rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad vitam eternam so saith Scharp a Scotchman Ecclesia Catholica coetus est hominum sanctorum quos ab aeterno Deus in Christo elegit so saith Dr. Whitakers Ecclesia Catholica coetus est universus electorum so the famous Raynolds The like might be produced from others of the Doctors of the Reformation were not these few sufficient to speak out for all Names great enough I must confess but not to be preferred before Sacred Truth in the defence whereof it behoves a man not wedded to mens names and dictates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Aristotle to sacrifice his private interesses and most dear Relations That the Elect are of the Church yea and the chief ingredients of the whole compositum it were impiety to deny And that it is for their sakes chiefly that the Word of God is preached the Sacraments of Christ administred the promises of life eternal offered to the Sons of Men is a thing which I shall easily grant And so I understand the words of Clemens of Alexandria saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church of the first-born it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text whence the Father had it whose names are written in the Heavens as St. Paul informs us But in a great house there are more people than the children though all they co-heirs and in a Royal Court there are many Retainers whose names are not registred in the Check Though the Elect are of the Church yet neither all they nor yet they alone Not all the Elect for when Saul breathed out slaughter against the Saints and Mary Magdalen was possessed with seven devils at once whether with so many wicked spirits or the seven deadly sins we dispute not now who can affirm them to be Members of the Church of Christ And yet who can or dare deny that they were vessels of election elect according to the fore-knowledge of Almighty God Secundum praescientiam praedestinationem quam multi oves foris quam multi lupi intus as St. Augustine hath it According to Gods prescience and predestination How many of the Sheep saith he are without the Church how many Wolves contained in it And in another place Electorum quidam in haeresibus aut Gentilium superstitionibus sunt tamen illic novit Dominus qui sunt ejus Many of the Elect. saith he are yet involved in Heresie or Heathenish Superstitions whom yet God knoweth to appertain unto the number of his people Nor they alone For there are Wolves within the fold as the Father telleth us and many which partake of the heavenly calling who by impurity of life and unfoundness of Doctrine exclude themselves from having place in the Heavenly Kingdom Out of the many which are called but few are chosen because they do not chearfully obey that calling and hearken not with due obedience to the voice of God which calls them in the Church unto newness of life Were it not so and that even wicked men and ungodly sinners did appertain unto the Church and that the Heretick and Schismatick were not members of it The Church had no authority to proceed against them or to endeavor their reclaim by Ecclesiastial censures Though God both may and will judge them when he sees his time yet the Church cannot do it For what have I to do to judge them also that are without saith the great Apostle And what were this but to make the Church of God which is pure and holy to be a stable of unclean beasts and a sink of filthiness To which all scandalous sinners would repair in swarms in confidence of enjoying there their desired impunity Gods field hath Tares as well as Wheat and both permitted to grow up till the general harvest when he shall give his Angels charge to sever the wicked from the just and righteous persons to binde the one in bundles for eternal fire but gather the other for his barn for the joyes of Heaven Now as these opposite parties have extreamly erred in the right constitution of the Members of the Church of Christ so have they failed as grosly in their Doctrine of the Churches Head Which the one side have made too great for that Sacred Body the other all Body in a manner but no Head at all I speak not here of Christ understand not so whom both sides do acknowledge for the Head of the Body Mystical but of the Supream Head on Earth to whom the Government of the Church is by him committed Our Masters in the Church of Rome first make the Government of the Church to be Monarchical and lay the burden on the shoulders of one man alone and then this more than man this Monarch to be the Pope of Rome and none else but he For the first part of this Assertion they pretend the Scriptures mustering up all the Privileges which Christ gave to Peter which were they such as are pretended were but personal onely no more annexed to his Successors in the Chair of Rome than in that of Antioch But for the second part thereof they confess ingenuously that there is no Scripture to be found For Bellarmine who had canvased this point as thoroughly as any man what ever of all that party is fain to shut it up with this close at last That though some Headship or Supremacy may seem to be conferred on Peter in the Book of God Tamen Pontificem Romanum Petro succedere expresse in Scripturis non haberi yet that the Pope succeeded Peter is not found in Scripture but grounded on Tradition onely as before was said And if it be not found in Scripture as he saith it is not we shall as little build our Faith upon their Traditions though now we see what makes them rank Traditions equal with the written Word as upon those similitudes and ill-grounded consequences which for want of better proof he is fain to flie to And yet this point thus weakly grounded is by them made an Article of the Catholick Faith and that not onely in the new Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth who might be partial in his own cause where it brings up the Rere but in the general esteem of the Court of Rome where it chargeth in the very Front For when the Princes of those times applauded the piety and courage of King Henry the Eighth in that without any alteration in Religion he had suppressed the Popes Authority in all his Dominions The Papal faction thought the censure to be very unjust Primo praecipuo Romanensium fidei Articulo de Pontificis Primatu immutato considering that the first and chiefest Article of the Faith that of the Popes Supremacy was so changed and abrogated But on what ground soever they have raised this building and placed the Headship of the Church on such rotten shoulders as are not able to support it yet is this Head
maxime that greater are the swarmes of writers then of flies in Summer And here I look it should be said that in those things wherein I thus judge others I condemn my self in doing the same things which I judge them for and so am rendred inexcusable for so great a folly And though it cannot be denyed but that I have been as great a Scribler as almost any other of my age and time yet thus much I must say in my own defence that except the first Essay and draught of my Geography digested for my private pleasure and Printed probably out of ambition and vain glory I never published any thing with or without my mane subscribed unto it but what was either by the strong hand of importunity extorted from me or else imposed by the appointment and command of the noblest power under which I lived Had I been troubled as some are with an itch of Printing or carryed on by a desire of being in action I could have offered to thy view some Pieces long before this time and those it may be not unworthy of thy consideration which hitherto I have kept by me and possibly shall do so still untill they may be found subsequent to the publick peace For that there is a time to keep silence as well as times for men to speak is as Canonical a line for a man to walke by in my poor opinion as to be instant in season and out of season is esteemed by others But the truth is I never voluntarily ingaged my self in any of those publick quarrels by which the unity and order of the Church of England hath been so miserably distracted in these latter times Nor have I ever loved to run before or against Authority but always took the just counsels and commands thereof for my ground and warrant which when I had received I could not think that there was any thing left on my part but obsequii gloria the honour of a cheerful and free obedience And in this part of my obedience it was my lot to be most commonly imployed in the Puritane controversies in managing whereof although I used all Equanimity and temper which reasonably could be expected the argument and persons against whom I writ being well considered yet I did thereby so exasperate that prevailing party that I became the greatest object of their spleen and fury Hardly a libell in those times which exercised the patience of the State for so long together in which my reputation was not blasted my good name traduced my Religion questioned and whether I would or not I must be a Papist or at the least an Under-factor for the Church of Rome But the best was I had the honour of good Company which made the burden pleasing to me not only the Bishops generally but some Particulars amongst them of most eminent note being traduced in the same Pasquils for carrying on a designe to bring in Popery the King himself given out witnesse the Popish royall Favorite amongst other Pamplets to be that way biassed And if they call the Master of the house by the name of Belzebub the servants must not look to finde better language And though I took all honest and ingenuous courses to wipe off this stain yet when the calumny once was up necesse est ut aliquid haereat it was impossible for me in a manner so to purge my self as not to suffer under the injustice of the imputation Concerning which I shall make bold to tell thee a remarkable passage which is briefly this It was about the time that my Lord of Canterbury had published his learned and laborious work against Fisher the Iesuite when I had preached some Sermons before the King upon the Parable of the Tares which Parable I had chosen for the constant argument of my Sermons intended for the Court of which some moderate and judicious men were pleased to say that in those Sermons I had pulled up Popery by the very roots and subverted the foundations of it to which it was replyed by some of those bitter spirits whether with more uncharitablenesse or imprudent zeal it is hard to say that the Arch-bishop might Print and Dr. Heylyn might Preach what they would against Popery but they should never believe them to be any thing the lâ—sse Papists for all that A censure of a very strange nature and so little savoring of Christianity that I believe it is not easie to be parrallel'd in the worst of times But from the envie hatred malice and uncharitablenesse of such kind of men no lesse then from plague pestilence and famine good Lord deliver us I could add much more not much short of this did I love to rub up these old sores as indeed I do not the clamour not being made lesse if it went not higher in the sitting of the late long Parliament though no complaint or information was made against me or if it were was thought considerable enough to be enquired into or took notice of Nor indeed had I said thus much but in compliance to the grave counsell of St. Hierome whose saying it was In suspicione hareseos se nolle quenquam fore patientem that for a man to keep silence when accused of Heresie was a selfe-conviction And yet I cannot choose but note the great and unprofitable paines which hath been taken by the Author of that Voluminous nothing entituled Canterburies Doom to finde me guilty of some points of supposed Popery only because in some particulars not determined by the Church of England I had adhered unto the words and tendries of the Antient Fathers or bound my self in matters publickly resolved on to vindicate this Church to her genuine tenents And to say truth the least endevour of this kinde was cause enough for any clamor or reproches which the tongues and pens of those bitter men could impose on them who did not stand as strongly in defence of Out-landish fancies as of the true and natural doctrines of the Church their mother Witnesse the fearfull outcry made against B. Bilson for preaching otherwise of Christs descending into hell and the great hubbub raised against Peter Baro for writing otherwise in the points of Predestination then had been taught by some of the Genevian Doctors though neither the one had Preached nor the other Printed but what was consonant to the Doctrine of approved Antiquity and to the true intent and meaning of the book of Articles here by Law established Private opinions especially if countenanced by some eminent name were looked on as the publick Resolutions of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those opinions which by the artifice of some men had been fastened on her So that it was not without some ground that the Archbishop of Spalato being gone from hence did upbraid this Church in his Consilium redeundi for taking into her confession which he acknowledges of its self to be sound and profitable multa Calvini Lutheri
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
of the Christian faith drawn up as briefly and as plainly but yet withall as fully as might stand with brevity a constant rule or standard Regula fidei as Tertullian cals it which both the people were to learn and the Priests or Ministers to teach And to this purpose it is said by Austin of the Creed or Symbolum that it was simplex breve plenum plain short and perfect simplicitas ut consulat rusticitati audientium brevitas memoriae plenitudo doctrinae that so the plainnesse of it might comply with the capacities of the hearers the shortnesse with their want of memory the perfection or the fulnesse of it with their edification Had any one of these been wanting had it been plain enough to be understood but too long and copious to be born in memory or short enough to be remembred but obscure and difficult above the reach of ordinary apprehensions or plain and short enough but imperfect maimed and wanting in some points of principal moment it had been no fit rule for the Church of CHRIST produced no benefit at all at least not worthy the divine Apostolical spirit for the use of Christians I know the age we live in hath produced some men and those of special eminence in the wayes of learning who seem to bid defiance unto all antiquity and will have neither Creeds nor Fathers no nor antient Councels to bear a stroke in any thing which concerns Religion It is not long since that the Apostles Creed hath been out of credit as neither theirs nor antiently received by the Christian Church in that forme we have it but none have taken more unhappy pains in this fruitlesse quarrel then one Downe of Devonshire Vossius hath lately writ a book De Tribus Symbolis wherein he hath not only derogated from this of the Apostles which others had quarrelled to his hand but very unfortunately endevours to prove that that ascribed to Athanasius and so long taken to be his by the chief lights for piety and learning in the Church of Christ was not writ by him Nor is he pleased with that form set forth and recommended to the Churches by the Councell of Nice for fear there should be any obligation laid upon mens consciences to believe otherwise then they list And whereas it was thought till these subtiller times that the most certain way to interpret Scripture was by the Catholick consent and commentaries of the antient Fathers so much renowned both in their own times and all ages since they are now made so inconsiderable such poor-spirited men that truth will shortly fare the worse because they delivered it Our Downe and after him one Dalie a French-man had not else beat their brains and consumed their time and stretched their wits unto the utmost to make them of no use or credit either in points of faith or controversie as they both have done The next thing that we have to do is to cry down the Canon of the Scripture also and as we have vilifyed the Creeds Councels and Fathers to make the fairer room for our own right reason which is both Fathers Creeds and Councels to our now great wits so to reject the Scriptures also as some do already to make the clearer way for new revelations which is the Paraclet or the holy Ghost of our present Montanists To meet with this strange pride and predominant humour I have most principally applyed my self at this time of leasure wherein God help it is not lawfull for me to attend that charge in which God had placed me to restore this antient and Apostolick Creed to its former credit and to expound the same as it stands in terminis according to the sense and meaning of those Orthodox and Catholick writers which have successively flowrished in the Christian world and were the greatest ornaments of the age they lived in For being free from prejudice and prepossessions which do too often blind the eyes of the wisest men and no way interessed in the quarrels which are now on foot to the great disturbance of the Church and peace of Christendome what men more fit then they to decide those Controversies which have been raised about the meaning of those Articles of the Christian faith which are comprised in it or deduced from it So doing I shall satisfie my self though I please not others and have good cause to thanke this retreat from businesse for giving me such opportunities to consult Antiquity and thereby to informe my own understanding For my part I have always been one of those qui docendo discunt who never more benefit my self then by teaching others And therefore though these Papers never see the light or perhaps they may not I shall not think I could have spent my time more profitably then in this employment So God speed me in it To goe back therefore where we left exceeding necessary it was as before was said for some short summarie or compendium of the Christian faith to be agreed on and drawn up for the use of Gods people and that for these 3. reasons chiefly First to consult the wants and weaknesses of poor ignorant persons such as were Novices in the faith and but Babes in CHRIST ut incipientibus et lactantibus quid credendum sit constitueretur as St. Augustine hath it Secondly that there might be some standing rule by which an Orthodox Teacher might be known from a wicked heretick a Christian from an unbeliever and to this end the Creed or Symbolum served exceeding fitly Of which St. Austin gives this note His qui contradicit aut a CRISTI fide alienus est aut est haereticus that whosoever contradicts it is either an Heretick or an Infidel Thirdly that people of all nations finding so punctual and exact an harmonie in points of doctrine to be delivered by the Apostles wheresoeoer they came might be the sooner won to embrace that faith in which they found so universal and divine a consonancie and be united with and amongst themselves in the bonds of peace which is not to be found but where there is the spirit of unity And who were able think you to prescribe a rule so universally to be received over all the world so suddenly to be obeyed by all Christian people but the Lords Apostles Who else but they were of authority to impose a form on the Church of CHRIST to be so uniformly held so consonantly taught in all tongues and languages as we finde this was by Irenaeus to be esteemed so unalterable and unmoveable as this was counted by Tertullian to be illustrated by the notes and Commentaries of the most glorious lights of the Christian firmament St. Cyril Chrysostom Austin and indeed who not â—and finally to continue for so long a time as for 1600. years together not only without such opposition as other Creeds have met with in particular Churches but without any sensible alteration in the words and syllables Assuredly such respects and honour had not
ones have bâ—en pleased to do it Witness that famous challenge made by Bishop Iewel by which the several points in issue between the Church of England and the Church of Rome were generally referred to the decision of the Antient Fathers with great both honour and success Witness these words of Peter Martyr a man of great imployment in the REFORMATION of the Church and sent for hither by Archbishop Cranmer to mote it here In judging things obscure saith he the Spirit there are two ways or means for our direction whereof the one is inward which is the Spirit the other outward or external the Word of God to which saith he Si Patrum etiam autoritas accesserit valebit plurimum If the authority of the Fathers do come in for seconds it will exceedingly avail And unto this agrees Chemnitius also though of a different judgement from him in some points of doctrine who having told us of the Fathers that we may best learn from their own words and sayings what we may warrantably conceive of their authority gives in the close thereof this note and a sound one 't is Nullum dogma in Ecclesia novum cum tota antiquitate pugnans recipiendum that is to say that new opinion which seems new and is repugnant to the general cuâ—rent of Antiquity is to be entertained in the Church of God What is decreed herein by the Church of England assembled representatively in her Convocations what by the King and three Estates convened in Parliament we shall see anon In the mean time take here the judgment of the Antients in this very case 'T is true indeed the Fathers many times and in sundry places humbly and piously have confessed the eminency of Canonical Scriptures above all the writings of men whatsoever they be for which consent St. Augustine contr Faust. Manic l. 11. c. 5. de Baptismat contr Donatist l. 1. c. 3. Epist. 19. in Proem lib. de Trinitate desiring liberty of dissent from one another when they saw occasion and binding no man to adhere unto their opinions further then they agreed with the Word of God delivered by the holy Prophets and Apostles which have been since the world began De quorum Scriptis quod omni errore careant dubitare nefarium est and of whose writings to make question whether or not they were free from error were a great impiety And this is that whereof St. Hierome speaks in an Epistle to Pope Damasus Ut mihi Epistolis tuis sive tacendarum sive dicendarum Hypostase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n detur autoritas that he might be left to his own liberty either in using or refusiug the word Hypostasis But then it is as true withall that Vincentius give it for a rule Multorum magnorum consentientes sibi sententias Magistorum sequendas esse that the antient consent of godly Fathers is with great care both to be searched into and followed in the Rule of Faith And 't is as true that having moved this question in another place that if the Canon of the Scripture be so full and perfect and so abundantly sufficient in it self for all things Quid opus est ut ei Ecclesiasticae intelligentiae jungatur autoritas what need there is that the authority of Ecclesiastical interpretations should be joyned with it returns this answer in effect Lest every man should wrest the Scriptures to his own private fancy and rather draw some things from thence to maintain his errours then for the advancement of the truth Of the same resolution and opinion was St. Augustine also who though he were exceeding careful upon all occasions to yeild the Scriptures all due reverence yet he was willing therewithall to allow that honour which was meet both to the writings of the Fathers which lived before him and to the Canons and Decrees of preceding Councels and to submit himself unto their Authorities For speaking of General Councels he subjoyns this note Quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima autoritas that their authority in the Church was of excellent use And in another place alleadging the testimonies of Irenaeus Cyprian Hilarie Ambrose and some other Fathers he concludeth thus Hoc probavimus autoritate Catholicorum sanctorum c. This we have proved by the authority of Catholick and godly men to the end that your weak and silly novelties might be overwhelmed with their only authority with which your contumacie is to be repressed He speaks this unto Iulian a Pelagian Heretick And with these testimonies and authorities of such holy men thou must either by Gods mercy be healed i. e. recovered from his errour or else accuse the famous and right holy Doctors of the Catholick Church against which miserable madness I must so reply that their faith may be defended against thee even as the Gospel it self is defended against the wicked and professed enemies of Christ. More of this kinde might be produced from the Antient Writers But what need more be said in so clear a point especially to us that have the honour to be called the children of the Church of England who by a a Canon of the year 1572 doth binde all men in holy Orders not to preach any thing in their Congregations to be believed and holden of the people of God but what is conâ—onant to the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments Quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres Veteres Episcopi collegerint and had been thence concluded or collected take which word you will by the Catholick Fathers and antient Bishops of the Church The like authority and respect is given to the first four General Councels by the unanimous vote and suffrage of the Prince and three Estates convened in Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein it was ordained or declared rather amongst other things that nothing should be deemed or adjudged Heresie in the Kingdome of England but what had been adjudged so formerly in any of the said four General Councels or any other General Councel determining the same according to the Word of God c. Where we may see that the Estates in Parliament did ascribe so much to the authority of those four Councels and the judgement of the Fathers which were there assembled as not to question any thing which they had determined concerning heresie or to examine whether it agreed with Gods Word or not but left the people of this Kingdom totally to repose themselves upon their authority and to take that for heresie without more ado which they judged to be so And so I close this point with those words of Saravia a learned man and one that stood up stoutly in this Churches cause against the innovating humors which was then predominant though not so high as in these times of Anarchie Qui omnem Patribus adimit autoritatem nullam relinquit sibi that is to say He who depriveth the Fathers of their due authority will
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
towards heaven Desierunt homines vultus suos in coelum tollere And thereupon it followed as perhaps it did that being once besotted with earthly pleasures they came in time to be infected with gross and earthly superstitions And no less sure I am that on this Contemplation Anaxagoras a wise man amongst the Gentiles being demanded for what cause he thought he was born made an answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to behold the Firmament So right a use did the Philosopher make of his bodily structure as to conceive the World and the pleasures of it to be so unfit an Object for his minde that it was not worthy of his eye Next for the form or soul of man it differeth more from that of all living Creatures then he doth differ from them in his bodily figure For whereas the soul of all other living creatures did rise out of the matter out of which they were made the soul of man had a more excellent sublime and divine original and was not either made with the bodie or out of the same dust whereof the body was made but infused immediately by God after the body was first framed and organized in every part to receive the same Of other animals it is said that God made the beast after his kind and the cattel after their kind that is to say matter and form at once without any distinction But when he cometh to the creation of man it is first said that God formed man of the dust of the ground and after that he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life whereby he became a living soul. And though I will not enter here upon that dispute whether the rational soul of man be a thing ex traduce whether begotten by his Parents or infused by God yet I confesse that the very order which God used in mans creation is of it self sufficient to make clear that point and to evince thus much that the soul of man is of a more noble extraction then the souls of beasts and not as theirs potentially in the seed of their generation Or if this be not sufficient to evince it then I conceive that he that was the best Divine and the greatest Philosopher of any of the sons of men even Solomon and all his wisdome hath so determined of the point as to make all sure affirming that the bodies of men being generated of grosse and earthly matter are in the end dissolved into that dust out of which they were primitively made but that the soul returneth into the hands of God by whom at first it was inspired Then saith he i. e. at the time of our death the dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to him that gave it A Text so clear and evident to the point in hand that he who writ the Pamphlet called Mans mortality printed 1643. did very well and wisely to passe it over and not to put it in the number of those Objections which might be made against him from the word of God as being utterly destructive of that monstrous Paradox which he takes upon him to defend for true Catholick doctrine And if the Fathers may be suffered to come in for seconds where the authority of Scripture is so plain and pregnant we have a cloud of witnesses of unquestionable credit to confirme the same For the Greek writers first it is said by Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the principal faculties of the soul by which we have rational discourse is not engendred by projection of humane seed Theodoret doth not only say as much as he but brings good proof for it from the word of God The Church saith he believing the divine Scriptures teacheth us that the soul was and is created as well as the body not having any cause of its creation from natural seed but from the will of the Creatour after the body of man had been perfectly made For the divine Moses writeth that Adams body was first made and afterwards his soul was inspired into him and also telleth us in the Law that the body was first made then the soul infused The same he also proveth from a text in Iob and so concludeth that this confession touching the soul and body of man the Church had learnt from holy Scripture Next for the Latine Fathers it is said by Hilarie Animam nunquam ab homine gignentium originibus praeberi that the soul never cometh from the generation of men by Ambrose Ex nullo homine generantur Animae that the souls are not generated by the seed of man by Leo that the Catholick Church doth truly teach that the souls of men were not or had not any being at all before they were inspired into their bodies Nec ab alio incorporentur nisi ab opifice Deo neither are incorporated with the body but by God alone St. Hierome glossing on those words of Solomon before produced thus declareth himself Ex quo satis ridâ—ndi sunt qui putant animas a corporibus seri et non a Deo sed a Corporum parentibus generari Cum enim caro revertatur in terram et Spiritus redeat ad Deum qui dedit illum manifâ—stum est Deum patrem Animarum esse non homines I have laid down his words at large because they are a full and perfect exposition of that Text of Solomons on which I principally ground my self for Catholick doctrine though there be diverse other places one might build upon But for S. Hieromes words they are thus in English How worthily saith he are they to be derided who think the soul to be sown together with the body in the Mothers wombe and to be generated by our Parents not to come from God For being it is said by Solomon that the flesh returneth to the earth and the Spirit unto him that gave it it is most manifest that God is the Father of our souls not man T is true Ruffinus made some scruple whether the soul did come by propagation from Man or infusion from God by which as he gave very great scandall to all Christian people so was he very sufficiently scorned and confuted by S. Hierome for it T is true Tertullian sometime thought as this Pamphetler doth that the soul either was a kind of body or was ex traduce that is to say derived and propagated by traduction of humane seed but then it is as true withall that for this and other of his Heterodox tenets he is put into the Catalogue of Hereticks composed by Augustine And for S. Augustine himself though to avoid the difficulty which lay hard upon him touching the manner how the soul cometh to be infected with original sin made question whether the soul were infused by God or derived he knew not how from the soul of the Parent yet he rejected the opinion as absurd and grosse that is should be
in anima cruciatus damnati perditi hominis pertulerit and felt most sensibly in his soul those miserable torments of a man utterly forlorne and damned to the pit of hell that being thus forsaken and estranged from the sight of God he was so cast down as in the anguish of his spirit to cry out afflictively My God my God why hast thou forsaken me as finding in himself omnia irati punientis Dei signa all the sure tokens of an angrie and avenging God finally that the fear and sorrow which did overwhelme him in the Garden his fervent prayer his Agonie and bloudy sweat were nothing but the signes and evidences of those horrid and unspeakable torments those diros horribiles cruciatus as he cals them there which he then suffered in his soul. And what could all this be but the pains of hell This he resolves to be the meaning of the Article condemning all exceptions which are or may be made against it either as frivolous and ridiculous Sect. 10. or to proceed ex malitia magis quam imscitia rather from malice then from ignorance and all that hath been said unto the contrary to be nothing but meer slander and calumniations and being most extremely pleased to see how those who did oppose him knew not where to fasten but were compelled to flie from one thing to another This is the summe of his dispute the substance of that dangerous innovation in the Christian faith which was by him first published for a truth undoubted and after taken up upon his Authority without further questioning or debate Which as it generally prevailed in most places else so did it no where finde more fast friends and followers then in this unhappy Church of England where it became in fine to be accounted the sole Orthodox Doctrine vented in Pulpits and in Catechisms that the death of Christ upon the Cross and his bloud shed for the remission of our sins were the least cause and means of our Redemption but that he did and ought to suffer the death of the sâ—ul and those very pains which the damned souls in hell do suffer before we could be ransomed from the wrath of God and that this was that descent into hell which in our Creed we are taught to believe A doctrine so directly contrary unto that of the Church of England delivered in her Articles and Books of Homilies solemnly authorized and ratified as before was said that Dr. Bilson the Reverend and learned Bishop of Winton then being thought himself obliged as well to undeceive the people as to assert the antient doctrine of the Church And to that end delivered in a Sermon at St. Pauls Cross London what he conceived to be the tenet of the Scriptures in this particular according to the Exposition of the holy Fathers Which as it first occasioned some unsavory Pamphlets and afterwards some set discourses to be writ against him so it necessitated him in his own defence to set out that laborious work entituled The survey of Christs sufferings for mans Redemption and of his descent to Hades or Hell for our deliverance I must confess my self indebted for the most part of those helps which I have had in the true stating both of this and the former Article Thus having shewn who was the Author what the progress of this so much applauded Exposition of Christs descent into hell we next proceed to the examining and confutation of the same And first the Reader may take notice that all the out-works to this Citadel esteemed so invincible and inexpugnable have by us been taken in already in the two former chapters where we have proved that neither the extreme fear or sorrow which did seize upon him in the Garden of Gethsemane nor any of his fervent prayers either there or on the Cross it self no nor the Agony it self nor the bloudy sweat were any signs or arguments of those hellish pains which they have fancied to themselves in our Saviours soul. And we have also proved in the last chapter of all not only that our Saviour did not die the death of the soul as these men blasphemously pretend but that the work of our Redemption was compleated fully by that bodily and bloudy sacrifice which he made of himself upon the Cross. So that there now remains no more but to prove this point which is indeed the main of all namely that Christ neither did nor ought to suffer the pains belonging to the damned or endured so much as for a moment the torments of hell And for the proof of this it is fit we know both what those pains and torments are which the damned do suffer and of what nature are those fires which the Scriptures declare to be in hell what punishments belong to the soul alone and what unto the soul and body being joyned together And first of all the torments which the damned suffer in their souls only though infinite and unexpressible in themselves may be reduced to these three heads 1 remorse of conscience 2 a sense of their rejection from the favour of God and 3 a despair of ever being eased of that consuming misery which is fallen upon them Remorse of conscience that 's the first and one of the most heavy torments suffered by those wretched souls who in their life time wholly renounced the Lord their God to enjoy their pleasures by which they are kept in a continual remembrance of that madness and folly wherewith they rebelled against the Lord and of the contumacy wherewithall they refused his mercies God punishing the souls of such wicked men with the evidence and conscience of their own uncleanness and with the sight and most infallible assurance of their now everlasting wretchedness Whether or not this be the Worm our Saviour speaks of and of which he telleth us in his Gospel that it never dyeth we shall speak more at large hereafter In the mean time observe we what the Fathers say touching this particular Quae poena gravior quam interioris vulnus conscientiae what pain more grievous saith St. Ambrose then the wounds of a convicted conscience Magna poena impiorum est conscientia the conscience of the wicked saith St. Augustine is one of their greatest pains or punishments And more then so amongst all the afflictions of mans soul saith he there is none greater then the conscience of sin How thinkest thou saith St. Chrysostom shall our conscience be bitten alluding to the Worm spoken of before and is not this worse then any torment whatsoever With whom agreeth Eusebius also in his Apologie for Origen published under the name of Pamphilus saying tunc ipsa conscientia propriis stimulis agitatur that then the conscience of a wicked man shall be pricked and pierced with the stings of their own proper sins The second torment which the damned suffer in the soul alone is the sense of their rejection from the
and Martyrs approving and applauding as before I said that most righteous judgement which CHRIST shall then pronounce against all the wicked saying Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This dreadful sentence thus pronounced and the condemned persons being delivered over by the Angels of God to the Devil and his according to the sentence of that righteous Iudge CHRIST shall arise from his Tribunal and together with his elect Angels and most blessed Saints shall in an orderly and triumphant manner ascend into the Heaven of Heavens where unto every one of his glorious Saints he shall bestow the immarcessible Crown of glory and make them Kings and Priests unto God the Father When all the Princes of the Earth have laid down their Scepters at the feet of CHRIST God shall be still a King of Kings a King indeed of none but Kings Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium always but most amply them For then shall CHRIST deliver up the Kingdom unto God the Father which how it must be understood we have shewn before And the Saints laying down their Crowns at the feet of Christ shall worship and fall down before him saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation and hast made us Kings and Priests to God to reign with thee in thy Kingdome for evermore Thus have I made a brief but a plain discovery so far forth as the light of Scripture could direct me in it both of the manner of our Saviours coming unto Judgement and of the Method he shall use in the act of judging That which comes after Iudgement whether life or death whether it be the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell will fall more properly under the consideration of the last Article of the Creed that of Life Everlasting and there we mean to handle all those particulars which I think pertinent thereunto In the mean time a due and serious consideration of this day of Iudgement will be exceeding necessary to all sorts of people and be the strongest bridle to restrain them from the acts of sin that ever was put into the mouths of ungodly men For what a bridle think we must it be unto them to keep them from unlawful lusts nay from sinful purposes when they consider with themselves that in that day the hearts of all men shall be opened their desires made known and that no secrets shall be hid but all laid open as it were to the publick view What a strong bridle must it be to curb them and to hold them in when they are in the full careere and race of wickedness when they consider with themselves that there will be no way nor means to escape this Judgement Though they procure the Rocks to fall upon them and the Hils to hide them yet will Gods Angels finde them out and gather them from every corner of the World be they where they will Though they have flattered their poor souls and said Tush God will not see it or have disguised themselves with fig-leaves out of a silly hope to conceal their nakedness or wiped their lips so cunningly with the harlot in the Book of Proverbs that no man can discern a stollen kiss upon them yet all this will not serve the turn God will for all this bring them unto judgement and apprehend them by his Angels when they go a gathering There shall not one of them escape the hands of these diligent Sergeants Ne unus quidem no not one And finally what a bridle must it be unto them to hold them from exorbitant wickedness as either the crucifying again of the Lord of glory the persecuting of the Saints their mischievous plots against the Church in her peace and Patrimony when they consider with themselves that he whom thus they crucifie is to be their Iudge and that those poor souls whom they now contemn shall give a vote or suffrage on their condemnation and that the poor afflicted Church which they made truly militant by their foul oppressions malgre their tyranny and confederacies shall become Triumphant And on the other side what a great comfort must it be to the righteous man to think that Christ who all this while hath been his Mediator with Almighty God shall one day come to be his Iudge What a great consolation must it be unto him in the time of trouble to think that all his groans are registred his tears kept in a bottle and his sighs recorded and that there is a Iudge above who will wipe all the tears from his eyes and give him mirth in stead of mourning What an incouragement must it be unto him in the way of godliness when he considereth with himself that there is laid up for him a Crown of glory which the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day and give it him in the fight both of men and Angels Finally what strength and animation must it put into them to make them stand couragiously in the cause of Christ and to contemn what ever misery can be laid upon them in the defence of Christs and the Churches cause when they consider with themselves that there is no man who hath lost Father or Mother or wife or children or lands and possessions for the sake of Christ but shall receive much more in this present world and in the world to come life everlasting For behold he cometh quickly as himself hath told us and his reward is with him to give to every man according as his work shall be Even so Lord Jesus So be it Amen THE SUM Of Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical Contained in the APOSTLES CREED or Reducible to it THE THIRD PART By Peter Heylyn 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one Spirit are we all Baptized into one Body whether we be Iews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit LONDON Printed for Henry Seyle 1654. ARTICLE IX Of the Ninth ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. IAMES the Son of ALPHEVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. I beleeve in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church CHAP. I. Touching the Holy Ghost his divine Nature Power and Office the Controversie of his Procession laid down Historically Of Receiving the Holy Ghost and of the severall ministrations in the Church appointed by him WE are now come unto the third and last part of this Discourse containing in the first place the Article of the Holy Ghost and of the holy Catholick Church gathered together and preserved by the power thereof And in the rest those several Gifts and special Benefits which Christ conferreth by the operation of
Ecclesia malignantium as the Psalmist calls it Or if you will we may by these behold the Church in her chief ingredients which are the sanctimony of life and conversation it is an holy Church and the integrity of her doctrine free from all Heresie and Error in the title Catholick For the word Catholick is not onely used to signifie Universality of extent but purity of doctrine also The first in the natural the second in the borrowed sense of the word In the first sense the Church is called Catholick in respect of place Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and nation To which accordeth that of an Antient writer saying Ab ortu solis ad occasum lex Christiana suscepta est That the Gospel of Christ had been admitted from the rising of the Sun to the setting of it that is to say In all parts of the world And it is called Catholick too in respect of persons who are promiscuously and indefinitely called to the knowledge of Christ In whom there is neither Iew nor Gentile bond nor free male nor female but all called alike And so Lactantius telleth us also Universos homines sine discrimine sexus vel aetatis Minutius addes Aut dignitatis ad coeleste pabulum convocamus Lastly it hath the name of Catholick in respect of times as comprehending all the faithful since our Saviours days unto the age in which we live and to continue from henceforth to the end of the world Of which duration or extent of the Church of Christ the Angel Gabriel did fore-signifie to his Virgin-mother that he should reign in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there should be no end And in this sense it doth not onely include that part of the Church which is now Militant on the Earth but also that which is Triumphant in the Heaven of Glories Both they with us and we with them make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head and all together together with the Antient Patriarcks and other holy men of God which lived under the Law shall make up that one glorious Church which is entituled in the Scriptures The general Assembly the Church of the first-born whose names are written in the Heavens For the better clearing of which Vnion or Concorporation which is between these different Members of the Body Mystical the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Council added the word One unto the Article reading it thus And I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Catholick then the Church may be rightly called in regard to extent whether it do refer to time place or persons and it is called Catholick too in respect of Doctrine with reference to the same extensions that being the true Catholick Doctrine of the Church of Christ Quae semper quae ubique quae ab omnibus credita est which hath always and in every place been received as Orthodox and that too by all manner of men according to the Golden Rule of Lerinensis Catholick in this sense is the same with Orthodox a Catholick Christian just the same with a true Professor by which the Doctrine is distinguished from Heretical and the men from Hereticks Iustinian in the Code doth apply it so Omnes hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti That for the persons the Professors it followeth after for the Doctrine Is autem Nicenae adsertor fidei Catholicae Religionis verus cultor accipiendus est c. A National or Topical Church may be called Catholick in this sense and are often times entituled so in Ecclesiastical Authors For Constantine the Emperor writing to the Alexandrians superscribed his Letters in this form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. To the Catholick Church of Alexandria And Gregory Nazianzen being then Bishop of Constantinople calls himself in his last Will and Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Bishop of the Catholick Church in the City of Constantine Of this word Catholick in this sense there hath been different use made as the times have varied The Fathers of the purest times made use of it to distinguish themselves from Hereticks according to that so celebrated saying of Pacianus Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen Christian saith he is my name and Catholick my sirname by the one I am known from Infidels by the other from Hereticks And so long as the main body of Christianity retained the form of wholesome words and kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace it served exceeding fitly for a mark distinctive to known an Orthodox Professor from those who followed after Heretical and Schismatical Factions But when the main Body of the Church was once torn in peeces and every leading faction would be thought the true Church of Christ they took unto themselves the names of Catholicks also as if the truth was not more Orthodoxly held by the soundest Christians than it was by them And this hath been a device so stale and common that the Nestorians in the East though antiently condemned for Hereticks in the Third General Council do call their Patriark by the name of Catholick that is to say The Catholick or Orthodox Bishop as Leunclavius telleth us very rightly not Iacelich as the Copies of Brochardus and Paulus Venetus do corruptly read it In the same Error are our great Masters in the Church of Rome who having appropriated to themselves the name of Catholicks and counting all men Hereticks but themselves alone First cast all others out of the Church by the name of Hereticks who do not hold communion with them in their sins and errors and then defend themselves by the name of Catholicks from having dealt unjustly with their Fellow-Christians men every way more Orthodox than they be themselves Just so the Collier justified himself for a true Believer because he believed as the Church believed though he knew not the doctrine of the Church and the Church believed as he believed though the Church troubled not it self about his opinions I know the great Cardinal presumes very much on the name of Catholick making it to be one of the signs of the true Church now because an adjunct of the true Church in the Primitive times And wonder it is that we are grown so prodigal of late as to give it to them A courtesie which they receive with a great deal of joy and turn the bare acknowledgement to their great advantage there being no Argument more convincing than that which is drawn from the confession of an adversary Upon this ground doth Barclay build his Triumph for the cause of Rome Adeo probanda est ecclesia nostra à nomine Catholicae quod extorquet etiam ab invitis hareticis as he brags it there For my part as I never gave it them in writing nor in common speech as thinking
become so monstrous that it is grown bigger than all the rest of the Body For do not his own Canonists say that the Pope hath power of both the Swords that Christ committed to St. Peter and in him to them Terreni coelestis imperii jura The rights both of the Earthly and Heavenly Kingdoms Was it not openly affirmed in the Council of Lateran In Papa esse omnem potestatem c That in the Pope there was vested an authority over all powers both in Heaven and Earth And in pursuance of this power have they not frequently deposed Kings absolved the Subjects of the Oaths of Allegiance and disposed of Kingdoms till at last his Parasites came to broach this Tenet Papam esse verum Dominum temporalium ita ut possit auferre ab alio quod alias suum est c. That is to say That the Pope onely is the true and direct Lord of all Temporal States so that he may deprive whom he will of his estate without any remedy All Bishops and Princes whatsoever not being the Proprietaries of their own estates but Bailiffs and Stewards under him Thus also in Spiritual matters do they not teach that the whole World is his Diocess that he is Ordinarius omnium hominum and Episcopus totius orbis the ordinary Judge of all mankinde and Bishop of the whole world and that being thus possessed of this general Bishoprick Omnes Episcopi descendunt à Papa quasi membra à Capitè de plenitudine ejus omnes recipiunt All Bishops derive their power from him as the Body doth motion from the Head and that of his fulness they have all received That if the Pope should teach as he may and doth Virtutes esse vitia vitia esse virtuâ—es That vertue is vice and vice vertue we were bound to believe him And more than so That what crime soever he commit he is not to be censured or condemned for it Nec à Concilio nec à tota Ecclesia nec à toto mundo neither by a Council nor by all the Church together nor the whole World neither So privileged in a word he is that as one of them saith Si Papa innumerabiles populos catervatim secum ducat mancipio Gehennae c. If the Pope draw infinite companies of people with himself to Hell yet must no mortal man presume to reprove him for it Why so The Reason is most plain and evident Quia Papa Christus unum faciunt Consistorium because the Pope and Christ conjunct do but make one Consistory and consequently it must be as great a Sacrilege to question the acts of the Pope as those of Christ. We see by this to what a monstrous greatness this Head is grown how unproportionable to the Body his own Creatures make him And yet he is not onely greater than all the Body but he is all the Body too the Pope and Church being grown to be Terms and Convertible For so saith Gregory de Valentia Per ecclesiam caput ejus intelligimus c By the Church we mean her head and by that the Pope Dominicus Bannes affirms the same Pro eodem omnino reputatur autoritas ecclesiae universalis autoritas summi pontificis The authority of the Pope and that of the Universal Church is altogether the same The whole authority of the Church abideth in him saith Thomas Aquinas It remains all in him saith Silvester another of their principal Schoolmen Bellarmine is more plain than any Papa potest dicere ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi The Pope saith he may tell the Church that is himself His meaning is That lest the Pope should want Remedy when offence is given him he may be Judge in his own cause and on complaint unto himself see the matter mended But this he learnt of Innocent the Third Pope of that name who challenged to himself the cognizance of some points in difference between King Philip of France and Iohn King of England because it is written in the Gospel Dic ecclesiae as I have read in some good Author but cannot call to minde in whom Never did Text of Scripture meet with two such learned Glossaries never was Pope and Cardinal better matched nor need I adde more in so clear a case unless it be that commonly they call the Pope Virtualem Ecclesiam or the Vertual Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek because what power soever doth of right belong to the Body Collective of Christs Church the Church Essential as they term it is vertually contained in his person onely Me thinks it might have been enough for a single man to have been counted onely for a Chapel of Ease But such is the ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned for a Church at all And yet this of the two is the lovelier Error Better the Church be all head than no head at all And such a Church that is all body and no head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their later Platforms The Presbyterian Party first began this Monster which those of the Independent way have now fully perfected The Presbyterian Form being hatched in a popular state but such as did acknowledge a supream command in the great Council of that City first make all Ministers equal amongst themselves and then associate with each Minister two or more Lay-Elders whom they invest joyntly with all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which antiently and of right did belong to Bishops But this Presbytery thus constituted is not so supream but that it is accomptable to the Classis within which it is as that unto the Provincial Assembly and all unto that National Meeting which being made of the Deputed Ministers and Lay-Elders out of each Presbytery hath the name of General not such a General Assembly as St. Paul speaks of though possibly the name may allude to that For neither are they the Church of the first-born nor all of them at all times of the number of those whose names are written in the Heavens But let them call it what they will they have given us such a Model of Church-Government as was not known amongst the Antients and made it in effect but an headless body The Ruling Members being all equal in themselves and yet so Heterogeneous in the whole Compositum that the greatest part thereof are men of inferior quality men of Shops and Trades and consequently uncapable of Spiritual Powers Which if it do not make the Church to be all Body doth yet come very near it to a Tantamount But what the Presbyterians wanted to compleat this Monster hath since been added by the Brethren of the Independency who living in the waste and deserts of New England where every man was a king in his own opinion and had so much of Caesar in him
expresly by St. Peter to the sorrowful and afflicted Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins By Ananias unto Saul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord By Paul himself who had experimentally found the efficacy and fruit thereof in his own person That God according to his mercy hath saved us not by works of righteousness which we have done but by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and finally by St. Peter also That Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ This also was the judgment of the Antient Writers and that too long before the starting of the Pelagian Heresies to which much is ascribed by some as to the advancing of the efficacy and fruit of Baptism by succeeding Fathers For thus Tertullian Quotidiè nunc aquae populos conservant deleta morte per ablationem delictorum Exempto scilicet reatu eximitur poena Ita restituetur homo Deo ad similitudinem ejus qui retro ad imaginem Dei conditus fuerat Now saith he do the Waters daily preserve the people of God death being destroyed and overthrown by the washing away of sins for where the guilt is taken away there is the punishment remitted also St. Cyprian thus Remissio peccatorum sive per Baptismum sive per alia Sacramenta donetur propriè Spiritus Sancti est that is to say that the remission of sins whether given in Baptism or by any other of the Sacraments is properly to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost The African Fathers in full Council do affirm the same and so doth Origen also for the Alexandrians of both which we shall speak anon in the point of Paedo-baptism Thus Nyssen for the Eastern Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saith he is the expiation of our sins the remission of our offences the cause of our new-birth and regeneration Thus do the Fathers in the Constantinopolitan Council profess their Faith in one Baptism or being onely once baptized for the remission of sins And finally That this was the doctrine of the Church in general before Augustines time who is conceived to be first that did advance the power and efficacy of Baptism to so great an height in opposition to the Pelagian Heresies appears by a by-word grown before his time into frequent use the people being used to say when they observed a man to be too much addicted to his lusts and pleasures Sine illum faciat quod vult nondum enim baptizatus est i. e. Let him alone to take his pleasure for as yet the man is not baptised More of this we shall see anon in that which follows Nor is this onely Primitive but good Protestant Doctrine as is most clear and evident by that of Zanchius whom onely I shall instance in of the later Writers Cum Minister Baptizat c. When the Minister baptizeth I believe that Christ with his own hand reached as it were from Heaven Filium meum sanguine suo in remissionem peccatorum aspergere besprinkleth the Infant with his Blood to the remission of sins by the hand of that man whom I see besprinkling him with the Waters of Baptism So that I cannot choose but marvel how it comes to pass that it must now be reckoned for a point of Popery that the Sacraments are instrumental causes of our justification or of the remission of our sins or that it is a point of learning of which neither the Scriptures nor the Reformed Religion have taught us any thing So easie a thing it is to blast that with Popery which any way doth contradict our own private fancies But here before I do proceed further in this present Argument I shall make bold to divert a little upon the antient use of Baptismal-washings before our Saviour Christ ordained it for an holy Sacrament that we may see what hint our Saviour took in this Institution who thought it no impiety to fit the antient usages of the Iews and Gentiles to the advancement of the Gospel though now to hold conformity with the Church of Rome in matters very pertinent to the same effect is reckoned for the greatest Error in our Reformation First for the Iews that they used very frequent washings is most clear in Scripture For not onely the Pharisees particularly who were a superstitious supercilious Sect but the Iews in general have this Character given them by St. Mark That they eat not except they wash their hands oft that they washed as often as they came from market or any publick place of meeting and that they did observe upon old Tradition the washing of Cups and Pots of brazen Vessels and of Tables And this they did not onely in the way of cleanliness or in point of manners to wash away the filth of their bodies when they went to eat or to make clean their Vessels and other Vtensiles which they ate or drank in But rather out of an opinion that by those frequent washings they preserved themselves from the filth and corruption of the world especially in their return from the streets and market places where possibly they might meet with some that were uncircumcised or otherwise obnoxious to an ill report by which they thought themselves defiled And this I take to be an antient custom of the Iews because I finde it much in use amongst the Samaritans who were in many if not most of their common Ceremonies but the Apes onely of the Iews Who on the same opinion of their own dear sanctity which had so perfectly possessed their neighbors of Iudah did use when they had visited any of the Nations to sprinkle themselves with urine upon their return and if by negligence or necessity of business they had touched any not of their own Sect to drench themselves over-head and ears in the next Fountain The reason of which is thus delivered by Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because they held it for an abomination to come near a man that was of a different Religion or perswasion from them But this appears more plainly by that passage of St. Iohns Gospel where there is mention of six water pots of stone at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the purifying of the Iews Where by no means I can consent to Maldonâ—tes interpretation who will not have these water-pots to be used at all for any Legal or Mosaical purification Qua qui secundum legem polluti erant mundabantur in which they used to wash themselves who had incurred some legal pollution but onely for those Pharisaical washings which the Pharisees used often in the midst of a feast Which had it been the
resurget qui inter impiorum manus occubuit that is to say with a sure Faith I do beleeve it was it seems a part of his Creed and with as great freedom I profess he both beleeved in his heart and confessed with his mouth that I shal rise again at the last day for as much as my Redeemer shall assuredly rise who is to be done to death by ungodly men And this is further to be noted in this Text of Scripture that we no sooner hear of a Creator in Moses than of a Redeemer in Iob no sooner of the death of mankind in Adam but of their restoring to life in Christ. And more than so that though Moses who wrot this was a Iew yet Iob who spake it was a Gentile not of the seed of Iacob though perhaps of Abrahams to shew that both the Iews and Gentiles as well the Gentiles as the Iews were to have their share in the resurrection of Christ Iesus and therefore in due time to expect their own I know that the Socinians Anabaptists and some other Sectaries who are no very good friends to the resurrection do otherwise interpret these words of Iob and will not have them meant of his resurrection but of his restitution to his former glories But for my part I must profess that if the Greek Catena and the authority of the Latine Fathers and the consent of all the Orthodox and learned Writers of these times were to be laid aside as incompetent Iudges I am not able to discern any thing from the Text or Context that the Holy Ghost intended them any other waies than to set forth Iobs constant faith in the resurrection the knowledge that he had of his Redemption from the jaws of death From Moses pass we to the Prophets to the Psalmist first Thou turnest man unto destruction and sayest Return ye children of men or come again ye children of men as the old Translation Thou turnest men unto destruction there we have their death he calls them to return again there is there resurrection And this appears yet further by the following words Thou carriest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep and if they be but as a sleep they shall be wakened in due time at the sounding of the last Trump without all peradventure I know indeed this Psalm doth bear the Title of the Prayer of Moses but whether made by him or by David or some other in his name is not yet resolved It is sufficient to this purpose that it passeth amongst Davids Psalms as a distinct and separate body from the works of Moses On forwards to Isaiah the Evangelical Prophet who seems to look on Christ as if gone before him Thy dead men saith he shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing yee that dwel in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead And parallel to this in another place When yee be old your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like herbs and then the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his Servants and his indignation towards his Enemies In both these Texts we find a Resurrection of the dead effected by the raising of the body of Christ and in some part with it a resurrection like to that of men which do wake from sleep like that of herbs which though they creep into the earth in the time of Winter shall again re-flourish in the Spring And in the last we have not onely a pure evidence for a resurrection but for the Day of Iudgement which shall follow on it wherein the righteous Judge shall distribute his rewards and punishments his hand of mercy towards his Servants but wrath and indignation upon all his Enemies St. Hierom so interpreteth the Prophets meaning and parallels this last place with another of the Prophet Daniel in which it is affirmed expresly that they which sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt Thereupon he doth thus infer Omnes igitur Martyres sancti viri qui pro Christo fuderunt sanguinem quorum tota vita fuit Martyrium resurgent evigilabunt atque laudabunt Deum Creatorem suum qui nunc habitant in pulvere de quibus in Daniele scriptum est c. Add to this rank of Proofs those several passages in which God calls himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob and the illation made from thence by our Lord and Saviour to prove the very point which we have in hand Concerning the resurrection of the dead have you not read saith he that which was spoken to you of God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Here is authority enough we need seek no further Authority enough to perswade us this that the Patriarchs before the coming of our Saviour were certain of their resurrection to eternal life that they were well assured of this that God would recompence their faith and reward their piety by making death the way onely to a greater happiness And this we finde to be a truth so generally received amongst the Iews even in the most declining time of their Church and State that none but the Sadduces who also did deny the being of Angels and of Spirits also did make question of it who for this cause are branded every where in the Gospel with this mark upon them that they said there is no resurrection as Mat. 22.23 Mark 12.19 Luk. 20 27. Act. 23.8 just as it followeth on the mention of Ieroboham the son of Nebat that he made Israel to sin Now to these Positive Texts of Scripture and such as have their being and foundation onely in the Old Testament we will adde such as are presented in the New and those not barely positive and peremptory as the rest before but such as seem to have a great measure of rationality in them and to be logically inferred upon very sound premises And of this kind we meet with divers in St. Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians amongst whom many doubtful souls had called in question the resurrection of the body To satisfie their doubts and remove their scruples the Apostle grounds himself on this that CHRIST was risen If CHRIST be risen from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead for if there be no resurrection of the dead then is CHRIST not risen Considering therefore we have proved that CHRIST is risen and that by the testimony of no fewer than five hundred brethren at one time besides the other arguments which have been and may be further alleged to confirm that truth it followeth by the reason of the Apostle that there is a
heard which feign that the old Fathers did onely look for transitory promises Of this opinion also was that wretched Servetus who thought no otherwise of the people of the house of Israel quam de aliquo porcorum grege than other men would do of an herd of Swine whom he conceived the Lord did fatten in the Land of Canaan Citra ullam spem coelestis immortalitatis Without breeding them in any hopes of the life eternal And against him doth Calvin who hath given us this knowledge of him intend his whole tenth Chapter of his second Book of Institutions Nor do I find but that our Masters in the Church of Rome like it well enough though they keep more aloof in the tendrie of it For neither doth Prateolus nor Alphonsus à Castro nor any other of their Writers for ought I can finde in reckoning up the errors of the Anabaptists or of Servetus and his followers account this for one nor do they give such efficacy to the Iewish Sacraments as to confer Grace or spiritual gifts on them that were partakers of them And Harding telleth us in plain terms That the body is not raised to eternal life but by the real and substantial eating of the flesh of Christ Which were it so as Bishop Iewel well observeth what life could Abraham Isaac and Iacob and other holy Patriarchs and Prophets have which were before the coming of Christ and therefore could not really and substantially eat his flesh Must we not needs conclude by this strange Divinity that they have no life but are dead for ever without any hope of resurrection unto Life everlasting But what need such deductions though most clear and evident when one of their infallible and Authentick Records speaks it out so plainly that every ordinary understanding cannot but perceive it I mean the Roman Catechism published by the order and authority of the Council of Trent The Authors whereof abusing the authority of St. Augustine in his Comment on the 77th Psalm will have the Iewish Church to be called the Synagogue Quia pecudum more quibus magis congregari convenit terrena tantum caduca bona spectarent i. e. Because like brute beasts who properly are said to be congregated or gathered together for so the word Synagogue doth import they sought after nothing but transitory and temporal things Than which no Anabaptist in the world could have spoke more plainly A Tenet very contrary to plain Texts of Scripture which speak no otherwise of the Patriarchs Prophets and other holy men of God which lived before and under the Law than of those to whom pertained the adoption of Sons and the glory and the service of God and the same Promises which are made to us who live under the Gospel For doth not God say to our Father Abraham that he was both his shield and his great reward his shield or his Protector as the Vulgar reads it to save him from all danger in this present world and his exceeding great reward in the world to come And doth not Iob whose history was writ by the hand of Moses as it is generally conceived by men of learning profess a more than ordinary confidence in the Resurrection and of his seeing God with those very eyes which were to be consumed with worms Doth not the Royall Psalmist tell us of himself that he did verily beleeve to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And doth not the Prophet tell us of the blessed Land where men live for ever that the eye hath not seen nor the ear heard neither can the heart of man conceive those things which God hath prepared for them that love him Sufficient evidence to prove that as well in the Old Testament as in the New Everlasting Life is offered to mankinde by God according to the Doctrine of this Church of England It is true the Promises of Everlasting Life to us which live under the Gospel are delivered in more clear expressions than those which were delivered to our Fathers which lived under the Law for which we have the greater cause to give thanks to God who speaks so plainly to us without Tropes and Figures without Types and Ceremonies the shadows of those things which we have in substance For what can be more plain than that of our Lord and Saviour saying That the righteous shall go into life everlasting Matth. 25.46 That they which do forsake all for his sake shall in the world to come have eternal life Mark 10.30 That whosoever believeth in the onely begotten Son of God shall not perish but have life everlasting John 3.6 That he which hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal Chap. 12.25 Or what can be more plain than those words of St. Paul in the first to Timothy advising us That we lay up in store for our selves a good foundation against the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life Chap. 6.19 Or those to Titus That being justified by his grace we shall be made heirs according to the hopes of life eternal Chap. 3.7 Or that in the second to the Corinthians We know that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Chap. 5.1 Finally What can be more plain than that of St. Peter assuring us That by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead we are begotten again to an inheritance immortal undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens 1 Pet. 5.3 4. Or that in the same Epistle where he telleth his Presbyters That if they feed the flock of Christ committed to them when the chief Shepherd shall appear they shall receive immarcessibilem coronam gloriae an immarcessible Crown of glory or a Crown of glory which withereth not as our English reads it Chap. 5.4 How much more might be added from the Revelations and other passages of the New Testament where the same thing is either figuratively expressed or easily inferred by logical and necessary consequences but that I was to shew that eternal life was promised unto those who lived under the Law although not every where nor altogether in such clear expressions as it is held forth unto us who live under the Gospel As clear are those expressions also which do set forth the nature and condition of this life to come as those which do deliver the eternity and duration of it For in some places it is called the joy of the Lord Enter into thy masters joy Matth. 25.5 Where there is fulness of joy and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore as the Psalmist hath it Et nunquam turbata quies gaudia firma in the Poets language Sometimes it is called a Kingdom and a Crown of glory A Kingdom by our Saviour in St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 25.5 A Crown of glory by St. Paul
to have a speciall place in this short compendium this abstract of the Christian faith of our whole religion and that it had not been enough to have expressed his being crucifyed dead and buryed unlesse his sufferings under Pontius Pilate had been mentioned also Of which three points viz. his crucifying death and burial being the consummation of his sufferings and the last acts of his humiliation for the accomplishing of mans Redemption we are next to speak ARTICVLI 5. Pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crucifixus mortuus sepultus i. e. Was crucified dead and buryed CHAP. VII Of the Crucifying death and burial of the Lord JESUS CHRIST with Disquisition of all particulars incident thereunto HItherto have we spoken of those afflictions which our Redeemer suffered under Pontius Pilate in his soul and body precedent to his Crucifixion We are now come to speak of those which he suffered on the Cross it self together with his death and burial being the last acts of his Humiliation for being dead and buryed once he could fall no lower But being his death upon the Cross was that only all-sufficient Sacrifice made for the satisfaction of Gods justice and the redemption of all mankinde from the powers of darkness typified in so many acts and figures of the Old Testament whereof some relate unto his death and others to the manner of it I shall first speak a word or two of those rites and sacrifices and other figures which might or did relate in Gods secret purpose to the coming of the promised Seed and all the benefits redounding to the world by his death and passion First for those types which might fore-signifie and represent the Messiahs death they did consist especially in those legal sacrifices which God himself had instituted in the Iewish Church for the expiation of the sins of that people and their reconciliation to their God yet so that even before the law there wanted not a type and figure of it every way as proportionable to the substance signified as any of the Legal and commanded sacrifices No sooner had God raised up seed to Adam thereby to give him hopes of the accomplishment of his deliverance and redemption by the seed of the woman but he was taught to represent the same in a solemn sacrifice assoon at least as his sons were come to age to assist him in it And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruits of the ground an offering to the Lord and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flocks and the fat thereof An offering from the hands of Cain to shew that even the wicked owe an homage to the Lord God Almighty from whose hands they receive all their temporal blessings and therefore were to pay back something in the way of a quit-rent or acknowledgment Donis suis honorandus est ipse qui dedit as Rupertus hath it A Sacrifice from the hands of Abel of righteous Abel as our Saviour did vouchsafe to call him who not long after was made a Sacrifice himself by his wicked brother As if the Lord intended in this double sacrifice to represent the death and passion of his Son Christ Iesus in that of Abel by his brother the bloudy and most barbarous fact of the wretched Iews upon their countryman their brother of the house of Iacob in that of Abels lamb the sacrifice of the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world as the Apostle in the Revelation Now for the Legal sacrifices prescribed the Iews and those which had been offered by Gods faithful servants before the giving of the Law they do so far agree in one as to be comprised in the same general definition For generally a sacrifice may be defined to be the offering of a creature to Almighty God by the hands of a lawful Minister to be spent or consumed in his service Which definition I desire the Reader to take notice of because we shall relate unto it when we come to speak of the Christian sacrifice or the Commemoration of this sacrifice in the Church of Christ. Bellarmine in more words saith no more then this His words be these Sacrificium est externa oblatio soli deo facta qua per Legitimum ministrum creatura aliqua sensibilis permaneâ—s ad agnitionem Divinae Majestatis infirmitatis humanae ritu mystico consecratur transmutatur Only the last word transmutatur was put in of purpose to countenance the change or transubstantiation of the outward Elements into the natural body and bloud of Câ—rist which notwithstanding he is fain after to expound by the word destruitur i. e. consumed or destroyed to make his Mass as true as proper and as real a Sacrifice of Christ our Saviour on the Altar as that which he himself once offered on the accursed Cross. But all the Sacrifices of Gods people before the Law were principally if not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were offered unto God by way of thankefulness and due acknowledgement for all his benefits conferred on their souls and bodies Of which kinde also were the peace-offerings Levit. 3. v. 1. the sacrifice of thanksgiving Levit. 7.12 and the free-wil offering vers 16. in use amongst the Iews when the Law was given in celebrating which they were left at liberty to offer either male or female as they would themselves God giving his increase of their flocks and herds by both the sexes male and female and pouring on both sexes man and woman both temporal and spiritual blessings Under the law the case was otherwise For then besides the Eucharistical sacrifices before remembred which for the substance and intent were before in use amongst their Ancestors the holy Patriarchs though not accompanied with so many ceremonies they had sacrifices of another kindâ— which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say expiatory or propitiatory for the taking away of their sins In which as they did signifie by the death of the beast the wages due to their iniquities for the wages of sin is death saith the great Apostle so by the shedding of his bloud did God please to intimate that they should have the pardon and forgiveness of their sins and acceptation of their service by the bloud of Christ. These then and only these were Typi venturae victimae the types and shadows of that great and perfect Sacrifice which Christ our Saviour was to offer for the sins of mankinde and were called expiatorie and propitiatorie non proprie sed relative not properly and in themselves as if there were in them any power or vertue either to expiate our offences or be a Propitiation for our sins for the bloud of Buls and Goats cannot take away sins saith the same Apostle but relatively in relation to the Ordinance of Almighty God by whom they had been instituted to that end and purpose as Baptism after was in the Church
of Christ. And for that cause the people in the celebrating of these â—olemn sacrifices used to confess their sins to the Lord their God and by that means did make the Sacrifice more acceptable and their atonement with the Lord more assured and certain but expiate â—ins those Sacrifices of their own nature neither did nor could In which sense Chrysostom said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The LEGAL SACCRIFISE saith he was rather an accusation then an expiation a confession rather of their weakness then a profession of their strength Now there are many things observable in these Legal Sacrifices which were performed and really made good in our Lord and Saviour For first the Sacrifice or Beast sacrificed was to be a male Levit. 1.3 and to be a male also without spot or blemish or any corporal defect And so it was with Christ our Saviour the son of David in whose lips there was found no guile in whom there was no sinful blemish no defect of righteousness The man who brought the sacrifice was to present it at the dore of the Tabernacle and to lay his hand upon the head of it in testimony that he laid all his sins thereon that it might be accepted as an atonement for him Levit. 1.3 4. And so CHRIST took upon him our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Matth. 8.17 and bare our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 The Sacrifice being brought before the dore of the Tabernacle was after bound with cords Binde the Sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar Psal. 118. slain by the Priest and his bloud sprinkled round about upon the Altar and then burnt with fire So the Redeemer of the world was led bound to Pilate Matth. 27.2 and after fastned to the Altar of the Cross with cords of iron implyed in this that they crucified him Matth. 27.35 i.e. they nayled him to the Cross. The Sacrificer was himself Ipse enim Sacrificium Sacerdos for he himself was both the Sacrifice and the Priest as St. Austin hath it offering his body to the Lord that by the hands of wicked and unrighteous men it might be crucifyed and slain and the whole Cross the Altar upon which he suffered besprinkled round about with his precious bloud issuing from his hands and feet and wounded side As for the burning of the sacrifice which was usual in their whole burnt offerings what could it signifie but those pains and sorrows that bitter cup and all the terrible pangs thereof which even burnt up his heart and consumed his spirits in the whole act of his crucifixion unless perhaps the ascending of the flames on high might signifie the the gracious acceptation of the sacrifice by the Lord their God as in that of Noah which carryed up a sweet savour to the God of Heaven In which regard a sweet savour and an offering made by fire do seeme to be Synonymas in the Book of God as Exod. 24.41 Levit. 3.5 And what more pleasing savour could ascend to God what could he smell more acceptable from the sons of men then the oblation made unto him of the Son of God reconciling the world unto his Father Finally as the bodies of those beasts which were brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sin which was a differing kinde of Sacrifice from the whole burnt offering were burnt without the Camp so Jesus also saith St. Paul that he might sacrifice the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Heb. 13.11 12. And of this sort of Types and Figures were both the Anniversary Sacrifice of the Paschal lamb and the daily sacrifice of the two lambs one for the morning and the other for the evening Exod. 29. both of them shadowing or prefiguring in Gods intention though not in the intent of the ignorant Iews that all-sufficient Sacrifice of the Lamb of God which really and truly taketh away the sins of the world How far they are applyable in their other circumstances we shall see elsewhere As for the manner of Christs death and passion there were also some Types and figures of it as well before the Law as after What else was that of Isaac the promised seed the only and beloved son of his Father Abraham from whom the blessing promised by Almighty God to all the Nations of the world was to be derived commanded by an order from the Court of Heaven to be offered to the Lord for a burnt offering What did it signifie or prefigure but the offering of our Saviour CHRIST the dearly beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased the expectation of the Genâ—iles conceived so miraculously beyond hope and reason above the common course of nature more then Isaac was The mountain on which that sacrifice was to be performed what did it signifie but that CHRIST should be offered up to God on a mountain also even the mount of Calvarie Luk. 23.33 What else the laying of the wood upon Isaacs shoulders wherewith himself the sacrifice was to be burned but the compelling CHRIST to take up that Cross whereon himself was to be crusified till Simon the Cyrenian came that way by chance to ease him of that heavy burden The calling of the Angel out of heaven to Abraham bidding him stay his hand and not strike the blow by means whereof poor Isaac was reprieved from slaughter doth it not clearly signifie the sending of an Angel from heaven to CHRIST our Saviour to comfort him in the midst of his fears and troubles and to deliver him from those fears and terrors which make death dreadful unto mankinde that he might undergo it with the greater cheerfulness And when the Devil had tryed all ways imaginable to prevail upon him out of a confident presumption to effect his ends and work some â—inful and corrupt affections to have power upon him what got he at last but a breathless carkass a short dominion of his body The Ram the fleshy part of CHRIST was all which fell unto his share in that bloudy sacrifice and that he was to take or nothing in stead of the Son the Son of the eternal everliving God whom he expected as a prey and in hope had swallowed And yet this Type though full of clear and excellent significancies comes not so home to my purpose unto the manner of Christs death as doth the Type and story of the Brazen Serpent The people journeying in the Wilderness and murmuring as they did too often against God and Moses had provoked the Lord And the Lord sent fiery Serpents amongst the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died No remedy for this but upon repentance And when the people had repented the Lord said to Moses Fac Serpentem aeneum c. i. e. Make thee a Brazen Serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one