further and will not have the Law of Nature to be those Rules which conduce to the preservation of mans life on earth but to the attaining of an eternall felicity after death to which they think the breach of Covenant may conduce and consequently be just and reasonable such are they that think it a work of merit to kill or depose or rebell against the Soveraigne Power constituted over them by their own consent But because there is no naturall knowledge of mans estate after death much lesse of the reward that is then to be given to breach of Faith but onely a beliefe grounded upon other mens saying that they know it supernaturally or that they know those that knew them that knew others that knew it supernaturally Breach of Faith cannot be called a Precept of Reason or Nature Others that allow for a Law of Nature the keeping of Faith do neverthelesse make exception of certain persons as Heretiques and such as use not to performe their Covenant to others And this also is against reason For if any fault of a man be sufficient to discharge our Covenant made the same ought in reason to have been sufficient to have hindred the making of it The names of Just and Injust when they are attributed to Men signifie one thing and when they are attributed to Actions another When they are attributed to Men they signifie Conformity or Inconformity of Manners to Reason But when they are attributed to Actions they signifie the Conformity or Inconformity to Reason not of Manners or manner of life but of particular Actions A Just man therefore is he that taketh all the care he can that his Actions may be all Just and an Unjust man is he that neglecteth it And such men are more often in our Language stiled by the names of Righteous and Unrighteous then Just and Unjust though the meaning be the same Therefore a Righteous man does not lose that Title by one or a few unjust Actions that proceed from sudden Passion or mistake of Things or Persons nor does an Unrighteous man lose his character for such Actions as he does or forbeares to do for feare because his Will is not framed by the Justice but by the apparent benefit of what he is to do That which gives to humane Actions the relish of Justice is a certain Noblenesse or Gallantnesse of courage rarely found by which a man scorns to be beholding for the contentment of his life to fraud or breach of promise This Justice of the Manners is that which is meant where Justice is called a Vertue and Injustice a Vice But the Justice of Actions denominates men not Just but Guiltlesse and the Injustice of the same which is also called Injury gives them but the name of Guilty Again the Injustice of Manners is the disposition or aptitude to do Injurie and is Injustice before it proceed to Act and without supposing any individuall person injured But the Injustice of an Action that is to say Injury supposeth an individuall person Injured namely him to whom the Covenant was made And therefore many times the injury is received by one man when the dammage redoundeth to another As when the Master commandeth his servant to give mony to a stranger if it be not done the Injury is done to the Master whom he had before Covenanted to obey but the dammage redoundeth to the stranger to whom he had no Obligation and therefore could not Injure him And so also in Common-wealths private men may remit to one another their debts but not robberies or other violences whereby they are endammaged becaâ—…se the detaining of Debt is an Injury to themselves but Robbery and Violence are Injuries to the Person of the Common-wealth Whatsoever is done to a man conformable to his own Will signied to the doer is no Injury to him For if he that doeth it hath not passed away his originall right to do what he please by some Antecedent Covenant there is no breach of Covenant and therefore no Injury done him And if he have then his Will to have it done being signified is a release of that Covenant and so again there is no Injury done him Justice of Actions is by Writers divided into Commutative and Distributive and the former they say consisteth in proportion Arithmeticall the later in proportion Geometricall Commutative therefore they place in the equality of value of the things contracted for And Distributive in the distribution of equall benefit to men of equall merit As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy or to give more to a man than he merits The value of all things contracted for is measured by the Appetite of the Contractors and therefore the just value is that which they be contented to give And Merit besides that which is by Covenant where the performance on one part meriteth the performance of the other part and falls under Justice Commutative not Distributive is not due by Justice but is rewarded of Grace onely And therefore this distinction in the sense wherein it useth to be expounded is not right To speak properly Commutative Justice is the Justice of a Contractor that is a Performance of Covenant in Buying and Selling Hiring and Letting to Hire Lending and Borrowing Exchanging Bartering and other acts of Contract And Distributive Justice the Justice of an Arbitrator that is to say the act of defining what is Just. Wherein being trusted by them that make him Arbitrator if he performe his Trust he is said to distribute to every man his own and this is indeed Just Distribution and may be called though improperly Distributive Justice but more properly Equity which also is a Law of Nature as shall be shewn in due place As Justice dependeth on Antecedent Covenant so does GRATITUDE depend on Antecedent Grace that is to say Antecedent Free-gift and is the fourth Law of Nature which may be conceived in this Forme That a man which receiveth Benefit from another of meer Grace Endeavour that he which giveth it have no reasonable cause to repent him of his good will For no man giveth but with intention of Good to himselfe because Gift is Voluntary and of all Voluntary Acts the Object is to every man his own Good of which if men see they shall be frustrated there will be no beginning of benevolence or trust nor consequently of mutuall help nor of reconciliation of one man to another and therefore they are to remain still in the condition of War which is contrary to the first and Fundamentall Law of Nature which commandeth men to Seck Peace The breach of this Law is called Ingratitude and hath the same relation to Grace that Injustice hath to Obligation by Covenant A fifth Law of Nature is COMPLEASANCE that is to say That every man strive to accommodate himselfe to the rest For the understanding whereof we may consider that there is in mens aptnesse to Society
deceive many more In this aptitude of mankind to give too hasty beleefe to pretended Miracles there can be no better nor I think any other caution then that which God hath prescribed first by Moses as I have said before in the precedent chapter in the beginning of the 13. and end of the 18. of Deuteronomy That wee take not any for Prophets that teach any other Religion then that which Gods Lieutenant which at that time was Moses hath established nor any though he teach the same Religion whose Praediction we doe not see come to passe Moses therefore in his time and Aaron and his successors in their times and the Soveraign Governour of Gods people next under God himself that is to say the Head of the Church in all times are to be consulted what doctrine he hath established before wee give credit to a pretended Miracle or Prophet And when that is done the thing they pretend to be a Miracle we must both see it done and use all means possible to consider whether it be really done and not onely so but whether it be such as no man can do the like by his naturall power but that it requires the immediate hand of God And in this also we must have recourse to Gods Lieutenant to whom in all doubtfull cases wee have submitted our private judgments For example if a man pretend that after certain words spoken over a peece of bread that presently God hath made it not bread but a God or a man or both and neverthelesse it looketh still as like bread as ever it did there is no reason for any man to think it really done nor consequently to fear him till he enquire of God by his Vicar or Lieutenant whether it be done or not If he say not then followeth that which Moses saith Deut. 18. 22. he hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not fear him If he say 't is done then he is not to contradict it So also if wee see not but onely hear tell of a Miracle we are to consult the Lawful Church that is to say the lawful Head thereof how far we are to give credit to the relators of it And this is chiefly the case of men that in these days live under Christian Soveraigns For in these times I do not know one man that ever saw any such wondrous work done by the charm or at the word or prayer of a man that a man endued but with a mediocrity of reason would think supernaturall and the question is no more whether what wee see done be a Miracle whether the Miracle we hear or read of were a reall work and not the Act of a tongue or pen but in plain terms whether the report be true or a lye In which question we are not every one to make our own private Reason or Conscience but the Publique Reason that is the reason of Gods Supreme Lieutenant Judge and indeed we have made him Judge already if wee have given him a Soveraign power to doe all that is necessary for our peace and defence A private man has alwaies the liberty because thought is free to beleeve or not beleeve in his heart those acts that have been given out for Miracles according as he shall see what benefit can accrew by mens belief to those that pretend or countenance them and thereby conjecture whether they be Miracles or Lies But when it comes to confession of that faith the Private Reason must submit to the Publique that is to say to Gods Lieutenant But who is this Lieutenant of God and Head of the Church shall be considered in its proper place hereafter CHAP. XXXVIII Of the Signification in Scripture of ETERNALL LIFE HELL SALVATION THE WORLD TO COME and RÉDEMPTION THe maintenance of Civill Society depending on Justice and Justice on the power of Life and Death and other lesse Rewards and Punishments residing in them that have the Soveraignty of the Common-wealth It is impossible a Common-wealth should stand where any other than the Soveraign hath a power of giving greater rewards than Life and of inflicting greater punishments then Death Now seeing Eternall life is a greater reward than the life present and Eternall torment a greater punishment than the death of Nature It is a thing worthy to be well considered of all men that desire by obeying Authority to avoid the calamities of Confusion and Civill war what is meant in holy Scripture by Life Eternall and Torment Eternall and for what offences and against whom committed men are to be Eternally tormented and for what actions they are to obtain Eternall life And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life as had he not broken the commandement of God he had enjoyed it in the Paradise of Eden Everlastingly For there was the Tree of life whereof he was so long allowed to eat as he should forbear to eat of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evill which was not allowed him And therefore as soon as he had eaten of it God thrust him out of Paradise lest he should put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and live for ever By which it seemeth to me with submission neverthelesse both in this and in all questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Common-wealth whose Subject I am that Adam if he had not sinned had had an Eternall Life on Earth and that Mortality entred upon himself and his posterity by his first Sin Not that actuall Death then entred for Adam then could never have had children whereas he lived long after and saw a numerous posterity ere he dyed But where it it is said In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die it must needs bee meant of his Mortality and certitude of death Seeing then Eternall life was lost by Adams forfeiture in committing sin he that should cancell that forfeiture was to recover thereby that Life again Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for the sins of all that beleeve in him and therefore recovered to all beleevers that ETERNALL LIFE which was lost by the sin of Adam And in this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth Rom. 5. 18 19. As by the offence of one Iudgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to Iustification of Life Which is again 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. more perspicuously delivered in these words For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that Eternall Life which Christ hath obtained for them the texts next before alledged seem to make it on Earth For if as in Adam all die that is have forfeited Paradise and Eternall Life on Earth even so in
Christ all shall bee made alive then all men shall be made to live on Earth for else the comparison were not proper Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the Psalmist Psal. 133. 3. Vpon Zion God commanded the blessing even Life for evermore for Zion is in Jerusalem upon Earth as also that of S. Joh. Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcommeth I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God This was the tree of Adams Eternall life but his life was to have been on Earth The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. Joh. Rev. 21. 2. where he saith I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband and again v. 10. to the same effect As if he should say the new Jerusalem the Paradise of God at the coming again of Christ should come down to Gods people from Heaven and not they goe up to it from Earth And this differs nothing from that which the two men in white clothing that is the two Angels said to the Apostles that were looking upon Christ ascending Acts 1. 11. This same Iesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come as you have seen him go up into Heaven Which soundeth as if they had said he should come down to govern them under his Father Eternally here and not take them up to govern them in Heaven and is conformable to the Restauration of the Kingdom of God instituted under Moses which was a Political government of the Jews on Earth Again that saying of our Saviour Mat. 22. 30. that in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God in heaven is a description of an Eternall Life resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of Marriage For seeing Adam and Eve if they had not sinned had lived on Earth Eternally in their individuall persons it is manifest they should not continually have procreated their kind For if Immortals should have generated as Mankind doth now the Earth in a small time would not have been able to afford them place to stand on The Jews that asked our Saviour the question whose wife the woman that had married many brothers should be in the resurrection knew not what were the consequences of Life Eternall and therefore our Saviour puts them in mind of this consequence of Immortality that there shal be no Generation and consequētly no marriage no more then there is marriage or generatiō among the Angels The comparison between that Eternall life which Adam lost and our Saviour by his Victory over death hath recovered holdeth also in this that as Adam lost Eternall Life by his sin and yet lived after it for a time so the faithful Christian hath recovered Eternal Life by Christs passion though he die a natural death and remaine dead for a time namely till the Resurrection For as Death is reckoned from the Condemnation of Adam not from the Execution so Life is reckoned from the Absolution not from the Resurrection of them that are elected in Christ. That the place wherein men are to live Eternally after the Resurrection is the Heavens meaning by Heaven those parts of the world which are the most remote from Earth as where the stars are or above the stars in another Higher Heaven called Coelum Empyreum whereof there is no mention in Scripture nor ground in Reason is not easily to be drawn from any text that I can find By the Kingdome of Heaven is meant the Kingdom of the King that dwelleth in Heaven and his Kingdome was the people of Israel whom he ruled by the Prophets his Lieutenants first Moses and after him Eleazar and the Soveraign Priests till in the days of Samuel they rebelled and would have a mortall man for their King after the manner of other Nations And when our Saviour Christ by the preaching of his Ministers shall have perswaded the Jews to return and called the Gentiles to his obedience then shall there be a new Kingdom of Heaven because our King shall then be God whose throne is Heaven without any necessity evident in the Scripture that man shall ascend to his happinesse any higher than Gods footstool the Earth On the contrary we find written Ioh. 3. 13. that no man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man that is in Heaven Where I observe by the way that these words are not as those which go immediately before the words of our Saviour but of St. John himself for Christ was then not in Heaven but upon the Earth The like is said of David Acts 2. 34. where St. Peter to prove the Ascension of Christ using the words of the Psalmist Psal. 16. 10. Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell not suffer thine Holy one to see corruption saith they were spoken not of David but of Christ and to prove it addeth this Reason For David is not ascended into Heaven But to this a man may easily answer and say that though their bodies were not to ascend till the generall day of Judgment yet their souls were in Heaven as soon as they were departed from their bodies which also seemeth to be confirmed by the words of our Saviour Luke 20. 37 38. who proving the Resurrection out of the words of Moses saith thus That the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob For he is not a God of the Dead but of the Living for they all live to him But if these words be to be understood only of the Immortality of the Soul they prove not at all that which our Saviour intended to prove which was the Resurrection of the Body that is to say the Immortality of the Man Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those Patriarchs were Immortall not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of mankind but by the will of God that was pleased of his mere grace to bestow Eternall life upon the faithfull And though at that time the Patriarchs and many other faithfull men were dead yet as it is in the text they lived to God that is they were written in the Book of Life with them that were absolved of their sinnes and ordained to Life eternall at the Resurrection That the Soul of man is in its own nature Eternall and a living Creature inpedendent on the body or that any meer man is Immortall otherwise than by the Resurrection in the last day except Enos and Elias is a doctrine nor apparent in Scripture The whole 14. Chapter of Iob which is the speech not of his friends but of himselfe is a complaint of this Mortality of Nature and yet no contradiction of the Immortality at the Resurrection There is hope of a tree saith hee verse 7.
Servants to bind hand and foot the man that had not on his Wedding garment and to cast him out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Externall darknesse or Darknesse without which though translated Vtter darknesse does not signifie how great but where that darknesse is to be namely without the habitation of Gods Elect. Lastly whereas there was a place neer Jerusalem called the Valley of the Children of Hinnon in a part whereof called Tophet the Jews had committed most grievous Idolatry sacrificing their children to the Idol Moloch and wherein also God had afflicted his enemies with most grievous punishments and wherein Josias had burnt the Priests of Moloch upon their own Altars as appeareth at large in the 2 of Kings chap. 23. the place served afterwards to receive the filth and garbage which was carried thither on t of the City and there used to be fires made from time to time to purifie the aire and take away the stench of Carrion From this abominable place the Jews used ever after to call the place of the Damned by the name of Gehenna or Valley of Hinnon And this Gehenna is that word which is usually now translated HELL and from the fires from time to time there burning we have the notion of Everlasting and Vnquenchable Fire Seeing now there is none that so interprets the Scripture as that after the day of Judgment the wicked are all Eternally to be punished in the Valley of Hinnon or that they shall so rise again as to be ever after under ground or under water or that after the Resurrection they shall no more see one another nor stir from one place to another it followeth me thinks very necessarily that that which is thus said concerning Hell Fire is spoken metaphorically and that therefore there is a proper sense to bee enquired after for of all Metaphors there is some reall ground that may be expressed in proper words both of the Place of Hell and the nature of Hellish Torments and Tormenters And first for the Tormenters wee have their nature and properties exactly and properly delivered by the names of The Enemy or Satan The Accuser or Diabolus The Destroyer or Abaddon Which significant names Satan Devill Abaddon set not forth to us any Individuall person as proper names use to doe but onely an office or quality and are therefore Appellatives which ought not to have been left untranslated as they are in the Latine and Modern Bibles because thereby they seem to be the proper names of Daemons and men are the more easily seduced to beleeve the doctrine of Devills which at that time was the Religion of the Gentiles and contrary to that of Moses and of Christ. And because by the Enemy the Accuser and Destroyer is meant the Enemy of them that shall be in the Kingdome of God therefore if the Kingdome of God after the Resurrection bee upon the Earth as in the former Chapter I have shewn by Scripture it seems to be The Enemy and his Kingdome must be on Earth also For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God For Gods Kingdome was in Palestine and the Nations round about were the Kingdomes of the Enemy and consequently by Satan is meant any Earthly Enemy of the Church The Torments of Hell are expressed sometimes by weeping and gnashing of teeth as Mat. 8. 12. Sometimes by the worm of Conscience as Isa. 66. 24. and Mark 9. 44 46 48 sometimes by Fire as in the place now quoted where the worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched and many places beside sometimes by shame and contâ—…mpt as Daâ—… 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake some to Everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt All which places design metaphorically a grief and discontent of mind from the sight of that Eternall felicity in others which they themselves through their own incredulity and disobedience have lost And because such felicity in others is not sensible but by comparison with their own actuall miseries it followeth that they are to suffer such bodily paines and calamities as are incident to those who not onely live under evill and cruell Governours but have also for Enemy the Eternall King of the Saints God Almighty And amongst these bodily paines is to be reckoned also to every one of the wicked a second Death For though the Scripture bee clear for an universall Resurrection yet wee do not read that to any of the Reprobate is promised an Eternall life For whereas St. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. to the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again saith that the body is sown in corruption and is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weaknesse it is raised in power Glory and Power cannot be applyed to the bodies of the wicked Nor can the name of Second Death bee applyed to those that can never die but once And although in Metaphoricall speech a Calamitous life Everlasting may bee called an Everasting Death yet it cannot well be understood of a Second Death The fire prepared for the wicked is an Everlasting Fire that is to say the estate wherein no man can be without torture both of body and mind after the Resurrection shall endure for ever and in that sense the Fire shall be unquenchable and the torments Everlasting but it cannot thence be inferred that hee who shall be cast into that fire or be tormented with those torments shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burnt and tortured and yet never be destroyed nor die And though there be many places that affirm Everlasting Fire and Torments into which men may be cast successively one after another for ever yet I find none that affirm there shall bee an Eternall Life therein of any individuall person but to the contrary an Everlasting Death which is the Second Death For after Death and the Grave shall have delivered up the dead which were in them and every man be judged according to his works Death and the Grave shall also be cast into the Lake of Fire This is the Second Death Whereby it is evident that there is to bee a Second Death of every one that shall bee condemned at the day of Judgement after which hee shall die no more The joyes of Life Eternall are in Scripture comprehended all under the name of SALVATION or being saved To be saved is to be secured either respectively against speciall Evills or absolutely against all Evill comprehending Want Sicknesse and Death it self And because man was created in a condition Immortall not subject to corruption and consequently to nothing that tendeth to the dissolution of his nature and fell from that happinesse by the sin of Adam it followeth that to be saved from Sin is to be saved from all the Evill and Calamities that Sinne hath brought upon
the◅efore manifest that Christ hath not left to his Ministers in this world unlesse they be also endued with Civill Authority any authority to Command other men But what may some object if a King or a Senate or other Soveraign Person forbid us to beleeve in Christ To this I answer that such forbidding is of no effect because Beleef and Unbeleef never follow mens Commands Faith is a gift of God which Man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture And if it be further asked What if wee bee commanded by our lawfull Prince to say with our tongue wee beleeve not must we obey such command Profession with the tongue is but an externall thing and no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and wherein a Christian holding firmely in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian Naaman was converted in his heart to the God of Israel For hee saith 2 Kings 5. 17. Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other Gods but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant that when my Master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he leaneth on my hand and I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon when I bow my selfe in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing This the Prophet approved and bid him Goe in peace Here Naaman beleeved in his heart but by bowing before the Idol Rimmon he denyed the true God in effect as much as if he had done it with his lips But then what shall we answer to our Saviours saying Whosoever denyeth me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in Heaven This we may say that whatsoever a Subject as Naaman was is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not in order to his own mind but in order to the laws of his country that action is not his but his Soveraigns nor is it he that in this case denyeth Christ before men but his Governour and the law of his countrey If any man shall accuse this doctrine as repugnant to true and unfegined Christianity I ask him in case there should be a subject in any Christian Common-wealth that should be inwardly in his heart of the Mahometan Religion whether if his Soveraign command him to bee present at the divine service of the Christian Church and that on pain of death he think that Mahometan obliged in conscience to suffer death for that cause rather than to obey that command of his lawfull Prince If he say he ought rather to suffer death then he authorizeth all private men to disobey their Princes in maintenance of their Religion true or false if he say he ought to bee obedient then he alloweth to himself that which hee denyeth to another contrary to the words of our Saviour Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you that doe yee unto them and contrary to the Law of Nature which is the indubitable everlasting Law of God Do not to another that which thou wouldest not he should doe unto thee But what then shall we say of all those Martyrs we read of in the History of the Church that they have needlessely cast away their lives For answer hereunto we are to distinguish the persons that have been for that cause put to death whereof some have received a Calling to preach and professe the Kingdome of Christ openly others have had no such Calling nor more has been required of them than their owne faith The former sort if they have been put to death for bearing witnesse to this point that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead were true Martyrs For a Martyr is to give the true definition of the word a Witnesse of the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah which none can be but those that conversed with him on earth and saw him after he was risen For a Witnesse must have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good And that none but such can properly be called Martyrs of Christ is manifest out of the words of St. Peter Act. 1. 21 22. VVherefore of these men which have companyed with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out amongst us beginning from the Baptisme of Iohn unto that same day hee was taken up from us must one one be ordained to be a Martyr that is a Witnesse with us of his Resurrection Where we may observe that he which is to bee a Witnesse of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ that is to say of the truth of this fundamentall article of Christian Religion that Jesus was the Christ must be some Disciple that conversed with him and saw him before and after his Resurrection and consequently must be one of his originall Disciples whereas they which were not so can Witnesse no more but that their antecessors said it and are therefore but Witnesses of other mens testimony and are but second Martyrs or Martyrs of Christs Witnesses He that to maintain every doctrine which he himself draweth out of the History our Saviours of life and of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles or which he beleeveth upō the authority of a private man wil oppose the Laws and Authority of the Civill State is very far from being a Martyr of Christ or a Martyr of his Martyrs 'T is one Article onely which to die for meriteth so honorable a name and that Article is this that Iesus is the Christ that is to say He that hath redeemed us aud shall come again to give us salvation and eternall life in his glorious Kingdome To die for every tenet that serveth the ambition or profit of the Clergy is not required nor is it the Death of the Witnesse but the Testimony it self that makes the Martyr for the word signifieth nothing else but the man that beareth Witnesse whether he be put to death for his testimony or not Also he that is not sent to preach this fundamentall article but taketh it upon him of his private authority though he be a Witnesse and consequently a Martyr either primary of Christ or secundary of his Apostles Disciples or their Successors yet is he not obliged to suffer death for that cause because being not called thereto t is not required at his hands nor ought hee to complain if he loseth the reward he expecteth from those that never set him on work None therefore can be a Martyr neither of the first nor second degree that have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the flesh that is to say none but such as are sent to the conversion of Infidels For no man is a Witnesse to him that already beleeveth and therefore needs no Witnesse but to them that deny or doubt or have not heard it Christ sent his Apostles and his Seventy Disciples with
of them if there had appeared in their Rods nothing like a Serpent and in the Water enchanted nothing like Bloud nor like any thing else but Water but that they had faced down the King that they were Serpents that looked like Rods and that it was Bloud that seemed Water That had been both Enchantment and Lying And yet in this daily act of the Priest they doe the very same by turning the holy words into the manner of a Charme which produceth nothing new to the Sense but they face us down that it hath turned the Bread into a Man nay more into a God and require men to worship it as if it were our Saviour himself present God and Man and thereby to commit most grosse Idolatry For if it bee enough to excuse it of Idolatry to say it is no more Bread but God why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians in case they had the faces to say the Leeks and Onyons they worshipped were not very Leeks and Onyons but a Divinity under their species or likenesse The words This is my Body are aequivalent to these This signifies or represents my Body and it is an ordinary figure of Speech but to take it literally is an abuse nor though so taken can it extend any further than to the Bread which Christ himself with his own hands Consecrated For hee never said that of what Bread soever any Priest whatsoever should say This is my Body or This is Christs Body the same should presently be transubstantiated Nor did the Church of Rome ever establish this Transubstantiation till the time of Innocent the third which was not above 500. years agoe when the Power of Popes was at the Highest and the Darknesse of the time grown so great as men discerned not the Bread that was given them to eat especially when it was stamped with the figure of Christ upon the Crosse as if they would have men beleeve it were Transubstantiated not onely into the Body of Christ but also into the Wood of his Crosse and that they did eat both together in the Sacrament The like Incantation in stead of Consecration is used also in the Sacrament of Baptisme Where the abuse of Gods name in each severall Person and in the whole Trinity with the sign of the Crosse at each name maketh up the Charm As first when they make the Holy water the Priest saith I Conjure thee thou Creature of Water in the name of God the Father Almighty and in the name of Iesus Christ his onely Son our Lord and in vertue of the Holy Ghost that thou become Conjured water to drive away all the Powers of the Enemy and to eradicate and supplant the Enemy c. And the same in the Benediction of the Salt to be mingled with it That thou become Conjured Salt that all Phantasmes and Knavery of the Devills fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art sprinkled and every unclean Spirit bee Conjured by Him that shall come to judg the quicke and the dead The same in the Benediction of the Oyle That all the Power of the Enemy all the Host of the Devill all Assaults and Phantasmes of Satan may be driven away by this Creature of Oyle And for the Infant that is to be Baptized he is subject to many Charms First at the Church dore the Priest blows thrice in the Childs face and sayes Goe out of him unclean Spirit and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter As if all Children till blown on by the Priest were Daemoniaques Again before his entrance into the Church he saith as before I Conjure thee c. to goe out and depart from this Servant of God And again the same Exorcisme is repeated once more before he be Baptized These and some other Incantations are those that are used in stead of Benedictions and Consecrations in administration of the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper wherein every thing that serveth to those holy uses except the unhallowed Spittle of the Priest hath some set form of Exorcisme Nor are the other rites as of Marriage of Extreme Unction of Visitation of the Sick of Consecrating Churches and Church-yards and the like exempt from Charms in as much as there is in them the use of Enchanted Oyle and Water with the abuse of the Crosse and of the holy word of David Asperges me Domine Hyssopo as things of efficacy to drive away Phantasmes and Imaginary Spirits Another generall Error is from the Misinterpretation of the words Eternall Life Everlasting Death and the Second Death For though we read plainly in holy Scripture that God created Adam in an estate of Living for Ever which was conditionall that is to say if he disobeyed not his Commandement which was not essentiall to Humane Nature but consequent to the vertue of the Tree of Life whereof hee had liberty to eat as long as hee had not sinned and that hee was thrust out of Paradise after he had sinned lest hee should eate thereof and live for ever and that Christs Passion is a Discharge of sin to all that beleeve on him and by consequence a restitution of Eternall Life to all the Faithfull and to them onely yet the Doctrine is now and hath been a long time far otherwise namely that every man hath Eternity of Life by Nature in as much as his Soul is Immortall So that the flaming Sword at the entrance of Paradise though it hinder a man from coming to the Tree of Life hinders him not from the Immortality which God took from him for his Sin nor makes him to need the sacrificing of Christ for the recovering of the same and consequently not onely the faithfull and righteous but also the wicked and the Heathen shall enjoy Eternall Life without any Death at all much lesse a Second and Everlasting Death To salve this it is said that by Second and Everlasting Death is meant a Second and Everlasting Life but in Torments a Figure never used but in this very Case All which Doctrine is founded onely on some of the obscurer places of the New Testament which neverthelesse the whole scope of the Scripture considered are cleer enough in a different sense and unnecessary to the Christian Faith For supposing that when a man dies there remaineth nothing of him but his carkasse cannot God that raised inanimated dust and clay into a living creature by his Word as easily raise a dead carkasse to life again and continue him alive for Ever or make him die again by another Word The Soule in Scripture signifieth alwaies either the Life or the Living Creature and the Body and Soule jointly the Body alive In the fift day of the Creation God said Let the waters produce Reptile animae viventis the creeping thing that hath in it a Living Soule the English translate it that hath Life And again God created Whales omnem animam viventem which in the English is
on the contrary what interpretation shall we give besides the literall sense of the words of Solomon Eccles. 3. 19. That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dyeth so doth the other yea they have all one breath one spirit so that a Man hath no praeeminence above a Beast for all is vanity By the literall sense here is no Naturall Immortality of the Soule nor yet any repugnancy with the Life Eternall which the Elect shall enjoy by Grace And chap. 4. ver 3. Better is he that hath not yet been than both they that is than they that live or have lived which if the Soule of all them that have lived were Immortall were a hard saying for then to have an Immortall Soule were worse than to have no Soule at all And againe Chapt. 9. 5. The living know they shall die but the dead know not any thing that is Naturally and before the resurrection of the body Another place which seems to make for a Naturall Immortality of the Soule is that where our Saviour saith that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are living but this is spoken of the promise of God and of their certitude to rise again not of a Life then actuall and in the same sense that God said to Adam that on the day hee should eate of the forbidden fruit he should certainly die from that time forward he was a dead man by sentence but not by execution till almost a thousand years after So Abraham Isaac and Jacob were alive by promise then when Christ spake but are not actually till the Resurrection And the History of Dives and Lazarus make nothing against this if wee take it as it is for a Parable But there be other places of the New Testament where an Immortality seemeth to be directly attributed to the wicked For it is evident that they shall all rise to Judgement And it is said besides in many places that they shall goe into Everlasting fire Everlasting torments Everlasting punishments and that the worm of conscience never dyeth and all this is comprehended in the word Everlasting Death which is ordinarily interpreted Everlasting Life in torments And yet I can find no where that any man shall live in torments Everlastingly Also it seemeth hard to say that God who is the Father of Mercies that doth in Heaven and Earth all that hee will that hath the hearts of all men in his disposing that worketh in men both to doe and to will and without whose free gift a man hath neither inclination to good nor repentance of evill should punish mens transgressions without any end of time and with all the extremity of torture that men can imagine and more We are therefore to consider what the meaning is of Everlasting Fire and other the like phrases of Scripture I have shewed already that the Kingdome of God by Christ beginneth at the day of Judgment That in that day the Faithfull shall rise again with glorious and spirituall Bodies and bee his Subjects in that his Kingdome which shall be Eternall That they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage nor eate and drink as they did in their naturall bodies but live for ever in their individuall persons without the specificall eternity of generation And that the Reprobates also shall rise again to receive punishments for their sins As also that those of the Elect which shall be alive in their earthly bodies at that day shall have their bodies suddenly changed and made spirituall and Immortall But that the bodies of the Reprobate who make the Kingdome of Satan shall also be glorious or spirituall bodies or that they shall bee as the Angels of God neither eating nor drinking nor engendring or that their life shall be Eternall in their individuall persons as the life of every faithfull man is or as the life of Adam had been if hee had not sinned there is no place of Scripture to prove it save onely these places concerning Eternall Torments which may otherwise be interpreted From whence may be inferred that as the Elect after the Resurrection shall be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned so the Reprobate shall be in the estate that Adam and his posterity were in after the sin committed saving that God promised a Redeemer to Adam and such of his seed as should trust in him and repent but not to them that should die in their sins as do the Reprobate These things considered the texts that mention Eternall Fire Eternall Torments or the Worm that never dieth contradict not the Doctrine of a Second and Everlasting Death in the proper and naturall sense of the word Death The Fire or Torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna Tophet or in what place soever may continue for ever and there may never want wicked men to be tormented in them though not every nor any one Eternally For the wicked being left in the estate they were in after Adams sin may at the Resurrection live as they did marry and give in marriage and have grosse and corruptible bodies as all mankind now have and consequently may engender perpetually after the Resurrection as they did before For there is no place of Scripture to the contrary For St. Paul speaking of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. understandeth it onely of the Resurrection to Life Eternall and not the Resurrection to Punishment And of the first he saith that the Body is Sown in Corruption raised in Incorruption sown in Dishonour raised in Honour sown in Weaknesse raised in Power sown a Naturall body raised a Spirituall body There is no such thing can be said of the bodies of them that rise to Punishment So also our Saviour when hee speaketh of the Nature of Man after the Resurrection meaneth the Resurrection to Life Eternall not to Punishment The text is Luke 20. verses 34. 35 36. a fertile text The Children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be counted worthy to obtaine that world and the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Neither can they die any more for they are equall to the Angells and are the Children of God being the Children of the Resurrection The Children of this world that are in the estate which Adam left them in shall marry and be given in marriage that is corrupt and generate successively which is an Immortality of the Kind but not of the Persons of men They are not worthy to be counted amongst them that shall obtain the next world and an absolute Resurrection from the dead but onely a short time as inmates of that world and to the end onely to receive condign punishment for their contumacy The Elect are the onely children of the Resurrection that is to say the sole heirs of Eternall Life they only can die no more it is they that are equall to the Angels and that are the children of God and not the Reprobate To the Reprobate there remaineth after the Resurrection a Second and Eternall Death between which Resurrection and their Second and Eternall death is but a time of Punishment and Torment and to last by succession of sinners thereunto as long as the kind of Man by propagation shall endure which is Eternally Upon this Doctrine of the Naturall Eternity of separated Soules is founded as I said the Doctrine of Purgatory For supposing Eternall Life by
Romane Church pretend to be tormented now in Purgatory For God that could give a life to a peece of clay hath the same power to give life again to a dead man and renew his inanimate and rotten Carkasse into a glorious spirituall and immortall Body Another place is that of 1 Cor. 3. where it is said that they which built Stubble Hay c. on the true Foundation their work shall perish but they themselves shall be saved but as through Fire This Fire he will have to be the Fire of Purgatory The words as I have said before are an allusion to those of Zach. 13. 9. where he saith I will bring the third part through the Fire and refine them as Silver is refined and will try them as Gold is tryed Which is spoken of the comming of the Messiah in Power and Glory that is at the day of Judgment and Conflagration of the present world wherein the Elect shall not be consumed but be refined that is depose their erroneous Doctrines and Traditions and have them as it were sindged of and shall afterwards call upon the name of the true God In like manner the Apostle saith of them that holding this Foundation Iesus is the Christ shall build thereon some other Doctrines that be erroneous that they shall not be consumed in that fire which reneweth the world but shall passe through it to Salvation but so as to see and relinquish their former Errours The Builders are the Pastors the Foundation that Iesus is the Christ the Stubble and Hay False Consequences drawn from it through Ignorance or Frailty the Gold Silver and pretious Stones are their True Doctrines and their Refining or Purging the Relinquishing of their Errors In all which there is no colour at all for the burning of Incorporeall that is to say Impatible Souls A third place is that of 1 Cor. 15. before mentioned concerning Baptisme for the Dead out of which he concludeth first that Prayers for the Dead are not unprofitable and out of that that there is a Fire of Purgatory But neither of them rightly For of many interpretations of the word Baptisme he approveth this in the first place that by Baptisme is meant metaphorically a Baptisme of Penance and that men are in this sense Baptized when they Fast and Pray and give Almes And so Baptisme for the Dead and Prayer for the Dead is the same thing But this is a Metaphor of which there is no example neither in the Scripture nor in any other use of language and which is also discordant to the harmony and scope of the Scripture The word Baptisme is used Mar. 10. 38. Luk. 12. 50. for being Dipped in ones own bloud as Christ was upon the Cross and as most of the Apostles were for giving testimony of him But it is hard to say that Prayer Fasting and Almes have any similitude with Dipping The same is used also Mat. 3. 11. which seemeth to make somewhat for Purgatory for a Purging with Fire But it is evident the Fire and Purging here mentioned is the same whereof the Prophet Zachary speaketh chap. 13. v. 9. I will bring the third part through the Fire and will Refine them c. And St. Peter after him 1 Epist. 1. 7. That the triall of your Faith which is much more precious than of Gold that perisheth though it be tryed with Fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the Appearing of Iesus Christ And St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 13. The Fire shall trie every mans work of what sort it is But St. Peter and St. Paul speak of the Fire that shall be at the Second Appearing of Christ and the Prophet Zachary of the Day of Judgment And therefore this place of S. Mat. may be interpreted of the same and then there will be no necessity of the Fire of Purgatory Another interpretation of Baptisme for the Dead is that which I have before mentioned which he preferreth to the second place of probability And thence also he inferreth the utility of Prayer for the Dead For if after the Resurrection such as have not heard of Christ or not beleeved in him may be received into Christs Kingdome it is not in vain after their death that their friends should pray for them till they should be risen But granting that God at the prayers of the faithfull may convert unto him some of those that have not heard Christ preached and consequently cannot have rejected Christ and that the charity of men in that point cannot be blamed yet this concludeth nothing for Purgatory because to rise from Death to Life is one thing to rise from Purgatory to Life is another as being a rising from Life to Life from a Life in torments to a Life in joy A fourth place is that of Mat. 5. 25. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilest thou art in the way with him left at any time the Adversary deliver thee to the Iudge and the Iudge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing In which Allegory the Offender is the Sinner both the Adversary and the Judge is God the Way is this Life the Prison is the Grave the Officer Death from which the sinner shall not rise again to life eternall but to a second Death till he have paid the utmost farthing or Christ pay it for him by his Passion which is a full Ransome for all manner of sin as well lesser sins as greater crimes both being made by the passion of Christ equally veniall The fift place is that of Matth. 5. 22. Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be guilty in Iudgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother RACHA shall be guilty in the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Foole shall be guilty to hell fire From which words he inferreth three sorts of Sins and three sorts of Punishments and that none of those sins but the last shall be punished with hell fire and consequently that after this life there is punishment of lesser sins in Purgatory Of which inference there is no colour in any interpretation that hath yet been given of them Shall there be a distinction after this life of Courts of Justice as there was amongst the Jews in our Saviours time to hear and determine divers sorts of Crimes as the Judges and the Councell Shall not all Judicature appertain to Christ and his Apostles To undersand therefore this text we are not to consider it solitarily but jointly with the words precedent and subsequent Our Saviour in this Chapter interpreteth the Law of Moses which the Jews thought was then fulfilled when they had not transgressed the Grammaticall sense thereof howsoever they had transgressed against the sentence or meaning of the Legislator Therefore whereas they thought the Sixth Commandement was not broken but by Killing a man nor the
Seventh but when a man lay with a woman not his wife our Saviour tells them the inward Anger of a man against his brother if it be without just cause is Homicide You have heard saith hee the Law of Moses Thou shalt not Kill and that Whosoever shall Kill shall bee condemned before the Iudges or before the Session of the Seventy But I say unto you to be Angry with ones Brother without cause or to say unto him Racha or Foole is Homicide and shall be punished at the day of Judgment and Session of Christ and his Apostles with Hell fire so that those words were not used to distinguish between divers Crimes and divers Courts of Justice and divers Punishments but to taxe the distinction between sin and sin which the Jews drew not from the difference of the Will in Obeying God but from the difference of their Temporall Courts of Justice and to shew them that he that had the Will to hurt his Brother though the effect appear but in Reviling or not at all shall be cast into hell fire by the Judges and by the Session which shall be the same not different Courts at the day of Judgment This considered what can be drawn from this text to maintain Purgatory I cannot imagine The sixth place is Luke 16. 9. Make yee friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when yee faile they may receive you into Everlasting Tabernacles This he alledges to prove Invocation of Saints departed But the sense is plain That we should make friends with our Riches of the Poore and thereby obtain their Prayers whilest they live He that giveth to the Poore lendeth to the Lord. The seventh is Luke 23. 42. Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome Therefore saith hee there is Remission of sins after this life But the consequence is not good Our Saviour then forgave him and at his comming againe in Glory will remember to raise him againe to Life Eternall The Eight is Acts 2. 24. where St. Peter saith of Christ that God had raised him up and loosed the Paines of Death because it was not possible he should be holden of it Which hee interprets to bee a descent of Christ into Purgatory to loose some Soules there from their torments whereas it is manifest that it was Christ that was loosed it was hee that could not bee holden of Death or the Grave and not the Souls in Purgatory But if that which Beza sayes in his notes on this place be well observed there is none that will not see that in stead of Paynes it should be Bands and then there is no further cause to seek for Purgatory in this Text. CHAP. XLV Of DAEMONOLOGY and other Reliques of the Religion of the Gentiles THe impression made on the organs of Sight by lucide Bodies either in one direct line or in many lines reflected from Opaque or refracted in the passage through Diaphanous Bodies produceth in living Creatures in whom God hath placed such Organs an Imagination of the Object from whence the Impression proceedeth which Imagination is called Sight and seemeth not to bee a meer Imagination but the Body it selfe without us in the same manner as when a man violently presseth his eye there appears to him a light without and before him which no man perceiveth but himselfe because there is indeed no such thing without him but onely a motion in the interiour organs pressing by resistance outward that makes him think so And the motion made by this pressure continuing after the object which caused it is removed is that we call Imagination and Memory and in sleep and sometimes in great distemper of the organs by Sicknesse or Violence a Dream of which things I have already spoken briefly in the second and third Chapters This nature of Sight having never been discovered by the ancient pretenders to Naturall Knowledge much lesse by those that consider not things so remote as that Kowledge is from their present use it was hard for men to conceive of those Images in the Fancy and in the Sense otherwise than of things really without us Which some because they vanish away they know not whither nor how will have to be absolutely Incorporeall that is to say Immateriall or Formes without Matter Colour and Figure without any coloured or figured Body and that they can put on Aiery bodies as a garment to make them Visible when they will to our bodily Eyes and others say are Bodies and living Creatures but made of Air or other more subtile and aethereall Matter which is then when they will be seen condensed But Both of them agree on one generall appellation of them DAEMONS As if the Dead of whom they Dreamed were not Inhabitants of their own Brain but of the Air or of Heaven or Hell not Phantasmes but Ghosts with just as much reason as if one should say he saw his own Ghost in a Looking-Glasse or the Ghosts of the Stars in a River or call the ordinary apparition of the Sun of the quantity of about a foot the Daemon or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth the whole visible world And by that means have feared them as things of an unknown that is of an unlimited power to doe them good or harme and consequently given occasion to the Governours of the Heathen Common-wealths to regulate this their fear by establishing that DAEMONOLOGY in which the Poets as Principall Priests of the Heathen Religion were specially employed or reverenced to the Publique Peace and to the Obedience of Subjects necessary thereunto and to make some of them Good Daemons and others Evill the one as a Spurre to the Observance the other as Reines to withhold them from Violation of the Laws What kind of things they were to whom they attributed the name of Daemons appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods written by Hesiod one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians and partly in other Histories of which I have observed some few before in the 12. Chapter of this discourse The Graecians by their Colonies and Conquests communicated their Language and Writings into Asia Egypt and Italy and therein by necessary consequence their Daemonology or as St. Paul calles it their Doctrines of Devils And by that meanes the contagion was derived also to the Jewes both of Iudaea and Alexandria and other parts whereinto they were dispersed But the name of Daemon they did not as the Graecians attribute to Spirits both Good and Evill but to the Evill onely And to the Good Daemons they gave the name of the Spirit of God and esteemed those into whose bodies they entred to be Prophets In summe all singularity if Good they attributed to the Spirit of God and if Evill to some Daemon but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Evill Daemon that is a Devill And therefore they called Daemoniaques that is possessed by the Devill such as we call Mad-men or Lunatiques or such as had
Redemption Church the Lords house Ecclesia properly what Acts 19. 39. In what sense the Church is one Person Church defined A Christian Common-wealth and a Church all one The Soveraign Rights of Abraham Abraham had the sole power of ordering the Religion of his own people No pretence of Private Spirit against the Religion of Abraham Abraham sole Judge and Interpreter of what God spake The authority of Moses whereon grounded John 5. 31. Moses was under God Soveraign of the Jews all his own time though Aaron had the Priesthood All spirits were subordinate to the spirit of Moses After Moses the Soveraignty was in the High Priest Of the Soveraign power between the time of Joshua and of Saul Of the Rights of the Kings of Israel The practice of Supremacy in Religion was not in the time of the Kings according to the Right thereof 2 Chro. 19. 2. After the Captivity the Iews â—…ad no setled Common-wealth Three parts of the Office of Christ. His Office as a Redeemer Christs Kingdome not of this woâ—…ld The End of Christs comming was to renew the Covenant of the Kingdome of God and to perswade the Elect to imbrace it which was the second part of his Office The preaching of Christ not contrary to the then law of the Iews nor of Caesar. The third part of his Office was to be King under his Father of the Elect. Christs authority in the Kingdome of God subordinate to that of his Father One and the same God is the Person represented by Moses and by Christ. Of the Holy Spirit that fel on the Apostles Of the Trinity The Power Ecclesiasticall is but the power to teach An argument thereof the Power of Christ himself From the name of Regeneration From the compariâ—…on of it with Fishing Leaven Seed Fâ—…om the nature of 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1. 24. From the Authority Christ hath lâ—…st to Civill Princes What Christians may do to avoid persecution Of Martyrs Argument from the points of their Commission To Preach And Teach To Baptize And to Forgive and Retain Sinnes Mat. 18. 15 16 17. Of Excommunication The use of Excommunication without Civill Power Acts 9. 2. Of no effect upon an Apostate But upon the faithfull only For what fault lyeth Excommunication Ofpersons liaable to Excommunication 1 Sam. 8. Of the Interpreter of the Scriptures before Civil Soveraigns became Christians Of the Power to make Scripture Law Of the Ten Commandements Of the Iudiciall and Leviticall Law The Second Law * 1 Kings 14 26. The Old Testament when made Canonicall The New Testament began to be Canonicall under Christian Soveraigns Of the Power of Councells to make the Scriptures Law John 3. 36. John 3. 18. Of the Right of constituting Ecclesiasticall Officers in the time of the Apostles Matthias made Apostle by the Congregation Paul and Barnabas made Apostles by the Church of Antioch What Offices in the Church are Magisteriall Ordination of Teachers Ministers of the Church what And how chosen Of Ecclesiasticall Revenue under the Law of Moses In our Saviours time and after Mat. 10. 9 10. * Acts 4. 34. The Ministers of the Gospel lived on the Benevolence of their flocks 1 Cor. 9. 13. That the Civill Soveraign being a Christian hath the Right of appointing Pastors The Pastor all Authority of Soveraigns only is de Jure Divino that of other Pastors is Jure Civili Christian Kings have Power to execute all manner of Pastoral function * John 4. 2. * 1 Cor. 1. 14 16. * 1 Câ—…r 1. 17. The Civill Soveraigne if a Christian is head of the Church in his own Dominions Cardinal Bellarmines Books De Summo Pontifice considered The first book The second Book The third Book * Dan. 9. 27. The fourth Book Texts for the Infaâ—…ibility of the Popes Judgement in points of Faith Texts for the same in point of Manners The question of Superiority between the Pope and other Bishops Of the Popes â—…mporall Power The difficulty of obeying God and Man both at once Is none to them that distinguish between what is and what is not Necessary to Salvation All that is Necessary to Salvation is contained in Faith and Obedience What Obedience is Necessary And to what Laws In the Faith of a Christian who is the Person beleeved The causes of Christian Faith Faith comes by Hearing The onely Necessary Article of Christian Faith Proved from the Scope of the Evangelists From the Sermons of the Apostles From the Easinesse of the Doctrine From formall â—…ud cleer texts From that it is the Foundation of all other Articles 2 Pet. 3. v. 7 10 12. In what sense other Articles may be called Nâ—…cessary That Faith and Obedience are both of them Necessary to Salvation What each of them contributes thereunto Obedience to God and to the Civill Soveraign not inconsistent whether Christian Or Infidel The Kingdom of Darknesse what * Eph. 6. 12. * Mat. 12. 26. * Mat. 9. 34. * Eph. 2. 2. * Joh. 16. 11. The Church not yet fully â—…reed of Darknesse Four Causes of Spirituall Darknesse Errors from misinterpreting the Scriptures concerning the Kingdome of God As that the Kingdome of God is the present Church And that the Pope is his Vicar generall And that the Pastors are the Clergy Error from mistaking Consecration for Conjuration Incantation in the Ceremonies of Baptisme And in Marriage in Visitation of the Sick and in Consecration of Places Errors from mistaking Eternall Life and Everlasting Death As the Doctrine of Purgatory and Exorcismes and Invocation of Saints The Texts alledged for the Doctrines aforementioned have been answered before Answer to the text on which Beza inferreth that the Kingdome of Christ began at the Resurrection Explication of the Place in Mark 9. 1. Abuse of some other texts in defence of the Power of the Pope The manner of Consecrations in the Scripture was without Exorcisms The immortality of mans Soule not proved by Scripture to be of Nature but of Grace Eternall Torments what Answer of the Texts alledged for Purgatory Places of the New Testament for Purgatory answered Baptisme for the Dead how understood The Originall of Daemonclogy What were the Daemons of the Ancients How that Doctrine was spread How far received by the Jews John 8. 52. Why our Saviour controlled it not The Scriptures doe not teach that Spirits are Incorporeall The Power of Casting out Devills not the same it was in the Primitive Church Another relique of Gentilisme Worshipping of Images left in the Church not brought into it Answer to certain seeming texts for Images What is Worship Distinction between Divine and Civill Worship An Image what Phantasmes Fictions Materiall Images Idolatry what Scandalous worship of Images Answer 〈◊〉 the Argument from the Cherubins and Brazen Serpent * Exod. 32. 2. * Gen. 31. 30. Painting of Fancies no Idolatry but abusing them to Religious Worship is How Idolatry was left in the Church Canonizing of Saints The name of Pontifex Procession of Images Wax Candles and Torches lighted What Philosophy is Prudence no part of Philosophy No false Doctrine is part of Philosophy No more is Revelation supernaturall Nor learning taken upon credit of Authors Of the Beginnings and Progresse of Philosophy Of the Schools of Philosophy amongst the Athenians Of the Schools of the Jews The Schoole of the Graecians unprofitable The Schools of the Jews unprofitable University what it is Errors brought into Religion from Aristotles Metaphysiques Errors concerning Abstract Essences Nunc-stans One Body in many places and many Bodies in one place at once Absurdities in naturall Philosopy as Gravity the Cause of Heavinesse Quantity put into Body already made Powring in of Soules Ubiquity of Apparition Will the Cause of Willing Ignorance an occult Cause One makes the things incongruent another the Incongruity Private Appetite the rule of Publique good And that lawfull Marriage is Unchastity And that all Government but Popular is Tyranny That not Men but Law governs Laws over the Conscience Private Interpretation of Law Language of Schoole-Divines Errors from Tradition Suppression of Reason He that receiveth Benefit by a Fact is presumed to be the Author That the â—…hurch Militant is the Kingdome of God was first taught by the Church of Rome And maintained also by the Presbytery Infallibility Subjection of Bishops Exemptions of the Clergy The names of Saceâ—…dotes and Sacriâ—… The Sacramentation of Marriage The single life of Priests Auricular Confession Canonization of Saints and declaring of Martyrs Transubstantiation Pennance Absolution Purgatory Indulgences Externall works Daemonology and Exorcism School-Divinity The Authors of spirituall Darknesse who they be Comparison of the Papacy with the Kingdome of Fayries
and necessarily such as the things we see hear and consider suggest unto us and therefore are not effects of our Will but our Will of them We then Captivate our Understanding and Reason when we forbear contradiction when we so speak as by lawfull Authority we are commanded and when we live accordingly which in sum is Trust and Faith reposed in him that speaketh though the mind be incapable of any Notion at all from the words spoken When God speaketh to man it must be either immediately or by mediation of another man to whom he had formerly spoken by himself immediately How God speaketh to a man immediately may be understood by those well enough to whom he hath so spoken but how the same should be understood by another is hard if not impossible to know For if a man pretend to me that God hath spoken to him supernaturally and immediately and I make doubt of it I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to beleeve it It is true that if he be my Soveraign he may oblige me to obedience so as not by act or word to declare I beleeve him not but not to think any otherwise then my reason perswades me But if one that hath not such authority over me shall pretend the same there is nothing that exacteth either beleefe or obedience For to say that God hath spoken to him in the Holy Scripture is not to say God hath spoken to him immediately but by mediation of the Prophets or of the Apostles or of the Church in such manner as he speaks to all other Christian men To say he hath spoken to him in a Dream is no more then to say he dreamed that God spake to him which is not of force to win beleef from any man that knows dreams are for the most part naturall and may proceed from former thoughts and such dreams as that from selfe conceit and foolish arrogance and false opinion of a mans own godlinesse or other vertue by which he thinks he hath merited the favour of extraordinary Revelation To say he hath seen a Vision or heard a Voice is to say that he hath dreamed between sleeping and waking for in such manner a man doth many times naturally take his dream for a vision as not having well observed his own slumbering To say he speaks by supernaturall Inspiration is to say he finds an ardent desire to speak or some strong opinion of himself for which hee can alledge no naturall and sufficient reason So that though God Almighty can speak to a man by Dreams Visions Voice and Inspiration yet he obliges no man to beleeve he hath so done to him that pretends it who being a man may erre and which is more may lie How then can he to whom God hath never revealed his Wil immediately saving by the way of natural reason know when he is to obey or not to obey his Word delivered by him that sayes he is a Prophet Of 400 Prophets of whom the K. of Israel asked counsel concerning the warre he made against Ramoth Gilead only Micaiah was a true one The Prophet that was sent to prophecy against the Altar set up by Ieroboam though a true Prophet and that by two miracles done in his presence appears to be a Prophet sent from God was yet deceived by another old Prophet that perswaded him as from the mouth of God to eat and drink with him If one Prophet deceive another what certainty is there of knowing the will of God by other way than that of Reason To which I answer out of the Holy Scripture that there be two marks by which together not asunder a true Prophet is to be known One is the doing of miracles the other is the not teaching any other Religion than that which is already established Asunder I say neither of these is sufficient If a Prophet rise amongst you or a Dreamer of dreams and shall pretend the doing of amiracle and the miracle come to passe if he say Let us follow strange Gods which thou hast not known thou shalt not hearken to him c. But that Prophet and Dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because be hath spoken to you to Revolt from the Lord your God In which words two things are to be observed First that God wil not have miracles alone serve for arguments to approve the Prophets calling but as it is in the third verse for an experiment of the constancy of our adherence to himself For the works of the Egyptian Sorcerers though not so great as those of Moses yet were great miracles Secondly that how great soever the miracle be yet if it tend to stir up revolt against the King or him that governeth by the Kings authority he that doth such miracle is not to be considered otherwise than as sent to make triall of their allegiance For these words revâ—…lt from the Lord your God are in this place equivalent to revolt from your King For they had made God their King by pact at the foot of Mount Sinai who ruled them by Moses only for he only spake with God and from time to time declared Gods Commandements to the people In like manner after our Saviour Christ had made his Disciples acknowledge him for the Messiah that is to say for Gods anointed whom the nation of the Iews daily expected for their King but refused when he came he omitted not to advertise them of the danger of miracles There shall arise saith he false Christs and false Prophets and shall doe great wonders and miracles even to the seducing if it were possible of the very Elect. By which it appears that false Prophets may have the power of miracles yet are wee not to take their doctrin for Gods Word St. Paul says further to the Galatians that if himself or an Angell from heaven preach another Gospel to them than he had preached let him be accursed That Gospel was that Christ was King so that all preaching against the power of the King received in consequence to these words is by St. Paul accursed For his speech is addressed to those who by his preaching had already received Iesus for the Christ that is to say for King of the Iews And as Miracles without preaching that Doctrine which God hath established so preaching the true Doctrine without the doing of miracles is an unsufficient argument of immediate Revelation For if a man that teacheth not false Doctrine should pretend to bee a Prophet without shewing any Miracle he is never the more to bee regarded for his pretence as is evident by Deut. 18. v. 21 22. If thou say in thy heart How shall we know that the Word of the Prophet is not that which the Lord hath spoken When the Prophet shall have spoken in the name of the Lord that which shall not come to passe that 's the word which the Lord hath not spoken but the
possession And for a memoriall and a token of this Covenant he ordaineth verse II. the Sacrament of Circumcision This is it which is called the Old Covenant or Testament and containeth a Contract between God and Abraham by which Abraham obligeth himself and his posterity in a peculiar manner to be subject to Gods positive Law for to the Law Morall he was obliged before as by an Oath of Allegiance And though the name of King be not yet given to God nor of Kingdome to Abraham and his seed yet the thing is the same namely an Institution by pact of Gods peculiar Soveraignty over the seed of Abraham which in the renewing of the same Covenant by Moses at Mount Sinai is expressely called a peculiar Kingdome of God over the Jews and it is of Abraham not of Moses St. Paul saith Rom. 4. 11. that he is the Father of the Faithfull that is of those that are loyall and doe not violate their Allegiance sworn to God then by Circumcision and afterwards in the New Covenant by Baptisme This Covenant at the Foot of Mount Sinai was renewed by Moses Exod. 19. 5. where the Lord commandeth Moses to speak to the people in this manner If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then yee shall be a peculiar people to me for all the Earth is mine And yee shall be unto me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation For a Peculiar people the vulgar Latine hath Peculium de cunctis populis the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James hath a Peculiar treasure unto me above all Nations and the Geneva French the most precious Iewel of all Nations But the truest Translation is the first because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself Tit. 2. 14. where he saith alluding to that place that our blessed Saviour gave himself for us that he might purifie us to himself a peculiar that is an extraordinary people for the word is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is opposed commonly to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as this signifieth ordinary quotidian or as in the Lords Prayer of daily use so the other signifieth that which is overplus and stored up and enjoyed in a speciall manner which the Latines call Peculium and this meaning of the place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it which followeth immediately in that he addeth For all the Earth is mine as if he should say All the Nations of the world are mine but it is not so that you are mine but in a speciall manner For they are all mine by reason of my Power but you shall be mine by your own Consent and Covenant which is an addition to his ordinary title to all nations The same is again confirmed in expresse words in the same text Yee shall be to me a Sacerdotall Kingdome and an holy Nation The Vulgar Latine hath it Regnum Sacerdotale to which agreeth the Translation of that place 1 Pet. 2. 9. Sacerdotium Regale a Regal Priesthood as also the Institution it self by which no man might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum that is to say no man might enquire Gods will immediately of God himselfe but onely the High Priest The English Translation before mentioned following that of Geneva has a Kingdom of Priests which is either meant of the succession of one High Priest after another or else it accordeth not with St. Peter nor with the exercise of the High priesthood For there was never any but the High priest onely that was to informe the People of Gods Will nor any Convocation of Priests ever allowed to enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum Again the title of a Holy Nation confirmes the same For Holy signifies that which is Gods by speciall not by generall Right All the Earth as is said in the text is Gods but all the Earth is not called Holy but that onely which is set apart for his especiall service as was the Nation of the Jews It is therefore manifest enough by this one place that by the Kingdome of God is properly meant a Common-wealth instituted by the consent of those which were to be subject thereto for their Civill Government and the regulating of their behaviour not onely towards God their King but also towards one another in point of justice and towards other Nations both in peace and warre which properly was a Kingdome wherein God was King and the High priest was to be after the death of Moses his sole Viceroy or Lieutenant But there be many other places that clearly prove the same As first 1 Sam. 8. 7. when the Elders of Israel grieved with the corruption of the Sons of Samuel demanded a King Samuel displeased therewith prayed unto the Lord and the Lord answering said unto him Hearken unto the voice of the People for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them Out of which it is evident that God himself was then their King and Samuel did not command the people but only delivered to them that which God from time to time appointed him Again 1 Sam. 12. 12. where Samuel saith to the People When yee saw that Nahash King of the Children of Ammon came against you ye said unto me Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King It is manifest that God was their King and governed the Civill State of their Common-wealth And after the Israelites had rejected God the Prophets did foretell his restitution as Isaiah 24. 23. Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Ierusalem where he speaketh expressely of his Reign in Zion and Jerusalem that is on Earth And Micah 4. 7. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion This Mount Zion is in Jerusalem upon the Earth And Ezek. 20. 33. As I live saith the Lord God surely with a mighty hand and a stretched out arme and with fury powred out I wil rule over you and verse 37. I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant that is I will reign over you and make you to stand to that Covenant which you made with me by Moses and brake in your rebellion against me in the days of Samuel and in your election of another King And in the New Testament the Angel Gabriel saith of our Saviour Luke 1. 32 33. He shall be great and be called the Son of the most High and the Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end This is also a Kingdome upon Earth for the claim whereof as an enemy to Caesar he was put to death the title of his crosse was Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews hee was crowned in
us And therefore in the Holy Scripture Remission of Sinne and Salvation from Death and Misery is the same thing as it appears by the words of our Saviour who having cured a man sick of the Palsey by saying Mat. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee and knowing that the Scribes took for blasphemy that a man should pretend to forgive Sins asked them v. 5. whether it were easier to say Thy Sinnes be forgiven thee or Arise and walk signifying thereby that it was all one as to the saving of the sick to say Thy Sins are forgiven and Arise and walk and that he used that form of speech onely to shew he had power to forgive Sins And it is besides evident in reason that since Death and Misery were the punishments of Sin the discharge of Sinne must also be a discharge of Death and Misery that is to say Salvation absolute such as the faithfull are to enjoy after the day of Judgment by the power and favour of Jesus Christ who for that cause is called our SAVIOUR Concerning Particular Salvations such as are understood 1 Sam. 14. 39. as the Lord liveth that saveth Israel that is from their temporary enemies and 2 Sam. 22. 4. Thou art my Saviour thou savest me from violence and 2 Kings 13. 5. God gave the Israelites a Saviour and so they were delivered from the hand of the Assyrians and the like I need say nothing there being neither difficulty nor interest to corrupt the interpretation of texts of that kind But concerning the Generall Salvation hecause it must be in the Kingdome of Heaven there is great difficulty concerning the Place On one side by Kingdome which is an estate ordained by men for their perpetuall security against enemies and want it seemeth that this Salvation should be on Earth For by Salvation is set forth unto us a glorious Reign of our King by Conquest not a safety by Escape and therefore there where we look for Salvation we must look also for Triumph and before Triumph for Victory and before Victory for Battell which cannot well be supposed shall be in Heaven But how good soever this reason may be I will not trust to it without very evident places of Scripture The state of Salvation is described at large Isaiah 33. ver 20 21 22 23 24. Look upon Zion the City of our solemnities thine eyes shall see Ierusalem a quiet habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shâ—…ll any of the cords thereof be broken But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams wherein shall goe no Gally with oares neither shall gallant ship passe â—…hereby For the Lord is our Iudge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King he will save us Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their mast they could not spread the sail then is the prey of a great spoil divided the lame take the prey And the Inhabitant shall not say I am sicke the people that shall dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity In which words wee have the place from whence Salvation is to proceed Ierusalem a quiet habitation the Eternity of it a tabernacle that shall not be taken down c. The Saviour of it the Lord their Iudge their Lawgiver their King he will save us the Salvation the Lord shall be to them as abroad mote of swift waters c. the condition of their Enemies their tacklings are loose their masts weak the lame shal take the spoil of them The condition of the Saved The Inhabitant shal not say I am sick And lastly all this is comprehended in Forgivenesse of sin The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity By which â—…t is evident that Salvation shall be on Earth then when God shall reign at the coming again of Christ in Jerusalem and from Jerusalem shall proceed the Salvation of the Gentiles that shall be received into Gods Kingdome as is also more expressely declared by the same Prophet Chap. 65. 20 21. And they that is the Gentiles who had any Jew in bondage shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations upon horses and in charets and in litters and upon mules and upon swift beasts to my holy mountain Ierusalem saith the Lord as the Children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessell into the House of the Lord. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levâ—…tes saith the Lord Whereby it is manifest that the chief seat of Gods Kingdome which is the Place from whence the Salvation of us that were Gentiles shall proceed shall be Jerusalem And the same is also confirmed by our Saviour in his discourse with the woman of Samaria concerning the place of Gods worship to whom he saith Iohn 4. 22. that the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what but the Jews worship what they knew For Salvation is of the Iews ex Iudae is that is begins at the Jews as if he should say you worship God but know not by whom he wil save you as we doe that know it shall be by one of the tribe of Judah a Jew not a Samaritan And therefore also the woman not impertinently answered him again We know the Messias shall come So that which out Saviour saith Salvation is from the Iews is the same that Paul sayes Rom. 1. 16 17. The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation to every one that beleeveth To the Iew first and also to the Greek For therein is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile In the like sense the Prophet Ioel describing the day of Judgment chap. 2. 30 31. that God 〈◊〉 shew wonders in heaven and in earth bloud and fire and pillars os smoak The Sun should be turned to darknesse and the Moon into bloud before the great and terrible day of the Lord come he addeth verse 32. and it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved For in Mount Zion and in Ierusalem shall be Salvation And Obadiah verse 17. saith the same Vpon Mount Zion shall be Deliverance and there shall be holinesse and the house of Iacob shall possesse their possessions that is the possessions of the Heathen which possessions he expresseth more particularly in the following verses by the mount of Esau the Land of the Philistines the fields of Ephraim of Samaria Gilead and the Cities of the South and concludes with these words the Kingdom shall be the Lords All these places are for Salvation and the Kingdome of God after the day of Judgement upon Earth On the other side I have not found any text that can probably be drawn to prove any Ascension of the Saints into Heaven that is to say into
any Coelum Empyreum or other aetheriall Region saving that it is called the Kingdome of Heaven which name it may have because God that was King of the Jews governed them by his commands sent to Moses by Angels from Heaven and after their revolt sent his Son from Heaven to reduce them to their obedience and shall send him thence again to rule both them and all other faithfull men from the day of Judgment Everlastingly or from that that the Throne of this our Great King is in Heaven whereas the Earth is but his Footstoole But that the Subjects of God should have any place as high as his Throne or higher than his Footstoole it seemeth not sutable to the dignity of a King nor can I find any evident text for it in holy Scripture From this that hath been said of the Kingdom of God and of Salvation it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the WORLD TO COME There are three worlds mentioned in Scripture the Old World the Present VVorld and the VVorld to come Of the first St. Peter speaks If God spared not the Old VVorld but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of righteousnesse bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly c. So the first World was from Adam to the generall Flood Of the present World our Saviour speaks Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this VVorld For he came onely to teach men the way of Salvation and to renew the Kingdome of his Father by his doctrine Of the World to come St. Peter speaks Neverthelesse we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth This is that WORLD wherein Christ coming down from Heaven in the clouds with great power and glory shall send his Angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds and from the uttermost parts of the Earth and thence forth reign over them under his Father Everlastingly Salvation of a sinner suppposeth a precedent REDEMPTION for he that is once guilty of Sin is obnoxious to the Penalty of the same and must pay or some other for him such Ransome as he that is offended and has him in his power shall require And seeing the person offended is Almighty God in whose power are all things such Ransome is to be paid before Salvation can be acquired as God hath been pleased to require By this Ransome is not intended a satisfaction for Sin equivalent to the Offence which no sinner for himselfe nor righteous man can ever be able to make for another The dammage a man does to another he may make amends for by restitution or recompence but sin cannot be taken away by recompence for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible But sins may bee pardoned to the repentant either gratis or upon such penalty as God is pleased to accept That which God usually accepted in the Old Testament was some Sacrifice or Oblation To forgive sin is not an act of Injustice though the punishment have been threatned Even amongst men though the promise of Good bind the promiser yet threats that is to say promises of Evill bind them not much lesse shall they bind God who is infinitely more mercifull then men Our Saviour Christ therefore to Redeem us did not in that sense satisfie for the Sins of men as that his Death of its own vertue could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with Eternall death but did make that Sacrifice and Oblation of himself at his first coming which God was pleased to require for the Salvation at his second coming of such as in the mean time should repent and beleeve in him And though this act of our Redemption be not alwaies in Scripture called a Sacrifice and Oblation but sometimes a Price yet by Price we are not to understand any thing by the value whereof he could claim right to a pardon for us from his offended Father but that Price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand CHAP. XXXIX Of the signification in Scripture of the word CHURCH THe word Church Ecclesia signifieth in the Books of Holy Scripture divers things Sometimes though not often it is taken for Gods House that is to say for a Temple wherein Christians assemble to perform holy duties publiquely as 1 Cor. 14. ver 34. Let your women keep silence in the Churches but this is Metaphorically put for the Congregation there assembled and hath been since used for the Edifice it self to distinguish between the Temples of Christians and Idolaters The Temple of Jerusalem was Gods house and the House of Prayer and so is any Edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ Christs house and therefore the Greek Fathers call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lords house and thence in our language it came to be called Kyrke and Church Church when not taken for a House signifieth the same that Ecclesia signified in the Grecian Common-wealths that is to say a Congregation or an Assembly of Citizens called forth to hear the Magistrate speak unto them and which in the Common-wealth of Rome was called Concio as he that spake was called Ecclesiastes and Concionator And when they were called forth by lawfull Authority it was Ecclesia legitima a Lawfull Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when they were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamor then it was a confused Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the Congregation though not actually assembled that is to say for the whole multitude of Christian men how far soever they be dispersed as Act. 8. 3. where it is said that Saul made havock of the Church And in this sense is Christ said to be Head of the Church And sometimes for a certain part of Christians as Col. 4. 15. Salute the Church that is in his house Sometimes also for the Elect onely as Ephes. 5. 27. A Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemâ—…sh which is meant of the Church triumphant or Church to come Sometimes for a Congregation assembled of professors of Christianity whether their profession be true or counterfeit as it is understood Mat. 18. 17. where it is said Tell it to the Church and if hee neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Gentile or Publican And in this last sense only it is that the Church can be taken for one Person that is to say that it can be said to have power to will to pronounce to command to be obeyed to make laws or to doe any other action whatsoever For without authority from a lawfull Congregation whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people it is the particular act of every one of those that were present and gave their aid to the performance of it and not the act of them all in grosse as of one body much lesse the act
people were obliged to take him for Gods Lieutenant longer than they beleeved that God spake unto him And therefore his authority notwithstanding the Covenant they made with God depended yet merely upon the opinion they had of his Sanctity and of the reality of his Conferences with God and the verity of his Miracles which opinion coming to change they were no more obliged to take any thing for the law of God which he propounded to them in Gods name We are therefore to consider what other ground there was of their obligation to obey him For it could not be the commandement of God that could oblige them because God spake not to them immediately but by the mediation of Moses himself And our Saviour saith of himself If I bear witnesse of my self my witnesse is not true much lesse if Moses bear witnesse of himselfe especially in a claim of Kingly power over Gods people ought his testimony to be received His authority therefore as the authority of all other Princes must be grounded on the Consent of the People and their Promise to obey him And so it was For the people Exod. 20. 18. when they saw the Thunderings and the Lightnings and the noyse of the Trumpet and the monntaine smoaking removed and stood a far off And they said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die Here was their promise of obedience and by this it was they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto them for the Commandement of God And notwithstanding the Covenant constituteth a Sacerdotall Kingdome that is to say a Kingdome hereditary to Aaron yet that is to be understood of the succession after Moses should bee dead For whosoever ordereth and establisheth the Policy as first founder of a Common-wealth be it Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy must needs have Soveraign Power over the people all the while he is doing of it And that Moses had that power all his own time is evidently affirmed in the Scripture First in the text last before cited because the people promised obedience not to Aaron but to him Secōdly Exod. 24. 1 2. And God said unto Moses Come up unto the Lord thou and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel And Moses alone shall come neer the Lord but they shall not come nigh neither shall the people goe up with him By which it is plain that Moses who was alone called up to God and not Aaron nor the other Priests nor the Seventy Elders nor the People who were forbidden to come up was alone he that represented to the Israelites the Person of God that is to say was their sole Soveraign under God And though afterwards it be said verse 9. Then went up Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel and they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a saphire stone c. yet this was not till after Moses had been with God before and had brought to the people the words which God had said to him He onely went for the bnsinesse of the people the others as the Nobles of his retinue were admitted for honour to that speciall grace which was not allowed to the people which was as in the verse after appeareth to see God and live God laid not his hand upon them they saw God and did eat and drink that is did live but did not carry any commandement from him to the people Again it is every where said The Lord spake unto Moses as in all other occasions of Government so also in the ordering of the Ceremonies of Religion contained in the 25 26 27 28 29 30 and 31 Chapters of Exodus and throughout Leviticus to Aaron seldome The Calfe that Aaron made Moses threw into the fire Lastly the question of the Authority of Aaron by occasion of his and Miriams mutiny agaiust Moses was Numbers 12. judged by God himself for Moses So also in the question between Moses and the People who had the Right of Governing the People when Corah Dathan and Abiram and two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly gathered themselves together Numb 16. 3. against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them Ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are Holy every one of them and the Lord is amongst them why lift you up your selves above the congregation of the Lord God caused the Earth to swallow Corah Dathan and Abiram with their wives and children alive and consumed those two hundred and fifty Princes with fire Therefore neither Aaron nor the People nor any Aristocracy of the chief Princes of the People but Moses alone had next under God the Soveraignty over the Israelites And that not onely in causes of Civill Policy but also of Religion For Moses onely spake with God and therefore onely could tell the People what it was that God required at their hands No man upon pain of death might be so presumptuous as to approach the Mountain where God talked with Moses Thou shalt set bounds saith the Lord Exod. 19. 12. to the people round about and say Take heed to your selves that you goe not up into the Mount or touch the border of it whosoever toucheth the Mount shall surely be put to death And again verse 21. Goe down charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze Out of which we may conclude that whosoever in a Christian Common-wealth holdeth the place of Moses is the sole Messenger of God and Interpreter of his Commandements And according hereunto no man ought in the interpretation of the Scripture to proceed further then the bounds which are set by their severall Soveraigns For the Scriptures since God now speaketh in them are the Mount Sinai the bounds whereof are the Laws of them that represent Gods Person on Earth To look upon them and therein to behold the wondrous works of God and learn to fear him is allowed but to interpret them that is to pry into what God saith to him whom he appointeth to govern under him and make themselves Judges whether he govern as God commandeth him or not is to transgresse the bounds God hath set us and to gaze upon God irreverently There was no Prophet in the time of Moses nor pretender to the Spirit of God but such as Moses had approved and Authorized For there were in his time but Seventy men that are said to Prophecy by the Spirit of God and these were of all Moses his election concerning whom God said to Moses Numb 11. 16. Gather to mee Seventy of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be the Elders of the People To these God imparted his Spirit but it was not a different Spirit from that of Moses for it is said verse 25. God came down in a cloud and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses
and gave it to the Seventy Elders But as I have shewn before chap. 36. by Spirit is understood the Mind so that the sense of the place is no other than this that God endued them with a mind conformable and subordinate to that of Moses that they might Prophecy that is to say speak to the people in Gods name in such manner as to set forward as Ministers of Moses and by his authority such doctrine as was agreeable to Moses his doctrine For they were but Ministers and when two of them Prophecyed in the Camp it was thought a new and unlawfull thing and as it is in the 27. and 28. verses of the same Chapter they were accused of it and Joshua advised Moses to forbid them as not knowing that it was by Moses his Spirit that they Prophecyed By which it is manifest that no Subject ought to pretend to Prophecy or to the Spirit in opposition to the doctrine established by him whom God hath set in the place of Moses Aaron being dead and after him also Moses the Kingdome as being a Sacerdotall Kingdome descended by vertue of the Covenant to Aarons Son Eleazar the High Priest And God declared him next under himself for Soveraign at the same time that he appointed Joshua for the Generall of their Army For thus God saith expressely Numb 27. 21. concerning Joshua He shall stand before Eleazar the Priest who shall ask counsell for him before the Lord at his word shall they goe out and at his word they shall come in both he aâ—…d all the Children of Israel with him Therefore the Supreme Power of making War and Peace was in the Priest The Supreme Power of Judicature belonged also to the High Priest For the Book of the Law was in their keeping and the Priests and Levites onely were the subordinate Judges in causes Civill as appears in Deut. 17. 8 9 10. And for the manner of Gods worship there was never doubt made but that the High Priest till the time of Saul had the Supreme Authority Therefore the Civill and Ecclesiasticall Power were both joined together in one and the same person the High Priest and ought to bee so in whosoever governeth by Divine Right that is by Authority immediate from God After the death of Joshua till the time of Saul the time between is noted frequently in the Book of Judges that there was in those dayes no King in Israel and sometimes with this addition that every man did that which was right in his own eyes By which is to bee understood that where it is said there was no King is meant there was no Soveraign Power in Israel And so it was if we consider the Act and Exercise of such power For after the death of Joshua Eleazar there arose another generation Judges 2. 10. that knew not the Lord nor the works which he had done for Israel but did evill in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim And the Jews had that quality which St. Paul noteth to look for a sign not onely before they would submit themselves to the government of Moses but also after they had obliged themselves by their submission Whereas Signs and Miracles had for End to procure Faith not to keep men from violating it when they have once given it for to that men are obliged by the law of Nature But if we consider not the Exercise but the Right of Governing the Soveraign power was still in the High Priest Therefore whatsoever obedience was yeelded to any of the Judges who were men chosen by God extraordinarily to save his rebellious subjects out of the hands of the enemy it cannot bee drawn into argument against the Right the High Priest had to the Soveraign Power in all matters both of Policy and Religion And neither the Judges nor Samuel himselfe had an ordinary but extraordinary calling to the Government and were obeyed by the Israelites not out of duty but out of reverence to their favour with God appearing in their wisdome courage or felicity Hitherto therefore the Right of Regulating both the Policy and the Religion were inseparable To the Judges succeeded Kings And whereas before all authority both in Religion and Policy was in the High Priest so now it was all in the King For the Soveraignty over the people which was before not onely by vertue of the Divine Power but also by a particular pact of the Israelites in God and next under him in the High Priest as his Vicegerent on earth was cast off by the People with the consent of God himselfe For when they said to Samuel 1 Sam. 8. 5. make us a King to judge us like all the Nations they signified that they would no more bee governed by the commands that should bee laid upon them by the Priest in the name of God but by one that should command them in the same manner that all other nations were commandcd and consequently in deposing the High Priest of Royall authority they deposed that peculiar Government of God And yet God consented to it saying to Samuel verse 7. Hearken unto the voice of the People in all that they shall say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected mee that I should not reign over them Having therefore rejected God in whose Right the Priests governed there was no authority left to the Priests but such as the King was pleased to allow them which was more or lesse according as the Kings were good or evill And for the Government of Civill affaires it is manifest it was all in the hands of the King For in the same Chapter verse 20. They say they will be like all the Nations that their King shall be their Judge and goe before them and fight their battells that is he shall have the whole authority both in Peace and War In which is contained also the ordering of Religion for there was no other Word of God in that time by which to regulate Religion but the Law of Moses which was their Civill Law Besides we read 1 Kings 2. 27. that Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being Priest before the Lord He had therefore authority over the High Priest as over any other Subject which is a great mark of Supremacy in Religion And we read also 1 Kings 8. that hee dedicated the Temple that he blessed the People and that he himselfe in person made that excellent prayer used in the Consecrations of all Churches and houses of Prayer which is another great mark of Supremacy in Religion Again we read 2 Kings 22. that when there was question concerning the Book of the Law found in the Temple the same was not decided by the High Priest but Josiah sent both him and others to enquire concerning it of Hulda the Prophetesse which is another mark of the Supremacy in Religion Lastly wee read 1 Chron. 26. 30. that David made Hashabiah and his brethren Hebronites Officers of Israel
other Pastors are bidden to esteem those Christians that disobey the Church that is that disobey the Christian Soveraigne as Heathen men and as Publicans Seeing then men challenge to the Pope no authority over Heathen Princes they ought to challenge none over those that are to bee esteemed as Heathen But from the Power to Teach onely hee inferreth also a Coercive Power in the Pope over Kings The Pastor saith he must give his flock convenient food Therefore the Pope may and ought to compell Kings to doe their duty Out of which it followeth that the Pope as Pastor of Christian men is King of Kings which all Christian Kings ought indeed either to Confesse or else they ought to take upon themselves the Supreme Pastorall Charge every one in his own Dominion His sixth and last Argument is from Examples To which I answer first that Examples prove nothing Secondly that the Examples he alledgeth make not so much as a probability of Right The fact of Jehoiada in Killing Athaliah 2 Kings 11. was either by the Authority of King Joash or it was a horrible Crime in the High Priest which ever after the election of King Saul was a mere Subject The fact of St. Ambrose in Excommunicating Theodosius the Emperour if it were true hee did so was a Capitall Crime And for the Popes Gregory 1. Greg. 2. Zachary and Leo 3. their Judgments are void as given in their own Cause and the Acts done by them conformably to this Doctrine are the greatest Crimes especially that of Zachary that are incident to Humane Nature And thus much of Power Ecclesiasticall wherein I had been more briefe forbearing to examine these Arguments of Bellarmine if they had been his as a Private man and not as the Champion of the Papacy against all other Christian Princes and States CHAP. XLIII Of what is NECESSARY for a Mans Reception into the Kingdome of Heaven THe most frequent praetext of Sedition and Civill Warre in Christian Common-wealths hath a long time proceeded from a difficulty not yet sufficiently resolved of obeying at once both God and Man then when their Commandements are one contrary to the other It is manifest enough that when a man receiveth two contrary Commands and knows that one of them is Gods he ought to obey that and not the other though it be the command even of his lawfull Soveraign whether a Monarch or or a soveraign Assembly or the command of his Father The difficulty therefore consisteth in this that men when they are commanded in the name of God know not in divers Cases whether the command be from God or whether he that commandeth doe but abuse Gods name for some private ends of his own For as there were in the Church of the Jews many false Prophets that sought reputation with the people by feigned Dreams and Visions so there have been in all times in the Church of Christ false Teachers that seek reputation with the people by phantasticall and false Doctrines and by such reputation as is the nature of Ambition to govern them for their private benefit But this difficulty of obeying both God and the Civill Soveraign on earth to those that can distinguish between what is Necessary and what is not Necessary for their Reception into the Kingdome of God is of no moment For if the command of the Civill Soveraign bee such as that it may be obeyed without the forfeiture of life Eternall not to obey it is unjust and the precept of the Apostle takes place Servants obey your Masters in all things and Children obey your Parents in all things and the precept of our Saviour The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chaire All therefore they shall say that observe and doe But if the command be such as cannot be obeyed without being damned to Eternall Death then it were madnesse to obey it and the Counsell of our Saviour takes place Mat. 10. 28. Fear not those that kill the body but cannot kill the soule All men therefore that would avoid both the punishments that are to be in this world inflicted for disobedience to their earthly Soveraign and those that shall be inflicted in the world to come for disobedience to God have need be taught to distinguish well between what is and what is not Necessary to Eternall Salvation All that is NECESSARY to Salvatian is contained in two Vertues Faith in Christ and Obedience to Laws The latter of these if it were perfect were enough to us But because wee are all guilty of disobedience to Gods Law not onely originally in Adam but also actually by our own transgressions there is required at our hands now not onely Obedience for the rest of our time but also a Remission of sins for the time past which Remission is the reward of our Faith in Christ. That nothing else is Necessarily required to Salvation is manifest from this that the Kingdome of Heaven is shut to none but to Sinners that is to say to the disobedient or transgressors of the Law nor to them in case they Repent and Beleeve all the Articles of Christian Faith Necessary to Salvation The Obedience required at our hands by God that accepteth in all our actions the Will for the Deed is a serious Endeavour to Obey him and is called also by all such names as signifie that Endeavour And therefore Obedience is sometimes called by the names of Charity and Love because they imply a Will to Obey and our Saviour himself maketh our Love to God and to one another a Fulfilling of the whole Law and sometimes by the name of Righteousnesse for Righteousnesse is but the will to give to every one his owne that is to say the will to obey the Laws and sometimes by the name of Repentance because to Repent implyeth a turning away from finne which is the same with the return of the will to Obedience Whosoever therefore unfeignedly desireth to fulfill the Commandements of God or repenteth him truely of his transgressions or that loveth God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself hath all the Obedience Necessary to his Reception into the Kingdom of God For if God should require perfect Innocence there could no flesh be saved But what Commandements are those that God hath given us Are all those Laws which were given to the Jews by the hand of Moses the Commandements of God If they bee why are not Christians taught to Obey them If they be not what others are so besides the Law of Nature For our Saviour Christ hath not given us new Laws but Counsell to observe those wee are subject to that is to say the Laws of Nature and the Laws of our severall Soveraigns Nor did he make any new Law to the Jews in his Sermon on the Mouut but onely expounded the Laws of Moses to which they were subject before The Laws of God therefore are none but the Laws of Nature whereof the principall is that we
be Unjust But when a Covenant is made then to break it is Unjust And the definition of INIUSTICE is no other than the not Performance of Covenant And whatsoever is not Unjust is Just. But because Covenants of mutuall trust where there is a feare of not performance on either part as hath been said in the former Chapter are invalid though the Originall of Justice be the making of Covenants yet Injustice actually there can be none till the cause of such feare be taken away which while men are in the naturall condition of Warre cannot be done Therefore before the names of Just and Unjust can have place there must be some coërcive Power to compell men equally to the performance of their Covenants by the terrour of some punishment greater than the benefit they expect by the breach of their Covenant and to make good that Propriety which by mutuall Contract men acquire in recompence of the universall Right they abandon and such power there is none before the erection of a Common-wealth And this is also to be gathered out of the ordinary definition of Justice in the Schooles For they say that Justice is the constant Will of giving to every man his own And therefore where there is no Own that is no Propriety there is no Injustice and where there is no coërceive Power erected that is where there is no Common-wealth there is no Propriety all men having Right to all things Therefore where there is no Common-wealth there nothing is Unjust So that the nature of Justice consisteth in keeping of valid Covenants but the Validity of Covenants begins not but with the Constitution of a Civill Power sufficient to compell men to keep them And then it is also that Propriety begins The Foole hath fayd in his heart there is no such thing as Justice and sometimes also with his tongue seriously alleaging that every mans conservation and contentment being committed to his own care there could be no reason why every man might not do what he thought conduced thereunto and therefore also to make or not make keep or not keep Covenants was not against Reason when it conduced to ones benefit He does not therein deny that there be Covenants and that they are sometimes broken sometimes kept and that such breach of them may be called Injustice and the observance of them Justice but he questioneth whether Injustice taking away the feare of God for the same Foole hath said in his heart there is no God may not sometimes stand with that Reason which dictateth to every man his own good and particularly then when it conduceth to such a benefit as shall put a man in a condition to neglect not onely the dispraise and revilings but also the power of other men The Kingdome of God is gotten by violence but what if it could be gotten by unjust violence were it against Reason so to get it when it is impossible to receive hurt by it and if it be not against Reason it is not against Justice or else Justice is not to be approved for good From such reasoning as this Succesfull wickednesse hath obtained the name of Vertue and some that in all other things have disallowed the violation of Faith yet have allowed it when it is for the getting of a Kingdome And the Heathen that believed that Saturn was deposed by his son Jupiter believed neverthelesse the same Jupiter to be the avenger of Injustice Somewhat like to a piece of Law in Cokes Commentaries on Litleton where he sayes If the right Heire of the Crown be attainted of Treason yet the Crown shall descend to him and eo instante the Atteynder be voyd From which instances a man will be very prone to inferre that when the Heire apparent of a Kingdome shall kill him that is in possession though his father you may call it Injustice or by what other name you will yet it can never be against Reason seeing all the voluntary actions of men tend to the benefit of themselves and those actions are most Reasonable that conduce most to their ends This specious reasoning is neverthelesse false For the question is not of promises mutuall where there is no security of performance on either side as when there is no Civill Power erected over the parties promising for such promises are no Covenants But either where one of the parties has performed already or where there is a Power to make him performe there is the question whether it be against reason that is against the benefit of the other to performe or not And I say it is not against reason For the manifestation whereof we are to consider First that when a man doth a thing which notwithstanding any thing can be foreseen and reckoned on tendeth to his own destruction howsoever some accident which he could not expect arriving may turne it to his benefit yet such events do not make it reasonably or wisely done Secondly that in a condition of Warre wherein every man to every man for want of a common Power to keep them all in awe is an Enemy there is no man can hope by his own strength or wit to defend himselfe from destruction without the help of Confederates where every one expects the same defence by the Confederation that any one else does and therefore he which declares he thinks it reason to deceive those that help him can in reason expect no other means of safety than what can be had from his own single Power He therefore that breaketh his Covenant and consequently declareth that he thinks he may with reason do so cannot be received into any Society that unite themselves for Peace and Defence but by the errour of them that receive him nor when he is received be retayned in it without seeing the danger of their errour which errours a man cannot reasonably reckon upon as the means of his security and therefore if he be left or cast out of Society he perisheth and if he live in Society it is by the errours of other men which he could not foresee nor reckon upon and consequently against the reason of his preservation and so as all men that contribute not to his destruction forbear him onely out of ignorance of what is good for themselves As for the Instance of gaining the secure and perpetuall felicity of Heaven by any way it is frivolous there being but one way imaginable and that is not breaking but keeping of Covenant And for the other Instance of attaining Soveraignty by Rebellion it is manifest that though the event follow yet because it cannot reasonably be expected but rather the contrary and because by gaining it so others are taught to gain the same in like manner the attempt thereof is against reason Justice therefore that is to say Keeping of Covenant is a Rule of Reason by which we are forbidden to do any thing destructive to our life and consequently a Law of Nature There be some that proceed