the innumerable number of persons that must make their appearance there scarse the whole earth would be roome enough to make a Sessions-house for such a company unlesse perhaps by the like miracle as is said to have beene usuall in the Jewish Synagogue that when the people kneeled downe there was roome enough in the Temple to hold them all but when they stood up they were fain many of them to goe out of the Temple for want of roome when yet kneeling downe must needs take up more roome then standing up But though we know not either at what time or to what place hee shall come yet we beleeve to what purpose hee shall come For hee shall come to judge the quicke and the dead The quick those whom hee shall finde alive at his comming and the dead those who dyed before his comming Or the quicke those that are alive in grace and the dead them that are dead in sin But not to judge the dead while they are dead for so they should not bee able to answer for themselves which cannot stand with the justice of so righteous a Judge but at his comming at the sound of a Trumpet The Sea and the Earth shall give up their dead and they shall all arise and stand at his Tribunall to receive their sentence of pardon or condemnation according to their works And oh how terrible will that day be For if the day were terrible in which the Law was given so terrible that Mount Sinai was all of a smoake how terrible will that day bee in which the transgressors of the Law shall all be brought to receiue their Triall If the day were terrible which was a day of grace how terrible will the day be which shall be a day of punishment O my soule let the remembrance of this Article be never out of thy minde and if at any time thou find in thy selfe either suggestions of Satan or motions to sinne then thinke upon this Article and when thou thinkest upon it beleeve it and be most assured that there shall most certainly bee a day of judgement in which all thoughts of the heart though never brought forth in words shall bee discovered all actions of life though never so secretly done shall all be laid open and judgement shall be given upon them all without favour or partialitie And let us not flatter our selves in security because he who is now our Advocate shall be then our Judge but rather consider that though hee be now a Lambe he will then be found to be a Lyon Demonstravit potentiam qui demonstravit patientiam and let us prepare our selves against that day in feare and trembling and let us send up strong cries to him that as the good Thiefe obtained to be remembred of him when he came into his kingdome so wee may obtaine of him to be remembred in mercy when he comes to judgement Before wee leave this Article there is one observation which may not be omitted that this Article is of a different making from all the rest all the other might bee made by Apostles but this seemes rather to bee made by a Prophet For our beliefe in it is Propheticall and tells what Christ will doe in time to come Indeed none of the Articles concerning Christ are in the Future tense but onely this as none of them is in the Present tense but onely the next before He fitteth at the right hand of his Father all the other Articles are in the Preter perfect tense and speake of the time past even from his conception to his ascending into Heaven in the Preterperfect tense all but once ascended into Heaven where all time is Present no more Preterperfect tense then no more mention of time past and therefore our Article turnes Present too He sitteth at the right hand of his Father and there should sit and enjoy his Present tense and time for ever if it were not for us but as once before for our sakes hee left Heaven and came downe to redeeme us so once againe for our sakes hee will leave Heaven and come downe to judge us For without judging he could not come to rewarding No comming to Venite benedicti Patris Come yee blessed of my Father untill hee have judged first and without comming to this Venite all that went before would come to nothing And therefore all the benefit of these Preterperfect tenses consists in this Future all the harvest I may say of the other Articles is reaped in this last that Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead O therefore my soule be carefull to lead thy life so in this present world that thou maist not bee afraid of his comming to judgement because of Ite maledicti in ignem aeternum Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire but maist rather rejoyce at his comming because of Venite benedicti Patris Come yee blessed of my Father For as that Ite will pay them home for all the pleasures of a wicked life So this Venite will make amends for all the pressures of a wretched life and indeed without the benefit of this Venite all the delights and pleasures the world can afford will prove but as Naboths Vineyard to Ahab Corosives in the end And now having beleeved in the first and second Person of the Trinity I beleeve in the Holy Ghost the Father and the Son if wee should not beleeve in the third Person the Holy Ghost wee should doe him great wrong and our selves more seeing it hath been through him and by his assistance that we have beleeved in thē For as it is true that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son so it is true that beleeving in the Father the Son proceeds from the Holy Ghost For beleeving being a work of Faith and Faith a worke of Sanctification and Sanctification a worke of onely the Holy Ghost how should wee come to beleeving but by the Holy Ghost And it is indeed for this that he hath his Name to be called the Holy Ghost or Spirit Not but that the Father and the Sonne are both Holy and Spirits as well as he but because it is properly Hee that inspires our mindes with all good thoughts and holy desires And now my soule while I beleeve in the Father as the author of my Creation and in the Sonne as the author of my Redemption and in the Holy Ghost as the author of my Regeneration that all the Persons in the Deity may have their severall operations in me and bestow their severall gifts upon me will there not be cause of my thankefulnesse to every one of them and of returning to every one of them all praise and glory who are all of them but one But why is there so much spoken of Christ and so little of the Holy Ghost being a Person in the Trinity as well as hee Is it not that there is more spoken of the Sonne then of the Holy Ghost
yet in some respects they are sometimes appropriated more to One then to another heere therefore in speaking of Heaven and Earth the Originall of Creatures the making them is justly attributed to God the Father the originall Creator for otherwise it is so true that they all had a hand in making them that it is said of the Holy Ghost also that Spiritus Dei Incubabat the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and what was this but a Fomenting the worke of the Father and the Sonne by the Bond of Concord the proper worke of the Holy Ghost From hence we may learne that the World hath not been from Everlasting For if God be Maker of Heaven and Earth then Heaven and Earth were made and if made then made in time and if made in time then there was a time when they were not made But how could this bee seeing there was no time till they were made But yet there was a space of Duration and that space had beene from Everlasting and being from Everlasting how could it ever come to have an ende and an End it must have before Time could come to have a Beginning O my Soule These are no Thoughts for thee thy wings are too weake to fly so high a pitch Thy Plummets are too short to sound so great a depth It may bee sufficient for thee to know that although God made not the World from Everlasting yet hee made it then when from Everlasting hee had Decreed to make it but how hee brought Time out of Eternity is a mystery thou shalt never attaine to know till thou come thy selfe to attaine Eternity Thus farre wee are brought by Beleeving in God the Father And in his onely Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord. but seeing Father is a Relative and every Relative imples a Correlative and the Correlative to Father is Sonne this brings my Beliefe a degree further to Beleeve in his onely Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord Not his Sonne by Adoption as we are nor his Son by Creation and Grace as Angels are but his Sonne by Generation as onely himselfe is and such a Sonne as the Father Proclaimes to be His and tels the day when he begot him Hodie genui te This day have I begotten thee But what day was this day Not such a day as our dayes are which follow one after another but a day in which there is nothing Before nor after but the Past and the Present are both at once the Past in Genui the Present in Hodie indeed a day Not of Time but of Eternity which makes him Co-eternall with his Father One good degree of Equality And as the day of his Begetting is not like ours So neither is the manner of his Begetting like ours For where our Begetting is a Third from Two his Begetting is a Second from One and therefore must needs bee of One substance Both and this makes him Consubstantiall with the Father another good degree of Equality which kind of Begetting though it exceede our capacity yet it exceeds not our Beliefe and therefore though our Inquisitive Thoughts would faine bee making further Querees about it yet Faith makes us contented to take this for an Answer Generationem ejus quis enarrabit Who shall declare his Generation If then the day of his Begetting make him Co-eternall with the Father and the manner of his Begetting make him Consubstantiall with the Father have we not as good ground for our Believing in him as in the Father And though it may be thought no Power is left for the Sonne the Father being Almighty yet all Power is given to the Sonne both in Heaven and Earth for though the Father bee Almighty yet Almighty but as God and therefore Almighty as due to the Sonne who is God with the Father and as just cause wee have to say to the Sonne as to the Father Wee praise thee O God wee knowledge thee to bee the Lord. But how can the Sonne that is begotten be Co-eternall with the Father who Begets Seeing that which Begets is alwaies before that which is Begotten But is not this a fallacie They being Relatives Seeing nothing can Beget but there must bee something Begotten there cannot bee a Father till there bee a Sonne and therefore if the Father bee from Everlasting the Sonne also is from Everlasting and so are Co-eternall But though the Sonne may bee Co-eternall with the Father yet how can he be Consubstantiall with the Father Seeing the Substance of every thing is proper to it selfe and cannot bee communicated to another This indeed were true if the Father and the Sonne were Aliud Aliud and not onely Alius Alius but now being Both One God and onely Two Persons Seeing the difference of Persons makes no difference of Substance they remaine of One Substance Both and so are Consubstantiall Thus farre reacheth our Beliefe in the Divinity of the Son but seeing we beleeve him to be both perfect God and perfect Man this leades our Beliefe a degree further To Beleeve in Jesus Christ our Lord Termes belonging to his Humanity Jesus a Name given him by an Angel when hee was yet in his Mothers womb Because hee should save his people from their sinnes Christ a Name given him from his Office As being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedech annointed with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes Lord a Name given him from his Dominion For of his Kingdome there shall be no end O Blessed Son of God Let mee enjoy the benefit of thy Name Jesus that I may bee saved from my sinnes Let me enjoy the benefit of thy Name Christ that I may bee partaker of the oyle of gladnesse with which thou wert Annointed Let me enjoy the benefit of thy being my Lord that being thy Servant I may have thy Protection and Thou my Obedience But how happens it that having said in the beginning of my Creede I Beleeve I now come to say Our Lord and so where I went single out am now suddenly fallen into company It is true indeed I sayd I Beleeve when I spake but as regarding my owne person but now that I speake as regarding the Communion of Saints I say Our Lord. For though Saint Thomas said My God and my Lord as though hee would claime CHRIST wholly to himselfe yet that seemes spoken but in passion and to make amends for his former doubting But now that I speak deliberatly I can say no lesse then Our Lord seeing as Christ is a Saviour not of me onely but of all mankinde so he is the Lord not of me onely but of all that serve him and thus Christ is that Lord in whom is expounded the Riddle of David The Lord said unto my Lord For if hee be Davids Lord how is hee his Sonne and if he bee his Sonne how is he his Lord Indeed Both his Son as concerning the Flesh but his Lord concerning Divine Generation and if Davids Lord
in regard of the Sonnes being Incarnate and taking our nature upon him For this indeed brings in many points to bee beleeved whereof considered onely as the second person in the Trinity there should be no need So as the two Natures in Christ must needs give cause to have more spoken of him then of the holy Ghost that hath but one nature The Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost hath in all Ages beene most obscure so much that in some Churches it was some time before it was beleeved at all or so much as knowne whether there were a Holy Ghost or no even in these present times the Greeke Church a Church of great extent differs thus from us that where we beleeve the Holy Ghost to proceede from the Father and the Son that Church beleeves the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father by the Sonne a nice difference in so Incomprehensible a Mystery that there seemes no just cause to lay such Anathemaes as some doe upon that Church for so beleeving If wee should beleeve in the Father and in the Sonne and not beleeve in the Holy Ghost this beliefe would never be sanctified seeing the Holy Ghost onely is the Sanctifier and sanctifies none that beleeve not in him and the beliefe not being sanctified would never bee acceptable to the Father himselfe notwithstanding our beliefe in him And this perhaps was the cause why the Offering of Cain was not accepted because though a Sacrifice yet it wanted a devotion sanctified by the Holy Ghost There is a sinne which is properly called The sinne against the Holy Ghost and for them that commit this sinne we are forbidden to pray a grievous sinne no doubt which stops the current of Charity whose nature is wont to overflow al banks but what the sinne is and by what marks it may certainly be known though a Question much agitated is not yet so fully explicated but that it leaves scruples but whatsoever it is or may be we may be sure that the Not-beleeving in the Holy Ghost is one principall ingredient in it Or rather where a true beleeving in the Holy Ghost is this sinne properly can never bee committed And therefore in making profession of our Faith there is none of all the Articles in the whole Creed that seemes more necessary to be said then this For by saying this Article we make it appeare there can bee no danger in praying for us as not being likely to commit the sin against the Holy Ghost who beleeve in the Holy Ghost But why is it that sinnes committed against the Father or the Sonne shall bee forgiven but a sinne committed against the Holy Ghost shall never bee forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Is it not that if a sinne bee committed against the Father or the Sonne the Holy Ghost being the Sanctifier can sanctifie that sinne and make it pardonable but if a sinne bee committed against the Holy Ghost there is none to sanctifie it and not being sanctified it justly exceeds all bounds of Remission O therefore thou blessed God the Holy Ghost Vouchsafe to endue me with a Spirit of sanctification that what other sinnes soever I may happily unhappily commit yet I may never be so unhappy to commit this dreadfull sinne of sinning against thee When we read the order of the Persons in the Trinitie the Father placed first the Sonne second the Holy Ghost last wee must not conceive it as though there were any Priority betweene them in time who are all Go-eternall or any disparity betweene them in dignitie who are all Consubstantiall but that it is an expressing of Order onely to our capacities seeing although they be Three Persons yet they are all but One God All but One in Substance though Three in Subsistence The Incomprehensiblenesse of which Mysterie though it exceed our capacities yet not our Beliefe Or therefore the fitter for beliefe because it exceeds our capacities And now having professed our Beliefe in God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost wee may justly conclude and say O Holy Blessed and glorious Trinity Three Persons and One God have mercy upon us miserable sinners And thus is finished the first part of our Creed In whom it is we Beleeve the other part remaines containing What it is we Beleeve For to know In whom to beleeve and not know what to beleeve were to stand at a gaze and bee to seeke when wee come to our lesson Indeede the things wee beleeve have dependance upon the Persons in whom we beleeve and such dependance as without beleeving in those wee cannot truely beleeve these If wee did not beleeve in the Holy Ghost we could not beleeve the Holy Catholike Church nor the Communion of Saints for these are benefits that come by the Holy Ghost And if we did not beleeve in the Son of God Christ Jesus we could not beleeve the Forgivenesse of sinnes nor the Resurrection of the body for these are benefits that accrue unto us by the Sonne of God Christ Jesus And if we did not beleeve in God the Father we could not beleeve the life Everlasting seeing by him onely it is that we live and have our present being and shall have our eternall being And the first Article of this kinde is this I beleeve the holy Catholike Church I beleeve the Holy Catholike Church I beleeve it in deed but not in it as I doe in God For this is a Priviledge due onely to him and besides if I should beleeve in it I should beleeve partly in my selfe as being a Member of it but I beleeve there is a Holy Catholike Church Holy as in which are the Elect of God and Catholike as in which are of all Nations under heaven and this is not the Church of the Jewes for that Church though at some time it were Holy yet it was never Catholike as being bounded within Canaan but now as the Holy Ghost hath made the Church Holy by sanctifying it so Christ hath made it Catholike by enlarging it for at his comming at least at his going away he broke downe the Partition wall by his last Warrant to the Apostles Goe teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost But though Christ set his Church at large yet not long after his time a Sect of Hereticks would needs restraine it againe For Donatus and his followers would perswade the world that as before the true Church was onely in Canaan so now the true Church was onely in Africa but by beleeving the Holy Catholike Church I now disclaime both these Churches the Church of the Jewes as not being Catholike and the Church of the Donatists as being neither Catholike nor Holy But what use is there of this Article May not a Christian man doe well enough and yet leave this Article out of his Creed Indeed there is not onely great use of it but even necessitie For
to us and more for making us capable to Beleeve it For as without revealing wee should never have knowne it So without Grace wee could never have Beleeved it But now by the Eye of Faith and by the Light of Grace we come to see as it were a glympse of that glorious Appearing when wee shall see God not in Idaeas represented by the Fancie but in the miraculous Verity of his owne Being which as none can see now and live so there shall be then no life but in seeing it no joy but in beholding it But though the Persons in the Trinity be all equall in Deity yet not all Equall in all respects For how then should it be true which Christ saith of himselfe Pater major est me The Father is greater then I Not greater then Hee onely as Man For this were no great matter nor greater then He as God for this were no possible matter but greater then He as Sonne for the Sonne is of the Father the Father is of None and in that respect is greater then the Sonne Not as God but as Father and therefore in the sense in which Christ saith The Father is greater then I in that sense doe I place the Father first in my Creede and say first I Beleeve in God the Father And though I cannot apprehend how God being but One should be Three yet I beleeve it and beleeving it I Adore it and though I cannot apprehend how Almighty One should be Almighty where Three be Equall yet I beleeve it and beleeving it I admire it Indeed if God were not Almighty he could not be God seeing his power should bee limited and a limited Power implies a greater Power that limits it which should be God rather then Hee and therefore not Almighty no God And againe if hee were not Almighty our Beliefe in him might be frustrate For his want of Might might be in that for which wee depend upon him and if no depending upon him then no beleeving in him neither but now being God and being Almighty we Beleeve in him not onely justly as God but securely as Almighty seeing whatsoever our want be yet he being Almighty can supply it how great soever our Danger be yet he being Almighty can Defend us how strong soever our Enemies be yet he being Almightie can Protect us and as wee are assured that he can so wee doubt not but he will seeing there is in him no lesse readinesse to doe it as being a Father then Power to bee able to doe it as being Almighty Here the Atheist inferres that God cannot truely be said to bee Almighty seeing there are many things which he cannot doe as he cannot Dye he cannot lye he cannot deny himselfe and if hee cannot doe these things then he cannot doe all things and If hee cannot doe all things then can hee not truely be said to be Almighty But who sees not the grosenesse of this subtilty seeing theve are not Actions of Power but Infirmities and not to be able to doe things which it is not Ability to doe but Infirmity what prejudice can this be to Almightinesse And yet it cannot so properly be said of God neither that hee is not able to doe these things as that hee is able not to doe them and so his not being able is indeed an Ability and an effect of Power and therefore no cause for this to deny his Almightinesse but to affirme it rather But what is more frequent with Heathen Writers then to call their fained God Jupiter Pater Omnipotens The Almighty Father and what doe we then Beleeve more in this then the Heathen doe Wee therefore Adde Maker of Heaven and Earth and this no Heathen man did ever beleeve For some of them thought the World to be made by chance and by the casuall concourse of Atomes Some againe thought it to bee Eternall and not to have beene made at all None of them ever ascribed the making it to God and therefore in our Creede we justly say God the Father as against the Jew and Turk we say Almighty as against the Atheist and we say Maker of Heaven and Earth as against the Heathen Indeed nothing doth so manifestly demonstrate the Almightinesse of God as the making of Heaven and Earth because hee made them when there was no matter to make them off as it is said In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth and againe In the beginning there was no Time so before Heaven and Earth there was no matter and to make them when there was no matter to make them off was to make Something of Nothing the most absolute Character of Almightinesse that can bee If we should say Maker of Man and Beast this would not serve to shew Almightinesse seeing there was matter whereof they were made for of Earth they were made both But to say Maker of Heaven and Earth is so evident an argument of Almightinesse that the Heathen themselves could not chuse but have acknowledged it if they had not beene blinded with their false Principle Ex Nihilo Nihil fit of Nothing is made Nothing a Principle true indeed in relation to Nature but false in relation to the Power of God to whom Nothing is as much as Matter and Matter is no more then Nothing seeing Matter and Nothing are all One to him Neither yet is the Almightinesse of God more evidently seene in making the Heaven and the Earth of Nothing so contrary to the course of Nature then it is seene in making them in a Frame so contrary to the course of Art For where in all Artificial Buildings the Roofe is alwaies contiguous by mediate Joynts unto the Foundation In this Frame the Heaven which is the Roofe is so farre from being contiguous to the Earth that there is Magnum Inane an Infinite extension of empty Ayre betweene them And where the Foundation in all Artificiall Structures is alwaies laid upon firme ground that it may sustaine and beare it up In this Frame the Earth which is the Foundation is laid upon nothing but thinne Ayre so farre from any firmenesse that it is alwaies in motion and yet the Earth it selfe never moving And if wee take the Sea as a part of the Earths Globe Is there not as great a wonder in that also seeing where all liquid things doe naturally overflow all that is under them here the liquid Sea is above the Earth and yet overflowes it not And now stand and wonder all yee Heathen acknowledge and admire the Almightinesse of God that is the Maker of Heaven and Earth But is God the Father the onely Maker of Heaven and Earth Is it not said in Saint John In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God all things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made It is true indeed all Opera ad Extra all exteriour works are common to all the Persons in the Deity but
the first Gospell that was written of Christ was that of Saint Matthew which was not writteÌ„ til eight years after Christs death the other much later especially that of Saint John which was not written till thirty yeares after and therefore the Creede no doubt was delivered if not in forme as now it is at least in substance as now it is long before any Gospell was written And may it not bee further said that this Creed seemes to have been penned when Religion was first translated from Judaisme to Christianitie and therefore that there are no other Articles in it then such as are in opposition to the doctrine of the Jewes by introducing in their place the Christian beliefe For by the Article of beleeving in God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost we utterly renounce the doctrine of the Jewes who acknowledge no Trinity of Persons in the Deity By beleeving the Incarnation of the Sonne of God Christ Jesus and his passion under Pontius Pilate we renounce the doctrine of the Jewes who teach that the true Messias is not yet come By beleeving the Holy Catholike Church wee renounce the opinion of the Jewes who thought that the Church of God was bounded onely within Canaan and that no Church could be holy but that of Israel By beleeving the Communion of Saints we renounce the doctrine of the Jewes by which a Jew indeed would take no usury for money of a Jew but to any of another Nation they would use oppression to the very grinding of their faces By beleeving the forgivenesse of sinnes we renounce the Pharisees Justification by workes and sticke onely to the Publicanes Justification by Faith O God be mercifull to me a sinner By beleeving the Resurrection of the Body we renounce the errour of the Sadduces whom Christ confuted by this argument Have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaak and the God of Jakob God is not the God of the dead but of the living By beleeving the life everlasting we renounce the opinion of the Jewes who depended onely upon temporall benefits and the blessings of this life and as for the life to come were as carelesse of it as ignorant And now seeing all the Articles of this Creed are in opposition to the doctrin of the Jewes what marveile that in it there is no Article for beleeving the Scriptures wheÌ„ as concerning the Scriptures that were then there was no opposition beweene the Christians and them It may with more reason bee demanded why in these Articles of beliefe there is no mention made of the Sacraments seeing Baptism and the Lords Supper were ordained by Christ himself and are things so necessary to be beleeved But is it not that of Baptisme Christ said Goe teach all Nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and of the Eucharist he said Doe this in remembrance of me and so both these are things of Action which wee must not onely beleeve but doe and therefore fitter placed Inter agenda amongst the records of things to be done then Inter credenda amongst the Articles of things to be beleeved The Catholike Church is no sooner founded The Communion of Saints but the Communion of Saints followes presently upon it as was seene at the Pentecost after Châ—ists Ascending when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in cloven Tongues for then were present of all Nations under Heaven who it seemes made the representative body of the Catholike Church and then being all of one accord and having all things in common and distributing to every one as they had need they acted the Article we here beleeve If there were not a Communion of S t s the wicked should be more charitable then the godly for among the wicked there are leagues and confederacies and they hold together for the common good and oftentimes their lives are engaged for one another and if the wicked doe this the godly certainely will doe it much more and this makes me to beleeve assuredly The Communion of Saints But are there Saints then on earth Are not all men living sinners and can sinners be Saints Indeed not Saints by Canonization of men but by the Canonization of the Holy Spirit Not Saints in perfection but in Inchoation called Saints as Saint Paul saith because called to be Saints as having their Names written in the Booke of God in Heaven But we must here take heed of the Anabaptists Communion of Saints For by their Communion no man should have any thing in private but all should be in common and so none should be richer or poorer then another which would make Christs Praediction directly false where hee saith The poore yee shall have alwaies with you and would make all these exhortations voide Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Charge them which are rich in this world that they be ready to give and glad to destribute Give Alme of thy goods and never turne thy face from any poore man But indeed this Communion is in part exprest by Saint Paul where he saith Doe good to all men but especially to those of the houshold of Faith For the being of one houshold implies plainely a common provision for al the house but implies withall a disparity of estates Indeede the first flowre that growes in the Garden of the Catholike Church is the Communion of Saints which as it begins in the Militant so it continues in the Triumphant Church Continues there when the other flowres are withered and gone For when Faith and Hope shall be no more yet Charity shall continue and not onely continue but be then most flourishing and if we did not beleeve the Communion of Saints wee could not truely say Our Father in the Lords Prayer for in saying Our Father wee professe this Communion But for the better understanding of this Article It may bee conceived that there are Saints on Earth and Saints in Heaven and this Article containes the Communion of them both both of the Saints on earth between themselves and of the Saints in Earth and Heaven with one another What though they bee farre distant and asunder Are not the feet so from the head are not the hands so from the heart Yet if there were not a relation and correspondencie betweene them neither the feet would bee able to move nor the hands to stirre and perhaps not the head in many things to doe his Office And this Communion consists either in Assistance or in Love but in Assistance for a time in Love for ever For as the Saints in Heaven assist us by praying that wee may so leade our lives in this life that we may come to bee admitted into their Societie in the next So we assist the Saints in Heaven by praying that the suite