of the Father referring to the several hypostases in the one eternal indivisible divine nature and the eternity of the Sons generation and his coeternity and consubstantiality with the Father when he came down from heaven and was incarnate c. for us men peculiarly not for Angels and for our salvation and lastly the perpetuity of his kingdome added in the close all these are assertions equivalent to those which had been before comprised in the antient more simple uncompounded article but were usefull to be thus enlarged and explicated when the Arians opposed the Apostolick tradition and by corrupting detorted the words of scripture to their sense § 6. This is elswhere more largely shewed in the note on 1 Joh. 5.7 And all that will opportunely here be added is onely this that they which according to the Apostles depositum or doctrine in every Church believed the descent and incarnation of the eternal God on purpose to rescue mankinde from all impurities to reveal the whole divine will for the regulating mens lives to attest it by his death and evidence it by his resurrection c. and at last to come to judge the world according to this determinate rule had all those branches of Christian faith which were required to qualifie mankinde to submit to Christ's reformation And 't is the wilfull opposing these more explicite articles the resisting them when they are competently proposed from the definition of the Church and not the not-believing them thus explicitly when either they are not revealed or not with that conviction against which he cannot blamelesly and without pertinacy of his will hold out that will bring danger of ruine on any § 7. That which is added of the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son supposing with the Western Church that the Filióque was found in the first copies and acts of that Councel who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets is in like manner an enlargement and explication of the more brief Apostolick form and the substance thereof was comprised formerly in that uncompounded style fitter then for the belief and memory of all but was afterward prudently enlarged for the repelling and preventing the poyson of heretical invaders the Montanists and Macedonians c. § 8. And so likewise that addition of the one Baptisme prefixt to the Remission of sins was on purpose design'd against the Novatians whose pretensions were considered and condemned in the Councel of Nice The practises of the Churches in receiving those that had fallen into gross sins after baptisme had been somewhat different in some parts milder as in the Church of Rome in others more rigid The Church of Rome had given some liberty for the great offenders murtherers adulterers and such as had fallen to Idol-worship in time of persecution viz that after many years penance they might be restored to the Communion and peace of the Church without any new baptisme such as was used in admitting heathens only by imposition of hands or absolution extending the virtue of baptisme formerly received to the washing away of these sins committed after baptism in case of sincere repentance and forsaking of them This the Novatians disliked and thereupon brake off and made a schisme in the Church And the Councel of Nice taking cognizance of the matter judged against Novatus and his followers that there was place for a second repentance and not only for that first before Baptisme as appears by the Canons of that Councel And this was it that was referred to in this more enlarged passage of their Creed and the use of it thought very considerable for the reducing of lapst Christians as the Apostolical article of remission of sins indefinitely had been for the attracting heathens And this and all the former additions being thus setled by the Vniversal Church were and still are in all reason without disputing to be received and embraced by the present Church and every meek member thereof with that Reverence that is due to Apostolick truths that thankfulness which is our meet tribute to those sacred champions for their seasonable and provident propugning of our faith with such timely and necessary application to practise that the holy Ghost speaking to us now under the times of the New Testament by the Governours of the Christian Churches Christ's mediate successors in the Prophetick Pastoral Episcopal office as he had formerly spoken by the Prophets of the Old Testament sent immediately by him may finde a cheerful audience and receive all uniform submission from us § 9. And this is all that is here necessary to be said of this second Creed CHAP. X. Of the Athanasian Creed § 1. OF the Athanasian Creed as it is usually called two things will be briefly considerable 1. The doctrine of it 2. The curses and damnation denounced against those who doe not entirely maintain it without the corruptions and mixtures of the hereticks § 2. The Doctrine is well-nigh all of it the asserting the Vnity of the Divine nature and the Trinity of hypostases whether subsistences as the Greek Church called it or as the Latine personae persons in it and that in opposition to several novel propositions which had by hereticks been introduced in the Church and so as the vices of men suggest lawes occasioned such explications and enlargements And of these again much more then of the Nicene superadditions it may be reasonably affirmed that being the explications of a Father of the Church and not of a whole Vniversal Councel or of the Church representative they were neither necessary to be explicitly acknowledged before they were convincingly revealed nor simply and absolutely imposeable on any particular man any farther then he was a member of some Church which had actually received Athanasius's explication as it is apparent the Western Churches did or then it appeared concordant with the more authentick Vniversal Confessions as every doctrinal proposition of it will be found to doe § 3. As for the Censures annext 1. in the beginning that except a man keep the Catholick faith of which this is set down not as the entire form but an explication or interpretation of some parts of it whole and undefiled he shall doubtless perish everlastingly 2dly in the middle he that will be saved must thus think and it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly in the incarnation c. and 3dly in the end this is the Catholick Faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved I suppose they must be interpreted by their opposition to those heresies that had invaded the Church which were acts of carnality in them that broached and maintained them against the Apostolick Doctrine and contradictory to that foundation which had been resolved on as necessary to bring the world to the obedience of Christ and were therefore to be anathematized after
and the explicite unshaken belief of all that is revealed to him by God be the strict duty of every Christian and the disbelieving of any such affirmation of Gods is sin and damnable yet the foundation being that which supports the superstructure to which it relates immediately and without the intervention of any thing else 't is certain that eternal blisse is not immediatly superstructed on the most orthodox beliefs but as our Saviour saith if ye know these things happy are ye if ye doe them the doing must be first superstructed on the knowing or believing before any happinesse or blisse or heaven can be built on it and without all question the agenda the things that are to be done works of piety and justice c. are as necessarily required to found our blisse to bring us to heaven as the belief of any the most pretious Articles can be supposed to be and therefore it may be justly feared that the title of Fundamentals being ordinarily bestowed on and confined to the doctrines of faith hath occasioned that great scandal or block of offence in the Church of God at which so many myriads of solifidians have stumbled and fallen irreversibly by conceiving heaven a reward of true opinions of which vicious practises though never so habitually and indulgently continued in to the last would never be able to deprive them which as it hath been the disjoyning of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most excellent yoke of faith and good works and hath betrayed many knowing men to most unskilful and ridiculous presumptions and securities in sin so can it not well be provided against without the discovering and renouncing of this false and substituting a truer state of this question § 9. Secondly If this were the notion of Fundamentals there could be no certain way of judging what are such the excuse of invincible ignorance being in the farre greatest number of men ready to be confronted against the necessity of their believing all the severals of any such supposeable Catalogue And for that suppletorie of an implicite belief which is by the Romanist conceived to be of use and sufficient for those who are not capable of an explicite whatsoever degree of truth can be conceived to be in that it must be founded in the contradictorie to the present pretension for were it once granted that the belief of such articles were fundamental to heaven it were not imaginable that they which have not heard should ever arrive thither When that which by S. Paul's authority is become a known maxime was before demonstrable in it self and is so supposed by his argument Rom. 10.14 that faith cometh by hearing and that they cannot believe what they have not heard Many other inconveniences there are consequent to this stating of this question and particularly that of which our experience hath given us evident demonstration that by those which thus state it there hath never yet been assigned any definite number or Catalogue of Fundamentals in this sense but I shall no farther enlarge on them § 10. The other notion of Fundamentals is that whereon I shall more confidently pitch as that which will remove in stead of multiplying difficulties and accord all which either the Scriptures or the Antients have asserted on this subject thereby understanding that which was deemed necessary to be laid by the Apostles and other such Master-builders as a foundation to the peopling or replenishing or bringing in proselytes to the Church and so to the superstructing Christian obedience among men In which respect it is that as the Church of Corinth and so any other society that hath received the faith of Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's plantation 1 Cor. 3.9 so it is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's building a structure erected by his artificers § 11. That this hath been esteemed the due and proper acception of this word I shall testifie by this one evidence which I acknowledge to have given me the first hint of this notion the words of the great Champion of the Catholick Faith set down in the Councel of Nice S. Athanasius in Epist ad Epictetum where speaking of the Confession of Faith established by the Canons of that Councel against the Arian and other Hereticks he hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The faith confessed by the Bishops in that Synod according to the divine Scriptures is of it self sufficient for the averting of all impiety and the establishment of all piety in Christ These words of that eminent Father of the Church might be of some farther use toward the due understanding of the articles of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds but at the present the advantage of them will be but general that the way of measuring and defining the necessity of any articles of faith the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessaries to be known as Justine Martyr speaks placing under that head the Creation of the world the framing of man the immortality of the soul and judgment to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 9. is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sufficiencie of them to enable the teacher to perswade good life to supplant those vices which Christ came to banish out of the world and to radicate those virtues which he came on purpose to implant among men which is directly that notion or Character of Fundamentals which we have now given thereby signifying those articles of the Faith on which all the parts of Christian piety and obedience and none of impiety or disobedience may be regularly superstructed or in consequence to which being once revealed and believed all rational or considering men when Christian life is proposed to them must discern themselves obliged to entertain it to forsake in every branch their unchristian courses of sin and to betake themselves to an uniform obedience to the commands of Christ From whence I suppose it is that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 building or edifying is used every where in the New Testament for improving or advancing in Christian practise and the duties of good life as laying the foundation is preaching the faith of Christ among them 1 Cor. 3.11 On which saith Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. After we shall have received the Foundation of Faith i. e. the Faith of Christ as the Foundation we build upon it every one good actions of all sorts and degrees as he there specifies making the Christian actions of life to be the superstructure to which this Foundation referres and in relation to which it is called a Foundation So Theophylact on Heb. 6.1 makes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their being instructed in the Faith of Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deal only in the beginning the elements the first and most imperfect rudiments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as novices beginners they that are but now upon their entrance are wont to be conversant in whereas the
superstructing good life on this is saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being carried to perfection and again in yet plainer words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Faith is the beginning and the foundation and that without which nothing shall or will be firmly built still making the Faith or belief of the Articles the foundation in respect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the excellent Christian life which was by the Apostles and Christ designed to be built on it CHAP. II. The Division of the discourse into four parts What are Fundamental in General § 1. THe notion of the word being now explained that which is yet behinde will be regularly reducible to these four heads First What those things are in General and then in particular to which this notion of Fundamentals belongeth and withall what propriety all and each of these have toward the supporting this superstructure the planting a Church of Christian livers 2dly What are the particular branches of this superstructure 3dly What Doctrines there are infused among Christians which are most apt to obstruct or intercept the superstructing of Christian life where the foundation is laid 4dly What things are necessary to the erecting of this superstructure on this foundation already laid whether in a particular Christian or especially in a Church or society of such § 2. The General way of defining what these fundamentals are must in reason be taken from the practise of the Apostles as the interpreter of God's appointment and judgment in this matter For it being certain that the Apostles which had a commission from Christ to preach and admit disciples over all the world to bring impenitent Jewes and Idolatrous Gentiles to the obedience of Christ were by him also directed in their way counselled in the choice of the fittest means of performing so great a work the argument will be infallibly conclusive on both sides positively and negatively that whatever the Apostles joyntly agreed on at their entrance on their several Provinces to be the subject of their first Sermons in all their travails that was by them and consequently by God himself deemed fundamental in our present sense and whatever was not by them thought thus necessary must not by us be obtruded on or forced into that Catalogue § 3. For the clearing of this it is first evident that there was in the A-Apostles times such a foundation laid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Church as in that of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.11 styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6.20 a good depositum or trust which Timothie had received from the Apostles for the direction of his ministerie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude 3. the faith once or at once delivered to the saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.13 a form or breviate or summarie of wholsome words or sound doctrine which he had heard from S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one faith Eph. 4.5 in proportion to which followeth there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one baptisme wherein there was made profession of that Faith and to which none of years and knowledge was ever admitted who had not been sufficiently instructed by the Catechist in every part of this foundation which to that end the Catechist received from the Bishop with his short exposition of it see S. Ambrose Ep 35. l. 5. and being so instructed made open Confession of it and moreover by vow obliged himself there to superstruct all Christian practise upon it § 4. Secondly that this was approved of by them in common upon consultation and so seemed good to the holy Ghost and to them in order to their end the bringing of Jewes and Gentiles to repentance and accordingly was left behinde them delivered down to the Bishops of all Churches of their plantation not only as a rule of faith but as a symbolum or badge of the Apostles having planted Christianity among them All which is clearly testified by Tertullian Irenaeus and other the first writers See Irenaeus l 1. c. 11. 19. l. 3. c. 4. Tertullian de virgin veland in the beginning de Praescription throughout § 5. Thirdly that all that was necessary in order to that end the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the discipling all nations was comprehended in this form or summary it being certain that what God did not deem necessary was not necessary and that nothing which was so deem'd by God was omitted or left behinde by them whose office and care it was to declare the whole will of God and to lead others as themselves had been led into all necessary truth § 6. Fourthly that what we thus affirm of the necessity of these things to the superstructing of Christian practise must not so be understood that the hearing and believing of each of them be thought absolutely necessary in every single Jew or heathen that he may repent and convert and live a Christian life or without which he cannot but necessary to the discharge of the Apostolical office which was to reap whole fields to bring in whole cities and nations to Christ § 7. They that were to plant a Church were to deal with men of several and distant affections and tempers and interests an heterogeneous body made up of a multitude of various inclinations and of different habits of sin and degrees of radication of those habits and to each of these some proper application was to be made by those that came on Christ's errand to cure their souls as Hippocrates advises his Physitian to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mollifying preparations for all turns and to carry them about with him and so a whole Dispensatorie was little enough to meet with and suffice to all their wants or at least some Catholicon of a transcendent virtue proportionable to the obstinacy of any the most desperate maladie But this confusion of diseases and rapsodie of difficulties was not to be supposed in each single sinner and consequently there was not the same necessity of the whole tale of Fundamentals for the converting or reducing of him § 8. There is no doubt but there were reformed Jewes before Christ's time whom the pedagogie and rudiments and imperfect documents of the Law with those influences and assistances of God which were then afforded brought home unto God and among them some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteous and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercifull men which had arrived to the abundance of goodness as they style it And of this kinde were the Esseni who though they be not ordinarily conceived to have been Christians yet are described by Philo under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so very like Christians that there is no reason to doubt but that Christian piety might be infused into some without the explicite knowledge of all and every of those articles which yet in general speaking or as it was to be planted through the
his power to doe and not according to what he hath not as Chrysippus is by Cicero judged to have done § 34. All which being duly considered and the absurdities of that distinction thus applied betwixt the act and the obliquitie as manifest as those of Chrysippus's expedient in those so many forementioned respects and the contrary so wide from the truth of Scripture the attributes of God and common notions of piety written in men's hearts and experimented in the government of the world and lastly so noxious and poysonous to good life we may certainly conclude with Prosper that great asserter of God's Grace Resp ad 14. Object Vincent Ad praevaricationem legis ad neglectum religionis ad corruptelam disciplinae ad desertionem fidei ad perpetrationem qualiscunque peccati nulla omnino est Praedestinatio Dei To the forsaking the law to the neglecting religion to the corrupting discipline to deserting the Faith to the perpetration of whatsoever sin there is not at all any predestination of God Si ergo in sanctitate vivitur If we live in sanctity grow in virtue and persevere in good purposes the gift of God is manifest in all this Si autem ab his receditur But if we go back from these if we passe over to vices and sins here God sends no evil temptation forsakes not the desertor before he be forsaken and very frequently keeps him that would depart from departing and causeth him to return though he be departed To which may be added that of the Arausican Councel which was very careful to assert the necessity of Grace and yet pronounces an anathema against those who affirm any to be by God predetermined to sin CHAP. XVII Of the Spirits acting all things within the man § 1. WHat hath been said of the doctrine of God's decrees fatally passed upon our persons or our actions will be farther extended to the pretensions of the Spirit and the opinion that of late begins to diffuse it self among some that all that is designed or done by them is the dictate and motion of the Spirit in them § 2. Of this it is evident that either that man which thus pretends never commits any act prohibited by the Word of God and vulgarly called sin after the minute of such pretension and then that were a rare charm indeed to render him impeccable or that this is the means of consecrating every sin of his and so the opinion being imbibed by one that lives in rebellion murther adulterie pride or schisme or any other one or more grossest sins the effect must be that he believe every one of these to be infusions of the Spirit of God and so no more fit to be resisted before nor repented for after the Commission of them then the most eminent acts of piety should be And when it is thus become impious to resist any temptation of our own flesh which sollicites within us or of Satan that suggests and whispers within us too i. e. to omit the acting of any sin that we are any way inclined to what place can be left for exhortation to Christian life as long as I have any temptation against it § 3. This is a doctrine which a man would think should not finde admission with any considerable sort of men and therefore it will be lesse pertinent for this Discourse to take any larger notice of it yet for the preventing and intercepting any farther growth of it where it may unhappily have found any reception It will not be amisse to adde and evidence these few things § 4. First concerning the Spirit which is thus pretended to That the Descent of the Spirit of God was principally for three ends 1. to give Testimony that Christ was the Son of God sent with authority to reveal his will and to command our faith and obedience and consequently to this to give the world assurance that the Apostles were sent by him and to signe the Commission of preaching to all Nations to propagate what he had taught 2dly to assure all men that the Rules which Christ gave us are absolutely necessary to be observed to render us capable of those Promises made those benefits purchased by him And 3dly that we being so corrupt by nature so farre from prone or inclinable in our Flesh to obey those Rules the Graces of his holy Spirit accompanying the Revelation or preaching of his will and word should incline our corrupt hearts to keep his laws § 5. Secondly that after the mission of the Spirit God was pleased for posterity otherwise to expresse his care and love to mankinde viz in giving and consigning to them his written word for a Rule and constant directer of life not leaving him to the duct of his own Inclinations § 6. Thirdly that God hath made and continued through all ages both of Jewes and Christians one sort of men to teach another to learn Among the Jewes one to preserve knowledge in his lips and with the same to dispense it the other to enquire and seek the Law at his mouth and under the Gospel Pastors and Teachers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers set over men for their good Which is a visible prejudice to the pretended guidance of the Spirit For if that by the voice within me be the standing guide of all my actions what use of forein teachers or guides or necessity of obeying the Apostle when he commands me to obey those that are set over me § 7. Fourthly that every thing that comes out of the heart of man is not infused into it or placed there by God For besides that from thence proceed many aerial fictions and phasmes and Chymâ—raes created by the vanity of our own hearts or seduction of evil spirits and not planted in them by God or nature or the duct of God's Spirit motions and emissions of our phansie and not of our reason of our sensitive not humane nature and to this all the Idolatrie of the antient heathens and the new phansiful divinity of some present Christians and the whole religion of the Mahomedanes is visibly imputable besides this I say it is affirmed by the Apostle Jam. 3.15 17. that there is a wisdome and that must signifie some Codex of directions for practise some law in the members opposite to that in the minde that cometh not from above as well as a wisdome that cometh from above and in plain terms that it is earthly sensual and devilish as that Law in the members is said to lead the man into captivity to the law of sin which is in the members § 8. So again saith Christ out of the heart proceed all the things that defile a man evil machinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the most mischievous designments by name murthers adulteries fornications incestuous and unnatural commissions contained under the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fornication 1 Cor. 5.1 thefts false-witnesses evil speakings i. e. as by those few