius adinvenisse vidâ—atur in immensum extendit sententiam doctrinae suae ostendens Nun primo ab iâ—noto natum Patre ab hoc autem natum Logon deinde a Logo Phronesin a Phâ—onesi autem natas Sophian Dynamin a Dynami autem Sophia Virtutes Principes Angelos quos Primos vocat saith Irenaeus l. 23. He that he may seem to have added some higher thing and more likely to their invention extending the meaning of his position beyond all bounds shews that Nus or Meaning was first born of the Father who was not born Of him Logos Reason or the Word of him Prudence of it Wisdom and Power of them Virtues Princes and Angels whom he calls the prime onâ—s Where you see manifestly the fullnesse of the Godhead is made to consist of the Titles and Attributes of our Lord Christ Which Valentinus after these makes to consist in XXX Aeones or intelligible worlds which he derives from the unknown Father and silence or his conceit and Grace Bythos or the bottome and Charis Ennaea or Siâ—â— in whom he placed the first source of this Fulnesse And it hath been observed already that his number of XXX is the same that the heathen Gods are contrived into by Heâ—iodâ— Theogonia Much to my purpose For S. Cyril Catech. V. calls Valentine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preacher of the XXX Gods This fullnesse of the Godhead which they taught being the deity which they worshipped As did also not onely Ptolemaeus and Secundus who followed Valentine and changed what they thought fit in his designe or the Gnosticks which followed Nicolas as you may see by Epiphanius But the rest from Simon Magus whose followers worshipped him and his Trull Selene under the images of Jupiter and Minerva saith Irenaeus expresly For Menanders first Power and the Ennaea or Conceit thereof and the invisible Powers by whom and from whom he pretended to be sent for the Saviour of mankind shew that this was that fullnesse of the Godhead in which he taught his followers to believe And when Epâ—pâ—â—nius confuting Saturninus saith that according to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theâ—e shall be found no fullnesse in the Power above It is manifest that he taught his followers to worship that fullnesse which Epiphanius refuseth Simon Magus himself meant the like when he said according to Epiphanius that the Angels though they proceeded from his Ennaea or Conceit yet were without the Fullnesse that is not comprehended within it As for Câ—â—inthus whom all agree to have made our Lord Jesus the Sonne of Joseph and Mary born as other men are Epiphanius saies further of his sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that after Jesus was growne a man who was borne of the seede of Joseph and Mary the Christ came downe upon him from the God that is above that is the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove at Jordane and revealed to him the Father that
Fathers of the Church Clemens Alexandrinus Tertulliane Origen and others with Justine the Martyr have taught us That God spake unto the Fathers of the Old Testament by the ministery of the same second person of the Trinity by whom in our Flesh the Gospel was intended to be published in the last ages of the world And that therefore our Lord Christ is called the Word of God The Socinians think they have said enough to refute and renounce this advantage which Christianity hath alwaies used against the Jewes when with the Jews they have alledged that all those apparitions which those Fathers believe were ministred by our Lord Christ were the apparitions of meere Angles among whom one as principall in the Commission represented the person of God and in that regard is both called by the propper name of God not communicable to any creature which we I know not by what right translate Jehovah seeing it is a thing manifest that our Lord Christ and his Apostles did not pronounce it as it is certaine the Jewes among whom they lived did not at that time and also worshiped with the honour that is properly due to God alone And truly that it was alwaies some angel that is called by the proper name of God and worshipped as God by the Fathers in their apparitions is a thing so manifest through the Scriptures that I will not undertake any unnecessary trouble to prove it Neither do I think this any thing prejudicial to that which the Fathers of the Church teach For when they deliver that these apparitions were of the nature of prefaces and preambles to the apparition of the Word in our flesh it seems to be supposed that as the Word at the last assumed our flesh wherein to appear which afterwards he was never to let go againe according to the saying of divines after S. Gregory Nazianzene quod semel accepit nunquam dimisit so at the first he was wont to assume some Angelicall nature wherein he might appear to deal with men though not to retaine it for ever but to dismisse it the businesse for which it was assumed being done Neither is that any thing difficult which may be objected that these Angels did take unto them usually the bodies of men in which they might converse with men And therefore that when they are called by the name and worshipped with the honour of the onely true God there being something visible to which these things cannot be attributed they must be ascribed to the invisible nature of the Angels Not for it self which were Idolatry but in regard of God whose person they represent as Ambassadors and therefore are honoured with the honour due to the Prince whom they represent as the Jewes and with them the Socinians do understand those titles wheresoever in the Old Testament they are attributed to Angels This were some thing indeed if it were not manifest that the proper name of God is attributed to those Angels by whom God deales with men without assuming to them mens bodies There is nothing of this kind more eminent then that of Moses Exod. XXIII 21 22 23. Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Look to thy self because of him and hear his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your apostasy for my name is in the midst of him But thou shalt hearken to his voice and shalt doe all that I shall speak I will be an enemy to thine enemies and persecute thy persecutors For afterwards when they had sinned and God proffers to send an Angel with them to drive out their enemies because if he should go himself among them and they rebell againe he should destroy them It is manifest that Moses is not content till he hath obtained of God that himself would go along with them For before when Moses had pitched the Tabernacle without the camp he spake with God face to face there and the people worshipped towards that quarter But afterwards by his prayer he obtains that Gods face should go with them to give them rest having otherwise no desire to venture upon the voyage Exod. XXXIII 2 5 9 10. 11 14 15 16. Whereby it is manifest that the face of God in this place is the same that is called in another place the Angel of Gods face because he represented the person of God and therefore is called by the name of God and the name of God is said to be in him and Moses is said to talk face to face with God because he had conference with this Angel in the name of God who is called God face to face Whereas when God proffers barely an Angel he is not content but insists upon this And for this reason it is that whereas it is certaine that the Law was given by the ministery of Angels neverthelesse it is said that God spake all the ten commandments Because that Angel that had the commission and is called God spake them And afore though it is certain that it was the Angel of God who went before the camp of Israel in a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night because it is said Exod. XIV 19. And the angel of the Lord that went before the camp of Israel removed and came behinde them and the pillar of cloud removed from before them and stood behind them yet it is said Exodus XIII 20. that it was the Lord that went so before them It is therefore manifest that the Name and Worship of God is given to the Angels that represent God as well when they assume to themselves no bodies as when they doe As for that which the Jewes and with them the Socinians alledge that it is because Ambassadors represent the persons of the Princes that send them and therefore are honoured with the honour that is properly due to them It is ridiculous and against common sense For certainly it is one thing to say that Ambassadors are honoured in consideration of the Princes from whom they come another with the same honours Ambassadors are strangers where they come Ambassadors and therefore for their own sakes must be respected where they come otherwise then at home otherwise then their aequalls where they come much more in respect of the Princes from whence they come But that any Prince should honour the Ambassador of any Prince with the same honour wherewith he would honour his Master if he were there is ridiculous to imagine Much lesse the Ambassador of God between whom and any creature that he can imploy upon any Ambassage there is incomparably more distance then between any Prince and any subject he can use Honour inwardly is nothing but the esteem a man hath of that which he honours outwardly nothing else but the signes whereby he expresseth it And though the conceit which a man hath of God is comparable with that which he hath with his
Christ not the Son of God who made the world they could not rightly say that they held God the Father So that his argument being proper against them demonstrates who they are And this is the reason of that which went afore And ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it and that no ly is of the truth And of that which immediately followes Let that therefore which ye have learned from the beginning remaine in you If that remaine in you which ye have heard from the beginning ye also shall remaine in the Sonne and in the Father For because they knew what Faith they had imbraced when they became Christians no man need tell them that they who would not have our Lord Jesus to be the Christ were liars and the holy Ghost which good Christians receive upon the hearty profession of Christianity he justly presumes will maintaine them in it This for the text of Saint Jude But I say further that the Name of the true God the great God the onely God which all of them attribute to God is attributed to him in equivalent terms not onely in those texts of the Old Testament when the proper name of God is given to the Angels that spake in the person of God which I spoke of afore But also in those where the name attributes an action of the onely true great God are given to the Messias which we agree is our Lord Jesus And therefore that there can be no cause to bring in unusual figures of speech to expound these texts for fear they should say that which is so many times said in the Scriptures S. Paul Rom. XIV 10 11. We shall all stand before the judgement seate of Christ saith he For it is written As I live saith the Lord unto me shall every knee â—ow and every tongue give praise to God Which any man may see is said of God by his Prophet Isa XLV 23. And therefore I marvaile it should seem strange that the same person should be called the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Titus II. 20. when the appearance there mentioned is not the appearance of the Father but of Christ who shall appear judge at the last day though he have from the Father the glory wherein he shall appear Againe when he saith 1 Cor. II. 8. Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory It is manifest that he ascribes unto Christ the title of the onely true and great God in Psal XXIV 7 8 9 10. So the Apostle Heb. I. 10. affirming that to be said of Christ which we read Psal CII 25 26 27. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thine hands They shall perish but thou shalt indure They all shall wax old as doth a garment And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall never fail For whereas they grant that the end is of Christ where he speakes of ending the world at his coming to judgement But not the beginning where he speaks of making the world because there he is called by the proper name of God I call all the world to witnesse what there is in the words to argue that he speakes not still of the same person of whom he began to speak What will they not do to rack the Scriptures and force them to say what they never meant that are not ashamed to advance pretenses in which there is so little appearance rather then confesse what all the Church of Christ maintaineth So when the Prophet sayes Mal. III. 3. Behold I send my messenger and he shall sweepe the way before thee and suddenly shall the Lord whom ye seek come to his Temple It is so manifest that he ascribes the title of the onely true God to the Messias that Grotius who is so much carried away with the Socinians exposition of divers texts in this point could not forbear to say that the hypostaticall union is signified by this And therefore it is manifest what Lordship we are to understand where Zachary saith to the Baptist his Sonne Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes Luke I. 46. So when the Prophet David saith of the Messias Psal CX 1. The Lord said to my Lord sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool And the Apostle inferreth upon it Heb. I. 13. To which of the Angels said he ever Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole He remitts us for his meaning to that which he had premised there of Christ Heb. I. 3. that having merited by himself the cleansing of our sinnes he sate down on the Throne of Majesty in the highest heavens And againe Heb. VIII 1. We have such an high Priest as is set down on the right hand of the Throne of Majesty in the heavens For the Majesty of God being presented in the Scripture by that which is most glorious upon earth of a King upon his Throne as king of heaven and earth whose commands all the Angels stand about the Throne ready to execute To seat our Lord Christ upon the same Throne is to commit the highest degree of treason against the Majesty of God by challenging for him the honour due to God alone if he be not the same God on whose behalfe those words challenge it Ask any Jew that hath learned God from the Old Testament what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Thron of Glory is or rather what he is that sits on it and see if he do not refuse our Lord Christ that priviledge because he must allow him to be the onely true God if he do not But why should I be troubled to fit him with the title of the onely true God wo expressely challenges to be esteemed aequall to God John V. 21 22 23. For as the Father raiseth and quickneth the dead so also doth the Sonne quicken whom he please For neither doth the Father judge any man but hath given all judgement to the Sonne that all may honour the Sonne as they honour the Father He that honoureth not the Sonne honoureth not the Father that sent him Which is as much as if he had said he that honoureth not the Sonne as he honoureth the Father having said afore That all may honour the Sonne as they honour the Father As for that answer of his John X. 32-36 The Jewes answered him saying For a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because thou being man makest thy self God Jesus answered them Is it not written in your Law I have said ye are Gods If he called them Gods to whom the Word of God came and the Scripture cannot be voided Tell you him whom the Father hath sanctified and
that believe not might know by seeing Christians spring from his Doctrine Neither is that which followes any thing less clear He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not Though Socinus hath used his skill to darken it with a strange devise of three senses of this one word World in this one sentence which he conceives will be an elegant expression if we understand the World when it is sayd He was in the World to signifie his new people when it is sayd The World was made by him The Church that is all Christians When it is sayd The World knew him not the unbelievers And truly I believe most Languages will justifie the people among whom a man lives to be called the World The ordinary French sayes Il y a beaucoup de monde dâ—ns ceste ville There is a great deal of World in this Town word for word But that in the two clauses following the World should stand first for Believers then for unbelievers is such a figure without any thing added to give occasion so to understand it as nothing can be added to make it passable though something might be added to make it to be understood Besides consider what followes He came to his own and his own received him not For are the Jewes his own people onely because he was of that people Are the Jewes no otherwise his own then the English may be called mine own because being English I bring that which here I have written to the English Surely S. John meant to aggravate their fault more then by charging them to have refused a Countryman of their own To wit him that had made them and whose they were upon that score Consider what went before This is that true Light that lighteth every man that comes into the World For unless we understand this to be every man that comes into the Church which will be to deny that Christ gives any light to unbelievers at least to be signified by these words and to make them import no more then the same great secret that Christ is the Author of Christians we must understand by it as the truth requires it to be understood That our Lord came into the world because he came to live among that people called the world by that most ordinary figure of speech that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the World so properly called and therefore all that it containeth that is the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called to wit that people was made by him and that neverthelesse this world being the body of that people knew him not that is owned him not being his own as all people are whom he enlightneth And what meanes the Apostle when he saies of the Sonne Heb. I. 2 3. Whom he made heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds And Who beareth or moveth all things with his powerfull word For if any man attempt to apply the same salve to this wound also what will he have these worlds to be but those of which he saith againe Heb. XI 5. By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God To wit the world of invisible things and this visible world which by the Jewes writings we understand that their ancestors were wont co call this world and the world to come because they expected to live in it after this Whereupon the same Apostle saith againe Heb. II. 5. For he hath not subjected the world to come to Angels meaning the invisible world of Angels which to us is to come As for that which followeth whether he sustaine or whether he move all things by his word seeing it is his word that does it the same is Gods Word that made all things called his word also because incarnate And what is it lesse for him to move all things then that which S. Paul saith of God Acts XVII 28. that in him we live move and have our being And S. Paul Col. I. 16. For in him or rather through him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible things and invisible whether dominions or magistrates or powers all things were created by him and to him For what hath Christ done for the angels that he should be said to have made them suppose the redemption and reconcilement of mankinde make a new world with us is the reconciling of the Angel to us by reconciling of us to himself the making of them as it is the new making of us Is the making of him head of them the making of them If it be it is not he that made them seeing it is the Father that made him head of them But what shall become of all visible things besides man which are said here to have been created by Christ and cannot be made anew Therefore it is the whole world that S. Paul meanes was first made not men and Angels that he meanes were restored by Christ And when he saies they were made by him and to him that is for him he barres that snare which some put upon the Apostles words when he saies By whom also he made the worlds To wit that he meanes for him he made the worlds according to a common saying among the Jews which they think he points at That the world was made for the Messias I see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both serving to signify a meane which belongs still to the effective cause As when it is said that all things subsist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. IV. 11. that the martyres overcome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. XII 11. that the false Prophet deceives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apoc. XIII 14. It is all one whether we understand For the will of God For the blood of the Lamb and the word which they witnesse For the signes which were granted him to do Or by and through the same because both import a mean effective cause But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the final cause is that which no Greek will indure And in this place S. Paul having said that all things were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through him and to him that is for him Leaves no room to understand any thing else by these words But there is a further reason in the case and theme which S. Paul speaks to whereby it is evident that he challengeth the making of all things to Christ because he challengeth to him that worship which the Hereticks whom he writes against tendred to Angels as those by whom the World was made Which I shewed before was the doctrine of Simon Magus and Cerinthus both in the Apostles times and inferreth the abstinence from Gods creatures as proceeding from another principle from which also Moses Law came according to their doctrine the observation whereof they therefore pressed not as Moses had delivered it
the Godhead is said to dwell bodily in the Sonne it is to be understood that the holy Ghost also dwells in him without measure which with the Father makes up that fullnesse that S. Paul understands in opposition to those which the heresies preached For as it is plaine that the Valentinians worshipped their thirty Aeones or intellectual worlds so it is certain that the rest of their Sects worshipped that fullnesse which they preached Nay those that held the world to be made by Angels that fell away from the fullnesse worshipped also those Angels which the Christians call devils as the heathen did and all Magicians do as all ages witnesse This also is the reason why S. Paul saith further that the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily because in the Temple and Sanctuary and Ark of the Covenant and Sacrifices and Ceremonies of that people all pledges of Gods presence it is certaine to Christians that the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelt as the body in the shadow equally correspondent to it For so I shewed you afore that the ark of the Covenant which in the XXIV Psalme is called the Lord of glory is by the Apostle said to be our Lord Christ But this reason is imployed by S. Paul to make opposition against them who pretended the Law to be given by those Angels the worship of whom together with the observation of the Law or at least of such precepts thereof as they might pretend the said Angels to have revealed to them they undertook to revive that by this counterfeit Christianity they might avoid that persecution which the Jewes out of their zeal for the Law brought upon true Christians For if it were the fulnesse of the Godhead which dwelt figuratively in the ark of the Covenant as now bodily in the flesh of Christ then were not those Angels authors of the Law nor the observations thereof to be renewed together with the worship of those Angels And therefore it is not to be omitted that when S. Paul addes And ye are filled through him who is the head of all principality and power Through whom ye are also circumcised with that circumcision which is done without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ He withdraweth them from the observations of the Law by declaring that the intent of them is fulfilled in good Christians from the fullnesse of the Spirit that is of the Godhead that dwelt in Christ Which is that which S. John intendeth when he saith That we saw his glory as of the onely begotten Son of God full of grace and truth That is to say Of that grace which contained the truth of those figures and shadows As it followeth by and by Of his fulnesse we all have received and grace for grace Because the Law was given by Moses but grace and peace came by Jesus Christ For the Grace of the Gospel of Christ as it comes in stead of the grace of Moses Law and both from the fullnesse of Christ which as I said afore was resident for the time in that Angel that delivered the Law to Moses in Gods Name In fine so manifest are those words that Grotius himself who otherwise in expounding this Epistle hath warped to the Socinians could not forbear to avow the bodily dwelling of the fullnesse of the Godhead in Christ to signify that which the Church calls the hypostaticall union of the natures Here I argue that when S. Paul saith Phil. II. 6 7. that our Lord being in the form of God emptied himself taking the form of a slave this emptinesse which he took is directly opposed by S. Paul to that fullnesse of the Godhead which he had and dissembled by the emptinesse of that state which he assumed For here it is much to be observed that as S. Paul affirmeth the fullnesse of the Godhead to dwell bodily in Christ because the holy Ghost is understood alwayes to be resident in the Word incarnate So by the same reason the Father also is contained in the Sonne as the Sonne in the Father likewise God the Father being so called in the New Testament where the Sonne is revealed in respect of the Sonne who revealed it and whom it revealeth And that in opposition to that fullness from which each of the aforesaid Sects pretended the Revelation of the Father otherwise unknown It is not therefore to be doubted that our Lord when he saies as many times in the Gospel he does John X 38. For my works sake believe that the Father is in me and I in him XIV 7-11 If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also And henceforth ye know him and have seen him Philip saith unto him Lord shew us the Father and it shall suffice us Jesus saith to him So long am I with you and knowest thou not me Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou shew us the Father Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak to you I speak not of my self but the Father that abideth in me he doth the works Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me If not believe me for the very works sake I say it must not it cannot be doubted that our Lord meanes by these words not that he said nothing did nothing but by commission from God which every Prophet could say so farre as a Prophet And the Jews need not to have taken up stones to throw at him when he said John X. 10. I and the Father are one had he meant no more but that it was his Fathers will which he declared But of necessity these sayings must import that as the Word containeth the Holy Ghost and is contained in it So is the Son contained in the Father and the Father in the Son who revealeth him as the Gnosticks hereupon took occasion to pretend that the unknown Father was contained in that Fulness by which the severall Sects of them pretended that he was made known And therefore when S. John saith That the glory of our Lord was seen to be the glory of the onely begotten Son of God though it be granted that the title of onely begotten implyeth and insinuateth by way of elegancy dearly beloved because every onely Son is so as you may see it shewd by testimonies both of the Scripturs and other writers in Grotius yet if this be the reason of that elegance in the word the ground of it therefore cannot be denied And so the question will have recourse why the only begotten Son and if not because conceived by the Holy Ghost then because in him dwelleth bodily the fulness of the Godhead To which sense the words of the Apostle John I. 18. are very pertinent No man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son that is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Hear
Irenaeus II. 7. Irrationale est autem impium adinvenire locum in quo cessat finem habet qui est secundum eas Propater Proarche omnium Pater hujus Pleromatis Nâ—c rursus in sinu Patris alterum quendam dicere tantam fabricasse creationem fas est vel consentiente vel non consentiente Now it is unreasonable and impious to imagine any place in which their Forefather and Forebeginning the Father of all and of this Fulness ceaseth and endeth Nor is it lawfull again to say that any other in the bosome of the Father made this great creation either with his consent or without it For here you see that the Gnosticks faigning some Principle besides the Father but resident in his bosome to have made the World are reproved by Irenaeus for adulterating the Christian Faith which maintaining the Son to be in the bosome of the Father signified him to be no stranger to the Father but of his own nature Whereby we see further what S. John means when he sayes that the Word was in the beginning with God and came into the World from thence In fine when S. John attributes to our Lord the title of onely begotten of the light and the truth which he that reads Irâ—neus will see that the Gnosticks made severall persons constituting that Fulness which severall Sects of them did imagine it must be concluded that â—â—ey finding these titles attributed by the Christians to our Lord did by attributing them to severall persons of whom the severall Sects of them framed their severall Fulnesses adulterate Christianity And that he finding them so doing vindicates it to the be true sense by fixing the said titles and the Godhead which they import upon our Lord Christ where they are due Here I alledge the words of the Apostle Heb. I 3. concerning Christ Who being the brightness of his glory and the Character of his substance and sustaining or moving all things as it follows in those words which have been already examined Which words the Socinians think they avoid fairely by saying that As the words of men are all Images of their minds so the man Jesus being to signifie that is to resemble the counsell of God to mankind is called the image of God as I sayd afore that he is called the Word of God in their sense And to this they think the words of S. Paul inclinable 2 Cor. IV. 4 5 6. where he saith that The God of this World hath blinded the conceptions of unbelievers that the inlightning of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the Image of God might not shine on them For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake Because it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness that hath shined in our hearts to enlighten us with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face or person of Christ Jesus Because in these words which intitle Christ the Image of God the preaching of the Gospel is so much insisted upon as the reason of it But as for the reason why our Lord is called the Word I refer my self to the premises so that he should be intituled the Image of his glory the character that is printed off from his substance that in consideration of the same he should have purged mans sins and be set on Gods Throne to be honoured with Gods own honours which all follows in the Apostles words is too gross for any reasonable man to digest And therefore in the title of Gods Image as I sayd before in the title of Gods Word there must be couched and understood a reason upon which all this may flow Which is nothing else but the fulness of the Spirit or the Godhead lodged for ever in the flesh of our Lord and rendring him capable as well to redeem all sinnes and to be advanced to the Throne of God that is to the Worship of God as to preach and make good that Gospel wherin the glory of Gods Wisdome and goodness so much appeareth And thus and not otherwise the account will be sufficient not only why our Lord â—s intituled the Image of God but how he is preached to be the Lord and the Apostles his Slaves how the glory of God shines off from his person or face upon the hearts of Believers For I do firmly believe as the Apostles writings have alwaies reference to the Scriptures of the old Testament to shew how they are fulfilled by the new So that our Lord is here called the image of God as the second Adam in reference to the first who is said to have been made in the Image and likenesse of God But with that difference which S. Paul hath expressed 1 Cor. XV. 45. As it is written the fiâ—st Adam was made a living soul so is the second Adam made a quickning Spirit For having shewed that the Spirit of Life which raised Christ from the dead is the fullnesse of the Godhead hypostatically united to the flesh of Christ well may I inferre that it is in consideration therof that he is called the image of Gods glory and the express character of his substance from which will also follow the expiation of our sins and his sitting upon Gods throne to be worshiped as God Thus shall the first Adam made a living soul in the image of God be the figure of the second Adam made a quickning Spirit in the image of God Thus shall the Old Testament be the figure of the new and the animal life given by the Word and Spirit of God the figure of spirituall and everlasting life given by the same Spirit of God dwelling in the Word of God incarnate I will here shew you the strange tale that Saturninus framed out of the relation of Moses concerning the making of man related by Epiphanius that you may judge thereby of the truth of that which he indeavored to disguise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So I read Epiphanius in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which makes no sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because saith he that same light which was the image of the Power above peeping down wrought a certaine provocation in the said Angels by whom he saith the World was made they attempted to frame man out of the â—ust they had to the image above For being in love with the light above and taken with the lust of it appearing and disappearing to them and unable to satisfie themselves of the comelynesse of that which they were in love with because his light flew up as soone as it came at them hereupon this Iugler frames the scene and saies that the angels said Let us make man to wit According to the image not according to our image because he denies that man was made after the image of God that made the world but after the image of the unknown Father which peeped down upon them in the Fullnesse of the Godhead and
agree that this is said When I can charge the Jewes themselves acknowledging likewise that this is meant of the Messias that the title and workes and attributes and worship of God are ascribed to the Messias even by the Old Testament I need not be thought to weaken the cause of our common Christianity by making the ground of it unremoveable Neither shall I stick by the same reason to acknowledge among the rest of those titles which Isaiah prophesieth of Ezekias noâ— that his name shall be the mighty God but that is as the pillar of Moses is called God is my standard so the title of Ezekias shall be God is mighty Because of the might God should shew by him in doing good to his people And as I will not say that he can be called the Father of eternity so I can say and do that whosoever will maintaine that God intended that Moses Law should cease which is so often said to be given for ever in the Scripture must grant that those words which may signify eternity when the matter or circumstance of the speech requires do signifie no more then a time whereof the term is unknown in the Old Testament I say likewise that the then people of God were to understand that Isaiah promised them Gods Spirit and the graces thereoâ— to rest upon their Princes by whom he promiseth them deliverance But all this being granted when it is either granted or proved on the other side that the name and workes and titles and worship of the onely true God are ascribed and challenged to our Lord Christ by his word of the New or Old Testament and the grounds upon which the meaning of it is evidenced upon supposition hereof I will neverthelesse challenge that sense of these Prophesies in behalf of our Lord Christ by virtue of the subject matter of the New Testament and the whole current thereof determining the capacity of those words wherein these Prophesies are delâ—vered unto it For I professe and maintaine that the difference between the Literall and mysticall sense of the Old Testament necessary to be maintained by all that will maintaine the truth of Christianity against the Jews cannot be maintained without granting such an equivocation in the words of it as the correspondence between the kingdom of heaven and that of Israel the Priesthood of Christ and Aaron the Propheticall office of Josua and Jesus in fine between the land of Canaan and the heavenly Paradise produceth And that when this is maintained throughout the Scripture then is that great work of Gods wisdome in making way for the Gospel by the Law glorified to the conviction of the Jews which when it is sometimes challenged and elsewhere waved becomes a stumbling block to the obstinacy of that willfull People It remaines that I omit not those things which Solomon preaches of the Wisdom of God in so sublime and mysterious language that when we read S. Paul intitling Christ The power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. I. 24. we cannot refuse to understand them of the Godhead dwelling in his flesh as the Church hath alwayes done Wisdome was at the making of all things was brought forth before any thing was made Gods delight that delights it self in Gods workes especially in conversing with mankinde Prov. VIII 23-31 Adde hereunto Prov. IV. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom is the principal or beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adde Prov. III. 19 20. that God made heaven and earth by Wisdome Adde the words of a Prophet to whom God sends his friends to be expiated and reconciled to God Job XLII 7 8. that Wisdome is known to God alone as that which he looked upon when he ordained the creation of the universe Job XXVIII 20-28 Adde the Prophet David signifying the same in fewer words In wisdome hast thou made them all Psal CIV 24. that Wisdome which saith to all men by Job XXVIII 29. by David Psal CXI 10. by Solomon Prov. I. 2 IX 9. Eccles XII 15. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdome In which Wisdome the whole businesse of Solomons doctrine seems to be that the whole happinesse of man consisteth Is all this with Socinus but a figure of Rhetorick called Prosopopaeia whereby Solomon brings in Wisdom in the person of Gods favourite to signify that it comes from God and to inflame all men to love that which Solomon had prayed for to God to make him a happy Prince 1 Kings III. 9 11 12. 2 Chron. I. 10 11 Truly this were something for a Jew to acknowledge that the wisdome of Gods people which Moses also shews consisted in their Lawâ— Deut. IV. 6. came from God to order their doings to God For from hence it will follow that as those that are to give account to God of the most inward intentions and inclinations of the heart so are they obliged to order them and all the productions of them according to his will and to his honour and service But for a Christian that hath learnt the whole work of the Law to have been preparative to that which our Lord by his Gospel was to do and that before the Law the Fathers were instructed to live as Christians now do or should do the Law adding nothing but civile Lawes to inforce the obedience of them that rebelled against their discipline and ceremonies to figure the Gospel to come for such a one not to understand when Gods Prophets proclaime that the wisdome by which God made the World takes delight to converse with mankind to reduce it from Idols to the worship of God to stirre up Prophets to preserve them in it and to foretell Christ to come that the same wisdome which did this afterwards in our flesh did it afore without it is a fault to the Christianity which he professeth He that writ the Wisdome of Solomon though no Christian â—aw more when he said Wisd X. 1 2. This Wisdome preserved the first Father of the World who was made alone and drew him out of his sinne and gave him strength to rule all things Proceeding to shew the same of the Fathers that succeed The same author having presaced Wisd VI. 23. that he would shew how Wisdome was brought forth adds Wisd VII 22-27 that description which attributes to Wisdome the same that the Apostle ascribes to Christ The image or shine of Gods glory and substance the unstained mirror of his virtue the breath of his Power the flowing forth of the glory of the most High which sustaineth all things that he made and remaining the same renewâ—th or maketh new all things and setling upon holy mens mindes makes them Gods friends and Prophets And this having premised that the Spirit of God goes through all the World and that Wisdome is a Spirit that convinceth the secret perversenesse of the heart Wisd â— 5 6 7. Then of the death of the first-born in Egypt XVIII 14 15 16. For when all things were
Irenaeus expresly maintaineth him one and the same God with the Father and true God and his generation ineffable without beginning and from everlasting Clemens makes him God â—quall to God as his Sonne Origen not in any work now extant that may be questioned but as he is alledged by Athanasius de decretis Synodi Niceâ—ae saies of him that if there be any image of God who is invisible that image must also be invisible with a great deal more to the same purpose where he also quotes Theognostus in secundo hypopseon affirming the same at large to set aside those that are questioned And shall we not think our selves obliged so to understand their words which the importunity of Heresies have made questionable that they may consist and agree with those which remaine unquestionable Especially all of them agreeing in this That the world was made and is governed by Christ And that the whole dispensation of God tending to the salvation of mankinde whether before the Law or under the Law as well as since his appearing in the flesh was executed by him as a preface and prologue to his coming in the flesh a supposition which all seem to ground themselves upon especially against the Jewes in giving account of our common Christianity That our Faith is in the Father Sonne and holy Ghost That we are to glorifie to worship and to be baptized in the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost And in counting all Hereticks that denied it For communion with the Church not communicating with those who believe it not because they believe it not is an evidence which no words of doubtfull construction can obscure in the judgement of any man that is reasonable Nay among the very heathen that have made any mention of the Christian Faith doth not Plinies Epistle concerning the Christians acknowledge that they sung hymns to Christ as to God Doth not Lucian in his Philopatris manifestly expresse the Faith of the Trinity as the cognizance of Christians at that time hath it not appeared by these inventions wherewith the Gnosticks sophisticated it that the Fulness of the Godhead consists in the Trinity according to the Christian Faith as according to the severall Sects of them in their severall inventions That the Christians honoured and worshipped the blessed Trinity as those Sects did those imaginatitions of their own which they call the Fullnesse of the Godhead When Ebion Cerinthus Artemon Theodorus and after them Sabellius Noetus Praxâ—as and Paâ—lus Samosatenus were disowned by the whole Church and excluded the communion of all Christians did not all Churches that agreed in refusing them find themselves possessed of a contrary Faith as the reason for which they were refused Were all Christians out of their simplicity cunning enough to assoile all the reasons whereby these and Arius to boot did or might argue their pretenses from texts of Scripture Or did they think themselves bound to rest in the visible consent of the whole Church whether they were able to do that or not In fine the learned Jesuite Petavius in the Preface to his books de Trinitate and the beginning of the first as he hath evidently shewed that the substance of the faith of the Trinity is acknowledged by these ancient Christians some of whose words seem to disparage the Godhead of our Lord Christ So he indeavoureth to shew that they did it out of a desire to reconcile the faith with the doctrine of Plato and his followers If his opinion be admitted there will remaine evidence enough for the Tradition of Faith even in their writings whose skill in the Scriptures goes not the right way to maintaine it The plain song will be good musick though the descant transgresse Though for my part having seen what he hath said I repent me not of that which I had conceived out of Tertullianâ— That out of a desire to reconcile the creation of wisdome in the Proverbs according to the Greek not the doctrine of Plato with the rule of Faith they conceived this a supposition fit to do it That by Gods proceeding to create the World his mind or wisdome which incarnate is our Lord Christ attained not the essence and being which it had in God from everlasting but the denomination and quality of his Word and Sonne For you shall find there that most of them concurre in the speculations of Tertulliane Whereby you may see that this learned Jesuite is not agreed with the Cardinall du Perron to deny the reason why we hold the Faith of the holy Trinity originally from the decree of the Council of Nicâ—a and from that authority of the Church which maintaineth it But from the reason whereupon that decree was grounded and made That is from the meaning of the Scriptures expressed and limited by the Tradition of the Church And therefore not burthening my self here with the expounding of all those passages of their writings before Arius which may seem to derogate from the Tradition of the Church in that point I shall referre the Reader to those things whereby he showeth that they do unanimously concurre in maintaining the same Faith For if there be amongst them that have had speculations tending to reconcile some Scriptures to it which are not onely ill grounded as I dispute not but this of Tertulliane is but also prejudiciall to the Faith as some of Origens whom I have mentioned already That this is to be imputed to the inconsequence of their severall discourses not to any difference in their common Faith I remit you to that which he hath said to judge Onely whereas he de Trinitate II. 2. hath given you a full account of those Fathers which expound the words of our Lord The Father is greater then I to be meant of his Godhead which I have onely named in gross I will advise you again hereupon that many things which are said of the Sonne as inferior to the Father as when he is said to Minister unto the Father in creating the World may be imputed not to any inequality in that Godhead which is the same in all the Trinity but unto the manner of having it the Father originally as the Fountaine the Sonne and the holy Ghost as from him wherein the difference of the persons consisteth To the same Petavius de Trinitate VIII 2. I remit them that would be satisfied of the sense of the Fathers in that which I alledged for the reason why our Lord is called the Word by S. John To wit that the intercourse between God and man after the fall was executed and managed by his Ministry Not because I think this name of the Word unfit to signifiy the originall proceeding of the Sonne from the Father much lesse his concurrence in and to the creation of all things But because believing as I do that the mystery of the Trinity is revealed by the coming of our Lord I find great reason to conceive that his Apostle intended thereby to intimate
so ballanced But chiefly because I see the subject of the dispute to be all upon the literall and mysticall sense of these Scriptures Without the knowledge whereof I am confident the Faith of a Christian is intire though the skill of a divine is nothing And for the consent of the Fathers how generall soever it be after Irenaeus I have the authority of the same Irenaeus backed by his reason in that excellent Chapter where he distinguishes between the Tradition of Faith and the skill of the Scriptures to resolve me that neither this point nor any other point which depends upon the agreement between the Old Testament and the New as this does can belong to the Faith of a Christian but onely to the skill of a divine But now this being premised and setled it will be easie for me to inferre that a state of meer nature is a thing very possible had it pleased God to appoint it by proposing no higher end then naturall happinesse no harder meanes then Originall innocence to man whom he had made The reasons premised sufficiently serving to shew that there is no contradiction in the being of that which there is so much appearance that it was indeed But I must advise you withall that I mean it upon a farre other supposition then that of the Schoole Doctors They supposing that man was created to that estate of supernaturall happinesse to which the Gospel pretendeth to regenerate Christians hold that it was Gods meer free grace that he was not created with that contradiction between the reason and appetite which the principles of his nature are of themselves apt to produce Whereupon it foloweth that concupiscence is Gods creature that is the indowment of it signifying by concupiscence that contrariety to reason which the disorder of sensuall appetite produceth A saying that hath fallen from the pen of S. Augustine and that after his businesse with Pelagius Retract I. 9. allowing what he had writ to that purpose against the Manichees in his third book de libero arbitrio which he mentioneth againe and no way disalloweth in his book de Dono perseverantiae cap. XI and XII but seemeth utterly inconsistent with the grounds which he stands upon against Pelagius For supposing contrariety and disorder in the motions of mans soul what is there in this confusion which it hath created in the doings of mankind that might not have come to passe without the fall Unlesse we suppose that a man can be reasonably madde or that concupiscence which reason boundeth not could be contained within any rule or measure not supposing any gift of God inabling reason to give bounds to it or preventing the effect of it which the supposition of pure nature alloweth us not to suppose For the very state of mortality supposing the immortality of the soul either requireth in man the conscience of integrity before God or inferreth upon him a bad expectation for the world to come And therefore though the sorrows that bring death might serve for advantage to happinesse were reasonable to govern passion in using them yet not being able they can be nothing but essayes of that displeasure of God which he is to expect in the world to come And therefore this escape of S. Augustine may seem to abate the zeale of those who would make his opinion the rule of our common Faith That which my resolution inferreth is no more then this That supposing God did not create man in an estate capable to attaine the said supernaturall happinesse he might neverthelesse had he pleased have created him in an estate of immortality without impeachment of trouble or of sorrow but not capable of further happinesse then his then life in Paradise upon earth importeth Not that I intend to say that God had been without any purpose of calling man whom he had created in this state unto the state of supernaturall grace whereby he might become capable of everlasting glory in the world to come as Christians believe themselves to be For the meaning of those that suppose this is that God purposed to exercise man first in this lower estate and having proved him and found him faithfull in it supposing Adam had not fallen to have called him afterwards to a higher condition of that immortality which we expect in the world to come upon trial of fidelity in that obedience here which is correspondent to it Whereupon it is reasonably though not necessarily consequent that this calling being to be performed by the Word of God which being afterwards incarnate is our Lord Christ and the Spirit which dwelt in him without measure our Lord Christ should have come in our flesh though Adam had not fallen to do this And this is alledged for a reason why afterwards the Law that was given to Moses covenanted expresly for no more then the happinnesse of this present life though covertly being joyned with that discipline of godlinesse which the people of God had received by tradition from their Fathers it afforded sufficient argument of the happinesse of the world to come for those who should imbrace the worship of God in spirit and truth though under the paedagogie and figures of the Law For they say it is suitable to the proceeding of God in restoring mankind that we understand him first to intend the recovering of that naturall integrity in which man was created by calling his people to that uprightnesse of civile conversation in the service of the onely true God which might be a protection to as many as under the shelter of such civile Lawes should take upon them the profession of true righteousnesse to God Intending afterwards by our Lord Christ to set on foot a treaty of the said righteousnesse upon terms of happinesse in the world to come But thesâ— things though containing nothing prejudiciall to Christianity yet not being grounded upon expresse scripture but collected by reasoning the ground and rule of Gods purpose which concerns not the truth of the Gospel whether so or not I am neither obliged to admit nor refuse So much of Gods counsel remaining alwaies visibly true That he pleased to proceed by degrees in setting his Gospel on foot by preparing his people for it by the discipline of the Law and the insufficience thereof visible by that time which he intended for the coming of our Lord Christ though we say that man was at first created in a state of supernaturall grace and capable of everlasting happinesse For still the reason of Gods proceeding by degrees will be that first there might be a time to try how great the disease was by the failing of the cure thereof by the Law before so great a Physitian as the Sonne of God came in person to visite it This onely I must adde because all this discourse proceeds upon supposition that man might have been created in an estate of meer nature if indowed with uprightnesse capable to attaine that happinesse which that estate required That
fire alwaies burn the earth alwaies keep the place truly we distinguish these things as necessary from those that come to passe either so or otherwise as having a presumption from so much experience of the wil of God which all things must obey already part upon the course of their nature bythe causes which being thereby produced cannot but by the same will be defeated But of this I do not see what question can remaine One kind of determination I shall grant upon the premises that the will of man is liable to that necessity which it inferreth not prejudicing the freedom of it I grant that the will necessarily followeth the last and ultimate dictate of the practick understanding setting this grant aside as impertinent to the question in dispute imports more then a judgement that it is best to doe or not to doe this or that For the last dictate of the understanding that advises about doing or not doing this or that or that it ought to be done or not don by him that will do as he ought For it is manifest that a man many times does not doe that which he is resolved that he ought to do And so it may fall out that such a dictate or sentence shall not be the last or ultimate dictate of the understanding because falling to advise anew after that sentence it may find some new consideration whereupon it may resolve to proceed otherwise then afore Therefore the last or ultimate dictate of the understanding cannot be understood to be any other then that which is effectuall that is to say when it is supposed that the effects followe upon it And upon these terms I grant that the will is necessarily determined by the last dictate of the understanding in as much as it is supposed to be necessary that the will be determined by some judgement of the understanding either expressely pronouncing or implicitly resolving that this or that is for the best to be done or not done So that he that saies that the will is necessarily determined by the last judgement of the understanding saies no more but this that the will is necessarily determined by that judgement which determines it For supposing it is the last you suppose that the will proceeds to action upon it So that the necessity which all this inferrs is no prejudice to freedome or contingence being only the necessity of that which must needs be because you suppose that it is The like is to be said of the foreknowledge or foresight which God hath of whatsoever shall at any time come to passe and the necessity which though it causeth not yet it inferreth For no man can know that which is not true nor see that which is not in being neither can that be foreseen which is not to have being at that time when it is foreseene to come to passe And therefore all foresight necessarily implies a supposition of the future being of that which is foreseen A thing necessarily true howsoever we suppose the will to be determined to do whatsoever it doth that is to say whatsoever we suppose to bee the ground of Gods foresight For supposing that God from everlasting foresaw that S. Paul should be converted at such a moment of time because he had a purpose from everlasting to determine his will freely to imbrace Christ at that moment of time yet was not S. Paul converted because God foresaw that he should be converted but because he was to be converted therefore God foresaw that he should be converted Indeed we are to distinguish three instances in the knowledg of God concerning future contingencies In the first he sees what may come to passe In the second what shall come to passe In the third what is come to passe The first by the perfection of his nature The second by the decree of his will giving stedy order to things of themselves moveable as Boethius says that is to contingencies For we suppose contingence to stand with providence and we inquire how that consistence may appeare The third by the act of freedome seene from everlasting before the will that doth it have being in those very decrees in the execution whereof providence consists There is in an architect or survayor of buildings a certain knowledg of that which he designeth before he goe to work consisting in a certaine Idea or form which his businesse is to copy out of his mind into the materialls But when his worke is done he sees that in being before his eyes which he saw in his own designe afore The wisdome of God is that soverain art which directed him in making heaven and earth and ordaining whatsoever comes to passe in both The decree of his will whether immediate or mediate distinguishes between that which may be and that which is at the present and therefore in the same sort between that which may be and that which shall be for the future But though his knowledge increase not when he sees that in being which formerly he saw was to be because he goes not beyond himselfe for the knowledge of it yet to see that it supposeth the act of the freedome which doth it past to see that it shall be to come In like maner therefore whilst the act of the creature appeareth to God as to come he seeth what shall be But if all future contingencies be present to God from everlasting then consequently he sees also from everlasting the act of that freedome which produceth them as don in the due time of it and in this sight consisteth the effect of the same presence of future contingencies in and to Gods eternity from everlasting There is therefore in God a certaine kind of knowledge of that which is to come which Divines call scientiam visionis whereby God sees from everlasting thegreatest contingencies to come to passe at that moment of time when we see them come to passe which whatsoever is the ground of it whether it be posible for us to say how it is possible or not yet this we must say of it that it presupposeth the future being of that which it foreseeth and therefore is no way the cause of it Though the future being thereof presupposeth also that knowledg in God which directeth that freedome which bringeth it to passe So that the Fathers of the Church had cause to insist against those Heretickes that derived the â—ourse and originall of sin in the world from some other cause then the freewill of the creature and the abuse of it that future contingencies come not to passe because God foretells that they will come to passe But that God foretells that they will come to passe because they are future contingencies that is things which though contingent yet shall come to passe therefore that Gods foresight infers no necessity in those things which he foresees shall come to passe by the free choice of the creature For though there remaineth yet a further question concerning
children as a henne gathers her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate And S. Steven Acts VII 51. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears you do alwaies crosse the holy Ghost as did your Fathers And the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel made void the counsel and purpose of God towards them Luke VII 30. But above all you have the purpose of God manifested by the Gospel of sending our Lord Christ for the salvation of the World as John the Baptist sayes John I. 29. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the World And our Lord to Nicodemus John III. 16 17. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him may not perish but have life everlasting For God senâ— not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the world by him might be saved And S. Paul commandeth Timothy that prayers be made by the Church for all men even for the Powers of the World then their enemies as a thing pleasing to God Who saith he would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself an expiation for all to be witnessed in his own time 1 Tim. II. 4 5 6. And if there be any other passages of the New Testament as others there are to witnesse that Christ is given by God for the reconciliation and salvation of all mankind One I will not omit because the mistake which is alledged to divert the sense of it is remarkable 2 Pet. III. 9. God slacketh not his promise as some men count slacknesse but is slow to wrath in our regard not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance Which they will have to signify that he would have none of us that is of the elect to perish because it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is patient towards us the elect They might have seen that this is not the meaning of the words by Luke XVIII 7. Shall not God avenge his elect that cry to him day and night though slow to wrath in regard of them I tell you he shall avenge them speedily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though slow to take vengeance in regard of them upon their oppressors Is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slow to take vengeance upon our oppressors for us which he hath promised to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek of the New Testament signifying the delaying of vengeance due to them that oppresse Christians as you see by S. Luke the Apostle attributes to the desire of saving those whom he spares Nor will I stop here to shew you the insufficience of those expositions which in despite of the words are fastned upon these texts to avoid the difficulties which they create to prejudicate opinions For it is manifest that the consequence of them is no more but the very same that arises from any Scripture that testifies the meanes which God uses for the good of any man to become frustrate through his fault In consideration whereof that God shall call them to account at the last day who either being convict of the truth of his Gospel or having meanes offered to be informed of the same imbrace it not or having imbraced it notwithstanding persevere not in it by living as Christ requireth Or on the contraty that he shall reward them who imbrace it and persevere in it Which being so many that they are not to be avoided without setting a great part of the Scripture upon the rack I count it not worth the while to insist here that S. Pauls meaning is not that God would have some of all estates to be saved or that he would have many to be saved or those that are saved to be saved or upon any other of those lame expedients which have been applied to plaister the wound which these plain texts do make But I insist upon this that the meaning of them cannot be That God would have those onely to be saved that shall be saved Having such a swarm of Scriptures to evidence how many things there are which God would have done and are not done having all the importunities and complaints which God useth by his Prophets to assure us that he would have found that obedience at the handes of his ancient people which he found not all the preachâ—ng of his Gospel all the motives of believing all the exhortations to accept and perform the Covenant of Grace in the New Testament ready to witnesse what men are to give account for at the day of judgement All which must be satisfied before there can be cause to balk the plain meaning of S. Pauls words which cannot seem inconvenient in any other regard but because they make God to will that which comes to passe all the Scripture witnessing that all that shall be condemned shall be condemned for not doing that which God would have them do For wheresoever Gods justice punishes there is it of necessity that man had sufficient meanes to do otherwise Where it rewardes there was possibility of transgressing there was a capacity of indifference and a will actually undetermined to do or not to do this or that notwithstanding originall sinne But first to declare what I understand this antecedent will of God to be I must distinguish with some divines that God must not be said to will this because of that or for that but may be said to will that this be because of that or for that Deus non vult hoc propter hoc sed vult hoc esse propter hoc When I say because of that or for that I extend the observation to two kindes of causes To the finall cause for which a thing is said to be done and to the motive or impulsive cause because of which a thing is said to be done when we speak of the doings of understanding and free causes For these having something in consideration to move them to do what they do this motive which they consider holds on the side of the effective cause in as much as there had been no proceeding without the consideration of it Though it is also true that the motion which consideration produces being so called but out of that resemblance which it holdeth with the motions which naturall things are visibly transported with importeth no more then the appetite of some good thing the want whereof they apprehend which is nothing else but the effect of the finall cause So that the motive cause is no other then the finall cause in respect of that effect which it hath indeed moved the effective cause to produce So then when I say that God willeth not this for that or because of that I say that God can have no ends upon his creatures being
figure in saying That God would have that done which he will not do because he knowes sufficient reason to the contrary whether he declare it or not but setting that reason aside would have done Or that he would have that done which he provideth sufficient meanes to bring to passe But that all should signify some and the world the elect because God will not do all he can to save those whom he would have to be saved is a figure in Rhetorick called Mendacium when a man denies the Scripture to be true The same is the difficulty when our Lord Christ who saith to the Father John XVII 9. I ask for them I ask not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me for they are thine prayes upon the Crosse Father forgive them for they know not what they do For though he ask not that for the world which he askes for his disciples yet he would not have prayed for that which he knew not that God would have done His prayer being the reason moving God to grant meanes effectuall to bring to passe that which it desireth But had there been in God a purpose to exclude the Jews from the benefit of Christs death considering them as not having yet refused the grace which Christ prayed for it could not have been said that he would have our Lord Christ dy or pray for them and therefore that he would have them to be saved This is then my argument that the will of man is neither by the originall constitution of God determinable by his immediate operation nor by mans originall sinne subject to a necessity of doing or not doing this or that Because God treats with the posterity of Adam concerning the Covenant of the Law first and since concerning the Covenant of grace no otherwise then originally he treated with Adam about not eating the forbidden fruit For in conscience were it for the credit of Christianity that infidels whom we would perswade to be Christians should say True if you could shew me that God by his immediate act determines me to do as you require me without which you tell me I cannot do it and with which I cannot but do it Or that by the sinne of Adam I am not become subject to the necessity of doing or not doing this or that But supposing either of these if you move me to do what you professe I cannot do you are either a mad man your self or take me for one Do they take their hearers for men and Christians or for beasts who having first taught that man can do nothing but what God determines him to do inferre thereupon that they must indeavour themselves to do what God commands and what their Christianity requires Or that they are obliged by their Christianity to do that which their corruption from Adam necessitates them not to do Is it for the honour of Gods justice that it should be said that he intends to damne the most part of men for that which by their originall corruption they were utterly unable to do without giving them sufficient help to do it no help being sufficient which the determination of the will by the immediate operation of God makes not effectuall as they think Do they not make the Gospel of Christ a mockery that make it to require a condition impossible to be performed by any whom God determines not to perform it having resolved not to determine the greatest part of them that know it to performe it Certainly this is not to make the secret will of God contradict the declared will of God but to make the declared will of God a meer falshood unlesse the declaring will make contradictions true For to will that this be done for an end which God that willeth will not have come to pass makes contradictions the object of that will and that for the same consideration at the same time God from everlasting determining meerly in consideration of his own will that the condition of that which he would have to come to passe conditionally will not come to passe What is it then to declare all this to the posterity of Adam already lapsed without tendring help sufficient to inable them to imbrace what he tendereth For it is manifest that Adam had sufficient grace to doe what God commanded and it is as manifest that God tenders both the Law to the Israelite and the Gospell to the World in the same form as he tendred Adam the prohibition of eating the forbidden fruit Nor can it be denied that this prohibition contained in the force of it all the perswasions all the exhortations all the promises all the threatnings which either the Law or the Gospell to their respective ends and purposes can be inforced with It must therefore be concluded not that they suppose in Adams posterity an ability to do what they require as did the origiginall prohibition of eating the forbidden fruit but that they bring with them sufficient help to perform it not supposing any thing that may barre the efficacy thereof till the will of him to whom it is tendered makes it void And truly speaking of that which the naturall indowment of freedom necessarily imports in the reasonable creature it is utterly impossible that any thing should determine the will of man to do or not to do this or that but his own action formally or in the nature of a formal cause which therefore in the will cannot be the action of God nor be attributed imputed or ascribed to him to whom it were blasphemy to impute that which his creature is honoured with That God should immediately act upon the soul of man or his will is no inconvenience Because that act must end in the will or soul and not attaine that effect which the imperfection of the creature bringeth to passe Ending therefore in the creature and not in that which the action of the creature produceth it leaveth the same of necessity in the state wherein God first made it And I may well suppose here and will suppose that Gods act of creation continues the same for all the time that he maintaines the creature in that perfection of being that is to say in that ability of acting which from the beginning he gave it This discourse I confesse extendeth to the voiding of the immediate concurrence of God to the actions of his creature which my purpose necessarily requires me not to maintaine For concurrence-supposeth the creature to act without help of God that concurreth and therefore cannot be requisite on behalf of the cause being supposed to act of it self but on behalf of the effect wherein it endeth Which having a being is supposed necessarily to require immediate dependance upon the first being which is God A strange subtlety acknowledging the creature able to act and supposing it to act of it self to imagine that this act can end in nothing as that which it effecteth without Gods concurrence Which immediately attaining the
the world of Judgement because the Prince of theis world is condemned by the conversion of those who forefook him to become Christians Therefore S Steven upbraideth the Jews saying Ye stisnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost even you also as did your fathers Acts VII 51. Because being convicted by the Holy Ghost which spoke in him that he spoke from God neverthelesse they submit not to his message Therefore our Lord Mark III. 28. 29 30 All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men and blasphemies which they shall blaspheme But whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath no remission for ever but is liable to everlasting damnation Because they said he hath an unclean spirit which you have againe Math. XII 31 32. Luke XII 10. Because being convicted that our Lord spoke did his miracles by the Holy Ghost they blasphemed saying that he spoke and did them by an uncleane spirit For these words and these workes are the meanes by which our Lord accomplished â—his promise Iohn XIV 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and abide with him For before the condition If any man love me be fulfilled the case is that which our Lord expresseth Apoc. III. 20. Behold I stand at the dore and knock And if any man heare my voice and open the dore I will come in to him and sup with him â—e with me But being fulfilled the words of our Lord take place Iohn XVI 15 16 17. If yee love me ye will keep my commandements And I will aske the Father and he will give you an other Advocate to abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because they â—ee it not nor know it but you know it because it abideth with you and is in you For seeing it is manifest by the premises that the undertaking of Christianity is the condition upon which the Holy Ghost is granted as a gift to abide with Christians the preaching of Christianity that is the proposing of those reasons which God by his word hath shewed us why wee should be Christians is the knocking of our Lord Christ by the spirit at the dore of the heart that he may enter and dwell in us by the same spirit according to the words of S. Paul 2. Cor. II. 16. For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said To wit I will dwell and converse among them and will be their God and they shall be my people That which some Philosophers say of the naturall generation of man That the soule frames its owne dwelling being fulfilled in the worke of generation by grace when the Holy Ghost by his actuall assistance frameth the man to be fit for the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost by becoming a true Christian If then we believe that the Holy Ghost was given by God and obtained by Christ as well to make the Gospell effectuall as to move the Apostles to preach it there can no doubt remaine that the preaching of the Gospell that is to say the meanes which the Holy Ghost provideth to make it either sufficient or effectual to convince the world of it is the instrument whereby he frameth himself that invisible house of true believers in which he dwelleth And therefore the meanes whereby Gods grace becomes effectuall to those who imbrace it is the same that renders it sufficient for those who refuse it the difference lying as well in the disposition which it meets with for which the man is accountable as in the spirit of God that presenteth it which renders God the praise when it takes effect and leaves men accountable when it does not If this reason had been in consideration with Socinus and perhaps with Pelagius he would have found it necessary acknowledging as all that read the Scriptures must needs acknowledge that which they find so frequent and so cleare in the Scriptures that the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost is granted to inable those who undertake Christianity to performe it to acknowledge also that the actuall help of it is necessary to make the motives of Christianity effectuall to subdâ—e men to it And by consequence that the coming of the second Adam was necessary to restore the breach which the first had made seeing it was not to be repaired without the same Nor is it to be marveled at that naturall meanes conducted by the grace of Christ should produce supernaturall effects such as I have shewed the obediencâ— of Christianity to be which supposing the Covenant of grace and freedome of mans will cannot be otherwise The reasons which appeare to the understanding and move the will to act contrary to the inclination of originall concupâ—scence in professing Christianity and living according to the same being sufficient to convict it to give sentence that so the man ought to doe And the circumstances in which the spirit of Christ conducteth these motives to the heart which it knocketh at by their means being able to represent them valuable to take effect with him who is moved to the contrary by his originall concupiscence And though meanes naturall because they move a man to proceed according to right reason which nature requires him to doe yet as they are brought to passe and conducted by a supernaturall cause nothing hinders the effect to be supernaturall in such a nature as is by them made capable of acting above nature I do much approve the discourse of some that have indeavoured to shew how this comes to passe thus supposing the covenant of the Law to be the renewing of that which was made with Adam in Paradise for the maintaining of him in the happnesse of his naturall life Which we may suppose though we suppose not that God covenanted not with him at all for the life to come For the dispensation of those blessings of this life which the covenant of nature limited by Moses Law to the happinesse of the land of promise tendreth may well be the advantage which God taketh to make the covenant of Grace acceptable especially to those who by Gods blessing failing of the blessings of the first covenant by that meanes becoming out of love with this present worlâ— meeâ— with the Covenant of Grace in such a disposition as may render it acceptable For so long as things goe well with men in this world it seemes haâ—sh to require them to takeup the Crosse of Christ that they may obtain the world to come But when the comforts of this world faile it is no marvell if any condition that tenders hope in the world to come be welcome If it be said that this renders the grace of Christ effectuall onely to the poore and men oâ— meane condition in the world who have cause to be weary of their estâ—te in it It is answered that it is no marvell if the
conceive maintaines the interest of Christianity best though a Iew or a Pagan much more a Jesuite or an Arminian had said it As for the opinion of Arminius and the decree of the Synod at Dort having already said why I have inlarged my considerations beyond the compasse of those termes upon which they disputed it shall suffice me to say That his opinion concerning Election and Reprobation is that which I have showed that all the Church hath alwaies held for mater of Faith To wit that God appoints them to be saved and to be damned who receive Christianity and persevere in the profession of it till death or not That in mine opinion they might have admitted some thing more To wit that God is not obliged by any workes of free will preventing the help of his Grace through Christ but by his own free pleasure to grant those helps of Grace which he knowes wil be effectuall to finall perseverance in Christianity to some which he refuseth to others And that the decree of granting them is Gods absolute predestination to Grace For I am confident that Arminius doth acknowledg the calling of Gods Grace to become effectuall by meanes of the congruity of those helps which God provideth with that disposition which God foreseeth in him whom he appointeth to be moved by the same Whether or no the decree of the Synod require further that they should acknowledg Predestination to glory to be absolute I hold not my selfe any waies obliged to dispute For I find that those persons that were â—mployed to the Synod from England have professed as well in the Synod as otherwise that they came not by any commission or instruction from the Church of England but onely as trusted by K. James of excellent memory to assist his good neighbours the states of the United Provinces in composing the differences in Religion raised among their Divines and people And therefore I cannot be concerned in the decree to which the Church of England never concurred Yet I say further that the persons that concurred to it whose opinions as Divines I cannot esteeme at an easy rate by waâ—ving the opinion of predetermination by acknowledging the death of Christ for all the operation of grace not irresistible but such as stands not with actual resistence do seem not to insist upon absolute predestination to glory And that if the decree do necessarily import it I do not know how to reconcile it with their own opinions Which whether it be also to be said of them of the reformed Churches in France who holding the decree do now acknowledg the death of Christ for all mankind let them that read their writings judge CHAP. XXVII The question concerning the satisfaction of Christ with Socinus The reason why Sacrifices are figures of Christ common to all sacrifices Why and what Sacrifices the Fathers had what the Law added Of our ransom by the price of Christs propitiatory Sacrifice HAving thus showed how the Gospel tenders a Covenant of Grace though requiring the condition of Christianity in regard of those helps which the Grace of God through Christ provideth for the performance of it I am now to show the same in regard of that right to which God accepteth that performance For if it appeare that God out of his grace in Christ and not for the worth of that which we doe accepteth it for a title duely qualifying us for remission of sinne and life everlasting then is it a Covenant of Grace which the Gospell tenders though it require the profession and practice of Christianity on our part And here I have to doe with the Socinians on the one extremity in the first place who will not allow the Gospell to continue the Covenant of grace if it be said that it tendereth remission of sins and life everlasting to those that are qualified as it requireth in consideration of the obedience and sufferings of Christ as the ransome and price of our sinnes Acknowledging allways that Christ died to settle and establish the New Covenant but not to oblige God by his death either to declare and become ingaged to it or to make it good having declared it but to assure mankind that God who of his owne free grace was ready to pardon and accept of those that should accept of the termes of reconcilment which his Gospell tendereth will not faile to make good that which by delivering his well beloved sonne to death he hath signed for his promise to us Indeed they goe about to strengthen this opinion by adding another reason and end of Christs death To wit the attaining of that Godhead wherewith God they say hath rewarded his obedience in doing the message which he trusted him with that thereby he might be able of himselfe to make good that which God by him had promised confounding all that may oppose the salvation of them that imbrace the Covenant of Grace But that it should be said that God declareth or giveth remission of sinnes and everlasting life to them that imbracâ— the same in consideration of the obedience and sufferings of Christ as satisfied thereby for that punishment which our sinne deserved of his justice this is that which they deny and the Church teacheth and therefore this it is which we must show how it is delivered by the Scriptures Which every man may observe to stand cheifely in those texts of Scripture which say that Christ died for us that he redeemed us and reconciled us to God by his death and bloud shed which being the utmost of his obedience comes most into account at all occasions of mentioning this subject in fine it is easy to be observed that the expressions of this point in holy Scripture have relation to the Sacrifices of the Old Testament as figuring the death of Christ whereby both agree we are delivered from sinne the question remaining whether ransomed or not And therefore I shall first consider how and to what effect the Sacrifices of Moses Law are figures of the sacrifice of our Lord upon the Crosse Where I must in the first place inferre from the principle premised of the twofold sense of the Old Testament that all the sacrifices thereof were figures of the death of Christ and our reconcilement with God by the same So farre I am from yeilding them that unreasonable demand that onely expiatory Sacrifices and especially that of the Solemne day of Atonement are properly so Onely I must declare my meaning to be this That whereas the sacrifices of the Fathers were so as they were pledges of Gods favour generally the sacrifices of the Law being the condition upon which that people in generall and every person thereof in particular held their interest in the land of promise expresse more correspondence with that interest in the world to come which Christians hold by Christs death on the Crosse For the land of Canaan being promised them upon condition of keeping the Law and every mans interest in the
speech signify meer deliverance and that so they do signify in the figures of Christ in the Old Test when the Judges and Kings of Israel when God above them are said to redeem Israel that is to deliver him without paying ransom for him Nor that the New Testament speakes likewise when the effect onely is considered See Ex. XV. 13. Deut. VII 8. IX 26. XIII 5. XXI 8. 2 Sam. VII 23. Nehem. I. 10. Psal LXXVI 16. XXXI 6. CXI 9. Esa XXIX 22. Luke II. 38. XXI 28. XXIV 21. Act. VII 35. Rom VIII 23. Ephes VI. 30. As also for the terms of buying and selling Rom. VII 14. Esa L. 1. Deut. XXXII 30. Jud. III. 8. II. 14. Ephes V. 16. Col. IV. 5. And therefore it is not to be marvailed at that the Jewes denying Christ should deny his ransome as not expecting to be delivered by paying ransome But the figures of the Old Testament being performed in the New where the sacrifice of Christ determines the ransome of Israelites by their Kings Priests and Prophets as well as their Sacrifices to the ransome of the World by his blood Where the words of the Apostle and of our Lord expresse the guilt and punishment of sinne from which it redeemeth Next to the obstiuacy of the Jews in not believing it will be to acknowledge freedome given with the Jewes without acknowledging the consideration of a ransome with Christians Let us hear the Apostle Pet. I. 18. 19 20. knowing that you were not redemed from your vaine conversation delivered from your Fathers with corruptible thinges gold or silver but which the precious bloode of Christ as of a lambe without spot or blemish foreknowne indeede from the foundation of the world but manifested in these last times for us For though the end of this ransome be expressed because it is not immediately attained by the paying of it but by our will concurring with Gods Glorify God because ye are bought with a price Be not slaves to men because ransomed by Christ By the bloud of Christ ye are redeemed from your vain conversation received from your Fathers Yet if the meaning were onely to assure them that their deliverance will not faile them there could no cause be given them why the purchase of it by way of ransom should be expressed Which every man that goes to market must needs understand to import the consideration in which we have it There must be indeed freedome and deliverance where a ransom is paid as there is in our case if the seâ—vice of God be freedome But where the guilt of sinne goes before a clear score follows and the death of Christ comes between them must not the consideration which compares them together make even the reckoning CHAP. XXVIII Christ took away our sinne by bearing the punishment of it The Prophesie of Esay LIII We are reconciled to God by the Gospel in consideration of Christs obedience The reconcilement of Jews and Gentiles Men and Angels consequent to the same Of purging and expiating sinne by Christ and making propitiation for it Of Christs dying for us THere is further in sacrifices a consideration of bearing the punishment due to the sins that are expiated by them and so taking them away Wherein the Scriptures declare the sacrifices of the Law to figure the sacrifice of Christ So S. Paul Gal. III 10. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the â—urse of the Law where it saith Deut. XXVII 26. Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things written in the book of the Law to do them becoming a curse for us as it is written Cursed is every one that hâ—ngeth on a tree The exception of Socinus That this belonges onely to Jewes as a discharge of that curse which the breaking of Moses his positive Law inferreth is neither pertinent nor true For where the leter of the Law takes place to civil effects there the spirituall sense thereof takes place to spirituall effects by that which hath been said Therefore if the Law of Moses bind the posterity of Abraham over to a curse because they keep it not which S. Paul supposeth then the Law written in the harts of mankind which the Law of Moses as it is spirituall both containeth and improveth binds over mankind to that curse which the transgression thereof inferreth And there is no appearance that those whome the Apostle writes to were Jewes but such as out of error thought themselves bound to be jewes whether in part or in whole as they were Christians We are then ransomed from the curse by the curse which Christ indurd for us When S. Paul sayes 2 Cor. V. 21 Him that knew no sinne he made sinne for us that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him Socinus saith that Christ was made sinne and a curse because the Jewes used him as if he had beene sinfull and accursed by the Law But if God gave him up to them so to be used then was he used as sinfull and accursed by the will of God not onely by the sentence of Pilate And if we become righteousnesse to God then he became not sinne to man alone Therefore being so used not because he but because mankind was sinfull and accursed the effect must be to the account of mankind where the reason is grounded upon the consideration of it But why doe the Israelites lay handes on the Levites the Levites and Sacrificers both on the Sacrifice but to signify the discharging of themselves and charging their guilt upon the Priests and sacrifices respectively Lev. I. 4. Num. VIII 10. 14. which their constitutions injoyne to be done with all their might and with confession of sins Maimoni of offering Sacrifices III. 6. 8. 9. For this reason the sinne offeringes are given the Priests forbearing the iniquity of the Cougregation and making propitiation for them before the Lord Levit. X. 17. The Greeke indeede translates it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the meaning is That ye may take iniquity away from the Synagogue to wit by taking it on themselves and make propitiation for them before the Lord. For in consideration of their taking the sinne upon them they are properly rewarded with the sacrifice So Aaron beares the iniquity of their consecrate thinges Ex. XXVIII 38. And the Levites make propitiation lest the people be slaine for coming neere This is the reason of that which the Apostle observeth Ebr. XIII 11. that those sacrifices for sinne the blood whereof is caried within the vaile are burnt without the campe Because being charged with the sinne which they expiate they are to cary it away from among them whome they cleare of it Wherefore going on to apply this to Christs suffering without Jerusalem he showeth the figure to be accomplished in his taking away our sinnes but because they were layed on him first And truly the customes and opinion of the Hethen in purging their sinnes by laying theâ— upon their sacrifices are so plaine to this purpose that
State of reconcilement which is our right to life But so that if the State be from Christ as S. Paul saith we have received reconcilement by Christ then is the right to it in consideration of Christ when he saith that being enemies we were reconciled to God by his death Saint Paul againe arguing how God hath abolished the difference betweene Jew and Gentile by the Law pursues it thus Eph. II. 15. 16. That he might make up both into one new man through himselfe making peace And reconcile both in one body to God by the Crosse slaying the enmity by it Here Socinus will have us to construe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but absolutely to the behoofe and glory of God Which had a Schooleboy doâ—e he should have been whipt for seeking something out of the text to governe that case which he hath a verbe in the text to govern Therefore the Gentiles are indeed reconciled to the Jewes according to S. Paule But why because both to God And therefore the reason is the same in the reconcilement oâ— men and Angels Col. I. 19 22. For in him he pleased that all fullnesse should dwell And by him to reconcile all to himselfe pacifying through him by the bloud of his Crosse whether the things that are on earth or that are in heaven And you being once estranged and enemies in your mind through evil workes now hath he reconciled by the body of his flesh through death Especially comparing this with the purpose of God which he declareth Eph. I. 10. For the ordering of the fullnesse of time to recollect all in Christ whether thinges in heaven or on earth For that which here he termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to recollect unto Christ that is by Christ to reduce to the originall state of dependence upon God is in part the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reconcile to himself afore But wholy agrees not in as much as this particularly concerns the case of mankind whose sinne required reconcilement that they might be reduced to God in one body with the holy angels that had no sinne All this the Apostle meant to expresse at once and yet imply what was particular to man besides that which belonged to the Angels And we must either admit reconcilement between Men and Angels because both reduced to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of Christ mention had been made afore Col. â— 20. as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. I. 4. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 1 Pet. I. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes I. 5. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. VIII 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or show how the Angels are reduced to God by the death and bloud-shed of Christ his Crosse It remaines that I say something of the effect of all this in cleansing and purging of sin and in making propitiation and attonement for it Of which you have the words of the Apostle 1 John I. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne Where cleansing of sinne by Christs bloud supposing the condition of Christianity it is manifest that the effect of Christs bloud in cleansing of sinne is not to bring us to Christianity Againe 1 John II. 1 2 If any man sinne we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world Saith Socinus Jesus Christ the righteous that is Jesus Christ the faithfull 1 John I. 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive our sinnes and cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse That so he may be thought to expiate our sinnes by testifying the Covenant which ingages Gods faith So farre he goes for an interpretation that destroyes the virtue of Christs intercession founded upon his innocence 1 Peter I. 19. Isaiah LIII 7 9. For if Christ be an effectuall advocate because he suffered innocently for Gods will then not onely because he hath obliged God by dealing in his Name to make good what he hath promised us Whereas if his bloud be a propitiation for the sinnes of Christians that are not any more to be moved to receive the faith as well as for the sinnes of the rest of the World that are it must be the same consideration of Christs obedience that moves the goodnesse of God to send the Gospel to the World and to make it good to Christians And what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meanes is seen by the Latine hilaris according to Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chearfull in countenance And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chearfully mâ—râ—ly So the condition of Christianity being supposed in these words also the consideration of Christs bloud makes the face of God chearfull to a Christian that sinneth Here they alledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. II. 17. to signify expiating sinnes and that must presently be by bringing men to be Christians But there is in diverse speeches of this subject that figure which Servius so often observes in Virgil calling it Hypallage As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. I. 3. It is not the sinne that is cleansed but man from sinne And yet the Apostle saies of Christ who having made purgation of sinnes So neither are sins ransomed but men from sinne and yet he saith againe Heb. IX 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the ransoming of the sinnes that were under the former Covenant And this is the true sense of Dan. IV. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redeem thy sinnes For though a man ransomes not his sinnes yet he ransomes himself from his sinnes by repentance as I said afore So seeing propitiation tends to make God propitious of angry It is manifest that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for variety or brevity or elegance of Language stands for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is alledged to be the Greek in the signification of expiating a man of sin which the sacrifice of Christ does say they by perswading him to be a Christian sometimes it is said of the Priest making propitiation for the sanctuary or the Altar with the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for the people with the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Levit. XVI 33. And then out of that which hath been said it may appear how the sacrifice is the consideration whereupon it is made But if it be said of God as Jer XVIII 23 Ps LXXIX 9. with the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems to expresse God propitious to sin when
till after a distance that As by the offense of one it came to all men to condemnation so by the righteousnesie of one it came to all men to justification of life For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous And hereupon as the exaltation of Christ is imputed to his obedience in the state of his humiliation by S. Paul Phil. II. 8. he humbled himselfe becoming obedient unto death So are the effects and consequences thereof Rom. IV. 25. who was delivered for our transgressions and rose againe for our justification to be ascribed to the same And that which the Father proclaimes of the sonne Mat. III. 17. XVII 5. This is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased cannot be understood in any other regard but of his obedience performed in publishing the message which the Father sent him upon into the world and suffering for it in which he testifies so often in S. Johns Gospell that he came not to doe his owne will but his Fathers that he sought not his owne glory but his Fathers he did not he said not any thing of himselfe but what he had seen his Father doe what he had heard his Father say that it were tedious to repeate the severall places And this according to the figure of David Psal XI 9. 10. then said I Lo I come In the volume of the book it is written of me that I should fullfill thy will I am content to doe it O Lord yea thy Law is within my heart Whereupon the Apostle saith that we are sanctified by this will through the once offering of the body of Jesus Christ Ebr. IX 9. to wit the will of God which by doing his will Christ had moved to favor us Even as in the figure punishment is remitted remitted to Davids posterity for the promise indeed 2 Kings VIII 19. XX. 6. 1 Kings XI 3. but made in consideration of Davids obedience 2 Sam. VII 18. Here I suppose further that this obedience of Christ is not tenderd as of Debt which they that beleeve him to have been borne a meere creature must hold But having proved that he assumed mans nature being the Word of God God of God from everlasting afore doe necessarily presume that this obedience being undue is meritorious to whatsoever purpose God that sent him accepts it And hereupon inferr that God granted those termes of reconcilement which the Gospell importeth in derogation to his owne originall Law in consideration of it For I doe suppose that man being fallen from God yet knowing God and himselfe to have been made by God and to be governed by his providence necessarily understood himselfe to be under the obligation of making God the end of all his actions and therefore of injoying no creature otherwise then the service of God should either require or allow Though that ignorance of God which originall concupiscence hath since brought into the world through the worship of Idols and the corruptions that attend upon the same had since so extinguished or darkned the light of nature in man that the greatest part of mankind though they could not deny this truth neverthelesse held it prisoner in unrighteousnesse as S. Paul sayes Rom. I. 18. This is that which I call the originall Law of God the transgression whereof bindeth over to that punishment which God by his word declareth And of this Law the necessary immediate consequence is that we submit to all such Lawes as God shall publish to man in as much as he requires and upon such penalties as he declares So that by publishing the Gospell the originall Law of God is not abrogated continuing still the rule of mens actions but rather strengthened and inlarged to all those precepts which are positive under the Gospell and come not from the light of nature as necessary conditions to salvation in all estates But the publication of the Gospell is a dispensation in the exercise and execution of the originall Law by the penalty which it in acteth in consideration of Christs obedience though being generall to all mankind after the publishing of it it may be called a New Law as proposing new termes of salvation which if any man challenge to be a derogation to Gods originall Law I will not contend about words As for the Law of Moses if we consider it as containing the termes upon which that people held the land of promise the publishing of the Gospell neither abrogates it nor derogates from it Being onely given to hold till the time of reformation as the Apostle calls it Ebr. IX 10. therefore expiring when the Gospell was published which limited the intent of it But if we consider it as containing an intimation of that spirituall obedience which God required of those that would be saved under that light by the outward and civil obedience of those positive precepts whereby they were restrained from the worship of Idols and commerce with Idolatrous nations in proportion to the reward of the world to come signified by the happinesse of the land of promise then must we acknowledge another dispensation in the same originall Law by the Law of Moses and for the time of it which was also in force under the Fathers from the beginning though not burthened which that multitude of positive precepts which the Law of Moses brought in for the condition upon which they were to hold the land of promise And in opposition to those it is called by the Fathers of the Church the Law of Nature not in opposition to Grace The very giving it by Gods voluntary appearing to the Fathers and instructing them by familiar conversation as it were being a work of meere grace as also the effect of it in the workes of their conversation which we find so truly Christian that the Fathers of the Church doe truly argue from thence that Judaisme is younger then Christianity And therefore I do here acknowledge this his dispensation by which the Fathers obtained salvation before the Gospell to have been granted also in consideration of that obedience which our Lord Christ had taken upon him to performe in the fullnesse of time Nothing hindering us to understand in Gods proceeding with them something like that which in the civil law is called novatio or delegatio renwing of bonds or assignation of payment Gods accepting the interposition of our Lord Christ to the reconcilement of them being as if he accepted a new bond for an old debt or of payment by proxy to be made at a certaine terme This is a point as manifest in the Scriptures of the New Testament as it was requisite that a point not concerning the salvation of those that live under the New Testament but the understanding of the reason thereof in the salvation of those that died under the Old for the maintenance of it against unbelevers should be manifest For S. Paul thus writeth 1 Cor. X. 1-4
writeth of those Christians who he saith are seduced by the Hereticks which he speakes of 2 Pet. II. 18 22. For speaking bombast words of vanity they catch with the baite of fleshly concupiscences in uncleannesse those that had really escaped them that converse in error Promising them freedome themselves being slaves to corruption seeing a man is slave to that by which he is conquered For if having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ and being intangled in them againe they be conquered the last error is become worse to them then the first For it had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse than having knowne or acknowledged it to turne from the holy precept once delivered to them But it is fallen out to them according to the old Proverbe The dogge that returnes to his owne vomit And the sowe that is washed to wallow in the mire Is it possible that all this should be thought to import no more then profession as to men without any effect as to God but onely to the Church For if we suppose them all to have counterfeited Christianity not really resolving to live as Christians how comes he to say that they had really escaped those that live in error whose wayes they had not really left And if they had escaped the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of Christianity had they done no more then a man by meere nature may doe Then may a man by meere nature be disintangled of the pollutions of this world But if they had conquered sinne by those helpes of grace which brought them to be Christians for otherwise how should they be conquered by the baites of sinne which those Heretickes deceive them with then had they obtained those promises which the Gospell rewardeth that conquest with In fine Can a dogge returne to the vomit or a sow to the miâ—e which they never left or can the later end be worse then the beginning to them who never were cleare of that damnation in which they were overtaken by the preaching of Christianity To that of S. John speaking of the Antichrists of the time them and their followers John II. 19. They went â—ut from among us but they were not of us For had they been of us they would have continued among us I will use no other answer then that which S. Austine hath given us de corrept gratia cap. IX that those who are qualified by attributes signifying predestination cannot fall away as long as they are described by present righteousnesse they may For saith he had they persevered they had persevered in Grace not in unrighteousnesse neither was theire righteousnesse counterfeite but not durable Therefore they were not in the number of sonnes when they were in the Faith of sonnes because those are truly sonnes that are foreknowne and predestinate and called according to purpose that they may be like the sonne For S. John and S. Paul being assured of theire owne adoption according to purpose it is no marvaile if they presume the like of those whome they comprise in the same quality with themselves in regard of theire present righteousnesse the profession whereof was visible I must not here omit the Epistle to the Seven Churches Apoc II. III. and the exhortations promises and threatninges tendred the Angels of them whether in behalfe of themselves it maters not much to this purpose or which is certaine in behalfe of the Churches In particular to that of Ephesus II. 45. But I have this against thee that thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore whence thou art â—allen and repent and doe thy first workes Otherwise I will come to thee suddenly and remove thy canâ—lesticke out of the place thereof if thou repent not How should any man be exhorted by the Spirit of God to returne to those workes that were not the workes of a true Christian How should the Judgement threatned take effect and no soule perish that had been saved otherwise To that of Thyatira II. 25. 26 28. But hold what you have untill I come He that conquereth and keepeth my workes to the end I will give him power over the Nations and he shall rule them with an iron rodde as a potters vessells are broken as I also haâ—e received of my Father And I will give him the morning starre What means this exhortation to them that are not capable of doing otherwise What means the power of Christ and the morning starre if not the reward of the world to come To that of Pergamus III. 11 Behold I come suddenly Hold what thou hast lest another take thy crowne Is it not plaine that he shall be saved if he hold what he hath That he shall not if another take his crowne Can S. Pauls severe sentences be avoided 1 Cor. VI. 9 10. Know ye not that the injurious shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven Be not deceived Neither whoremongers nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor the soft nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor those that defraude nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers shall inherit the kingdome of God Gal. V. 19. 20. 21. The workes of the â—lesh are manifest which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse wantonnesse Idolatry witchcraft enmities strifes jealousies animosities provocations divisions sects envies murders drinkings debauches and the like to these of which I told you before hand aâ— I foretold you that they who doe such thinges shall not inherit the kingdome of God Eph. V. 58. For this ye know that no whoremaster or uncleane person or that defraudeth who is an Idolatur hath inheritance in the kingdome of God and of Christ Lâ—t â—o man deceive you with vaine wordes For for these thinges cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be ye not therefore partners with them For ye were darknesse but are now light in the Lord. Walâ—e as children of the light They that sowe pillowes under sinners elbowes excusantes excusationes in peccatis according to the vulgare translation Psal CXL 4. and treating termes of reconcilement betweene Christ and Belial betweene the promises of the Gospell for everlasting and the pleasures of sinne for a moment will not have this to belong to the godly whome they allow to doe such thinges for a snap and away without forfeiting their interest in the world to come but to the unregenerate who live in a setled course of such sinnes without remorse And I freely allow that so soone as the godly man whome they suppose to be overtaken with any such sinne shall take such a course to turne from it as may restore in him that resolution of mind for which God accepts a true Christian he is restored to the place which he held in Gods grace not as never forfeited but as recoverd anew In the meane time if any pretense be made that being once in Gods favor he can never faile of it it is as
ac debeant si fideliter laboraro volueriut adimplere Here also we believe according to the Catholick faith that all that are baptized having received grace by baptisme may and ought to fulfill those things which belong to their salvation if they will faithfully labour it Which is no more then to say That they have sufficient grace to preserve them from falling away Or from falling into those sinnes which forfeit the state of Grace Though I easily yeild this possibility is rather naturall than morall And that considering the many opportunities and provocations even to those sinnes which the occasions of the world present the inclinations of Concupiscence with it is in the judgement of discretion impossible that a man should not forfeit the state of grace though absolutely there is nothing to inforce that it must necessarily come to passe And truly the Prophet Davids prayer To be cleansed from secret sinnes but to be preserved from presumptuous sinnes Psal XIX 12 13. showes difference enough between the kindes But the obtaining of this prayer not to fall into any presumptuous sinne depends upon that diligent watch which even the regenerate may neglect to keep over themselves Now for him that shall have committed this forfeit though the promise of the holy Ghost and the habituall assistance thereof is thereby voide yet the knowledge of Christianity that is the obligation and matter of it and that facility of living the life of a Christian which custome leaves behind it remaining the actuall assistance of the H. Ghost which alwaies accompanieth the preaching of the Gospel cannot be wanting where so great effects of it are extant to procure the recovery of him that is fallen away Whether they shall take effect or no it is in the justice and mercy of that Providence which onely maketh them effectual The wisdome of God which shall laugh at the calamities and mock when the feares of them come that refuse when it calls and regard not when it stretcheth out hands Prov. I. 22 representeth the condition of those that forfeit the Promise exceedingly terrible in that they are fallen under Gods meer mercy though it be granted that they want not sufficient helps to restore them till they be come to the end of their race But in very deed the hardest of this point is to give account how this holds under the old Law how any man could be saved by fullfilling that Law which the Gospel declars to be taken away because no man could be saved by fulfilling it To which my answer must be according to the supposition premised concerning a twofold sense of Moses Law that is to say a twofold Law of God under the Old Testament that it is no marvaile if the civile happinesse of Gods ancient people which the Law of Moses in the litteral sense tendred for the reward of it were to be obtained by worshipping the onely true God and that civile conversation according to it which that people of their naturall freedome were able to performe True it is indeed which S. Peter saies Acts XV. 10. that â—â—ither they nor their Fathers were able to bear the burthen of Moses Law And that for that reason which not onely Origen but divers others of the ancient Fathers have alledged against the Jewes that there went so many scruples to the precise observation of it as it was not possible for any people in the world to overcome For there being such variety of cases incident to the observation of such variety of precepts as no man could further be secured in that he proceeded according to the will of God then as the determination of those whom God by the law of Deut. XVII 8-12 XVI 18. had referred it to might secure him And that alwaies new cases must needs prevent new determinations of necessity the precise observation of Moses law even outwardly and in the literal sense was in ordinary discretion thing impossible Which is effectuall indeed to convince the Jewes that God never was so in love with their Law as to accept them for precisely keeping of it even in the world to come But provided it for an outward and civile discipline to countenance the inward godlinesse and righteousnesse of the heart till he should think fit openly to inact it for the condition of the world to come In the the meane time having tendered the Law for a condition by which they might hold the land of promise it is manifest that the obtaining of it depended not upon that precise observation of all scruples which the nature of the subject rendred in humane reason impossible But that in case they worshipped God alone and observed the precepts of the Law with that dilligence which a reasonable and honest man would use in that case the promise must become due Whereby the law in this sense is a fit figure to represent both the impossibibility of Gods originall Law and the gentlenesse of that dispensation thereof which the Gospel importeth As for the inward and mysticall sense of Moses Law it is manifest that the countenance which the Law gave true righteousnesse by inforcing the worship of the onely true God together with so many acts of righteousnesse among men and temperance chastity and sobriety with temporall penalties With the faith of the world to come and the doctrine of spirituall righteousnesse of it self acceptable to God received from the Fathers and maintained by the Prophets and their disciples in all ages maintained alwayes a stocke of such men as God accepted of even to the reward of the world to come In whose condition notwithstanding we must observe a kind of limitation or exception to the temporall promises of the Law not onely at such time as the people fell away from God to the worship of Idols but in regard of hypocriticall Governors who pretending zeal to Gods lawes of sacrifices and ceremonies and the promises of God due to them in that regard under that colour took advantage sufficiently to abuse and oppresse his poor people For when these cases fell out the Prophets whose office it was to reprove such things in Gods name and their disciples and followers must needs fall under great persecution at these mens hands So that their right in the land of Promise turning to a sorry account of happiness for them who of all men were the most severe observers of Gods Law of necessity the temporal promises thereof were supplied and made good to them by the hope of the world to come Which as Origen wisely and ingeniously observes if a man well consider he shall find that flaw in the promises of the Old Testament to be as a chink or breach in a wall through which we may discern the light of the Gospel beyond it For if the matter be rightly considered it will appear that these hypocriticall Governours of Gods ancient people which thought the promises of the Law for ever entailed upon themselves and their successors upon the observing of
bloud as understanding themselves aright all Christians must needs do Unlesse wee can maintain that wee receive the body and blood of Christ not onely when wee receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist but also by receiving it there is no cause why our Lord should say This is my body this is bloud when hee delivered onely the sign of it to good and bad and therefore not out of any consideration of the quality of them that received it And what a grosse thing were it to say that our Savior took such care to leave his Church by the act of his last will a legacy which imports no more than that which they might at all times bestow upon themselves And let mee know whether the Church could not devise signes enow to renew the memory of Christs death or if that be likewise included to expresse their profession also of dying with Christ by bearing his Crosse if our Lords intent had been no more than to appoint a Ceremony that might serve to commemorate our Lords death or to expresse our own profession of conformity to the same For certainly they who make no more of it whom I said wee may therefore properly call Sacramentaries cannot assign any further effect of Gods grace for which it may have been instituted and yet make it a meer sign of Christs death or of our own profession to dy with Christ or for Christ But if I allow them that make it more than such a sign to have departed from a pessilent conceit and utterly destructive to Christianity I cannot allow them to speak things consequent to their own position when they will not have these words to signifie that the elements are the body and bloud of Christ when they are received but become so upon being received with living faith which will allow no more of the body and bloud of Christ to be in the Sacrament than out of it For the act of living faith importeth the eating and drinking of the flesh and bloud of Christ no lesse without the Sacrament than in it Certainly it is no such abstruse consequence no such farr fetched argument to inferr If this is my body this is my bloud signifies no more than this is the sign of my body and bloud then is the Sacrament of the Eucharist a meer sign of the body and bloud of Christ without any promise of spiritual grace Seeing that being now a Sacrament by being become a Sacrament it is become no more than a sign of the body and bloud of Christ which though a living faith spiritually eateth and drinketh when it receives the Sacrament yet should it have done no lesse without receiving the same I will here allege the discourse of our Lord to them that followed him to Capernaum John VI. 26-63 upon occasion of having been fed by the miracle of five loaves and a few little fishes Supposing that which any man of common sense must grant that it signifies no more than they that heard it could understand by it and that the Sacrament of the Eucharist not being then ordained they could not understand that hee spake of it but ought to understand him to speak of believing the Gospel and becoming Christians under the allegory of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud But when the Eucharist was instituted the correspondence of the ceremony thereof with the allegory which here hee discourseth is evidence enough that as well the promise which hee tendreth as the duty which hee requireth have their effect and accomplishment in and by the receiving of it I must here call you to minde that which I said of the Sacrament of Baptisme that when our Lord discoursed with Nicodemus of regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost John III. not having yet instituted the Sacrament of Baptisme in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost nor declared the promise of giving the Holy Ghost to them that should receive the same it must needs be thought that hee made way thereby to the introducing of that Ordinance the condition and promise whereof hee meant by the processe of his own and his Apostles doctrine further to limit and determine In like maner I must here insist and suppose that hee speaks not here immediately of eating and drinking his flesh and bloud in the Eucharist which his hearers could not then fore-tell that hee meant to ordain but that the action thereof being instituted with such correspondence to this discourse the intent of it may be and is to be argued from the same Now I have showed in due place that the sayings and doings of our Lord in the Gospel are mystical to signifie his kingdome of Glory to the which hee bringeth us through his kingdome of Grace So that when our Savior fed that great multitude with the loaves and the fishes which hee multiplied by miracle to the intent that they might not faint in following him and his doctrine it is manifest that hee intimateth thereby a promise of Grace to sustain us in our travail here till wee come to our Countrey of the Land of Promise When therefore hee proposeth the theme of this discourse saying Yee seek mee not because yee have seen miracles which serve to recommend my doctrine but because yee have eaten of the loaves and were filled Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for that which indures to life everlasting hee showes two things First that his flesh and bloud sustain us in our pilgrimage here because hee showes the Manna which the Fathers lived on in the Wildernesse to be a figure of it Secondly that they bring us to immortality and everlasting life in the world to come by expounding the figure to consist in this that as they were maintained by manna till they died so his new Israelites by his flesh and bloud by eating his flesh and drinking his bloud which hee was giving for the life of the world never to dye Now wherein the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud consisteth hee showes by his answer to their question upon this Warning them to work for the meat that lasts unto everlasting life which hee tenders and not for that which perisheth The question is What shall wee do to work Gods works And the answer The work of God is this to believe in him whom hee hath sent I have showed in due place that the condition which makes the promises of the Gospel due is oâ—r Christianity to wit to professe the faith of Christ faithfully that is not in vain Therefore when our Lord saith The work of God is this To believe on him whom hee hath sent hee means this fidelity in professing Christianity For indeed who can imagine otherwise that hee should call the act of believing in Christ that work of God which Christ came to teach Gods people Hee then that considers the death of Christ that is to say the crucifying of his flesh and the pouring out of his bloud with that faith which supposes all
I come to conclude against the Anabaptists Our Lord saith to Nicodeâ—â—us Joh. III. 3. Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born again hee cannot seâ— the Kingdom of God And what this new birth is he setteth forth in answering that impertinent question which Nicodemus not understanding him makes how a man should come out of his Mothers belly the second time Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Here I will grant the Anabaptists that the Sacrament of Baptism is not instituted by these words but by the act of our Lord after his Resurrection when he gives his Apostles their Commission Go make Disciples all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you Mar. XXVIII 18. But for reasons which perhaps they will not thank me for though they be not able to refute As yet when this discourse was held it was not declared to all that took our Lord for a Prophet that he was the Sonne of God Nicodemus himselfe that comes to him as a Prophet saying Master we know thou art a Prophet come from God For no man could do the works that thou dost unlesse God were with him If he go away instructed that the same which obliges him to take our Lord Christ for a Prophet concludes him to be the Christ the Son of God he is beholden to the freedom of our Lord in declaring to him the pretense of his coming by this discourse But for the purpose of sending the Holy Ghost it cannot be imagined that it was declared from the beginning of our Lords preaching who reveals not the intent of his death to his Apostles till he grew towards the time of it The priviledge of sending the Holy Ghost being part of that state to which he was to be exalted rising from death How then can it be imagined that our Lord should from the beginning of his preaching appoint all to be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the Sacrament of Baptism that makes us Christians Certainly it is not the same thing for John to baptize in the name of him that should come as for the Apostles in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Unlesse we think that all the people of God who expected a Messias expected him to be the Son of God which Christians worship our Lord Christ for and they crucified him for pretending to be There is therefore no cause why we should offer that violence to the Scripture Acts XXX 4. 5. John indeed baptized the baptism of repentance saying to the people that they were to believe in him that came after him that is in Christ Jesus And hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus which I showed you is offered by those that would have it to signifie That those who were baptized by Iohn Baptist were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus For other answers that are devised to avoid to clear a Scripture I count them not worth the refuting so evidenâ—ly they force the express sense of the words And among them none more unreasonable thâ—n that which saith that these men were not indeed baptized with the baptism of Iohn though they thought they were And that S. Paul when he sayes John indeed baptized with water saying to the people that they should believe in him that was to come even in Christ Iesus argues and perswades them that they were not indeed baptized with the Baptism of Iohn though they thought they were For of all things in the world could men be deceived to think that they professed that which the Baptism of Iohn must oblige them to professe and did not Nor can it be said with any appearance of truth that Iohn baptizing unto repentance those whom he sends for the means of salvation for the future to him that was to come did baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus in as much as it is necessary to be said that the Apostles when they baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Acts II. 38. VIII 16. X. 48. did sufficiently intimate the name of the Father whose Son they preached our Lord to be and also of the Holy Ghost whom our Lord had promised to those that are baptized as Irenaeus so long since hath exquisitely cleared the difficulty how they observed their Commission of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Baptizing as S. Luke reports in the Name of the Lord Jesus But of Iohn the Baptist it is said Ioh. I. 29-34 That the morrow after he baptized our Lord he declared him to be the man that was to come after him in whose name he had baptized that he knew him not but came to declare him and that by the coming down of the Dove upon him it was revealed to him that he should know our Lord to be the man that came to Baptize with the Holy Ghost Whereby it appeareth that he cannot be thought to have baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus as that importeth as much as baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost For though it is evident that Iohn knew our Lord when he came to be baptized that he knew him to be in the world from the time that he began to preach and that he should baptize with the Holy Ghost Yet not knowing the man from the time that he began to baptize how could he baptize in his name and as the Son of God that was to give the Holy Ghost before our Lord himselfe had preached and declared upon what terms it was to come I suppose it is easie enough to distinguish between baptizing in the name of Christ and baptizing with an intent of sending them whom he baptized to Christ to be baptized with the Holy Ghost Neither is this to say that Iohns Baptism availed not to remission of sinnes for the time that it was on foot by Gods appointment when as we acknowledge that dispensation of Grace which was intimated and conveyed by the Law to have been the means to bring some to the righteousnesse of faith How much more the twilight of the Gospel under John the Baptist But that before the Covenant of Grace was published by the preaching of our Lord and inacted on Gods part by his death upon the Crosse or rather by raising him from death it was not time to determine that act by which God intended that profession which he requires for the condition of it should be solemnized and celebrated Therefore there came water and blood out of our Lords side upon the Cross to intimate the ground upon which this Sacrament should be in force for the future And if this be the condition
the premises and the reason why this profession is limited by the Gospel to be solemnized by the Sacrament of Baptism being so clearly rendred that it is impossible to rendâ—r any other reason how the spiritual and everlasting promises of the Gospel should depend upon a material and bodily act of washing away the filth of the flesh I suppose the way is plain to inferre that suppoâ—â—ng God allowes pardon to all that fall after Baptism so often as they return by true repentance it cannot be refused those that return by true repentance whether it be obtained by the ministry of the Church or without it It is not necessary for me here to repete all those sayings of the new Testament wherein the motion from the state of damnation in which the Gospâ—l finds us to the state of salvation by the Gospel expressed under the â—erâ— of Repentance John Baptists and our Lords first Sermon is upon this Text Repâ—nt for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. III. 2. IV. 17. in Mark Repent and believe the Gospel I. 15. and both a thing For he that is moved to repent either by the preaching of John Baptist or of our Lord Christ must needs take the rule and measure of that which he turns to by repentance from him whose Doctrine he followeth whether John or our Lord Christ whom John declâ—reth The same is the theme that the Apostles preach upon Mar. VI. 12. And the same is the case whether the Apostle say Repent and be baptized Acts II. 38. or Repent and turn as Acts III. 19. seeing he must needs be understood to meane that they turn to Christianity by repentance And still the same when S. Paul publishing the Gospel declares that God by it calls all men to repentance Acts XVII 30. that it consists in preaching repentance and faith in our Lord Christ Jesus Acts XX. 21. or in calling men to repent and turn to God doing works worthy of reâ—entance Acts XXVI 20. therefore all our Lords Sermons of repentance in the Gospels Mat. XI 20. 21. XII 41. Luke X. 13. XI 32. XIII 2-9 XV. do imply and presuppose the same limitations to determine the repentance which his Gospel requires Which he that receives not is called the impenitent heart Rom. II. 5. And St. Paul directs Timothy to instruct the adversaries with meeknessâ— if perhaps God may give them repeutance to the acknowledgement of the truth 2 Tim. II. 25. And S. Peter when he commends God as long suffering towards us Because he would have none perish but all come to repentance 2 Pet. III. 5. speaks of those that mock at Christianity saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things remain as they were from the beginning Since then converâ—â—on to Christianity is that which qualifies for remission of sinnes those whom it overtaketh in sinne can any reason be given why it should not be effectual to the loosing of any sinne whereby a Christian transgressing his Christianity forseiteth the priviledges of it For the profession which he sealed by being baptized as to the Church fails not by a â—inne that the Church sees not and as to God revives by that new resolution which repentance introduceth There is not indeed much mention of privâ—te repentance in those which are already Christians in the writings of the Apostles But there is frequent mention of sinnes without mention of any cure by the Church without any appearance or signification of any cure applyed to them by the Church As the eating of things offered to Idols when it might be the occasion to make another Christian commit Idolatry 1 Cor. VIII 12. which if publick and yet cannot be thought to come under the Keyes of the Church how much more those that are are not publick I have proved in another place that S. Paul instructs Timothy not to ordain sinfull persons least he communicate in their sinnes Because saith he Some mens sinnes are manifest aforehand going before them to judgement 1 Tim. V 22. 24. But those that stood for Ordination could not pretend to be cured of their sinnes by the Church because coming into that rank they could noâ— aspire to be preferred in the Church But the words of S. John are unavoidable for he writ to Christians 1 Ioh. I. 7. 8 9 10 If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have communion with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sinne If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse If we say we have no sinne we make him a liar and his word is not in us And immediately My little children I write these things to you that ye sinne not And if any man sinne we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes But not for ours alone but for the sinnes of the whole world The precept of God to John and by John to the seven Churches to repent Apoc. II 5. 16. 21. III. 3. 9. is to Christiâ—ns and to Churches For though it be directed to the Angels of those Churches yet in behalfe of the Churches themselves Now can the Church be cured by the Church If not then are some sinnes of Christians cured without the Keyes of the Church If so why not the sinne of a man by that man as well as the sinne of a Church by that Church The cure of the sinne of a Church being nothing else but the repentance of that Church oâ— perhaps the greatest part of that Church For otherwise no mans sinne of that Church could be cured till every man of that Church should return by repentance What say you to S. Pauls invections against wronging Christians and against uncleannesse 1 Cor. VI. 6-10 15-20 Shall we think that they who sued Christians before Infidels came to confession foâ— this sinne that these whose sinnâ— S. Paul aggravates above this for it is worse to wrong a Christian then to seek right of a Christian by an Infidels means acknowledged any way the Church had to constrain them to do right Nay that those whom he reduceth there from fornication did acknowledge the cure of it by the Church What then needed S. Paul to perswade them that they could not be saved without turning to God from it For had they been perswaded that it could not be cured without confession to the Church they must have supposed that it could not be cured without confession to God And what say you to S. Pauls instruction Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 1 Cor. XI 28. For though this may be subject to some limitation as by that which follows it will or may appear that it is to be
be one of them or not yet since I can say that supposing it were this would not follow for the reason which I have said nothing hinders ouâ— discourse to proceed as supposing it were not granting that it is In particular seeing that by the Law of Christianity none can mary with one that is bound to another already the innocent party so married by cousenage is so farre from being obliged by it as to be obliged not to use it upon notice Again in particular seeing that Christianity declareth mariage to intend procreation and the remedy of concupiscence the uglinesse whereof was never discovered by Idolators and Pagans wheresoever is discovered a naturall impotence to per-form the act of mariage there appeareth an error which had it not been the mariage had not been made And therefore adding the generall to the particular the contract must appear voide The same is much more to be said if by any deceit there hath been an error in the sex of one of the parties Difference in Religion between Christians and Pagans between Christians and Jews renders mariage void by virtue of the premises though it oblige not Christians to make use of their right by renouncing it as Jews were obliged to desert Idolaters But that there may some new Religion spring up in the world upon the divisions of the Church which we see are possible which question may be made whether it be lawful or whether expedient for Christians either to mary or to continue maried with suppose for the present that of the Gnosticks that of the Priscillianists that of our Ranters or Quakers who can deny And supposing such a question made and supposing the Church to be a Society trusted with the guard of Gods Law concerning mariage what determination can secure the conscience of a Christian but the determination of the Church in a cause grounded on mater of Christianity for the guard whereof the Church standeth Doth not all the world acknowledge a publick reputation of that honesty which Christianity pretendeth and challengeth to be performed in the mariage of Christians as they are Christians Do not all Christians acknowledge that there is a neernesse both of blood and of alliance within which Christians are forbidden to mary You will say to me that these degrees are limited by the Law of God in the XVIII of Leviticus and that the Church hath no more to do in prohibiting that which is not there prohibited then in licensing that which is But that will not serve my turn having proved that the Law of Moses in the first instance was given for the civill Law of one people of the Jews and for their civill happinesse in the Land of promise given them on condition of living according to it with a promise of freedom over themselves so doing The Church on the contrary a society of all Christendom founded upon undertaking the Law of Christ with promise of everlasting happinesse For what appearance is there that the same Law should contain the condition of temporall and eternal happinesse in any part of humane life and conversation Indeed he that should argue that seeing God prohibited to many degrees of affinity and consanguinity in the mariages of his ancient people whom he treated expresly with upon onely temporall promises all the same degrees therefore are prohibited Christians whom God deals with upon the promise of the world to come I cannot see how his argument could find an answer But having showed that Christians are bound to straiter terms of Godlinesse by the law of Christ then the ancient people of God whom God obliged himselfe to for the world to come but by intimations which needed stronger inclinations to virtue to imbrace will it not follow that the provision of the Levitical Law is no exception to this generall in mater of mariage Indeed it is not the power of the Church that brings in this ground of restraining more then is restrained by the Levitical Law but the nature of Christianity which I showed from the beginning to be in order of nature before the constitution of the Church and ancient to it But having showed that there is no presumption in Christianity to hinder that to belong to the Law of the Church which is not recorded in the Scripture by consequence I have showed that the practice of the Church may be sufficient evidence for it and that the power of the Church is not onely sufficient but necessary to the determining of that which is not determined by it I confesse I have a difficult objection to answer when I read Levit. XVIII 24. 25. Be not polluted with any of these For with these were the Nations polluted which I drive out before your face And the earth is polluted and I visit the iniquity thereof upon it and she spueth out her inhabitants For by this it should seem that all the prohibitions of that chapter contained in the genenerall term of these thinge stood by the perpetuall Law of God and Nature so that they were never dispensed with before the Law and that therefore there can be no reason to understand any degree to be prohibited Christians which was not prohibited Jews The objection were difficult enough had we not peremtory instances to choke them with that argue thus For is it possible for any reasonable man to imagine that God should call those things which the Fathers practised till now those abominations for which he drives out the seven Nations from before his people Is it not manifest that Jacob was maried to two Sisters at once that Moses and Aaron came of the mariage of the Mothers Sister Exod. VI. 20 that Abraham was maried to his brothers daughter at least And is it strange that should be prohibited by Moses Law which before was dispensed with But supposing that difference between the Law and the Gospel that I have proved were it not strange that that no more should be prohibited under the Gospel then by the Law Of the Polygamy of the Fathers before the Law I said enough afore to show that it was dispensed with how it was dispensed with I said not which seems to make men difficult of beliefe in the point And truly that which the Fathers say sometimes that they were taught by Gods spirit that they might do it for the maintenance of the righteous seed seems somewhat strange if we understood it as if the world did acknowledge it to be prohibited till the chiefe friends of God had particular revelation from him that it was allowed them being forbidden all the world besides Now we have good information from the Jews which all men of learning do now accept for Historical truth that after the flood there were certain precepts delivered to Noe and his Sons which therefore they call the seven precepts of the Sonnes of Noe with an intent to oblige all Nations among which there was one that prohibited the uncovering of nakednesse signifying thereby the forbearance of
in nature as the worship of the true God and the worship of the Devil for God because that is done before an image Let us survay the matters of fact which we have in the Scriptures Moses thus warneth the Israelites Deut. IV. 15-19 Take heed unto your selves least you corrupt your selves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure the likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth the likeness of any winged foul that flieth in the aire the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth And least thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be pushed aside to worship them and to serve them which the Lord thy God hath imparted unto all nations under the whole heavens It is like enough that the first Idolatry that ever was practised was the worship of the Sunne the Moone and the Stars But that it was a part of the Gentiles Idolatries by the Scripture alone it is evident and certaine The Jewes as Moses Maimoâ—i relateth in the Title of Idolatry at the beginning tell us that out of admiration of the beauty and constant motions of those glorious bodies men began of themselves to conceive that it would be a thing pleasing to God to addresse themselves to him by the mediation of those creatures which they could not chuse but think so much nearer to him then themselves That this conceit being seconded with pretended revelations to the same purpose brought forth in time the offering of sacrifices to them and making of images of them by meanes whereof the blessings of God might be procured through their influence And Origen often gathereth out of those words that God allowed the Gentiles afore the Law to worship the Sunne and the Moone and the Starrs that they might proceed no further to worse Idolatries Though so farre as I have observed he is not seconded herein by any of the Fathers Nor can he in my opinion be any further excused then the Booke of Wisdome doth excuse him making the worship of the Elements of the World the lightest sort of Idolatries Wisd XIII 10. It is a thing agreeable to all experience that by degrees and not in an instant mankind should be seduced to forget God having had the knowledge of God at the first derived unto them from their first parents and to take his creatures for God But will any man therefore undertake that when they were come so farre as to worship the Sunne and the Moon and the Starres by sacrifices and incense and all those actions whereby the honour of God was first expressed all this was done in honour to God because they were conceived to be nearer him then other of his creatures How will he then answer S. Paul when he saith Rom. I. 25. That the Gentiles changed the true God into a ly and worshipped and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides or parallel to the Creator who is God blessed for evermore For where was the ly but in taking the creature for God And how could they worship and serve the creature hand in hand with God but by degrading God into the rank of his creature and advancing the creature into the rank to which God was degraded by their false and lying conceit How could they expresse this honour by actions formerly appropriated to the service of God had they not first been seduced in the conceit of that honour which they robbed God of to give it his creatures But it is a thing certaine and palpable in the Idolatries of the Gentiles that they deified dead men by attributing unto them the names of the Heavens the Sunne the Moone the rest of the Planets and other Constellations of the Aire the Earth the Waters in fine of the World and the Elements of it So that Idolatry was committed both to the men and to those worldly bodies at once In this case will any man be so willfull as to hold still that these worldly Bodies were no otherwise honoured then in relation to God as his creatures when as it appeareth that the honour due to God alone was studiously procured for dead men by insinuating ridiculous perswasions into the mindes of people seduced to think that they were deified in those Bodies Wherefore it is not to be denied that those creatures were advanced to the honour of God by degrading God into the rank of his creatures as if there might as well be more Gods then one as more creatures of a kind then one Againe when Moses warneth them of making the image of any creature can any man doubt that his reason is least it should be worshipped with the same honour which immediately he forbids the Sunne and Moone and Starres to be honoured with And could the meer priviledge of being Gods creature move any man to take any before another and to make an image of it that under it he might honour God that made it Or was it requisite that first men should conceive an excellence in the creature which if expressed with the same actions whereby they honoured God of necessity it must be taken for the same which they attributed to God And what is that but the opinion of more Gods Can any man find fault with that which the Fathers have so frequently objected to the Gentiles that the gods whom they worshipped were dead men seeing before his eyes in the records of the Romanes Macedonians and Persians during the time of Historicall truth that their Princes were of course as it were deified and worshipped as gods after their death And was all this done in relation to one true God whose graces they had been the meanes to convey to so great a part of mankind Or in despite of that light of one true God though inshrined in their brests they suffered to be overwhelmed with that ignorance which custome had brought to passe Is it possible to imagine that the Egyptians should tremble at those living creatures or those fruits of their gardens which they honoured for their gods if they had taken them for creatures of one true God whom they intended to honour by and under those his creatures Or was it necessary that they should further conceive the Godhead in one City to be inclosed in this creature in another in that and thereupon find themselves obliged to honour the same for God In fine doth not the Scripture in many places plainly declare that which I pointed at in proposing my argument that the Idolatry of the Gentiles was the worshipping of Devils in stead of God Why the Israelites are commanded to sacrifice no where but before the Tabernacle the reason is given Levit XVII 7. And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils after whom they have gone a whoring Deut. XXXIII 17. They
shall confirme it by so visible an instance as this Death was proposed to Adam for the mark of Gods wrath and vengeance which he was become liable to by sinne The turning of this curse into a blessing was to be the effect of Christs Crosse which was not yet to be revealed The life of the Land of Promise was proposed for the reward of keeping Gods law in stead of the life of Paradise Therefore the cutting off of that life was to be taken for a mark of that curse which mankind became subject to by the first Adam till it should be declared the way to a better life by the Crosse of Christ Therefore the Giants that left it with the markes of enmity with God upon them are described as within the dominion of Hell but not asleep unlesse we can think that it is a mark of misery to go to them that sleep when all do sleep Prov. II. 17. IX 18. XXI 17. Esay XXVI 14. For that there should be no praising of God after death holds punctually in virtue of the Old Covenant which brought no man to life and was then on foot though they who writ those things might and did know that by the virtue of the New Covenant under which they knew themselves to be they should not be deprived of the priviledge of praising God after death and before the resurrection how sparing soever they were to be in imparting this knowledge openly to all the world For how otherwise should they whom the Apostle Ebr. XI declareth to have sought the kingdom of heaven have showed themselves otherwise affected with death then the Martyrs that suffered for Christ were afterwards How could it be thought the same Spirit that moved them to such a difference of effects according to the difference of time And therefore the same Solomon that saith there is nothing to be done in the grave Eccles IX 10. saith further Eccles XII 8. that when the dust returns to the earth then the soul returns to God that gave it And when Exoch and Elias were taken away by God in their Bodies neither sleep they seeing Moses and Elias attend our Lord Christ at his transfiguration Mat. XVII 3 4. Mark IX 4 5. Luke IX 30. nor is it possible for any man that would have soules to sleep to give a reason why the Covenant by which all are ordered being the same the soules of Christians should sleep when their souls sleep not And therefore when our Lord proves the resurrection by this That God is called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob whereas God is not the God of the dead but of the living Mat. XXII 32. Mark XII 26. Luke XX. 37. he not onely supposes that his argument is good but that his adversaries the Sadduces granted it to be good And so Saint Paul when he argues that if the dead rise not againe then are we the most miserable of all people As having no further hope then this life 1 Cor. XV. 19. For what needed more to them that owned the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ and yet would deny the world to come questioning the resurrection that supposes it For the rest I will not repeate that which I produced afore out of the Books we call Apocrypha which he that peruseth will find a difference between the language of the Patriarchs and Prophets speaking of themselves and the language of those Bookes speaking of them But I will insist upon this that our Lord when he proposeth the Parable of Dives and Lazarus manifestly accepts of that opinion which notwithstanding such difficulties from the Scriptures of the Old Testament had prevailed over the better part of that people by Tradition of the Fathers and Prophets To wit that the soules of good and bad are alive in joy and paine according to the qualities in which they depart hence and shall resume their bodies to give account in them for their workes here The same doth the appearance of Moses and Elias at his transfiguration the rendering of his soul into his Fathers hand the promise of bringing the thiefe into Paradise the same day signify Whereby it appeareth that whatsoever might seeme to argue either that the soules of the Fathers were in the devils hands till the death and resurrection of Christ or that all soules go out like sparks when men dy and are kindled anew when they rise againe prove nothing because they prove too much For if they prove any thing they must prove that there is no world to come as the disputes of Ecclesiastes and Job seem to say because by the accidents of this world there is no ground of a mans estate in it Which seeing it is so farre from leaving any dispute among Christians that among Jewes the Sadduces were reputed Sectaries It is evident that whatsoever may seem to look that way in the Old Testament cannot prove that the soules of the Fathers were in the Verge of Hell till Christ riseing againe the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many as we read in the Gospel of Mat. XXVII 52 53. This indeed were something if the Scripture had said that those Saints who arose with their bodies when our Lord Christ was risen againe had ascended into heaven with him in their bodies Which because it derogates from the generallity of the last resurrection having no ground in the Scripture can beare no dispute Therefore seeing these Saints as Lazarus afore and the Widowes sonne of Naim whom our Lord raised restored their bodies to the grave there is no presumption from hence that their soules were brought from Hell by our Lord to be translated into the full happinesse of the world to come with his owne I do therefore allow that which is written in the Apocryphall 2 Esdras IV. 41 42. In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman For like as a woman that travaileth maketh hast to escape the pressure of her travaile Even so do those places haste to deliver the things that are committed unto them And VII 32. And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence and the secret places shall deliver those soules that were committed unto them For in most of those writings which the ancient Church counteth Apocryphal because they are suspected to intend some poisonous doctrine excellent things are contained which the agreement of them with Canonicall Scripture and their consequence and dependance upon the truth which they settle renders recommendable even from dangerous authors And for that which is here said whether we suppose this book to be written by a Christian or not before Christ or after Seeing there is no mention of any Saints in those visions of the old Testament where God is represented sitting upon his Throne but
driven out of paradise If you call the same Jerusalem it will appeare why the place of the damned is called Gehenna which was the place without Jerusalem where those that were sacrificed to the Idoles of Canaan were consumed with horrible tortures of fire The Scripture of the old Testament yeeldeth not the name but the true interpretation of it In the meane time though our Lord by carying the thiefe into Paradise show that it continues not shut yet continues it no lesse secret no better knowne then it is knowne where Adam first dwelt It is strange that the bosome of Abraham should signifie the same He is acknowledged the Father of the faithfull by Jewes as well as Christians His hospitality is recounted in the scripture The kingdome of God which his people then expected is proposed by our Lord in dâ—vers passages of the Gospell under the figure of an entertainement as an expression then familiar to his people It is no marvaile that it should be called Abrahams bosome from whom the faith that purchaseth it hath so eminent a beginning though the Fathers before Abraham be there One thing we must note A vast gap wee see between it and the flames where Dives was tormented But where the partition is fixed so little is determined by the words of the scripture that whether both within the earth or one within the earth the other in the heavens or whether both without this visible world as of the place of the damned some argue with great probability from the darkenesse that is without in the Gospell no rule of â—aith determines And therefore whether the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the parable useth Luke XVI 23. when the rich man lifts up his eyes in Hell and sees Lazarus in Abrahams bosome whether it comprehend the bosome of Abraham as well as the place of torments no Rule of faith determineth For as it manifestly signifyeth the place of the damned in the scripture which it is manifest Gods people must needs distinguish by the scripture is the place where they were sure by the scripture that God would punish his and their enemies So comprehending also the place of righteous soules nor distinguished from the other to Gods people by the ancient scriptures how should the signification of it be restrained here For as the Hethen so Josephus also manifestly extendeth it to the place of righteous as well as wicked soules after death For when he saies that de Bello Jud. II. 12. the Saduces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and rewards of the World to come under the one name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he comprises both estates which the rest of Gods people attributed then to good and bad The Pharises he saies Antiq. XVIII 2. maintaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishments and honors under the earth And that as it followeth for ever which is as much as if he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because those things which were thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things under the earth Again of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And agreeing with the Greekes they affirme that good soules are assigned a seate beyond the Ocean in a place not grieved with raine or snow or heate but alwaies refreshed with a milde West wind blowing from the Ocean But the evill ones they assigne a darke and stormy nooke full of torments without ceasing And yet in an other place he saith they assigne them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most holy place of the Heavens So little ground is there for the distinct signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of those to whom our Lord spoke It behoveth us therefore to acknowledge the victory of our Lord Christ and his triumph over the Devill and all the damned which S. Paul as in the text quoted out of the Epâ—stle to the Ephesians he ascribeth to the Ascension of our Lord according to the Psalme which he alleageth so Col. II. 15. to the Crosse when he saith Spoiling principalities and powers he made open show of them triumphing over them in it by it or upon it to wit his Crosse to which he had said just afore that he nayled the hand writing which was against us This victory and triumph belongs to the rule of faith and the beliefe of it to the substance of Christianity because by vertue of it we have reconciliation with God and the rest of that which the Gospell promiseth But that it should be performed by the descent of Christs soule into the place of the damned being begun upon the Crosse and finished at the ascension as the necessity of our redemption requireth not so no Rule of Faith will oblige to believe There is great appearance that the devil did not understand the effect of it till our Lord rose againe as Ignatius saith that he understood not the the birth of the blessed Virgine Pilates Wives dream is a signe that doubting of the consequence he would have hindred that which by Judas he did procure He thought himself Lord of mankind because for sin they were condemned to death That by the death of Christ this condemnation was to be voided possibly he might not understand till Christ rose againe Though the soules of the Fathers were delivered out of his Power before the death of Christ yet might he not understand that by virtue of it Our Lord saith John XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Because he found nothing of his owne that is of sinne in Christ Though he had nothing to do with Christ in justice seeing in deed he had meanes to swallow him and might not know that the swallowing of him would oblige him to render his interest in all that should escape with him is it a marvaile that he swallowed him being a murtherer from the beginning Thus farre I have owned the reason of our redemption against Socinus Which if it be true the victory of Christ was declared that is the triumph begunne at his rising againe And therefore it is no way prejudiciall to the common Faith which I know some have imagined that our Lord Christ having been in Paradise with the good thiefe or in the bosome of Abraham with Lazarus till Easter day morning when he was to rise againe went from thence in his humane soul to the place of the damned to declare to the devil that by laying violent hands on him who had not sinned he had lost not onely the Fathers but all that should believe at the preaching of the Gospel For herein the triumph of his victory upon the Crosse consisteth But the substance of this ceremony being so fully provided for by the death of his Crosse and by his riâ—ing againe in virtue of it that he who believeth it not should be thought to come short of believing all that which it is necessary to salvation to believe seemeth to me
breedeth purgeth away the love of the creature And it may be thought that the examination of the conscience the conviction of sinne the remorse and shame of so many disloyalties the feare of the Judge and in fine the strictnesse of the judgement is the fire which Saint Paul sayes shall try every mans work as the fire which burns up the world shall their bodies and sever the dregs and drosse of them to the Devil and his Angels from whom they came with the dregs and drosse of the world which divines say shall be conveyed to Hell as the â—inke of it But hereupon the Apostle when he sayes Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect Hebrews XII 23. may be understood that they are thus perfected supposing him to speake of the generall judgement to come to passe then straight as the destruction of Jerusalem did and that therefore he saith Ye are come But he may be also understood to say that they are perfected by Christianity in comparison of Judaisme as our Lord saith Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect And as he saith that the least in the kingdome of heaven is greater then John the Baptist Whereas if we understand him to say Ye are come to the Spirits of just men perfected between the departure and the day of judgement we make him to say that which is no where else either said or intimated by the Scripture And that is it which distinguisheth my opinion from the position of Purgatory or rather the doctrine of the scriptures from the decree of the Councils of Florence and Trent For will the present Church of Rome be content with such an estate of soules as no man can be helped out of What were Purgatory worth if men were perswaded that there is no meanes to translate their soules out of the flames thereof into heaven before the generall judgement Or what were Christianity the worse if all were perswaded that those soules which wee speake of all this while need their friends prayers to help them through this middle estate and especially through the dreadfull tryall of the day of judgement Surely thus much the worse that men must of necessity keep a better account of their steps here and take a better care to cleare themselves of the sins which they commit that they may passe it with the more joy and cherefullnesse Well may they part with the drosse and stubble of the immediate imputation of Christs merits sufferings which they have built upon the foundation of the remission of sins and everlasting life in consideration of the same but upon condition of Christanity upon these termes here rather then part with it at their charge then if perhaps they have not failed of the foundation by the meanes of it And upon these termes I am not troubled at the words of our Lord Mat. XII 32. Who shall speake a word against the Son of man it shall be remitted him But who shall speake against the Holy Ghost it shall never be remitted him neither in this world nor in the world to come For as for mine owne part I finde the force of the words well enough satisfied taking it onely for a fashion of speech signifying onely that that sin could by no meanes be pardoned no not in the world to come not supposing that the world to come hath meanes to pardon so great sins as this world hath no meanes to doe I confesse according to my opinion there is in some sort pardon for sins in the other world though absolutely there is not because there is none but in vertue of the covenant of Grace the termes whereof onely take place in this world though the effect thereof extend to the world to come For after departure in the state of Grace for a man to know that there is no more danger of failing of everlasting life is absolutely that which the greatest Saints of this world could never attaine to Though some effects of sin stick to those that are so assured between death and the day of judgement in respect to which he who is absolutely said to be pardoned because in no danger of forfeiting it may be said so far not to be pardoned as the continuance of those effects imports But there is nothing in my opinion to signifie that there is meanes of obtaining pardon for those sins in the next world which there is no meanes to obtain pardon for in this Which this saying of our Lord at the foote of the letter signifies And therefore I for my part can very well rest satisfied with this sense taking the inlarging of it by mentioning the world to come for an elegance which common speech beareth and that of our Lord frequenteth But if any man thinke I respect not the Fathers that have expounded it to the sense which I refuse not the rule of faith being safe let every man injoy his opinion in it Of the figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Grotius observes in the words in the world to come whereby it shall not be for given him in the world to come signifyes He shall be soundly punished for it in the world to come let them who are capable see him discourse learnedly in his Anotations upon this place As little am I troubled at that other text of the Gospell Mat. V. 26. Luke Xâ—I 58. Thou shalt not come forth till thou hast paid the utmost farthing For I can easily grant that the taking away of those effects of sin which remaine in those that dy in grace according to my opinion may be said to come by paying the utmost farthing But I need not grant that he who saies thou shalt not come forth till thou hast paid the utmost farthing saies Thou mayest come forth by paying the utmost farthing For the condition of paying the utmost farthing will be unpossible if wee understand the prison to be the Lake of the damned which the executioner mentioned afore requires In S. Luke for a Preface to the Parable Why doe yee not judge what is right from your soules saith our Lord That is why doe ye not judge what ye are to doe in the mater of my Gospell by that which you use to doe in worldly matters If you be liable to an action you find it best to compound it before the judge give sentence and grant execution upon it For then you must stand to the extremity of the Law The preaching of the gospell showes that the Law oâ— God hath an Action against you which you may take up by becoming Christians and yet you will not doe it In S. Mathew it followes upon the precept of being reconciled to a mans brother which showes that God accepts not that sacrifice which is not offered in charity But it cannot signifie lesse then in S. Luke That our Lord upon that occasion puts all in mind to be reconciled to God because there is no redemption if he grant execution
began to make some question of it upon some disputes which he met with That S. Gregory first professed an opinion of it granted upon no scripture no nor Tradition of faith but upon aparitions and revelations That there is great appearance that Venerable Bede having received it from S. Gregorys Scholars who planted Christianity here added much to it by his credulity in such maters And yet that they had yet assigned no quarter in the Verge of Hell for this purpose but onely believed it of certaine soules in some places of this earth untill the Schoole hammered out a debt of punishment to which souls acquited both of the guilt and staine of sin may remaine lyable The extending of indulgence to the voyding of this how properly soever it may be counted purging of soules made the position a mater of great jelousy for the interest of profit which our common Christianity abhorreth And indulgence indeed of Canonicall penance I have showed hath the first ground in S. Pauls example and necessary use in the Church But when redeeming of penance was come into practice in the Church it was granted upon considerations with Christianity and the safety of poore soules allowed not Of paying a rate of taking the Crosse against Infidels of moderne Jubiles But that there should be a stock of merit in the Church upon account of works of supererogation done by the Saints which theire owne reward answereth not and that the Church in granting indulgence of penance may allow it to his account that receives indulgence is a conceite as injurious to the merits of Christ the consideration of all pardon and to the Covenant of Grace the condition whereof it abateth so that hath no evidence from any rule or practice of the ancient Church But that they should be thought to be of force to redeeme soules out of Purgatory and that taxing the time which they grant and the like for which neither there is nor can be any ground The best that is said or can be said in defense of them who publish them to poore people by whom they are frequented is that they get themselves mony the account whereof being almes they charge themselves with And that people are by this meanes imployed in the works of devotion which if not available to the effect which they imagine are how soever good for their soules health As for the translating of soules to heaven before the day of judgement it is so diametrally contrary to all antiquity that the very naming of it takes away all pretense for Traditon on behalfe of Purgatory It is acknowledged indeed that a number of the ancient Fathers during the flourishing times of the Church doe believe that the fire which the world is to be burnt up with as it shall involve the wicked and cary them to be everlastingly tormented in the sink of the world so it shall touch and scorch even the Saints themselves to try if their works be such as Gods vengeance can take hold of and to purge away that drosse which the love of the world they dyed with importeth This is by divers called Origens Purgatory because they conceive his credit might move S. Hilary S. Basil S. Ambrose Gregory Nyssene and Nazanizain S. Jerome S. Austine and S. Chry. with divers others to follow it But Blondel having observed that it is found in the Sibyles verses will needs have them all to have taken it up from thence Which as I have no reason to yeild to having showed already that the credit of that book was not the foundation of other particular opinions which had vogue in the Church So do I not find those famous Doctors so affected to Origen whose writings concerning the exposition of the scriptures they were necessarily obliged to frequent as to admit an opinion so neere concerning the faith upon this recommendation on whom they declare so much jelousy in mater of Faith For my part as I find it very agreeable to the words of S. Paul when he saith that they whose works are burnt up shall escape themselves but as through fire So how mens works should be tryed or burnt up by that fire I find it not easy to be understood And therefore without taking upon me to censure so great persons for innovating in the Church or to maintaine that in which there is no concurrence of any Scripture with any consent of the whole Church I leave the truth of this to judgement as secure that it will not concern the common Faith But this I say peremptorily that admitting it there remaines no pretense for Purgatory in the Tradition of the Church unlesse it be by equivocation of words For this coming to passe at the day of judgement admitteth no release before And without release before Purgatory fire goes quite out No Indulgences no Jubilies no stock of merit to be dispensed by the Church to such workes of devotion as it limiteth can be any of any request if they take not effect afore the day of judgement Take away the opinion of translating souls from the Verge of hell which Purgatory to the sight of God and the Clergy of the Church of Rome shall no more eat the sins of the people as the Prophet complaines of the Priests under the Law For while the people are perswaded that their sins are cured by the sentence of absolution once pronounced Penance serving onely to extinguish the debt of temporall punishment remaining and that to be ransomed by the services which they pay for in the name of their friends which are dead the Clergy live by those sins of which the people dy because they are not duly cured For the lusts for which men sin not being cured by that hardship of Penance which the case requireth to change attrition into contrition the guilt of sin remaines upon the head of him in whose heart the love of sin remaines alive notwithstanding the keyes of the Church mistaking in that case Besides take away the opinion of translating soules from hell to heaven since the coming of Christ and there will remaine no ground for the translating of the Fathers souls from the verge of hell which is Limbus Patrum to the sight of God by the descent of our Lord into hell and his rising from the dead againe There will be no cause why that reason which I tender for that vanity of immaginations rather then opinions or belief in the Fathers which that which all agree in is intangled with should not be admitted For the translating of Christian soules from Purgatory to heaven not being believed why should the translating the Fathers souls remaine Why should not the simple Faith in which all Christians agree revive and take the place of Tradition in the Church which indeed it hath that between death and the day of judgement the good are in joy the bad in paine both incomplete till both be fulfilled after both shall have received their finall doome CHAP. XXIX The
or truly supposed to be God Therefore our Lord argues that the Father judging no man himself hath given the power of judging to the Sonne That all may honour the Son as they honour the Father Because he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father John V. 22. 23. To wit since the setling of Christianity Whereby we may see how easie it is to answer the objection that is made from the words oâ— S. Peter Act. II. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this Jesus whom ye crucified Lord and Christ As if this honour and worship were due to our Lord Christ upon the title of being raised from the dead by God And so much signified by S. Paul when he tells the Jews of Pisidia Act XIII 33. That God hath fulfilled the promise made to the Fathers to them and their children raising up Jesus as it is written in the second Psalme Thou art my sonne this day have I begotten thee For when the Apostle argues that Christ is become so much superior to the Angels as he hath inherited a more excellent name Because to whom of the Angels was it ever said Thou art my sonne this day have I begotten thee Heb. I. 4 5. It is pretended that not the title of Sonne of God which at present I speak not of but the honour and worship due to him that weares it is due by Gods raising him from the dead to the estate of sitting at his right hand Then which nothing can be more unjust For as it is truly said by our Lord after his rising againe Mat. XXVIII 18. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth So it is no lesse truly said Mat. XI 27. All things are delivered to me by my Father Neither knoweth any man the Sonne but the Father nor knoweth any man the Father but the Sonne and whomsoever the Son will reveal him to And therefore not disputing at present what the power given the Sonne by the Father is it shall be enough for my pupose that it is the same which was given him when he rose from the dead To wit that which all Christians acknowledge when they Worship him for God For how should any man understand that the man Jesus by being raised from the dead by being taken up into heaven to the Throne of God by any thing that his humane nature can be indued with should be worshipped for God had not this worship been due to him from the time of his being man as I have shewed you those who make this objection do acknowledge it to have been due For it is our Lords argument that the Son is to be honoured as the Father because his Father hath given him the Power of raising the dead to life and of judging the quick and the dead John V. 25 30. even then when he argued with the Jewes Therefore when S. Thomas being satisfied that our Lord was risen from the dead crys out my Lord and my God John XX. 28. There can be no more cause to understand any abatement in the notion of God or Lord then when David or our Saviour upon the Crosse cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal XXII 1. For if David or S. Thomas were such men as believed those to be God which were not it would be necessary to say that their God is not absolutely God But supposing them to acknowledge the true God we cannot deny him to be the true God whom they so acknowledge In the words of S. Paul Rom. IX 5. Of whom is Christ according to the flesh who is over all God blessed for evermore there is some pretense made that Erasmus finds not the word God alledged by S. Hillary and S. Cypriane And Grotius I know not upon what mistake hath said That it is not in the Syriack For he that shall read the Syriack will find it there as plain as any thing else that is there And supposing it not there he that considereth what the Jews with whom S. Paul having been bred never fell from their God understand by the Blessed will never understand him to be called any thing lesse then God that is called blessed for evermore Now when S. John saith 1 John V. 20. We are in the true God in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternall life When S. Paul saith Titus II. 13. Expecting the blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ When S. Jude saith of the hereticks whom he writeth against Denying that onely Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Jude 9. It is stoutly insisted upon by the Socinians that God and Christ are spoken of here as severall persons and so that these attributes belonging to God concern not Christ And examples are brought to show that it is not unusuall and therefore not unreasonable that in the words of S. John This he is the true God should have reference not to the Sonne Jesus Christ mentioned next afore but to the true God which is the Father mentioned at more distance That in the words of S. Paul and S. Jude though the article is not repeated when they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet this does not argue the same Christ to be meant by both titles referred to him by the same article But is onely a bare want of the article in the second place of which they give us examples enowe But all this can prove no more then that these texts might be so understood if there were any thing in the words to argue that so they must be understood which here appeares not On the other â—â—de for the text of S. Jude if we compare it with S. Peter who writes the same things with S. Jude of the same Hereticks we shall find that in the beginning of the chapter in stead of the words quoted out of S. Jude he puts onely that they deny the Lord or the Master that bought them In the end of it he signifies manifestly that he speakes of Christians that fell away 2 Pet. II. 1 20 21 22. Whereby it may appear that it is our Lord Christ Jesus whom he calleth the onely Lord or Master because he redeemed us from the State of captives and therefore that it is the same whom he calleth God And truly as I shewed afore that S. John in his Epistle to the seven Churches in the Revelations writes against the same hereticks so can there no question be made that they are the same of whom he sayes 1 John II. 22 23. Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ This is the Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Sonne Whosoever denieth the Son neither hath the Father Though we suppose this Epistle to be written to the then Christian Jewes For whereas they all pretend to hold God the Father whom as Jews originally they acknowledge the Apostle argues that bringing in another
sent into the world thou blasphemest because I said I am the Sonne of God Where they say it is manifest that he challengeth not the title of God properly but as it is communicated to creatures as here to the Judges of Israel It is to be granted that our Lord here imployes that which S. Chrysostome often calles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is good husbandry or sparingâ—esse in his language Expressing in more reserved terms that which he intends not to renounce For seeing the Jewes ready to stone him for that which they understood by it no marvaile if he abated his plea without quitting it arguing from the lesse if they to whom the Word of God came are called Gods much more he that is sanctified and sent into the World by the Father may call himself so and plead this reason too without disclaiming the property of the title because of that which immediately followes If I do not the works of my Father believe me not But if I do them though you believe not me believe the workes That ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him Where it is plaine he holds up his claime by pleading the evidence of it As for that of S. Paul Phil. II. 6-11 Let the same minde be in you as in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God made it not an occasion of pride or of advantage that he was equal with God But emptied himself having taken the form of a servant and become in the likenesse of men And being found in figure as a man humbled himself becoming obedient to death even the death of the Crosse Wherefore God also hath overexalted him and given him the name that is above every name That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and upon the earth and under the earth and every tongue confesse that J. Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Here I admit with Grotius the speech to be of Christ incarnate that the man Jesus is said to have emptied himself and taken the form of a slave becoming obedient to death For this man it is who when he so emptied himself was presently in the form of God of which he emptied himself thinking it no occasion of pride so I allow him to translate it though some words of Eusebius make me think it more properly translated advantage that he was â—qual to God but condescending so far to dissemble what he was as to be crucified But supposing this I demand how came Jesus to be in this forme of God before he humbled himself and wherein it consisted For if they say that in consideration of his undertaking the message of God when being thirty years old he was taken up to heaven as they say he was exalted to it then can they not say that he was indowed with it from his birth as being conceived by the H. Ghost But if as S. Paul saies he was so when he emptied himself of it then it is to be demanded by virtue of what he was so For by virtue of being conceived by the H. Ghost and born of a Virgin according to them he will no more be so then the first Adam being formed of Virgin earth and the breath of God breathed in him But if by virtue of the power and glory of God that is of God dwelling in him according to Grotius then by virtue of the hypostatical union which afore you saw he confesseth But the name above every name at which all things in heaven and earth and under the earth bow importing the honour that is proper to God which no man can give to any creature without making it God though given to the man Jesus yet signifies the reason for which it is given to stand in the Godhead that is communicated to his manhood And that alwaies due since he was man though not declared to be due nor published to the world while he was in it till he was overexalted to it upon his rising againe and the holy Ghost sent to inable his Apostles to preach it CHAP. XV. Not onely the Church but the World was made by Christ The Word was made flesh in opposition to the Spirit How the Prophets how Christians by receiving the Word of God are possessed by his Spirit How the title of Sonne of God importeth the Godhead How Christ is the brightnesse and Image of God THis is the next argument which the next words of S. John point out to us when he saith All things were made by him and without him was nothing made Which because they are peremptory in this cause so long as they are understood as all Christians have hitherto understood them That the World was made by that word of God which we believe to have been incarnate in our Lord Christ Socinus hath playd one of his Masteerpeeces upon them to perswade us to believe that they mean no more but that our Lord Christ is the Author of the Gospell whereby Christians are as it were new made and created a Church Seeing it is manifest that the Prophets do often describe the deliverances and restorings of Gods people by comparing them to the making of a new World with a new Sun and Moon and Stars and all Creatures new But when rhey do so it is first understood that they speak as Prophets for whom it is proper to express things to come in figurative speeches because it is not the intent of Gods Spirit that the particulars signified should be plain aforehand that the dependance of Gods people upon him and his word may be free Then by the consequence of the Prophesies compared with the events argument enough is to be had that these speeches are not properly but figuratively meant As for example when the Prophet Esay saith Behold I make a new Heaven and a new Earth In that very addition of new there is argument enough to conclude that he speaks by a propheticall figure which if a man read on he shall find still more to conclude But had he sayd Behold I make Heaven and Earth Either we must understand make for have made or that he means to make indeed such as these are And that supposing these destroyed In asmuch as these abiding those that might be made could not be called Heaven and Earth but a Heaven and an Earth Now in these words there is nothing added to intimate any abatement in the proper signification of all things And therefore S. John speaking in such terms as he that writeth dogmatically would be thought so to use as not to be mistaken must needs be understood to mean that the World was made at first by Gods word which by and by he will tell us that it was incarnate Especially that we may not make him to spend words to tell Christians such a secret as this That Christ is the first Author of the Gospel and Founder of his Church which they