it denotes the first person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity There are three that bear record in heaven as St. Iohn hath it the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And in this notion or acception of the word GOD is the father of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST whom he hath begotten to himself before all worlds generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by such a kind of generation as neither the tongue of Men nor Angels can expresse aright In this respect our Saviour saith of GOD the first person I and my Father are one and in another place which we saw before on another occasion I work and my Father also worketh In this sense God the Father saith of the second person This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And finally in this as no man living no not any of the host of Heaven is to be called the Son of God but the second Person so none of the three Persons takes the name of Father but the first alone Though GGD hath severall sons and by severall means as shall be shewed anone in the place fit for it yet only CHRIST is called his begotten son and therefore God a naturall Father if I may so say unto none but him And this is that which Gregory Thaumaturgus hath told us saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath no other son by nature but thee my Saviour The name of this generation I forbear to speak of It is a point I waived from the very first when first I undertook to expound this Creed as being of too sublime and transcendent nature for the shallowness of my capacity to inquire into It is enough that I acknowledge God to be the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST by an eternall generation though I professe my self unable to discourse thereof with any satisfaction to my self or others And for the generation of our Saviour in the fulnesse of time by which he was conceived of the Virgin Mary I shall have opportunity to speak in a place more proper So that not having more to speak of the name of Father as it is personall and hypostaticall in the first Person only I shall proceed to that acception of the word wherein it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essentially and so given to GOD that every person of the Trinity doth partake thereof But first I cannot choose but note that even in that equality or unity which is said to be between the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father seems to me to have some preheminency above the others For not only the Greek Church doth acknowledge him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head but it is generally agreed on by all Orthodox writers that the Father is first in order though not in time Pater est prior ordine non tempore as Alstedius states it and by Aquinas amongst those of the Church of Rome that the Son or second person is Principiatus non essentiatus that is to say if I rightly understand his meaning that there was a beginning of his existence though not of his essence or a beginning of his Filiation but not of his God-head And yet I dare not say that I hit his meaning for I professe my self uncapable of these Schoole-niceties because I finde it generally agreed on by most learned men that CHRIST receiveth the being and essence which he hath from the Father although not in the way of production of an other essence which was condemned as an impious heresie in Valentinus Gentilis but by communication of the same Add here that those who have most constantly stood up in the defence of the doctrine of the Trinity against some Hereticks of this Age doe notwithstanding say and declare in publick that CHRIST though looked upon as the Son of God in his eternall generation cannot be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-essentiate And that both Genebrard Lindanus and some others of the Romish Doctors have quarrelled Calvin whom Beza laboureth to excuse in that particular for saying that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath his God-head from himself wherein he is deserted by Arminius also and those of the Remonstrant party in the Belgick Countries But that the Father Almighty mentioned in my Creed was not and is not both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too hath never been affirmed nor so much as doubted of by any Christian writer of what times soever Next look we on the name of Father as it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentially in the holy Scriptures and then it is appliable to every person of the blessed Trinity each of which in his severall person or subsistence may be called our Father Thus read we of the second person for of the first there is no question to be made in the 9. of Esay that unto us a Son is born and that he shall be called wonderfull the mighty God the everlasting Father Vers. 6. Thus in St. Iames we finde that the holy Ghost is called Pater luminum the Father of lights it being his office to illuminate every soul which is admitted for a member of the Church of CHRIST in which respect the Sacrament of Baptisme in which men are regenerated and born again of water and the holy Spirit was antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or illumination The reason why the name Father doth in this sense belong respectively to each is because they equally concur as in the work of Creation God the Father creating the world in the Son by the holy Ghost so in those also of Redemption and Sanctification From whence that maxim of the Schools Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa that is to say the outward or externall actions of the Trinity are severally communicable to the whole essence of GOD and not appropriated unto any particular person And yet the name of Father even in this acception is generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the common course of speech referred to the first Person only as he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head as before was said For thus hath CHRIST himself instructed us to pray and say Our Father which art in heaven And the Church following his command who hath willed us to pray after that manner beginneth many of her prayers in the publick Liturgy with this solemn form of compellation Almighty and most mercifull Father Not that we do exclude the Son or the holy Ghost in our devotions but include them in him In Patre invocantur filius et spiritus sanctus as Bellarmine hath most truly noted And therefore though we commonly begin our prayers with a particular address to God the Father yet we conclude them all with this through Christ Iesus our Lord and sometimes add to
Roman Emperours who though they ruled the people by the advice of the Senate yet ruled the Senate as they pleased and made the intimation of their own will and pleasure to pass as currant as Law Quod Principi placuerit Legis habet valorem saith the book of Institutes And such almost is the conclusion of those Royal Edicts which daily is set out by the French Kings which generally ends with these formal words Car tel est nostre plaisir for such is our pleasure But this in these and other Princes of the like authority is rather a character of power then a Rule of justice the Rule of justice being to be straight and even and always constant to it self not alterable on occasions or turned aside by passions and humane affections The will of God is subject to no such vicissitudes to such turns and changes as the wils of men but an unalterable and most constant rule without variation such as the rule of equal and impartial justice is of right to be And by this rule it is that the Lord proceedeth in executing justice over all the World Which justice either doth consist in the performance of his promises for even a just and righteous man is as good as his word and then it may be called veracitas and is a species or kinde of Commutative justice or else in punishing or rewarding the sons of men according to the exigence of their several works and then it hath the name of distributiva or distributive justice That part thereof which doth consist in the performance of his promises and is called Veracitas may be defined to be a constant and unalterable purpose in Almighty God of bringing every thing to pass which he hath either promised to the sons of men or spoke concerning them by his holy Prophets which have been since the World began In the first sense it is said so often of him in the holy Scipture that he remembred the Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob performing to their seed and their children after them whatsoever he was pleased to promise more generally by the Royal Psalmist Custodit veritatem in seculum that he keepeth his promise for ever Psal. 146.6 And in the other sense it was said unto the Virgin Mary by her Cousin Elizabeth that there should be a performance of all those things which had been told her by the Lord Luk. 1.45 by the Apostle that all the Promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 by CHRIST himself that Heaven and earth should pass away but that there was not one Iod or title in the Word of God which in due time should not be accomplished If it consist in punishing the impenitent sinner or chastising his own dear children for their wilful follies we then call it punitive and so it comes within the compass of Gods heavenly anger which as St. Augustine doth define it non aliud est quam voluntas puniendi is nothing but the will of God to punish such as do offend against his Commandements If in rewarding those who conform themselves as far as humane frailty will permit to his laws and precepts it is called Remunerative and hath a great admixture in it both of love and mercy in passing by our faults to reward our faith that saying of St. Bernard being always true Semper invenies Deum benigniorem quam te culpabilem Nay even his anger or his punitive justice is so mixt with goodness that in the midst of judgement he remembreth mercy and dealeth not so extremely with us as we have deserved it being as true which I finde noted by Nicephorus Deum vindictae gladium oleo misericordiae semper acuere that God doth always scour the sword of his vengeance with the oyl of his mercy The World had been reduced by this time to its former nothing had not he sweetned the severity of his judgements by the balm of his mercies and grown into a Wilderness or vast confusion had he not held in by his Iustice the exorbitant power of those who make their lusts and their wils a Law And certainly if we consult the Monuments and Records of former times we shall finde no Age nor State of men or Nations which do not give us evident and plain examples of Gods proccedings in this kinde when the necessities of his Church or the sins of men do require it of him The subtle tyrannie of the Egyptians had not only taught them to oppress Gods people for the present but to extinguish the whole race of them for the time to come and therefore a command was given to the Midwives of Egypt to murder all the Male Children which were born to Israel Did not God scourge them with their own rod and pay them in their own coin as we use to say when he slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt And possibly the piety compassion of the Midwives of Egypt in sparing many of the Male children whom they might have murdered occasioned God to lay the fury of his vengeance on the first-born Male not on any of the Females throughout the Countrey When David surfeiting on plenty and the sweets of power not only had defiled the wife but destroyed the husband how fitly did God square the punishment unto the offence For presently a violent mixture of rape and incest is committed by one of his own sons on his daughter Tamar that rape revenged not long after in the death of the Ravisher the Murderer getting in short time such a potent party as to drive his Father out of Hierusalem and to defile his Wives and Concubines in the fight of the people When David was restored to his Crown again and growing vain in conceit of his own great power must needs command a general muster to be made of all his subjects that all the World might see of what strength he was and stand in fear of his displeasure how justly did God punish him and take down his pride in cutting off so many thousands of his people in whose strength he trusted and bringing him to this confession that all his strength and power was from God alone The loss of so many of his subjects was a loss to David the glory of a King consisting in the multitude of his subjects as the Wise-man tels us And though David interceded for them and took all the fault upon himself saying in the affliction of a troubled soul At oves istae quid fecerunt what had those sheep done yet was there none at all of that seventy thousand who had not many ways offended against Gods Commandements and therefore had deserved death as the wages of sin How patiently did God bear with the house of Iudah in their Idolatries and apostasie from his Laws and Precepts how frequently did he command them to rely on him in all times of danger By consequence how justly did
of God by a communication of more speciall Grace then had been granted generally to the sons of men yet none but CHRIST our Lord is honoured with those high prerogatives of being called his own Son his only Son his only begotten Son the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things that so in all things he might have the preheminence Which glorious attributes and titles being laid together do put a very signall and materiall difference between the sons of God by adoption and grace and IESVS CHRIST our Lord and most blessed Saviour who is his son by nature his begotten Son begotten by his Father before all times generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an unspeakable manner of generation without help of woman and yet made of a woman in the fulness of time generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a supernatural kind of generation without help of man In terris sine Patre in coelis sine Matre as it is in Origen Without a Father on the earth without a Mother in heaven the very true Melchisedech which hath no descent who neither had beginning of days as the Son of God the Father alone nor shall have any end of life as he is the Son of God and the Virgin Mary Now of this twofold generation of the Son of God we will first speak of that which is last in Order his generation in the womb of the Virgin Mary in which he was incarnate by the holy Ghost and was made flesh and dwelt amongst us for a season that we might live with him for ever For being begotten and conceived in the Virgins womb after such a supernatural and wonderful manner by the Almighty power of God he is in that regard if there were no other Gods own Son or his son by nature his only and his only begotten Son take which phrase we will The Angel Gabriel doth affirme this twice for failing Behold thou shall conceive and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest And then unto the Virgins Quaere he returns this answer The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God What called the Son of God only and not be so really Not so but that being really and truly the Son of God he shall declare the same by such several means ut sic merito ab omnibus vocetur that so he shall be called and counted over all the world For that he was really and truely the Son of God by this his generation in the fulness of time the miraculous manner of his conception without any other Father then the power of God doth most assuredly evince A son begotten in that manner may very well be called natura filius non tantum beneficio filius a son by nature not by grace and indulgence only saith the learned Maldonate Quia non ex viro sed ex solo Deo concipiendus because begotten not by man but by God alone Nay so peculiarly doth this miraculous manner of his generation entitle him to be the true and proper Son of Almighty God that so he might be justly called and accompted of had he not been the Son of the living God by a preceding generation even before all times And so doth Maldonate resolve it in his Commentaries on St. Lukes Gospel though otherwise a great assertor of the eternal generation of the Son of God whose words I shal put down at large for the greater certainty Etiamsi Christus Deus non fuisset illo tamen modo genitus quo genitus fuit merito Dei Filius vocatus fuisset non solum ut caeteri viri sancti sed singulari quadam ratione quod non alium quam Deum haberet patrem neo ab alio quam ab eo generatus So he I think exceeding rightly to the point in hand His instance or exemplification in the case of Adam who is called the Son of God by the same St. Luke quia non a viro sed a Deo genitus erat because he was begotten by God and not by Man I cannot by any means approve of the production of our Father Adam not being to be reckoned as a generation but to be esteemed of as a work of Creation only But to proceed as Christ is properly and truly the Son of God by this his generation in the womb of his Virgin-mother so in the same respect is he called in Scripture the only and the only begotten Son of God the Father I know that generally the style or attribute of the only begotten Son of God is used for an argument or convincing reason to prove that Christ our Saviour is the Son of God by an eternall generation long before all worlds But by their favours I conceive that he is called Gods only begotten Son either in reference to this his generation in the womb of the Virgin because the only Son of God which was so begotten or else because he was most dearly loved of his heavenly Father as commonly an only Son is best and most affectionately beloved of an earthly Parent To the first sense I have the testimony of Vrsinus a Divine of the reformed Churches who though he hold that CHRIST is principally called the only begotten Son of God secundum divinitatem suam according to his Divine nature yet he concludes that aliquatenus after a sort he may be called so in his humane nature His reason is Quia etiam secundum hane tali modo est genitus quali nunquam quisquam alius ex Virgine nimirum incorrupta vi Spiritus sancti that is to say because according to that nature he was begotten in such a manner as never any had been before or since as being conceived of a pure Virgin by the holy Ghost And to the second sense I have that of Maldonate who on these words Hic est filius meus dilectus in the 3. of Matthew observes that filius dilectus and filius unigenitus are termes reciprocal that not alone in Homer but in holy Scripture the best beloved Son is called the only begotten and on the other side that by only begotten in St. Iohn he means best beloved God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that is to say his best beloved Son For unigenitum posuit pro charissimo as his words there are But what need Maldonate be produced in so clear a case which hath so plain an evidence from the word of God For read we not that God commanded Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as our English reades it unigenitum filium tuum the only begotten Son as the Vulgar hath it So the Greek reads it also
on Penelope by Mercury And is it not recorded in their most authentick Histories that Romulus the first King and founder of Rome was begotten by Mars upon the body of Rhea a Vestal Virgin Romulus a Marte genttus Rhea Silvia as Florus summarily reports it Had not the Lusitanians a race of Horses which they believed to be engendred by the winde the fancy growing from the knowledge of their excellent swiftness At this Lactantius toucheth in his Book of Institutes and makes it a convincing Argument in this case against the Gentiles who might as easily believe the miracle of the incarnation as give faith to that Quod si animalia quaedam vento aura concipere solere omnibus notum est cur quisquam mirum putet cum Spiritu Dei cui est facile quicquid velit gravatam Virginem esse dicimus No question but the Spirit of God might be conceived as operative as the winde or ayr But leaving these Romances of the antient Heathens though arguments good enough ad homines and beyond that they are not meant let us next look a while on the blessed Virgin who questionless did somewhat to advance the work and left it not wholly to the managing of the holy Ghost But what she did was rather from the strength of faith then nature For had she not believed she had never conceived And thereupon it is resolved by St. Augustine rightly Feliciorem Mariam esse percipiendo fidem Christi quam concipiendo carnem Christi that she was happier by believing then she was by conceiving though in that too pronounced the most blessed amongst women Now in the strengthning of this faith many things concurred as the authority of the Messenger who coming from the God of truth could not tell a lye the general expectation which the Iews had about this time of the Messiahs near approach the argument used by the Angel touching Gods Omnipotence with whom nothing was said to be impossible and so not this the instance of a like miracle wrought upon Elizabeth the wife of Zachary almost as old but altogether in the same case with Sarah who had conceived a son in her old age beyond the ordinary course of nature And to say truth these arguments were but necessary to beget belief to so great a miracle to which no former age could afford a parallel though that of Sarah came most nigh it And if that Sarah thought it such a matter of impossibility then to conceive and bear a son when it only ceased to be with her after the manner of women as the Text tels us that she did how much more justly might the Virgin think it an impossible thing for her to be conceived with childe and bring forth a Son and yet continue still a Virgin But at the last the strength of faith overcame all difficulties and by the chearfulness of her obedience she made a way for this great blessing which was coming towards her Behold the handmaid of the Lord Be it to me according unto thy word Which whether they were words of wishing that so it might be as St. Ambrose Venerable Beda and Euthymius think or of consent that so it should be as Ireneus and Damascen are of opinion certain it is that on the speaking of those words she did conceive Coelestial seed and in due time brought forth her Saviour As is affirmed by Irenaeus l. 1. c. 33. Tertullian in his book De Carne Christi Athanasius in his Oration De Sancta Deipara and divers others A work as of great efficacy unto our Salvation so of especial esteem in the Christian Church the day whereof called usually the Feast of the Annuntiation hath anciently been observed as an holy Festival as appears by several Homilies made upon this subject by Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in the year 230. and that of Athanasius in the time of Constantine A day of such high esteem amongst us in England that we begin our year from thence both in the vulgar estimate and all publick Instruments though in our Kalenders we begin with the first of Ianuary according to the custome of the antient Romans But here it may be asked why CHRIST should not be called the Son of the holy Ghost according to his humane nature considering that not St. Luke only ascribeth unto him the work of the Incarnation under the title of an overshadowing but that it is affirmed by St. Matthew in tearms more express that she the blessed Virgin Mother was found to be with child of the holy Ghost And he by whom a woman is conceived with childe is properly and naturally though not always legally for Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant as the Lawyers tell us the right Father of it A consideration which prevailed so far with some of St. Hieromes time that they began to stumble upon this opinion but with no better reason in true Divinity then Christ may be affirmed to be the Father Almighty intended in the former Articles because creation is the work of the Father Almighty and it is written by St. Iohn that by him that is to say the Son all things were made For all things were so made by the Word as the Word was made flesh or incarnate by the holy Ghost God I mean God the first Person here as generally the Scripture doth where it speaks of God without limitation or restrictions acting by them those two great works which in the holy Text are to them ascribed yet by them not as Ministers subservient to him but co-working with him God saith St. Paul hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds God made the world though he made it by his Son to the end that all things being created by him might be also for him And so 't is also in the work of the incarnation God by his Spirit fructifying the Virgins womb and sanctifying the materials with which the Word which in the beginning was with God was to be invested to the intent that the Spirit might bear witness to us that he was the beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased And yet there is another reason why he should rather be called the Son of God then of the holy Ghost because he had a pre-existence before he was incarnate in the Virgins womb as he was the Word the Word which in the beginning was not only with God but was also God by an unspeakable way of emanation from the Father only as the Word is first conceived in the minde of man before it be uttered by the voyce For as the Son is to the Father so is the Word to the Minde The Son proles parentis the Word proles mentis saith the learned Andrews God therefore being an eternal everlasting Minde did before all beginnings of time produce the Word
oblationem Deo facere et in omnibus gratos inveniri fabricatori Deo c. It becometh us saith he to make oblations unto God and to be thankefull in all things to our heavenly maker offering to him the first fruits of his own creatures with a right belief and faith without hypocrisie in hope assured and fervencie of brotherly affection which pure oblation the Church alone doth offer to the maker of all things out of his own creatures with praise and thanks-giving And last of all it is called the Sacrament sometimes the Sacrament of the Lords Supper sometimes the Sacrament of the Altar by reaso that the bread and wine thus dedicated to the service of Almighty God and righly consecrated by his Ministers are made unto the faithful receiver the very body and bloud of Christ our Saviour and do exhibit to us all the benefits of his death and passion Of which it is thus said by the old Father Irenaeus that the bread made of the fruits of the earth and sanctifyed according to Christs ordinance jam non communis panis est sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans terrena Coelesti c. is now no longer common bread but the blessed Eucharist consisting of two parts the one earthly and the other heavenly that is to say the outward elemental signe and the inward and spiritual grace In which respect it was affirmed of this bread by Cyprian if at the least the work be his which is somewhat doubted non effigie sed natura mutatum that though it kept the same shape which it had before yet was the nature of it changed not that it ceased to be what before it was as the Patrons of the Romish Masse do pervert his meaning but by being what before it was not just as an iron made red hot retaineth the proportion and dimensions which before it had and is still iron as at the first though somewhat of the nature of fire which is to warme and burn be now added to it And this was antiently the doctrine of the Church of Christ touching the sacrifice of the Lords supper or the blessed Eucharist before that monstrous Paradox of Transubstantiation was hammered in the brains of capricious Schoolmen or any such thing as a Propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead affabulated to the same by the Popes of Rome Now such a sacrifice as this with all the several kinds and adjuncts of it we finde asserted and maintained by the Church of England though it condemn the sacrifices of the Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt as dangerous deceits and blasphemous fables and censureth Transubstantiation as repugnant to the plain words of Scripture destructive of the true nature of a Sacrament and to have given occasion to much superstition For if a true and proper sacrifice be defined to be the offering of a creature to Almighty God to be consecrated by a lawfull Minister to be spent and consumed to his service as Bellarmine and the most learned men of both sides do affirme it is then is the offering of the bread and wine in the Church of England a true proper sacrifice for it is usually provided by the Church-wardens at the charge of the people and being by them presented in the name of the people and placed on the Altar or holy table before the Lord is now no longer theirs but his and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine and being consecrated by the Priest is consumed and eaten by such as come prepared to partake thereof The whole prayer used at the consecration doth it not plainly manifest that it is commemorative and celebrated in memorial of that full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world which our Saviour made upon the Crosse for our Redemption And when the Priest or Minister doth call upon us in the Exhortation above all things to give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ and that we do accordingly entirely desire his fatherly goodness mercifully to accept that our sacrifice of praise and thanks-giving and therewith offer and present unto him our selves souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him do we not thereby signifie as plainly as may be that it is an Eucharistical and spiritual sacrifice Finally that it is a Sacrament I think none denies and that thereby we are partakers of the body and bloud of CHRIST I think all will grant the people giving thanks to Almighty God for that he hath vouchsafed to feed them with the spiritual food of the most precious body and bloud of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and calling upon him to grant that by the merits and death of his Son Christ Jesus and through faith in his bloud both they and all his whole Church may obtain remission of their sins and all other benefits of his passion Nor doth the Church of England differ from the Antients as concerning the change made in the bread and wine on the consecration which being blessed and received according to Christs holy institution become the very body and bloud of Christ by that name are delivered with the usual prayer into the hands of the people and are verily and indeed saith the publick authorized Catechisme taken and received of the faithfull in the Lords Supper The bread and wine though still the same in substance which before they were are changed in nature being made what before they were not according to the uncorrupted doctrine of the purest times and the opinion of the soundest and most learned Protestants I add no more but that if question should be asked with which of all the legal sacrifices this of the Church of Christ doth hold best proportion I answer that it it best agreeth with those Eucharisticall sacrifices of the Law which were called peace-offerings made unto God upon their reconciliation and atonement with him In which as the creature offered a sacrifice to the Lord their God might be indifferently either male or female to shew that both sexes might participate of it so being offered to the Lord the one part of it did belong to the Priest towards his maintenance and support as the skin the belly the right shoulder and the brest c. the rest was eaten in the way of a solemn feast by those who brought it for an offering before the Lord. And in the feast as Mollerus very probably conjectureth the man that brought this offering did use to take a cup of wine and give thanks over it to the Lord for all his benefits which was the Calix salutis whereof the Psalmist speaketh saying I will take the
the Royal Prophet which shaketh the Wilderness even the great Wilderness of Cades The best way to resolve this doubt is to look unto the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai which was delivered in the hands of an Angel and much after the same manner as the day of Iudgement is described in the holy Gospel And it came to pass saith Moses on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick clowd upon the Mount and the voyce of the Trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the Camp trembled And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noyse of the Trumpet and the Mountain smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a far off Whatsoever noyse that was which is by Moses said to be made with the sound of the Trumpet when the Law was given the same do I conceive it will also be when all the world is called to given an account of all their doings whether conform unto that Law or against the same The Trumpet was sounded with great terrour when the Law was given that the whole world might hear the noise of the Eccho of it and thereby brought into a fear of violating any part of that sacred Rule For though the Law seemeth to be given only to the house of Israel and to none but them as indeed it was given to none but them by the hand of Moses in which respect it is not binding to the Gentiles as the Schoolmen very well observe yet being it was naturally imprinted in the hearts of men as the perpetual moral Law of the most high God although the tract and footsteps of it were almost defaced the Gentiles at their peril were obliged to keep it and to take notice of the publication of it whensoever and by what means soever it should arrive unto their Ears So that the trumpet spoken of in the books of Moses is like that of Triton in the Poet as shrill as that and without all peradventure to be heard as far Of which Ovid thus buccinaâ—umitur â—umitur illi Tortilis in medium quae turbine crescit ab imo Buccina quae medio concepit ubi aera Ponto Littora voce replet sub utraque jacentia Phoebo Thus Englished by George Sandys He his wreath'd trumpet takes as given in charge That from the turning bottom grows more large To which when he gives breath 't is heard by all From far up-rising Phoebus to his fall Such also shall the voyce of the Trumpet be in the day of Judgement when all the Nations of the world shall be called together and called to account for their actions past which ought to have been squared by the rule of the Law of which they have such ample notice and such deep impressions although they did not stand at the foot of the Mount when it was published by the Iews The Gentiles saith St. Paul which have not the law that is to say which have it not in writing as the Iews had do by nature the things câ—ntained in the Law and having not the Law so given are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another So that all Nations of the world not the Iews alone having such deep characters of the Law of God imprinted in them are thereby made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or without excuse if they keep it not And being bound to keep the law shall be judged according to the law and therefore shall be called together to receive their sentence by that or the like noyse of a Trumpet in which the law was published by the Lord Almighty The next thing here to be considered is the attendance of the Angels which doubtless are not taken in to fill up the train to make the manner of his coming the more brave and glorious but for some other special and more weighty use Therefore our Saviour having told us that the Son of man shall come in glory and all the holy Angels with him addes also in the following words and before him shall al the Nations of the world be gathered Gathered together but by whom by those very Angels Then saith he shall he send his Angels with the sound of the Trumpet and shall gather together the Elect from the four windes c. What the Elect and none but they Not so For they shall also gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and them that do iniquity But having gathered them together is their work then done Not yet for they must also separate the wicked from the righteous man the goats from the sheep the tares from the good seed the good fish from the bad that being so disposed in their ranks and files they may together hear their senâ—ence whether life or death But when the sentence is pronounced is there any thing more behinde for these ministring Spirits Much more assuredly The greatest part of their imployment is yet to come Gather ye together first the Tares and binde them in bundles to burn them but gather the Wheat into my barn After the gathering and the sentence then comes in the binding And binding is a tearm derived from the Courts of Iustice according to the course whereof the Prisoner is led bound to his Execution so to prevent all hope and possibility of their escape and make them yeild unto their censure with the less resistance I lictor liga manus verberato infoelici arbori suspendito Here Lictor binde the prisoner scourge him or hang him on the Tree as the sentence varied but whether verberato or suspendito there was still liga manus the binding of the prisoner as a part of his punishment God doth so deal with wicked and ungodly men as the great Tyrant Nebuchadnezzar did with the three Hebrew children in the Book of Daniel command them to be first bound and after cast into the midst of the fiery furnace The like we finde in Virgil also Vinxerat post Terga manus quos mitteret umbris the Poet speaking there of those wretched men whom Aeneas was about to sacrifice to the powers below Well being thus bound and ready for the Execution what comes after next Alligate ad comburendum saith our Saviours Parable binde them to burn them saith the Text. And here the case is somewhat altered as it relates unto the Ministers though still the same in reference to the Malefactors Before it was Colligite and Alligate i. e. gather them together and binde them fast here not comburite but ad comburendum The holy Angels were the Ministers to attach the sinner to bring him before Gods Tribunal and after sentence is pronounced to lay hands upon him and make him ready for the punishment which he is to
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
fire not Metaphorical but reall The Conclusion of all THe immortality of the soul asserted by the holy Scriptures denyed by some Heretical Christians abetted and defended generally by the learned Gentiles That the world shall have an end and that it shall have an end by fire proved by the old Poets and Philosophers A place of everlasting rest and happinesse designed by the learned both Greeks and Romans for the souls of just and vertuous men to inhabit in with a description of the place so by them designed That the Patriarchs and other holy men of God were nourished in the hopes of eternal life maintained by the Church of England and by the plain Texts of holy Scripture denyed by Servetus the whole Sect of the Anabaptists and by some of our great Masters in the Church of Rome Eternal life frequently promised in the new Testament to the true believer the severall names by which it is presented to us and the glories of it That the Saints shall have a full knowledge of one another in the state of glory proved by clear evidence of Scripture Severall estates of glory and degrees of happinesse amongst the Saints proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The consideration of those glories of what great power and efficacy on a pious soul. Hell paines designed for the ungodly Of Hades Abyssus Tartarus and Gehenna by which names both the place and names of Hell are represented in the new Testament and what they do amount to being laid together That the Scriptures mentioning hell fire are literally not Metaphorically to be understood proved by the word it self by the authority of the Fathers and the light of Reason Arguments from the same topicks to prove the pains of hell to be everlasting contrary to the fancies of latter Hereticks The end of all FINIS Addend Fol. 453 lin 37. May believe in others Nor doth it any way disagree with the Analogy of Faith or the proceedings in like cases that it should be so that the confession of the Faith made by the sureties or sponsores the Godfathers and Godmothers as we call them now in the Infants name should be accepted by the Lord to the best advantage of the Infant for whom they stipulate Not to the Analogie of the faith for finde we not in the 7. Chapter of St. Luke that the Centurions sick Servant was healed by Christ of his bodily diseases upon the faith of his Master only And is it not expresly said Mat. 9.2 that Christ pronounced the forgivenesse of sins to the sick of the Palsie upon the faith of them that brought him which story we finde more at large Marke 2.3 Luke 5.18 but all concentring on this truth that it was not the faith of the sickman but of them that brought him which did procure the sentence of Absolution or Remission of sins from the hands of Christ. Not with proceedings in like cases for by the Laws the Stipulation made by Sureties or such as have the charge of Guardianship of Infants made in their name and to their advantage in the improvement or establishment of their Estates is taken for as good and valid as if it had been made by himself in his riper years And of this we have a fair example in King Iames the sixt of Scotland and the first Monarch of Great Britain who was crowned King of the Scots and received for such upon the Oath of some Noble men swearing and promising in his Name that he should govern that Realm and People according to the Laws established which I finde urged by that King in the conference at Hampton Court in justification of the Interrogatories proposed to Infants in their Baptism and of the Answers made thereto by the mouth of their Sureties And to say truth there is the same reason for them both the Infant in the one case which is that of Baptism being bound in conscience to perform that when he comes unto riper years which his God-fathers and God-mothers did vow and promise in his Name And in the other case which is that of civill contract or stipulation he is bound by law to make that good which in his name and for his benefit and advantage his Guardians or Curators had so undertaken ERRATA In the Epistle Dedicatory for already read clearly In that to the Reader fol. 2. f. subsequent r. subservient In the Prefaceâ—ol â—ol 11. f. calling in r. casting in f. creating r. preaching f. decurrisse r. decursu f. 21. f. moâ—e r. promote â— new opinions r. no opinions f. 21. f. consent r. consult In the Book it self f. 2. f. traditio r. tradito f. Evang r. â—xani f. 17. f. Eubemerus r. Eubemerus f. 20. f. fellows r. followers f. 27. f. Numens r. Nations f. 31. f. ne se r. ne sic f. 34. f. his land r. his hand f. 37. f. the name r. the means f. 39. f. godly r. goodly f. 41. f. compassion are r. compassionate f. 42. f. in time r. in fine f. 50. l. 52. f. powerful world r. powerful word f. 52. f. materials r. immaterials f. 73. f. Panaon r. Panarion f. 76. f. Gigamire r. Gigantine f 81. f. repertimes r. reperiemus f. 91. f. divinam r. divinatio f. not to make râ— not only to make f. 93. f. may acts r. many acts f. 95. f. justification r. institution f. 96. f. been r. had been f. 101. f. valendinem r. valeludinem f. 104. f Galcalus Martius r. Galeatius Martius f. 107. f. kindred r. children f. 122. f. internal r. infernal f. 139. f. suffered him r. suffered himself f. these lazie lives r. the lazie lives f. 152. f. doties r. does f. 157. f. his r. this f. 170. f. imuition r. intuition f. 180. f. blinde him r. blinde him f. 197. for which the speaks of r. for which the Gospel speaks of f. 200. f. skin r. shin f. 202. f. Arius r. Aerius f. 231. f. meuth r. meath f. 233. f. being then found out r. being not then found out f. 234. f. I must confess r. to which I must confess f. 240. f. by beleeving only r. by feeling only f. 241. f. moral r. mortal f. 246. f. descent r. desert f. 251. f. Kalender r. Kalends f. 269. f. how all this doctrine r. how ill this doctrine f. 275. f. more then in there vertues read more in their vertues f. 280. f. strongest r. strong f. 282. f. happiness r. holiness f. 294. f. the Priesthood r. the Priest stood f. 305. f. transubstiated r. transubstantiated f. on the r. in the. f. 308. f. certainly r. as certainly f. 310. f. nor new r. or new f. 314. f. gravora r. graviora f. to great r. to so great f. 315. f. any other sight r. any other light f. 315. f. day of days r. the days f. 322. f. Loyal r. Loyola f. 328. f. utraque r. utroque f. 374. f. now give r. not give del application f. 379. f. the same r. the name
ones have bâ—en pleased to do it Witness that famous challenge made by Bishop Iewel by which the several points in issue between the Church of England and the Church of Rome were generally referred to the decision of the Antient Fathers with great both honour and success Witness these words of Peter Martyr a man of great imployment in the REFORMATION of the Church and sent for hither by Archbishop Cranmer to mote it here In judging things obscure saith he the Spirit there are two ways or means for our direction whereof the one is inward which is the Spirit the other outward or external the Word of God to which saith he Si Patrum etiam autoritas accesserit valebit plurimum If the authority of the Fathers do come in for seconds it will exceedingly avail And unto this agrees Chemnitius also though of a different judgement from him in some points of doctrine who having told us of the Fathers that we may best learn from their own words and sayings what we may warrantably conceive of their authority gives in the close thereof this note and a sound one 't is Nullum dogma in Ecclesia novum cum tota antiquitate pugnans recipiendum that is to say that new opinion which seems new and is repugnant to the general cuâ—rent of Antiquity is to be entertained in the Church of God What is decreed herein by the Church of England assembled representatively in her Convocations what by the King and three Estates convened in Parliament we shall see anon In the mean time take here the judgment of the Antients in this very case 'T is true indeed the Fathers many times and in sundry places humbly and piously have confessed the eminency of Canonical Scriptures above all the writings of men whatsoever they be for which consent St. Augustine contr Faust. Manic l. 11. c. 5. de Baptismat contr Donatist l. 1. c. 3. Epist. 19. in Proem lib. de Trinitate desiring liberty of dissent from one another when they saw occasion and binding no man to adhere unto their opinions further then they agreed with the Word of God delivered by the holy Prophets and Apostles which have been since the world began De quorum Scriptis quod omni errore careant dubitare nefarium est and of whose writings to make question whether or not they were free from error were a great impiety And this is that whereof St. Hierome speaks in an Epistle to Pope Damasus Ut mihi Epistolis tuis sive tacendarum sive dicendarum Hypostase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n detur autoritas that he might be left to his own liberty either in using or refusiug the word Hypostasis But then it is as true withall that Vincentius give it for a rule Multorum magnorum consentientes sibi sententias Magistorum sequendas esse that the antient consent of godly Fathers is with great care both to be searched into and followed in the Rule of Faith And 't is as true that having moved this question in another place that if the Canon of the Scripture be so full and perfect and so abundantly sufficient in it self for all things Quid opus est ut ei Ecclesiasticae intelligentiae jungatur autoritas what need there is that the authority of Ecclesiastical interpretations should be joyned with it returns this answer in effect Lest every man should wrest the Scriptures to his own private fancy and rather draw some things from thence to maintain his errours then for the advancement of the truth Of the same resolution and opinion was St. Augustine also who though he were exceeding careful upon all occasions to yeild the Scriptures all due reverence yet he was willing therewithall to allow that honour which was meet both to the writings of the Fathers which lived before him and to the Canons and Decrees of preceding Councels and to submit himself unto their Authorities For speaking of General Councels he subjoyns this note Quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima autoritas that their authority in the Church was of excellent use And in another place alleadging the testimonies of Irenaeus Cyprian Hilarie Ambrose and some other Fathers he concludeth thus Hoc probavimus autoritate Catholicorum sanctorum c. This we have proved by the authority of Catholick and godly men to the end that your weak and silly novelties might be overwhelmed with their only authority with which your contumacie is to be repressed He speaks this unto Iulian a Pelagian Heretick And with these testimonies and authorities of such holy men thou must either by Gods mercy be healed i. e. recovered from his errour or else accuse the famous and right holy Doctors of the Catholick Church against which miserable madness I must so reply that their faith may be defended against thee even as the Gospel it self is defended against the wicked and professed enemies of Christ. More of this kinde might be produced from the Antient Writers But what need more be said in so clear a point especially to us that have the honour to be called the children of the Church of England who by a a Canon of the year 1572 doth binde all men in holy Orders not to preach any thing in their Congregations to be believed and holden of the people of God but what is conâ—onant to the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments Quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres Veteres Episcopi collegerint and had been thence concluded or collected take which word you will by the Catholick Fathers and antient Bishops of the Church The like authority and respect is given to the first four General Councels by the unanimous vote and suffrage of the Prince and three Estates convened in Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein it was ordained or declared rather amongst other things that nothing should be deemed or adjudged Heresie in the Kingdome of England but what had been adjudged so formerly in any of the said four General Councels or any other General Councel determining the same according to the Word of God c. Where we may see that the Estates in Parliament did ascribe so much to the authority of those four Councels and the judgement of the Fathers which were there assembled as not to question any thing which they had determined concerning heresie or to examine whether it agreed with Gods Word or not but left the people of this Kingdom totally to repose themselves upon their authority and to take that for heresie without more ado which they judged to be so And so I close this point with those words of Saravia a learned man and one that stood up stoutly in this Churches cause against the innovating humors which was then predominant though not so high as in these times of Anarchie Qui omnem Patribus adimit autoritatem nullam relinquit sibi that is to say He who depriveth the Fathers of their due authority will
the Apostles Creed it is said expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say I believe in the holy Catholick Church and in the Nicene Creed it was said of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in unam Catholicam Ecclesiam as the Translator of Socrates where that Creed occurreth And though the same be not expressed in terminis in the Latine Creed yet in the Grammar of the words it is understood For where the Latine Creeds run thus Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam c. that is to say I believe in the holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church c. as the English hath it either the word Credo must be interposed as Credo in Spiritum sanctam credo sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam i. e. I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the holy Catholick Church or else the Preposition In must relate to both as also to the rest that follow I know indeed that after Credere in Deum or in Iesum Christum was thought to be a different act and degree of faith from Credere Deo or Iesu Christo that men began to think it somewhat inconvenient to say as formerly Credo in sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam or Credo in Mosen Prophetas I believe in the holy Catholick Church or I believe in Moses and the holy Prophets which have been since the world began And so we are to understand both Ruffin and Paschasius when they speak thereof both fitting their expressions to such forms of words as were then authorized in the Schools of CHRIST The like is to be said of St. Augustine also viz. Credimus Paulo non credimus in Paulum c. We believe Paul saith he we believe not in Paul and we believe Peter we believe not in Peter Where note the Father speaks not of the property but of the use of the phrase according to the language of the times he lived in for ab initio non fuit sic that it was otherwise intended at the first beginning we have shewn already Whether the phrase be so peculiar an expression of the holy Ghost as that it is not to be found in the old Greek Writers I will not meddle at the present though I conceive the holy Ghost did dictate nothing of the Scriptures but the matter only and left the language thereof to the sacred Pen-men But for the Septuagint although they do not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preceding an Accusative Case which is the singularity of expression so much insisted on in this business yet use they other words to the same effect For those which stand so highly on singularity cannot choose but grant that many times they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes also though not often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which whosoever should translate in the English tongue could not translate it otherwise then thus to believe in God So that whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Deum or Credo in Deo it makes no difference in this case no more then that these words of the Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Beza are translated Crediderunt in nomen ejus but by the Author of the Vulgar in nomine ejus which come both to one This makes it evident in part that the said distinction between Credere Deo credere Deum stands not upon so sure a ground as was imagined but I must make it yet more evident that in the true intent and meaning of the sacred Pen-men there is no difference at all to be found between them For in the 16. chapter of the Acts the Iaylor did demand of Paul and Silas what it behoved him to do that be might be saved vers 30. to which they made this following answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crede in Dominum Iesum Christum c. believe on the Lord IESVS CHRIST and thou shalt be saved and thy house It followeth thereupon in the sacred story that being instructed in the Word and baptized with water he rejoyced greatly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credens Deo as both Beza and the Vulgar read it Believing in God with all his house vers 34. where if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 34. be not the same with that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 31 verse as to the act of faith which is one in both although the Object of this Act be given us in a different manner the Iaylor had fallen short of that way to Heaven and possibly might have been as far from the hopes of Salvation as when he first proposed the question And if they be the same as no doubt they be then Credere Deo Credere in Deum differ not at all and therefore neither the distinction nor the Explication so generally true and universally to be imbraced as hath been supposed which was the first thing to be proved The second was that howsoever Credere in Deum in some texts of Scripture may possibly admit that explication which is made thereof yet can it not be possisibly admitted in this place of the Creed My reason is because all Novices or Catechumeni which were to be admitted into the Church by the dore of Baptism all children formerly baptized which either came or were brought before the Bishop for Confirmation were first to give an account of their faith to make a publick profession or confession of it in the face of the Church according to the very words and Articles of this common Creed For which see proof sufficient in the former chapter Now if by Credere in Deum in Iesum Christum the Church intended such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an adhaesion unto God in IESVS CHRIST such an assurance and perswasion of our interest in him as the phrase is pretended to import the Church did very ill to exact it from the hands of Novices or from the mouths of babes in Christ considering how strong the meat was and how agreeable unto the stomach of the strongest faith My second reason is which before was touched at because if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe in God the Father Almighty in Iesus Christ his only Son and in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life import no less then such a dependence on them as is due from the Creature to his God and that too ex vi Phraseos out of the very prhase or form of speech in Deum credere the same dependence must all Christians have upon the Church the same on the Communion of Saints and the rest that follow Will you have a reason of this reason It is because the very same phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is extant still interminis in tearms exprest in all Greek copies of the Creed and necessarily implyed in the Latine
from the sight of men And if the wise Gentile could affirme so sadly nunquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset that he was never lesse alone then when he was by himself what need can any rational man suppose in Almighty God of having more company then himself in If this suffice not for an answer to that needlesse demand What God did before he made the World let him take that of Augustine on the like occasion who being troubbled with this curious and impertinent question is said to have returned this answer Curiosis fabricare inferos that he made Hell for all such troublesome and idle Questionists But it pleased God at last when it seemed best unto his infinite and eternal wisdome to create the World and all things visible and invisible in the same contained A point so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it And as the Scripture tels us that God made the World so do they also tell us this that because he made the World he is therefore God For thus saith David in the Psalms The Lord is great and very greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods As for the Gods of the Heathen they are but Idols but it is the Lord which made the Heavens Where plainly the strength of Davids argument to prove the Lord to be God doth consist in this because it was he only not the gods of the Heathen which created the World The like we also finde in the Prophet Ieremy The Lord saith he is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his power and established the World by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion In which two verses of the Prophet we have proof sufficient first that God made the World by his power and wisdome and secondly that this making of the World by his power and wisdome doth difference or distinguish him from the gods of the Heathen of whom it is affirmed expressely that they were so far from being able to make Heaven and Earth that they should perish from the Earth and from under Heaven But what need Scripture be produced to assert that truth which is so backed by the authority of the Learned Gentiles whose understandings were so fully convinced by the inspection of the Book of nature especially by that part of it which did acquaint them with the nature of the Heavenly Bodies that they concluded to themselves without further evidence that the Authour of this great Book was the only God and that he only was that great invisible power which did deserve that Soveraign title And this Pythagoras one of the first founders of Philosopie amongst the Grecians who in all probability had never seen the works of Moses as Plato and those that followed after are supposed to have done doth most significantly averre in these following verses which are preserved in Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be thus paraphased in our English tongue He that will say I am a Power divine A God besides that one let him first make A world like this and say that this is mine Before he to himself that title take For the next point that God the Father Almighty did create the World it is a truth so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it it being not only told us in the holy Scriptures that God made the World but also when he made it and upon what reasons with all the other circumstances which concern the same The very first words of Gods book if we look no further are in themselves sufficient to confirme this point In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth As Moses so the royal Psalmist He laid the foundations of the Earth and covered it with the deep as it were with a garment and spreadeth out the Heavens like a curtain He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is And so the whole Colledge of the Apostles when they were joyned together in their prayers to God Lord said they thou art God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Made it but how not with his hands assuredly there is no such matter The whole World though it be an house and the house of God cum Deo totus mundus sit und domus said the Christian Oratour yet it is properly to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands How then He made it only by his word Dixit et facta sunt He spake the word and they were made saith the sweet finger of Israel There went no greater paines to the Worlds creation then a Dixit Deus And this not only said by Moses but by David too Verbo Domini coeli firmatī sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum i. e. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth In which it is to be observed that though the creation of the World be generally ascribed unto God the Father yet both the Son and the holy Ghost had their parts therein Verbo Domini by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made saith the Prophet David In the beginning was the Word All things were made by him and without him was nothing made saith St. Iohn the Apostle The Spirit of God moved upon the waters saith Moses in the Book of the Law and Spiritu oris ejus by breath of his mouth were all the hosts of Heaven created saith David in the book of Psalmes Made by his word but yet not made together in one instant of time to teach us men deliberation in our words and actions and to set forth unto us both his power and wisdome His power he manifested in the Method of the worlds creat on in that he did produce what effects he pleased without the help of natural causes in giving light unto the World before he had created the Sun and Moon making the earth fruitfull and to bring forth plants without the motion or influence of the Heavenly bodies And for his wisdome he expressed in as high a degree in that he did not create the Beasts of the field before he had provided them of fodder and sufficient herbage nor made man after his own image before he had finished his whole work filled his house and furnished it with all things necessary both for life and pleasures
Esdras the springs above the firmament were broken up which on the abatement of the waters are said to have been stopped or shut up again Gen. 8.2 A thing saith he not to be understood of any subterraneous Abysse without an open defiance to the common principles of nature Besides it doth appear from the Text it self that at the first God had not caused it to rain on the earth at all perhaps not till those times of Noah but that a moysture went up and watered the whole face of the ground Gen. 2.5.6 as still it is observed of the land of Egypt And that it did continue thus till the days of Noah may be collected from the bow which God set in the Clouds which otherwise as Porphyrie did shrewdly gather had been there before and if no clouds nor rain in the times before the Cataracts of heaven spoken of Gen. 7. 11. 8.2 must have some other exposition then they have had formerly Nay he collects and indeed probably enough from his former principles that this aboundance of waters falling then from those heavenly treasuries and sunke into the secret receptacles of the earth have been the matter of those clouds which are and have been since occasioned and called forth by the heat and influence of the Sun and others of the stars and celestiall bodies These are the principall reasons he insists upon And unto those me thinks the Philosophical tradition of a Crystalline heaven the watery Firmament we may call it doth seem to add some strength or moment which hath been therefore interposed between the eighth sphere and the primum mobile that by the natural coolness and complexion of it it might repress and moderate the fervour of the primum mobile which otherwise by its violent and rapid motion might suddenly put all the world in a conflagration For though perhaps there may be no such thing in nature as this Crystalline heaven yet I am very apt to perswade my self that the opinion was first grounded on this Text of Moses where we are told of Waters above the Firmament but whether rightly understood I determine not But I desire to be excused for this excursion though pertinent enough to the point in hand which was to shew the power and wisdome of Almighty God in ordering the whole work of the Worlds Creation To proceed therefore where we left As we are told in holy Scripture that God made the World and of the time when and the manner how he did first create it so finde we there the speciall motions which induced him to it Of these the chief and ultimate is the glory of God which not only Men and Angels do dayly celebrate but all the Creatures else set forth in their severall kindes The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work saith the royall Psalmist And Benedicite domino opera ejus O blesse the Lord saith he all ye works of his Psal. 103.22 The second was to manifest his great power and wisdome which doth most clearly shew it self in the works of his hands there being no creature in the world no not the most contemptible and inconsiderable of all the rest in making or preserving which we do not finde a character of Gods power and goodness For not the Angels only and the Sun and Moon nor Dragons only and the Beasts of more noble nature but even the very worms are called on to extol Gods name All come within the compass of laudate Dominum and that upon this reason only He spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created In the third place comes in the Creation of Angels and men that as the inanimate and irrational creatures do afford sufficient matter to set forth Gods goodness so there might be some creatures of more excellent nature which might take all occasions to express the same who therefore are more frequently and more especially required to perform this duty Benedicite Domino omnes Angeli ejus O praise the Lord all ye Angels of his ye that excel in strength ye that fulfil his commandements for the Angels are but ministring spirits Psal. 104.4 and hearken to the voyce of his words And as for men he cals upon them four times in one only Psalm to discharge this Office which sheweth how earnestly he expecteth it from them O that men would therefore praise the LORD for his goodness and declare the wonders which he doth to the children of men Then follows his selecting of some men out of all the rest into that sacred body which we call the Church whom he hath therefore saved from the hands of their enemies that they might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives And therefore David doth not only call upon mankinde generally to set forth the goodness of the Lord but particularly on the Church Praise the Lord O Hierusalem Praise thy God O Sion And that not only with and amongst the rest but more then any other of the sons of men How so because he sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his Ordinances unto Israel A favour not vouchsafed to other Nations nor have the Heathen knowledge of his laws for so it followeth in that Psalm v. 19 20. The Church then because most obliged is most bound to praise him according to that divine rule of eternal justice that unto whomsoever more is given of him the more shall be required And last of all the Lord did therefore in the time when it seemed best to him accomplish this great work of the Worlds Creation that as his infinite power was manifested in the very making so he might exercise his Providence and shew his most incomprehensible wisdome in the continual preservation and support thereof And certainly it is not easie to determine whether his Power were greater in the first Creation or his Providence more wonderful and of greater consequence in the continual goverance of the World so made which questionless had long before this time relapsed to its primitive nothing had he not hitherto supported it by his mighty hand For not alone these sublunary creatures which we daily see nor yet the heavenly bodies which we look on with such admiration but even the Heaven of Heavens and the Hosts thereof Archangels Angels Principalities Powers or by what name soever they are called in Scripture enjoy their actual existence and continual beeing not from their own nature or their proper Essence but from the goodness of their Maker For he it is as St. Paul telleth us in the Acts who hath not only made the World and all things therein but still gives life and breath unto every creature and hath determined of the times before appointed and also of the bounds of their habitation And so much Seneca Pauls dear friend if there be any truth in those letters which do bear their names hath affirmed also
Manent cuncta non quia aeterna sunt sed quia defenduntur cura Regentis Immortalia tutore non egent Haec autem conservat Artifex fragilitatem materiae vi sua vincens All things saith he continue in beeing as at first they were not because they are eternal in their own nature but because they be defended by the Providence of their Governour Things in themselves Immortal have no need of a guardian But those things are preserved by the power of their Maker which over-ruleth the weakness of the matter out of which they are made So that it seems by the Philosophie of this learned man that the creature is preserved from perishing not by any power which it hath in it self but by the power and providence of its Heavenly Maker And this no less true in the Divinity of the holy Scriptures How long before this present time had the unbridled Ocean overwhelmed the land had not God set bounds unto it which it shall not pass nor turn again to cover the earth What a combustion had the World been brought into long before this time by the perpetual jarring of contrary Elements had not GOD so disposed it by his heavenly Providence as to interpose this vast airy Firmament betwixt the Elements of fire and water and so to temper drought with moisture that neither should be able to consume the other How long before this time had those many millions of men which possess the World perished for want of food and devoured one another had not he opened his hand and filled all things living with plenteousness did not he give the former and the latter rain making the Valleys fruitful and so full of corn that they do seem to laugh and sing in the Psalmists language How long before this time had the race of mankinde been utterly exterminated out of all the world by those violent and consuming Wars which have raged in every part thereof since the times of Nimrod since men began to hunt after one another and made the sword the instrument of their lusts and cruelties did not he keep unto himself the Soveraign power of making wars to cease whensoever he pleaseth and sending Peace into our borders when we look not for it Finally not to instance in more particulars how long before this time had the World been emptied of Inhabitants and no place peopled but the Graves by the continual prevalencie of Plagues and Leprosies and other pestilent diseases which the intemperance of diet or the malignant influences of the heavenly bodies have so oft produced had not he given a Medicinal vertue unto hearbs and plants for cure of ordinary but contagious sicknesses and say to his destroying Angel that it is enough when the devouring Plagues do most fiercely rage That Pestilence which cut off seventy thousand men in less space then a day must needs have utterly destroyed all mankinde in less space then a year had not the Lord restrained the fury of it by his grace and goodness Look where we will cast we our eyes on every side upon all the creatures and we shall finde as much of Gods wonderful Providence in their preservation as of his mighty Power in the first Creation That he spake the word and they were made that he commanded only and they were created is the most notable effect of his mighty Power But that he made them fast even for ever and ever and gave them such a law for their rule and governance as shall not be broken is a more admirable effect of his singular Providence When therefore it is said in the holy Scriptures that God rested on the seventh day from all the works which he had made we are to understand it thus that he desisted then from adding any thing unto the work of his hands which he had finished and made perfect the six days before but not from ordering and disposing of it as he sees occasion which is a work as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth no not on the Sabbath Sempër videmus Deum operari Sabbatum nullum est in quo non operetur in quo non producat solem suum super bonos malos Sabbaths and all days are alike in regard of Providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Nor is there any day saith Origen whereon God doth rest from the Administration of the World by him created on which he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad and makes his rain to fall on the just and wicked Pater meus usque modo operatur saith CHRIST our Saviour I work saith he and my Father also worketh to this very time By which our Saviour meaneth as S. Augustine notes that God rested not from ordering the things which he had created Nec ullam sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day whatsoever it was in which he tended not the preservation of the creature and therefore for his own part that he would not cease from doing the will of him that sent him Ne Sabbatis quidem no not so much as on the Sabbath It was the folly or the frenzy of the Epicureans that they robbed God of his Providence and made him nothing but a dull Spectator an idle and unnecessary looker on letting all worldly matters go as they would themselves Et Deos aut otiosos finxit aut nullos said the Christian Advocate The Stoicks saw this Error and took care to avoid it but then they fell upon as bad appointing that which they called Fate in the place of Providence and by that Fate so tying up the hands of GOD that he could do nothing but what was formerly decreed and resolved upon Which were it so Cur non illae potius regnare dicantur as wittily Lactantius scoffeth it why was not Fate and Destiny put in the place of God which even the Gods themselves are compelled to obey The Peripateticks therefore thought it to be better Divinity to grant to GOD the over-sight and super-inspection of all but yet ascribed so much unto second causes that they left little more to be done by GOD then to set the first wheel as it were on going and leave the rest to move in their course and order Which though it came more neer the truth yet it comes not home the Providence of God being so particular that the very hairs of our head are said to be numbred and that a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without his knowledge and permission But leaving this discourse of Gods general Providence we will consider it at the present in these principal parts his goodness towards all his creatures his Iustice in the governance of humane affairs concluding this with that of Alexander Aphrodiseus a great Aristotelean who pleads thus in behalf of this general Providence Quod
Deus inferiorum rerum curam gerere nolit a Dei natura alienum est nimis c. To say saith he that GOD refuseth to take care of inferiour things is too too much abhorrent from the nature of God or makes him lyable to the passions of an envious man And on the other side to say he could not do it were altogether as unworthy and to make him impotent neither of which by any means may be said of God And therefore we must needs determine that God is both willing and able to take care of all things which he hath made already or shall make hereafter And first the goodness of the Lord though indivisible in it self as all things in him hath been divided by the Schoolmen with very good propriety both of words and meaning into these kindes the one of which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Original the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplified Illa in Deo existens haec in Creaturis expressa the first existing solely in the Lord our God the other manifested in his Creatures That which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Original we may define to be an Everlasting and unalterable quality in the Lord our God qua modis omnibus summe bonus est by which he is supremely and entirely good In which regard the Divine Plato said of God that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good only in and of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only saving good the most desirable felicity as others of the Heathen called him And he that knew him best our most gracious Saviour hath given this to us for a Maxime Vnus est bonus DEVS that there is none good but only God so good that his most blessed vision is the summum bonum the highest and supremest good that any of the Saints and Angels can aspire unto The other species of goodness which the Schools call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Exemplified is that which God hath manifested on his Creatures and imparted to them and this they do again divide into general and special that being extended unto all his Creatures this more particularly restrained to his chosen servants His general goodness he hath shewn as before was noted in the continual preservation of the works of his hands clothing the hils with grass and the vales with corn feeding the Lyons and young Ravens when they call upon him apparelling the Lillies with a greater beauty then that of Solomon in his greatest glory making his Sun to shine and his rain to fall as well upon the sinner as the righteous person and in a word opening his hand and filling all things living with his plenteousness In which respect it is most truly said by the Royal Psalmist Repleta est Terra bonitate Domini the Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal. 32.5 His special goodness he restraineth to his chosen servants to such as fear his name and observe his Precepts The Lord is good to Israel saith the Prophet David even unto all such as are of a clean heart And so the Prophet Ieremy in the Lamentations The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him This manifested in delivering them from the evils both of sin and punishment and in accumulating on them his sacred blessings both of Grace and Glory Goodness is graciousness in this sense and to be good is only to be kinde and gracious Sis bonus O felixque tuis in the Poets language And then we have it thus expressed in the words of David viz. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy that is to say of great mercy in the pardon of our sins and wickednesses and gracious in the free collation of the gifts of the holy Spirit which therefore are called Graces quia gratis data By grace we are made fit for mercy by mercy capable of glory And by his grace and mercy on his chosen servants doth he preserve the world from those dreadful plagues which else would fall upon the wicked from whom he doth withhold his hand and keep off his vengeance out of that grace aud mercy to the righteous persons amongst whom they live For certainly it is most true which Ruffinus telleth us Mundum sanctorum meritis stare that the World hath hitherto been preserved by the prayers of the Saints And 't is as true which is affirmed by Stapleton a learned Papist Deum propter bonos sustinere malos that God gives many temporal blessings to ungodly men because they live so intermingled with his faithful servants and respites them sometimes from the hand of punishment not for their own but for the righteous persons sake amongst whom they dwell If Sodom stood so long unpunished it was because of righteous Lot who then dwelt amongst them And possibly it might have stood to this very day at least have scaped that fiery deluge which then fell upon it had it contained no more then teri righteous persons Far be it from the Lord our God to stay the godly with the wicked The Judge of all the World is more just then so When God raineth vengeance from above on the wicked man it cannot be but that the righteous must partake of the common miseries which do befall that State or Nation in the which he liveth as Abraham Isaac Iacob did of those several famines which God had sent upon their Neighbours There are not always such distinctions as was between the land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt God therefore sometimes holds his hands when the sins of wicked men cry loud for vengeance out of his grace and mercy to the righteous man or else abbreviates the time of their tribulation out of respect unto his chosen If they partake alike of the common miseries of Famine Pestilence War as sometimes they do it is because that even the best men have their imperfections and ever and anon commit some foul sinnes which God thinks fit to expiate with a temporal Purgatory But Iustice bears the greatest stroak in all Publick Governments Mercy and Grace although they be the fairest flowers in the Royal Diadem are used but at some times and on choyce occasions But Iustice is the standing and perpetual rule by which Kings reign and order the affairs of their several States And this the Civil Lawyers do define to be Perpetua constan◠voluntas jus suum cuique tribuendi a constant and perpetual purpose to give to every man his due Which definition well accordeth with that heavenly justice which is Original in God and essential to him since that the Will of God is the only Standard by which his justice is directed in the Government of the World and mankinde Norma justitiae divinae est voluntas Dei as the old Rule was a shadow of which Soveraign power we may behold in some of the
affirme that We are justifyed only by faith in Christ we understand not saith the Book that this our own act to believe in Christ or this faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us and deserve our justification unto us for that were to count our selves to be justifyed by â—ome act or vertue that is within our selves but that we must renounce the merit of faith hope charity and all other vertues as things that be far too weak imperfect and insufficient to deserve remission of sins and our justification and must trust only on Gods mercy in the bloud of Christ. Where plainly it is not the intent of the Book of Homilies to exclude the act of faith from being an externall and impulsive cause of our justification but from being the meritorious cause thereof in the sight of God from having any thing to do therein in the way of merit Or if they do relate to the act of faith it is not to the act of faith as the gift of God but as to somewhat which we call and accompt our own without acknowledging the same to be given by him And in that sense to say that we are justifyed by any thing within our selves which is so properly our own as not given by God is evidently opposite to that of the holy Scripture viz. By grace ye are saved through faith and not of your selves it is the gift of God that is to say that faith by which ye are saved is the gift of God And certainly it is no wonder if faith in Christ should be acknowledged and esteemed the gift of God considering that we have Christ himself no otherwise which is the object of our faith then by gift from God who did so love the world as our Saviour telleth us that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have life everlasting Of which great mercy of the Lord in giving his beloved Son and of the sufferings of that Son for our redemption I am next to speake THE SUMME OF Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical CONTAINED IN THE Apostles CREED Or reducible to it The Second Part. By PETER HEYLYN 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the Mysterie of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glorie LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Seile 1654. ARTICLE III. Of the Third ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. IAMES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo et in Jesum Christum filium ejus unicum Dominum nostrum i. e. And in IESUS CHRIST his only Son our Lord. CHAP. VIII Nothing revealed to the Gentiles touching Christ to come The name of JESUS what it signifyeth and of bowing at it Of the name CHRIST and the offices therein included The name of Christians how given unto his Disciples THUS are we come to that part of the Christian Creed which doth concern the Worlds Redemption by our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST A part to which we are not like to finde much credit from the stubborn and untractable Iews except it be to so much of it as concernes his sufferings under Pontius Pilate of which they made themselves the unhappy instruments and very little help for the proof thereof from any of the learned Gentiles who being taken up with high speculations would not vouchsafe to look so low as a crucifyed IESVS The preaching of Christ crucifyed as St. Paul hath told us as to the Iews who were a proud high-minded people it became a stumbling block so to the Greeks who boasted in the pride of learning and humane wisdome it was counted foolishness And if it were so counted a parte post when he that was the light to lighten the Gentiles had shined so visibly amongst them and countenanced the preaching of his holy Gospel by such signes and wonders as did in fine gain credit to it over all the world it is not to be thought that they had any clearer knowledge of salvation by him or by the preaching of his Gospel a parte ante The Iews indeed had many notable advantages which the Gentiles had not For unto them pertained the Adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises They had moreover amongst them the Prophetical writings or as St. Peter cals it the sure word of Prophesie which like a light shining in a darke place might well have served to guide them in the way of truth to keep them in a constant expectation of their Saviours coming and when he came to entertain him with all joy and cheerfulness Yet when he came unto his own they received him not that miserable obduration being fallen upon them that seeing they did see and not perceive that hearing they did hear but not understand But on the other side the Gentiles wanted all those helpes to bring them to the knowledge of their promised Saviour which were so plentifully communicated to the house of Israel For though the Lord had signifyed by the prophet Isaiah saying There shall be a root of Jesse and he that shall rise to reigne over the Gentiles in him shall the Gentiles trust yet this was more then God had pleased to manifest to the Gentiles themselves till they were actually called to the knowledge of CHRIST by the ministery of St. Peter and the accomplishment of this prophesie made known unto them by the application of St. Paul The light of natural reason could instruct them in this general principle that there was a God for nulla gens tam barbara said the Latine Oratour never was man so brutish or nation so barbarous which in the works of nature could not read a Deity And the same light of natural reason could instruct them also that that God whosoever he was was to be served and worshipped by them with their best devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place to serve and reverence the Gods was one of the most special Rules which the Greek Oratour commended to his dear Demonicus But that it should please God in the fulnesse of time to send his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem such as were under the Law that they might receive the Adoption of sons that CHRIST should come into the world to save sinners and breaking down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile make one Church of both neither the light of nature nor the rule of reason nor any industry in their studies could acquaint them with This St. Paul calleth a mystery not made known in other ages to the sons of men a mysterie hidden from the generations of preceding times and if a mystery a secret and an hidden mystery we should but lose time did we
reconciled to man as Peace had desired And so that was fulfilled which the Psalmist speaks of Mercy and truth are met together righteousness or justice and peace have kissed each other Arminius followeth this conceit a little further and addes that when the different parties had pursued their interesses Wisdome was called on to advise what was best to be done to give satisfaction to them all whose advise was that the punishment due to the sin of man should be changed into an Expiatory sacrifice by the voluntary oblation of the which justice might be appeased and place made for mercy But then began a new debate where they should finde a Priest fit for such a sacrifice Angel it could not be because it was not reasonable that an Angel should suffer for the sin of Man And Man it could not be because being terrifyed with the guilt of his own transgressions he had not confidence enough to draw near to God nor had he any thing of his own which was held worthy to be offered to so high a Deity Wisdome was therefore called again by whom it was finally resolved that there must be some man begotten who being made in all things like unto his Brethren might be the more sensible of their infirmities but so that he should be free from sin and not obnoxious to the power and criminations of Satan Holy he was to be or rather holiness and therefore to be conceived only by the holy Ghost by whose great power the ordinary course of nature was to be supplyed and in this flesh the Word it self to be incarnate who offering up that flesh in sacrifice for the sins of the world might so performe the work of poor mans redemption But leaving these conceits though indeed very ingenious there is no question to be made but God had other means to save us then by the incarnating the word and humbling his only begotten Son unto the death even the death of the Crosse if he had so pleased But a better and more convenient way to demonstrate his love and mercy towards us to manifest his Power and wisdome and yet withall to shew his justice against sin and Satan the Scriptures have not laid before us The Fathers have resolved it thus Et â—ine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae peccatis laxaret habenas effraenatis quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones God saith St. Cyprian was able to have pardoned this great sin without this sacrifice but the sacrifice of the pardon would have loosned the reines to unbridled sins which even the sufferings of Christ are scarce able to represse The like saith Nazianzen It was possible for God saith he to save man by his only will without taking of our flesh upon him as he did and doth work all things without help of a body Damascene to the same effect He was not otherwise unable that can do all things by his Almighty power and strength to take man from the tyrant that possessed him The like occurreth in St. Ambrose St. Augustine and Pope Gregory also In the darke ages of the Chrurch the same truth was held For thus St. Bernard in those times Was not the Creator able to restore his work without this difficulty Able he was but he chose rather to wrong himself then the most lewd and hateful vice of unthankfulnesse should finde any colourable place in man And it holds also since the times of the reformation Calvin affirmes it in plain terms Poterat nos Dominus verbo aut nutu redimere nisi aliter nostra causa visual esset the Lord saith he might have redeemed us with a word or beck but that for our sakes he thought good to do otherwise Zanchius comes very close to Calvin What saith he could not mankind be delivered by any other means then the death of Christ No doubt but that he might have done it solo nutu et jussu et voluntate divina by the only beck commandement and will of God Conforme to which expression of the antient and modern writers the Church of England hath declared in the book of Homilies that it was the surest pledge of Gods love to man to give us his own Son from Heaven For otherwise he might have given us if he would an Angel or some other Creature and yet in that his love had been far above our deserts They who conceive that God was not able otherwise to effect this work or had no other meanes to bring it to passe then that which he made choise of to effect the same do wilfully intrench upon his Omnipotence which is larger then either his will or his works For though his works be alwayes measured by his will yet must his Power be limited unto neither of them because God is able to do many things which he never did nor will do as hath been shewn before in the first Article And in his works to bind him unto any necessity to do as he did and not to leave him at his own liberty to do what he pleaseth and in a way which seemeth most agreeable to his heavenly wisdome were to revive the accursed errour of the Manichees Against whom St. Augustine thus resolveth it Nullam ergo necessitatem patitur Deus neque necessitate facit quae facit sed summa et ineffabili voluntate ao potestate God saith the Father is not bound by any necessity nor is he necessitated to do those things which he doth but doth them by his supreme and unspeakable power As then there was not any necessity on the part of God the Father Almighty to send his only begotten Son into the world to take our humane nature on him and suffer an accursed death for the sins of the world so neither was there any necessity on the part of the word by which he was enjoyned or compelled to take upon him the office of a Mediator and be incarnate in our flesh That it was agreeable to the work in hand that the word should be made flesh and in that flesh accomplish the whole mystery of our redemption there are many reasons to perswade For who was fitter to be cast out into the Sea to stay the tempest of Gods anger against sinful man then the Ionas for whose sake it rose Almighty God was first displeased for the wrong offered to the word in that man desired to be like unto God and to know all things in such sort as is proper to the only begotten Son of the Father The sin was caro verbum then vile flesh aspired to be made like unto the word therefore the remedy now must be verbum caro the word so farforth humbling it self as to be made flesh Verbum caro factum Who fitter to become the son of man then he that was by nature the Son of God Patrem habuit in coelis Matrem quaesivit in
immaculate conception Ann. 1476. But for the further glory of it confirming a new festival on the 8 of December which in honour of her said conception the Canons of the Church of Lions had of late begun After when as the doctrine of original sin was agitated and debated in the Councell of Trent this Controversie was as hotly followed as if the Pope had never determined it Nor would the Councell bring it unto any conclusion for fear of giving offence to the side condemned and therefore very warily did so state the point as neither to exempt the Virgin from original sin nor include her under the obnoxiousness and guilt thereof Declarat Synodus non sibi esse propositum decreto hoc they mean the Canons which they made touching that particular B. Virginem comprehendere For my part I am loth to rob this most happy instrument of our Redemption of any priviledge or exemption whatsoever it be which may consist with the analogy of faith and the texts of Scripture But when I finde in holy Scripture that CHRIST came into the world to save sinners and that the Virgin did rejoyce in God her Saviour either I must conclude that she was a sinner if guilty only of original sin it shall serve my turn or else that she needed not a Saviour And when I read it in Nicephorus that she dyed in the 59. year of her age and was attended to her grave by all the Apostles met together not by chance but miracle I cannot but conclude her under the Law of sin or else she had not been subject to the stroke of death which is the wages of sin as St. Paul hath told us No Saviour if no sinner if no sin no death It must be either both or none there 's no question of it But it is easie to discern what this tends unto I mean the great care taken by the Church of Rome to free this blessed woman from all manner of sin and humane infirmitie Their meaning is to seat her in the throne of heaven and place her in the Mediatorship between God and man whereof she were not capable if she were a sinner By what degrees they came at last unto this height is not hard to shew They went it seemes on that old Philosophicall maxime that the way to make straight a crooked stick was to bend it quite the other way This way was followed first on mistaken zeal and afterwards pursued upon worldly prudence Helvidius and those other Hereticks before remembred would not allow her just attribute the Virgin Mary affirming with an high hand of impudence eam post Christum natum viro suo fuisse commixtam that after our Redeemers birth she was known by Ioseph This was encountred presently with another extreme the writers of the following times not only making her a Virgin in all mentall purity but in corporal integrity also contrary to the judgment of Tertullian Ambrose Hierom before remembred and generally of the Greek Fathers hardly one excepted the Schoolmen thereupon devising this trim distinction to reconcile those antients to their new opinion that Christ was brought into the world non fractione aliqua membrorum sed dilatatione meatuum The Antidicomaritani an old brood of Hereticks devested her as their name imports of all manner of righteousness making her not more holy then another woman And on the other side the Collyridians in dislike of this peevish humour placed her above the reach of nature afforded her divine honours a dressing up a foure square Chariot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Authour cals it did thereon sacrifice unto her as an heavenly Deity The Schoolmen treading in the steps of these Collyridians and having little else to do then to broach new fancies first freed her from all mortal then from venial sins from actual first and after from original also And this the Champions of that Church have more hotly followed because the Magdeburgians and some other of the Protestant Doctors have made a muster of many crimes infirmities they might have called them had they been so pleased with which they do as hotly charge her Nestorius once Patriarch of Constantinople though he allowed her the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of Christ would not allowe her to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God and t is an expression I confesse which at the first hearing doth not sound so handsomely In opposition unto whom Cyrill of Alexandria and the rest of the Prelates at that time having condemned his doctrine of the two natures in Christ in the third General Councel did heap upon her all those Attributes which might manifest their dislike of him and his cause together Insomuch as Cyril doth not stick to call her in these early dayes pretiosum totius orbis thesaurum i. e. the most precious treasure of the world a lampe which cannot be put out the crown of Chastity the very scepter of true doctrine sceptrum verae doctrinae and not the scepter of the Catholick faith as our Rhemists read it And so far there was no harm done as long as those of Rome would contain themselves within the bounds prescribed by the antient Fathers whose pious flourishes devout meditations and Rhetoricall Apostrophe's aimed at nothing else then the commemoration of her faith and piety But let us look on the extravagancies of the writers of succeeding times and we shall finde that Anselm giveth this reason why Christ when ascended left his Mother here Ne curiae coelesti veniret in dubium c. lest else the Court of heaven should have been distracted whom they should first goe out to meet their Lord or their Lady That Bernardin Senensis doth not stick to say Mariam plura fecisse Deo quam fecit Deus toti generi humano that she did more to Christ in being his Mother then Christ to all mankinde in being their Saviour That Gabriel Biel a Schoolman of good name and credit hath shared the government of the world betwixt God and her God keeping Iustice to himself Misericordia Virgini concessa and left to her the free dispensing of his Mercies That Petrus Damianus tels us that when she mediates with her Son for any of her special votaries Non rogat ut Ancilla sed imperat ut Domina she begs not of him as a handmaid but commands as a Mistresse that Bonaventure in composing our Ladies Psalter hath applyed to her whatever was intended by the holy Ghost to the advancement of the honour of her Lord and Saviour that she is called frequently in their publick Rituals Mater misericordiae Mater gratiae Regina coeli with other the like glorious title which she dares not own that in the vulgar translation made Authentick by the Councell of Trent in stead of He shall break thy head which relates to Christ they read it Ipsa
in his Tribunal or Judgement Seat he caused the Souldiers of his Guard to fall upon them not with swords but staves who wounded many and killed some and for the rest falling on one another in an hasty flight as commonly men do in such affrightments they came unto a wretched and calamitous end Such another wicked and ungodly act was the slaughter of the Galileans who being more tender conscienced then the rest of the Iews would not as they did offer sacrifice for the health of the Romans and therefore came not to the Temple the place of sacrifice but held their Congregations and performed their sacrifices by themselves apart This coming unto Pilates ear and notice being given withal when they met together he caused his men of war to fall upon them and most cruelly put them to the sword And these were those poor Galileans which the Gospel speaks of whose bloud Pilate is there said to have intermingled with their Sacrifices This was not long before the time of our Saviours death that is to say about the third year of his Ministerie So that being in himself of a barbarous and cruel nature and fleshed in a continual course of shedding bloud he was the more like to serve the turn of those murderous Iews whom nothing else would satisfie but the death of the Saviour their crucifying of their long expected Messiah What became of him afterwards I shall let you know towards the conclusion of this Article when he had put an end by death to those many temptations and afflictions which our Saviour suffered during the time of his command This is enough by the way of Preamble to give the reader a short touch and character of him and so to let him see with what truth and plainness S. Austin tels us of the man that he was put into the Creed or Symbol not for the merit of his person propter signationem temporis non propter dignitatem personae as the Father hath it but for the pointing out of the time of our Saviours passion which he doth also touch at in his Encheiridion to Laurentius cap. 5. And so much briefly shall suffice for this present time touching the life and manners of this Pontius Pilate under whom CHRIST suffered let us next look upon Christs sufferings under Pontius Pilate Now for the sufferings of our Saviour they may be principally divided into internal and external the inward or internal being either temptations or afflictions the outward or external either shame or corporal punishments and these again may be considered either as being inflicted on him before his crucifying or in the act of crucifixion Of these the first were those temptations which were laid before him by the Devil immediately upon his Baptism at the performance of which ceremony he was acknowledged by Iohn Baptist to be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world anointed for his following Ministery by the unction of the holy Spirit descending visibly upon him in the shape of a dove and publickly proclaimed by a voice from heaven to be the beloved Son of God in whom he was well pleased This is the first alarm which the Devil took and it concerned him to betake himself to his weapons presently The Devil was an expert warrier and was resolved not to be set upon in his own Dominions but to give the first blow as we use to say and take the enemie whom he feared at the best advantages which were presented and as unprovided as he could And therefore he drew after him into the Wilderness of Iudaea into which our Saviour had been led by the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led into the Wilderness by the Spirit as St. Matthew hath it that is to say a Spiritu Sanctitatis as the Translatour of the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the holy Spirit as we read in Chrysostom And so no question but it was For by what spirit else but the Spirit of God could he be led into the Wilderness to whom all other spirits in the world were subject as they themselves confess in sundry places of the Gospel especially considering that the word is a word of violence such as our Lord and Saviour was not subject to For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew be a word more gentle and may imply a peaceable and quiet leading yet in St. Mark we finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was driven into the Wilderness by the Spirit the holy Ghost or Spirit of God conducting him into the Desert half against his will that is to say with such reluctance in his will considering to what end he was carried thither which was ut tentaretur a Diabulo that he might be tempted of the Devil as many of Gods Saints have found within themselves distracted between hope and fear upon the undertaking of some dangerous enterprise Of which St. Chrysostom in his Homilies on St. Matthew gives us this good note that we are not rashly and unadvisedly to thrust our selves into temptations which is a thing so contrary to Christs example though we are bound by his example to resist temptations as often as the Devil doth suggest them to us In which it is a great part of our Christian duty to call upon the Lord our God that he would be pleased not to lead us into temptation or if he do that he would graciously deliver us from the evil of it and doing so to be assured that no temptation shall be laid upon us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such as incident to man and may well be born that God will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our power but will make way for us to escape that being tryed in this fiery furnace of temptation we may receive that Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to all those which overcome it Now in this story of the temptations of our Saviour there are these three parts to be considered the place the preparation and the temptation it self The place or scene of this great action was the Wilderness of Iudaea as before we said not the inhabited parts thereof for there were many villages interspersed therein as commonly there are in al great Forrests but those which were the furthest and the most remote from humane society The spirit led him not saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the City or the Market place but into the Wilderness and more then so into the least frequented and most savage part of it where he conversed with none but Beasts as St. Mark informs us And this was done on great and weighty considerations First he was led into the Wilderness the better to comply with the type or figure of the Levitical Scape-goat of which it is thus said in Scripture that the Goat on which the lot fell to be the Scape-goat shall be presented alive before the Lord to
time from the holy Passeover Notable hypocites that made no conscience of committing a most wilfull murder and yet would make the world believe that they stood upon the mint and cumin the very niceties of the Law But here they were to fit their Compasse to another wind The crime of Blasphemy whereof they had convicted him amongst themselves would not work on Pilate who questionlesse had rather that the Iews had been of any or of no religion then of what they were That which amongst the Romans was accounted holy was by the Iews esteemed an abomination Profana illic â—â—â—â—a quâ— apud nos sacra as it is in Tacitus They must finde somewhat else wherewithall to charge him then that he called himself the CHRIST or the Son of God if they expect that Pilate should condemn him for them And to this end they do impeach him of high treason raising sedition in the State and setting up another King to oppose the Romans We found say they this fellow perâ—â—â—ting our nation forbidding tribute to be paid to Caesar and calling himself Christ â— King and whosoever makes himself a King speaketh against Caesar at the least and disputes his title to that Kingdom This last was it which more perswaded with the Governour then all the other branches of the accusation which he knew well proceeded only from the malice of that head-strong people and yet he was resolved to try all ways to appease their fury at least not to embâ—ue his own hands in the bloud of the innocent He laboured first to satisfie the people in it tels them he found no fault at all in the man accused that if they had a law which declared him guilty they might do well to take him back and try him according unto that And when that would not work upon them but that they cryed out Crucifie him crucifie him with the greater violence he caused him to be sent to Herod as being esteemed a Galilean and consequently belonging to his jurisdiction Thither the chief Priests also followed him and accused him vehemently but could prevail no more with Herod then before with Pilate save that the men of war which belonged to Herod despised him as a man of no consideration exposed him to contempt and scorne and returned him back Pilate then seeing how things went and that somewhat must be done to content the Iews fell on a resolution to chastise him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by stripes and whipping saith Theophylact and so let him goe And this accordingly he did for the Text saith that Pilate took Jesus and scourged him And more then so the unruly Souldiers were permitted to abuse him in what sort they listed They stripped him of his own cloaths and arraied him in a scarlot robe they platted a crown of thornes which they set on his head and put a reed into his right hand which done they â—owed the knee before him and mocked him saying Haile King of the Iews some of them in the mean time spitting on his face some striking him with their hand and others smiting on the head with that very reed which they had put into his hands in stead of a scepter Never did innocent man indure such a world of contumelies yet this was not all for in this dresse they bring him forth unto the people that they might recreate themselves with that wofull spectacle and Pilate like those fellowes which shew fights and motions ushereth it in with Ecce homo or Behold the man and yet declares before them all that he found no fault in him A most just Judge first to pronounce him innocent and then to scourge him then to expose him to such scorn and misery and after that again to pronounce him innocent to absolve him of all crime which deserved death at the tribunal of his own conscience and presently to give him up to the peoples fury by an order and determinate sentence from the judgment seat in foro judicii and in conclusion when he most wickedly and wilfully had given him over to be murdered whom by all laws of God and Men he was bound to save to play the open Hypocrite before all the world washing his hands and saying in the hearing of all the multitude that he was innocent from the bloud of that righteous person Never was innocent man accused more falsly prosecuted more maliciously nor condemned more unjustly then our blessed Saviour And now to make a brief recapitulation of our Saviours sufferings under Pontius Pilate taking in some of those which are yet to come tell me if on a due consideration of them they were not beyond measure grievous and unsupportable yea such as would have made any mortall man to sinke under the meer burden of them to the bottom of hell if he suffered not most bitter things from heaven earth and hell and in all that any way pertained to him He suffered at the hands of God his Father and of men of Iews and Gentiles of enemies insulting and of friends forsaking being betrayed by one of his chief followers forsworn by another and abandoned by all the rest He suffered from the Prince of darknesse and all his mercilesse and cruel instruments from all the elements of the world the Sun denying to him light the Aire breath and the Earth supportance He suffered in all things that pertained to him that is to say in his name being condemned as a Blasphemer an enemy to Moses the Law the Temple and the worship of God to his own nation also to Caesar and the Romans traduced for a Glutton a companion of Publicans and sinners a Samaritan one that had a Devil and finally did all his miracles by the power of Belzebub next in the things which he possessed when they stripped him out of his garments and cast lots upon his seamlesse coat in his Friends greatly discomforted and dismaid at the â—ight of so many miseries and afflictions as were laid upon him in his soul compassed round with sorrows and distressed with fears besetting him on every side and that even to death in his body when his cheeks were swollen with buffeting his face defiled with being spit on his back torn with the whip his head pierced with the crown of thornes his eyes offended with beholding the behaviour of his most proud insulting enemies his ears with hearing their most execrable Blasphemies his tast with the myrrhe and gall which they gave him to drink his smell with the stench and horror of the place wherein he was crucifyed being a place of dead mens souls and to consummate the extremity of his paines and sorrows his hands and feet digged thorow with those nails which fastned him unto the Crosse his side boared thorow with a speare and during all the time of his Crucifixion his naked body publickly exposed to the view of all spectators So that we see his sufferings under Pontius Pilate deserve
never any of the Angels was thought worthy of For unto which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool But this man being the brightness of the glory and the very Image of the substance of God upholding all things with the Word of his power and having by himself purged away our sins hath sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high saith the same Apostle And this is that which the same Apostle meaneth in another place saying that God hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named Where plainly he relates to the holy Angels whom he distinguisheth there as elsewhere by their several Orders but makes all subject and subordinate to the Son of man Nor hath he only the advantage of those blessed spirits in place and title and no more but also the greatness of that power and authority which sitting at the right hand doth present unto us He doth not only sit there and no more but so but sits there till his enemies be made his footstool as before was said all things what ever being put in subjection under his feet Which as it is one of the effects or consequents of sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty so is it such an height of honour such a point of Soveraignty as never any of the Angels could attain unto For unto the Angels saith St. Paul hath he not put in subjection the world to come nor made them to have dominion over the works of his hands And all this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no not in any wise not at any hand These priviledges and preheminences are for none but Christ reserved for him from the beginning before the foundations of the world were laid These then are the Preheminences and Prerogatives Royal which Christ our Saviour doth enjoy above Angels and Men at the right hand of God the Father where he sits crowned with honor and eternal glory And why this sitting at the right hand of God may not be taken in the literal and Grammatical sense according to the plain meaning of the words without tropes and figures and all these several Preheminences and Prerogatives Royal for the effects or consequents of his exaltation I must confess I know no reason to convince me Some things there are which very much incline me to be so perswaded which I shall briefly offer unto consideration and offer them no otherwise then considerations and so leave them there First I consider with my self and desire all learned men and Orthodox believers to consider with me why all the other Articles of the Christian faith even that of the descent into Hell as before was proved should be delivered in plain words and generally received in all times and Ages according to the literal sense this only being of such moment for our Consolation should be wrapt up in Tropes and figures and have another meaning then the words import or why the Apostles when they made this Creed to be the summary or abstract of the Christian faith and therefore to be fitted to the capacity of the weakest Christians who must be fed with milk as St. Peter tels us and he was one of those that composed this Symbol should use a phrase of such a dark and doubtful interpretation as doth distract the greatest Clerks to finde out the meaning Assuredly they had but ill provided for the vulgar Christian who must be fed with milk and not with stronger meats as St. Paul adviseth should they have set before them meats of hard digestion and feasted them with figurative and Metaphorical speeches which none of them did understand or could hope to do it In which respect I am not of the Doctors minde though I much reverence the man for his parts and learning who telleth us that we are bound to believe distinctly and explicitely all other Articles of the Creed concerning Christ according the plain literal and Grammatical sense of the words wherein the Evangelists and Apostles have expressed them without the vail of any Rhetorical Trope or Allegorie but for the place whither he Ascended and for the manner of his sitting at the right hand of God these cannot so distinctly he conceived by us because they are not in such proper tearms exprest by the holy Ghost but are wrapt up in a vail of Legal shadows and Representations I say I cannot be in this of that Doctors judgement because me thinks the reason which he giveth to confirm his opinion doth incline me very strongly to the contrary For if our belief or knowledg of the other Articles be literally required as he saith it is seeing the matter contained in them is sensible and comprehensible to reason sanctified by Grace I cannot see but that his sitting at the right hand of God in the literal sense may be as sensible and comprehensible to a sanctified reason as his Conception by the power of the holy Ghost or being born into the World of the Virgin Mary To make this probable and comprehensible I shall consider in the next place that though Almighty God in his own Divine Nature be infinite immensurable and incomprehensible not circumscribed in any place or confined unto it but equally in all places by his Omnipresence according to that of the Prophet Ieremie Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Almighty Yet we are to behold him in another notion when we speak of our Redeemers sitting at the right hand of God though we abstract him not from that Omnipresence nor that from him For look on God in his infinite nature equally present in all places and contained in none and then place CHRIST our Saviour upon Gods right hand it must needs follow thereupon that Christs natural body in which he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty must have a local being in all places also which is a thing not possible to a Body natural And what can follow after that but that we either fall into the errour of the Vbiquitarians who under colour of the personal union and communication of the properties of either nature in CHRIST have utterly destroyed the beeing of his natural body by making it present in all places by an Omnipresence or salve it by a miracle as the Papists doe in giving him a multipresence a thing as utterly inconsistent with a body natural making him to be present in as many places at once as all the Popish Priests in the world can say several Masses And therefore I consider in the third place that though God the Lord be present in al places at once If I climbe up into heaven thou art there if I go down into Hell thou art there also as the Psalmist hath it
or designement unto that high office a calling far more solemne and of better note then that which Aaron had to the Legal Priesthood For of the calling of Aaron it is only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was called by God is a common word and therefore like enough 't was done in the common way But the calling of Christ it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a more solemne and significant word and intimates that he was solemnely declared and pronounced by God to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech Now as the calling was so was the consecration in all points parallel to Aarons and in some beyond Aaron was consecrated to the Priesthood by the hand of Moses but Christ our Saviour by the hand of Almighty God who long before as long before as the time of David had bound himself by oath to invest him in it Aarons head was anointed only with materiall oile Christs with the oil of gladnesse above all his fellowes The consecration of Aaron was performed before all the people gathered together for that purpose at the dore of the Tabernacle That of our Saviour was accomplished in the great feast of the Passeover the most solemne publick and universall meeting that ever any nation of the world did accustomably hold besides the confluence and concourse of all sorts of strangers In the next place the consecration of Aaron was solemnized with the sacrifices of Rams and Bullocks of which that of the Bullock was a sin-offering as well for Aarons own sins as the sins of the people and of the Rams the one of them was for a fire-offering or a sacrifice of rest the other was the Ram of consecration or of filling the hand And herein the preheminence runs mainly on our Saviours side who was so far from needing any sin-offering to fit him and prepare him for that holy office that he himself became an offering for the sins of others even for the sins of all the world And as he was to be advanced to a more excellent Priesthood then that of Aaron so was he sanctifyed or prepared if I may so say after a far more excellent manner then with bloud of Rams For he was consecrated saith the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his own bloud and with this bloud not only his hands or ears were spinkled as in that of Aaron but his whole body was anointed first being bathed all over in a bloudy sweat next with the bloud issuing from his most sacred head forced from it by the violent piercing of the Crown of thornes which like the anointing oyle on the head of Aaron distilled unto the lowest parts of that blessed body and lastly with the streams of bloud flowing abundantly from the wounds of his hands and feet and that great orifice which was made in his precious side Though our Redeemer were originally sanctifyed from the very wombe and that in a most absolute and perfect manner yet would Almighty God have him thus visibly consecrated in his own bloud also that so he might become the authour of salvation to all those that obey him and that he having washed our robes in the bloud of the Lamb might be also sanctifyed and consecrated to the service of our heavenly father Finally the consecration of Aaron and of all the high Priests of the law which succeeded him was to last seven dayes that so the Sabbath or seventh day might passe over him because no man as they conceived could be a perfect high Priest to the Lord their God until the Sabbath day had gone over his head The consecration of our Saviour lasted seven dayes too in every one of which although he might be justly called an high Priest in fieri or per medium participationis as the Schoolmen phrase it yet was not he fully consecrated to this Priestly office till he had bathed himself all over in his own bloud and conquered the powers of death by his resurrection That so it was will evidently appear by this short accompt which we shall draw up of his actions from his first entrance into Hierusalem in the holy week till he had finished all his works and obtained rest from his labours On the first day of the week which still in memory thereof we do call Palme Sunday he went into the holy City not so much to prepare for the Iewish Passeover as to make ready for his own and at his entrance was received with great acclamations Hosanna be to him that cometh in the name of the Lord And on the same day or the day next following he purged the Temple from brokery and merchandizing and so restored that holy place to the use of prayer which the high Priests of the Law had turned or suffered to be turned which comes all to one to a den of Theeves The intermediate time betwixt that and the day of his passion he spent in preaching of the Gospell instructing the ignorant and in healing of the blind and lame which were brought unto him in the performance whereof and the like workes of mercy he was more diligent and frequent and more punctuall far then Aaron or any of his successors in the legal Priesthood in offering of the seven dayes sacrifice for themselves and the people On the fift day having first bathed his body in a bloudy sweat he was arrained and pronounced to be worthy of death in the high Priests hall And on the sixt according to the Iewish accompt with whom the evening is observed to begin the day he went into his heavenly sanctuary to which he had prepared entrance with his precious bloud as Moses at Aarons consecration did purifie and consecrate the materiall Sanctuary with the bloud of Bullocks and of Rams Not by the bloud of Goats and Calves saith the Apostle but by his own bloud hath he once entred into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for us Which Sacrifice of the Son of God on the accursed Crosse although it was the perfect and full accomplishment of all the typical and legal sacrifices offered in the law yet was it but an intermediate though an especiall part of his consecration to the eternall Evangelical Priesthood which he was to exercise and not the ultimum esse or perfection of it That was not terminated till the day of his resurrection untill a Sabbath day had gone over his head which was more perfectly fulfilled in his consecration then ever it had been in Aarons and the sons of Aaron For then and not till then when God had powerfully defeated all the plots of his enemies did God advance him to the Crown to the regal Diademe setting him as a King on his holy hill the hill of Sion and saying to him as it were in the sight of his people Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And then and not till then when he had glorifyed him thus in the
place where he brings in our Saviour sitting at the right hand of God and making intercession for us In this respect he is called the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 12.24 that is to say one that doth intercede betwixt God and man to make up the breach that was between them and reconcile poor man to Almighty God And this is such a trust such an high imployment as never was committed unto Saints or Angels but purposely resolved by God for this great High Priest As we acknowledge but one God so can we have no more then one Mediatour and this can be no other then our Lord and Saviour There is one God saith the Apostle and one Mediator between God and man even the man CHRIST IESVS Do we desire to know more of him in this Office from the holy Scriptures hear him then speaking of himself and saying I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me So excellently true is that gloss of Augustines Non est quo eas nisi ad me non est qua eas nisi per me Our Saviour in this case saith he is both the journeys end and the way also Do you desire to hear more from him in this Office from the holy Fathers take then this passage of S. Ambrose Ipse est Os nostrum per quod Patri loquimur he is the mouth by which we speak unto the Father if we hope to speed To state this point more fully as a point in Controversie we are to lay these two truths for a certain ground of our proceeding the first that men are sinners from the very womb and all their righteousness no other then a menstruous cloth the second that God is a God of pure eyes and such as cannot patiently behold our iniquities Such being then the disproportion between God and man how could God look on man without indignation or man lift up his eyes to God without confusion God therefore out of his most infinite mercy gave his Son unto us first for a Sacrifice to be the Propitiation for the sins of the world and after for an High Priest to intercede an Advocate to plead for us unto God the Father to be the Mediator between God and man in all cases of difference and as it were the General Solicitour of our suites and businesses in the Court of Heaven Nay having raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places he made him Master of the Requests appointing him and him alone to receive those petitions and addresses which we make to God and in our name to tender them unto his Father adding his own incense unto our sweet odours that so they might finde welcome at the hands of God And here me thinks this story of Themistocles will not seem impertinent who being banished from Athens his own native soyl was fain to have recourse to Admetus King of the Molossians hoping to finde that safety in a strange land which his own Country could not give him Being admitted into the Kings Chappell he snatcheth up the young Prince into his arms kneels down with him before the Altar and so presented his desires and himself to the King the young Princes Father Which kinde of suing or Petitioning as my Author tels me the Molossians held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the most effectual means of dealing with him and such as could not be denyed I think the Application were superfluous to ingenious ears yet for the driving of it home to our present point take it briefly thus We by our Covenant made to God in holy Baptism are become Aliens to the world and as much hated by it as he at Athens in that respect as much necessitated to cast our selves upon the love and mercy of the Lord our God as he to seek protection in the Court of Admetus And as the young Prince whom he used as his Mediator was of a mixt condition between a King and a subject the Heir not differing from a servant when he is a childe So is our Saviour also between God and man God of the substance of his Father before all worlds man of the substance of his mother born in the world as Athanasius in his Creed Finally as Themistocles did assure himself that he should speed in his requests with King Admetus because the Kings son seemed to solicite for him so we with greater confidence may proceed in our prayers to God the Son of God making continual intercession for us that they may be granted Where note that not our pressing into the Chappel as a thing of course nor falling down before the Altar as a point of ceremony but taking Christ into our arms as he did that Prince will make our prayers to be effectual This verified by Christ himself in his holy Gospel Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name saith he that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son And in another place of the same chapter also Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full If on these grounds we make no other Mediators of Intercession then him that was the Mediator of Redemption too for such a nice distinction have some men found out the better to deceive their own souls and rob Christ of his glory Let us not stand accused for Hereticks in the Court of Rome or if we must so stand accused yet let us still worship the God of our Fathers after the way which they call Heresie Certain I am that in the way which they call heresie the Lord was worshipped by our Fathers in the Primitive times Ignatius who lived neer the time of the Apostles and conversed with some of them willeth us to have Christ only before our eyes when we make our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Irenaeus who lived next to him I mean in time and not in place gives this counsel also Orationes nostras ad Deum dirigere qui fecit omnia that we address our prayers to him only by whom all things were made Origen goes the right way too though in many other things he was out extreamly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we should make our supplications unto God alone who is over all things to God alone as the chief Donour of the blessing but unto God by Christ as the means to gain it Remember what was said before out of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine to the point in hand and we shall finde no other Mediatours of intercession in the times of the Fathers then the man CHRIST IESVS though those of Rome in pity as it were to our Saviour Christ whom they would gladly ease of so great a burden have liberally bestowed the Office on the Saints departed And though a fullerâ—search into their Position is to be made hereafter in a place more proper when
the fowles of the Aire Next for the Nomothetical arts of Empire let us look on those and we shall finde that as he came not to destroy the Law of God but to fulfil it so hath he added more weight to it either by way of application or of explication then before it had They who consult our Saviours Sermon on the mount and look upon his Commentaries on the law of Moses which the chief Priests and Pharisees had perverted by adulterate glosses will quickly finde that he discharged us not from the Obligation which the moral law had laid upon us but only did become our surety and bound himself to see it faithfully performed by us in our severall places The burden was not made lesse heavy then it was before I speak still of the Moral Law not the Ceremonial but that he hath given more strength to bear it more grace to regulate our lives by Gods Commandements And somewhat he did adde of his own auhority which tended to a greater measure of perfection then possibly we could attain to by the Law of Moses and that not only in the way of Evangelical Counsels and that there are such Counsels I can easily grant but of positive precept For so far certainly we may joyn issue with the Council of Trent that IESVS CHRIST is to be honoured and observed Non tantum ut Redemptor cui omnâ—s fidant sedut Legislator cui obediant not only as a Saviour unto whom we may trust but as a Law-maker also whom we are to obey The same position is maintained also by the Arminian party but not the more unsound for either Veritas a quocunq est est a Spiritu sancto as St. Ambrose hath it And this is so agreeable to the Word of God that either we must deny the Scripture or else confess that it proceeded from the Spirit of God Nor are his laws indeered only to us and sugred over as it were by the promise of a great reward but enjoyned also under pain of grievous punishments punishment and reward being the square or measure of the heavenly government no otherwise then of the earthly Tribulation and anguish saith St. Paul shall come upon the soul of every man that doth evil but glory and honour and peace to every man that doth good to the Iew first and also to the Gentile for God is no respecter of persons By which two general motives set before our eyes and the co-operation of the holy Spirit working with his Word he doth illuminate our mindes and mollifie our hearts and quench our lusts instruct us in the faith confirm us in our hopes and strengthen us in Christian charity till in the end he bring us to the knowledge of his holy will then to obedience to his Laws and finally to a resemblance of his vertues also If after all this care and teaching either by frailty or infirmity we do break his laws or violate his sacred Statutes as we do too often he doth not presently take the forfeiture which the Law doth give him for then O Lord should no flesh living in thy sight be justified but in the midst of judgement he remembreth mercy We may affirm of him most truly as Lactantius did Vt erga pios indulgentissimus Pater ita adversus impios justissimus Iudex as terrible a Iudge he is to impenitent sinners as an indulgent Father to his towardly children as before was said Such is the nature and condition of our Saviours Kingdome which sitting at the right hand of Almighty God he doth direct and govern as seems best to his heavenly wisdome and so shall do untill his coming again to judge both the quick and the dead Although he hath withdrawn himself and his bodily presence yet is he present with it in his mighty power and by the influences and graces of his holy Spirit And in this sense it was that he said unto them Behold I am with you alwayes to the end of the world And that not only with you my Apostles unto whom he spake but cum vobis successoribus vestris with all you my Disciples and with your successors also in your several places till time be no more Though he be placed above in the heavenly glories and is not joyned unto his Church by any bodily connexion yet he is knit unto it in the bonds of love and out of that affection doth so guide and order it as the Head doth the members of the Body natural Habet ecclesia Caput positum in Coelestibus quod gubernat Corpus suum separatum quidem visione sed annectitur Charitate as St. Austin hath it Vice-roy there needeth none to supply his absence who is always with us Nor we the assistance of a Vicar General to supply his place whose Spirit bloweth where him listeth and who is linked unto us in so strong affections But for all this our Masters in the Church of Rome have determined positively that in regard our Saviour hath withdrawn himself from the Church in his Body secundum visibilem praesentiam for as much as doth concern his visible presence he needs must have some Deputy or Lieutenant General qui visibilem hanc Ecclesiam in unitate contineat to govern and direct the same in peace and unity It seemes they think our Saviour Christ to be reduced unto the same straights as Augustus was of whom it is reported in the Roman stories that he did therefore institute a Provost in the City of Rome because he could not always be there in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and durst not leave it absolutely without a Governor And sure however others may complain of our Saviours absence and for that reason think it necessary to have some general Deputy to supply his place yet of all others those of Rome have least cause to do it who can command his presence at all times and on all occasions For as Cornelius a Lapide affirms expressely by saying only these words Hoc est Corpus meum the Bread is not only transubstiated into our Saviours Body but Christ anew begotten and born again upon the Altar And not his Body only that 's not half enough but as the Canon of Trent tels us there is totus Christus una cum anima Divinitate whole Christ both body and soul and the Godhead also personally and substantially on the blessed Sacrament That he is present every where in his power and Spirit there is none of us which denyeth If they can have his bodily presence also in so short a warning what use can they pretend for a Vicar General Adeo Argumenta ex falso petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius rightly Besides it is a Maxime in Ecclesiastical Polity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that the external Regiment of the Church of Christ is to be fitted to the frame and order of the
that as they sinned together or served God together so they may share together of reward or punishment But because many times the soul sins without the body and many times without it doth some works of piety which God is pleased to accept of therefore as requisite it is that the soul separated from the body should either suffer torment or enjoy felicity according as it hath deserved in the sight of God whilest yet the body sleepeth in the grave of death And on these grounds next to the dictates and authority of the book of God the doctrine of the general judgement hath been built so strongly that only some few Atheists amongst the Gentiles and none but the wicked Sect of Manichees amongst the Christians had ever the impudence to denie it That which concernes us most as Christians and doth especially relate to the present Article is that this judgement shall be executed by our Saviour Christ sitting with power at the right hand of God the Father but in the nature and capacity of the Son of man Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of the Aire Mat. 26.64 See the same also Mark 14.62 and Luk. 22.69 The like we have also in St. Iohns Gospell The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son Chap. 5 22. What to the Son according to his eternal generation as the Word of God Not so but to the Son of man For so it followeth in that Chapter viz. And hath given him power also to judge because he is the Son of man V. 27. And this we have directly from the Lords one mouth The Apostles also say the same St. Peter first God raised him up the third day and shewed him openly And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which is ordained of God to be judge both of quick and dead St. Paul next Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all those that love his appearing So for St. Iude Behold the Lord shall come with thousands of his Saints to give judgment against all men and to rebuke all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all the cruel speakings which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And this he citeth out of the Prophecies of Enoch the seventh from Adam which sheweth that even the Patriarchs before the flood were thoroughly possessed with this sacred truth and therefore not concealed from the holy Prophets which have been since the world began That it was manifested also to the antient Gentiles I have no reason to believe For though they might collect upon grounds of reason that there should be a day of judgement in the world to come yet that this judgement should be executed by the man CHRIST IESVS could not in possibility be discovered to them by the light of reason nor indeed by any other sight then by his alone who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the glory of his people Israel And therefore in my minde Lactantius might have spared that part of his censure upon the judgment of Hydaspes before remembred in which he approves of his opinion concerning the last day or the day of doom but addeth that his not ascribing this great work to the Son of God was omitted non sine daemonum fraude by the fraud and suggestion of the Devill If Hermes or Mercurius surnamed Trismegistus understood so much quod tamen non dissimulavit Hermes as it followeth after and that the verses by him cited from the antient Sibyls were by them spoken and intended as he saith they were of CHRIST our Saviour and of his coming unto judgement in that dreadfull day we must needs say they had a clearer Revelation of it then any of the Prophets of the most high God which for my part I have not confidence enough to say For in which of all the Prophets finde we such a description of Christs coming to judgement as this which he ascribeth to one of the Sibyls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Rolling up heaven earths depths I shall disclose Then raise the dead the bonds of fate unloose And deaths sharpe sting and next to judgment call Both quick and dead judging the lives of all Letting this therfore passe as a thing improbable that any of the Heathen Prophetesses should know more of Christs coming to judgement then was revealed to any of the holy Prophets or else deliver it in more clear expressions then do occurre in any of the Prophetical writers we shall proceed unto the execution of this judgement by our Lord and Saviour according to the scope of this present Article For which although no reason was or could be given by those antient sages as those which lived before the coming of CHRIST and consequently were not made acquainted with his life and actions yet there is reason to induce a Christian unto this belief were we not biassed to it by the text of Scripture For what could be more just in Almighty God then to advance his Son to the seat of judgment to the end that having been dishonoured publickly both in life and death scorned and contemned and brought unto a shamefull end in the eye of men he might have opportunity to shew his great power and majesty in the sight of all but specially of his barbarous and ungodly enemies And unto this the Prophet Zachariah alludeth saying They shall look on me whom they have pierced Which words although St. Iohn applyeth in his holy Gospel unto the piercing of Christs side Chap. 19.37 yet in the Revelation he applyeth it to his sitting in judgement Behold saith he he cometh in the clouds and all eyes shall see him and they also that pierced him Chap. 1.17 And from these words it is conceived I think not improbably that the wounds in our Saviours body shall then be visible to the eyes of all spectatours to the great comfort of the faithfull who do acknowledge their redemption to the bloud of the Lamb and to the astonishment and confusion of all his enemies but most especially of them qui vulnera ista inflixerunt by whose ungodly hands he was so tormented Here then we have good grounds to proceed upon both in the way of faith and reason for the asserting of the day of general judgement And yet somewhat further must be said to remove a difficultie which may else disturbe us in our way before we look into the particulars of it For possibly it may be said that there will be but little use of a general judgement except it be
like this of Camerarius we finde in Espencaeus also in his Comment on the 3. Chap. of the 2. of Tim. touching the Hutites a by-branch of the sect of Anabaptists Of the next sort Alstedius a late famous writer and Professor of Herborn in high Germanie hath presumed so far as to define the year of Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead which after his accompt shall be in the year of CHRIST 3694. The best is he takes time enough not to be disproved For being of opinion as t is plain he is that there shall be a corporall resurrection of the Saints and Martyrs at least a thousand years before the generall resurrection of all flesh during which time they shall enjoy all possible felicity that the world can give and fixing the beginning of those thousand years in Ann. 2694. it must needs follow thereupon that the day of the generall resurrection and of Christs coming to judgement must be in the year 3694. as before was said But before him Napeir a Scot one of the Ancestors of the now right noble Lord of Marchiston adventured on the like attempt although he differed very much in his computation For publishing a Commentary on the Revelation Ann. 159â— he will defer the end of the world no longer then to ninety two years after that publication which fals into the year 1685. Which though it comes two thousand years before that of Alsted yet was it put off long enough to save his credit the good man being like to die long before that time Whereupon one of our own Countrymen wrote this following Epigram Nonaginta duos durabit mundus in Annos Mundus ad arbitrium si stat obitque tuum Cur mundi finem propiorem non facis ut ne Ante obitum mendax arguerere Sapis Which I finde thus Englished to my hand Ninety two years the World as yet shall stand If it do stand or fall by your command But say why plac'd you not the worlds end nigher Lest ere you dyed you might be found a lyer Add unto this a pleasant jest which King Iames put upon the Author of the book aforesaid for such adventurers cannot be too much exposed to the publick scorne and in brief is this The Gentleman holding lands of the Crown of Scotland petitioned the King to have a longer terme granted in his estate The King demanded of him how long time he desired to have added to it To which when he had answered five hundred years God a my soul replyed the King that is four hundred years more then the world shall last and I conceive you do not mean to hold my Land in the world to come And so dismissed him for that time although he after gratifyed him in his request having thus made him sensible of his own absurdities But leaving these Knights errant to seek new adventures we will next look unto the place appointed for this general Sessions in which we have some light of Scripture and probabilities of reason to direct our search This by some very learned men is supposed to be in the Aire over the valley of Iehosaphat which is near mount Olivet and both of them Eastward of Hierusalem And this they do upon these grounds For first they say the holy Scriptures seem to say it in as plain words as may be For thus saith God the Lord Jehovah I will gather all nations into the valley of Jehosaphat and plead with them there Cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord Let the heathen be wakened and come upon the valley of Jehosaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about Besides the name of Iehosaphat doth signifie as much as The Lord will judge And in this valley did God give Iehosaphat a signall victory over the Ammonites Moabites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir which was a type or figure of that finall victory which Christ the supreme Iudge shall give his Elect overall their enemies in the last day and in that very place as the Iewish Doctors do expound it That of the Prophet Zechariah And his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives which is before Hierusalem to the East c. though formerly applyed by us unto Christs Ascension may be accommodated also to his coming to judge the world The rather in regard it was said by the holy Angel unto his Disciples This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven being then upon the mount of Olives shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go hence Which possibly may as wel be meant of the place as of other the circumstances of his coming and therefore by Aquinas and all the rest of the old Schoolmen except Lombard and Alexander of Hales is made to be the second reason which they build upon for nominating this valley or rather some place over it in the Ayr to be the place appointed for the future judgement The third reason they take from a passage in the Prophet Ezekiel compared with Christs own words in his holy Gospel The Prophet tels us of Hierusalem that it is placed in medio Gentium in the very midst of the world and so accordingly it is seated by some Cosmographers And Christ hath told us of the Angels that they shall gather together the Elect from the four windes from one end of Heaven unto the other If then the Termini a quibus be the four parts of the world and Hierusalem be seated in the midst of the earth as they say it is the terminus ad quem must be Hierusalem or some place neer it and such is this Valley of Iehosophat or else some Angels must be thought to be of a more quick dispatch then others which were ridiculous to imagine But that which is of greatest moment is that our Lord and Saviour for ever blessed was crucified and put to open shame very neer that place Mount Calvary and the Valley of Iehosaphat being not far asunder if not close together and conterminous And what can be more probable for they propose not these proofs for Demonstrations then that where Christ was put unto publick shame he should again receive a more publick honour and that where he himself was condemned and punished with so much malice and injustice he should appear to judge the world with such truth and equity These are the reasons brought to make good this Tenet which as I cannot easily grant to be convincing so I am far from saying any thing in reproof of that which hath such handsome probabilities to gain credit to it And now I am fallen upon these points I will adventure on another though more nice then necessary At least it may be so accounted and I pass not for it Quilibet abundet in suo sensu Let every man injoy that liberty I mean in matters of this nature which I take my self We said
and then subjoyns Glorifie God therefore in your body And doth not the same Father infer from thence the Deitie or Godhead of the Holy Ghost Ne quisquam Spiritum Sanctum negaret Deum continuo sequutus ait Glorificate portate Deum in corpore vestro Lest any man saith he should possibly deny the Holy Ghost to be God he addes immediately Glorifie and bear God in your bodies To seek for Testimonies from more of the Fathers to confirm this point were to run into an endless Ocean of Allegations there being few who lived after the rising of the Arian and Macedonian Heresies who have not written whole Tracts in defence hereof and none at all who give not very pregnant evidence to the cause in hand But where the Scripture is so clear what need they come in And so exceeding clear is Scripture as is shewn already that I marvel with what confidence it could be said by Doctor Harding in his Reply to Bishop Iewel That though the Doctrine of the Church of England were true and Catholick in this point yet we had neither express Scripture for it nor any of the four first General Councils and thereon tacitely inferreth That the Deity of the Holy Ghost depended for the proof thereof not on holy Scripture but on the Tradition of the Church and the Authority of some subsequent Councils of the Popes confirming To which that learned Prelate wittily replieth That if God cannot be God unless he be allowed of by the Pope and Church of Râ—me then we are come again to that which Tertullian wrote merrily of the Heathens saying Nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit i.e. Unless God humor man he shall not be God Some further Arguments may be used to confirm this Truth and they no less concludent than those before As namely from the Form of Baptism ordained by Christ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost From the Form of Benediction used by St. Paul The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost From the Doxologie or Form of giving glory used in the Church and used as St. Basil confidently averreth from the first beginning Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And finally from the place it holds in the present Creed composed by the joynt concurrence of the Blessed Apostles But that which I shall specially insist upon is that passage in three of the Evangelists touching the sinâ—t â—t blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God which is there said to be of that heinous nature that it shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.32 That is to say It shall never have forgiveness as S. Mark expounds it Mark 3.29 St. Ambrose gathereth from this Text a concluding Argument against the Macedonian and Eunomian Hereticks who held the Holy Ghost to be onely a created power Quomodo inter Creaturas aâ—det quisquam Spiritum Sanctum computare c. How dareth any man saith he compute the Holy Ghost amongst the rest of the Creatures considering that it is affirmed by the Lord himself That whosoever speaketh against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And to this inference of his we may well subscribe though the sin or blasphemy spoken of by our Lord and Saviour was not against the Person of the Holy Ghost but against his Power For that no sin or heresie against his person was so irremissible as to exclude the offending party from all hope of pardon is evident by the constant practise of the Primitive Church which as St. Chrysostom observeth used daily to receive again to the Word and Sacraments the Eunomian Hereticks on the recanting of their Error That therefore being not the siâ— which is here intended it would be worth the while and very pertinent to our present business to enquire into it though as St. Augustine notes right well In omnibus Scripturis sanctis nulla major quaestio nulla difficilior That there is not a greater nor more difficult question in all the Scripture And well might he say so of all men who in delivering his own judgement upon the point doth so much vary from himself that it is impossible to finde what he doth resolve on For sometimes he makes it to be final impenitency as Lib. de fide ad Pet. c. 3. Sometimes to be despair of Gods mercy as in his Comment on the Romans Sometimes to be a denying of the Churches power to forgive sins as in his Eucheirid c. 83. Sometimes to be sins of malice as De Ser. Domini in monte l. 1. And sometimes neerer to the truth to be an ascribing of the works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil as in his Tract De Quâ—st ex utroque Testam quaest 102. Nor do the Writers of the former or later times agree better in this point with one another than that Learned Father with himself Some holding it to be a renouncing of the Faith of Christ as the Novatians others the denying of the Divinity of Christ as Hilary Philastrius extending it unto every Heresie and Origen whom some of the Novatians also followed to every sin committed after Baptism For later Writers the Schoolmen generally make it to be sins of malice affirming sins of infirmity to be committed against the Father whose proper attribute is Power and sins of ignorance against the Son whose proper attribute is Wisdom and therefore sins against the Holy Ghost must be sins of malice because his attribute is Love And on the other side the Protestants as generally do make it to be final Apostasie or a wilful and malicious resisting of the Truth to the very last And so it is defined by Calvin who makes them to be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost Qui divinae veritati cujus fulgore sic per stringuntur ut ignorantiam causari nequeant tamen destinata malicia resistâ—nt in hoc tantum ut resistant that is to say Who out of determined malice resist the known Truth of God with the Beams whereof they are so dazled that they cannot pretend ignorance to the end onely to resist But God forbid that most if at all any of the sins before enumerated should come within the compass of that grievous sentence which is denounced against blaspheming of the Holy Ghost For if either every sin committed after Baptism or every sin of malice or despair of mercy or falling into heresie especially in that large sense as Philastrius takes it should be uncapable of pardon it were almost impossible for any man to be sayed And for the rest final Impenitency is not so properly a particular and distinct species
of sin as a general circumstance which may accompany any sin And many of those who have renounced the Faith of Christ under persecution or called his divinity in question did afterwards recant their Errors and became good Christians Final Apostasie indeed and a malicious resisting of the known Truth till the very last are most grievous sins and shall no question be rewarded with eternal punishment as every other sin shall be which is not expiated with Repentance but can with no more right or reason be called the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than unrepented Murder unrepented Adultery unrepented Heresie or any other of that nature Therefore to set this business right it is judiciously observed by my Learned Friend Sir R. F. in his Tractate Of the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost First That this sin so much disputed and debated in neither of the three Evangelists which record this passage is called The sin against the Holy Ghost but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Secondly That blaspheming according to the true Etymon of the Word is a blasting of the fame of another man a malicious detracting from him or speaking against him as both St. Matthew and St. Luke do expound the word Matth. 12.32 and Luke 12.10 Thirdly That these words were spoken by our Saviour Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Miracles affirming That that wondrous work of casting out Devils which he had wrought by the power of the Spirit of God as he himself affirmeth Matth. 12.28 was done by the power and help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Vers. 24. And Fourthly That the Scribes and Pharisees being the eye-witnesses of such miracles as might make them know that Christ was a Teacher come from God did notwithstanding lay that reproach upon them to the end That the people being beaten off from giving credit to his miracles should give no faith unto his Doctrine Upon which grounds he builds this definition of it viz. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was an evil-speaking or slandering of the miracles of our Saviour Christ by those who though they were convinced by the miracles to believe that such works could not be done but by the power of God did yet maliciously say That they were wrought by the power of the Devil And hereupon he doth infer these two following Corollaries First That we have no safe rule to conclude that any but the Scribes and Pharisees and their confederates committed in those times this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so condemned by Christ And Secondly That it is a matter of probability that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not a sin committable by any Christian who lived not in the time of our Lord and Saviour And to say truth If such a sin were practicable by us Christians since it must needs be a very great marvel if not somewhat more that the Apostles who were very precise and punctual in dehorting from all manner of sin should never in any of their Epistles take notice of this or give us any Caveat to beware thereof and in particular that St. Paul making a specification of the fruits of the Spirit and such a general muster of the works of the flesh as are repugnant thereunto should not so much as give a glance which doth look this way To countenance the opinion of this Learned Gentleman I shall adde here the judgement of two learned Iesuites Maldonates first Who makes this sin to be the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing our Saviour cast out Devils Manifesta Spiritus Sancti opera daemoni tribuebant ascribed the visible works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil Of Estius next who distinguishing betwixt the sin against the Holy Ghost and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost referreth to the first all sins of determined malice to the second onely such malicious and slanderous reproaches against the mighty works of God Quale erat illud Scribarum divina miracula malitiosè calumniantium As was that of the Scribes maliciously slandering our Saviours miracles And if it be a sin or blasphemy call it which you will not acted but by them and on that occasion it is not practicable now But leaving this to the determination of the Church of England lawfully and Canonically represented in an holy Synod to which that Learned Gentleman doth submit his judgement proceed we on in our discourse of the Holy Ghost concerning whose Divinity or Godhead there is not so much difference in the Christian World as in the manner of his Procession or Emission And here indeed the World hath been long divided the Greek Church keeping themselves to express words of Scripture making him to proceed from the Father onely the Latines on the Authority of some later Councils and Logical inferences from the Scripture making him to proceed both from Father and the Son And though these last may seem to have the worst end of the Cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain Text of Scripture yet do they Anathematize and curse the other as most desperate Hereticks if not Apostates from the Faith Nor will they admit of any medium towards reconcilement although the controversie by moderate and sober men is brought to a very narrow issue and seemeth to consist rather in their Forms of Speech than any material Terms of Difference For Damascen the great Schoolman of the Eastern Church though he deny that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son yet he granteth him to be Spiritum filii per filium to proceed from the Father by the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son And Bessarion and Gennadius two of the Grecian Divines who appeared in the name of that Church in the Council of Florence and were like to understand the meaning of Damascen better than any of the Latines affirmed as Bellarmine tells us of them That he denied not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as to the truth of his proceeding Sed existimasse tutius dici per filium quam ex filio quoad modum loquendi but thought onely that it was the safer expression to say That he proceeded by the Son than from the Son And Clictoveus in his Comment on that Book of Damascen l. 1. c. 12. is of opinion That the difference between the East and Western-Churches as to this particular is In voce potius modo explicandi quam in ipsa re More in the terms and manner of expression than the thing it self The Master of the Sentences doth affirm as much saying That the Greeks do differ from the Latines Verbo non sensu not in the meaning of the Point but the forms of Speech And more than so The Greeks saith he confess the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of the Son with the Apostle Gal. 4. And the Spirit of Truth with the Evangelist Joh.
both be the witnesses of his Life and Doctrine and afterwards discharge so much of the Prophetical Office as he should please to delegate and entrust unto them To these he shewed himself after his Resurrection and conversed with them for the space of forty days to the intent he might the better fit them for so great a work And being even upon the instant of departing from them it seemed good to him to invest them with a sacred Power and by some outward Ceremony and set Form of words to dedicate them to the Ministry of such holy things as were not to be meddled with by vulgar hands He breathed on them saith the Text and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained The meaning of these words we have shewn before and need repeat no more but this That in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is Author there is contained that sacred Power by which some men are made the Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people When therefore Christ breathed on his Apostles and said Receive the Holy Ghost he did as it were breathe out that power of Preaching the Word of Truth and doing other holy Offices in the Church of God which he had formerly received from the Holy Ghost Receive said he the Holy Ghost i. e. Such a sublime power as no Prince nor Potentate can bestow a power which gives you such an influence on the Souls of men as that of the remitting and retaining sin In which it is to be observed That our Saviour puts not down this act of remitting and retaining sins for the whole entire and adequate subject about which the Apostolical or Prophetical Office was to be employed but onely as one chief part thereof in the name of all that by the weightiness of that they might judge the better of the importance of the other He had promised them the Keys before but now he hangs them at their girdle and puts them absolutely and fully into their possession Ability and power to perform the rest they were to tarry for yet a little longer and then immediately to receive both from the Holy Ghost whom he did promise to send them after his departure And so accordingly he did the Holy Ghost descending on them upon the tenth day after his Ascension in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and furnishing them with all those extraordinary gifts and graces which were necessary for the first propagation of our Saviours Gospel By his own breathing on them and the words that followed he gave them jus ad rem as the Lawyers call it a power to exercise a Spiritual Function in his holy Church and put them into possession of so much thereof as concerned the remitting and retaining of sins But for the jus in re the actual execution of that holy Function together with those supernatural endowments by which they were to be fitted and prepared for it that they received upon this coming of the Holy Ghost and did not onely receive it as before from Christ but repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with it saith the Text This coming of the Holy Ghost as Pope Leo noteth Was Cumulans non inchoans nec novus opere sed dives largitate rather by way of augmenting the former power and abilities which Christ had given them than of beginning a new For it is a known rule of the Antient Fathers That where the Holy Ghost had been given before and yet is said to come again it is to be understood either of an increase of the former in weight or measure or of some new gift which before men had not but was conferred after for some new effect as it is noted out of St. Ierom and Sâ— Cyril by our Learned Andrews And to say truth there was good reason why we must understand this coming of the Holy Ghost in both these respects both in regard of measure and addition too Before when Christ breathed on them and therewith said Receive ye the Holy Ghost their Ministry was confined within the Land of Iudea Go not into the way of the Gentiles or into any City of the Samaritans but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel A less proportion of the Spirit would have served for that But when he was to leave them he inlarged their bounds and put the whole world under their jurisdiction Go saith he into all the world and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature Go therefore teach all Nations as St. Matthew hath it chap. 28.19 And if they were to travel over all the World and to teach all Nations good reason they should be inabled to speak the Tongues of all Nations also and be replenished with so great a measure of the Holy Spirit as might make the conquest of the world the more easie to them Which work as it was wrought in the Feast of Penticost so hath the anniversary of that day been celebrated ever since in the Christian Church though under other names according to the language of particular Countries as the Birthâ—day of the Gospel of Christ the day on which it was preached after his Ascension after the great work of our Redemption was accomplished by him It had before been kept as a solemn Festival one of the three great Festivals ordained by Moses in memory of the giving of the Law that day upon Mount Sinai And hath been since observed as a solemne Festival one of the three great Festivals of the Christian Church in memory of the promulgation of the Gospel from Mount Sion on the same day also A day it was of so great solemnity that there were then assembled at Ierusalem of every Nation under heaven as the Text informes us The Gospell was not to be published but in such a generall concourse of people Therefore the day thereof to be solemnized by all Nations also and made a day of holy assembly to the Lord our God But our Redeemer staid not here as if he had sufficiently discharged his Propheticall Office by furnishing his Apostles with the Gifts of the Spirit and meant from henceforth to betake himselfe to the execution of the Priestly or the Kingly Offices as being in themselves more glorious and to him more honorable When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave Gifts to men not unto Twelve alone which was the number of his Apostles nor to an hundred and twenty onely which was the whole number of his Disciples at that time The Harvest being great did require more labourers and therefore Gifts must be bestowed on more men than so And if we will beleeve St. Paul so it was indeed For having cited those words of the royall Psalmist he addes immediately And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some
Of the Authority or Power of remitting sins we shall speak more appositely hereafter in the following Article At this time I shall onely speak of the Form of words which some of the pretenders unto Reformation in Queen Elizabeths time did very much except against affirming That to use the words of our Redeemer and not to give the gifts withal was nothing but a meer mockery of the Spirit of God and a ridiculous imitation of our Saviours actions But unto this it is replied by Judicious Hooker that not onely the ability of doing miracles speaking with tongues curing diseases and the like but the authority and power of ministering holy things in the Church of God is contained in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is the Author And therefore he which gives this power may say without folly or absurdity Receive the Holy Ghost meaning thereby such power as the Spirit of Christ hath pleased to endue his Church withal And herein he is seconded by that living Magazin of Learning Bishop Andrews who reckoneth the Apostleship or the very office to be a Grace one of the graces doubtless of the Holy Ghost such as St. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace we English it the gift of ministring unto the Saints 2 Cor. 8.4 For that the very Office it self is a grace St. Paul saith he avoweth in more places than one and in particular Mihi data est haec gratia according to the gift of the grace of God which is given unto me Ephes. 3.7 Where he speaks of his Office and of nothing else And such as this saith he was the grace here given of Spiritum called a Spiritual and of Sanctum an holy Calling from them derived unto us by us to be derived on others to the end of the World and that in the same form of words which our Saviour used For being the especial power which Christ at that time gave unto his Apostles consisted in remitting and retaining of sins and seeing that the same power is given by the Church of Christ why should not the same words be used as were used at first why may not the same words be used in conferring this grace of an holy calling whereby their persons are made publick and their acts authentical and they inabled to do somewhat about remitting of sins which is not of the like avail if done by others though perhaps more learned than they and more vertuous too but have not the like warrant nor the same accipite as is conferred in holy Orders Nor do I utterly deny but that together with the power the Holy Ghost doth give some fitness to perform the same though not in any answerable measure to the first times of the Church when extraordinary gifts were more necessary than in any time since For as the ointment which was poured upon Aarons head did first fall down upon his Beard and after on the skirts of his garments also So we may reasonably believe That the holy Spirit which descended on the head of Christ and afterwards on his Apostles as upon his beard hath kept some sprinklings also to bestow on us which are the lowest skirts of his sacred garments So far we may assuredly perswade our selves That the Spirit which calleth men to that holy Function doth go along with him that is called unto it for his assistance and support in whatsoever he shall faithfully do in discharge thereof and that our acts are so far his as that Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn or give Absolution or in a word whatsoever we do as the Despensers of Gods Mysteries our Words Acts Judgements are not ours but the Holy Ghosts For this I have the testimony of Pope Leo the first a Learned and Religious Prelate of the Primitive times Qui mihi oneris est Autor ipse administrationis est adjutor Ne magnitudine gratiae there gratiae is used for the office or calling as before St. Paul succumbat infirmus dabit virtutem qui contulit dignitatem Which is in brief He that hath laid the burden on us will give strength to bear it But behold a greater than Pope Leo is here Behold saith Christ to his Apostles I am with you always to the end of the world that is to say Cum vobis successoribus vestris as Denys the Carthusian rightly with you and your Successors in the Work of the Ministry to guide them and assist them by his holy Spirit And when he said unto them upon other occasions He that heareth you heareth me and whatsoever ye binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven Did he not thereby promise so to own their actions that whatsoever they should say or do in order to the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church should be esteemed as his act his act by whose authority and power it is said or done But the assisting of the Church and Ministers thereof with his Power and Spirit is not the onely publick benefit though it be the greatest which it receiveth immediately from the Holy Ghost Without some certain standing Rule by which the Ministers of the Gospel were to frame their doctrine and the rest of the people guide their paths in the way of godliness both Priest and People would be apt to pretend new Lights and following such ignes fatui as they saw before them be drawn into destruction both of body and soul. And on the other side Tradition hath been always found to be so untrusty in the conveyance of Gods will and pleasure to the ears of his people that in small tract of time the Law of God became obliterated in the hearts of men the righteous Seed degenerating after carnal lusts and Abraham himself serving other gods for want of a more certain rule to direct their actions Therefore to take away all excuse from back-sliding men it pleased God first to commit his Law to writing the Two Tables onely and afterwards to inspire many holy Men with the Spirit of Wisdom Power and Knowledge to serve as Commentators on that sacred Text whose Prophecies Reproofs and Admonitions being put into their mouths by the Holy Ghost for Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as St. Peter hath it So by direction of the same Spirit were they put into writing Propter vivendi exemplum libros ad nostram etiam memoriam transmiserunt in the words of Ierom The Lord himself did on Mount Sinai give the Law the very Letter The Prophets and other holy Men of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially inspired to that end and purpose did compose the Comment By the same Spirit were the Evangelists and Apostles guided when they committed unto writing the most glorious Gospel and other the Records and Monuments of the Christian Faith The
it a greater condemnation to our selves than men were aware of So could I wish the like Caution in all others also lest unawares they utterly exclude themselves out of Christianity For as Pope Gregory the first said unto some of the Bishops of his time concerning the Patriarch of Constantinople who had then took unto himself the title of Oecumenical or Vniversal Bishop viz. Si ille universalis or which is the same Catholicus est restat ut vos non sitis Episcopi so may we also say in the present case if we once grant them to be Catholickâ— we thereby do conclude our selves to be no Christians or at best but Hereticks Christian perhaps they have no fancy to be called the name of Christian in most parts of Italy being grown so despicable that Fool and Christian in a manner are become Synonyma Italico Idiomate per Christianum hominem stupidum stolidum solent intelligere as Hospinian tells us from the mouth of one Christian Franken who had lived amongst them Since then they have no minde to be called Christians nor reason to be called Catholicks let us call them as they are by the name of Papists considering their dependance on the Popes decision for all points of Faith And possibly we may gratifie them as much in this as if we did permit them the name of Catholicks For Bellarmine seems very much delighted with the Appellation flattering himself that he can bring in Christ our most blessed Saviour within the Catalogue of Popes and that he hath found a Prophecy in St. Chrysostom to this effect Quandoque nos Papistas vocandos esse That Papist in the times then following should be the stile and title of a true Professor Great pity it is but he and his should have the honor of their own discovery and Papists let them be since the same so pleaseth Now as the Papists make ill use of the name of Catholick so do their opposite faction in the Church of Christ conclude as falsly and erroneously from the title of Holy The Church is called Holy and is called so justly because it trains men up in the ways of godliness because it is so in its most eminent and more noble parts whom God hath sanctified by the Graces of his holy Spirit and finally because redeemed by the blood of Christ to the intent that all the faithful Members of it being by him delivered from the hands of their enemies might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives Not holy in the sense of Corah and his factious complices who made all the Congregation holy and all holy alike nor holy in the sense of some Antient and Modern Sectary who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or wrinkle a Church wherein there are no vessels of wrath but election onely and where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly for fear they should partake of the sins and wickednesses which they observe to be in some Members of it Our Saviour Christ who better knew the temper of his Church than so compares the same in holy Scripture to a threshing floor in which there is both Wheat and chaff and to a fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kinde of Fishes both good and bad and to an house in which there are not onely vessels of honor as Gold and Silver but also of dishonor and for unclean uses and to a field in which besides the good Seed which the Lord had sown Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his Tares In all and every one of which heavenly Parables our Saviour represented unto his Disciples and in them to us the true condition of his Church to the end of the world in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here In which erroneous doctrines are so mixt with truth that it can never be so perfectly reserved and purified but errors and corruptions will break out upon it Perplexae sunt istae duae civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae saith the great St. Augustine The City of the Lord and the City of Satan are so intermingled in this world that there is little hope to see them separated till the day of judgement Though the foundation of the Church be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in her superstructures and those so interwoven and built up together that nothing but a fatal fire is of power to part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray to God for the good estate of the Church Militant here on Earth but glory as in the Triumphant as they do in Heaven And yet the Church is counted Holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour Christ is professed and propagated Holy secundùm nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent for grace and piety And it is called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be Militant here upon the Earth and part Triumphant in the Heavens The same one Church in this World and in that â—o come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely Accordingly it is determined by St. Augustine Eandem ipsam unam Sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Ierom Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites False Teachers and Licentious livers will shroud themselves under the shelter of the Church and pass for Members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further than the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui The Lord knows onely who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandments and carefully possess their Souls in Truth and Godliness And yet some men there are as there have been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church in this present world without spot or wrinkle and dream of such a Field as contains no Tares of such an House as hath no Vessels but of honor sanctified and prepared for the Masters use The Cathari in
Resurrection of the Body also And to this purpose that of Gregory Quam in se oftendit in me facturus est exemplo hic monstravit quod promisit in proemio That saith the Father which he exemplified in himself he will make good upon me what we finde proved in his person shall be further manifested in our own Besides we know that Christ is often called in St. Pauls Epistles the head of the Church which is his Body and we with joy and gladness do acknowledge it for a certain truth Now Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where the head is there also will the body be and if the Head be glorified the Body will be also glorified If therefore CHRIST our Head be risen then shall we also be raised in due time who are his Body or at least the Members of that Body for ye are the body of Christ and members in particular saith the same Apostle But this must be expected in its own due time as before I said I◠being not to be supposed that so great a work as this shall be wrought upon us either unseasonably or out of order Every one in his own order saith the Text first CHRIST the first fruits of the resurrection afterwards such as are Christs at his coming Where still observe how Christs resurrection and our own are tyed by the Apostle in a string together Eadem catena revincta est Christi resurrectio nostra as my Author hath it we cannot stir one end of the chain but the other moveth with it This habitude or connexion between Christ and us will help us to another Argument to confirm this Doctrine For if we be the members of the body of Christ we must be crucified in our members as Christs body was Mortifie therefore your earthly members saith St. Paul And certainly we may conclude That if we be crucified with Christ we shall rise with Christ if we do suffer with him we shall also reign with him and be glorified with him There is another rational way of Argumentation used by the Apostle the sum whereof in brief is this That if there were no Resurrection of the Body whereby we might receive the comfort of those good acts which we have done in our flesh then should we have but small encouragement in the works of piety especially to hazard our estates nay our very lives in maintenance and defence of the Holy Gospel Why stand we then saith he in jeopardy all the day long And why have I my self encountred Beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men or suffered in my flesh that full variety of torments that I may justly say of my self that I die daily And not so onely but certainly we rob our selves of too much pleasure by the severity of our Religion and foolishly deny to our lives those comforts which make life valued for a blessing For to what purpose should we weary out our souls with fasting and our skins with sack-cloath or to what purpose do we make our knees even hard and callous by kneeling in his holy Temple were there no Resurrection of the Body or no life to come If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable Rather than so let us give way to our desires and eat and drink enjoy the pleasures of the world whiles they are before us for ought we know we may die to morrow and with that death to morrow there is an end of all things Thus might a man reason for a Resurrection in behalf of himself and he may reason for it also on the behalf of God whose justice cannot be declared in the sight of men if there were no Resurrection of the flesh to express it by To this end we are told by the same Apostle That we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every man may receive according to that which he hath done in his body whether good or evil The strength and efficacy of which Argument as is elswhere noted is briefly this The Bodies of us men being the servants of the soul to righteousness or else the instruments to sin in justice ought to be partakers of that weal or wo which is adjudged unto the soul and therefore to be raised at the day of judgment that as they sinned together or served God together so they may share together of reward or punishment Which Argument as it strongly proves the Resurrection of the Body so it as strongly doth conclude for a Resurrection of the same Body the same numerical body which before we had not of a new created body as some idly dream For certainly it were no justice in Almighty God if one flesh should fast and pray and kneel and watch and weary out it self in the service of God and another flesh reap that which it never labored for No comfort to the poor body at all to abridge it self of so much pleasure and be exposed to so much danger and affliction and another strange body shall step up and receive the reward Iobs confidence was That he should see God with the same eyes and none other for them If they restrained themselves as it were by Covenant with the Lord from straying after objects of lust and not intice him to a maid as he saith he did It is but justice that they the same eyes and none other should be rewarded with the view of a better object If they have been poured out like water and dropped many a tear in the sight of God Reason and Justice both will agree to this That the tears should be wiped from those eyes not from a pair of new ones which did never shed any And unto this St. Paul comes home not speaking of the Resurrection of a Body in general but of this body in particular It is these eyes of Iob none other which shall see the Lord and hoc corruptibile in St. Paul this corruptible and none other which must then put on corruption And thus far we have gone upon positive proofs and sought them also in the Law and the Prophets onely Another kinde of evidence may be found in Scripture which for distinctions sake shall be called Practical common alike to Law and Gospel both to Iews and Christians Of this sort was the solemn form of burial amongst the Iews the charges they were at in Spices and sweet Ointments to embalm the Bodies of their dead and the command given both by Ioseph and Iacob to their children for the transporting of their bones to the Land of Canaan the type and shadow of Gods Kingdom in the Heavens above All special testimonies that they did expect in the Lords good time a Resurrection of those Bodies so carefully so choicely tendred laid up in the Repository of the Grave with such cost and decency When Mary Magdalen poured forth