c Amb. n. 37. de Virgin Tull. Epist 69. Aug. Cont. Jul. l. 3. c. 13. Libri non erub sâ—unt your black Comment cannot blush Yet St. Austin said of Julian a Pâ—lagian for asserting an heresie lesse dangerous then yours Puto ipsum libri tui atramentum erubescendo convertitur in minium CHAP. VIII Sheweth against this Commenter that mens soules dye not with their bodies I Must not omit your rare doctrine concerning the soules of dead men You tell us that they are void of all sense of time intervening between the time of our p. 228. 267. death and resurrection though Scriptures speak as if we should wholly live till Christs coming but 't is because thousands of years seem but as one minute to one that sleâ—peth or is dead so long and None are entred into heaven besides Christ c. I perceive you like not the opinion of those Anabaptists who taught the Psychopanychian or sleeping of dead mens soules neither are you arrived to the height of the Jewish Sâ—dduces or heathenish Epicures for they denyed a resurrection which you confesse yet you have chose a fair middle way and with them you believe that our soules dye with our bodies and your confessing of the resurrection is but a reserve by which you re-inforce your doctrine of the Soules mortality for when you perceived that the words of Christ against the Sadduces made also against you when he alledged Matth. 22. 32. Exod. 3. 6. those words I am the God of Abraham to prove that Abraham then lived because Abraham's soul lived for those words were spoken long after Abâ—aham was dead to avoid this you tell us that it proves onely that Abraham must one day be recalled to life so though Abraham's soul was then dead and therefore Abraham was not living yet God is the God of the living that is of the living dead Abraham because some thousands of years after Abraham may be revived you may do well to reform Church-Creeds and adde to The Resurrection of the body the resurrection of the soul which hath been alwayes omitted because the Church thought that onely the body falleth and that the body onely is câ—davâ—r and onely of that there will be a resurrection to the penitent Thief it is said This Luke 23. 43. day shalt thou bâ—wâ—th me in Pâ—â—â—d se this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not yet come by your doctrine though sixteen hundred years are run out since St. Paul in the narration of his rapture into the third heaven confesseth he 2 Cor. 12. 2. knew not whether he were in the body or out of the body therefore in his opinion posâ—â—bly his soul might be in that heaven whilest his body was on earth and St. Stephen at his Martyâ—dome said Lord Jesus receive Acts 7. 59. my 〈◊〉 if his soul was then to dye I marvel why he would not as well say Lord Jesus receive my body but surely he thought his spirit or soul was not mortal and this is consonant with the doctrine of the best â—ilosophers who proved the soul to be separably existible because they discovered that our soul hath operations which are inoâ—ganical for the intellective faculty useth the body onely as an object but not as an instrument and our most excellently learned Physician and rare Philosopher Doctor Thomas Brown of Norwich hath taught us d Râ—lig Medici paâ—t 1. sect 35. 〈◊〉 l. de Aniâ—â— c. 44. vide 〈◊〉 l. 7. c 52. 〈◊〉 Hesâ—châ—â—m in vita Arisâ—â—ae Epimenidis â— 4â— 46. That in the dissecting of a man no Organ is found proper to the Reasonable Soule and that in the brain of man there is nothing of moment 〈◊〉 then in the Cranie of a â—east And Tertullian telleth a story of one Hermotimus whose soul used to leave hâ—s body for a time and Evagari as his word is to wandâ—r abroad whilest his body lay like a dead corps and to return again till his enemies took advantage and whilest his soul was absent they burnt his body And such another story doth Origen tell of the same Orig. cont Cels l. 3. man whom he cals Clazomenius Now whether this be true or not yet it argues that in the judgment of these profound Philosophers the soul possibly may exist out of the body I perceive that the Judgment of the Church hath but little power to sway you for you snatch at any paradox though heretical that comes in your way Eusebius tells us that this very opinion Euseb hist l. 6. c. 27. of the soules dying with the body and rising again with the body was accounted heretical by the Church and that it was in an open Council confuted by Origen though Origen himself erred on the other side and St. Austin in his catalogue of Heresies calls Aust haer 83. Aug. de Ecclesiast dogm c. 15. n. 72. Basil hom de avar n. 12. Philo. de mundi opificio p. 31. n. 2. this of yours the Arabick heresie and our humane soul is by him called Anima substantiva i. e. a substautivesoul because it can subsist alone and of such men which say their soules are mortal St. B sil saith they have Animam pâ—rcinam a swinish soul and Philo the learned Jew saith that a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a creature mortal and immortal because he hath a mortal body and an immortal soul and this the Church hath taught in all ages and is so delivered Ambr. de fide l. 2. c. 3. n. 22. by St. Ambrose That the soul of man cannot dye The sleeping of dead Saints which you read of in Scripture is meant just as their rising is not of soules but of bodies Many bodies of the Saints which slept arose Matth. 27. 52. But what think you of the soul of Christ did that die with his body No Christian that ever I heard of thought so perhaps neither do you or if you do I care not the same argument which the Apostle drawes from Christs resurrection to prove our resurrection will be as firm to prove the immortality of our soules by the immortality of his soul 1 Cor. 15. 16. If the dead rise not then is not Christ risen So if man's soul be not immortal then was not Christ's soul immortal and if Christ's soul dyed not neither will our soules dye The doctrine of the Soules immortality is so demonstrable by nature that the Ancient Christians symbols or rules of faith did not expresly declare it as an article of faith Christian because even * Si in hoc erro quòd animas hominum immortales credam libeâ—â—èr erro hunc erâ—orem mihi extorqueri nolo aveo patres vestros mortuos videre Cic de Senect heathen Philosophers both confessed and proved it but yet in the later Creeds of the Church the article of Christ's descent was added for no greater cause at first that ever I could learn or discover then this as
time This is sufficient to shew in what manner those extatical apparitions probably might be presented to mens soules and also may be an argument of the soules sepaâ—ability because by this we perceive it may have operations which do not at all depend upon the body and in all these revelations and intercourses with Angels good and bad we cannot receive any certain intelligence what the state of the other world is CHAP. XIII Of the apparitions of the dead and that they are not the soules of men deceased but other spirits assuming their shapes ALthough the known Inhabitants of both parts of the other Woâ—ld I mean the holy Angels and the infernal spitits have oftentimes appeared to and conversed with mortal men yet still we are ignorant of the affaires both of the City of God and also of the infernal Sodome howbeit those spirits have shewed themselves in plausible shapes of men and of our friends and kindred and not in such terrible apparitions as might deter men from any converse with them for the Scripture declareth that God and good Angels have appeared in shapes of men and that evil Anâ—els have also appeared so as to Sâ—ul in the likenesse of Samuel and also to Christ in his temptation for no doubt Satan conversed with him in the similitude of a man and the Ecclesiâ—stical Writers asfirm the same Tertullian tells us that in the Tert. de anima c. 57. exorcismâ—s which the Church in his time used over men possessed with unclean spirits the spirit would say Se esse aliquem pâ—rentum aut bestiarium aut talem gladiatorem defunctum i That they wâ—re some of their forefathers or some beast-master or such a fencer deceased and again he saith that it was usual with Magicians Ibid. to tell men that the spirits which they raised were the soules of dead men and that they could raise the soules of the holy Prophets from the dead The like is also observed by St. Chrysostome that when evil spirits appeared Chrys Ser. 2. de Laz. n. 〈◊〉 unto men they used to say Monachi illius sum anima sed non câ—edo quia daemones dicunt i. I am the soul of such a Monk deceased but I do not believe it because the Devil said so and again he saith That Idem ibid. the Devil perswaded Conjurers and witches to murther some young men making them believe that the soules of those whom they murthered should become familiar spirits and be at the command of those Conjuâ—â—rs to serve them and fulfill their commâ—nds and in later times Johannes Wier de praestig l. 1. c. 15. Wierus writâ—s that to satisfie the curiosity of the Emperour Maximilâ—an the fiâ—st about the year of ouâ— Lord 1500 a certain Magician in his Court raised spirits representing the shapes of Hector Achiâ—es and David which visibly apâ—â—aâ—ed â—n the presence of the â—â—id Emperour Many more such instances may be alledged out of Wriâ—ers of approved credit but these may suffice to inform us that althouâ—h many have comâ— to us from the other world yet none have given us intelligence of the state of things there for although those apparitions good and bad have entertained discourse with men as with Saul and with the blessed Virgin yet of this particular they have been silent and for this reason perhaps Poets called such apparitions and ghâ—sts Silenâ—â—s umbras and therefore they had a pretty fiction that such spirits as returned to this life from the dead first drank of the a Virg. Aen. 6. Lâ—â—hean River to signifie that they were so silent of those affaires as if they had forgot what their condition was in the other world because either they would not or could not relate the stâ—â—y of it even in the holy Scripture the place of the dead is called the Land of forgeâ—fulnesse and that Psal 88. 12. which the Latine reads Anima mea habiâ—asset in infeâ—no qâ—i dâ—scendunâ— in insernum our English Translation reads Psal 94. 17. My soul had almost dwelt in silenâ—e and â—hey that go down inâ—o silence for this Psal 115. 17. reason as I suppose Necromancie or consulting with the dead is forbâ—dden by God Deuâ— 18. 11. not that we should think the dead can at their own pleasure or at the desire of the living return to us without the special diâ—pensation and appointment of God for St. Austiâ— assâ—â—â—d himself that if it were in the power of Aug. de Cur. pro Mort. c. 13. soules departed to come and converse with mortals his holy and most loving mother dâ—ceased who followed hâ—m by Sea and Land in her life would nor have been so long absent fâ—om him but would have come and administred comfort to him among his man old sorrowes and so he concludes out of the 27 Psal My faâ—her and my mother have forsâ—keâ— me But bâ—cause Psal 27. 10. God having dâ—termined to conceal from us the state of the dead and because men should not delude thâ—mselves nor be deluded by Satan by conversing with Devils when they were raised in the shapes of men departed this life therefore Necromancy is forbidden and indeed as Origen hath well noted upon that Law Orig. ho. 7 in Esai 22. that they that enquire of the dead A daemonihus quaerunt qui moâ—tui sunâ— Dâ—o i. Nâ—cromancers that enquâ—re of the dead do consult with Devils who are dead to God CHAP. XIV That the Commemoration of the dead in the prayers of the Church was intended principally to set forth the Immortality of their soules IF it be enquired to what end or purpose the ancient Church set up that custome of praying for the soules of men departed it will appear that the chief motive hereunto was to declare the Churches assured belief that the soules of men survived after this life was ended and conrinued in a state of Immortalâ—ty for it cannot appear clearly that the Church had any precept for it or any example in the Scripture and so much is acknowledged by Epiphanius when he wrote against that Aërius who separated from the Church partly because he disliked the custome of praying for the dead and cheifly because Eustatius was preferred to the Bishoprick before Aâ— ius I say Epiphanius Epiph. haer 75. confesseth that the Church performed those rites to the dead Tradiâ—ione à patribus accepâ—aÌ„ i. because the ancient Fathers did so before his time and from them the Church received that custome for saith he Quis poterit Ib. n. 22. statutum matris dissoâ—â—â—re aut legem paâ—ris i. Who can dissolve the statutes of the Church our Mother or the laws of the Fathers and it cannot appear to us what benefit the dead receive by the prayers of the living nor hath the ancient Church fully satisfied us herein for St. Ambrose prayed for the deceased Emperor Theodosius Ambr. de obit Theod. n. 47. whom he then beleeved to be in lumine Sanâ—torum
called his may appear by these passages Christ saith Matth. 25. I was hungry I was naked I was in prison Act. 9. 4. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me when these things were not meant of his own proper and individual person but only of his servants and members which he calleth himself for so he saith Verily in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me So the Apostle saith that 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ was made sin for us when in the same breath it is also affirmed that he knew no sin Both are most true because our sins are his sins by reason of this union as the debt of the principal is also the debt of the Surety So Christ is said to be Rev. 13. 8. slain from the beginning of the world even before he was incarnate because of Abel who was both his member and type Lyranus upon that place saith Lyra. in loc Christus fuit in Abel occisus in prophetis exhonoratus for all the holy Patriarchs and Prophets who dyed before the birth of Christ are his members as well as others who novv live or shall hereafter live untill the end of the world even as we read of that birth Gen. 38. 28. where the hand came out of the Womb before the other parts yet it was a member united to the body as well as the other parts Upon that speech of Christ Matth. 23. How often would I have gathered thee as an hen c Orig. in loc Origen saith Christ in Moses and the Prophets would have gathered them in every age before Upon that passage in Psal 61. 2. From the Aug. in Psal 60. ends of the earth will I cry unto thee Austin asketh this question What one man cryeth from the ends of the Earth And answereth That it is meant of Christ for his Members or Church is that one man And upon that saying of the Psalmist Psal 86. 3. I cry unto thee daily or all the day long that is all the time of the world continuance If question be made how this can be true of any one man Austin Aug. in Ps 85. answereth That it is meant of the body of Christ which groaneth under pressures in all ages this one man is extended unto the end of the world in his Members preceding and succeeding Thus he Finally upon these grounds If it be demanded how any man can be saved seeing man daily transgresseth the Law Our answer is That every true member of Christ doth perfectly perform the Law in that Christ hath done it who is one with his members So if we enquire how Christ could with Justice suffer death who never sinned The answer is That his suffering was just because the sins of his Members or body are his sinnes in that himself and his Members are One for it is as easie to conceive our most innocent Saviour to be justly charged with our sins as to conceive sinful man to be justly discharged of all sin and to be truly called righteous even the righteousnesse of God in him Thus much I have thought fit to premise as an Introduction and a needful Preparative for the reading of these Books All which I humbly submit to the Judgment of Superiors and to the serious consideration of the Christian Reader THE Principal Contents of the four Books following In the first Book THe Authors and spreaders of the Arian or Socinian heresie Why the title Saint was of old withdrawn from Churches That the most high God is the Author of the Gospel That the soules of men and women never dye The article of Christs descent into hell is expounded The Original of Creeds and what hath been added to the most ancient of them and why The meaning of the word Hades or hell A full discourse of Ecstasies Raptures Inspirations Revelations and Enthusiasmes Of the apparitions of dead men Of Angels good and bad which conduct the soules of the dead to their receptacles and mansions in the other world A Summary of the blasphemies contained in the said Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrewes In the second Book THat to deny and renounce the Godhead of Christ is the sin against the holy Ghost The sin against the holy Ghost is fully described The eternall Godhead of Jesus Christ is fully proved The deniers of Christ's Godhead are of no better religion then Jewes Turks or Antichrist Of the Deification of Jesus Christ and how it is to be understood The manner how Christ doth intercede and mediate for us in Heaven The Subjection and Minoration of Christ and the delivering up of his Kingdome at the end of the world expounded out of 1 Cor. 15. A plain discovery of Originall sin On what Object the Christian is to fix his mind in prayer How the most high God became a Priest Why the Church of England required adoration when the Lord Jesus is named That Christ is Jehova and what that word signifieth In the Third Book THat the most high God was incarnate How and when the most high God appeared visibly to the Patriarchs and the mystery thereof unfolded The meaning of the face and backparts of God The everlasting Covenant of Grace made before the Creation and after is plainly set forth How the Son of God was necessitated to be incarnate and to suffer death That the Obedience of Christ is with perfect justice and equity imputed to his mysticall Body the Church for the salvation thereof The Originall of the Soul of Christ and of other mens souls is disputed The Omnipresence of the Spirit of God and the diversities of the graces thereof The curing of the Kings Evill by the Kings of England and the Scripturall warrant for the same In the Fourth Book IN what cases the sinne against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable or pardonable is fully shewed The dangerous sin of Anabaptism is shewed by evidence of Scripture with the History of the ancient Anabaptists The reasons why the ancient Christians did defer Baptism till ripe years or old age shewed to be carnall The reason why St. Paul commanded those to be baptized who had been baptized before with St. John Baptists baptism Acts 19. A plain description what true repentance is The meaning of Sins unto death and sins not unto death 1 John 5. 16. The meaning of sins Mortall and Veniall so oft mentioned in the Fathers In what cases sinners must be prayed for and in what not shewed out of 1 John 5. 16. OBSERVATIONS UPON THE COMMENTARY ON The Epistle to the HEBREWES published under the Capital Letters G. M. Anno Dom. 1646. CHAP. I. The Original and growth of the Arian Heresie THe blasphemous heresie of denying the Godhead of Jesus Christ began early and after 〈◊〉 was first broached by one a Euseb hist l. â— â— 28. 〈◊〉 c. 20. 〈◊〉 as Eusebius and Niâ—eph have written and after him 〈◊〉 seconded by his disâ—â—ple â—â—â—odotus who was an 〈◊〉 of
word there used is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so again when Christ shewed himself to St. Paul in the Temple Act. 22. 17. he was in a trance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now an exstasie or trance is as St. Austin describes it Cum abripitur animi intentio Aug. de Gen. ad lâ—t l. 12. c. 6. Ibid. c. 21. n. 69. à sensibus i. When our soul is elevated and taken off from the use and management of our bodily senses and is actuated inlightened by the Spirit of God or some Angel So the same Father saith again Bono Spiriâ—u assumitur anima hominis cum in somnis futura videt sic Aâ—gelus apparet Joseph in somnis i. When in our sleep things to come are revealed to us our soul is taken and informed by some good spirit as Joseph was by an Angel Matth 2. 13. And so also Prosper saith Ecstasis est cum mens aliqua inspiratime assumitur i. An Ecstasie is when Prosper in Psal 115. n 46. our soul is wholly taken up and imployed by some inspration And St. Bisil saith That when we read that the Basil in Ps 28. hom 5. Word of the Loâ—d came to the Prophets we are not tâ— think so grosly as if God uttered vocal and audible sounds or words to them but that he informed and instructed their soules by a more divine way of illumination though something like as we in our ordinary dreams do imagine we hear voices and discourses of men and see our friends or such like when they are but the imaginations of our brain St. Austin Aug. Epist 101. doth very fitly resemble them thus Non erant voces corporâ—ae exâ—rinsecùs sed quales apud nos tacitè transâ—urrimus memoriâ—â—r vel canâ—ando i. e. When the Word of the Lord came to a Prophet it was not any outward corporeal voice but in such a way as we use when silently in our minds and by our memories we discourse with our selves inwardly as in running over a businesse or an Oration or a song which men usually do onely by thoughts though our tongue never move and just so doth the holy Poâ—t Prudentius describe St. Prudent in hamartig p. 187. John's Revelation Corporeus Johannes adhuc nec carne solutus Secedenie anima non discedente videbaâ— St. John saw the Revelation when his soul was not out of his body but retired to it self from the use â—o the body and St. Basil tells us Si nos viveremus animâ Basil hom Divers 3. n. 11. nudâ sine carnis velamentis cogitationes cognosceremus nunc verbis opus est i. When our soules have put off the garments of our flesh then they shall understand one another by thoughts as now men do by words And St. Austin is of the same judgment Tunc patebunt Aug. de Civ l. 22. c. 29. cogitationes invicem i. That our pure spirits shall perceive and converse with one another by thoughts Now when our soules are so ecstatically retired from our bodies as that they do not so much as contemplate the Phantasmes as their object then are they in a fit posture to converse with the Divine Spirit of God or those immaterial and heavenly spirits the holy Angels and when our soules are so elevated then such visions or revelations as are presented to our minds are as evident to us as if they had been sensibly presented to our eyes or eares and thus St. Hieromâ— Hier proaem in Esai n. 33. saith That the holy Prophets were instructed in their Prophecies by God in such câ—stâ—sies and by Angels also for that which we read Zach. 2. 3. The Angel that talked with me in St. Hier. it is thus read Angelus qui loquebatur in me i. The Angel which spâ—ke in me and Terâ—ullian saith Ecstasis est qua Propheâ—ia Constat i. e. Tertul. de anima c. 21. Prophâ—cie doth coâ—sist in ecstasie and in the Primitive times of the Church before the ordinary gift of Prophetical Revelations was ceased St. Cyprian tells us Impletur apud nos Spiritu sancto puerorum innocens Cyp. l. 3. Epist 14. n. 71. aetas quae in ecstasi vidit oculis audit loquitur ea quibus nos Dominus monere dignatur i. With us children in their innocent age see and hear in ecstasies and declare to us suâ—h things as God doth vouchsase to admonish us of and St. Austin doâ—bteth not to call that Aug. de Gen. cap. 5. l. 6. wonderful sleep of Adam when the rib was taken out of him an ecstasie or divine â—apture Deus misit ecstasin in Adam evigilabâ—â— plenus Prophetiae inirans in curiam angeloâ—um i. e. God sent an ecstasie upon Adam he awaked full of Prophecy entring into the Court of angels and therefore Origen reckons Orig. in Cant. ho. 2. Adam amongst the Prophets Now when such ecstasies were brought upon men by God or good Angels from him the person so illuminated was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if evil Angels invaded 2 Tim. 3. 16. and actuated mens minds then their ejaculations were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ethusiasmes because they proceeded from Satan the heathens god by which spirit the Oracles of the heathens gave answers in Pythonists and that spirit it was which spake in men possessed with an evil spirit so that many times when the Priest was in an extatical fury or madnesse he knew not what the evil spirit spake in him or her just as men possessed did not know what they said or did such persons were by the Church called â—nergâ—menâ— daemoniâ—â—â— that is such as were acted and wrought upon by evil spirits and therefore Tertullian translates this Tert. de anima c. 21. word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amentia madnesse they knowing no more what they said then that Serpent in which the devil spake when he tempted Eve For whereas the Spirit of God in divine exstasies did wonderfully enlighten holy Prophets who were therefore called Videntes i. Seâ—rs contrarily the spirit of Satan did mostly darken the minds of his Prophets and Demoniacks so that they perceived nothing of what their lips uttered and therefore Justin Martyr said of Justin lib. 1. ext n. 6. such Sibylla non intelligunt quae dicunt i. These Prophâ—â—â—sses do not understand what themselves prophâ—sie and Origen saith Pythia furit nec sui compos est dum promit Orig. cont Cels l. 7. n. 36. 〈◊〉 i. The Pythonisse is mad when she uttereth the Oraclâ—s and therefore such are commonly called Arrepâ—iâ—iâ— men forcibly snatcht and used but as an instrument by the evil spirit and the same Origâ—n tells Orig. Peri Arc. l. 3. c. 3. Hier. in vita Hilarion n. 10. us that Magicians would cause young Children to pronounce Poems which they never learned and St. Hierome writes of one Orionus a Demoniack in whom the evil spirit spake with many several voices at the same
â—â—tu i. that he was in the light of God and company of Saints and St. Austin prayed thus for his godly Aug. Confes l. 9. c. 13. Mother deceased Pro peccatis matris mea deprecor te Deus demitâ—e illi debita sua c. i. I beseech thee O God for the sins of my Mother that thou wouldst forgive her and yet immediatly he saith Credo jam feceris quod rogo i I beleeve thou hast alreadâ—y done what I now pray for Notwithstanding the Church did so pray and Epiphanius gives this reason why the names of the dead were Epiph. hae 75. mentioned in the Church-prayers Quia hoc magis fuerit utile quid commodius quod credunt praesentes quòd bi qui decesserunt vivunt non sunt nulli i. What can be more profitable to the living then to be assured that the dead persons commemorated do still live and that they are not annihilated So we see the Church had other reasons which moved them so to commemorate the dead though the deceased received no benefit thereby As 1. To commend unto the living and in their mindes to preserve the wholesom doctrine of our Souls immortality 2. Their prayers did challenge the performance of Gods promises to those deceased who had lived and died in the Lord as is declared Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord saith the Spirit 3. For the coâ—solation of the living the Priest declared that the sins of such holy men which had lived and died in the faith of Christ were forgiven 4. The Church gave thanks for their departure to rest as acknowledging the mercy of God by which they were saved and not by their own merits Some Divines think that when St. Paul prayed for Onesiphorus The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day 2 Tim. 1. 18. that Onesiphorus was at that time dead because in the end of the Epistle in the salutations there is no mention of Onesiphorus but of his familie only 2 Tim. 4. 19. And because there is no state or condition of men in this life though never so sinful which excludeth them from the benefit of being prayed for therefore some Expositors have thought that when St. John said There is a sin unto death I do not say he shall pray for it 1 Joh 5. 16. his meaning is that such an one who liveth and dieth in a soul-destroying sin such as shall in this book afterwards be discovered without repentance for such a mans prayers are unprofitable and vaine not excluding others that die in the Lord to be commemorated in the prayers of the living as Onesiphorus before mentioned and in that sense as is before said and this is St. Heromes exposition in his objurgatory Hier 10. 9. Epiad Evang. Epistle to Evangius if it be his own and so also saith the interlineal glosse with Lyra. St. Austin being hard put to it to give an account why the Church prayed for the dead and what benefit the dead had by the prayers of the living by the questions of Dulcitius and Paulinus confesseth most inge Aug. lib. de Cur promortâ— c. 1. nuously that the dead can have no benefit at all by our prayers here except by their good life they were capable of good before their death and again he saith Because the Church knoweth not unto what dead men Aug. ib. c. 17. her prayers are profitable therefore she prayeth pro omnibus regeneratis i. for all the regenerate that none may be omitted CHAP. XV. That the Fathers did not beleeve that Souls departed were insensible as if they were dead or asleep because the Saints departed do pray for the Church Militant as the Fathers thought HAving shewed before what the Church Militant did here below for the Triumphant part above it would now be considered what the Triumphant Church above doth for us that are on earth in the judgement of the Fathers The ancient Church were so far from thinking that our souls died with our bodies that they affirme and verily beleeve that the souls of holy men departed and being in rest did pray for the Church on earth for so St. Hierom tels us the Saints deceased pray for the living Hier. Epist 53. n. 17. for they that had so much charity on earth as to pray even for their enemies and persecutors much more will they now in heaven pray for the Church St. Paul is not lesse charitable after his departure then he was before and so he wished Heliodorâ—â— that if he died before Hier. Eipst 1. n. 1. Hierom to pray for him when he was in heaven so likewise he desireth a Id. Epist 27. n. 7. Principia and b Id. Epist exeg 140. n. 30 Paula to remember him when they are in heaven And St. Ambrose professeth c Amb. de fide Resur n. 30. That he expecteth the intercession of his brother Satyrus deceased for the speedier deliverance out of the miseries of this life and that he hoped the godly Emperour d Id. de Obit Theod. n. 47. Theodosius departed did yet pray to God for his surviving Children and that the dead Emperor e Id. de Obit Valent. n. 46. Gratian did pray for his brother Valentinian Of the same Judgment is St. Chrysostom f Chrys ser de uno Legisl to 6. n. 55. for he doubteth not to affirm that the Martyrs and Prophets Apostles deceased do actually pray for the living and before him St. Cyprian in his life-time contracted with Cornelius g Cyp. l. 1. Epist 1. Qui prior è vita discesserit oret pro sratribus i. That which of them should first dye must pray for the survivers and in an Epistle written to some Martyrs who were very speedily to suffer death for Christ he desireth †Cyp. ad Marty n. 98. Naz. Orat. 24. them to be mindful of him when they were in the honour of Martyrs with the Lord. Greg. Naz. tells us that Athanasius though deceased yet as he was perswaded did still help and assist the Church and that his friend St. Basil deceased and now in heaven yet Naz. Orat. 20. even there poured out prayers for the people And of his reverend old father deceased who had been a long time Bishop of Nazianzum he saith That he doubteth Id. Orat. 19. not but though he were in heaven yet the same Pastoral care which he had on earth remaineth still with him and now that he is approached nearer to God he doth more good for that flock by his prayers in heaven then he could do by his doctrine on earth This is enough to shew what the Fathers thought of the Immortality of the soules of men and the same opinion was so generally received of Christian people in those dayes that as St. Chrysostome reporteth they Chrys Ser. 4. de Laz. n. 42. would commonly boast that they should
expâ—cted in this life for against this thorn in the flesh did this Apostle pray â— but it was answered My Gâ—â—ce iâ— sufficient That 2 Cor. 12. 7. is no other deliverance may be had but power by grace to resist this temptation yet not so much power as to annihilate and quite extinguish it in this life If it be here objected that the Holy Scriptures acknowledge Gen. 6. 9. Job 1. 1. Luke 1. 5. some persons just and righteous and perfect ones as Job and Noah and Zecharie the answer is that this perfection doth not imply impeccancie or impeccability for such just men fall seven times Prov. 24. 16. Noah was just but it is said there in his generation such may be called perfect Travellers but not perfect Possessors having not yet finished their course so a child is called perfect which hath all his limbs and lineaments compleat yet is far from a perfect man and a perfect man is yet far short of Angelicall perfection Men are called just who are not Aug. de natura Grat. â— 38. free from sin Justi suâ—runt sine peccato non suerunt That this truth hath been ever acknowledged by the Church may appear in that the Apostle saith â—f we say we havë no sin we deceive our selves civitas 1 Joh. 1. 8. Dei oâ—atâ— dimiâ—te nobis debiâ—a the universall Church in the time of prayer saith Forgive us our trespasses Indeed Aug. de Civit l. 19. c. 22. De peccat merito l. 2. c. 6. S. Austin confesseth That a man may sometime live without acting a sin yet that any mortall man can be without sin he denyeth For when the Pelagians urged that the Virgin Mary was without sin he desired to be excused from all accusation of that Blessed Mother of our Lord God yet he was assured that all Saints on earrh would submit to that speech of Ambr. de Jacob l. 1. c. 6. Hier. ad Ctesiphon cap. 5. Id. Cont Pelag l. 2. cap. 8. Saint Iohn If we say we have no sin c. Sainâ— Ambrose saith Non glâ—riâ—r quia justus sum sâ—d quia redemptus not glorying in Justice but in Justification St. Hierom saith men are called just not because they are without sin but because they are endowed with many vertues as Ezechias was a just man though he sinnâ—d and wept he did not lose the repute of a just man for some sins but he retained it because withall he performed many just and worthy actions besides a man is â—steemed righteous when his unâ—ighteousnesse is forgiven as he is â—steemed with God a performer of the Law whose transgrâ—ssions are pardoned Omnia Aug. Retract 1. c. 19. mandata facta deputanâ—ur quando quiâ—quid non fit ignosciâ—ur Now that the rebellion of flesh and blood or concupiscâ—nce doth contâ—nually dwell in all mankind during this life may clearly appear in the Holy Person of Saint Paul by his own words for thus he writes Rom. 7. 19. The goâ—d that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do f we inquire what evill it is which the Apostle would not do and yet did it it must needs be answered that evill concupiscences or carnall lusts did arise in him which he desired to be quit of and free from that they might not all be in him but because evill concupiscences will ever be in mortal men therefore his next care is that such desires may be râ—sisted so that they proceed not into action as he saith Rom. 6. 12. Let not sin reign in your mortall body that ye should obey iâ— in the lusts thereof he doth not say let it not be for it will alwaies be in us but let it not rule and pâ—evail over Grace So Gala. 5 16. wâ—lk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh he doth say ye shall not have those lusts but not fulfill and peâ—form them and ver 17. Ye cannot do the thing that ye would that is because ye cannot as you desire be free and quit from evill desires so as no evill desires at all should arise in you yet resist them do not obey them Tene Aug. de Verb. Dei ser 43. manus pedes ocuâ—oâ— c. withhold your members from acting those carnal suggestions Where he saith What I hate that I do We are not Rom. 7. 15. to imagine that the Apostle meaneth that although he hated fornication adultery rapine c. yet he did act these things but he meaneth that he hated evill lusts which yet did continually arise in him he desired they might not all be in him Nolo concupiscere tamen conâ—upisco O â—i tamen Aug. de verbis Apost ser 5. ago quamvis membraâ—â—eneo arma nego So himself adviseth Rom. 6. 13 Yâ—â—ld not your members as iâ—st â—ments of unrighteousness Although sinfull desires arise in Id de Temp. Ser. 45. your carnall heart Rebellant râ—bella pugnant pugna This is the strife betwen the flesh and the spirit he did continually resist those temptations Luctabatur noâ— Id. ibid. subjugâ—baâ—ur alwayes strâ—ving with them but not overcome by them Rom 8. 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God Though holy men are in the flesh yet because they are not over-ruled by the flesh they do please Id. de verbis Apost Ser. 6. God Carnem portant sed non pâ—rtantur ab â—a Where he saith Rom. 7. 25. With the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sin We are not to think that the naturall mind or intellective faculty of this Apostle was free from carnall concupiscence for by nature our whole man body and soul is carnall but the mind here signifieth his understanding reformed and renued by the Spirit of God for the very naturall spirit or mind of man needeth â— renuing by the Spirit of Grace as himself saith Ephes 4. 23. Bâ— râ—nued in the Spirit of your mind When he saith Rom. 7. 17. It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me His meaning is not to excuse himself so as if he were without sin and blameless But that his Spirituall part or in ward man did detest that which his carnall part or outward man did suggest Just so doth this Apostle ascribe his holy and spirituall actions not to himself but to the Grace of the Spirit as 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more then they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me So 1 Cor. 7. 10. I command yet not I but the Lord. So again Gal. 2. 20. The conclusion is that The Son himself that is to say Christ as he is considered with the plenitude of his Mysticall Body and so is the Whole Christ cannot be perfectly subject and obedient to the Godhead untill this mortall hath put on immortality and our naturall body be raised a Spirituall body when
God but now incarnate of whom Esay spake Rom. 14. 11. As it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me So that the saying of the Psalmist Psalm 97. 7. Worship him all ye gods is applied to Christ Heb. 1. 6. Let all the Angels of God worship him Neither doth the Scripture set forth this great truth onely by words but also by the visible type of the Iewish Tabernacle and Temple to teach the people of Israel where they should profitably seek and find that God whom they were appointed to worship and therefore God confined them to perform their worship of him at the Tabernacle or Temple lest they like other Nations should set up a God of their own invention or worship the host of Heaven seeing men naturally desire either a sensible object of their adoration or at least will fancie such an one in their brain The Israelites not yet weaned from idolatry before the Tabernacle was erected made a Calf or Oxe to worship just as they had seen the Aegyptians worship before the like figure in memory of Ioseph as Aug. de Mir. scrip l 1. n. 74. Ruff. 6. n. some thought who had preserved them by corn in the Famine because that beast doth usually work in Tillage and because in after-times the Jewes abhorred image-worship not admitting any such Statues in their Temple Therefore the Heathens thus usually twitted them Incerti Iudaea Dei And Iuvenal saith Lucan l. 2. Juv. sat 14. of them Quidam sortiti metuâ—ntem Sabbata Patrem Nil praeâ—er nubâ—s coeli numen adorant i. That either it was uncertain what God they worshipped or that they worshipped nothing but the Clouds or Heaven For the Heathens used to set up visible images before which they performed their adoration not intending to worship the Images terminativè or finally as our Commenters word is but they worshipped them just so as the Commenter saith Christ was worshipped For they terminated their worship in their gods whom they thought to be assistant and present in those images as Arnobius affirms from Arnob. l. 6. n. 115. the mouths of Heathens Nos nec aera nec auri argentive maâ—eâ—ias Deos esse decâ—â—nimus sed cos in hiâ— colimus quos dedicatio infert efficit inhaebitare simuâ—a hris i. We Heathens do not worship the brass or silver or gold image but we worship those gods which by Dedication-Charmes are invited and brought to inhabit the Images So Saint Augustine alleadgeth Aug. de Civ l. 8. c. 23. Trismegistus affirming that Images were as the bodies of their gods and that the spirit was by Art Magick invited to reside in them Simulachrum Id. ib. c. 26. pro corpore Daemon pro anima est i. The image was the body and a Spirit was the soul within it For so indeed Heathens used to do when they had made an image to represent their god they made a Ceremonious Vide Macrob. Satur. l. 3. c. 9. de evocatione Deorum Dedication of it to that god and so inviting him by Charms and Magicall Conjurations to shew himself to be present in that image as Conjurers they say have had the evill Spirit in a ring or boxe And this is diverse times affirmed by Origen the manner whereof is partly touched in the Story of the Dedication of Nebuchadnezzars image For the Devill apishly imitating God indeavoured to set up his own worship in such a manner as God hath appointed for himself For Psalm 96. 5. Dii Gentium Daemonia i. The gods of the Gentiles are Devils Therefore as God manifested his presence in the Tabernacle and Temple where the Israelites were required to worship God so the Devill manifested his presence in Idols and Idoll-Temples that so he also might be there worshipped and this appeareth by what we reade of Heathen Oracles and the Images of Iuno and Fortune which uttered words as Lactantiüs sheweth out of Valerius Lact de falf Relig. lib. 2. n. 6. CHAP. XIII The Godhead of Christ further proved from the typicall Tabernacle and Temple IT will not be impertinent to this business in hand to inquire why God confined the Jewish worship to the Tabernacle and Temple as it is manifest he did for Levit. 17. 3 4. the Israelites are required upon pain of death to bring their sacrifices to the doore of the Tabernacle So the publick Passeover is to be sacrificed onely in the place which the Lord shall chuse Deut. 12. 5. and what place that is we finde set down 2 Sam. 7. 13. The house that Solomon the sonne of David shall build and this building was performed by him 1 King 8. 20. and God declared his acceptation of that House or Temple 2 Chron. 7. 12. The Lord appeared to Solomon and said unto him I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to my self for an house of sacrifice Now the reason why the Israelites were confined to perform their worship in this place was because God would keep them in a perpetuall memory and confession of the Messiah to be incarnate of whole incarnation both the Tabernacle and the Temple were but Figures or Types Templum erat figura Corporis Dominici Aug. de Trin. l. 4. c. 5. saith Augustine i. The Temple was the Figure of our Lords Body for as God did manifestly shew his presence in the Tabernacle and Temple by a cloud and the Glory of the Lord filled both as we reade Exodus 40. 34. and 1 Kings 8. 10. So did he in the Body of Christ by his great Miracles Deus erat in Aug. de Consens Evang. n. 86. Templo Vâ—rbum caro factum i. When the Word was made flesh God was there as n his Temple So that the prudent and religious sort of Israeites in the Typicall Tabernacle and Temple did indeed worship their god who as yet was but Typically incarnate for the Tabernacle did represent an humane body Philo and Josephus both of them Jewes by birth and religion called the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos Ant l. 3. c. 4. Phil. de vit Mosis l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. A moveable and a portable Temple as a mans body is the covering of it was with skins as mens bodies are covered Exodus 26. 14. and with Curtains as mens bodies are with Garments and it represented the Body of Christ Ath. Orat. 5. cont Ar. n. 4. Corpus Domini ist Amiculum saith Athanasius i. The Body of our Lord was the Garment of God And the two great Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul in allusion hereunto call their own bodies Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5. 1. and 2 Peter 1. 14. Hence it is no doubt that so often mention is made of worshipping towards the Temple of Jerusalem Psalme 5. 7. and 138. 2. I will worship toward thy holy Temple and Psalme 29. 2. Worship the Lord in the beautie of Holynesse that is in his glorious
of God the Son and the reason and purpose why he was Incarnate THe Mysterie of the Incarnation of God is frequently in Scripture set forth unto us when the Saviour promised is said to be the seed of the woman the seed of Abraham Emmanuel the Son of David the Word made flesh taking the form of a servant and most evidently of all Heb. 2. 14 taking part of the same flesh and blood with us men And yet this commenter tels us that Christ can not be said to be Incarnate 31. c. 2. v. 14. though both of them are confessed to partake of flesh and blood a bould assertion but false and dull untheological unphilosophical for here are two Propositions both false and one of them blasphemous also I. The faithful are not Incarnate Faithfulnes or unfaithfulnes doe not hinder Incarnation the question must be whether a man may be said to be Incarnate if every man prove Incarnate then must Christ also be so for he is a perfect man and more also a very smal matter will give a denomination a man that hath but a gowne on his back is denominated Tâ—gatus and shall not he who hath an immortal soule united with his flesh be called incarnate to be incarnate is to be in Carne i in the flesh I hope you will not denie that the soule of a man whilest it is in the bodie may be said to be Incarnate the soule of a man can exist without the body and is seperable and when it shall be parted from the body then it is Discarnated but when it is joyned with the body who will doubt to say it is incorporated or incarnated now from the Incarnation of this principal and essential part of man the whole man is said to be Incarnate S. Paule knew a man whether in the body or out the body he could not tell 2 Cor. 12. 2. surely a man in the body may be called Incorporate and so Incarnate and Gal. 2. 20. the life which I now live in the flesh S. Paule saith he lived in the flesh in Corne therfore he thought himself incarnate againe Phil. 1. 22. If I live in the flesh abide in the flesh is more needful for you S. Paule is one of the faithfull and he confessed that he lived abode in the flesh therfore he was in Carne incarnate I never read that a beast is called incarnate because the body and soule of a beast cannot both exist if seperated as mans soule and body doe therfore the fathers spake of them as of two distinct men Care anima duo homines exterior interior Amb. de Inst veig l. 2. n. 35. Naz. Epist 94 n. 38. Ath. de Incar n. 23. Tert. de anim c. 9. Mens cujusque is est quisque Tul in Som. Scip. Ro. 7. 14. 1 Cor. 2. 14. i. the soule and the body two men the outward and the inward man Apud nos Philosophus Anima vocantur externus internus homo i. The Philosopher with his soule are called by us the outward and the inward man just so saith Athanasius and Tertullian although he went too far in saying the soul was corporeal If any the soule a man be denominated Animatus shall he not as well from his flesh be called Carnatus I am sure in Scripture a man is called both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animalis because he hath some of the natural inclinations of soule and body in him not wholly subdued by the Spirit If wee will speak strictly and properlie Incarnation must principally be said of the Soule because that part of us in its owne nature is incorporeal but being joyned with the flesh becomes Incarnate it seemes by Moses description of the Creation Gen. 2. 7. that the body of man was framed before the soule was insufflated and both Orâ—gen and divers Philosophers before him thought that the soule was more ancient then the bodie and they called the body the sepulcher and Theod. de div decret l. 5. n. 17. Ambr. Epist l. 4. n. 53. id in Hex l. 6. c. 6. Tert. de anim prison of the Soul and the Christian writers said of it to the like purpose one calleth it Tunicam Pelliceam Adami and againe Caro est amictus animae and another cals it Domum animae and another vestimentum animae and saith that the soule is but inquilinus corporis i. the body is the coat of skin the apparel the howse of Chrys ho. 5. Antioc the soule and the soule is but a temporary inmate of the body the departure of the soule is like the putting off the apparrel of the body the 2. souldier-martyrs in id Epist ad Olymp. n. 39. Chrysostome calleth their bodies Indusium ultimum i. the innermost garment of the soule and of the holy woman Olympics he said That she was more ready to put of her body for Christ then others were to put of their apparel wherfore as when our naked bodyes are invested with garments they are said to be apparrelled so our souls clothed with our flesh are said to be Incarnate the Apostle describes the reuniting of our souls and bodies at the resurrection by this phrase of putting on immortalitie then I think no Christian will denie that when our souls after a long discontinuance from our flesh shall be restored and reunited with our bodies they may be said to be Incarnate or re Incarnate and the same kind of reasoning will much more prove the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus against the Commenters second proposition viz. 2. Christ the Captaine of the faithfull is not Incarnate Because the Ingredients of which our Jesus the Emmanuel is Composed are two viz. the divine nature or Godhead and the humane nature or manhood and because one of these ingredients I meane the Godhead had a real and seperate being by it self without flesh and without a body from all Eternitie before the creation of the world and because the same divine nature in the fulnes of time did assume an humane body and so partake of our flesh and blood I may now well say that our God is Incarnate because he is in carne in the flesh so that his Godhead and manhood are as the principles and ingredients of one Compound for they are but one person one Christ one Emmanuel because that divine nature which before had bin entire and single by it self is now joyned with another inferior nature the Scripture expresseth the mysterie in this phrase Joh. 1. 14. The word was made flesh he saith the word rather then the Son because the word signifieth his pure Godhead but the Son may also signifie his humane nature and that alone too for if Christ were nothing but a mere man yet hee might be called the Son but he could not be called the Word This is that which in Scripture is called God manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. and Christ is
our whole Man in our Redemption Thus having said so much concerning this question I submit the determination thereof to the Judicious Reader onely adding this that if Christ did indeed take not onely his Body but the whole man by traduction from Adam we may most comfortably entertain a more evident and reasonable Argument of the Redemption both of our bodies and soules by him because hereby we may conceive our selves to be joyned and united unto Christ in a more noble tie then onely in our flesh that as he hath communicated his Divine Spirit to Man as is shewed before so our humane Spirit is communicated to him CHAP. XV. That the Spirit of God is communicated to the unregenerate and of the diversitie of the Measures and the graces therof IN the next place I am to shew how the Spirit of God is said to be communicated to men unregenerate as I promised before and this because many men are apt to beleeve that to have the Spirit of God is a grace proper and peculiar only to those that are the the Sanctified holy ones but the contrarie will appeare a none for a man may have Gods Spirit in him yea and divers common gifs and graces of that Spirit and yet remaine unsanctified and void of vertue and holines Aug. de beat vita n. 16. S. Austin saith Omnis homo deum habet nec tâ—mâ—n omnis beatus est i. every man hath God in him and yet every man is not in a state of blessednes so there is in every man a natural goodnes for every creature is good and where goodnes is there is God though this natural bonitie may be mixed with a great deale of moral pravitie and the same Spirit of God worketh in all men but yet to several purposes and with several Naz. Orat. 44. operations and in diverse degrees Spiritas spirat quando vult super quos vult quantum vult i The Spirit bloweth when it will and on whom it will so much as it will and though the Spirit of God be alwayes in man yet men doe not alwayes perceive it Aug. Confes. lib. 9. c. 4. Id. n. 88. or consider it S. Austin confessed Christus miserat spiritum in me Ego nesciebam i Christ had sent his Spirit into me and I knew it not and againe he saith â—git Spiritus Domini per bonos malos per Scientes nescientes ut per Caipham i The Spirit of the Lord worketh by good and bad by men that know it and by men that know it not as it did by Caiphas Men may have the Spirit of God and Operations of that Spirit in them and some graces also of that Spirit and yet those graces possibly shall not be operative so high as to Sanctification neither are they such high graces as divines call Gratum facientes But yet graces they are for grace is but a free gift and therfore is it called grace because it is Gratis data i freely given There may be grace in those persons who are not therby rendered favourable gracious or acceptable in Gods sight for even our natural endowments and temporal blessings and our very Creation rightly considered will appeare to be an act of Gods grace and therfore men do usually give thanks to God for their very Creation This doctrine of the great variety of graces and workings of Gods Spirit is most evidently set forth 1 Cor. 12. There are diversities of gifts and diversities of operations but the same Spirit the same Lord the same God And you may find mention of many graces there which are not saving or sanctifying graces but are Common even to reprobates as knowledge healing prophecie toungs c. Which wee know may be and are found in men not Sanctified even the knowledg and skill of manual arts are the operations of Gods Spirit in man which no divine will say are saving or sanctifying graces as wee read of Bâ—zaleel Ex. 35. 31. That he was filled with the Spirit of God in wisedome and in all manner of workmanship to devise Curious workes and to worke in Gold Silvâ—â— and brass Philosophers use to say If heaven stood still man could not move so much as his litle finger but surely if God were not Primus Motor in us to be as the soule of our soules we could not live or move and though God be in man and operateth in him yet his operations are diversified by divers degrees in some he worketh but weakly and low in others higher and stronger even to produce holines and happines but though the Spirit of God be in every man yet this Spirit is not a Sanctifier in every man as he is not Paracletus i a Comforter in every man this doctrine hath bin taught of old by the ancients Deus in est multiformiter Richard de S. Vict. de Trin. l. 2. c. 23. secundum participationem Gratiae aliis per participationem potentiae aliis vita aliis sapientiae aliis bonitatis aliis beatitudinis imanum suam parcius vel largius extendens i God is in us by distributing his graces in great diversitie some partake of power some of life only others have wisdome others goodnes others blessednes for so doth he open his hand more or less as he pleaseth The Spirit of God in Scripture is often resembled to water because as the same water falling from heaven in raine upon several Creatures produceth in them great diversitie and varietie of effects Aqua in spiâ—is alba in rosis rubra in Cyril Hieroâ— n. 18. hyacinthis purpurea i The same raine in the thorne produceth a white flower on the rose bush a red and on the hyacinth a purple Colour So doth the Spirit produce diversitie of effects in men so againe Aqua in Aug. de Mirab. script l. 1. c. 18. vite vinum â—it in apibus mel in Oliva olâ—um i Water in the vine is made wine in the Olive tree Oyl in bees honie in man blood teares c. And the like illustration is used by Epiphanius Chrysost To shew Epiph. in Ane Chrys ho. 4. Antioch that the same Spirit of the same God in some mea produceth but life or understanding in others it produceth those effects and more also as wisdome judgment counsel in others more also as faith hope charitie fortitude even to martyrdome and to blessednes the effect of Gods Spirit in Samson was seen eminently in his great strength in Solomon it was great wisdome in Moses mâ—eknes in the Prophets foresight all these are gifts of one and the same Spirit though in such great varietie and when the Scripture mentioneth divers Spirits as Esa 11. 2 Rev. 1 4 It meaneth severall gifts and graces of one and the same Spirit wee may observe that Elisha 2 Kings 2. 9. did not pray for two Spirits but duplex Spiritus that the same Spirit of Eliah might be doubled on him that is increased
externallie some one act wherby that inward grace was shewed as namely by that one gift of healing mentioned 1 Coâ— 12. 9. Of which I spake in the former chapter I trust it will not be denied to be as it is called v 7. A manifâ—station of the Spirit And for this I shall instance in another heathen Prince who was of no better religion then Cyrus was and that is Vespâ—tian the Roman who in the raigne of Nero and before he was Emperor was imploied in the execution of divine vengeance on the rebellious * vide Paulum Oros lib. 7. c. 1. Iewâ—s and the citie of Ierusalem and for that service it may with great pobabilitie be thought that God gave him the Roman Empiâ—e for his reward as he gave Nebuchaduezzar the Kingdome of Egypt for his service against Tyrâ— as we read Ezâ—ch 29. 18. And that the Empi e was the gift of God to him it seemeth to me probable because it was Prophetically foretold unto him by Iosephus the learned Jew who was then a pâ—â—iâ—t unto whom God had revealed both Vespatian's advancement and also the destruction of the Iewish nation God having appeared to Joseph de bel jud l. 2. lib. 7. him in his sleepe as himself relateth and withall confessed that he feared God was offended with him for labouring to save his nation when he knew God had decreed their 〈◊〉 for this reason I think I may call the said Veâ—â—â—tian Gods anointed as being so cleerly designed by God to that empire and also for that as an effect of his unction Tacâ—us Dion Suetonius doe Tac. hist l. 4. c. 19. Suet. in vesp c. 7. Dion in vesp c. 2. vide Plutarch in vita Pyrrhi p. 384. unanimously report that whilest this Emperor was in Egypt the gift of healing was manifested in him for a blind man was restored to his sight and a lame man was cured by his touch If this prove true in an unregenerate and heathen Prince give me leave good reader a litle to discourse unto thee the like effect of divine unction in a regenerate King the most vertuous and most Christian King this day as I doe firmly beleeve and so doe the greatest number of his subjects in the whole world I meane our owne most gracious King Charles For that the King is Gods anoined was never with us called in question before this sceptick time and God never shewed a greater manifestation of any Kings unction in this nation since the dayes of King Edward the Confessor who was the first of our Kings that by his royal touch cured the disease called the Kings Evil then he hath lately shewed in the person of our most pious and most mercifull King Charles for never were so many in so short a time restored to their health and soundnes as of late by him many hundreds were touched by his sacred hand and as many returned home with health in their bodies and blessings in their soules to their royal physician to the great admiration of many witnesses where of my self am one for to his majesties court at Newmarket Jnue 18. Anno 1647. did I â—end one of my Children a child of 11. yeares old who immediatly before had bin extreamly afflicted and indeed tortured with that disease but having bin there and then touched the next day following he returned home perfectly cured and sound and hath so continued ever since for the space of more then 5 Moneths Blessed be the Lord Jesus who is the author of every good gift and blessed be his anoinred servant in whom his goodnes was so cleerly manifested These things might stop the mouthes of his Majesties most implacable enemies who in print have endeavoured to make the people beleeve that the King is not Gods anointed and might particularly shame them who most unchristianly have called this Gift of healing witchcraft although there is an expresse warrant 1 Cor. 12. 9. for it in the word of God these men without doubt except they repent shall one day be accountable for the sinne of blaspheming God and the King for ascribing that worke to witchcraft and so to Satan which is done both by the Kings hand and with the finger of God assisting his anointed just so did the Pharisees blaspheme Christ when he cast out Satan by the finger of God for they said he cast him out by Belzebub Neither wil it be sufficient to say that the gift of healing was a temporâ—rie grace and now quite expired for it can not be so pâ—oved Gods arme is not shortned for although the ordinarie and frequent use of such divine cures is now abated yet no man can for certaine affirme that the gift is utteriie ceased and for our owne particular case in this kingdome why should we not rather thinke that our merciful God now in these needful times to stop the mouthes of al the enemies of his anointed or at least to leave the obstinate without excuâ—e hath so manifestly shewed and declared him to be indeed his anointed and that these multitudes of Royal cures are as so many lampes manifesting the divine Oile of his unction for so the Royal Pâ—almist bringeth in God â—aying Psal 132. 17. I have ordained a Lamp soâ— mine anointed his enemies will I clothe with shâ—â—â— but upon himself shall his Crowne florish Even so Amen Deus dâ—fendat Opt. lib. 2. Oleum suum Upon himself and his royal posteritie Lord let this Crowne florish as long as the Sun and moone endure CHAP. XVII The Vnion of Christ and his Church further shewed why Christ is called by the names Adam Jacob David Why all mankind was extracted out of One man why S. Austin denied the Antipodes wherin this Vnion consisteth An Explication of Heb. 7. 9. Which was slubbered over by the Commenter touching Melchisedech and Levi. BY what hath bin said the Christian reader I trust doth by this time perceive that our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ with great love justice and equitie did sustaine our person and in our steed and to our behalf did both beare the punishment of our transgressions and also fulfilled the whole law of God for us as our suretie because he was as an Vniversall man in whom all mankind was united The sower leaven of the first Adam had â—owred the whol lump of mankind but the divine Spirit of the second Adam sweetned his whole mystical body for a Spirit us est genitoris Aug. de Trin. l. 6. genitiqae Suavitas i The Spirit is the sweetnes of the Father and the Son and because our true and only God hath assumed both our flesh and our soule also on himself and hath put his Spirit into us therefore he is become one with us mystically and we with him hence it is that Prosper saith Tota ecclesia cum Christo Pâ—osp in I sal 102. capite est unus homo i The whol bodie of the Church with Christ the head is one man
Christ is the Authour or Testator of the Evangelicall Testament and not onely a Witnesse or Martyr as the Commenter would have him Chapter VIII The Immortalitie of the Soules of Men asserted against this Commenter from our Saviours Page 23 words Matthew 22. 32. Luke 23. 43. That the Article of Resurrection is therefore expressed to be said of the body onely because the Soul dieth not which is shewed in Saint Pauls Rapture and Saint Stephens Prayer from Church Writers Philosophers and Physicians observations in Anatomie the Souls mortalitie was the old Arabick Heresie Of the immortalitie of Christs humane Soul and consequently of ours That the Doctrine of the Souls immortalitie is now an Article of the Creed and why this Article was then newly added to the old Creed Chapter IX That the Article of Christs descent was added to Page 26 the old Creed principally to set forth the Immortalitie of the Soul of Christ and so of our souls An examination of the tradition oral and the writing of Creeds The summe of the ancient Doctrine of Faith briefly delivered by Irenaeus and the most Ancient Creed thereunto agreeing recorded by Tertullian Chapter X. That divers additions were made to the old Creed Page 29 occasioned by divers Heresies What the Heresies were and what Articles they occasioned and particularly that the Arabick Heresie denying the Souls immortalitie occasioned the Article of Descent is probably shewed for that it was not any Creed generally received before the death of Saint Austine the Nicene hath it not yet the Athanasian at first had it not nor is it in the symbolicall Hymne called Te Deum A modest censure of the Athanasian symbol and an Observation concerning the multitude of Creeds Chapter XI Of the word Hades which is translated Hell Page 32 that it proves the soules immortalitie in that it signifies a being subsistence or permanencie of the souls of dead men separated from their bodies and residing in a Mansion and Condition invisible to us Mortals That the place and state of souls separated is kept secret from us though the knowledge thereof hath been and is much desired Of Saint Hierom's and Curina's visions and the apparition of Irene deceased Chapter XII A censure of those visions of Saint Hierome and Page 35 Curina by comparing them with the Ecstasies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul mentioned Acts 10. 10. and Acts 22. 17. What an Ecstacie Traunce or Vision is In what manner God spake to the Prophets in visions Of Saint Johns Revelation The difference between Divine Inspirations and prophane Enthusiasmes That the one illuminates the other obtenebrates mens understanding and how such raptures or exstacies do argue and prove the Soules seperabilitie and immortalitie Chapter XIII That the Apparitions of the dead do not prove the Page 39 Souls immortalitie For that they are not really the Soules of men deceased but possibly may be the delusions of Satan assuming the shapes of men Why Necromancy is forbidden Deuteronomie 18. 11. Albeit the dead cannot appear to the living at their desire That the state of Soules seperated is concealed Chapter XIV That the Soules immortalitie is confessed by the Page 41 Church Catholick That the Commemoration of the dead in the Church Litnrgies was principally to set forth the Churches belief of the immortalitie of their Soules For that the dead receive no benefit by the prayers of the living The Opinion of some Divines concerning Saint Pauls prayer for Onesiphorus 2 Timothy 1. 18. and of that saying 1 John 5. 16. of which see a full Exposition in my fourth Book Chapter XV. That the Father's did not believe as the Commenter Page 43 doth that Soules departed are insensible as if they were dead or asleep because the Saints departed do pray for the Church Militant as the Fathers thought Chapter XVI Of the departures of mens soules That their conductors Page 48 and leaders to the other World are Angels good or bad That soules seperated are setled in certain Mansions is shewed by Scriptures and Fathers whereby the permanencie and immortalitie of the soul is clearby proved That all those severall mansions go under the generall appellations of Heaven and Hell Chapter XVII A particular detection of the blasphemies contained Page 51 in the Commentarie which are reduced to these two heads The first shewing the blasphemies against the Godhead of Jesus Christ The second shewing the blasphemies against the Incarnation of God and his gracious work of Redemption CHAP. XVIII The dreadfull consequences of the Commenters Page 51 blasphemies in denying the Godhead of Christ and his great works both of Creation and Redemption That it is much better never to have been born or by death to be annihilated or to perish as the beasts doe then to live and die in these sinnes and to rise to judgement The conclusion of the first Book The Table THE SECOND BOOK Containing an assertion of the Godhead of Jesus Christ against the Commentarie Chapter I. AN introductorie discourse concerning Page 1 the sinne against the Holy Spirit as it is described Matth. 12. 31. Mark 3. 29. Luke 12. 10. Divers doubts difficulties and opinions thereof Chapter II. What the word Blasphemie signifies That this Page 4 sinne was the blasphemous denying the Godhead of Christ The spreading of that Pharisaicall blasphemie amongst Jewes and Heathens Of Apollonius of Tyana the Magician compared by Heathens with Christ for miracles Certain considerations premised for clearing doubts concerning this sinne and two conclusions extracted from those consisiderations Chapter III. That the Godhead of the Sonne is called Spirit 7 and Holy Spirit that every Person in the Trinitie is and may be called the Everlasting Father in respect of Creatures and yet how the appellation Father is proper to the first Person That every Person is holy and an Holy Spirit and yet how the appellation Holy Spirit is proper to the third Person That the words Spirit and Ghost signifie the same thing Chapter IV. Diverse Observations of the words of Christ Matthew Page 20 12. The result is that the Pharisee's blasphemie consisted in the deniall of Christ's Godhead The difference between a sinne against the Sonne of Man and against the Holy Spirit The judgement of the Fathers herein Chapter V. The Opinion of later Divines concerning this Page 14 sinne that they affirm Arius and the Emperor Julian the Apostate to have sinned this sinne An examination of the particular sinne of the said Arius and Julian and a breif narration of their lives and deaths Chapter VI. Why the Blasphemy of denying Christs Godhead Page 33 is called the unpardonable Sinne that the Commenters Doctrine in this grand Heresie is no better then Judaisme or Turcisme that it is by the Fathers esteemed and called Antichristianisme To deny Christs Godhead is to renounce redemption and salvation by him wherein the worth and preciousness of the blood of Christ consisteth Chapter VII That the Commenter in Logick sheweth himself Page 37 to be a
The everlasting Covenant and Rev. 14. 6. The Eternal Gospel and must needs be meant in those places of Scripture where mention is made of Eph. 1. 4. Electing us in Christ before the foundation of the World and of 2 Tim. 1. 9. Calling us according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began and of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Christ ordained for our Redemption before the foundation of the World Of which there is a full discourse in my Third Book and eighth Chapter This Covenant doth necessarily imply a plurality of persons in the Godhead One to require and injoyn another to restipulate and which is requisite in all Covenants a third Person distinct from the Contractors as a stander-by and Witnesse thereof So in this Covenant First God the Father requireth obedience upon pain of death Secondly God the Son undertaketh for man's performance or penalty or both Thirdly God the Holy-Ghost is witnesse between the Father and the Son for oftentimes in Scripture we read of the Spirit bearing witnesse For though the Father the Son and the Spirit are all said to bear witnesse for our assurance as Joh. 8. 18. I am one that bear witnesse of my self and my Father that sent me and 1 Joh. 5. 7. There are three that bear witnesse in heaven and Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit beareth witnesse with our Spirit But before the Creation who could be a witnesse between the Father and the Son save onely the Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son Nor can it be imagined that this Covenant and restipulation could be enacted by One single Person for the Law-giver must be considered as a Soveraign onely and the persons upon whom the Law is imposed are as subjects so it will be dissonant from right reason to fasten the Legislation and subjection upon the self-same person Now supposing the Law made and the penalty determined and set down it cannot be denyed that the Supream Law-giver hath naturally and absolutely a power of relaxation and dispensation so that he may remit the punishment for breach of his own Law and of meer grace without any satisfaction forgive the offender but if the said Law-giver do decree and by his Word bind himself to punish the offender as he did when he said Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye hereby he doth confine and restrain himself from using the Imperial prerogative of free pardon which otherwise he might have granted and hence it is that a Satisfaction must needs be exacted necessitate hypothetica as Divines say upon supposal of the said decree and upon this reason Jesus Christ our Surety becomes liable to his dreadfull Passion and death Touching the Passion of Christ in Satisfaction of Gods Justice for the sins of men the Socinian Writers do utterly deny it as being unjust to punish one for another and especially an innocent for a malefactor and they call this doctrine of Christ's satisfaction as Vossius reporteth Ger. Joh. Vossii Defens Grotii c. 13. Dogma nugatorium frigidum falsum injustum et horribilitèr blasphemum Their reasons are very considerable for they say that God hath by his Prophets and Apostles declared the contrary as Deut. 24. 1◠Every man shall be put to death for his own sin Jer. 31. 30. Every one shall dye for his own sin he that eateth sower grapes his teeth shall be set on edge Eze. 18. 4. The soul that sinneth it shall dye Gal. 6. 5. Every man shall bear his own burthen 1 Pet. 1. 17. God judgeth according to every mans work The Answer hereunto usually given is That because God doth actually punish one for another it must needs be just because God doth it but this answer doth not satisfie the Adversary neither doth it I confesse satisfie me for God doth not so Therefore for the better satisfaction of my self in this weighty question and perhaps of others also I offer to the consideration of the Learned Reader these two Propositions following First The Passion of Christ neither is nor ought to be accounted the punishment of one for another but the same that offended the same is punished Secondly The sins of the elect Members of Christ are not to be accounted onely the sins of the Elect but are justly charged on the score of Jesus Christ being their Surety and Redeemer These two Propositions may perhaps seem at first Paradoxical but I trust I shall prove them to be truly Catholick and Orthodox For the first That Christ's Sufferings are 1. Proposition not the punishment of one for another I have learned from St. Bernard Bernard Epist 190. Omnium peccata unus portavit nec alter jam inveniatur qui forefecit alter qui satisfecit quia caput corpus unus est Christus satisfecit caput pro membris i. One bare the sins of all so that we cannot say One forfeited and another satisfied because the head and body are but one Christ the head satisfied for the members So the Husband and Wife are but one person in Law an action of debt is not brought against the wife but the husband so the principal debtor and the Surety are in Law but one person and either of them are liable to payment or penalty This first Proposition is grounded on the doctrine of Christ's Vnion and conjunction with his members which Vnion is of such weighty concernment that without it it is impossible to salve or unfold the mysterious riddles of Gods operations and words in the businesse of man's Salvation and therefore the holy Scriptures and ancient Doctors have with very great abundance of testimonies asserted this necessary truth See first what the Scriptures say Rom. 12. 5. We being many are one body in Christ Eph. 5. 30. We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 12. 2. By one Spirit ye are all baptized into one body Eph. 4. 4. There is one body and one Spirit This is because the same Spirit that is in Christ is also in his members and because there is but one Spirit uniting the head and members therefore the head and members are but one body having the same Spirit residing in both for so it is said Eph. 3. 17. Christ dwelleth in your hearts and 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you 1 Cor. 6. 19. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Joh. 15. 1. I am the vine ye are the branches This Union of the members with Christ the Head is called by the Apostle a recapitulation Eph. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as Bishop Andrews observeth Andr. de Nativ Serm. 16. A gathering of all to the head for as God is one with Christ as Christ is God so we are one with Christ as Christ is man who is therefore called
Emmanuel as being one with us Let us next see what the Ancient Doctors conceived of this Union to avoid prolixity I will instance onely in St. Austin who saith Aug. in Psal 17. Christus Ecclesia est totum Christi caput corpus And upon those words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and I cry in the day time and thou hearest not and Let this Cup passe from me and Not my will but thy will be done he saith In Psal 21. Christus dicit de te de me de illo corpus suum gerebat scilicet Ecclesiam membrorum vox erat non timebat mori sed pro his dixit qui mortem timent And again he saith in Ps 26. Omnes in illo Christi Christus sumus totus Christus caput corpus And upon those words Saul Saul why persecutest thou me he saith in Ps 30. Sic vâ—cem pedis suscipit lingua clamat calcas me in membris Christi Christus est Christus est multa membra unum corpus And in Ps 100. Christum induti Christus sumus cum capite nostro cum Christo capite unus homo sumus And in Ps 103. Omnes nos in Christo credentes unus homo sumue And in Ps 127. Multi Christiani unus Christus unus homo Christus caput corpus And in Ps 119. Omnes Sancti sunt unus homo in Christo The summe of all is That Christ and his Members are united so that they are one body and as one person for as the head and inferiour parts in one man are but one body so Christ and his members are but one Christ which the same Father calleth in Ps 36. Ser. 2. Ps 37. Christum plenum And Corpus Christi diffusnm Neither is the Church of England silent in this great mystery of our union with Christ for to shew that the grand reason and the intent and purpose for which Christ ordained the holy Supper was especially to set forth this Union of himself and members to be such as our food is to and with our bodies bread and wine unite themselves to us they grow into one body with us So she saith to faithful Communicants The Exhortat at the Commun That we dwell in Christ and Christ in us We be one with Christ and Christ with us And this also was the reason of instituting Baptisme as St. Paul expresseth it to be baptized Rom. 6. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Christ and 1 Cor. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into one body Baptisme is the mysterious sign of our entrance into Christ But the Eucharist is the mystery of Christs entring into us for so St. John maketh the like distinction 1 Joh. 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us and after him St. Austin Aug. in Joh. Tract 48. Si benè cogitemus Deus in nobis est Si benè vivamus nos in Deo sumus and indeed this union is principally meant in the Article of the Communion of Saints which in our Creed we professe to believe This Union in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Communion The great Sacrament thereof is therefore called by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Communion of the body and blood of Christ and because our union with Christ doth unite us with the whole Trinity the Apostle tells us 1 Joh. 1. 3. 1 Cor. 1. 9. Our fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and this is also called 2 Cor. 13. 13. Philip. 2. 1. The fellowship of the Holy Ghost the fellowship of the Spirit But there is a great difference between our common or general union with the whole Trinity and our speciall and particular union with Christ alone for with all the three Persons we are united only by the Spirit because to us is given the Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of the Father and the Son But with the Son we are joyned and united in a threefold bond 1. Spiritu 2. Carne 3. Vadimonio Not onely by his Spirit in us but also in Nature for he assumed flesh with us from the self-same lump of the first man and moreover he is joyned to us in the strong bond of Vadimonie or Suretiship in that everlasting Covenant of Grace before mentioned Concerning the manner of our union with Christ one scruple is to be removed for if we say that we are really and substantially one body with him this doctrine may seem to affirm a personal or hypostatical union of us men with God such as is the union of the Godhead and manhood in Christ so we should make our body the body of God as Christs natural body is and so we make our selves God as Christ is God but this must be confessed to be intolerable blasphemy Our answer is That though Christ and his Church are indeed one body yet they are not one body natural and consubstantial but a body mystically Political as a Corporation a Society a Fraternity not Corpus continuum but Collectivum or aggregativum thus thousands of Souldiers are One Army many graines of corn are but One heap Unae quinque Minae Plaut in Pseud many pieces of money are One summe many letters and lines in one Epistle we call Vnas literas Tully calls one suit of apparel consisting of many parcels Cic. Orat. pro L. Flacco Vna vestimenta and we read Plaut in Trinum Vnos sex dies in Plautus Just so St. Austin expresseth this mystery of Christs body upon those words Psal 11. 1. Salvum me fac Domine Aug. de Unitate Eccles Cap. 13. To. 7. Sic est unus homo qui ait salvum me fac ut ex multis constet for though Christ and his members are many Ones and many Severals which are not united by any internal or natural form yet because they all have one and the same Spirit of Christ in them they are united and made one body or mystical corporation by that one Spirit of Christ of which it is said 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one Spirit ye are all baptized into one body and of these many severals it is said Ro. 12. 5. We being many are one body in Christ So a body Politick consisting of a multitude of individuals is made one Corporation by the Charter of the Prince and their own agreement but if upon dissension they be tumultuously gathered we rather call them a tumult then a Corporation Aug. De verb. Domini Ser. 26. Da unum populus est tolle unum turba est Touching the last clause of this first Proposition That the same that offended the same is punished whereby our sins seem to be charged upon Christ as if Christ himself had committed sin in whom we are assured no sin was either original or actual as is fully declared in my third Book Chap. 11. Sect. 2. Yet that this is true I am to shew in the explication of
Christians in all ages even to his own time But because he thinks his soul shall dye with his body as soules of other Animals do let him for my part provide such a burial for himself as they have of which we read Jer. 22. 19. Also the hair of your head for the greater conformity is as we hear shorn most affectedly close but the wickednesse of your doctrine may well make men fear that you have made a fishing-line of your cut hair with a dangerous hook at the end of it In Aug. de oper Mon. n. 71. Viros fuge â—â—tenatos quibus fâ—minei crines hircorum barba nigrum pallium haec Omnia argumenta sunt diaboli Hier. Ep. ad Eustoch c. 12. p. 53. Acts Mon. n. 55. former times there was as great hypocrisie in long hair as is now in short St. Austin found fault with Monks in his time for wearing long hair in hypocrisie So did St. Jeromâ— and afterwards when in a Synod where St. Anselm sate President it was decreed that the hair of Clergy-men should be rounded short yet because of their hypocrisie and wickednesse it grew to a proverb Quà m primum Clericus suscipit rasuram statim intrat in eum diabous as Mr. Fox hath noted Long hair in Sampson and in Nazraites was honourable it was Propheticum velamen as Austin calls it Instead of a Mosâ—ical veil to signifie that there was some holy mystery covered in their typical persons but yet when hypocrites masked themselves with it then King * Josephus Ant. l. 19. Agrippa caused those Pharisaical Nazarites Aug. de Oper. Mon. n 71. to be shorn and now also that we perceive that the very shortest hair is degenerated into hypocrisie and that this Tonsa Sanctiâ—as as St. Austin's word is doth not prove much more holinesse then hair I shall advise Aug. de Opere Monach. c. 31 â— 71. the Reader with merry Martial's words Brevibus nec crede 〈◊〉 lib. 5. ep 49. Neither is this intended to deride short hair but to reprove thâ— hypocrisie of it when 't is made an hair-net to catch men withall which is no new observation but was of old discerned in Heathens as hypocrital Atque supercitio breviâ—r Coma Juv. Sat. 2. Cicero Orat. pro Roscio Comaedo and also suffered to continue written and painted in those very Monasteries where short hair-hypocrisie was then mostly practised witnesse those old riming Verses Quod fueram non sum frater caput aspice â—ousum Poenas profundi fraudes capâ—tisque rotundi Et Judae suavium det Deus ut caveam Upon those words of our Saviour Matth. 10. Th. Matth. 10. 30. Isych in Levit. c. 13. very haires of your bead are numbred Isychâ—us writeth That haires signifie our thoughts and imaginations which are therefore said to be numbred because by them we shall be judged CHAP. V. How the Commenter complieth with the Arians of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews of the Nicene Fathers and how the Father and the Son may be said to be opposites NExt your compliance and correspondence with the old Arian Hereticks is to be observed for first you will not acknowledge this Epistle to the Hebrewes to be written by St. Paul but it must be the Authors onely so that both the Author and the Commenter must be alike unknown just so dâ—d the Arians Epiph. hae 69. as Epiphanius observes Ariaâ— Epistolam ad Hebrâ—os rejiciunt 〈◊〉 ipsam Pâ—uli non â—sse .i. The Arians râ—jâ—cted the Epistle to the Hebrews and said that it was not St. Paul's but you go further and tell us that it appears that Nâ—ither Paul nor any Apostle was P. 20. the Author and this because you would make this most Divine Epistle seem invalid as indeed you have great reason because it doth so evidently declare against your heresie your chief argument is drawn from the Postscript because it is there said to be written by Timothy but yet uncertain it is by whom the Postscript was written as is confessed and uncertain again whether it be meant that Timothy was St. Paul's amanuensis or his Messenger the words will bear both neither is it any extraordinary or vain thing as you would have it to send Letters by one of whom mention is made in those Letters witnesse Davids Letter sent by Vriah 2 Sam. 11. 14. 2 Sam. 11. 14. yet such is your frivolous cavil But to the Point This Epistle is by Judicious Divines thought to be asserted for St. Pauls by the testimony of Scripture for St. Peter mentioneth his very name 2 Pet. 3. 15. himself also then writing to the dispersed Jewes so as Beza thought this very Epistle is there meant and St. Hâ—â—rome though he would not conclude for St. Paul Hier. Epist 129. n. 29. yet confesseth that this Epistle was received of the Eastern Churches and generally acknowledged to be St. Paul's which we find to be true for in the Canons called the Apostles which go with the works of Clemens Clem. Can. Apost n. 16. Cyril cat n. 8. Naz. Poem 33 Chrys to 5. Ser. 61. Euseb hist l. 6. c. 11. there are 14 Epistles of St. Paul mentioned therefore this must be one Just so doth St. Cyril of Jerusalem reckon and so also doth Greg. Nazâ—anzâ—n in his Poems and so doth St. Chrysostome and Eusebius tell us that St. Paul writ it in the Jewish Language but that it was translated either by St. Luke or by Clemens for that it agreeth with the stile of the Acts of the Apostles written by St. Luke and that the stile of Clemens agreeth with this Epistle Who doubteth but that * Hier. descript in Petro. St. Peter was the Author of that Gospel which goes under the name of St. Mark or that †Euseb hist l. 3. c. 4. St. Paul was the Authour of that Gospel which goes under the name of St. Luke onely St. Mark and St. Luke were the Scribes that from the Apostles mouthes set the Gospels down in writing Tert. de Pudic. in 25. Aug. de Civ l. 16. c. 22. De doct Christ l. 2. c. 8. Exposit in Rom. P. 321. therefore it is no marvel that some Latines called this Epistle by another mans name just as we call those Gospels by other names and so Tertullian calleth this Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle of Barnabas But St. Austin doth constantly and often assert it to be St. Paul's and so is it at this day in this Kingdome acknowledged by the best authority by which the translation of the Bible was ratified yet this self-conceiied Commenter will be wiser then all like another Abailardus of whom St. Bernard writes that he would Bern. Epist 190. say Omnes sic Ego non sic â—ll say so yet I say not so Again to shew your conformity with the Arians you reprove Eusebius his Muâ—tiple Error for thinking Christ to be consubstantial with the Father and
as this Câ—rinâ—hus meant and Jesus he manhood or humane nature So his doctrine was hat Jesus when he suffered was but a meere câ—eature ust as our Commenter teacheth and this in â—ffect is all one with the Heresie of the Manichtes who although they did not deny Christ to be God as the Commenter doth yet they would not believe that the Emmanuel or incarnate God was crucified but another in his stead and that a creature too Whereupon St. Austin Aug. de fide cont Man to 6. c. 33. saith to them Miseri non timetis ne dicatur vobis in judicio ego cos liberavi pro quibus pessus sum ite ille vos liberet cui meas ascribitis passiones i. Are ye not afraid ye wretched men that Christ in judgement will say to you Depart from me and go to that meer creature to whom you ascribe my passion for I redeemed those onely for whom I suffered Now if Christs passion on earth did not redeem us to whom shall we go for redemption seeing he redeemed onely those for whom he suffered I wish our Commenter would consider another speech of this renowned Father who whilest he continued in the said Manichean Heresie and then living at Rome he fell into a dangerous sickness and was very near death and because at that time he did not rightly believe the passiou of Christ but erred therein and yet no more phantastically or dangerously then this Commenter doth he said of himself Ibam ad inferos portans omnia mala quae commiseram nam Christus pro eis non solverat cum crediderim crucem ejus phantasticam i. 1 Aug. Confes l. 5. c. 9. was going to hell with the burthen of all my sins lying on my soul for Christ had not satisfied for me because I believed not in the truth of his passion Now he that believeth that Christ is but a meer man and that his death was onely as a witness or Martyr to seal a Truth with his blood and not at all for mans redemption shall be so far from receiving the blessing of Redemption by him that he shall moreover bring and accumulate a curse upon himself For so the ancient Martyr Ignatius understandeth these words Ier. 17. 5. Ig. Epist ad Antioch n. 46. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm that is Maledictus est qui dicit Christum nudum hominem juxta Prophetam i. According to those words of the Prophet he is accursed who calleth Christ a meer man and yet trusteth in him And Athanasius doubted Atha orat 1. Cont. Arian 3. 4. not to say that the Arians who called Christ a creature and yet did perform religious worship to him as this Commenter requireth were within the compass of the Heathens sin in that they worshipped him whom they thought to be but a creature and therefore he Ath. ad solit vit agentes n. 18. Soc. l. 3. c. 19. calls them Porphyrianos because Porphyrie once had been a professed Christian and had revolted to heathenism as Socrates saith Thus the Reader may perceive that this blasphemous denying Christs Divinity doth dissolve our Religion into Heathenisme and Antichristianisme I have heard from the mouth of an ancient and most learned Doctour that Socinus the Father of our late society of Socinians was the son of such Parents whereof one was by Religion a Turk and the other a Christian and that therefore Socinus laboured to bring Turcisme and Christianisme to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion by denying the Eternall Godhead of Christ as Turks also do which grand impiety is so destructive to Christian Religion that it may be fitly called the Devils master-piece and so the ancient Fathers esteemed it Epiphanius called Arius Epiph. haer 69. statuam Diaboli i. An Idoll set up by the Devill and St. Hilary said of it Mihi diabolus erit qui Arianus Hil. Cont. Aux n. 7. i. He that Arianizeth is no better then Satan and Athanasius called it Haeresin totum Diabolum induentem Ath. ad sol vit agentes n. 19. i. An heresie indued with the whole plenitude of Satan For the Devils cannot be saved and such blasphemers as these shall never be forgiven It was the opinion of Theodoret that the grand Antichrist Theod. haer fab l. 5. n. 17. of all shall be the Devill shewing himself in the shape of a man and taking upon him the name of Christ now as Christ is but one and yet hath many members even his whole Church which is called his mysticall body so the grand Antichrist it may be is but one person but shall have and it may be he hath already great multitudes of members acted and indued with his malignant spirit which make up his mysticall Aug. de gen ad lit l. 11. c. 24. n. 68. Aug. de doct Ch. l. 3. c. 37. n. 56. corporations which is the Mystery of iniquity And this was the opinion of St. Austine and by him divers times expressed thus Diaboli corpus sunt impii ipse est corum caput ficut Christus est caput ecclesia i. the wicked are the body of Satan Satan is the head of them as Christ is the head of his Church And again De Gen. l. 11. c. 24. Corpus Diaboli est imptorum multitudo i. The body of the Devill is a multitude setting themselves to work impiety and again speaking of those words 2 Thes 2 4. sitting in the Temple of God he saith Aliqui intelligunt De Civit. l. 20. c. 19. hic non ipsum principem sed multitudinem hominum cum ipso doâ—c fiat magnus populus Antichristi i. Some do not here understand onely the great Antichrist of all but also a great multitude of people with him untill at length Antichrist become as a populous nation and Prosper saith moreover Antichristus Prosp de promis n. 14. praecâ—nes mendacii sui habiturus est i. Antichrist shall have preachers to set forth his lies who will edifie his great body for destruction such as Hil. de Trinit lib. 2. p. 25. n. 1. also St. Hilary calls Novi apostolatus sub Antichristo Praedicatores i. Preachers of a new calling under Antichrist Now if amongst other Hereticks also may be admitted to be members of the body of Antichrist surely none will be more advantagious to him then those who blaspheme Christ in his highest title by denying Iren. l. 5. c. ult n. 124. his Godhead Irenaeus and after him divers old Writers conceived that the grand Antichrist will appear out of the Tribe of Dan because of that saying in Ieremy 8. 16. The sâ—orâ—ing of his horses was heard from Dan and for this reason 〈◊〉 thought that amongst the Tribes of Israel which are sealed Rev 7. the Tribe of Dan is not mentioned to intimate that no limbs of Antichrist shall be sealed to salvation CHAP. VIII Of the hypostaticall union
Sanctuary and King Solomen prayeth Hearken to the supplication of thy people Israel when they shall pray toward this place 1 Kings 8. 30. And Daniel prayeth with his windows open toward Jerusalem where the Typicall Temple hâ—d been and where the true Antitypicall Temple of Christs body was to be manifested So in effect the Object of the Israelaticall worship was God present in his Temple thereby feeding their faith in the promised Messiah who was afterwards to reside in his Tabernacle of the humane nature So that the ultimate Object of their adoration was the Sonne of God God incarnate even the same God whom we Christians now worship The Christian Religion was before the Jewish in time and the Church is older then the Temple or Synagogue Amb. de sacram l 1. c. 4. Aug. Ret. l. 1. c. 13. Priora sunt Sacramenta Christianorum quam tudaeorum For the adoration of the Sonne of God did not first begin when he was incarnate but as Saint Augustine truely saith Christian Religion was in former times but it began to be called Christian in latter times when the Son of God took our flesh and again Aug. confes l. 10. c. 43. he saith The ancient Saints were saved by Faith in Christ to be crucified as we now are by Faith in Christ crucified Christ was the same God before his incarnation that he is now and was worshipped by the holy Patriaâ—chs and Prophets before he was incarnate as truely as he is by us Christians since Before Abraham was I am Iohn 8. 58. and Abraham rejoyced to see my day and saw it and was glad It is therefore a vain and false cavill of this Commenter who tell us Faith in Christ is nor contained in all Faith 1 Pag. 251. c. 11. v. 6. in God because in the description of the Faith which was in the ancient Elders Hebrewes 11. there is no mention of Faith in Christ Indeed there is no mention of the word Christ but the Sonne of God was believed in by those Patriarchs before the same Sonne of God could be called Christ for in their dayes the Sonne of God was not yet Christ for he was not anointed nor could he be capable of anointing before he was incarnate as is shewed before The Sonne of God was God from everlasting but this God was not Christ as yet because he was not anointed otherwise then in the purpose and Decree of the same God and typically in the annointing of the Tabernacle Exodus 30 26 27. and in the unction of Kings Priests and Prophets But faith in God must needs signifie faith in the Sonne of God who is now the Christ because there is no other God but he for the Father and the Son are the self same One and onely God Now if it be demanded why the holy Israelites worshipped toward the Tabernacle or Temple as if God were there onely seeing it cannot be denied that God was then every where Filling Heaven and Eâ—â—th Ieremy 23. 24 I answer in the words of Fulgentius When God Fulgen. ad Thras l. 2. n. 9. is said to be in a place or to descend and come to it it is not to be thought that God changeth place so as to leave one place and to goe to another but Significat manifestationâ—m ejus i. It signifieth that God doth then manifest his presence in that place wherein he was before but did not shew and declare his presence so as when he is said to descend So S. Chrysost me expoundeth the Mission of the Sonne Missio Filiâ— qui ubiqu erat â—nâ—eà corpoream apparâ—ntiam Chrys ser de Pastor n 58. significat non migâ—at à loco in locum i. When the Sonne of God is said to be sent who was every where before it signifieth his Corporeall appearing and not a change of place And because the Godhead did manifest its presence in the Tabernacle and Temple therefore the Israelites did there and toward that place perform their worship yet we finde that sometimes sacrifices were offered to the Lord in other places as by Gideon Iudges 6. 26. but it was by expresse command of God So did Elias also 1 Kings 18. 36. but it was not in Judaea but in Israel amongst Idolaters yet with some conformity with the Temple as is there mentioned Eliâ—s offered at the time of the Evening Sacrifice which was the Figure of Christs death to be at the ninth houre and this also not without an instinct of Gods Spirit for he was a Prophet CHAP. XIV That the Christian when he prayeth setteth his minde on God in Christ as the finall Object of his Prayer as the Jewes prayed to God then residing in the Tabernacle or Temple because the now glorified Body of Jesus is the Temple wherein the Godhead will for ever dwell AS the Israelites prayed to God whom they conceived to be present in the Tabernacle or Temple so the Christian when he prayeth setteth his minde on Jesus Christ conceiving him to be the Object of his Prayer for he believeth and considereth him to be the Temple wherein his God is for ever resident and in that Temple he seeketh his God where his mercy hath been manifested and wherein the great work of Mans Redemption hath been acted and performed and so looketh on his God through Christ The rubricks of the ancient Church Lituâ—gies as we finde in severall ages of the Church directed men to pray thus Sacerdos ante Oâ—ationem dicit Sursum Cyp. 82. Cyril 23. Prosp 3. corda i. Before Prayer the Priest said to the People Lift up your hearts on high and so they confessed they lifted them up unto the Lord that is to Christ in Heaven sitting on the right hand of the Father for where the carcase is there will the Eagles be gathered Matthew 24. 28. In prayer we lift up our eyes to Heaven because our God is in Heaven Psalmâ— 115. 3. And we say Our Father which art in Heaven as himself taught us to whom we must pray because as his Godhead is and was alwayes there so his glorious Body was to be in Heaven and is and for ever shall be the Temple wherein the Godhead is to be sought to and found For in Christ dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily Colossiâ—ns 2. 9. He saith bodily in comparison of Types and Figures the Tabernacle was but the shadow of Gods residence but the Body of Christ was the Substance and Truth of that shadow The inhabitation of the Godhead of Christ in his Body is described by Saint John most significantly to this purpose John 1. 14. The Word dwelt amongst us where dwelling is expressed by the tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. God was intabernacled which signifieth that his Body was the Tabernacle of the Godhead as Theodoret Theod. Dial Imm. n. 12. observes The Leviticall Law is still in force though not literally yet in the spirit or meaning of it for we must
the Holy Ghost can be seene becase the Godhead of every and all Persons is one and alike invisible for God is a spirit and a spirit cannot be seene and therfor S. Austin upon those words Tim. 1. 17. The invisible God saith hic ipsa triâ—itâ—s intellâ—giâ—ur non solus Aug. de Trin. l. 2. c. 8. Aug. Epist 112. Aug. Epist 111. Tert. cont Prax. Pater i. The whole trinitie is invisible and not only the Father and again he saith The whol trinitie is of a nature invisible and again he saith out of Ambros. and Hierome Neither the Father nor the Son can be seen in their divine nature For so noe Eye can see them and therfore Tertullian thus expounds it videbatur Deus a Patriarchis secundum capacitatem hominis non pro plenitudine Majestatis i. Patriarks saw God not in the plenitude of his Majestie but according to the capacitie of man and to this both Ahanasius and Atha ad Antio n. 28. Chrys. ho. 48. Antio n. 17. Chrisostome agree Nemo essentiam invisibilis i. The essence of God is to all mortalls invisible The divine nature and pure Godhead is that which the Scripture somtimes calls the face of God of which God said to Mooses Thou canst not see my face and live so Theodoret expounds those words divina natura Theod Dialog immutat Atha quest ad Antioch n. 28. Aug. de Trin. l. 2. sub aspectum non cadit i. the divine nature can not be seen so doth Athanasius 1. Anteriora dei significant divinitatâ—m i. the foreparts of God signifie the Godhead and so S. Austin often tels us that the face of God signifies the form of God and the afterparts signifie the form of a servant which is the humane nature But then how doth the Scripture say the Lord spake unto Moses face to face and how could Jacob say I have seene God face to face if the pure Godhead can not be seene And how could Moses tell the Israelites Deut. 5. 4. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount and yet before he had said Deut 4. 15. yee saw no similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb I answer that as in one place of those Scriptures alleaged the face of God signifies his divinitie or Godhead which can not be seen so in the other place it signifieth Gods presence manifested by words or signes wherby God declare th himself present as on mount Horeb by fier and thunder and in the tabernacle by a cloud or by a sound and words so Gods face or presence may be where there is no sight of him and so he spake to the people face to face because they knew for certaine that God was there present But Iacob saw the face of God because he saw the face of that man or that shape which wrastled with him when God appeared to him in the forme of a man although Iacob could not see the pure Godhead and this kind of appearing in an assumed shape is called by Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. The appearing of God from hence the Dion Areop Caelest Hier. c. 4. Eus de Dem. l. 5. c l. 14. aforementioned Ensebius argued that because Iacob saw the face of that man which appeared to him in which man was God therfore he said it was the person of the Son and not the Person of the Father because Eusebius was persuaded that the Person of the Father did never shew himself in a visible shape â—nd for this Eusebius had very great and weighty reasons of which more hereafter CHAP. IV. More concerning the first question how God hath bin and may be seen FOr the further explanation of this question it would be inquired how it is said that God is visible and hath bin seene and this will be understood by considering how other Spirits become visible which in their owne Spiritual nature are as invisible as the divine nature is for because a spirit hath nothing in it self which can be an object for mortal Eyes therfore whensoever Spirits or Angels good or bad are seen of men it must be by assuming some shape or body and mingling themselves with it that so they may become a fit visible object because only such things are visible for ever so many invisibles whether they be good or bad spirits Angels or devils cannot make one visible Object and therfore when we read in Scripture that God appeared in an Angel it is not so to be understood as if the invisible God became visible by taking uppon him the invisible nature of an Angel for an Angelâ—â—al nature is of it self as invisible as the divine nature as is said because both are Spirits but when God is seen in an Angel the Angel meant is the corpoâ—â—al visible shape which God assumeth and imployeth and useth for that purpose to be seen and to converse with man by for the word Angel doth not alwayes signifie a spiritual nature but any officer imployed by God as a Messenger so S. Iohn the Bapâ—ist is called Gods Angel Mat. 11. 10. in the Original So that the visible creature which is used as a Medium to present God visible is and may very fitly be called the Angel of God As Moses therfore put a Veile over his shining face which otherwise the people could not behold and as the Sun by our weak Eyes is better seen through the veil of a thâ—n mist then in its Cleer brightnes so in this life God is visible Only as in a glosse â—arkly 1 Cor. 13. 12. his divine nature in his glorious brightneâ— is invisible but the Invisible things of God are seen by things that are made Rom. 1. 20. The divinitie can â—ot be sâ—â—e except it be clothed and allayed with some moâ—e grosse and Material veil and therfore at what time God shewed himself visibly to men he took some corpâ—real Creature and shape unto him that so he who by nature is invisible might in that assumed habit be seen and this was the resolution of the Fathers a Filius Atha de uniâ— Tâ—in n 30. Hil de Trin. l. 5. visus est Patribus sed in 〈◊〉 Maâ—â— iâ— Filius vâ—sus est Patriarchis in specie hâ—minis i. The Son of God was seen by the Ancient 〈◊〉 but it was by assuming some Material and visible shape as â—â— a Man So S. Chrisostome saith The Prophets which saw Chrys ho. 10. Antâ—o Aug. de Civiv l. 5. c. 7. id Epist 11â— God had not otherwise the expresse sâ—ght oâ— him sed figuras viderund i they saw him in some assumed figure and S. Austin discoursing of Gods conveâ—sing with man in Paradise saith Deus locutus est cum pâ—imâ—s hominibus in aliqua specie corporali and againe Deus non est visâ—â— nisi assumptione creaturae i God talked with first parents in some bodily shape for God can not be seen but by assuming some Creature and
Generation from Adam but our better and spiritual regeneration is derived from Christ and as there are no Sons of Men but such as are so from Adam so ther are no Sons of God but those that are so from Christ Now if it be demanded how Christ and wee can be accounted one and what it is which came from Christ and is in man that so he may be said to be in us and so that what he did or suffered should be really accounted as done or suffered by us for although wee know why Adam's sin is imputed to us viz. because wee are of the same Lump propagated carnallie from him but yet why Christs righteousnes oâ— his sufferings should be imputed to us seeing wee are not propagated from Christ nor ever were in his loines as wee were in Adams is now the question To which this is the arswer that as Christ received his flesh and blood from man so man hath received the divine Spirit from Christ and as the natural bodie of Christ is made of the same lump of Adam that our's is so man hath in him the self same spirit that is in Christ though he be in heaven and wee on earth by which spirit wee are called the Sons of God just as Christ by taking our flesh is called the Son of Man Nos homines vocamur filii dei quia filius dei Atha in decret Nic. Conc n. 13. nostrum gestavit corpus quia Spiritus filii in nobis est i Men are called the Son of God because the Sons of God took his bodie of man and put his owne Spirit into man and therfore Christ doth fitly sustaine an Universal person of mankind That the Spirit of Christ is given and put into man the Scriptures doe manifestlie declare First it appeareth evidently in the regenerate Man of sueh S. Paul speaketh when he prayeth Ephe. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in their harts And how Christ may be sayd to dwell in Man Saint John sheweth 1 John 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell â—in him and â—e in us because he hath given us of his Spirit and hence it is that Saint Chrysostome saith Anima sancta est Tabernaculum Chrys ho 2. Antioch Christi id est The soul of an holy Man is Christs Tabernacle For indeed though Christ had not at all assumed flesh from Man yet because the same Spirit which is in Christ is also so put into and communicated to man it is sufficient to make Christ the head of the Saints his Members to be but one mysticall Body with him And this is intimated by Saint Paul when he saith Ephesians 4. 4. There is one body and one Spiriâ— which is as much as if he should say though the Saints on earth are many yet because all are endued with one and the same Spirit of Christ therefore all are but one body with Christ even as in man there are many parts and members yet because all parts have the same soul in them therefore all together are but one body Hence it is that Origen saith Omnes salvandi sunt Orig. in Eze. ho. 9. unum Corpus id est All those which shall be saved are but one body and Saint â—asill giveth this reason of their vnitie Quia unus est Deus si in singulis Bas Epist 141. sit omnes coadunat id est Because there is but one God if this one God be in all he doth thereby Tert. de Trin. n. 28 Christus est ecclesia De Paenit n. 16 unite all and this unitie is also expressed by these odd words in Tertullian Spi itus nos Christo confibulat id est It is the Spirit that doth button us or joyn us to Christ For this reason the Scripture saith Romans 12. 5. We being many are one body in Christ And again 1 Corinthians 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And again Galathians 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus yea such is our conjunction and union with Christ and his with us by reason that his Spirit is in us that Theodoret doubted not to say Si pati possit Theod. in Dâ—alog impatib n. 13. divina natura supervacanea fuisset corporis assumptio id est If the pure Godhead were of a nature passible so that it could have suffered for man God should not have needed to be Incarnate And Saint Augustine puts the case a little plainer and nearer thus Si Christus non assumpta carne à Virgine sed vera tamen apparens nos vera morte redimeret quis eum non potuisse audet dicere Suppose Christ had not taken his flesh from the Virgine and so not from Adam but yet had really taken a body upon him some other way and in that assumed body had really died to redeem man who dares say that he could not and no doubt such a suffering had been sufficient for our redemption if as I said before God had not otherwise determined and limited himself by his sentence of the curse and death upon the seed of Adam And thus we have seen how Christ and the Saints are united and become one body SECT II. More of the same That Jesus Christ was a Person every way fitly qualified to be Man's Redeemer both for that he was free from all sin Originall and Actuall although he took flesh from the loynes of Adam and also in regard of the infinite worth and excellencie of his Person THe qualities required to a redeeming high Priest are set down Heb. 7. 26. For such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undefiled seperate from sinners For if Christ were not absolutely without sin in his own Person he could not be a fit sacrifice for our sins the Lamb of God must be answerable to the paschall Lamb his Type A Lambe without blemish and so the Scripture describeth Christ 1 Pet. 1. 19. as a Lambe without blemish or spot and that he knew no sin that he did no sin and that in him 1 John 3. 5. is no sin As for any actuall sinne there will be no question among Christians but the difficulty is in shewing Christ to be without Origâ—â—â—l◠〈◊〉 because he was in the loins of Adam when he fell and is the Son of David of Abraham and of Adam and the Church hath ever acknowledged that the whole lump of Adam is a Prosper Resp ad Genu. Massa corruptionis as Prosper saith and b Aug. Epist 105 157. De Civit. l. 15. c. 1. alibi Massa damnationis Vâ—nculnm damnationis Apostatica radâ—x Massa originaliter tota damnata as S. Austin often confesseth in all these words and many more id est a corrupt lump a lump of damnation an Apostate root totally condemned from the the very Originall The Apostle also seemeth to lay this to the charge of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 21. He hath made him to
progenitor Therfore Christ sinned in Adam This consequence is false because Christ did not so proceed from Adam as Levi did from Abraham that is by way of carnal generation and therfore Christ did not attract sin from Adam as Levi did from Abraham so as is said before But yet because Christ took flesh from Adam therfore all the pressures included in the curse on Adam were intayled on Christ sin only excepted as mortalitie and the consequences therof sorrowâ— labour wearines hunger abasement and subjection Tâ—â—e it is that Abraham paying tithesâ—oo Melchisedech which was in the nature of an homage or political submission and acknowledgment as holding the Land of promise to him and his seed by the donation of the Lord of Heaven who is the Messiah he did in this act include all the tribes which were to proceed from him to submit as homagers to the said Messiah represented in his type Melchisedech even as earthly Lords their successors do homage to their superior princes for lands held of them But what is this to intayling of sin Original sin is not derived to posterity by any such external acts I doubt not but Christ himself as man and as the seed of Abraham was involved in this homage Mat. 17. 27. See beneath l. 3. c. 17. and therfore did actually pay tribute and submit to the law as other Israelites did Of which tribute paying and also of the difference between Levies and Christ's being in the loins of Abraham I shal say more in the last chapter at the close of this third book Now for conclusion that it may appeare that our saviour is a compleat high-priest every way accomplished with all abilities and requisits needful to the great work of mans redemption of him it is spoken Psal 89. 19 I have laid help upon One that us mighty who Psal 89. 19. Psal 132. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 19. Act. 20. 28. 1 Cor. 15. 47. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Isa 9. 6. Joh. 20. 28. 1 Cor. 2. 8. Heb. 7. 26. is no lesse then the mighty God of Jacob. The blood which he shed for us is justly by S. Peter called Precious for it was the blood of God This second Adam Incarnate for us is no less then The Lord from Heaven and God manifest in the flesh and The mighty God the everlasting Father the prince of peace he that was wounded for us is called by the Apostle my Lord and my God he that was crucified for us was no less then the Loâ—d of glory and in his very humiliation of the humane nature he was holy harmless undefiled and seperate from sinners To him be all honour and glorie and thanksgiving for ever CHAP. XII That the unregenerate man is redeemed by Christ and that the Spirit of Christ is communicated to him BUt in the second place it would be inquired what Interest the unregenerate man hath in Christ how he can lay any claime to Christs sufferings for although it be true that Christ hath taken the unregenerate man's nature on him yet may wee or can we truly say that the unregenerate man hath received the Spirit of Christ into him If this will not be granted Christ cannot be a person idoneous or fitly qualified to be his redeemer because as such a redeemer must take somthing from man so man must also receive somthing from him that by giving and taking the redeemer and redeemed may be united and so considered as one bodie and that must be by receiving the Spirit from Christ as Christ received flesh from man which is elegantlie expressed by Prosper in his poem Vt nos insercret Summis se miscuit Imis That man Prosp de Ingrat n. 41. might be joyned unto God God joyned himself with man Now it seemeth that the Spirit of Christ is also communicated to the unregenerate man because wee find in Scripture that he also hath an interest in Christ and a claime and title to him for the Scripture declareth that the benefit of Christ's death and by it redemption is offered to all men of what condition soever whether good or bad regenerate or unregenerate beleevers or unbeleevers for the Gospel is sent to all the world and to every creature Mar. 16. 15. and One of the maine points of the Gospel is the offer of the benefit of redemption by the death of Christ of which the Scripture saith 2 Cor. 5. 15. that he died for all so Rom. 8. 32. 1 Tim. 2. 6. and againe Heb. 2. 9. He tasted death for every man here is the benefit of Christs death offered Omnibus singulis i. to all and every man and more particularly it is offered to the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. Christ died for the ungodly and more plainly yet it is offered to them that shall perish and be destroied for S. Paule saith 1 Cor. 8. 11. Through thy knowledg shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ dâ—ed and againe he saith Rom. 14. 15 Destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ died And to put it out of all doubt that Christ did indeed offer the benefit of redemption to them that not only may possibly perish but even to such as actually shall perish S. Peter saith 2 Pet. 2. 1. There shall be false teachers which denie the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction false teachers are the most unlikely to have any benefit by Christ for Rev. 20. 10. the devil the beast and the false Prophet are joyned in the lake of fire and brimston and yet wee see the benefit of redemption was offered to false Prophets This is the Doctrine of the Church of England and so it was of the Church Primitive as appeareth by diverse testimonies for S. Ambrose saith Ethnicus haereticus peccator sanguine Amb. in symb Apost c 25. Christi redempti sunt i Not only the sinner but the heathen and the heretick are redeemed by the blood of Christ and Athanasius delivereth the same doctrine not only as being his single opinion but as the judgment of the Council of Sardice Deus pro illis Arrâ—anis Ath. in Epâ—st synodi Sardic â— n. 15. and pro nobis omnibus mortem subiit i God who is the president of the Church did suffer death both for the Arrians and for all us and yet no heresie is more opposite to redemption by Christ then the Arrian and this is also set forth by Nazianzen Arriani divinitatis acerbi Naz. Orat. 38 expensores diaboli figmenta pro quibus Christus mortuus ingratae Creaturae i the Arrian's are the most malicious examiners of Christ's divinitie and yet Christ died for these unthankfull creatures who are the figment of the devil but most home is the judgment of S. Chrysostom Christus mortuus est pro inimicis pro tyrannis Chrys hom 76. Constant n 24. pro maleficis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro Osoribus pro crucifigentibus atque pro his ipsis
or heightned in him to greater power and efficacie and whereas David prayed Psal 51. 11. take not thy holie Spâ—rit from me it will not follow that David feared he should be left destitute altogether of the Spirit of God but that it might remaine with him in some degree at least but he prayed for the Continuance and Manifestation of Gods help and assistance by the Spirit in the same manner as before he had it because as Prosper observeth Cessatio auxilii pro absentia accipitur i God Pros ad Dem. n. 59. is said to depart from man when he withholdeth his help albeit God is essentially alwayes present so when he withdraweth one grace yet he may manifest his presence by some other grace for every man hath not every grace of the Spirit S. Hierom in one of his exegetical Epistles upon these words 1 Cor. 15. 28. That God may be all in all saith Adhuc Deus est nisi pars Hier. Epist 147. n. 30. in singulis ut sapientia in Solomone patientia in Job post erit omnia in omnibus cum Sancti omnes virtutes habuerint i In this life God is but a part in men as wisdome in Solomon patience in Job but in the next life God will be all in all for then his Saints shall be induced with all vertues And wheras it is said Joh. 7. 39. The holie Ghost was not yet given Yet wee are sure that it was given before both to the Prophets and also to the Apostles but the meaning is as S. Austin expounds it Non quia nulla datio antea sed quia non talis quae de Aug. de Trin. lib. 4. c. 17. n. 72 Linguis legitur i Not as if there had bin no gift of the Spirit before but because the Spirit was not before given in that kind and manner as it was at the feast of Pente cost and so doth S. Cyril resolve the same doubt Cyril Hieros Cat. 16. Spiritus idem descendebat in Pentecoste qui anteà sed tum Copiosiùs i It was the same Spirit that descended at the Pentecost which came before but now it came more Copiouslie Thus are God and man united he taking our flesh and we receiving his Spirit upon this consideration S. Cyprian saith Cum Corpus â— terra Spiritum possideamus Cyp. de Orat. Dom. n. 82. e caelo Ipsi câ—lum tâ—rra sumus i Man is the union of heaven and earth because our bodies are from the earth but we possesse a Spirit which came from heaven CHAP. XVI That the Spirit of God is given to men nâ—â— sanctified how those are said to be Gods anointed who were not anointed with Oile that our King is Gods anointed somthing concerning the Kings touching and Curing the diseased BUt why should we doubt to affirme that the Spirit of Jesus our only Lord God is communicated even to men unregenerate and that in such men this Spirit doth manifest it's presence in some lower degree by some common graces which doe not sanctifie them in whom they are seeing that we find in Scripture that both heathen and wicked Kings are called Gods anointed for Esa 45. 1. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus yet this Cyrus both lived and died an heathen So King Saul though an Israelite yet a wicked man is called 2 Sam. 1. 14. The Lords anointed Now we know that Vnction doth not alwayes signifie only an External or Ceremonial anointing with Oile but it signifieth also the inward gift and inhabitation of the Spirit of God for wee find that those men are said to be Gods anointed whom we cannot find to have bin externally anointed with Oile for so Christ is said to be anointed Psal 45. 7. Yet not with external Oile so also Abraham Jsaac and Jacob Psal 105. 15. are called Gods anointed yet we find not that they were anointed with Oile but these holie ones are therfore said to be anointed because the Spirit of God was in them which is the true and reall unction wheras external ointment is but the signe therof in like manner because Cyrus an heathen is called Gods anointed and yet was never anointed with Oile it must needs follow that his unction was internal and that he was therfore called Gods anointed because God had put his Spirit into him Iâ—say his Spirit although not working so high as to Sanctification in Cyrus but yet a Spirit of wisdome and kingly fortitude and of skill and knowledg politicall and militarie To enable him to governe which gifts are the effect of Gods Spirit And this is the exposition which the ancients give concerning those forenamed unctions first for Christ Euseb us saith Non apparet Christum unctum fuisse communi oleo sed divino Eus de Dem. lib. 5. c. 2. Spiritu i It can not appeare that Christ was anointed with common Oâ—le Ceremonialie but he was anointed with the divine Spirit and so saith Athanasius Oleum Ath. Orat. 2. Cont. Arian Opt. lib 4. Atha Orat. Cont. Aria n 8. Christi est Spiritus sanctus i The Oile of Christ was the holie Spirit and just so saith Optatus and what this unction of Christ was and wherin it consisted is shewed by the same Athanasius upon those words God of God unitio verbi cum carne vo catur unctâ—o i The union of the Godhead with the manhood was Christ's unction Now for the anointing of meere men and that without any infusion of Oile Eusebius saith Dei Spiritus Eus de Dem. l. 4. c. 15. est dei Oleum i The Oile of God is the Spirit of God and he tels further in the same place that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are called Gods anointed Propter divinum Spiritum cujus participes erant i By reason of Gods Spirit with which those holie patriarks were indued and to the same purpose S. Basil saith Spiritus Basil hom de Bapt. n. 14. sanctus est unctio in nobis i our unction is the holie Spirit which is in us For so it is said also of our Saviour expresly Act. 10. 38. God anointed Iesus of Nazareth with the holie Ghost The appellation of Christ and of Christian is from this unction and we use to say of infants when they are baptized that they are made Christians which signifieth anointed not because of the old Ceremonie of Crisme or anoâ—â—ting with Oile which with us hath bin long agoe disused but as Dionysius formerlie when it was in use gave the reason unction and Christian signifie deificam Spiritus communionem Dionys Areop eccleâ— her c. 2. i The communication of the divine Spirit because wee beleeve that God with the external Sacrament conferreth the inward grace which beleife the ancients did represent by their anointing the baptized with Oile Now if it may app are that by vertue of such an internal Unction of which I spake in Cyrus some unregenerate men have actually exercised and performed
in Cron. as Prosper writeth yet the Manichees did not more deprave the Passion of Christ then you have done and therefore your book cannot expect a better fate then its fore-runners for of all the great Volumes which former hereticks writ there is little or nothing at this day to be found except such fragments as remain in the Fathers who confuted them and a few Creeds and Ep stola fundamenti in St. f Aug. Conâ— Epist fund 10. 6. c. 5. Austin and nothing else of Controversie considerable and yet I must tell you that the books of the Arians were written with far greater art and learning then your loose writings shew and I assure you that many Judicious Divines have said that they find nothing in your book fiâ— to be observed but onely the errours and heresies and yet those are so poorly proved that I may truly say of your book as Austin did of the books of Faustus the Manichee g Aug. Cont. Faust lib. 16. c. 26. Faustus scribit tanquam libellus ejus surdos auditores vel caecos lectores esset habiturus O hominem dictorem alium non cogitantem contradictorem i. Surely you imagined that your Readers and bearer should be deaf or blind and that none would contradict you but all acquiesce in your opinion yet your writings are so blasphemous as if they had been written by him that was the Author of that Libel which Mr. Fox calls h Acts Mon. n. 40. Lucifers Letter and so insipid as if they had been i Erasm f. 359. Suibus Scripti as Erasmus said of such kind of Writers in his time I wish they had been dedicated to Vulcan or strangled with a spunge in their birth because I see that they are like the fry of Serpents and other Vermin and are by you made onely to do mischief untill they be catcht and then the height of their preferment will be as Martial merrily writes of his own Poems k Mart. l. 3. ep 2. Libelle Festina tibi vindicem parare Ne nigram citò raptus in culinam Cordyllas madida â—egas papyro Vel thuris piperisque sis Cucullas Make haste and get a Patron pretty book Before the Black guard or the Master-Cook Snatch thee as waste-paper for his Kitchin To put Spice Sprats Frankincense or Pitch in But if they misse this yet they will not fail of such an end as Arius himself came to or of the fate of Volusius his Annals in Catullus Pleni ruris inficetiarum Catul. car 37. Mart. lib. 12. p. 62. Annales Volusi c. carm 37. So I leave them for present to be put into the Black Bill at Cambridge or the black Catalogue of the late Gangrana CHAP. IV. The Commenters temporizing in unsainting the Apostles in condemning Tombs and in short hair THe next thing to be observed in you and your Comment is your great Compliance with the tender Consciences of these Times which they that formerly observed your very zealous conformity with the then garb must needs judge that you intended this new change onely as a bait to invite the brethren more chearfully to swallow your deadly hook First you will not afford the title of Saint to the holy Apostles but they are plain John Peter Paul only James is beholding to you for Sainting him if not an erratum of the Printer Is not this to shew your conformity with the Plague-bill of London and yet there is the title Allhallowes though not the word Saint and there the word Saint is withdrawn but from places and Churches but you will not allow it to the persons of Apostles the Bill had some colour for it self for it was once ordered in a Council a Concil Constantinop sub Const 5. An. Domini 755. That Churches should not have the appellation of Saint because of the great abuse in Image-worship and because people did then give the title of Saint to those places not because the Churches were so named in their dedications but because the Images of Saints were set up in Churches and the name of the Saint was painted on the Image So that when men said Let us go to St. Peters they meant it of the image when perhaps the Church was not so named but it was never ordered by any Christian Council that the title Saint should be denyed to the persons of the holy Apostles and Evangelists you see the Scriptures give that â—itle to whole Companies of people professing Christ b 1 Cor. 14. 33. who were much inferiour to the high Office and sanctity of the Apostles I think you would be offended with him that should not stile you Doctor and yet the Apostles have a better title to Saint then you to your Doctorship And because some are offended with Images of men lately set upon Tombs as they have as just cause perhaps to find fault with them as to be offended with the memories of Apostles and Martyrs in glasse-windowes if all imagery in Churches be unlawful you more zealously condemn all Tombs built for memory of men departed though they deserved well of us and therein you condemn the practice of holy men in Scripture in preserving the Sepulâ—hâ—â— of David even the accursed Jews did adorn the Tombs of the Prophets whom Matth. 23. 29. their fathers slew yea and all Christian Churches in all ages did allow and with great cost set up Tombs of holy men and Martyrs and called them Memorias Martyrum i. e. the Memories of Martyrs the Sepulcher of Christ was much esteemed by Constantine the Great and a fair Church built over it as we read in Eusebius and that for the memories of twelve Apostles Euseb de vit Const l. 3. lib. 4. Hier. Epist 53. c. 3. n. 17. Aug. de Civ l. 22. c. 8. he built twelve several Tombs in one Church as Constantinople and in St. Hieromes time the Tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul were of great esteem in Rome In St. Austin's time and in his Church at Hippo was the Tomb of St. Stephen set up though far remote from the place of his stoning and we find a Tomb set up or the blessed Virgin Mary in Judaea as some in Diâ—nysius and St. Hierome tell us Nonna the holy woman Vid. Dionys vit Hier. to 9. P. 39. and Mother of Greg. Nazianzen devoted the whole estate which her son Caesarius left to build a costly Monument for his memory as her own son Nazian in his Funeral Oration to her great praise reporteth Naz. Orat. 10. and in the Canons of the Primitive Church recorded by St. Basil The violaters of the Tombs of the dead are Basil ad Amphil c. 64. n. 36. ordered to stand excommunicate the space of eleven yeares even as long as adulterers were This Commenter surely hath an higher conceit of his own wisdome then any other men have discovered to be in him that presumeth to controul the Practice of