read it in a different way Vbi est Rex ille Judaeorum qui nat us est But I will not now dispute this point of the translations Suffice it that our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth and did not waive his title to it when he was alive Yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor intronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension That he was a King in designatiton long before his birth we have proved already And that he did not waive the title when he was alive is proved as plainly by that part of the accusation which the Priests and Pharisees made against him objecting that he called himself Christ a King And when he was interrogated on that Article by Pontius Pilate viz. Art thou the King of the Iews or not he let it passe as a thing granted with a Tu dixisti thou hast said it only distinguishing of his Kingdome and telling him upon more discourse about that point that his Kingdome was not of this world That was enough to rectifie the errour and possesse the Deputie that he had no designes to disturb the State or set on foot his claim to the Crown of Israel though he was sure of finding a considerable party amongst the people who would have made him King by force if he had not removed himself out of their sight And yet had God some further evidence to extort from Pilate and not from him only but from all his Souldiers touching the Kingdome of his CHRIST The Souldiers they arraied him in a purple or imperial robe they set the Crown upon his head though a Crown of thornes they put a scepter in his hand and then bow the knee saying Hail King of the Iews Their purpose I confesse was only to expose him to contempt and laughter But God had also his ends in it and in the vanity of this humour brought forth that acknowledgment which in a serious way they had never uttered A deo veritas ab invitis etiam pectoribus erumpit said Lactantius truly So Pilate before whom he had been accused for taking to himself this title did on the Crosse confirme it to him and freely granted him that honour for taking which or nothing he had been condemned IESVS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE IEWS was a fair testimonie to proceed from the mouth of Pilate the fairer in regard that he stood resolved not to have it altered but made this peremptory answer when the Priests proposed it Quod scripsi scripsi what I have written I have written God certainly was in Pilates mouth and he knew it not For thus became Christs title manifested to the Greeks and Romans and published all abroad by those very means which were intended to suppresse it So unsearchable are the Counsels of Almighty God and his wayes past finding out as the Prophet hath it A Kingdome then our Saviour had and that acknowledged and confessed by his very enemies though all of them mistaken in the nature of it And to say truth the generall opinion of Christs temporal Kingdome was become so epidemicall a disease amongst Iews and Gentiles that neither the wisdome of the Grecians nor the word of God amongst the Iews nor God the word then conversant with his own Disciples could remove the malady And first beginning with the Iews the Oracles of God had long since promised a Messiah but they were wretchedly deceived in the manner of his coming to them expecting such a one as should be answerable to their present miseries and free them from that yoak of bondage which the Romans at that time had laid upon them And as the wise Philosopher tels us that the same man doth place his summum bonum upon divers blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sick he thinks it to consist in health if poor in riches even so this people being under the captivity of a second Babylon dream of no other happinesse then present liberty For this cause they expected such a Messiah whose sword should free them from that thraldome whose Kingdome should be more apparent to the faith of the eye then the eye of faith This was it which made Herod tremble and all Hierusalem with him i. e. as many in Hierusalem as did hold his faction when the wise men demanded saying Where is he that is born King of the Iews This made him murder the young children in Bethlem Iudah and amongst them one of his own sons as the story telleth us a man more cruel in his fears then in his anger The Courtiers most and many of the better sort of people also were all alike possessed with the same poor fancie For seeing the glory of Herods Palace and experimentally knowing his prowesse they conceived him to be the Messiah and on that ground as many learned men are of opinion were called Herodians As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the baser and ignoble multitude certain it is that the ambition of their hopes did ascend no higher Upon which ground some of them flocked unto Theudas who boasted of himself to be some great body others to Iudas of Galilee who exhorted not to pay tribute both thought to be the King they had so long looked for but miserably deceived in both as the issue proved Their expectation of a temporall Messiah did not fail them yet CHRIST is the next they set their rest on and would have made him King by force He that could feed so many thousands with a few loaves of bread was likely to maintain an Army with no charge at all Afterwards in the days of Hadrian the Roman Emperour they placed their hopes on one Barchochab His name did signifie as much as the son of a star which made them take him for that star of Iacob of which Balaam prophecied and taking him for such to reverence him as Eusebius tels us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he were a star which came down from heaven A Star indeed he proved but a falling star drawing the people generally into rebellion against the Romans on which they were for ever banished from their native Country Nor was it thus only with the Iews in generall but those who had more near relation to their Lord and Saviour The Secretaries to this King the Apostles had all of them their hope stonger then their faith and did already contend amongst themselves which of them should be greatest in their Masters Kingdome Not in his Kingdome of grace nor in that of glory for they dreamed of neither but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his temporal Kingdome rather which they all looked after The seventy which were Clerks of his Counsel so conceived it also and it is no marvell Nam quis viam rectam teneret errante Cicerone We thought said Cleophas that this had been the man that should have delivered Israel Delivered Israel from whom Not
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
of Canaan on the Priests and Levites being his in his own right Originally by the law of Nature and by him challenged and appropriated as his own domaine All the Tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lords Here 's the Lords claim and title to them as his own propriety Behold I have given the children of Levi all the Tenth or Tithes in Israel for an inheritance for the service which they serve even the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation There 's the collation of his right on the Tribe of Levi whom he made choyce of to attend in his holy Tabernacle and to do service at his Altar And they continued the inheritance of the Tribe of Levi until the Priesthood was translated unto Christ our Saviour who being made by God the true owner of Tithes a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech became invested ipso facto with that right of Tithing which God had formerly conferred on the Priests and Levites and consequently with a power of disposing of them to them that minister in his Name to the Congregation The second argument which the Apostle doth afford us in this case of Tithes is the Prerogative which Melchisedech haâ— iâ— that particular above Aaron and the sons of Levi. Levi also saith he which received Tithes paid Tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loyns of his Father when Melchisedech met him Heb. 7.9 10. Then which there cannot be a stronger and more pregnant argument to prove that Tithes are no Mosaical institution or the peculiar maintenance of the Levites but that they are derived from an higher Author and are to be continued to the Ministers of a better Testament For the Apostle taking on him to prove this point that the Priesthood after the Ordâ—â— of Melchisedech was better and more perfect then that which was according to the Order of Aaron useth this argument to evince it and it is a weighty one indeed that Levi himself though he received Tithes of his brethren by the Lords appointment yet he and all his Tribe paid their Tithes to Melchisedech being all vertually and potentially in the loyns of Abraham at such time as Melchisedech met him and consequently being as effectually tithed in Abraham as all mankinde have sinned in Adam from whose loyns they sprung Nay we may work this argument to an higher pitch and make the full scope of it to amount to this That if the Tribe of Levi had been in full possession of the Tithes of their Brethren when Melchisedech met with Abraham and blessed him as became the High Priest of God to do or if Melchisedech had lived in Canaan till their setling in it they must and ought to have done as their Father did and paid their Tithes unto Melchisedâ—eh as the Type of Christ in reference to his everlasting and eternal Priesthood But seeing that this common place hath been so much beaten on I shall only alter some few words of that Noble Gentleman and great Antiquarie Sir Henry Spelman to make his argument more suitable to my present purpose and so close this point Insomuch saith he as Abraham did not pay his Tithes to a Priest that offered a Levitical Sacrifice of Bullocks and Goats but unto him that presented him with Bread and Wine which are the Elements of the Sacrament ordained by Christ this may serve well to intimate thus much unto us that we are to pay our Tithes unto that High Priest an High Priest of Melchisedechs Order who did ordain the Sacrament of Bread and Wine and unto them in his behalf who by his Ordinance and appointment in the Word Hoc facite administer the same unto us And so much for the Sacerdotal Office of our Lord and Saviour which he doth execute for our good at the right hand of God we now proceed unto the Regal which though it is most eminent in his coming to Iudgement and so more properly to be handled in the following Article yet for so much thereof as is exercised at the right hand of God we shall reduce it under this in the following chapter CHAP. XIV Of the Regal or Kingly Office of our Lord as far as it is executed before his coming unto Iudgement Of his Vice-gerents on the Earth and of the several Vice-roys put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians WE have not yet done with this branch of the Article that of our Saviours sitting at the right hand of God For of the three Offices allotted to him that of the Priest the Prince and the Prophet all which are comprehended in the name of CHRIST that of the Priest is wholly executed as he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty And so is so much also of the King or the Regal Office as doth concern the preservation of his Church from the hands of her enemies the Regulating of the same by his holy laws and indeed every act and branch thereof except 〈◊〉 of Iudicature which is most visibly discharged in the day of judgement Of all the rest we shall now speak and for our better method and proceeding in it must recall to minde that we told you in our former Chapter how both the Kingdome and the Priesthood of our Saviour Christ did take beginning at the time of his Resurrection He was before a King Elect designed by God to this great Office from before all worlds but not invested with the Crown nor put into the possession of the Throne 〈◊〉 David till he had conquered Death and swallowed up the grave in victory That he was King Elect and in designation is evident by that of the Royal Psalmist where he brings in God Almighty speaking of his only Son and saying I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion as evident by that of the Prophet Daniel where he telleth us that in those days those days which the Apostle calleth the fulness of time the God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed which can be meant of none but the Kingdome of Christ. And that we may not have the testimony only of Kings and Prophets which were mortall men but also of the blessed Angels those immortal Spirits we have the Angel Gabriel saying of him to his Virgin-Mother that the Lord would give unto him the Throne of his Father David and of his Kingdome there should be no end But yet he was but King Elect and in designation born to the Crown of the Celestial land of Canaan as the Heir apparent and by that name enquired for by the Wise men saying Vbi est ille qui natus est Rex Iudaeorum i. e. where is he that is born King of the Iews as our Englâ—sh reads it And so do all translations else which I have seen except Bezas and the French which doth follow him And he indeed doth
rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
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
infirmities of the flesh into natural and personal calling those natural which follow the whole nature of man as hunger thirst labour wearinesse and even death it self those personal which arise out of some defect or imperfection in the constitution of the body or disorder of diet or from some other outward cause as Agues Leprosies and the like Then they infer that all the frailties and infirmities you may call them punishments if you will as indeed they are that are from without and are common to the whole nature of man were taken with our flesh by Christ who came to be a Saviour of all men without respect of persons but such as flow from sin dwelling within or proceed from particular causes and are proper only unto some those he took not on him Aud of these passions and infirmities attendant on Christs humane nature I have spoke the rather in this place because it doth so manifestly conduce to the better understanding of the following Article viz. his sufferings of all sorts under Pontius Pilate ARTICLE V. Of the Fift ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. PHILIP 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Passus est sub Pontio Pilato crusifixus mortuus sepultus i. e. Suffered under Ponce Pilate was crucified dead and buried CHAP. V. Of the sufferings of our Saviour under Pontius Pilate and first of those temptations which he suffered at the hands of the Devil FOr the finding out of the time of our Saviours Birth St. Luke hath given us these two notes and characters the Presidentship of Cyrenius over Syria and the taxing of all the world by Augustus Caesar in the time of his Cyrenius government And for the finding out the time of our Saviours sufferings he hath given us most undoubted notes also such as cannot fail us In the fifteenth yeer saith he of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judaea and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee his brother Philip of Iturea and Lysanias of Abylene Annas and Caiaphas being High Priests the Word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the Wilderness which was the first year of our Saviours Ministery and consequently of those sufferings whereof there hath been any notice taken in the Book of God Now in this punctual list of names that of most consideration in this present business is Pontius Pilates being only mentioned in the Creed of whom we shall say somewhat in the way of preamble his name not being inserted here for nothing and then descend unto our Observations on the present Article But first we will remove a rub that hath stumbled many which is the making of Annas and Caiaphas to be both high Priests at the same time being a thing so plainly contrary both to the law and practise of the Iewish state Certum est duos simul Pontifices eodem simul tempore Sacerdotium nunquam occupasse And so much is confessed by Calvin though in the salving of the difficultie he mistakes the matter affirming contrary to the Evangelist non esse eundem ambobus titulum that they did not both enjoy the Title but that Caiaphas did suffer Annas who was his Father in law to participate in the honour with him and be half-sharer as it were in that eminent dignity As wide as this shoots the great Cardinal Baronius who will have Annas be the high Priest properly and Caiaphas to be called so only because he was one of the heads of those 24 Orders into which David had divided the sons of Aaron whereas his own Vulgar could inform him that those heads are always called Primarii Sacerdotes Principes Sacerdotum the chief Priests as our English reads it but Summi Sacerdotes or the high Priests never Nor doth Eusebius shoot much neerer and I wonder at it who doth salve it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. that Christ began his Ministerie under Annas and ended it under Caiaphas about four years after whereas it is manifest by Iosephus whom Eusebius citeth that Annas was removed from the high Priesthood by Valerius Gratus being then Lord Lieutenant of the Province of Iewry who left that Government to Pontius Pilate in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar being three years at least before the beginning of our Saviours ministery Others conceive that Annas only was high Priest and that Caiaphas was his Sagan or the second high Priest i. e. his Coadjutor or Assistant which being he was his son in law may not seem unprobable such an Assistant in dispatch of the publick service as the Syncellus of late times was to the Patriarchs of Constantinople But that which seems most probable in my opinion his that Annas was high Priest de jure and Caiaphas de facto For howsoever Annas was put out by Valerius Gratus yet being once consecrated to that Office he was still high Priest de jure as in point of right and so esteemed of by the Iews to whom such innovations in their forms of Government were not very pleasing and that Caiaphas though high Priest de facto did yet ascribe so much to the right of Annas as to let him have a leading power in all great affairs Which appears evidently in this that Christ was carried first to the house of Annas and examined there and after sent by him to the house of Caiaphas to which the chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees were convened together And now to come to Pontius Pilate he was made Governor of Iudaea as before was said in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar upon the calling back of Valerius Gratus A man he was of an austere and rigid nature Vir pertinaci duroque ingenio as it is in Philo and for the first essay of his future Government had caused the images of Caesar to be secretly brought into Hierusalem with an intent no doubt to place them in the holy Temple This caused a great tumult in the City and the Countrey people joining with them they went altogether to him to Caesarea desiring Pilate to remove those Images and to preserve the antient laws and liberties of their Country Which when he stifly did refuse to give ear unto and that the Iews as stoutly were resolved not to be denyed they offered him with one consent their naked throats protesting openly with great alacrity and consent that they had rather be all cut in pieces then permit the Law of God to be so defiled At sight whereof he did let fall his resolution and in reward of such a brave and noble courage especially not knowing otherwise how to quiet the people he was contented to remove them which was done accordingly Another time saith the same Iosephus he had a minde to rob the Corban or the publick treasure of the Temple under pretence of making Conduits in the City Which when the people understood they rose up in a tumult and being called to appear before him sitting
of Christ. And for that cause the people in the celebrating of these â—olemn sacrifices used to confess their sins to the Lord their God and by that means did make the Sacrifice more acceptable and their atonement with the Lord more assured and certain but expiate â—ins those Sacrifices of their own nature neither did nor could In which sense Chrysostom said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The LEGAL SACCRIFISE saith he was rather an accusation then an expiation a confession rather of their weakness then a profession of their strength Now there are many things observable in these Legal Sacrifices which were performed and really made good in our Lord and Saviour For first the Sacrifice or Beast sacrificed was to be a male Levit. 1.3 and to be a male also without spot or blemish or any corporal defect And so it was with Christ our Saviour the son of David in whose lips there was found no guile in whom there was no sinful blemish no defect of righteousness The man who brought the sacrifice was to present it at the dore of the Tabernacle and to lay his hand upon the head of it in testimony that he laid all his sins thereon that it might be accepted as an atonement for him Levit. 1.3 4. And so CHRIST took upon him our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Matth. 8.17 and bare our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 The Sacrifice being brought before the dore of the Tabernacle was after bound with cords Binde the Sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar Psal. 118. slain by the Priest and his bloud sprinkled round about upon the Altar and then burnt with fire So the Redeemer of the world was led bound to Pilate Matth. 27.2 and after fastned to the Altar of the Cross with cords of iron implyed in this that they crucified him Matth. 27.35 i.e. they nayled him to the Cross. The Sacrificer was himself Ipse enim Sacrificium Sacerdos for he himself was both the Sacrifice and the Priest as St. Austin hath it offering his body to the Lord that by the hands of wicked and unrighteous men it might be crucifyed and slain and the whole Cross the Altar upon which he suffered besprinkled round about with his precious bloud issuing from his hands and feet and wounded side As for the burning of the sacrifice which was usual in their whole burnt offerings what could it signifie but those pains and sorrows that bitter cup and all the terrible pangs thereof which even burnt up his heart and consumed his spirits in the whole act of his crucifixion unless perhaps the ascending of the flames on high might signifie the the gracious acceptation of the sacrifice by the Lord their God as in that of Noah which carryed up a sweet savour to the God of Heaven In which regard a sweet savour and an offering made by fire do seeme to be Synonymas in the Book of God as Exod. 24.41 Levit. 3.5 And what more pleasing savour could ascend to God what could he smell more acceptable from the sons of men then the oblation made unto him of the Son of God reconciling the world unto his Father Finally as the bodies of those beasts which were brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sin which was a differing kinde of Sacrifice from the whole burnt offering were burnt without the Camp so Jesus also saith St. Paul that he might sacrifice the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Heb. 13.11 12. And of this sort of Types and Figures were both the Anniversary Sacrifice of the Paschal lamb and the daily sacrifice of the two lambs one for the morning and the other for the evening Exod. 29. both of them shadowing or prefiguring in Gods intention though not in the intent of the ignorant Iews that all-sufficient Sacrifice of the Lamb of God which really and truly taketh away the sins of the world How far they are applyable in their other circumstances we shall see elsewhere As for the manner of Christs death and passion there were also some Types and figures of it as well before the Law as after What else was that of Isaac the promised seed the only and beloved son of his Father Abraham from whom the blessing promised by Almighty God to all the Nations of the world was to be derived commanded by an order from the Court of Heaven to be offered to the Lord for a burnt offering What did it signifie or prefigure but the offering of our Saviour CHRIST the dearly beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased the expectation of the Genâ—iles conceived so miraculously beyond hope and reason above the common course of nature more then Isaac was The mountain on which that sacrifice was to be performed what did it signifie but that CHRIST should be offered up to God on a mountain also even the mount of Calvarie Luk. 23.33 What else the laying of the wood upon Isaacs shoulders wherewith himself the sacrifice was to be burned but the compelling CHRIST to take up that Cross whereon himself was to be crusified till Simon the Cyrenian came that way by chance to ease him of that heavy burden The calling of the Angel out of heaven to Abraham bidding him stay his hand and not strike the blow by means whereof poor Isaac was reprieved from slaughter doth it not clearly signifie the sending of an Angel from heaven to CHRIST our Saviour to comfort him in the midst of his fears and troubles and to deliver him from those fears and terrors which make death dreadful unto mankinde that he might undergo it with the greater cheerfulness And when the Devil had tryed all ways imaginable to prevail upon him out of a confident presumption to effect his ends and work some â—inful and corrupt affections to have power upon him what got he at last but a breathless carkass a short dominion of his body The Ram the fleshy part of CHRIST was all which fell unto his share in that bloudy sacrifice and that he was to take or nothing in stead of the Son the Son of the eternal everliving God whom he expected as a prey and in hope had swallowed And yet this Type though full of clear and excellent significancies comes not so home to my purpose unto the manner of Christs death as doth the Type and story of the Brazen Serpent The people journeying in the Wilderness and murmuring as they did too often against God and Moses had provoked the Lord And the Lord sent fiery Serpents amongst the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died No remedy for this but upon repentance And when the people had repented the Lord said to Moses Fac Serpentem aeneum c. i. e. Make thee a Brazen Serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one
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
from sin and Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from the yoak of bondage which the Romans had then laid upon them Thus was it also with the whole body of his Disciples when convened together at the very time of his Ascension Wilt thou at this time say they restore again the Kingdome unto Israel The Kingdome What Regnum illud temporale quod ablatum erat a Iudaeis the temporall power which by the Romans lately had been taken from them And now I thinke it cannot reasonably be expected that the Gentiles should conceive otherwise of the Kingdome of Christ if they knew any thing at all of it then the whole nation of the Iews or his own Disciples Nam post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit It was no shame for them to mistake in that which was not rightly understood by his friends and followers If they that satâ— in the light saw so obscurely how could they see at all that sat in darknesse and in the shadow of death There had continued in the East saith Tacitus and Suetonius both a received opinion fore ut Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur that out of Iewry should proceed a most puissant Prince who should in fine obtain the Empire over all the world A report founded questionlesse upon that of Micah and to this purpose cited in St. Matthews Gospel viz. that out of Judah there should come a Governour which shall rule my people Israel This prophecie the Roman Historians of those times referred in the accomplishment unto Vespasian and his sons who being the Provincial Governours of Iudaea did afeâ—rwards by force of the Eastern Armies obtain the empire But it wrought further as it seems upon Domitian who is reported to have sought out all those of the line of David which his care and diligence could discover and to have murdred them being found Which howsoever some ascribe to his accustomed cruelty without further aime yet I am verily perswaded that jealousie in point of state the better to secure himself from those on whom that prophecie did reflect originally did induce him to it And possible enough it is that Pilate grounding his proceedings on the same mistake might think quod scripsi scripsi an high part of wisedome and that therein he did great service to the Roman Emperors in terrifying others from aspiring to the name of King which Iesus upon so good title and without any prejudice unto their affaires had presumed to own But all this while he was a King in title only or a King designed We must next look upon him as inaugurated and put in full possession of the regal power And that this was not done till his resurrection is positively affirmed in two texts of St. Peter and very concludingly inferred by a text of St. Paul We will take that of St. Peter first delivered in the first Sermon that he preached on the Feast of Pentecost where speaking of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour and having pressed the point home to their souls and consciences he concludeth thus Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both Lord and Christ Not made him Lord nor Christ till then neither King nor Priest The very same St. Paul affirmeth in more positive termes Who speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132 Psalme that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his throne for evermore resolveth it thus The promise which God made unto our Fathers hath he fulfilled in us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the 2. Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Of this we have already spoken more fully in the 13. Chapter and therefore shall not need to repeat it here And if the word head be used in Scriptures and other creditable Authors to signifie the King or supreme Governour of a body politick as no doubt it is we have St. Paul as positive in this particular as St. Peter was That so the word head hath been oft times used I shall not need to prove out of many witnesses when two or three will be sufficient Of these the first shall be the Prophet Isaiah saying The head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Israel is Samaria they being the principall and commanding Cities of those severall Kingdomes And more then so the head of Damascus is Rezin and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah who were the Kings of those two Realms whereof Damascus and Samaria were the principal Cities Thus doth the Poet say of Rome Roma caput mundi that it was the head of the world i. e. the chief or commanding state to which all the residue of the world did owe subjection And thus doth Chrysostome say of Theodosius the Roman Emperour that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of all people on the earth It followeth then that Christ being called in Scripture the head of his Church which is indeed his mystical body and exercising all that power and authority which the head hath upon the members of the body natural must needs be understood for the King thereof the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter called him And that Christ was not made the head of his Church till the resurrection was accomplished it 's by St. Paul affirmed so plainly and in terminis that it needs no Commentary The God of our Lord IESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places above all principalities and powers and might and dominions that is to say above the whole Hierarchie of the Angels c. And given him to be head over all things unto the Church which is his body This makes that clear and evident which before we said that though our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor inthronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension And this distinction serves most fitly to clear the meaning of St. Paul in that other place from which the same may be concludingly inferred It is a passage in his Sermon made unto the Pisidians where speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132. Psal. That of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore v. 12 13. he resolves it thus The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Many Interpreters I know both antient and modern do expound these words of the eternal generation of the Son of God and fancie to
themselves an hodie aeternitatis something which may be called this day before all eternity Which exposition of the words as it is very justly disliked by Calvin so is he very unjustly quarrelled for by some latter writers who look no further on the words then the words of David and not upon the application which St. Paul makes of them Clearly St. Paul who spake by the same Spirit that David did and therefore could not erre in expounding the words of David intends them neither to CHRISTS natural birth as the son of the blessed Virgin Mary nor his eternall generation as the Son of God but to his birth day or begetting to the Crown of the heavenly Canaan the day of their advancement to the regal throne being esteemed as their birth day by most Kings and Princes For who so ignorant in the affaires of the world so little conversant in the monuments of former times as not to know that it is usuall in most States and Kingdomes not only to celebrate with great feasts and triumphs the naturall birth-day of their Kings which they call Diem natalem imperatoris but the inauguration day the day wherein he was exalted to the Crown imperial which they call Diem natalem imperii Certain I am that the day whereon Augustus did assume the imperial power was solemnized in Rome every tenth year with a great deal of joy and that Caligula did decree that the day whereon he began his Empire Dies quo cepisset imperium as my Authour hath it should be called Palilia and celebrated as that was by the antient Romans in memory that their City was on that day founded And thus it hath continued in most States of Christendome but most unprosperously of late as if it were an Omen of the present troubles laid aside in ours And this interpretation of the Psalmists words receiveth good countenance from another place of the same Apostle in which those words of David are again recited The place is this Christ saith he glorifyed not himself to be made high Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priert for ever after the order of Melchisedech The meaning of this passage we have shewn before and is this in brief that Christ being called by God to the two great offices those of the Priesthood and the Kingdome was not exalted unto either though designed to both till God had glorifyed him in the sight of the people by his resurrection And to my seeming Davids words had not St. Paul conducted us to this exposition could have no other meaning then is here made of them For if we marke the composition of the same and the place in which these words are ranked we shall finde that God had first advanced his King and set him on his holy hill of Sion on the royall throne before and but immediately before these words Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee But what need one Apostle be called to witnesse in this point when we have all that glorious company the Apostolical College and the rest of their company apply the whole Psalme to the person of Christ of Christ anointed to the Kingdome by the hands of God but not till Herod Pontius Pilate the Gentiles and the people of Israel had conspired against him to do whatsoever the hand and counsell of God had before determined Having thus brought our Saviour to the Regall throne and set him on the right hand of God in the heavenly places let us next look upon him in his forme of Government according to the arts of Empire These by the Stalists are reduced unto two heads the one consisting in protecting and defending the people committed to them which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other in prescribing laws and executing justice on the transgressours which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both these most perfectly discharged by our Prince and Saviour And first the Enemies against which he protects his people are these three the Devil sin and persecution The two first he discomfited in that painfull combat in which he paid the price of our redemption and made his passage open to the new Hierusalem Since that time there is nothing left in Satan but a powerlesse malice and though he roare against the Church he shall never devour it The gates of hell shall not prevail against it said the glorious Conqueror Sin at the same time lost his strength which was the curse of the Law and not his strength only but his Empire too And though he may sojourn for a time in our mortal bodies yet shall he never reigne over us and have us in subjection as before he had unlesse we willingly betray our selves and captivate our souls to those conquered powers which God hath given us grace to master Nor deales otherwise with the Persecutors of his Church and people then he hath done with sin and Satan whom he doth crush at last with a rod of iron and break them into pieces like a potters vessell as David telleth of him in the second Psalme And though sometimes to manifest his own glory in his peoples sufferings and to make tryall of their faith and Christian patience he doth permit their enemies to prevail against them yet was he never wanting in his own due time to make their deliverance more remarkable then all their afflictions Witnesse the persecutions of the primitive times in which the Princes of the earth and the powers of hell banded themselves against the Lord and against his anointed times in the which it were a difficulty to determine whether the gallantry of the Martyrs or the tyranny of the persecutors gave juster cause of admiration to the sad spectators With such a chearfull countenance did they beare their sufferings that they even wearied their tormenters and did not lose their lives but give them With what a noble confidence did they mount the scaffold on which they were to suffer the most cruel death which the wit of man and malice of the Devil could inflict upon them so bravely and without amazement as if they had been mounted rather to behold a triumph then to be brought to execution Never was tragedy of death more bravely acted nor actor honoured with a richer and more glorious crown And for his enemies and theirs the vengeance of the Lord found them out at last and laid them in the dust with disgrace and ignominy For which was there of all the persecutors who made themselves drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Prophets or that have raged against the Church since those furious times to whom he gave not bloud to drinke whom either in their gray haires or in the pride and flourish of all their glories he brought not to the grave with reproach and sorrow or left their dead bodies to be meat to
of Christs disciples shall goe to an invisible place appointed them by God and there shall remain unto the resurrection and after receiving their bodies and rising perfectly that is corporally as Christ did rise shall so come to the Vision or sight of God Tertullian next It is saith he apparent to any wise man that there is a place determined which is Abrahams bosome for the receiving of the souls of his sons which region I mean Abrahams bosome though it be not heavenly but Tertullian was out in that sublimior tamen inferis yet being higher then the inferi or places below shall give comfort to the souls of the righteous untill the resurrection and the end of all things bring the full reward So Hilarie B. of Poyctiers The day of judgment is the day of everlasting happinesse or punishment till which time death hath every one under his dominion whilest either Abrahams bosome or the house of torments reserveth every man to judgement St. Ambrose to the same effect till the fullnesse of time come the souls expect their due reward for some of which pain for others glory is provided Next him St. Augustine his convert After this short life thou shalt not as yet be where the Saints shall be to whom it shall be said in the day of judgement Come ye blessed of my father c. Thou shalt not be there as yet who knoweth not that but there thou shalt be where poor Lazarus was seen a far off by the proud richman In that rest shalt thou securely expect the day of judgment in which thou shalt receive thy body and be changed and be made equall with the Angels St. Bernard thus you perceive that there be three states of the soul the first in this corruptible body the second without the body the third in perfect blessednesse The first in the Tabernacles the second in the Courts the third in the house of God into which most blessed house of God the souls of the Saints shall not enter without us nor without their own bodies I had not named St. Bernard amongst those Antients but only to the end that it might be seen that this was generally the doctrine of the Western Church as to this particular untill the invocation of the Saints departed became first to be put in practise and afterwards to be defended and imposed as good Catholick Doctrine For they saw well that unlesse it were received for an Orthodox truth that the Saints departed were admitted presently into the beatificall vision of Almighty God and in him see as in a Mirrour what things soever could be done or said on the earth beneath it were in vain to make unto them either prayers or vows not being yet estated in their own full glories and consequently not admitted to the presence of God And on the very same reasons for which the Church of Rome doth admit the Saints to enjoy the blessed vision of Almighty God in the heaven of glories did Calvin labour to decrie the received opinion in that point though by long tract of time engendering prejudice and prepossession in the hearts of men against any contrary position it was become the generall tenet of the Protestant Schools For well he knew that if that doctrine could be rooted out of the minds of men by which the Saints were brought though before their time into an habitation in the highest heavens that of the invocation of the Saints departed which depends upon it must of necessity perish with it But whatsoever moved him to opine so of it for I am confident it was not any love to the antient Fathers certain it is that he hath freely declared his opinion in it in several places of his writings In that entituled Psychopannychia he doth thus expresse it The souls of the Saints after death be in peace saith he because they are escaped from the power of the enemie but shall not raign with Christ their King untill the heavenly Hierusalem shall be advanced to her glory and the true Solomon the King of peace shall sit on high on his tribunal And this he doth not only say and leave the proof thereof to his ipse dixit as if that were enough to carry it over all the world but cites Tertullian Chrysostome Augustine Bernard some of whose words we saw before to confirme the point But seeing that tract of his hath been called in question as if it did incline too much towards the Anabaptists we will next look upon his book of Institutions where we finde him saying That since the Scripture every where biddeth us to depend upon the expectation of Christs coming and deferreth the Crown of glory till that time we are to be content with the bounds that God hath appointed us viz. that the souls of the godly having ended their warfare depart unto an happy rest where with a blessed joy they look for the fruition of the promised glory and that so all things shall stand suspended untill Christ appeare The same he also intimateth in another place where he resolveth That not only the Fathers under the Law but even the holy men of God since the death of Christ are but in profectu in progresse as it were to that perfect happinesse which is to be conferred upon them in the day of doom that in the mean time they abide in atriis in the out-courts of Heaven and there expect the consummation of their beatitude And finally none but our Saviour Christ saith he hath entred into the heavenly Sanctuary where to the end of all the world Solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad deum defert he alone represents to God the desires of his people sitting a far off in the outward Courts I know that Bellarmine doth quarrell at these passages of Calvins and I cannot blame him He and the common interesse of the Church of Rome were so ingaged in the defence of the other opinion without which that of the invocation of Saints must needs fall to the ground that it concerned them all to calumniate Calvin as the broacher of new Doctrines in the Church of Christ though in this point they finde him countenanced by most antient writers Neither doth Calvin stand alone in this opinion being seconded though not in so expresse terms as himself delivereth it by Bucer Bullinger Martyr Musculus and some others also And wonder t is not that he was followed by so many but by so few prime men of the reformation to whom his name and authority were exceeding dear And if the case stand so with the Saints above no question but it standeth so too with the souls below For contrariorum par est ratio as the old rule is And to the truth we have not only the testimonie of the holy Scriptures saying expressely that God reserveth the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2. but of so many of the
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
The word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be onely two or three witnesses to attest unto it Two or three Members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in the name of the rest and thereby save the whole from Error even as a King invaded by a forein enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof in time may regain it all The Body cannot properly be said to be wholly dead as long as any Member of it doth remain alive But in this storm raised by the Arians in the Church the Orthodox Professors had but one Error to encounter with and that discovered and opposed in the first rising of it The Church of Rome maintained so many and those promoted by such power and so subtile instruments that there was far more danger in the Mass of Popery than any single Errors in the times before yet never could they so prevail by their force or cunning but that their Errors were opposed in some Church or other and truth though banished in the West found hearty entertainment in the Eastern parts As for example The Popes Supremacy is and hath long been held at Rome as an Article of the Faith and a chief one too and held so ever since it was declared by Pope Boniface the Seventh Omnino esse de necessitate salutis omni humanae creaturae suâ—esse Romano Pontifici i. e. That it was altogether necessary to Salvation for every mortal man to be subject to the Bishops of Rome But this Supremacy was never acknowledged by the Greeks nor Muscovites nor by the Habbassines or Christians of Ethiopia nor by the Indian Churches neither till these latter days in which they have submitted to the Popes authority And in the West it self where the Pope most swayed it was continually opposed by the Albigenses the Hussites Wiclivists and others in their several times The Popes usurped a power over Kings and Princes and did not onely hold it as a matter practical but publickly maintained and taught as a doctrinal point But against this did all the Princes of the world oppose their power the French by the Pragmatical Sanction the English by the Statutes of Provisions and Praemuniri the German Emperors at once both by Sword and Pen as is apparent by the writing of Marsilius Patavinus Dante 's Occam and many others of those times whereof consult Goldastus in his Monarchia It pleased the Popes for politick and worldly ends to restrain the Clergy of that Church from marriage because that having Wives and Children they would be more obnoxious to their natural Princes and not depend so much as now on the See of Rome But on the other side the Greeks the Melchites and the Maronites which are names of several Churches of the East neither deny Ordination unto married men or force them to abstain from the use of their Wives when they are in Orders The Russes and Arminians admit none but married men into the Priesthood the Iacobites and Nestorians allow of second and third marriages in those of their Clergy as also do the Indians and Christians under Prâ—ster Iohn the Patriarck being first sued to for a dispensation In Germany when this yoke was first laid upon them by Pope Gregory the Seventh the Clergy generally opposed stiling that Pope Hominem plane haereticum vesani dogmatis an Arant Heretick and the Broacher of a mad opinion In Italy it was taught by Panormitanus Votum non esse de essentia Sacramenti That the vow of single life was not essential unto Orders How late it was before the Priests of England could be brought to forsake their Wives and what embroilments have been raised in the Church about it Henry of Huntingdon and others of our Antient Writers do declare at large Pope Innocent the Third first setled Transubstantiation in the Church of Rome a word not known unto the Fathers in the Primitive times nor any of the old Grammarians and Professors of the Latine tongue But the Armenians do reject it as an unsound Tenet and so as I conjecture did the Egyptian Maronite and the Habbassine Churches who neither do allow of the Reservation nor the Elevation of the Host as the Romanists call it which are the Pages or attendants of that Popish Error And in the Church of Rome it self it was opposed by Bertram Berengarius and Basilius Monachus as afterwards by the Pauperes de Lugduno the Albigenses Hussites Wiclivists and their descendents to the time when first Luther writ The taking of the Cup in the holy Sacrament from the Lay-Communicant and thereby sacrilegiously robbing him of the one half of his birth-right crept unawares upon the Church by a joynt negligence as it were both of Priest and People But so that it was still retained by the Eastern Churches claimed and accordingly enjoyed by the Albigenses and their followers and so tenaciously adhered unto by the Bohemians where the Hussites had their first original that in small time they got the names of Calistini and Sub utrâques from their participating of the Cup and communicating under both kindes when none else durst do it And this they did in so great numbers that Cochlaeus one of their greatest Adversaries relates that Thirty thousand of them did assemble together at one time to receive the Sacrament under both kindes The fire of Purgatory hath for a long time warmed the Popes Kitchin and kept the Pot boiling for the Monks and Friers But there is no such fire acknowledged by the Greeks and Moscovites nor by the Melchites Iacobites Armenian and Egyptian Christians nor by the Waldenses Hussites and their Descendents The Worshipping of Images hath not onely been practised but enjoyned by the Church of Rome ever since the second Nicene Council But the Christians of St. Thomas so they call the Indians admit no Images at all to be set up in their Churches The Grecians Moscovites and Ethiopians though they admit of Painted Images yet allow not of the Carved and forbid the worshipping of both The Church of Rome hath long time used Auricular Confession as a kinde of State-picklock and opening therewith the Cabinet-Counsels of the greatest Kings and laid it as a burden upon the conscience of the penitent sinner But the Nestorians and the Iacobites never did enjoyn it themselves or approved it in them that did And though the Greek Church still retains the use of Confession of the right use whereof we shall speak hereafter yet such a rigorous pressing of it as our Masters in the Church of Rome have been used unto they allow not of These are some few of many Errors which have been taught and patronized in the Church of Rome which yet were constantly opposed and condemned by others in the East and South As on the other side those Churches of the East and South and such