no eternall happinesse God had made man in vain with so vast a mind which no finite thing can satisfie and then there must be a way to this happinesse or else that happinesse is ordained in vain also for man Mathe. Some think it is not necessary to know any more happiness then nature sheweth and dictates to us Phila. Nature sheweth in part that felicity which is necessary for man to know but not fully but as in the wrong end of an optick glass which makes things appear farther off or lesse then they are or else sheweth us a false felicity as in a magnifying or multiplying glasse wherein it appeareth bigger or more then it is all which sheweth there is an happinesse though nature mistakes it or cannot perfectly shew it though it be necessary for us to know it Mathe. How prove you it is necessary for us to know it Phila. 1. Because I have a soule capable of such a knowledge nor is an industrious soule quiet till it find either it or something like it wherein it may find a rest and content Therefore the spirit of a man is the candle of God to search hidden secrets Pro. 20.27 yea even the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by desire a man having separated himselfe seeks and intermedleth with all wisedome Pro. 18.1 2. Because man is made for it God intended him for happinesse For as the world was made that God might be revealed so God was revealed that man might know him which is felicity God sought to bring man to it first by obedience wherein he failing thereby shewing the mutability of created nature God next set before him the object of beleeving viz. his promise of Christ to know whom in God is life eternall John 17.3 and felicity 3. Because man is a future not only a present creature for he hath a soul which will be existent after death in joy or sorrow and therefore necessary for him to know felicity and to avoid misery Mathe. How prove you that he hath such a soule Phila. From our immortall desires to live either in memory or posterity for ever which argueth the immortall nature of the soule though it be deceived in the choise of it by placing immortality where it is not So Absalom set up his monumentall pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 and some call their lands after their own names Psa 49.12 and men desire tombs which argueth a desire of perpetuall life No creature hath this desire but man for things without life desire to preserve themselves in their particular being Secundum numerum pronunc Vid. Scor. Dist 94. and beasts desire the continuance of their kind only for the present time but man desires a perpetuall being included in no bounds 2. Because it hath a kind of infinit apprehension comprehending singular things and universall things and the kinds of all things which argueth an immortall nature 3. Because God hath made a perpetuall covenant with man Numb 18.19 and therefore the soul hath a continuall being in or out of the body else is the Covenant ended But God is not the God of the dead Mat. 22.32.33 but of the living for all do live to him therefore he cals himselfe the God of the Patriarchs after their death Exod. 3.6 so some in scripture are said to be gathered to their fathers in peace though slaine as 2 Chron. 35. as good Josiah But it is meant to the spirit of the Fathers which were at rest and peace with God bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 among the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 4. Because men undergo losse and crosse and death without cause joifully which were madnesse if the soule were not immortall and expected after death some felicity to enjoy 1 Cor. 15.19 But many love not their lives that they may find them hereafter Mar. 8.35 5. Because God in the last judgement may shew himselfe just as Gen. 18.23 for in this world good men suffer and evill men flourish Psal 37. Psal 71.2 3. so Jer. 12.1 yet it is but to fat them for the slaughter Jer. 12.3 Therefore the soule is immortall that every man may find the justice of God at last 6. The learned heathen did acknowledge this Arist Cic. Tusc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling the soul the first motion as if it were the beginning of motion so by their letting an Eagle flie aloft when the bodies of their Heroes were put into the funerall fires It is true that the Scripture saith the soul that sinneth that shall die but the meaning is not that the soul shall be dissolved in his essentiall life but in the relative life to God-ward by whose goodness and mercy it obtaineth an eternall felicity Mathe. But how can I prove that it hath any existence after the death of the body Phila. Because it is distinguished in this by all wise men from the souls or life of bruits for the spirit of a man goeth upward and the spirit of a beast goeth downward Eccles 3.21 And again Eccles 12.7 the dust shall return to the earth and the spirit to God that gave it which returning to God signifies the souls immortality Psallus that is as God alwaies is so the soule is subsisting with God for if the soule be immortall it cannot wax old Phocylid but must live ever so that you must denie the soule to be immortall or else grant that it never dieth But the old Chaldeans and Egyptians shall rise against such Christians whose precept was that a man should make haste to the light and splendors of the Father and to seek Paradise which is the splendid and cleer region of the soule Trismegistus confirms the perpetuall being of the soul Cic. Tusc Pythagoras saith as much and Tully from him Epictetus saith we are the kinsmen of God and return from whence we came Plat. in Phaed. Comment Mor. Zill Hisp in Plat. Plato is more clear then any And St Paul himselfe makes use of Aratus in the Acts saying We are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 But beside Christ gives us greater light in the point John 3.36 saying He that beleeveth in me hath life eternall and to the thief he said This day thou shalt be with me when as that day both their bodies were dead 2 Cor. 5.1 So St Paul saith We know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building of God in the heavens He doth not say when this house shall be repaired as at the resurrection but so soon as it is dissolved So in the fifth verse saith he When we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and therefore are willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord therefore he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ And St Stephen praieth God to receive his spirit But beside all this if we beleeve that any who were raised from death in Scripture
killed him and therefore Christ himselfe called that murther the blood of righteous Abel So though Christ did so many good works among the Jewes yet they would have stoned him and though they could not convince him of fin yet they crucified him whose blood notwithstanding speaks better things then the blood of Abel for that cried for revenge but Christs for remission The next is Henoch the seventh from Adam Henoch and so a sabbaticall person pointing out him in whom mankind must only rest as on the sabbath His name signified Taught or dedicated so Christ was taught of God in the humanity for he increased in wisedome and favour with God Exod. 21.6 Luke 2.52 and was dedicated to God as a perpetuall servant * Arias Mont. Pagnin Psal 40.6 7 8. mine eare hast thou bored so the word erithus signifies though the Apostle turn it and a body thou hast given me to shew how his body was to be given as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 3.2 Againe Henoch was a Prophet Jude 14. so was Christ Henoch walked with God so did Christ * Cat. Arab. c. 20. fol. 27. a. Rabanus in Gen. 5. Jacob Brocard in Gen. 5. Henoch sorrowed three hundred years for Adams fall and Christ wept often but never laughed that the Scripture mentioneth Henoch was taken away of God and so Christ from death Henoch was no more seen nor shall Christ till he commeth to judgement The next was Melchisedeck after the flood Melchisedeck in his generation Heb. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Council Ephe. He signified or shadowed Christ in his generation name and office 1. In his generation being without father or mother or kindred without beginning of daies or end of life So said because his generation was very obscure nor committed to letters or the Genealogy in those times So Christ had no father as man nor mother as he was God yet the Council did rightly stile the blessed Virgin Mary the mother of God that is of the hypostaticall union not of his eternall generation she was the medium of uniting the manhood and Godhead together but no beginning of his subsisting in the Godhead which never had beginning of daies nor can have end of Being Yet who was this Melchisedecks father is hard to say Some say he was Shem the son of Noah But others say of one Heraclim the son of Phaleg who married Salathiel Vide Epipha and the Arabic Catenam the daughter of Gomer by whom he had this Melchisedeck 2. 2 In his Name His name signified the King of righteousnesse and as King of Salem it signified peace so Christ was both King of righteousness that was his name Jer. 23.6 and the King of peace Isa 9.6 because he wrought it Isa 53.5 by suffering chastisement for us he made peace through the blood of his crosse Col. 1.20 In which regard St Paul cals him our peace Eph. 1.14 and our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 So that as in his generation so in his name he shadowed Christ also For as Melchisedecks parents were unknown to that time so were Christs in his time for few beleeved his father was God or that his mother was a virgin And as Melchisedeck seemed to be without beginning or end of daies in respect of any expresse account given of it So Christ had no beginning in his divine nature nor no end of his Mediatorship for his Godhead and his manhood making one person never to be dissolved he is a Mediator without end yea he lived while his body was dead in the grave which he raised again by the eternall spirit And thus what was spoken of Melchisedeck respectively was fulfilled in Christ simply and fully So Melchisedeck was called King of righteousnesse and peace in regard 1. That he stood unchallenged of injustice in that time when the four Kings made war against the five Kings his neighbors for injustice and rebellion after twelve years subjection 2. Gen. 14.4 He was called King of peace not only because he was King of the City Salem afterward Jerusalem signifying peace but because he was in peace when all his neighbours were at wars round about him But Christ was King of both righteousnesse and peace radically universally and effectually in himselfe and in all beleevers 3. In his Office he was a King and a Priest King of that City Shalem 3. In Office which afterward was possessed of the Jebusites and called Jebushalem a disordered place after which it being inhabited by Israel and King David it was called Jerushalem the vision of peace and so a type of heaven He appeared like a King by his munificence when he brought forth bread and wine to Abrahams wearry troops Gen. 14.18 Chrys in Psal 106. Isid de Eccl. off l. 1. c. 18. Cyprian Basil Jerom. signifying Christs Sacrament of Bread and Wine given to all the faithfull to refresh them in their battels against spirituall enemies 2. He was a Priest to the most high God and so no idolatrous Priest He shewed himselfe a Priest in blessing Abraham and in receiving tithes of him So he shadowed forth him that was to be both King and Priest after his own order not of Aaron but of Melchisedeck Heb. 5.6 The next shadowe was Isaac whose name signified laughter Isaac Luke 2.10 and Christ was the joy of all people He was begot and born in Abrahams old age so was Christ in the latter daies and old age of the world Isaac was freely offered up by his father Heb. 1.1 Beda in Gen. 22.6 so Christ was freely given of God for the world Isaac carried the wood and Christ carried his crosse Isaac died not John 19.17 Heb. 11.9 Clem. Alex. paedag l. 1. c. 5. Greg. in 6. Hom. in Ezek. but Abraham received him from the Altar in a similitude i. of Christ For as he died not on the Altar so neither did Christ as he was the only begotten Son of God For his divinity could not die but was like the scape goat that went from the sight of men into the wildernesse or the land of sequestration while his humane nature like the Ram that died in Isaac's room was caught in the thorns of our sins signified by that crown of thorns put on his head Gen. 22.4 Isaac was delivered the third day after that he was voted to death so Christ was raised the third day after that he died The place of his deliverance was called by Abraham Jehovah jireh The Lord will provide in the mount so God on mount Calvary provided for us a sacrifice and a Saviour also These were shadowes of Christ before the Law Mathe. What other shadowes of Christ were under the Law Phila. The first Personall shadowe under the Law was Aaron whose name signifieth an high mountain So it is prophecied of Christ and his Church that in the latest of daies the mountain of the Lords house shall be established
for fear of death but of the tyranny of sin death and the devill which they had got over mankind Next the great ingratitude of the most part of mankind the dispersion of little flocks the scandall they might take at his death the sad ruine of the Jewes which he foresaw and the wrath of God for mans sin of which now he began to have a sense as being surety for us And all this he suffered without any perturbation of sinfull passion And this was done surely to expiate our sinfull fears and doubts and to encourage us in any terrors that arise from a troubled conscience though they put us into great agonies But these were not all his sufferings For he suffered 1. By the consultation of his adversaries the Priests Scribes and Pharisees who when they should have been preparing for the Passeover they were consulting how to take away the true Paschall Lambs life and would have done it at that time but that they feared the people more then they feared God 2. He suffered by the treason of Judas one of his own disciples whom he made steward of his family and had washed those feet that were so apt to shed his blood And this he suffered 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled that foretold it Psal and Joh. 13.8 2. To beware of coverousnesse which will make a man even to betray Christ at any rate 3. To fore warn Ministers of all others to take heed of being corrupted this way lest they become like salt that hath lost his savour 4. To teach us to beware of sin under what pretense soever For it is likely that Iudas did not intend to have Christ killed but only to get the mony supposing that he would make an escape which may be argued from that that he was so troubled when he saw he was condemned Also to beware of the smallest beginnings of sin For at the first Iudas his sin was but discontent that he loft the gain of Mary her ointment and she justified in her deed By this the devill entred his heart that he resolved to sell the anointed because he could not sell the ointment His next suffering was by being apprehended by wicked hands to unloose the hold of sin and Satan from us and in a garden to expiate the sin committed in Paradise Then bound to unloose the bands of wickednesse and the works of the devill Then toffed from pillar to post from one High Priest to another Then abused by the souldiers and Jewes Luke 22. who buffeted that face which the holy Patriarchs and Prophers longed to behold Cant. 8.1 And scoffed at his prophecying which never failed But it is no wonder if they that had scorned the Prophet of the Lord did also scoffe the Lord of the Prophets This was done to him to expiate our sinne of mocking God as if he could not see and our losing of his glorious image yet he would not die in a tumult but was solemnly brought before the Judge and there falsely accused to free us from his that accuseth the brethren And received sentence of death unjustly to save us from the sentence of Gods condemnation So he was charged with sedition and blasphemy to free us by his attonement from the guilt of high treason against God To all which he answered not saving to the High Priest that he was the Son of God because he conjured him by the name of God to tell him And to Pilate that he was a King though his Kingdome was not of this world that he might leave the Jewes without excuse and take away the occasion from Pilate of justly condemning him and to fulfill the Scripture Isa 53.7 that he was like a sheep dumb before the shearer and to comfort his people that they have a King in Sion though he regardeth not worldly glory Mathe. Methinks he doth not answer very plainly to Pilate and Herod nothing at all I pray what was the reason Phila. He said he was a King but such an one that meant not to stickle for worldly glory which seemeth strange because God had promised to give him the throne of David Luke 1.32 33. and that he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever but that is meant not literally but spiritually which teacheth not to expect that true Religion should stand in outward glory but pray that the eies of our understanding being opened we may see wherein consists the glory of Christs Kingdome Eph. 1.19 Col. 3.2 and therefore to employ our selves about heavenly things and not earthly things for our trading consisteth in such commodities as appeareth Phil. 3.20 for he never promised any great earthly possessions to his followers as that Impostor Mabomet did but exhorted them to seek the preferments of his spirituall Kingdome 2. He said he came to bear witnesse of the truth which though Pilate scoffed at it saying what is truth yet it was a truth for not submitting to which the Devill was cast down and all men are damned that wil not beleeve it viz. that all creatures that are capable of eternall happinesse must attain to it by dependance upon the Son of God by which we are informed what poor entertainment truth finds in the world that Christ is fain to descend from heaven to avouch it Therefore let us receive the truth with all respect and stand for it to the death for so we shall prove our selves of the truth and to be his subjects Now he would say no more to Pilate in his defence lest he should seem to endeavor to prevent the sentence of death By which silence he satisfieth God for our lavish tongues and that he might meritoriously plead for us in heaven Nor would he confesse himselfe the Son of God to Pilate because Pilate was uncapable of the doctrine of the Trinity and also because it was no time now to reveal his Deity but to die in his humanity This filence did so amaze Pilate that he sought to save him or at least to put his condemnation over to others And therefore first offers to the Jewes to judge him by their law Iohn 18.31 which they refusing brought to passe what Christ had sortold viz. what death he should die namely the Romane death of the Crosse by which we may see that all the policy of men cannot disappoint the purpose of God in his childrens sufferings Upon their refusing Pilate sends him to Herod who set him at naught with his men of war because he would not speak to Herod nor shew any miracle before him Luk. 23.8 9 10 thereby shewing how little he esteemed of Herods greatnesse that would not feed the lightnesse and vanity of his mind by casting his pearls before such a swine This scorn of Herod and his souldiers he suffered that we might be esteemed of God and his holy army of Angels Herod finding no fault in him Luke 23.15 yet he sends back to Pilate and in scorn of his claim to
superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded as that no bone of him was broken and that his side was pierced and the like Phila.
lying in the grave three daies was to answer to Ionas his type in the whales belly and to make good the prophecie of Hosea 6.2 after two daies he will revive us and the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his sight But you will say he did not lie in the grave three whole daies and nights yet according to the Jewish account he might be said so to do for a day is reckoned by evening and morning Now the former evening and Good Friday on which he was buried made the first day then Friday evening and the Sabbath following made the second day and the Sabbath evening and the next morning of his Resurrection was the third day It may be you may think it strange that Christ would lie in the grave on the Sabbath day but this he did to shew the work of redemption was finished and therefore he rested the seventh day as God was said to do after the six daies work of creation Also to shew that with him was buried the ceremoniall part of the Sabbath namely the seventh day formerly appointed And surely the first Christians so understood it and therefore they kept their holy meeting afterward upon the first day of the week Rev. 1. which St Iohn called the Lords day Now in all this time Christs body corrupted not First because he was without sin which is the cause of corruption and therefore he was preserved by the power of God Psal 16.10 Beside men that die violent deaths are not so apt to corrupt as those that die of diseases by which they are partly corrupted before they are dead otherwise a dead body may possibly be without corruption sixty hours and upwards and Christ was dead not much above forty and so might justly be said not to see corruption By all which he gave us a pledge of an eternall sabbath of rest and that our bodies after death should rise incorruptible And this doctrin of Christs buriall is full of comfort and instruction Of comfort because that now this storm of Gods anger is allaied by our Jonas being cast into this whales belly of the grave which by his body is fanctified for us It teacheth us also to bury our sins with Christ Rom. 6.4 and there let them lie as dead carcasses separated from us for ever and grow loathsome and at last wear out of memory in respect of either by affection or practice and we may live to newnesse of life by vertue of Christs resurrection Mathe. But before I enquire of you the mystery of Christs resurrection I pray resolve me what you think of Christs descending into hell which is an Article of that Creed commonly called the Apostles and in that of Athanasius but not in the Nicene Creed nor in any other that I know Phila. You put a Question of great controversie yet of more then needs if the phrase of hell were rightly understood For in the Old Testament it hath two names given to it namely 1. The congregation of the dead Pro. 21.16 according to which translation it may be understood for the grave and if it be translated word for word with the Hebrew then it may be taken for the depths of water In caetu Riphaim or Gigantum in which the rebell giants of the old world were drowned which Job calleth Sheol infernus or the low place Job 26.7 and so doth David Sheol Psal 16.10 which is translated the grave Afterward about the captivity it is called Tophet or Gehinnom Gebenna which are only words borrowed from that execrable place in the vallie of Hinnom where the Jews burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch i. the devill to expresse hell which they beleeved to be a place of torment This term or word held long among the Jewes and Christ used it as the vulgar expression in his time Mat. 5.22 yet Luke 16.23 he useth another word as it is in the Greek text namely Hades which there signifieth hell for it is said Hades the rich man was in hell in torments But it is taken oftner for the grave and the condition of men deceased as Gen. 42.38 Iob 7.9 Psal â—â— â— Pro. 23.14 Acts 2.31 1 Cor. 15.55 and most plainly Rev. 20.13 death and Hades i. the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire Now see how Christ may be said to descend into these for into the grave he had descended and therefore it need not be said again in relation thereunto that he descended into hell If taken for the waters what should he do there 1 Pet. 3.19 except you will suppose that he went to preach to the rebellious spirits that were there imprisoned for their disobedience in the daies of Noah But how he went and when and wherefore how whether in soule or body or both then in what time whether before he rose or afterward and why whether to preach for their conversion or to confirm their damnation would be resolved or whether he went thither to suffer any thing or to triumph surely not to suffer for us for on the crosse all his sufferings were finished nor to triumph for that he did upon his crosse Col. 2.14 15. Beside we are to consider where Hell should be if Christ descended locally thither for we conceive it to be a place ordained for the devill and his angels and wicked men Now if the Devill and his be not yet confined thither what should Christ descend thither for either to confirm damnation or to triumph over them that were not there Now that they are not yet confined to the place appointed is plain because St Paul calleth him the Prince that ruleth in the aire because yet they have great liberty in tempting men Also because the devill besought Christ not to torment him before the time And because both St Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 and St Iude ver 6. say that they are as yet only reserved in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day Just Mart. Iren. l. 5. c. 26. Hieron in 6. cap. Ephes Drusius Aug. lib. de civit dei l. 8. c. 22 23. And so held the fathers of the first 400. yeers after Christ St Peter in his second Epistle the second chapter the ninth and seventeenth verses saith so of wicked people Therefore some writers of great account have said that from the earth to the firmament is not a meer empty space but full of spirits which were cast down from the high heavens into these lower parts of the aire as into a prison till the last judgement together with other wicked of their society Now descension cannot properly be applied to the aire but rather ascention Therefore by Christs descending into hell we may as I judge safely understand those inward sorrowes which he suffered in his agony in the garden and on the crosse which pressed him to cry so bitterly my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which internall sorrowes were as neer
baptisme requireth of him namely to forsake worldly lusts and vanities the devill and all his wicked designs and to live soberly righteously and godly in the sight of all men this is to be a visible Christian and a company thus qualified make a visible assembly and being setled by the Regiment of Pastors and necessary Officers for governing them they are called a visible Church constituted Mathe. What be the marks of an invisible Christian by which he may know himselfe to be of the true invisible Church and then I shall desire some satisfaction in the outward government of the Church Phila. The marks of an invisible Christian by which he knoweth himselfe to belong to salvation in Christ are vocation adoption regeneration justification and sanctification and a certain hope of eternall glory built upon his beleefe in Christ which is the ground of his hope Now vocation is not that by which God cals men in common by the Word and Sacraments but a divine vertue wrought in our hearts thereby through the Holy Ghost by which we are moved from our corrupt and sinful condition to a supernaturall life in Christ to whom being united as to our head are justified by faith sanctified by repentance to Gods glory and a mans owne salvation This is an act of Gods free good wil to his elect therfore is both efficacious unchangeable Rom. 11.29 and therefore this grace of calling is not universal but belongeth only to those whom God foreknew and elected Rom. 8.30 and whom Christ hath redeemed only we may know that we are called if our hearts be stirred up to praise God for it 1 Pet. 2.9 and pray to be established in it 1 Pet. 5.10 and to live a godly life Eph. 4.1 aiming at eternall glory that we may be found blamelesse 1 Thes 5.23 The next mark is adoption a most gracious benefit of God whereby he receives us that are strangers from him for Christs sake to be his children and makes us with him to become heirs of heaven and eternall life Eph. 1.5 Col. 1.21 by which we are incouraged to call God Father Chrys hom in Psal 150. Rom. 8. and confesse that we have received and hope to receive all graces and favours from him This grace is begun in this life in those who receive Christ by faith John 1.12 in whom it appeareth they are sons but yet it appeareth not what they shall be 1 Joh. but that shall be perfected at the resurrection for which perfect adoption we sigh longing for the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.23 Now we know that we are adopted by the liberty which God hath given us not only from the servitude and bondage of the law which exacts that of us which we cannot do and from the service under the dominion of sin Rom. 6. and from humane traditions and worldly rudiments Col. 2. but also from that human fear of serving God so that we can serve him with a free and ready mind as Luke 1.74 he having delivered us and so we delight in the law of God after the inward man and can come boldly to the throne of grace to make our wants known to God our Father The next note is regeneration a blessed benefit of God whereby he restoreth our corrupt nature to his own image by the Holy Ghost and the incorruptible seed of his Word 1 Pet. 1.23 This is the effect of a most blessed marriage where God is the Father mans eare is the wife the seed is the word the heart is the womb and the regenerate soule is the child which is bred with sighing and brought forth with sorrowes but great joy at the delivery But as it groweth it is like Jacob in great conflict with Esau namely the flesh as you see Rom. 7. both dwell in one house but Jacob the spirit alwaies gets the upper hand both in the blessing and in the birthright yet with great reluctation in this till we are freed by death and the flesh glorified at the resurrection The effects of this regeneration is 1. A love to God that begot us above all things and love to them that are begotten as we are 1 Joh. 2. Avoiding of sin 1 John 5.18 he that is born of God sinneth not but keepeth himselfe namely he sinneth not willingly wilfully delightfully despitefully against the rule of grace not continually not to death and by vertue of Christs resurrection leadeth a new life Rom. 6.4 and 1 Pet. 1.3 and therefore through Christ God seeth no sin in him to condemn him however he doth to correct him Rom. 8. for it is Christ that justifieth who can condemn The next note whereby one may know himselfe to be of the Church invisible is justification which signifieth as much as to make just as to purifie is to make pure The word is not found in any of the old and purest Latine authors but is taken up by divers to expresse the Hebrew and Greek terms Tsadhick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a just man Now a man is said to be made just by infusion or by plea. By infusion when the habit or quality of justice is put into one as into Adam by creation and so men by regeneration in some degree and thus one may be said to be formerly or inherently just yet to justifie signifieth somewhat else 2. A man may be justified by plea as he that accuseth one makes him unjust Esa 5.23 so he that by plea doth vindicate him hath made him an honest man Job 9.20 that is to be esteemed or reputed so as the ancient authors doe interpret the word Hesichius Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that in this case we are rather to lean to the common use of the word then to the sound arising from the notation for Psal 119.4 8. the law is called by the interpreter justifications not because they justifie a man but because they declare him just that doth them because he hath done according to those statutes So a Judge condemning a malefactor is not by that act made formally or inherently just but approved just by that law which he hath executed But this declaration of a mans justice is not justification for that takes place upon accusation only if Adam had not sinned he might have been commended and declared to be just and innocent yet not properly justified So wisedome is said to be justified by her children Mat. 11.19 i. vindicated to be just against all the cavils of wicked men by the apology that her children make in her defence Some men therefore are justified yet not inherently just as when a fault is charged and acknowledged and satisfaction pleaded or sufficient amends is made to the party offended and so freedome from punishment is merited and the fault therefore as it were extinguished because the party offended reapeth as much benefit as if the fault had never been committed but if the offended shall
each in each Aug. de Trin. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him and the holy Spirit in both so they be all in each For the Son is in the bosome of the Father and the Father in the Image of the Son the holy Spirit in the breath of each and they both in his operations 3. All in each for one is possessed of the other 4. All in all the whole essence being in every person And yet 5. But one in all because all three are but one God And take heed of thinking therefore 1. That there is no God 2. That there be no persons in the God but only relations Socin Patrisp offices or dispensations For so we may count the Father to suffer not the Son for our redemption 3. That they be only like one another in substance Arri. Eunom Tritheit but not of the same substance or of an unlike substance but of one and the same substance And take heed of thinking they be three gods for there is but one God in essence though three persons in subsistence one God in being though three persons in the manner of that being Nor may you like the Mahometans acknowledge one God without persons or like the Indians denie the Son of God Mahom. Indians because then they say God must have a wife These people only understand carnall generation not spirituall and in what they know naturally therein they abuse themselves Jude ver 10. and speak evill of what they know not For they perceive not how the soule begets children namely the thoughts and words without female conjunction This high knowledge of God should teach us to admire him whom we cannot comprehend and therefore to serve him in faith fear and reverence Psal 2.11 especially in his Temple and service Psal 138. and so say with Job O Lord what I know not do thou teach me so that in thy knowledge I may find felicity We must not think this knowledge to be superfluous since it is life eternall to have it John 17.3 Mat. 16.18 and that Christ so much approved St Peter for acknowledging it I know all men cannot apprehend this alike yet if we desire that Christ would shew us the Father John 14.8 and that we may have his Spirit he will not denie it to him that asketh him especially if we lament for the losse of the excellent knowledge no doubt he will reveal so much of it to us as shall acquire eternall life Mathe. What means hath God given us to know him by Phila. Two means his Works and his Words His Works Natura naturans natuâ— rata and the book of Nature naturated by the power of God His Word is the book of Nature naturating i. of God himselfe without which revelation man cannot apprehend God at all or very darkly The reason whereof is 1. Because Adam seeking curious knowledge beyond the light which God gave him in nature he lost that light of God which by nature he had and despoiled himselfe of that image and character of God which God had impressed upon him and so fell into false conceptions of God in his generations and by himselfe into a more obscure apprehension of him in his time 2. This dark knowledge of God in man ariseth from the depravation of his affections which desires to know God sensibly as men behold Princes which cannot be in this world 1 Cor. 15. no more then flesh and blood can inherit heaven till it be mortified by death and fermented in the grave and refined at the resurrection Moses desire was exuberant to see Gods glory in visible appearance For though God was pleased to be represented by Angels in shapes of men in the Old Testament yet he hath no shape For to what will ye liken me saith God 3. Men being not read in Scriptures are oftentimes driven by some accidents in the world and change of times and strange events above or beside reason to think that either there is no God or else that God is not just Psal 37.36 Psal 73.1 2 3. Wisd 1.1 2. 4. Because we find all things fall alike to all and a naturall succession of things to be as they were alwaies so they think we are all born at adventure and all things come by nature or fortune 5. It comes by the devils craft deluding men with vanity and making them not to think of God and so bold to perpetrate horrible sins through blindnesse and hardnesse of heart whereas if they did but consider Gods waies and footsteps in Scripture in making all things and in disposing them to their severall ends and orders the rare knowledge given to man above other creatures the peace of his mind when he doth well the terrors of his conscience in doing ill the impression and stamp of Elohim upon his Magistrates whom he calleth Gods the strange vengeance following wicked men to them whom temporall Judges either do not or cannot punish Besides prodigious signs in heaven of future calamities So to see monstrous births terrible earthquakes which though they have naturall and second causes yet why they are not alwaies or oftner or not at all or in this place more then that must needs be the rule of some superiour power But yet nothing of all these leads us to the knowledge of God like the Scripture Mathe. Why so Phila. Because the Scriptures are the word of the true God of whom nothing can testifie better then his own word and truth therefore Christ saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Secondly because they clearly set forth God in his nature attributes and works Mathe. How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of the true God Phila. Because it alone doth treat primarily of that God who is Trinity in Unity three persons in one Godhead and of their relations one towards another and their operations in and towards man 2. Because it is the most ancient truth as the true God is the ancient of daies Now what is most ancient and first is true Moses writings are most ancient upon which the rest of the Bible is a comment and the New Testament is a perfect complement and is therefore called grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 because he brought to man by the Gospell the love and favour of God and brought the truth prophesied into fact and performance But this Moses is the ancientest writer Eupolem Masius whom some call Musaeus some Trismegistus as some have thought the Aegyptian Serapis to be a monument of Joseph Sure enough he was the oldest writer of divine Revelation if not of any other He lived in the time of Cecrops King of Athens Aug. The oldest writing the Greeks have is the wars of Troy which fell out in the time of Israels Judges which was three hundred years after Meses Acts 7.27 It is true the Scripture saith he was learned in all the
in those times which is not competent with us Abraham to make his halfe sister his wife Iacob to have many wives which is not competent with other ages Mal. 2.15 and therefore reproved by the Prophet So neither are those actions imitable which many were agitated to by zeal and fervour of spirit for Gods cause as that of Moses to excite one brother to slay another nor that of Phineas in transferring Zimri and Cosbi for what actions are exorbitant from common Law are not to be made exemplar Mathe. What may we judge of those that are called Apocryphall books Ph. We are to think them as helps to understand Scripture in many places especially Solomon Wisd and Eccl. Judith Tobie Esdras Mac. and to know the State of the Jewes before the Prophet Malachies time in their captivity and after it also And so neither to contemn them nor yet to build our faith upon all things there written as the Church of Rome injoineth people to do under penalty of a curse as we are to beleeve the Canonicall Scriptures Conc. Trid. but to trie what analogy they hold with truth and so make use of them as in Heb. 11.35 takes an instance of faith from the mother of seven sons 2 Machab. 7.7 Mathe. Some make doubt of the Scriptures Canonicalness because they say there be more books in the world then we have inserted in our Bibles and all that we have in our account Canonicall are not thought to be so Phila. You need not trouble your selfe with that but rather make an holy use of that we have by building our selves up in our holy faith and thank God that he hath reserved for us by his Church a copy of sacred writ sufficient for our salvation which is written that we may beleeve and the rest lost or left out John 21.25 that we may not look after more then is necessary The Jewes reckoned but 22 books of the old Testament we find more Joseph cent Appion Vid. Concil Lao. de lib. Canon Magd. cent 4. fol. 838. c. 4. yet they contained as much as we have but their compiling differed from ours And these were consigned by Ezra the scribe after the return from Babylon in the time of Hagge Zachary and Malachy all in Hebrew Which tongue though it be a good signe of Canonicall Scripture yet it is not the only signe for many of the Apocryphall books were so written at first as Ecclesiasticus seems to be by the Preface a book of great worth and next sure to the Wisedome of Solomon So Tobit and the fourth of Esdras but rather the consignation of the Jewish Church and their continuall receipt of them for such Atha in Synop. So some write of more Psalms of David then 150. but if we should admit of more I feare it would encourage many selfe conceited men to make Psalms too under pretence that they had the spirit of God as well as David as did some in the Councill of Laodicea Conc. Lao. ut supra c. 59. and urged for it Ioel 2. your sons and daughters shall prophecy which Council excludes or at least omits the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalyps yet it reckons 14 Epistles of St Pauls of which that to the Colossians must be one or else there is but 13. Kirstonius in Arab. notes on the Evangel Calv. vid. Bod. method hist c. 7. And why the Apocalyps was left out it may be was because more lately written and divulged except the Councill were of their minds who reckoned it Apocrypha or theirs who slighted it as Ambrese did Persius the Satyrist because of its obscurity We read also of the Gospell of St Thomas and St Bartholomew all which is nothing to us so long as we know that our old Testament and the Jewes agree together still and are the same they were in the time of Christ And for the New Testament we have those that have been generally received as Orthodoxall by the Church and for 1300 years together consigned as Canonicall by the Councils as Nice Laodicea and Carthage Mathe. But whether have not the Iewes corrupted the old Testament Phila. 1. Aug. They would not certainly out of envy to the Gentiles rob their own posterity of the truth Philo. Beside they held it as a sin inexpiable so to do Polanus leb 1. cap. 37. and would die an hundred deaths rather then change one jot of them They know also that the world was created for the Scriptures sake and therefore the world would be turned to a chaos ere they should be altered and so they were faithfull trustees Rom. 3.2 But 2. They could not do it for there was so many Copies dispersed by reason of their dispersion over the world that it was impossible to corrupt it Bellarm. Beside certainly God would not suffer that to be corrupted by which he meant to save the world and therefore Christ said Luke 16.17 that not one iota should perish till heaven and earth passed away Mat. 5.18 And 3. They did not for then they would above all other places expunged or altered those that related to Christ as Esa 7. ver 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive Gnalemah Bethulah not a young woman for that had been no wonder nor worth the world Behold So Esa 9.6 To us a child is born and a Son is given called Wonderfull c. Nor did they deface his passion though they deformed him foreprophecied so clearly Esa 53. Bellarm. Which words in their own language do more forcibly convince the Jewes then the Vulgar Latine doth as in Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son Nesheku Bar. i. embrace Christ not Discipline And therefore certainly the Old Testament was not corrupted by the Jewes 4. Our Saviour never charged them with corrupting the Text but only with misunderstanding or mis-interpreting nor any of the Fathers in their writing against them Just Marr. except one for wronging the Septuagints translation So that it is void of corruption however in the reading there may be some variation yet no deprvation of the Copy Mathe. But methinks they deliver things impossible and some things contradictory and some things in them seem doubtfull in regard of difference of text and margent in the old Testament and diversity of readings in the new Phila. Not things impossible to him whose word it is who to his works requires our faith more then our understandings else his works did not exceed magitians 2. Nor is there any contradictions in them if you observe the rule of contradictions which must be a assertion of the same thing at the same time according to the same part notion or apprehension You must know therefore that there is a vast difference between Scriptures and other books For they do not omit somethings out of mis-knowledge as other books do nor at all contradict themselves but sometimes things are omitted for mystery sake as Moses a
53.8 and made his soule an offering for sin Isa 53.10 After sixty two weeks said Daniel shall Messiah be cut off but not for himselfe Dan. 9.25 26. that is if you mark the verses the Angel allots seven weeks for rebuilding of the Temple which is forty nine years reckoned of the Jewes but forty six years Iohn 2.20 because they reckoned not the first three years when the foundation was but laid by Cyrus his edict and the work staied again by Artaxerxes Longimanus Ezra 4.7 till they had got a second Edict Ezra 6.1 from Darius Nothus Then the Angell allots to the former seven weeks sixty two weeks more which is about 434. years in all 483. or thereabout in the end whereof Christ suffered on the crosse to make an end of sin and finish transgression and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse This scourging wounding and piercing was foreseen also by Isa 53.5 he was bruised for our iniquities and chastised for our peace And saith Zach. 12.12 they shall look on him whom they have pierced for a souldier pierced his side as well as others did his hands and feet when they nailed them to the crosse So his very carrying of his crosse John 19.34 was typed out by Isaac carrying the wood to sacrifice himself upon Gen. 22.9 10. And as Abraham stretched out his hand to slay his son so God loved the world that he gave his Son Iohn 3.16 and he himself became obedient to the death of the crosse Numb 21.9 And as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse for the curing of the people upon a pole John 12.32 John 14. so was Christ lift up on the crosse for the saving of us who were bitten by Satan and sin also So also his Resurrection had a type as Isaac taken from the Altar and restored safe and sound to Abraham the third day after that he was assigned to death Gen. 22.4 of whom it is said that Abraham received him again in a figure Heb. In what figure but only of him that was to come of his seed in whose death and resurrection all nations should be blessed So Ionah the first Prophet who lived in the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Kin. 14.25 and the first Prophet sent to the Gentiles to Niniveh who because he diverted to Tarsus was swallowed of a great fish in whose belly he remained till the third day after and for so long time the grave swallowed Christ but then he arose and so his flesh saw no corruption Psal 16. and that might well be without a miracle if the body be not accidentally corrupted before it be dead as in violent deaths commonly men are not Now Christ lay not in the grave above 40. hours and commonly dead bodies corrupt not til about seventy hours and this sheweth that he rose within three daies and so saw no corruption as the Psalmist said Psal 16. which is expounded plainly so by St Peter Acts 2.31 And as Isaiah had also foretold that the dead men should live and with Christs body they should come so they did Mat. 27.52 53. Thus Christ conquered death in his own Kingdome as said Hosea 13.14 and death had no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 because he was now swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.55 And thus as God spake to the great fish and it cast out Ionah on the dry land Jon. 2.10 so the temple of Christs body which the Jewes destroied he rebuilt in three daies And for his Ascension as it was prophecied so it was accomplished Eliah was a type of it 2 Kin. 2.11 being taken up in a fiery Chariot so Christ was taken up out of his disciples sight into heaven Luke 24.51 as was prophecied in Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended up on high and led captivity captive So he was taken away his disciples beholding it at first Acts 1.9 but after a cloud took him out of their sight And now he sits on Gods right hand foretold Psal 110.1 and averred in Mark 16.19 And from him the Holy Ghost like a most gracious rain from heaven hath fallen upon his Apostles Acts 2.15 16. and upon many thousands of beleevers as was foreprophecied Joel 2.18 and typed forth by the spirit of Eliah resting upon Elisha 2 Kin. 1.13 5. Even so God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts baptizing us with the Holy Ghost and as blessed fire from heaven giving some the gift of tongue Acts 2.4 others to prophecie some to teach others to learn and increase in faith and the love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Mathe. Now as you have shewed the Promises Types and Prophecies and history of Christs Conception Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension shew me also the mystery of godlinesse intended thereby in relation to Christians And first of all I desire to understand rightly his Conception for therein lieth a great mystery wherein our understanding is easily lost if we be not rightly directed For how can one person in the Trinity be conceived or become incarnate without the other two seeing the divine nature is not divided but is in each person totally Phila. The divine nature cannot be divided for substance but in the manner of subsistence it is distinguished For it is after one manner in the Father i. unbegotten After another manner in the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in him it is begotten i. communicated by divine generation After another manner in the Holy Ghost because proceeding from both John 15.16 Now we are to beleeve that the humane nature is assumed by the divine nature as considered only in the Son as he enjoieth it being the perfect image of the Father Heb. 1.1 2 3. and so being the naturall Son of God was most fit to be the son of man and so thereby restore the sons of men by adoption to be made the sons of God Yet we are to beleeve that all the Trinity had a hand in it John 1.12 for the Father wrought it by the holy Ghost but the Son only assumed it as three folks may make one garment and yet but one of the three wear it Mathe. But the Conception is applied to the Holy Ghost and so I am apt to beleeve that the Holy Ghost was his Father Phila. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost effectually not materially he caused it to be but gave not any matter out of himselfe to the nature of Christ so that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost uniting the natures divine and humane together Bernard Damascen not by generation but by institution and benediction and operation not spermatically as other fathers beget children So it is said Rom. 11.36 all things are of God yet not of his substance but by his power so that we are to beleeve that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in regard that his humane nature
but temporary yet it is more then all mens suffering eternall damnation 1. That it stands with Gods justice to punish the just if he be surety for the unjust as a man may justly exact mony of a surety which he never had Mathe. Was death all that Christ suffered for us Phila. No his whole life was a crosse and martyrdome For his sufferings were privative and positive the privative concerned both natures his divine because it was voluntarily deprived of that glory joy and felicity which it had for it was eclipsed while he dwelt upon earth John 17.5 in a vaile of flesh and by the darknesse of mens hearts who did not apprehend his glory So to his humane nature did justly belong all joy and happinesse because he did perfectly keep Gods Law yet he did want it in the daies of his flesh for he was of no reputation Phil. 2.7 And this he suffered to bring us to perfect glory and to teach us to hate sin which darkens the beams of Christs glory and to be content to have our lives hidden in Christ as his was till he be revealed in glory and we with him Col. 3.3 4. He suffered also positively and that 1. In regard of evill imputed to him for Gods justice charged all mans sins upon him as if he himselfe had been guilty of them all 2 Cor. 5.21 he was made sin for us and bare our sins in his body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and therefore God cannot require us to answer for them also but we may live comfortably in holinesse 1 Pet. 2.24 and die in assurance of happinesse 2. He suffered positively in regard of evill inflicted upon him from his conception to his resurrection and all for us For the malediction of the Law laid upon us not only death but a wretched life and therefore he suffered both yet not sicknesse nor the pains of diseases which are not common to all the nature of man but speciall judgements upon some particular men But he suffered all the common miseries of mans nature which did concord to the free execution of his office of Redemption As 1. By the humility of his incarnation to be made a man Luke 2. Phil. 2. To come of mean parents and to be born in a stable and made of no account and reputation and this to expiate the arrogancy of our first parents who would be as God therefore he is put beneath the lowest condition of men So he hides the glory of his eternall birth by a temporary to purchase for us a spirituall and heavenly birth so to teach great men not to be proud of their birth but seek the new birth which is true honour and glory and to comfort the poor whose children have poor provision at their birth and Christ had lesse then they Again he was mightily debased from his birth to his death as by being forced to flye from his native Country to Aegypt to abolish Adams sin which exiled him from Paradise and to repurchase heaven for us and to comfort those godly by his example who suffer banishment Againe for thirty years together he lived obscurely under Joseph as if he had been the Carpenters son and so reputed no man acknowledging him either as the Son of God or the King of Israel or the worlds Saviour but was as a root springing out of a drie ground Isa 53.2 despised and rejected of men What need Gods children therefore be discontented if the world regard them not Christ was so used But these were but private sufferings the more publick began after his baptisme As 1. By being tempted of Satan Mat. 4. in the desart where he overcame the arch enemy of mankind in a single duell This was he led to by the spirit of God not by any lust of vain glory in himselfe that he might make our pilgrimage in this world safe and secure and that he having experience of his temptations might have sympathy of ours and be the more ready to help us Heb. 2.17 and shew us a way how to put the devil to flight even by quoting Scripture as he did which is indeed the sword of the spirit It teacheth us also to beware of being led into temptation by our lusts but let the spirit of God bring us to the combat and he will bring us off with honor as Christ was For he leads us not by seducement of deceit nor allureth us by inticements to evill or by perswasions to venture upon any sinfull way but doth actuate us to combate with those temptations which he foresees are laied for us that our vertues may be improved and God glorified by such probations of us So it may justly comfort us in all temptations that Christ having overcome the devill in our behalfe hath merited victory for us His next suffering was extream poverty and want of the comforts of this life Mat. 8.20 he had not where to lay his head He lived upon alms and borrowed an Asse And this was to make us rich 2 Cor. 8.9 yea to make our selves poor by our liberality to others 2 Cor. 8.9 and not to place our felicity in worldly things nor seek great matters for our selves but be content with the meanest estate Christ was as poor as any man Beside he had infirmities like us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 He hungred and thirsted though he was the bread and water of life and was weary though the way to life He was subject to anger sadnesse fear and sorrow and this was that he might merit strength for us and we be enabled in him Further he suffered extream disgrace from the Jewes for they denied his divinity his birth by a Virgin nor would receive him as their King and Saviour John 1.11 They reproached him also unjustly and accused him of blasphemy against God and of seducing the people Against the Magistrate with treason and sedition against his own soule as if he had been a conjurer so with gluttony and drunkennesse and a favourer of sinners by which means the people were offended in him Mark 6.3 All this fell upon him by the imputation of our sins who were guilty though he was innocent and therefore he spake but little in his own defence Also that he might deliver us from eternall shame and merit for us eternall glory and that we might be ashamed for his sake to suffer all reproaches Heb. 12.3 4. Beside he underwent many dangers of being cast down the clift of Nazareth headlong and of stoning by the Jewes All which he suffered as the fruits and effects of our sins and to save us from everlasting destruction But above all this he suffered his enemies to consult his death to be betraid by Judas to be denied by Peter to be forsaken by the rest And this he suffered for our perfidiousnesse in Adam our forsaking God and denying his truth and beleeving the devill Farther a bitter agony seized upon him in the garden Mat. 26.38 not
infernall sorrowes as the innocent surety of our salvation was capable of which no mention was made in the Creed but only by this Article or that by the efficacy of his death he did pierce into hell i. wheresoever the cursed spirits have their residence despoiling them of their power and confirm their damnation and to signifie the deliverance of his people from their captivity Ephes 4.8 And it seems to me that David intended this sense Psal 16.10 thou wilt not leave my soule in hell i. in sorrow and anguish nor suffer my body to know corruption All which should work in us sorrow for sin which put Christ to so much and make us to descend in all humility under the hand of God as he did that with him we be exalted in due time Also to shun despair since God can bring us from the sorrow of hell it selfe as he did our blessed Saviour Mathe. But I pray tell me the benefits obtained by his resurrection Phila. It is said Phil. 2.9 that for his sufferings God hath highly exalted him so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now this exaltation consisteth 1. In his Resurrection 2. In his ascension 3. In his session at the right hand of God 4. In the outward and inward adoration of the intellectuall and rationall creature 5. In his comming to judge the world Mathe. Foure of these I agree to but the bowing at his name I doubt of as I doe also of many other gestures which have been used in the Church assemblies Phila. I know this outward gesture hath been much controverted But when I consider that God alloweth of outward visible as well as of the invisible worship and that St Paul saith we must glorifie God in our bodies as well as in our spirits and that this posture of bowing the knee is founded upon the glory of God in Christ Phil. 2.10 It may be practised by Christians yea Chrysost ad popu Antioch hom 61. and ought to be at certain times of devotion as a token of the same and to testifie our submission to Jesus Christ whom God hath so highly exalted and assigned him this worship as a part of his reward for suffering Theodo in Phil. 2. that by our humility he may be exalted who was exalted for his humility even to have him honoured in his name when absent in reference to his person I know that many objections are made against it As first that all things that are here spoken of have not knees as Angels below and above I answer nor have they tongues therefore shall not they confesse him The meaning then is that all in their severall manner shall willingly or unwillingly be subject to Christ whom God hath exalted by manifesting him to be the eternall son of God So that as we that have knees are to bowe them to the person that owns that name Jesus so shall all others do first or last willingly or forcibly to the same person and his power For the bowing to the name as a word or at the naming thereof alwaies I do not understand the text intends it but that Christians in old time did use to uncover their heads at divine service when this name was pronounced in signe that they did acknowledge his deity Zanc. in Phil. c. 2. against the blasphemy of the Jewes and Arrians who would not acknowledg his Godhead is plainly to be found Hiero. in Isa 45.23 and that they bowed the knee also which the Jew in pride would not doe which in time did degenerate to superstition Yet sure as it may be superstitiously used so it may be irreligiously neglected since that Christ hath said he that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father and that he will have all men worship the Son as they worship the Father and that God hath included his own name in Jesus I am Isa 43.11 and beside me there is no Saviour and therefore being Jesus the Savior he must be Jehovah too our righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 Upon this ground I beleeve our Church hath injoined this gesture as may be seen in the 52. injunction of Queen Elizabeth and in the eighteenth Canon But antiquity is antiquated and the Church authority disalowed and so Gods worship disanulled Mathe. Now I pray declare the manner and the benefits we have by his Resurrection and Ascension and his session in heaven and his comming to judgement Phila. First ye are to know that only Christs body can properly be said to rise because that only died although the soule and it were never disunited from the person of the Son of God though the soule was divided in death from the body of which rising there was testimony enough both of Angels and men The time of his rising was the third day neither sooner nor later And that first to fulfill both his type of Isaac who was taken alive from the altar the third day after he was destined for death Gen. 22.4 which receiving was in a figure Heb. 11.19 i. of Christs resurrection and also of that prophecie Hos 6.2 the third day he will raise us for by him we shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 Againe he rose this day as it were to give a new beginning to the world He died the day of the week that Adam was created and rose the first day of the week on which God began the world by which he enlightned Heaven and Earth with the grace and joy of his resurrection Also he rose with the sun to shew that he was the true Sun of righteousnesse that was to rise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 to enlighten the new Christian world after so long a night of dark legall shadowes spoken of Cant. 2.17 and Rom. 13.12 bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Tim. 1.10 The manner of his rising was admirable As first by his owne power John 2.19 dissolve this temple meaning the temple of his body and I will raise it up again the third day So John 10.18 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up againe this he did as he was God He did it by himselfe from the Father through the eternall spirit Again he rose by such a way as never any man did before namely as the Prince of life as the first born of the dead as the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. He never saw corruption nor ever was to die any more as Lazarus and others He rose in the same body that was buried Luke 24.39 and in despight of his keeper as the Church shall do in despight of all opposers and with an earthquake to shew how he will shake the world first by the power of his word preached and next by the power of his last
8. Persecution who raised the eighth persecution Now was Lucius Stephanus and Sixtus Bishops of Rome martyred and Laurence the Deacon broiled on a gridiron to death in patience Priscus Malchus and Alexander were devoured by wild beasts This Tyrant was taken captive by Sapor King of Persia and made his footstoole which made his son Galienus more mild and recalled those Christians that were banished Claudius and his son Quintilius succeed Claudius after great victory against the Goths in two years died Quintilius being chosen by his little army and hearing that Aurelianus was chosen also voluntarily bled to death Aurelianus raiseth the ninth persecution 9. Persecution Eus l. 7. c. 30. but it took no effect for as the Edict was proclaiming there fell a thunderbolt so neer the Emperour that he was taken up fordead He was after killed by his Secretary Mensth eus Aurelius Probus followed who after many great great victories employing the souldiers in husbandry Jup. hist saying there was no need of souldiers where there was no fear of enemies he was slain by them and much lamented Carus followed who was slain with thunder Numerianus his Son slain by Aper his father in Law Carinus his brother slain in battell by Dioclesian Dioclesian declared Emperour by the army kils Aper that had slain Numerianus In the nineteenth year of his reign 10. Persecution he raised the tenth persecution Now from the time of Valerian to the nineteenth year of Dioclesian and his associate Maximinianus the Church Christian had great peace and had great favor many of them with the Emperors and had some authority and offices committed to them Eus l. 8. c. 1. Beside they had liberty to build Oratories and Temples in Cites whereas before they worshipped in private houses of their own or in their burying places This liberty begate carnall security among Christians Caemeteria and wicked contentions and losse of charity and therefore God suffered this tenth persecution to awaken his people so that both these one in the East and the other in the West made fearfull havock of poor Christians This was the tenth persecution and it continued ten years for it ceased not from its first beginning by Dioclesian till the seventh year of Constantine that is all the time of Maxentius and Licinius Now were the Christian Temples pulled down the Scriptures burned Christian-officers displaced Bishops displaced imprisoned compelled to sacrifice to Idols if fortune could do it and all that would not renounce Christianity were disfranchised of their liberty and their offices and places John a Nobleman at Nicomedia Eus l. 8. c. 5. Eus l. 8. c. 6. tore down the Emperours Edicts and suffered a cruell death Peter a chiefe man in the Court was whipped and roasted and basted with vinegar and salt whose patience encouraged many to suffer Twenty thousand were burned in one Temple by Maximinus Dorotheus and Gorgonius after torments were strangled The prisons were so full of them there was hardly room for malefactors Women were hung up in trees by one leg Some rent by bowed trees some tortured many daies singing Psalms joifully Whole Towns full of Christians burned Whole Legions of Christian souldiers slain because they would not sacrifice to Idols by Maximinianus In divers Towns in France Italy and Germany the channels run with blood At last these cruell tyrants being weary of killing relented so far as to be contented to thrust out only their right eies and maim their left legs and condemn them to the mines After two years exercising this cruelty these two wicked tyrants gave over their imperiall offices Then the Empire remained to Constantius Chlorus and Galerius Maximinus Chlorus chose his son Constantine his associate under him and Galerius chose his two sons Maximinus and Severus to be Caesars under him and the souldiers set up Maxentius the son of Maximinianus to be their Emperour against whom Galerius sent his son Severus who was slain and Galerius chose Licinius in his stead Galerius Maximinus and Licinius drove on the persecution which Dioclesian began neer eight years together but Constantius Chlorus and his son Constantine were very favourable to Christians Maximinus seduced by sorcerers makes war against Licinius is vanquished and dieth Maxentius dishonoured the Ladies of Rome and commits such outrage that the people of Rome send to Constantine into France and Brittain for aid he was afraid of his charms but he had a sign given him in heaven of the crosse with stars that gave these words in hoc vinces In this thou shalt overcome He put therefore the crosse in his banner and overcame Maxentius who was drowned as he fled Licinius sets out lamentable edicts against poor Christians Eus lib. 2. de vita Constantini though Constantius Chiorus counted them the best subjects They might not meet or convent with Bishops nor women with men nor visite the imprisoned Christians so they retired to the woods and wildernesses The Bishops in Egypt and Lybia were cut in pieces Many were set in ponds of water all night and then burned the next day This Licinius made war with Constantine who overcame him and sent him away to live a private life in Thessalia where the souldiers slew him Rev. 2.10 And now ended the time prophecied of the Churches troubles by St. John saying that she should endure tribulation ten daies for now the Church begins to have great peace by the favour of Constantine who though not baptized till toward his end Eus de vita Const l. 4. yet was a continuall favourer of them as was his father Chlorus Mathe. Was here an end of persecution Phila. Yes of persecution of the Roman heathen Emperours but now persecutions arise from some Christians themselves Persecution of Christians by Christian Hereticks as Paul prophecied Acts 20.30 speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them not sparing the flock these were Hereticks Mathe. Were there not heresies before Constantines time Phila. Yes many Mathe. I pray tell me first what heresie is and then who those Hereticks were Phila. Heresie we count a chosen opinion contrary to the grounds of Christian faith and obstinately maintained by some that professe Christianity and therefore must not be Atheists carnall Christians Infidels Turks or Jewes nor weak minded Christians Mathe. Who were the Hereticks in chiefe before Constantine Mathe. The first was Simon Magus In the first hundred years after Christ Simon Magus whom Peter and Philip confounded at Samaria who though he were baptized because he professed himselfe to beleeve yet disclosing his prophane heart by offering mony to buy of St Peter the gifts of the Holy Ghost he was rejected From thence he fled to Rome where for his conjurations he was worshipped for a god in the time of Claudius by those Romans that would not admit Christ for God in the time of Tiberius Eus l. 2. c. 13. This Magus taught men to worship images especially his own and
was learned He like some schismaticks now accounted humane learning heresie and so they may see their error is popish while they condemn learning as if it were popery Next comes Sixtus the fourth Innocentius the eight Alexander the sixt who imprisoned and banished many Cardinals Then followed Pius the third and next Julius the second who by the Emperour Maximilian and the King of Spain and France's aids spoiled the Venetians of many territories yet he received them again into favor and so discontented the Emperour and the King of France that they thought to depose him by their Councill at Pisa But he called another Councill at Rome which disanulled all they did at Pisa He lived in wars all his time Leo the tenth succeeds him He endevoured to suppresse Martin Luther but could not Adrianus the sixt followed and threatned the Duke of Saxony for maintaining Martin Luther Clement the seventh succeeds who poisoned many and was poisoned himselfe Paulus the third followeth whose authority in England was abrogated by King Henry the eighth who called himselfe supreme head in his own dominions in all causes Ecclesiastick and Civill He cursed King Henry the eighth of England therefore and interdicted the Kingdome ratified the order of Jesuites and called a Councill at Trent where the Protestants would not appear because they said that Councill was not lawfully called and the Pope sate Judge who was the party they were to accuse of errors and abusing the Church He carried the Councill to Bononia Iulius the third followed who brought it back again to Trent and sent in Queen Maries daies Cardinall Pool to absolve England from the interdiction of Paul the third But havock was made in England of Protestants Paulus the fourth followed who hated Charls the Emperour who resigned his government to his son Ferdinand and died in a Monastery The Pope approved not this election but Ferdinand esteemed not of his approbation Pius the fourth followed In his time the Councill of Trent called by Paul the third was dissolved which had sate six yeers only of eighteen But before that he sent an Embassador into England to invite the Clergy to that Councill but Queen Elizabeth would not suffer him to land Nor would the Germans send any Scotland also revolted from popery He massacred Protestants at Montalto in Italy to the number of eighty because they met at an house to hear a Sermon They were drawn out one by one and their throats cut but none recanted their Religion Pius the fifth followed who with the Venetians and the King of Spain and his own aids overcame the Turks at Lepanto under the conduct of John of Austria Gregory the thirteenth followed He founded a new Colledge for Jesuites and gave it great revenues to bring up schollers to convert the Germans The Guises faction and the Queen Mother made an horrid massacre in Paris of the Protestants whom they called Huguenots 1572. Which act this Pope commended and sent Charls King of France 40000. Duckats to set forward the war against them This Pope set forth a new Kalender Sixtus the fift followed who excommunicated the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie both Protestants Now was Henry the third killed by a Frier Clement the eighth absolved Henry the fourth King of France from the excommunication of Sixtus the fifth upon his abjuration of the protestation by his Orators which King was slain by a proselyte of the Jesuits called Ravilack Mathe. I desire to know how the Protestant Religion came in and whether it be ancient and how it hath been persecuted by the Pope his adherents whether Princes or Prelates and by what heresies opposed for the Papists still upbraid us that our Religion was begun by Luther who began an innovation in the time of Pope Leo the tenth Against whom Henry the eighth of England did write and obtained the title from the Pope of Defender of the faith Phila. You are to understand that the substantiall points of the Protestant Religion are the same which are grounded upon Scripture and maintained from the Primitive times by the Church Christian but obscured in tract of time by divers heresies and popish traditions which like tares and weeds over-grew the good seed which yet still appeared in divers places of the field of the Catholike Church plain enough to prove a visible being both of the truth and professors of it till the Protestants made a more full declaration of it by refining the old truths from the drosse of heresie and popish superstition Mathe. I desire to have a more plain view of those hereticks that turned from Gospell truths And secondly how the Pope sell off being that the Roman Church did oftentimes excommunicate those hereticks And thirdly how the Protestants came to reform themselves they being once in the bowels of the Romish Church Phila. You know I have shewed many already among the persecuting hereticks yet it shall not be irksome to me if it be not to you to view them a little better especially the Manicheans who sprung up before Arrius with which heresie Augustine was entangled but the Lord God that bringeth good out of evill converted him by the pains of Ambrose Bishop of Millain and he became a great light to Gods people and a confuter of that cursed heresie Manicheus opinions were that there were two beginnings one evil and the other good which is all one as to say there be two Gods No wonder if their patron Manes called himselfe the Holy Ghost Maniches as Montanus did if he proceeded from such principles This Manes forbade flesh and wine neglected the old Testament ascribed the sin of man not to his free will Vid. Aug. cont Mani but necessity because he said mans body was made of the substance of the Prince of darknesse He died a fearfull death Theo. l. 4. c. 4. For as Arrius voided his guts at a draught-house before he came to dispute against the truth so this Manes was sent for being a Persian by the King of Persia to cure his son who died in his hands and he was imprisoned but escaped yet heard of in Mesopotamia was taken and flead Socrat. l. 1. c. 21. and his skin stuffed and set up at the gate of the City Mathe. Sir lest it be too much trouble to you and no great benefit to me to recite all the heresies I desire only the chiefe of them which do directly oppose true Religion Phila. I intend so and therefore first I will shew you the ancient heresies and then the modern that you may see how far the latter are raked out of the former We find some holding God to be like a man because Gen. 1.21 God is said to make man after his image Anthropomorphites but that in the soule and the endowments thereof wisedome and righteousnesse The Author of this heresie was one Ardaeus a Syrian Then followed the Messalians called Euchitae because they thought the whole duty of
every man their fellow The books that some of their own have written shew enough of their simplicity Mathe. Are we not troubled with some of the old Pelagians Phila. There have been some long agoe that held some of the opinions of old Pelagius Britto the Welsh man alias Morgan Cond in the fift Council of Carthage and in others Pontanus Cat. Haeret. who lived in the time of the Emperour Theodosius the younger about the year 416. His followers of latter time are reckoned to hold many errors as 1. That Adam should have died by the course of nature though he had not sinned yet we find that God joins death to disobedience Gen. 2.17 So 2. They say Adams sin only hurt himselfe not his posteritie yet Paul saith otherwise Rom. 5.12 by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men because all men did partake of that one sin yea even those that never sinned as Adam did ver 14. i. actuallie but not originallie as children have no sin but that and yet die August Beza But therefore 3. These Pelagians denie originall sin in children but how then saith David in sin my mother conceived me Psal 51. and therefore originall sin is propagated by generation 4. They say the children of the faithfull though not baptized are saved and they shall enjoy everlasting life but not in heaven but Christ saith Joh. 3. that those which belong to Gods Kingdome must be baptized with water nor doth the Scripture set forth to us any third place between heaven and hell 5. They say that men are born in Adams perfection stature and age excepted yet sure they are not born in such integrity as Adam was made for then all would be equally wise and good when they come to age 6. They say men have free will by which they are enabled to do well without Gods grace yet saith Paul not I but the grace of God in me 7. Gods grace they say is obtained by the merit of our works yet Paul saith that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore by naturall works they cannot merit grace 8. They say that the word grace in Scripture doth not signifie remission of sin or donation of the Holy Ghost but the doctrine of the Gospell But this is found otherwise for as there is the doctrine of faith Fides quam credimus fides quâ credimus which is preached Rom. 10.8 and the vertue of faith by which we beleeve it and are thereby justified Rom. 5.1 So the promulgation of the Gospell is a common grace afforded to many Tit. 2.11 teaching us to denie ungodlinesse and next by it is begot saving grace 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in me with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ 9. They say that faith is the knowledge of the Law and the Historie not any speciall work in us but then the faith of divels and good Christians are both alike Jam. 2.19.10 They say the Law is not impossible for a man to keep and it is satisfied by the externall obedience why then doth Paul say that by the work of the Law no man can be justified Rom. 3.20 yet he that can fulfill it may be justified by it and hath no need of Christ Gal. 3.12 So 11. They say that to pray for the conversion of sinners or for the Saints perseverance is vain because it is in the power of their own free will But surely the will of man hath not power to revive him though he had power to kill himselfe and therefore praier is very fit to be used for people unconverted and also for the godly because of their frailties therefore Christ bids us pray for our enemies and Paul boweth his knees dailie for the Ephesians c. 3.16 So 12. They slight the doctrin of predestination which is applauded by St Paul Rom. 8. and comfortable to Gods people Many other errors they hold not worth relating Mathe. But I hear of some called Independents and Levellers I would willingly know what they are Phila. Independants are those that set up a congregationall government which shall depend upon no other Church Synod nor Classis and though they be against the Bishops yet they would have in every Church Bishop-Independants and so many Parishes so many prelacies because they are Independant upon any other They are bred from Separatists and Brownists The first of them that I can hear of was one Mr Robinson who leaving Norwich turned a rigid Brownist at Leyden He dying many of his followers went from thence to New England and planted at Plymoth there and spread their errors by discourse and into old England by letters where they endeavor to set Church against Church and Conventicles against our Churches which they call steeple-houses which were at first set up for the honour of God and his service though abused by the Papists to superstition yet are they never the worse when they are returned to a right use for as there is no inherent righteousness in their wals so neither is inherent superstition in them It is true that Jehosaphat took away the high places and groves because God had appointed and a place was consecrated for his service 2 Chro. 17.6 and such high places and groves were forbidden But they just contrary to Jehosaphat pull down the consecrated places and set up high places in chambers and meet in the groves and woods God give them a right understanding in the use of Churches Beside this they set themselves to overthrow learning and to rob it of all maintainance and the ministers of all dues and yet ask wherein have we robbed God Mal. 3.8 where God answereth them in tithes and offerings which God thought a fit way to maintaine his Priests And Christ bids the Leper go shew himselfe to the Priest and pay his offering Mat. 8.4 And Paul found it was equity that as they which did wait on the Altar were partakers of the Altar So that it was Gods Ordinance that they that preach the Gospell should live on the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Yet these like Julian the Apostate would rob the Church of maintainance that there might be no ministrie because they despise prophecie Again they allow no set forms of Praier no not Christs form and yet they will say St Pauls namely The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost c. Yet it hath ever been the practice of all true Churches Jewes and Christians to have set forms as well for the uniform consent of the people Rom. 15.6 in praier and in praise as also for the confining not of the spirit as they suppose but of their inconsiderate spirits to the words of truth and sobernesse Yet there was alwaies liberty enough to shew the gift of praier before and after Sermon if men could use their libertie not as occasion to fleshly phantasies Mathe.
Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Eugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to find fault with our Bishops succession from thence he being an holy man and martyr and his two messengers being faithfull Pastours