mankind from the wrath of God the slavery of Satan and the dominion of sin and death which rightly to know and beleeve leads to life eternall Mathe. How may one attain this knowledge Phila. By right understanding the holy Scriptures in its propositions and consequences Now the Scripture tels us that the first man sinned and so incurred the wrath of God upon himselfe and all his posterity Rom. 5. yet he so graciously promised him that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head i. ruine the policies and works of the Devill wrought in and against man Now from whence commeth this doth God intend to put up this wrong and passe it over then how can his justice be satisfied or if infinite justice must be satisfied by some suffering for that sin then who must undergo it If we look upon God as absolutely one without distinction then the offended must mediate with himselfe and so put up this offence yea the Father God must be the sufferer without any mediator Gnosticks or Patrispassiani But this cannot be for a mediator is not of one but God is one Gal. 3.20 yet infinite justice must be satisfied by an infinite person The scriptures therefore declare that in the Godhead there be three persons Father Son and holy Ghost Now though we cannot so well apprehend how the essence divine can mediate to it selfe for man yet we may conceive how one person can mediate to another and so that the Son who lay hid in the bosome of the Father before all time did consult and mediate with the Father about it We must therefore understand first That God made man as perfect as a creature rationall could be made saving only that he gave him not immutability which is a portion beyond created nature For the very Angels that stood once were yet mutable in themselves and they that stand now are not immutable in themselves though they be in their estate and the reason is they that fell chose to stand by their own naturall power without dependency upon God they that stood chose to stand by dependency upon the Archangell the Son of God the first born of every creature Colos 1.15 and of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named Eph. 3.15 these were the elect Angels Now as they stood by love so man must be recovered by faith in him Aug. Servans hos salvens illos that is the same Archangell and Son of God Jesus Christ who is the head of men and Angels Col. 1.18 creating both but preserving them and saving us from all the bitter effects of sin and leading us to eternall selicity by grace on earth to glory in heaven This is the way to felicity first To know God Then secondly my selfe and miserable condition and thirdly The remedy in Christ Mathe. How come men to wander so much in the seeking of it Phila. The reason of it is first The sin of Adam and Eve who sought to find the chief good in that which God the chiefe good prohibited Mans soule is troubled with a vertigo ever since and running round in a maze is not able to find the right object and if any time we come neer it yet like the Sun comming to his verticall point in the tropick we turn back to the old course Some men know nothing of felicity yet they aime at something they fansie to be good for them yea at a kind of immortality as in writing building or to practise Arts or Arms or purchasing and conquering all which are but shadowes of felicity and may keep our names alive while the soule may be damn'd as the body is dead Some are worse that place their felicity in carnall delights as in cating drinking Phil. 3.19 and wantonnesse which ends commonly in bitternesse shame and death Now though that felicity is thus divorsed by mans mistakings 〈…〉 ing round in a large circumference of mans vain apprehensions yet by serious consideration it may be reduced to one centrall point for when we have wearied our selves like Noah's Dove we must return to the Ark at last for rest and safety for only in God the soule takes rest Aratus for as we are the off-spring of God Acts 17.27 28. so he is not far from any of us and we may find him by nature if we would grope after him but especially by Scripture which teacheth us to know God in Christ for none can come to the father but by him otherwise we know not felicity at all or not rightly for as no man can divide a circle till he have found the center so neither the circumference of true felicity till we fix the foot of our affection in God like one foot of a compasse And as a man may find the center of a circle though he seeth it not so may one find God in the circumference of his works though he never saw him and felicity in Christ though he never yet knew it before Mathe. The knowledge of God being mans felicity it is not amisse to prove there is a God for he that commeth to God must beleeve that God is therefore I pray you prove to me there is a God Phila. I suppose you urge not this question because you doubt it but because you would have reason to satisfie others therein Therefore that there is a God fit to be known of all men I shall prove by reason for though Scriptures be enough to prove it to us that beleeve yet not to them who beleeve not therefore reason in this point is needfull for many will not beleeve unlesse their understanding be over-powred by miracle or revelation or by some extraordinary energeticall operation of God upon the soule they will not beleeve except their reason be convinced of the truth of Scriptures that they are of God and of divine revelation otherwise he thinks that his faith is but implicit or folded up in other mens beleefe or a weak yielding to antiquity or authority of Lawes and Customes without examination of their analogy and agreement with pure and primary reason and I beleeve if pure reason were not clouded by idlenesse ignorance or wilfulnesse it would prove a more impartiall judge of truth than the Pope himselfe who beleeves the Scripture by the ground of antiquity and forceth his conclusions drawn therefrom upon mens consciences by his own authority which men being made his vassals yield to any thing for quietnesse sake though themselves have no satisfaction therein From whence it is that most Christians profession of Religion is but either forced by fear of authority or voluntarily resigned up to another mans judgement or setled upon ones obstinate wilfulnesse neither which is saving faith For though we give some assent to Scriptures at first being moved by the authority of the Church to whom we owe respect and reverence as the people of Samaria first beleeved for the womans sake John 4.42 yet at last they beleeved
followers accounted him the Son of God that was to come to judge the world and whosoever obeieth not his doctrine shall be rooted out and that their Family of Love shall possesse the earth and their posterity shall remain for ever He made himselfe a greater light then Christ and said that in his light Christ was perfected and that he was codeified in God and God hominified in him and this they count the everlasting Gospell spoken of Rev. 11.15 They said the speech of Christ was made good in H.N. I must walk to day and to morrow Luke 13.32 and the third day I shall be perfected that is by to day is meant the time of Christ by to morrow the time of the Romish Religion and by the third day the time of H.N. and his Family If you demand how this Sect came into England I answer by those that translated the book of David George called the Wonder Book and H. N. his book called the Gospell of the Kingdome So did one Christopher Viret a Joiner in Southwark in Queen Maries daies translated some of them out of Dutch into English If you desire to know more of their blasphemous and abominable errors you may read their confession set down by Mr Knewstub and Henock Claphams book Mr Knewstub Conf. called the error of the right hand and of the left They be made up of many heresies their conversation is full of uncleannesse they partake with the old Adamites of whom St Augustine writeth who in their Conventicles or Paradice made warm by stoves they exercise the rites of their religion in praying hearing of sermons Lamb. Horten. p. 53. Gaftius p. 222. and receiving the Communion all naked both men and women Some of these have begun to practice their naked truth as they call it here in England since the year 1642. Mathe. But it may be Sir I shall not find these books and so shall not be able to discover them when they speake and therefore I pray tell me some of their errors which you can remember Phil. They say every one of their congregation is as perfect as Christ Familists opinions or else he is a devill the latter part whereof I do believe Also that it is lawfull to do whatsoever the higher power commands though it be against Gods command Herein they perform blind obedience like Papists and the Jesuits Novices If a man do so how doth he forsake his father and mother for Christ Or why said the Apostles to the higher powers that it was more fit to obey God then man So they affirm that in saying God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost we acknowledge three Gods not perceiving we call them so because they are all but one God in essence 1 John 5.7 though three distinct persons Here they smell of the old heresie of Noetians that held there was but one person in the Godhead as the Socinians do now They say there is no other heaven nor hell than in this world among us What place then is that to which Christ is gone before to prepare for us or that fire foretold of Christ into which wicked men must depart So that they are not bound to give alms but to their own Sect yet St Paul saith do good to all So that there ought to be no contrary both to the Law and Gospell practice in all ages that there was a world before Adams time this is to be wise above what is written So that they ought not to bury their dead because it is said let the dead bury their dead Mat. 8.22 which he spake not as to have the dead neglected nor despising those that did that charitable work but to warn him that he out of too much care of worldly ceremonies neglect not the blessed state of life to which Christ called him saying follow me Also that they need not say Davids praiers because they have no sin but St John saith 1 John such deceive themselves and the truth is not in them But farther they have blasphemous opinions concerning God as that God hath no other Deity in himselfe but such as men partake of in this life 2 Pet. 1.4 Indeed we are said to partake of the divine nature but that is not by the participation of equality but of quality both of grace and glory not of the divine essence but the holy disposition or conditions thereof So they hold that Christ is not a person God and man but an estate or condition in men common to them only who have received the doctrine of Henry Nicholas So they say that Adam was all that God was and God all that Adam was as if God communicated his whole essence to Adam as to Christ which no man can well beleeve Again they would have none baptized till they be thirty yeers old Indeed Christ was not nor could not till there was one sent to baptize namely John the Baptist They say there was no truth preached since the Apostles times yes even that which they have often heard but perverted because they did not entertain it in a love thereof and so God hath given them up to delusions So they affirm that the resurrection of the body is only a rising from sin and wickednesse But St John tels us of another Rev. 20.5 6. Rev. 20.6 as well as St Paul in the 1 Cor. 15. They account marriage whoredome where the parties married have not true faith Yet surely it is more holy then the copulation of H. N. with the three women in his house clothed all alike and called his Wife Sister and Cousin which Cousin falling sick confessed that he had made unlawfull use of her body and made her beleeve she should never die The Governor hearing of it came to apprehend him but the unclean bird was fled so the Governor seized on his nest in the yeer 1556. even when H. N. was fifty seven yeers of age Knewstub p. 15.27 older than wiser As for their high conceits of H. N. that he could no more erre then Christ and of their great opinions of their illuminated elders I refer you to authors Knewstub p. 15.27 Mathe. Who else hath disturbed the Protestant Church Phila. The Antinomians so called Antinomians because they hold that there is no use of the Law under the Gospel Some say the first author of this Sect was one John Agricola of Isleby who set forth his opinions 1535. But the first that appeared here was John Eaton Curate of St Katherine Colemans Parish in London He writ the book called the Hony-comb wherein he endeavors to prove that God does not nor cannot see any sin in justified people That he seeth no sin to condemn them for is most true as Num. 23.21 He beheld no iniquity in Jacob to bring him under the curse yet he saw enough in Israel to punish them in the wildernesse To think otherwise is to take part with the
wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if he had so little knowledge in the tongues and Arts. Socin Respons ad Defi. Puccii p. 49. One book handles the authority of Scripture the other handleth the cause for which the Gospell of Christ is to be beleeved The error of this Socinus was spread far in Sarmatia and Transylvania Silesia Lituania Mathe. What were their errors Phila. That there is no naturall knowledge leading a man to a beliefe of a Deity contrary to Paul who saith that the invisible things of God are seen by things created Rom. 1.20 and that the Gentiles do by nature the things written in Gods law Rom. 2.14 So they say Christ is not God and yet they give him divine worship and so make him an Idol and themselves Idolaters So they deny the Godhead of Jesus Christ which forfeits their own Christianity and overthroweth Christian Religion and all divine honour due to Christ from men This was the heresie of Samosatenus Bishop of Antiochia of whom you have heard already How can these men be called Christians who deny the office of Christ No marvell though they refuse to be baptized in the name of the Trinitie if they denie with Sabellius two persons in the Trinitie for they say Christ is not trulie God Iohn 8.58 yet Paul saith he was in the form of God Phil. 2.6 and the character of his glorie Heb. 1.2 and in him dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 So they say that the Holy Ghost is not God and so Macedonius held who was justlie condemned by the second generall Council of Constantinople in the year 386. But if the Holie Ghost be not God why doth St. Iohn rank him as equall to the Father and Son 1 Iohn 5.7 Again they say the Incarnation of Christ is repugnant to reason which I have formerlie disproved and that it is not fullie proved in Scripture yet St Iohn tels us that the Word became flesh Iohn 1.14 So they say that Christ did not by his death satisfie for our sins yet it is said that he is the propitiation for our sins and that is all one 1 Iohn 2.2 So they say it is against Scripture to beleeve three persons in the Godhead and yet Christ institutes baptisme to be given in the three names of Father Son and Holie Ghost So they say man was not created in originall righteousnesse yet Solomon saith God made man upright but he hath sought inventions So they say that the old Testament is not necessarie for a Christian man yet Christ saith Moses spake of him Iohn 5.46 and the men of Berea searched the old Testament to prove the truth of the new Acts 17.11 These are very dangerous errors because they overthrow the foundation of Christian faith namely Christs satisfaction for us and plainlie Antichristian in denying Christ to be God And also they denie the person of the Holie Ghost They confound faith and works together They say the Law is imperfect and yet that man is justified by the works of the Law not by the law of faith Rom. 3.27 Also that the soule of man hath no subsistence after death whereby it apprehendeth joy or sorrowes and so consequently they may denie heaven and hell as things only imaginarie They stand much upon reason and would subject not only Fathers and Councils but also the Scriptures to it and so every man doth like the Pope in being the judge of all by his own reason Beside they are tied in a knot with Arminians and Anabaptists concerning the power of magistrates and are one as lawlesse as the other And the Papists are well pleased with them because they perceive them to do their work for them in rooting out all Protestant Magistrates and Ministers Mathe. What Achans beside have troubled our Israel Phila. The Antitrinitarians Antitrinitarians who hold opinions against the Holie Trinitie and scraped up the old Heresie of Arrius denying Christ to be God and with the Socinians denie the Trinitie of persons and that the eternall generation of the Son is against truth contrary to Micah 5.2 whose goings out have been from everlasting And they say Christ is called God not in regard of his divine essence but his dominion yet Christ saith I and my Father are one Iohn 10.30 So they denie the Holie Ghost to be God yet St Peter told Ananias when he lied to the Holie Ghost that he lied not to man but to God Acts 5.3 These by some Writers though first sprung up in Polonia 1593 are called Legatinarians from one Legate who for obstinate holding these opinions was burned in Smithfield March 18. Anno 1611. and after him in April following another was burned at Leichfield for the same heresie Mathe. I hear also of men called Millenaries who pretend to antiquity and would prove their opinions from Scripture I pray what are their opinions Phila. They are a branch of the Anabaptists in some of their opinions Millenaries Their antiquitie is fetched from Cerinthus a Jew who lived about the 96 year after Christ in the time of Domitian who held with Ebion that Jesus was only begotten of Ioseph and Mary and that he was not Christ born but that Christ came upon him at his Baptisme in the form of a Dove and that Jesus suffered but that Christ fled away whom St Iohn confuteth in his Gospell John 1. This man pretended revelations from Angels and held that eternall life was here upon earth and that after the resurrection Christs Kingdome should be on the earth and that his subjects should eat and drink marry and keep holy daies and offer sacrifice and that this should last a thousand years Into which error also Papias fell Euseb l. 3. c. 36 the Bishop of Hierapolis for want of observing the Apostles writings So did Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France both men of great authority in their times Iren. l. 5. cont Valent. namely in the first hundred years after Christ So in the reign of Galienus Nepos and his followers called Nepotiani affirmed from Rev. 20. 5 6. that the godly should rise before the wicked and should live with Christ upon the earth in abundance of all earthly pleasures Eus l. 7. c. 22. But if that text be taken literally those godly must be beheaded and so dead first and then rise againe yea and Christ must be come first These were convinced by Coracion Eus l. 7. c. 23. But our latter Millenaries exceed all those before them in error for they will not stay till Christ come or those godly be raised Oh that men would study dark mysteries lesse and divine duty more the Kingdome of Christ lesus would be the better obtained but say that Christs Kingdome must be set up out of hand to promote which alll the ungodly must be slain that the meek may inherit the earth in
Lord God never expressed himself by more then three as appears first By his commanding Moses to blesse the people but thrice in the name of the Lord Deut. 6.24 The Lord bless thee and keep thee intimating the protection and providence of the Father 2. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee i. in pardoning thy sin by the gracious redemption and favour of the Son well expressed by St Paul 2 Cor. 4.6 calling it the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 3. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace i. the joy of the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience in gods promise which the Holy Ghost sealeth to us Eph. 1.13 So the Seraphins pronounced God thrice Holy Holy Holy Esa 6.3 So we see in Christs baptisme 1. The Father speaking from heaven 2. The spirit descending and 3. The Son suscepting baptisme Mat. 3.16 And our Savivour affirms but three persons John 16.36 saying when the Comforter is come i. the Holy Ghost whom I will send i I the Son who proceedeth from the Father i. the first person Mathe. Is there any reason to prove this Phila. As much as any reasonable man can desire and that is the impressions of it upon his works and his gifts and in the minds of men 1. He hath given three principles of all bodies airie watry Chymists say Salt Sulphur and Mercury and earthy matter and three kind of lives or souls the vegetative or growing life or soule to plants The sensitive with vegetation to bruits the rationall with both the former to men but especially the Image of God in the first man argued the three persons immortality wisedome and freedome So to the rationall soule three principall faculties the Understanding the Will and the power of acting So Arts which are Gods gifts some of them sheweth his unity as Geometry draweth all lines from one point and Arithmetick from a unite draweth all numbers so Astronomy all motions from the first mover so Musick a rare gift of God ariseth from unison and three concords and discords arguing a unity in Trinity 2. But above all these three Arts by which we expresse our souls which have an impresse of the Deity sets forth the Trinity as they proceed one from the other For Grammer is the fountain of them by letters which makes words Logick of words frameth sence and Rhetorick by help of both maketh an oration So the Son is the word of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both and therefore the Cabalists said that before God revealed himselfe in his operations he was like a dark solitary letter Aleph tenebroâ— sum of which we could make nothing But now we know by his word and his works not only that he is but what he is 3. He hath imprinted this Trinity in the minds of men as well as the unity of the Godhead Which made some learned men say Pythago Trismegist in Pimand Dial. 4 that all things are terminated in THREE Others that one begat one and by reflecting on each other begat a third Not that these men did apprehend the Trinity as we do by Scripture but this argued them to have a confused knowledge of it as Caiaphas had of Christs death when he said It was necessary one man die for the people Aquin. Non è â—â—titia sed ex officie so prophecying as he was high Priest that year so these spake by naturall instinct Another that may be urged to prove the three persons in the Godhead is Bonum diffusivum Because God being the chiefe good is of a diffusive nature and so must communicate himselfe by some subsistency that is capable of the whole divine essence communicated everlastingly from one to the other John 10.30 therefore Christ saith I and my Father are one that is in the essence communicated not the personality So he saith I am in the Father John 14.10 and the Father in me that is by mutuall immanency in the same essence So he saith I came forth from the Father that is first By his divine and eternall generation and by his temporall mission into the world John 16.28 So he saith all that the Father hath is mine therefore I said he shall take of mine and give it to you i. the holy Ghost John 16.15 By which is understood the communication of the divine essence one to another and the communication of gifts of men A similitude of this divine reflection and procession God gave in the first marriage He made Adam one then he joined him to another made out of himselfe of these two he produced a third i. children Beside he makes all things but by a threefold vertue his Power Wisedome and Love a representative of the three persons Nor is there any more then three principall efficient causes from whom by whom and through whom a thing is Rom. 11. And so all things are from the Father by the Son through the Holy Ghost who receiveth and giveth a procession to things so that there is but one God the Father 1 Cor. 8.6 and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ and we by him and one Holy Spirit and we through him Mathe. But this is hard to conceive right and dangerous to conceive wrong I desire a rule or two to direct me aright in the conceiving hereof Phila. 1. That you are to beleeve the divine essence to be one yet the persons to be three and every person to be God and Lord and yet but one God because but one essence as there is but one humane nature though divers persons therein 2. That these persons are not before one another in time but in order nor greater then another but coequall 3. That these three persons communicate the divine essence one to another but not their personality for the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Esa 9.6 the Son is called the everlasting Father but not in regard of his person but his essence which is all one with the Father 4. That in those works of the Trinity which are wrought towards us though one person be entitled to it more then others yet all of them hath an hand therein though one more especially As the Father creates yet so as by the Son through the Spirit The Son redeemeth yet so as sent from the Father and conceived by the holy Spirit The holy Spirit sanctifieth yet so as through the Father by the Son breathing his holy graces into us 5. That the Father is the fountain of the personality but not of the essence for therein they be coeternall 6. They all flowe from one and the same essence as the light of the Moon and that of the air is from one Sun and as three rivers from one fountain 7. That they have
beleeving if not by justice yet by mercy if not by our deserts yet by Christs merits by which we attaine so great honour that those Angels that never sinned Heb. 1.14 are yet made our servants to minister to us And the rather we should endeavour to know him because now he may be known though in former time he hid himselfe yet now he hath revealed himselfe not only by his attributes in Scripture but also in his Son Heb. 1.2 by whom we may apprehend him by operations in himselfe and toward us Mathe. What are the operations of God in himselfe Phila. They be such as concern the three persons among themselves in relation one to the other as the Father begetting the Son eternally Opera ad intra or divisa the Son giving from the Father procession to the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost receiving this proceeding and returning the glory thereof to the Father and the Son so glorifying themselves in themselves This operation never had beginning nor never shall have ending because God can never cease to be what he is in essence nor as he is in subsistence Now these operations distinguisheth one person from another because in these what the one doth the other doth not The Father is not begotten but the Son and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both for Christ sends him from the Father John 1â— 5 John 15.26 And this is part of that glory which Christ saith he had with the Father before the world was But beside this God may be said to have other operations in himselfe Opera ad extra or indivisa which are common to all the three persons And these are said to be either internall or externall The internall are such as his praescience and predestination Interna by which he decrees all things to their proper ends and man also and this is an operation wherein the whole Trinity hath an equall hand wherein is contained the whole counsell of God 2 Tim. 2.19 which is the firm foundation on which every thing depends and by which he knoweth among men who are his And by this determinable counsell Christ was delivered into the hand of wicked men and men are predestinated to the adoption of children in Christ Jesus according to his will and so by him we obtaine an inheritance Acts 2.23 Eph. 1.5 being predestinate according to his purpose Eph. 1.11 who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will And so he hath saved us and called us to an holy calling not according to our works but his purpose and grace which was provided for us in Christ 2 Tim. 1.9 before the world began In whom those that he foreknew Rom. 8.29 them he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son which are called elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.2 By which we may perceive that God was never sedent nor cessant before he made this world but had both his personall and internall operations by which also he did in time produce his externall works of creation and providence Mathe. How is predestination to be understood rightly Phila. 1. Predestination and election are much of one likenesse only election argueth that God chuseth one and not another and predestination argueth that God ordains some to glory and passeth by others though all taken out of the same nature and lump and though both these are in the divine mind at once yet election relates more to person and predestination more to the means by which those persons should be made happy For predestination is a decree of God Mat. 24.24 causing in time such effectuall grace in those that are elected that it will infallibly bring them to glory and therefore it is said that the elect are not to be seduced for it is Gods pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luke 12.32 who hath chosen them in Christ before the world that they should be unblameable before him 2. You must know that predestination looks upon all men in the same condition as Israels father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite even of those Nations whom God cast out of Canaan But that in predestination there is such grace prepared that makes the elect become both holy and happy 3. You are to conceive neverthelesse that this grace prepared for the elect doth not impose any necessity or violent constraint upon their wils Abul in 3. Reg. c. 12. Cant. 1.4 Aug. de lib. arbit but causeth a free endeavour to vertue by a sweet perswasion of the heart to make Gods will ours who makes us by his divine motion of unwilling man to become willing Nor doth Gods passing by others called reprobation or not electing exclude such from all possible means of happinesse but it permits them by the freedome of their own will to neglect or abuse the means which is the just cause of their damnation Hos 13 9. for mans perdition is of himselfe God destinates none to sin but to punishment for sin and therefore predestination is not in Scripture applied to the reprobate because predestination in Gods is of the means i. grace and the end i. glory But reprobation is of the end i. punishment not of the means i. sin for predestination doth direct a man to that which by nature he cannot attain but reprobation destinates no man to aim at sin to which nature of it selfe is too prone when God passeth by it in his election but only preordains men to punishment deserved by sin So that as predestination necessitates no man to good works so Gods not predestinating some doth not necessitate anothers will to evill works no more then a Kings chusing one for his favorite doth necessitate him to do vertuous actions against his will nor another to be traiterous with his will For the decrees of God takes not away the liberty of mans will Mathe. But surely as predestination causeth salvation so Gods preterition or rejection of men causeth their damnation Phila. Wicked men are not damned because they are not predestinated but because they live and die in sin For rejection in God is only a deniall of election which may stand with a possibility of avoiding sin and damnation So all men in Adam were not elected yet all men in Adam had a certain power to stand so that as predestination is not a bare ordination of a man to eternall life by such a sufficient means as makes the event possible but it provides to make the means efficacious So reprobation excludes no man not elected from all means of salvation necesarily but permits them to be lead by their own will so that predestination of some 2 Tim. 2.19 doth not damn others by necessity of consequence but in the infallibility of Gods prescience as Joseph did foresee the seven years famine but did not cause it Mathe. But why doth God looking on all in the same
he was betraied into the hands of sinners and cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 and made his soule an offering for sin Isa 53.10 After sixty two weeks said Daniel shall Messiah be cut off but not for himselfe Dan. 9.25 26. that is if you mark the verses the Angel allots seven weeks for rebuilding of the Temple which is forty nine years reckoned of the Jewes but forty six years Iohn 2.20 because they reckoned not the first three years when the foundation was but laid by Cyrus his edict and the work staied again by Artaxerxes Longimanus Ezra 4.7 till they had got a second Edict Ezra 6.1 from Darius Nothus Then the Angell allots to the former seven weeks sixty two weeks more which is about 434. years in all 483. or thereabout in the end whereof Christ suffered on the crosse to make an end of sin and finish transgression and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse This scourging wounding and piercing was foreseen also by Isa 53.5 he was bruised for our iniquities and chastised for our peace And saith Zach. 12.12 they shall look on him whom they have pierced for a souldier pierced his side as well as others did his hands and feet when they nailed them to the crosse So his very carrying of his crosse John 19.34 was typed out by Isaac carrying the wood to sacrifice himself upon Gen. 22.9 10. And as Abraham stretched out his hand to slay his son so God loved the world that he gave his Son Iohn 3.16 and he himself became obedient to the death of the crosse Numb 21.9 And as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse for the curing of the people upon a pole John 12.32 John 14. so was Christ lift up on the crosse for the saving of us who were bitten by Satan and sin also So also his Resurrection had a type as Isaac taken from the Altar and restored safe and sound to Abraham the third day after that he was assigned to death Gen. 22.4 of whom it is said that Abraham received him again in a figure Heb. In what figure but only of him that was to come of his seed in whose death and resurrection all nations should be blessed So Ionah the first Prophet who lived in the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Kin. 14.25 and the first Prophet sent to the Gentiles to Niniveh who because he diverted to Tarsus was swallowed of a great fish in whose belly he remained till the third day after and for so long time the grave swallowed Christ but then he arose and so his flesh saw no corruption Psal 16. and that might well be without a miracle if the body be not accidentally corrupted before it be dead as in violent deaths commonly men are not Now Christ lay not in the grave above 40. hours and commonly dead bodies corrupt not til about seventy hours and this sheweth that he rose within three daies and so saw no corruption as the Psalmist said Psal 16. which is expounded plainly so by St Peter Acts 2.31 And as Isaiah had also foretold that the dead men should live and with Christs body they should come so they did Mat. 27.52 53. Thus Christ conquered death in his own Kingdome as said Hosea 13.14 and death had no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 because he was now swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.55 And thus as God spake to the great fish and it cast out Ionah on the dry land Jon. 2.10 so the temple of Christs body which the Jewes destroied he rebuilt in three daies And for his Ascension as it was prophecied so it was accomplished Eliah was a type of it 2 Kin. 2.11 being taken up in a fiery Chariot so Christ was taken up out of his disciples sight into heaven Luke 24.51 as was prophecied in Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended up on high and led captivity captive So he was taken away his disciples beholding it at first Acts 1.9 but after a cloud took him out of their sight And now he sits on Gods right hand foretold Psal 110.1 and averred in Mark 16.19 And from him the Holy Ghost like a most gracious rain from heaven hath fallen upon his Apostles Acts 2.15 16. and upon many thousands of beleevers as was foreprophecied Joel 2.18 and typed forth by the spirit of Eliah resting upon Elisha 2 Kin. 1.13 5. Even so God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts baptizing us with the Holy Ghost and as blessed fire from heaven giving some the gift of tongue Acts 2.4 others to prophecie some to teach others to learn and increase in faith and the love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Mathe. Now as you have shewed the Promises Types and Prophecies and history of Christs Conception Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension shew me also the mystery of godlinesse intended thereby in relation to Christians And first of all I desire to understand rightly his Conception for therein lieth a great mystery wherein our understanding is easily lost if we be not rightly directed For how can one person in the Trinity be conceived or become incarnate without the other two seeing the divine nature is not divided but is in each person totally Phila. The divine nature cannot be divided for substance but in the manner of subsistence it is distinguished For it is after one manner in the Father i. unbegotten After another manner in the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in him it is begotten i. communicated by divine generation After another manner in the Holy Ghost because proceeding from both John 15.16 Now we are to beleeve that the humane nature is assumed by the divine nature as considered only in the Son as he enjoieth it being the perfect image of the Father Heb. 1.1 2 3. and so being the naturall Son of God was most fit to be the son of man and so thereby restore the sons of men by adoption to be made the sons of God Yet we are to beleeve that all the Trinity had a hand in it John 1.12 for the Father wrought it by the holy Ghost but the Son only assumed it as three folks may make one garment and yet but one of the three wear it Mathe. But the Conception is applied to the Holy Ghost and so I am apt to beleeve that the Holy Ghost was his Father Phila. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost effectually not materially he caused it to be but gave not any matter out of himselfe to the nature of Christ so that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost uniting the natures divine and humane together Bernard Damascen not by generation but by institution and benediction and operation not spermatically as other fathers beget children So it is said Rom. 11.36 all things are of God yet not of his substance but by his power so that we
the Father was acknowledged by his creation and providence so the Son of God might be worshipped for his redemption and the Holy Ghost be known by his operating in us the blessed ends that God intended in our creation and the effects of Christs redemption that so the office of Christ as a King Priest and Prophet may be set forth by our faith and obedience to the same Of this holy and orderly state God made Israel a type Esa 51.15 16. when he did that which Esay makes repetition of saying I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand namely I kept thee in thy going through the wildernesse to Canaan that I might plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth that is that I might make thee a state consisting of superiours and inferiours as a body politick and say to Sion thou art my people And as he made them into Prince Priest and people under the Law so certainly he did not intend to leave the Gospell people to disorder and confusion and therefore he made Kings nursing fathers and Apostles Bishops and Presbyters to instruct and people to be ruled and instructed as I have already declared it remaineth to shew what effects in the mystery of godlinesse the blessed spirit worketh on Christs redeemed people called the Church Mathe. That I desire to know Phila. First it worketh in Christs Church people outward and inward holy worship The outward consisteth in places utensils and gestures fit for divine service The inward consists in an holy heart and life answerable thereunto which is wrought in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost the third person in the most holy Trinity Mathe. What am I to conceive and beleeve of the Holy Ghost since I find little speech of him in the Creed save only in one article or two at most Phila. Though you find little speech of him as you do of the name of the Father and the Son yet all those Articles of the Creed that follow from beleeving in the Holy Ghost do relate to him and to his operations upon the object thereof which is the holy Catholick Church which he sanctifieth by making in it the communion of Saints and sealing to it the remission of sin and bestowing upon it the power of the blessed resurrection and the felicity of eternall life And insomuch as we are taught to beleeve in the Holy Ghost as well as in the Father and the Son that word in doth intimate to us 1. That he is God as well as the Father and Son or else we may not beleeve upon him But we find that we are to be baptized into his name together with the Father and the Son Mat. 28.29 2. That he proceedeth from the Father and the Son and therefore called the Spirit of the Father and the Son Of the Father John 15.26 and of the Son Rom. 8.9 and procedeth from the Son in that he breathed him upon his disciples John 20.22 and yet is a distinct person from them both as appeareth Mat. 3.17 where the Father speaketh and the Holy Ghost descended and the Sun submitted his humane nature to baptisme and yet he is equall to the Father and the Son and therefore divine worship is due to him as to them Therefore it is fit that we know him in his nature and operations Mathe. I pray declare them to me Phila. I shall first he is eternall and was before the world Gen. 1.2 and cannot alter his nature and condition So secondly he is immense and so every where present Psal 139.7 and therefore he is at hand alwaies to give us his help and assistance Again he is omnipotent Rom. 15.19 all wonders and miracles were done by him and therefore he is able to deliver us and make us for ever most happy as well as he is omniscient knowing all our wants Acts 10.19 1 Cor. 2.10 Now for his effects they are either common or proper common to all creatures or all men To all creatures as in the creation when the spirit of God cowred on the waters and earth mixed together not yet separated as an hen sitting on egs thereby qualifying that chaos to take severall forms Gen. 1.2 which spirit also garnished the heavens Job 26.13 and is still sent forth to continue the creature by production and generation Psal 104.30 which kind of operation is common also to all men Job 33.4 the spirit of the Lord hath made me and not only so but the same spirit giveth inventions to men of Arts and Sciences as to Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 31.3 so to write excellent things for the common use of men so to qualifie Ministers with the gifts of prophecy and preaching and tongues yet not all with saving grace mat 7.22 So many men have illumination to discern of some doctrines of faith by drawing off the vaile that hangs before other mens eies though without application to themselves or correspondent practice of such knowledge Heb. 6.4 5. they have a taste but no delight nor digestion for it neither takes them from the love of the world nor makes them the more to love God or goodnesse yea and in other men he works restraining grace to forbear some foule sins as Abimelech to forbear Sarah Gen. 20.6 yea and to do some laudable actions contrary to their disposition 1 Sam. 10.10 when Saul prophecied which was so strange to the people that it became a proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets This restraining grace God giveth the wicked not sur their own but for the Churches sake who would by them otherwise in their lusts be basely defiled or utterly destroied Now there be other operations and effects of the spirit proper to the elect and some of them are generall and some particular the generall are the conception of Christ and the qualification of his humane nature to make it fir for the great work of redemption of the elect Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach glad tidings c. which spirit he received without measure John 3.34 The second generall work is his dwelling in the elect by which they are made a temple for God 2 Cor. 6.10 and built together for Gods habitation Eph. 2.22 Also regeneration of them whereby they are washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Then next he uniteth the elect into one mysticall body by faith and love in the bond of peace Beside Eph. 4.3 he hath particular operations in the singular persons of the elect as first he works in them liberty from the power of sin and ability to subdue the corruption in nature which neither naturall reason not morall prudence can do but where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.13 because the law of the spirit of life hath made us free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 And this the spirit doth by exercising of us in
used in the Church Now this baptisme is the first mark of a visible Christian who next is discovered by those works which baptisme requireth of him namely to forsake worldly lusts and vanities the devill and all his wicked designs and to live soberly righteously and godly in the sight of all men this is to be a visible Christian and a company thus qualified make a visible assembly and being setled by the Regiment of Pastors and necessary Officers for governing them they are called a visible Church constituted Mathe. What be the marks of an invisible Christian by which he may know himselfe to be of the true invisible Church and then I shall desire some satisfaction in the outward government of the Church Phila. The marks of an invisible Christian by which he knoweth himselfe to belong to salvation in Christ are vocation adoption regeneration justification and sanctification and a certain hope of eternall glory built upon his beleefe in Christ which is the ground of his hope Now vocation is not that by which God cals men in common by the Word and Sacraments but a divine vertue wrought in our hearts thereby through the Holy Ghost by which we are moved from our corrupt and sinful condition to a supernaturall life in Christ to whom being united as to our head are justified by faith sanctified by repentance to Gods glory and a mans owne salvation This is an act of Gods free good wil to his elect therfore is both efficacious unchangeable Rom. 11.29 and therefore this grace of calling is not universal but belongeth only to those whom God foreknew and elected Rom. 8.30 and whom Christ hath redeemed only we may know that we are called if our hearts be stirred up to praise God for it 1 Pet. 2.9 and pray to be established in it 1 Pet. 5.10 and to live a godly life Eph. 4.1 aiming at eternall glory that we may be found blamelesse 1 Thes 5.23 The next mark is adoption a most gracious benefit of God whereby he receives us that are strangers from him for Christs sake to be his children and makes us with him to become heirs of heaven and eternall life Eph. 1.5 Col. 1.21 by which we are incouraged to call God Father Chrys hom in Psal 150. Rom. 8. and confesse that we have received and hope to receive all graces and favours from him This grace is begun in this life in those who receive Christ by faith John 1.12 in whom it appeareth they are sons but yet it appeareth not what they shall be 1 Joh. but that shall be perfected at the resurrection for which perfect adoption we sigh longing for the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.23 Now we know that we are adopted by the liberty which God hath given us not only from the servitude and bondage of the law which exacts that of us which we cannot do and from the service under the dominion of sin Rom. 6. and from humane traditions and worldly rudiments Col. 2. but also from that human fear of serving God so that we can serve him with a free and ready mind as Luke 1.74 he having delivered us and so we delight in the law of God after the inward man and can come boldly to the throne of grace to make our wants known to God our Father The next note is regeneration a blessed benefit of God whereby he restoreth our corrupt nature to his own image by the Holy Ghost and the incorruptible seed of his Word 1 Pet. 1.23 This is the effect of a most blessed marriage where God is the Father mans eare is the wife the seed is the word the heart is the womb and the regenerate soule is the child which is bred with sighing and brought forth with sorrowes but great joy at the delivery But as it groweth it is like Jacob in great conflict with Esau namely the flesh as you see Rom. 7. both dwell in one house but Jacob the spirit alwaies gets the upper hand both in the blessing and in the birthright yet with great reluctation in this till we are freed by death and the flesh glorified at the resurrection The effects of this regeneration is 1. A love to God that begot us above all things and love to them that are begotten as we are 1 Joh. 2. Avoiding of sin 1 John 5.18 he that is born of God sinneth not but keepeth himselfe namely he sinneth not willingly wilfully delightfully despitefully against the rule of grace not continually not to death and by vertue of Christs resurrection leadeth a new life Rom. 6.4 and 1 Pet. 1.3 and therefore through Christ God seeth no sin in him to condemn him however he doth to correct him Rom. 8. for it is Christ that justifieth who can condemn The next note whereby one may know himselfe to be of the Church invisible is justification which signifieth as much as to make just as to purifie is to make pure The word is not found in any of the old and purest Latine authors but is taken up by divers to expresse the Hebrew and Greek terms Tsadhick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a just man Now a man is said to be made just by infusion or by plea. By infusion when the habit or quality of justice is put into one as into Adam by creation and so men by regeneration in some degree and thus one may be said to be formerly or inherently just yet to justifie signifieth somewhat else 2. A man may be justified by plea as he that accuseth one makes him unjust Esa 5.23 so he that by plea doth vindicate him hath made him an honest man Job 9.20 that is to be esteemed or reputed so as the ancient authors doe interpret the word Hesichius Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that in this case we are rather to lean to the common use of the word then to the sound arising from the notation for Psal 119.4 8. the law is called by the interpreter justifications not because they justifie a man but because they declare him just that doth them because he hath done according to those statutes So a Judge condemning a malefactor is not by that act made formally or inherently just but approved just by that law which he hath executed But this declaration of a mans justice is not justification for that takes place upon accusation only if Adam had not sinned he might have been commended and declared to be just and innocent yet not properly justified So wisedome is said to be justified by her children Mat. 11.19 i. vindicated to be just against all the cavils of wicked men by the apology that her children make in her defence Some men therefore are justified yet not inherently just as when a fault is charged and acknowledged and satisfaction pleaded or sufficient amends is made to the party offended and so freedome from punishment is merited and the fault therefore as it were
impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ
which the other hath not and so one or both are imperfect and so there can be but one God Mathe. Whether do we Christians worship this one true God Phila. Yes we do For we worship him that made the world by his word and doth govern it by his wisedome and preserves it by his providence whose glorious presence is far above all heavens yet hath his influence upon all things here below by his Vicegerent Nature whose power he inlargeth and restraineth at his pleasure but a more rare influx upon mans soule by qualifying of it with rare gifts of Art and Science but most divinely upon souls refined from the drossie world by the operation of his holy spirit informing the mind with divine light inspiring with good desires incouraging in good actions preventing our doing evill furthering us in doing good convincing us of sin affrighting us for it Now this God we know to be a true God because he is the same who hath been worshipped from the beginning by the wisest holiest and best knowing men yea by the Jewish Nation who had the greatest evidences to shew of this true God by his miracles oracles prophecies and promises by which the very heathen have been convinced and became their proselytes 2. Because the heathen gods have been forced to confesse him the greatest As when King Thulis of Aegypt asked Shor-apis their Oracle Suidas who was the greatest it answered God Word and Spirit This is that Trinity whom all true Christians worship in unity 3. Because we find all other gods but counterfeits of this our true God and imperfect representations of his attributes or divine properties As their Baal a lord a counterfeit of this Lord of lords Baal-Zephon of our watching Lord that neither slumbers nor sleeps So their Baal-peor a counterfeit of him who gives the power of generation Baal-zebub a representation of him that is God of Hosts and Armies of all manner of flies which for sin he sendeth to infest the nations and at his word are driven away So Baal-berith a counterfeit of our God who keepeth Covenant with his people For the Devill is but Gods ape God had sacrifice and altar so had he God had a Temple at Jerusalem he had another at Delos God would have his Altar-fire alwaies burning and Satan would have alwaies his Vestall fire glowing God had his mercy Seat so the Devill his Tripodas So Apollo counterfeits Gods wisedome mans his power in battell Diana his purity Mercury his declarative word Jupiter his thundring voice Saturn his peaceable providence Venus his love Ceres and Bacchus his plentifull provision Proserpine the spirit of Nature in the earth Neptune Gods power in the Ocean Plato Gods power even in hell All which are but lame expressions of Gods properties by some seeming shew whereof the Devill hath drawn men from the true God so that the heathens worship they know not what but we know what we worship and that salvation is from our God who is infinite almighty invisible inscrutable the only wise and good God in whom from whom and by whom are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Mathe. Some are content to acknowledge a God and one God but yet only as one person Therefore are we bound to beleeve persons in the Godhead or not Phila. You are bound to beleeve God as he revealeth himselfe Now he hath revealed himselfe to be a divine essence subsisting in three persons that is a Unity in Trinity Mathe. I pray first unfold the terms and then prove God to be a Vnity in Trinity Phila. First for the terms you must not look to find them in Scripture yet it disalloweth them not for they express the sense of them For 1. The essence of God is expressed Exod. 3.14 in that name I am that I am for essence or being is that which is 2. Subsistence signifieth only the manner of Being as humane nature is mans essence or substance of man and his person is his manner of subsisting in that nature So 3. Unity signifieth and shewes the divine nature cannot be divided diversified nor multiplied 4. The word Trinity sheweth the manner of the divine nature subsisting which the Scriptures deliver to us of God as in the 1 of John 5.7 There be three that bear record in heaven Vbi unus ibi unitas ubi tres ibi Trinitas the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Where by the WORD is meant the Son who is so called also John 1.1 to signifie his divine and spirituall generation like a word expressed by the mind So 5. The word Person signifieth to us that God is in his subsistence or manner of being an intellectuall substance neither divided nor communicated nor sustained in or by any other which is the property of a person This word is found Heb. 1.3 where Christ the Word or Son of God is called the ingraven image of Gods person Mathe. How came these words into use Phila. They were formed by the Doctors of the Church for the more easie confutation of heresie by a shorter way of disputation and demonstration of this mystery of the sacred Trinity which in many words could not have been so well moulded into a form of dispute without much trouble to the memory and the understanding As in all Arts there be proper terms which include in them the sum of the science in short words and therefore we are not to stumble at termes which serve to explain or maintain holy mysteries for whatsoever is not against the truth is for it Mathe. But how prove you that God is Vnity in Trinity Phila. That God is a unity in himselfe none can doubt who beleeves that God is one and that there is but one God as is already proved And that this Godhead hath a Trinity of persons in it selfe subsisting we are to beleeve it upon Scriptures which do first intimate to us more persons in the Godhead then one as Gen. 1.1 which saith Elohim bara that is Elohim plu Bara sing if translated word for word The Lords he created to which answereth John 1.1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And ver 2. All things were made by him that is the Son and yet Gen. 1.2 The spirit of God moved upon the waters so that there were three in this work i. God the Father did it by the Son through the Spirit So Gen. 1.26 God said Let us make man which argued a consultation of persons So when God appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre Gen. 18.1 yet it was in three persons ver 2. though Abraham speaks to them as one saying my Lord The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Jupiter The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Neptune The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Pluto Mathe. But may they not be more then three persons Phila. No because the
a mutual emanency one in the other and an eternall emanency one from the other for they be each in each Aug. de Trin. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him and the holy Spirit in both so they be all in each For the Son is in the bosome of the Father and the Father in the Image of the Son the holy Spirit in the breath of each and they both in his operations 3. All in each for one is possessed of the other 4. All in all the whole essence being in every person And yet 5. But one in all because all three are but one God And take heed of thinking therefore 1. That there is no God 2. That there be no persons in the God but only relations Socin Patrisp offices or dispensations For so we may count the Father to suffer not the Son for our redemption 3. That they be only like one another in substance Arri. Eunom Tritheit but not of the same substance or of an unlike substance but of one and the same substance And take heed of thinking they be three gods for there is but one God in essence though three persons in subsistence one God in being though three persons in the manner of that being Nor may you like the Mahometans acknowledge one God without persons or like the Indians denie the Son of God Mahom. Indians because then they say God must have a wife These people only understand carnall generation not spirituall and in what they know naturally therein they abuse themselves Jude ver 10. and speak evill of what they know not For they perceive not how the soule begets children namely the thoughts and words without female conjunction This high knowledge of God should teach us to admire him whom we cannot comprehend and therefore to serve him in faith fear and reverence Psal 2.11 especially in his Temple and service Psal 138. and so say with Job O Lord what I know not do thou teach me so that in thy knowledge I may find felicity We must not think this knowledge to be superfluous since it is life eternall to have it John 17.3 Mat. 16.18 and that Christ so much approved St Peter for acknowledging it I know all men cannot apprehend this alike yet if we desire that Christ would shew us the Father John 14.8 and that we may have his Spirit he will not denie it to him that asketh him especially if we lament for the losse of the excellent knowledge no doubt he will reveal so much of it to us as shall acquire eternall life Mathe. What means hath God given us to know him by Phila. Two means his Works and his Words His Works Natura naturans naturata and the book of Nature naturated by the power of God His Word is the book of Nature naturating i. of God himselfe without which revelation man cannot apprehend God at all or very darkly The reason whereof is 1. Because Adam seeking curious knowledge beyond the light which God gave him in nature he lost that light of God which by nature he had and despoiled himselfe of that image and character of God which God had impressed upon him and so fell into false conceptions of God in his generations and by himselfe into a more obscure apprehension of him in his time 2. This dark knowledge of God in man ariseth from the depravation of his affections which desires to know God sensibly as men behold Princes which cannot be in this world 1 Cor. 15. no more then flesh and blood can inherit heaven till it be mortified by death and fermented in the grave and refined at the resurrection Moses desire was exuberant to see Gods glory in visible appearance For though God was pleased to be represented by Angels in shapes of men in the Old Testament yet he hath no shape For to what will ye liken me saith God 3. Men being not read in Scriptures are oftentimes driven by some accidents in the world and change of times and strange events above or beside reason to think that either there is no God or else that God is not just Psal 37.36 Psal 73.1 2 3. Wisd 1.1 2. 4. Because we find all things fall alike to all and a naturall succession of things to be as they were alwaies so they think we are all born at adventure and all things come by nature or fortune 5. It comes by the devils craft deluding men with vanity and making them not to think of God and so bold to perpetrate horrible sins through blindnesse and hardnesse of heart whereas if they did but consider Gods waies and footsteps in Scripture in making all things and in disposing them to their severall ends and orders the rare knowledge given to man above other creatures the peace of his mind when he doth well the terrors of his conscience in doing ill the impression and stamp of Elohim upon his Magistrates whom he calleth Gods the strange vengeance following wicked men to them whom temporall Judges either do not or cannot punish Besides prodigious signs in heaven of future calamities So to see monstrous births terrible earthquakes which though they have naturall and second causes yet why they are not alwaies or oftner or not at all or in this place more then that must needs be the rule of some superiour power But yet nothing of all these leads us to the knowledge of God like the Scripture Mathe. Why so Phila. Because the Scriptures are the word of the true God of whom nothing can testifie better then his own word and truth therefore Christ saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Secondly because they clearly set forth God in his nature attributes and works Mathe. How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of the true God Phila. Because it alone doth treat primarily of that God who is Trinity in Unity three persons in one Godhead and of their relations one towards another and their operations in and towards man 2. Because it is the most ancient truth as the true God is the ancient of daies Now what is most ancient and first is true Moses writings are most ancient upon which the rest of the Bible is a comment and the New Testament is a perfect complement and is therefore called grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 because he brought to man by the Gospell the love and favour of God and brought the truth prophesied into fact and performance But this Moses is the ancientest writer Eupolem Masius whom some call Musaeus some Trismegistus as some have thought the Aegyptian Serapis to be a monument of Joseph Sure enough he was the oldest writer of divine Revelation if not of any other He lived in the time of Cecrops King of Athens Aug. The oldest writing the Greeks have is the wars of Troy which fell out in the time of Israels Judges which was three hundred
think themselves above Ordinances They may be in higher forms of knowledge and holy experience then some other Christians but so long as they are in Christs school no doubt but there will be something to be learned Ephes 4 13. whether they be schollers or masters till we come to the measure of the stature of Christ Mathe. How do the Scriptures set forth God to us Phila. By his attributes or qualifications which both the nature of the Godhead and naturall reason will acknowledge to be in him whereby it apprehends him for God being infinite cannot be fully apprehended nor defined by us but his nature is known by way of eminence as whatsoever good I find in the creature I attribute the same to God in the highest degree 2. By way of negation and so whatsoever deficiency I find in the Creature I deny any jot of it to be in God 3. By causation because when I see the creatures I cannot conceive they made themselves but were caused by some being far above themselves and thus even naturall men are led unto God But the Scriptures set him out more clearly to us in his essence and his attributes 1. That he is an essence most highly perfect therefore called Jehovah I am that I am signifying that he is Being in himselfe of himselfe Exod. 3.14 and by himselfe and so is the principle of all beings in whom all things live move and have being and so he is justly called Essence And that this essence subsisteth in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit who in heaven bear record to the Scriptures truth 1 John 5.7 And in regard of this plurality of persons God is called Elohim Lords 2. The Scripture sets him forth to us by divers attributes by which we have a clearer apprehension of him to our capacity which cannot in any one word apprehend his nature Now some of these we find in the creatures others not for some of them cannot be communicated to any but himselfe Mathe. Which are his incommunicable attributes and what use can we make of them Phila. The first is simplicity of essence by which we know he is uncompounded without parts matter or form 1 Tim. 1.7 The second is his infinitenesse without measure quantity Psal 145.3 or determination of time and place or quantity vertue power 3. He is eternall without beginning of time past or end in respect of time to come 4. 1 Sam. 13.23 He is immutable without alteration or corruption change or shadow of change Jer. 23.28 5. He is unmeasurable without circumscription of place without increase or decrease within and without every place 1 Kin. 8.27 Mathe. Of what use are these to us Phila. 1. If God be purely simple then we know thereby that God is but one and full of all perfection that he is true and sincere in his promises nor can deceive any from which consideration ariseth the certainty of our salvation It teacheth us also to avoid hypocrifie and embrace sincerity onenesse and singlenesse of heart and soule and to strive to be like God only without mixture of sin in our affections 2. If he be infinite then to admire his greatnesse and his goodnesse his love and his mercy and to love him infinitely for it By his eternity I have assurance of an election before the world and everlasting life after it in him who hath neither beginning nor end His immutability cals to us for unchangeablenesse in our faith hope and charity by any crosses or afflictions which are all sent from God that is immutable in his love and promises So his immensity and ubiquity ought to confirm us in his providence because he is a God not only neer but a God also afarre off and to avoid sin because we are alwaies in his sight especially hypocrisie because he is within us as wel as without us and also to fly superstitious worshipping of Saints or Angels since he himselfe is neer to all that call upon him Mathe. Which are his incommunicable attributes Phila. Those whose shadowes we find in our selves as life wisedome will and power which are to be conceived in God absolutely abstractively and essentially as that he is life it selfe wisedome freedome and power it selfe not as they are in us finitely imperfectly and mutably but they are spoke of God for our capacity sake without which terms we can understand nothing of God Mathe. Why what do we know of God hereby Phila. 1. By life we understand Gods most simple and infinite activity by which he doth please to act himselfe and all things else And this argueth him to differ transcendently from all fained gods and creatures which have their life only by his communication of life to them yet not as the eternall Son who hath life from the Father by immanency in him and by emanation from him but by participation John 5.26 John 1.4 not of himselfe but of some vertue from himselfe Therefore as God the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given the Sonne to have life in himselfe and this life is the light of men and through the energie of the spirit quickneth all things that hath life For as God made the Sun to be the center of light naturall so he hath ordained Christ to be the center of life naturall in the creation and also the center of spirituall life in regeneration by which we come to be partakers of the divine nature and so finally of life eternally 2. By his wisdome we understand and is signified unto us that God knoweth and understandeth all things infinitely and most simply plainly and distinctly at once not successively or discoursively and therefore praescience and foreknowledge and remembrance is improperly attributed to God saving for our understanding This attribute teacheth us that all wisedome in the creature comes from God Jam. not to feare any troubles in the world raised by Satan or wicked men but resolve to endure with patience because they are permitted by the wise God for ends best known to himselfe for he knowes of them sees and smiles at the madnesse of men who like foolish children desire of their fathers knives and daggers which having got they wound others and themselves worst 3. By Gods wil is signified Gods infinite free approbation or disallowance of what he wisely knoweth to be approved or disallowed so that he neither begins to will what once he would not nor can be hindred to do what he will Now this will hath divers terms in Scripture according to the divers objects of it As 1. Truth because he willeth constantly what he willeth Rom. 3.4 So goodnesse because he is willing and propense to do good to his creature So Love because he is willing to approve what is good and to be well pleased with it So hatred because he is not willing to allow evill but is most willing to punish it because he doth detest it So his justice because
he is infinitely willing to do right as to reward the good and punish the evill So his mercy because he is infinitely willing and ready to pitty the miserable Jer. 33.11 So his wrath because he is inclinable in his will to punish sinners So his purity sheweth his will is bent to love holinesse but to hate all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit 4. His power sheweth that he is infinitely endowed with efficacious faculty to do whatsoever he will for there is no limit to his power but his will Therefore we cannot doubt of his promise or despaire in adversity Psal since his will is to help and his power followeth his will Mathe. How may we consider of God before the world in which he revealed himselfe to man Phila. God before the world lay hid both in his essence and subsistence yet being a Trinity coessentiall in Unity with afflux but determined in time to shew himselfe to be Unity in Trinity by emanation and by energeticall operations in nature grace and glory the Father appearing as the fountain of nature the Son as the fountain of grace and the Holy Ghost of glory both in giving the earnest of it and then working us to the consummation of it so that God is to be considered absolutely in essence and unity relatively in subsistence and coessentiality In consideration of which subsistency I conceive that the world by these divine persons was contrived the being preserving and translating of nature which nature consisted of intellectuall creatures as Angels and of rationall creatures as men and of bruits as the sensitive of vegetatives as plants and of other entities and realities that have neither of the former faculties Now those things that wanted those faculties of Will and Understanding they needed nothing but his providence to preserve them in being or to change them as they waxed old But as he determined to make natures intellectuall and rationall consisting of will and understanding so he determined that either he must be made absolute to stand by their own innate power which none can do but the Creator or else they must be forcibly supported by his power to stand against the naturall liberty of their will and this had been to stand whether they would or no which had not been an estate competible to an intellectuall rationall and voluntary service requisite to such a creature Therefore the most wise God intended before the world to make Angels and men Bern. Non in tuto sed in cauto not in a secure but cautionary estate not in absolute stedfast glory but in designation to it i. conditionally they kept their created estate but foreseeing that this cautionary estate must necessarily depend upon the freewill of that creature and that freewill would sway them to depend on themselves or somewhat else beside the Creator for happinesse he consults how some of them at least might be saved to glorifie him and be glorified of him This consultation was concluded by the eternall Son of God by an eternall covenant with the Father 1 Pet. 1.20 that those intellectuall and rationall creatures which shall depend upon his grace and favour shall be preserved in their estates as they were created or else redeemed if they fall from it This stipulation is accepted of the Father and he is set as the first born of every creature Colos 1.15 not that he was first created himselfe as Arrius thought but set so in regard of excellence of priority by eternall generation Colos 1.16 and of superiority the whole family of heaven and earth depending upon him for creation and the creature intellectuall and rationall for adoption So Rom. 8.29 he is called the first born among many brethren Now the Covenant being made and the whole family of heaven being created by him and for him he is first proposed to the Angels for their worship and dependency Lucifer and his complices and faction Heb. 1.6 liked independency better and chose rather to stand by their own created perfection From whence arose the battell of Michael and his Angels Revel against the Dragon and his Angels which St John saw had been and would be to the end of the world in a mysticall sense and that in time he should be cast out of the heaven of the Church as he was once out of the heaven of the blessed The other Angels stood by depending on favour and grace and doing to him as to their chiefe Lord sute and service and these are called the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 because God in his Son elected them to be conserved by him These Angels are at his disposition and therefore are said to be sent forth as ministring spirits to the heirs of salvation Heb. 1.24 Mathe. Whether are all Angels of one and the same degree Phila. No for they have divers names given them Col. 1.16 thrones dominions principalities and powers So Angels and Archangels Cherubins and Seraphins which argueth divers degrees or offices Trithem Cor. Agrip. Some learned men have written that God hath committed the ordering of the world to seven chiefe Angels especially as he hath subjected natural bodies to the seven planets in chiefe Indeed we read of such in Scripture Dan. 10. Luke 1. as Michael and Gabriel who saluted the blessed Virgin Mary And St John in Rev. 1. wisheth the Church welfare and peace from the seven spirits before Gods throne which doth not lead us to worship them but only that we may wish health to the Church from God Drus Beza Not. in N. T. and all the instruments he useth to that purpose Mathe. What determined God of man before the world Phila. Surely as the Son of God did stipulate with the Father to be the conservator of Angels so also that he would redeem mankind if he fel. This was the mystery hid from ages Col. 1.26 and Rom. 16.25 from the beginning of the world performed toward the end of the world when Christ in due time died for the ungodly which St Paul tels Titus was the hope of eternal life Tit. 1.2 which God who cannot lie hath promised before the world began If you ask to whom God could then promise it I say it was promised reciprocally of the Father to the Son by acceptation of the Sons offer of himselfe to satisfie for those that were elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.1 Mathe. What use may we make of this knowledge Phila. To labor to know God who knew us before we were and gave us so full a perfection in Adam as a creature was capable of and foreseeing that we being left in the hands of our own will we would chuse our own way yet he before the world by an eternall covenant with his blessed Son in his bosome ordained a means to save us by a full and plenteous redemption that so if we could not be happy by obeying yet we might by
participation of his Image but gives himself both to us and for us in nature to us in death for us Then consider Gods wisdome in contriving a way to save mankind who by sin against God was lost and coming so in debt to God none ought to pay it but man that had offended and yet none could pay such an infinite debt but God Upon this the attributes of God seem at variance His wisedome would save him his mercy would damn him His wisedome moderates and finds a way whereby what man could not pay in nature he might in person For God assumes manhood in the unity of the person and so satisfieth himselfe upon which the attributes are reconciled Psal 85.10 mercy and truth met righteousness and peace kissed each other For the offence which was infinite in regard of the object God was satisfied by the infinitenesse of the subjected surety Christ Again this union teacheth us in practice to be like him in our selves and to one another In our selves to partake of him that hath stooped so low to partake of us If he of our properties then we should desire much more to partake of his graces So we should desire to be like him one towards another not pleasing our selves but rather our neighbours for their good to edification Rom. 15.1 2. that the same mind may be in us which was also in Christ Phil. 2.4 5. From this union we may receive also much comfort As that our nature is taken into the society of God in Trinity by which our nature is not only highly honoured but comforted in all distresses because he took our whole nature with all our infirmities sin only excepted and therefore as he can help us because he is God so he will because he is man and so one of us So it will encourage us to pray and to made our wants known unto God who certainly will deny us nothing fit for us because Christ in our nature pleads for us yea how can we despair of glory since he became the Son of man that we may be the sons of God Mathe. I conceive then that this Conception of Christ by the holy Ghost was a production of humane nature from the blessed Virgin Mary and uniting of it to the second person assuming it But had she no part in this conception Phila. Yes but her part was more spirituall then naturall For she first received the blessed message by the ear from the good Angell Gabriel as a counterpoison to the first temptation that Eve received from the devill 2. She conceived it in her heart to be the blessed will of God by faith 3. She resolved to be obedient to it though she knew not how it could be 4. She contributed of her naturall substance to that divine and effectuall operation of the holy Ghost by whose power she was overshadowed and that part of her substance conveyed to the vessell of conception in regard whereof Christ was called the fruit of her womb Luke 1.42 So that as Adam was asleep while Eve was formed so blessed Mary was as it were overclouded while the humane nature of Christ was by the Holy Ghost united to and assumed by the Son of God Mathe. It is hard to conceive this point 1. In regard of the manner how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost 2. In regard of what she conceived 3. In regard of Christ conceived whether according to the divine essence Phila. Therefore you are to understand and beleeve that in regard of the matter conceived it was Christ man but in regard of the person conceived it was the second person in Trinity the Son of God Luke 1.35 whom Isa calleth Immanuel not that the blessed Virgin gave the divine nature to Christ though she was a mean of uniting the two natures but the Son of God received the humane nature in her womb 2. In regard of the manner how by the holy Ghost it is not utterable farther then the production of the substance of humane nature from her and uniting of both natures in one person i. Christ which he did not as a father though as a divine agent For he did it not materially by giving any thing out of himselfe but effectually according to divine appointment 3. In regard of Christ conceived Bern. whether according to the divine essence It is true that every person in the Trinity hath the whole divine essence but in a severall manner of subsisting For the first person hath it as the Father the second as the Son Now Christ is said to take the humane not according to the essentiality of the Godhead but the personality and subsistence of the Son or second person or else he could not be a mediator between two because the essence of God is but one Gal. 3.20 Mathe. Whether did not sin cleave to this conception for it is said he was made sin for us Phila. He was made sin for us 1. By imputation because our sins were charged upon him 2. Because he was made a sacrifice for sin so some sacrifices were called sin offerings Lev. 4.34 but he had no sin in his nature for he was not in Adam in respect of propagation by which originall sin is conveyed but in respect only of humane substance so that though he was from him as others are yet not by him as others are for he came into the world by this wonderfull conception by the Holy Ghost and a woman without man Which woman though a sinner in her personall subsistence as comming by generation from Adam yet her meer naturall substance simply considered out of that subsistence cannot be called sinfull which substance was only taken of Christ into his person and the accident of sin left cleaving to her own person of which Christ cleareth her as being her Redeemer And this appears more plain if we consider that neither actions nor affections though called sinfull as they proceed from the person of man yet are not sinfull in themselves much lesse is meer substance so neither can a part of mans substance be sinfull if not the totall but his person only And thus Christs nature stands cleer of being infected with originall sin in it self though separated and consecrated by the Holy Ghost for Christs assumption thereof So that the old Hereticks the Manicheans and Marcionites had they rightly apprehended this conception might have avoided the error of thinking that Christ had only an incorporeall body from which only passed through the blessed Virgins body thereby to avoid the stain of originall sin Nor Apollinaris need not have denied Christ an humane soule and feign the Deity to supply that place to avoid the same taint Nor the Papists need not say to avoid Christs sinfull conception that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin for then her parents must be so too and theirs also and so up to Adam which is absurd to think Nor need some think that Christs humane nature by this conception was
sanctified or cleansed from originall sin for if it had ever been sinfull it could not have been sanctified from sin without the blood of the covenant Heb. 9.22 and Ephe. 1.7 and so there must have been another Mediator beside himselfe which St Paul denieth 1 Tim. 2.5 there is but one Mediator even the Man Christ Jesus the High Priest who is in himselfe holy innocent and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. Mathe. But if Christs humane nature came from the blessed Virgin and from Adam he could not avoid the taint of sin no more then he could death Phila. We are to consider as I said before that sin cleaving not to substance alone but to persons and considering that he took no person of the Virgin but her substance which was immediately united to his Godhead in subsistence and only so made a person it will follow that though his substance yet his person was never in Adam and so never sinned in Adam and so never tainted with originall sin For as it could not be propagated by his manner of conception so neither could it be justly imputed to his person which was both God and man And for his death it was voluntary Death did not by his own power prevaile over him but he laid it down John 10.17 18. Nor did death fall upon him as a sinner but as the surety for sin Mathe. What effect worketh this conception for us Phila. 1. It hides the impurity of our conceptions from Gods anger because this satisfieth Gods justice for originall sin for the righteousnesse hereof is imputed to us and by it is constituted holinesse of nature for in this he was qualified with all habits of grace and vertue which by his spirit he powreth also upon us For this purpose he took an humane body because sacrifice and offerings would not satisfie Psal 40. and Heb. 10.5 2. This conception worketh a spirituall life and conception in us For our nature in him being conceived and quickned by the holy Ghost in the womb from thence proceeds the power of our regeneration from him that is the originall of spirituall life in our nature for the spirit that formed him in the womb doth beget us again to live in him and so doth justifie us before God from the evils that cleave to our nature Mathe. He is oftentimes called in the Gospell even by himselfe too the Son of man how then shall I conceive his conception to be more then humane Phila. His Conception and Birth are full of wonder yet may be discerned with distinction for it seems a new creation For as he was the Son of God no woman was his mother and as he was man he had no father He is called the Son of man because he took our nature of the blessed Virgins substance Yet he is called the Son of the most High Mat. 1. because he is the second person in the holy Trinity Which title is given to the nature assumed because it had no subsistence but in his person that was the naturall Son of God In which regard the blessed Virgin is called the mother of God not of his deity but of this union of God and man yet his person was not circumscribed in her womb though the humane nature was But as his body is heaven locally and is in the Word substantially and in the Sacrament mystically and in the heart of a beleever spiritually so it was in her body naturally Mathe. How am I to conceive of the birth of Christ Phila. He was born three waies of his Father of his Mother and in the mind of man Of his Father eternally of his Mother temporally and in mans mind spiritually For three things have relation to his birth Deity Flesh and Spirit Of his Father he is born God for ever of his Mother flesh once and in mans mind he is born Spirit figuratively often In respect of his divine nature he had a Father without a Mother in regard of the humane nature he had a Mother without a Father in respect of his spirituall nativity he hath both Father and Mother i. they that do his will Paul saith God was manifested in flesh 1. From the bosome of his Father in whom he was concealed 2. From the shadowes of the Law in which he was prefigured 3. From the womb of his Mother in which he was covered This was the greatest and the most gracious work considered in all the consequences of it as his death and resurrection which without this could not have been that ever God wrought who for these humiliations gave him a name above all names Jesus the Saviour Phil. 2.9 Which name although others had as well as he in the Old Testament yet they were but figures of him yea the name Jehovah signifieth but essence i. God as he is the author of being but Jesus signifieth God our well being a Saviour then which there is no other name of salvation given Act. It was the name of the eternall Word incarnate it contains in it the whole oeconomy of the work of redemption wherein the attributes of God are united wisedome justice peace Psal 85. mercy and truth This was well called his great work of a woman compassing a man And wonderfull great it was in effect For in the Creation God made man in his image and so earth was honoured but in Christs birth God made himselfe in our image and so heaven was debased In creation God made all without resistance he spake but the word and they were made Heb. 12. But in redemption he suffered contradictions of sinners against himselfe In this work he did both speak work and suffer speak graciously work wonderfully suffer unworthily In creation the Word made flesh but in Jesus our Redeemer John 1.3 the Word was made flesh John 1.14 In the creation God took man out of the earth and placed him in Paradise In the redemption he took man out of hell and placed him in heaven through Jesus the Saviour Mathe. What were the effects of his birth Phila. Many For among the heathen voices were heard saying that the great God was about to be born At Rome a woman was seen about the Sun having a child in her arms And the Sybil told Augustus the Emperour that that same child was greater then he and bade him to adore him He would never after be called Lord. The Temple of peace fell down at his birth because he brought better peace to the world The Oracles were all struck dumb by the birth of this eternall Word Jupiters Oak in Dodona was shaken the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter The Tripode in Delphis Nazi in Julian annotat Nomi the Laurell and fountain of Daphne and the ramfaced image of Jupiter Ammon could utter nothing so that one effect of Christs birth was Gods glory and Satans confusion But further another effect was the good mans peace and salvation For he was born to
bring both to passe 1. His salvation being he was born to be a King a Priest and a Prophet by which three offices he could effect all that belonged to mans salvation To deliver as a King to instruct him as a Prophet Acts 4.12 to purge him from sin as a Priest 2. To bring him to peace with God above him and to peace about him with Angels and men to peace within him in his conscience and to peace belowe him for hell cannot hurt him though it would all which may be gathered from the Angels song Luke 2.14 But to the wicked it brought judgement even to make them stumble and fall Luke 2.34 because he brought light and men loved darknesse rather John 3.19 Beside nothing about his birth but had some effectuall signification for he was born at Bethelem the house of bread to shew that in effect he should be the bread of the houshold of faith So born in the fulnesse of time when the Church was at the lowest ebbe and no hope on earth was left for it to effect faith in the Church that God could help when all help in man was past So he was born poor and thereby not only made us rich but also taught us with him to trample upon world pomp and glory since by lying in the manger he procured us an heavenly mansion And the very publishing of his birth unto the wisemen and simple shepherds to Gentiles and Jewes to Anna as well as Simeon shewed that his birth should take effect on Jewes and Greeks learned and simple male and female and all should be one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.21 Mathe. I pray tell me how could Christ suffer being God and man 2. Why he so suffered and what is the effect of it upon us Phila. For the first Quere how Christ suffered We understand that though the sufferings of Christ belonged to his whole person and so is attributed to both natures yet only to the humane nature sensibly and to the divine relatively For the divine nature cannot suffer being immutable nor die being immortall yet as his person consisteth of both natures his sufferings belonged to both For the word divine was not severed from the humane nature neither in his birth nor suffering Nor was the nature inviolable hurt by the sufferings of the nature passible no more then the beams of the Sun that shineth on a tree is wounded by the Axe that felleth the tree And thus we are to understand those phrases Acts 20.28 that God redeemed the Church with his blood and 2 Cor. 2.8 the Lord of Glory was crucified 2. The reason why he suffered for us as it was not casuall but by divine providence the drops of his cup were measured by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God And this was so 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled Luke 24.26 27. and God found true of his word just in all his waies not sparing his own Son being but surety for us how can wilfull sinners expect to escape Gods wrath 2. That he might revive the pattern of patience almost decaied and lost and leave it to us to imitate 1 Pet. 2.21 That we might be consecrated by affliction as he the Prince of our salvation was 3. That he might deliver us from the bondage of the ceremoniall Law Gal. 3.13 Also that he being made sensible of our sufferings might become a more mercifull High Priest to us and more apt to succour us in temptations Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 Beside he suffered that he might reconcile us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 by being made an expiation for us and condemning our sins in his flesh Isa 53.5 and Rom. 8.3 For if one died for all then are all dead to that fault for which he died so that our disease of sin is cured by the mediation of his passion and by the speciall vertue of his Ordinances operating in us by the Holy Ghosts application of Christs sufferings to us Lastly that we might being sprinkled with his blood enter within the vaile namely into heaven the Holy of Holies from whence for sin we are shut out as well as out of paradise Mathe. What use may we make of this Phila. 1. It teacheth that those sufferings have relation only to the Son not to the Father nor to the Holy Ghost 2. To wonder at this gracious work that the Son of God should be condemned by the sons of men that righteousnesse it selfe should be condemned by the unrighteous that the God of order should be corrected with rods that the nower of God should be weakned salvation wounded and life killed Also to think on the hatefulnesse of sin that brings God to suffering and to be pitifully affected with the sufferings of such an eminent person yet to wax strong in faith because such an one hath made satisfaction 1 John 3.7 and to be ready to suffer from wicked men because he did so Heb. 12.3 and 1 Pet. 2.18 And farther to distinguish rightly for whom he suffered It was not for all but for all the elect therefore Mat. 26.28 it is said his blood is shed for many for Christ will not know some Mat. 7.23 Nor did he pray for the world but for those that God gave him out of the world So he gave his life for his sheep not for goats nor swine for his righteousnesse extends to all them that beleeve Rom. 3.22 As those were only cured that looked on the brazen serpent and turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 and are ruled by the voice of this Shepherd and are conformed to his Image by afflictions and that dedicate their lives and services to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 All which should make us 1. To be affected with his love which was never paralleld The just died for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 whereas few or none will die for a just man Rom. 5.7 but he for us which were ungodly yea his enemies Rom. 5.10 and never sought to him for any kindnesse much lesse thought of such a kindnesse that Piety would be scourged for impious man Wisdome derided for fools â— Truth denied for lyars Justice condemned for unjust men Life to die for dead men 2. To be ready to suffec for him or for one another 1 John 3.16 And 3. To plead his sufferings before God against our sins and satans accusations and not to feare but that seeing such a price is paid for our reconcilement that God will save us being reconciled Rom. 5.10 And 4. Being this sweet Passeover is sacrificed for us to purge away the old leaven of malice and wickednesse and all corruptions and become a new lump full of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Mathe. How can the suffering of one satisfie for the sins of many and how is it just in God to punish the righteous for the unrighteous Phila. His suffering is a sufficient satisfaction for all because of the dignity of his person God and Man which made
expounders thereof The next sign is the reviving and publishing the everlasting Gospell and profession of the reformed religion from superstition prophecied Rev. 14.6 which hath been set on foot by the Protestant religion in these latter times The next sign will be the fall of spirituall Babylon which in all likelihood is Rome by the martiall power of Princes Rev. 17.16 17. The other signs will be a generall corruption of manners Then the calling of the Jewes great alterations in heaven and earth but how is not set down But at last shall be seen the sign of the Son of man comming in the clouds Mat. 24.30 but what kind of sign this will be is uncertain Some say it will be the appearance of the Crosse and instruments of Christs passion Lyranus as the spear and nailes that pierced him and the other altogether Others say that a sword shall suddenly fall from heaven to signifie to all true beleevers Lactant. l. 7. c. 1 that the Captain of the Lords host is comming Others think that Christ shall appear with his Crosse carried before him Damianus de moribus Aethiop and a sword in his hand as ready to be revenged on the ungodly that have crucified him and of the enemies to his Crosse Others think the sign of the Crosse shall be carried before him in the clouds Chrysost in Mat. Muscul in Mat. as a testimony that it was he that was crucified or that it shall be the fignall of his triumph against the devill and the world whom by it he hath conquered Col. 2.15 Others say that this signe shall be the body of Christ appearing with all the marks of his wounds about him Dr wilket Calv. Pet. Mart. but whether they shall appear in his glorified body I know not Others say that this sign of the Son of Man shall be his celestiall power and glory with all the eies of the world to him and this is likely to be the sign even himselfe in glorious appearance as Luke 21.27 and Mark 13.19 who names no sign but himselfe Mathe. But how shall men be tried Phila. No doubt but by sufficient law and evidence They that have sinned without law shall perish without law Aug. in Rom. i. those that have sinned by nature without the law moral shall be judged by the law of nature with the law morall and those that sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Beside there shall be sufficient evidence to judge them by for we read of books that shall be opened Rev. 20.12 As first the book of nature and herein the creatures that we have abused shall testifie against us Jer. 17.1 Next the book of Scripture which we have disobeied Luke 12.48 Thirdly the book of Conscience which as a thousand witnesses shall convince us when it shall be awakened which is now asleep Then the book of Gods remembrance for the comsort of good men Mal. 3.16 and the terror of the wicked when God himselfe shall be a swift witnesse against them Lastly the book of life full of the names of Gods children Phil. 4.3 and also Rev. 20.12 yea rather then faile the heavens and the earth shall declare our iniquity and stand up against us Job 20.27 Mathe. What shall be the last issue of this day of judgment Phila. The godly shall have the possession of 1 Thes 4.17 where they shall have First the vision of God which is the very life of the sonle as the Sun is of plants Secondly their own natures perfected 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3.18 their faces shall shine like the Sun their bodies active like spirits and shall have health without the least weaknesse their souls full of knowledge and their heart of perfect holinesse their company Angels and the spirits of just men Heb. 12.23 among whom shall be perfect love and amity Secondly the wicked shall be thrust into hell among the devils where they shall be deprived of the comfortable sight of God and heavenly glory excepting so much as Dives saw to the increase of his own griefe Also a worm of conscience shall ever be gnawing upon them by a remembrance of their sins with the unspeakable torments of fire unquenchable and the horrid presence of devils of which horrid troubles they shall never find ease nor end so that they shall loath the life they have and shall never find that death they desire And then shall follow the creation of new heavens and earth not in substance but in quality for as the old world was not annihilated by the deluge no more shall this by fire but they shall be melted and cast into a new mold as St Peter doth well expresse that though the inferiour heavens shall passe away with a noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth with the works there in shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Yet though all these things shall be dissolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. ver 11. and 12. and melted neverthelesse we look according to Gods promise for new heavens and earth wherein shall dwell righteousnesse In which also the creature shall have a restitution as appeareth Acts 3.21 and 8.23 from bondage to liberty i. from the bondage of corruption and mutation and the service of wicked mens humors not that all that ever was shall be so but every sort of creature that are then alive at the last day which God made in their severall kinds at the creation shall be restored and for ought I know reserved at the pleasure of God as the examples of his wisedome and power in the creation And last of all then shall Christ deliver up his Kingdome to God the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 not his glorious and eternall estate which he ever did and must enjoy with the Father but his temporall government which was delivered to him with all power by the Father Luke 10.22 to rule in the Kingdome of grace by holy means and ordinances by which he having now subdued all enemies fulfilled all truth and delivered his elect from all sin and punishment and brought them to eternall happinesse he gives up this Kingdome to the Father to rule them in glory not excluding him lse but as the Father ruled by him in the Kingdome of grace so he now in and by the Father in the Kingdome of glory for ever Amen The end of the first Part. A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHEIES Part 2. Mathetes CHrist being thus plainly set forth in the Old Testament how came the Jewes not to beleeve upon him Phila. 1. By their own hardnesse of heart not beleeving the Prophets but also persecuting of them and refusing to hear them Jer. 6.17 2. By the just judgement of God who therefore laid a stumbling block before upon which the father and the sons fell together ver 21. And Christ became to them a stumbling and a rock
of Tiberius Eus l. 2. c. 13. This Magus taught men to worship images especially his own and his companion Helena Next to him was Menander Menander Epiph. cont haeres a Samaritan and a conjurer some think one of Simons disciples who taught that the world was made by Angels and that he was sent to save the world and to baptize The Apostle speaks contrary to him about Angels Col. 2.18 and also about baptisme Eph. 4.5 that there is but one Lord one faith one baptisme Next was one Ebion Ebion See Acts 15.6 First Council of Apost abolished circumcision who said Christ was only a man begotten of Joseph and Mary and that the observation of Moses Law was needfull to salvation This man and his followers condemned Paul as an Apostate from the Law who by his doctrine did establish the Law Rom. 3.21 They also rejected all the New Testament save the Gospell of St Matthew and yet that proves Christ not begotten by Joseph Mat. 1.18 23 25. So one Cerinthus pretended he received a revelation from Angels that after the resurrection Christ should have a Kingdome upon earth Cerinthus and that his subjects should eat drink marry contrary to Christs doctrine Matthew 22.30 In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the Angels Next sprung up the Nicolaitans Nicolaitans Acts 6. who by a mistake of Nicolas one of the seven Deacons to assoile himselfe from jealousie of his faire wife said that for his part he could be content any other should marry her upon which they held wives in common Clém. Alex. strom 3. which thing Christ saith he hated Rev. 2.6 15. these arose in the first hundred yeers after Christ There was also about the next hundred year after Christ In the second hundred yeers Carpocrates Epiph. cont haeres 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Eus l. 4. c. 7. divers others As 1. Carpocrates of whom came Gnosticks that professed strange hidden mysteries They worshipped gold and silver Images as they said of Jesus So of divers Philosophers these also forbad marriages and allowed fornication as the Pope doth also and by their unclean lives brought a great scandall upon Christians Valentinus set up a plurality of Gods masculine and feminine Valentinus which it is very like he borrowed from Poetry as Hesiod Hesi in theogon that writes of such a subject So one Marcus one of his schollers brings in a new form of baptisme Marcionites In the name of the unknown Father and in the name of the verity the mother of all things and in the name of him that descended on Christ These and all the Gnosticks followers of Carpocrates denied the resurrection of the body and said that salvation belonged only to the soul contrary to St Paul 1 Cor. 15. Cerdon and Marcion denied the same also Cerdon and Cerdon said there were two Gods one the author of good the other of evill They denied also the verity of Christs humane nature Aug. index and the truth of his sufferings Polycarpus called this Marcion the first born of the Devill He held a man might be baptized often It may be he thought himselfe to need it by reason of his whoredomes in which he lived for which his Father excommunicated him out of his Church at Pontus Apelles and Lucianus his schollers follow him but not in all his opinions but they said Christs body was not made of the substance Apelles or seed of the woman as God said Gen. 3.15 but of elements and after his resurrection was resolved into them again yet the Scripture saith he had flesh and bones when he appeared to his disciples and so was taken up Acts 1.9 Tatianus the author of Encratitae Tatianus who abstained from wine and flesh and all sensitives came next and condemned marriage Col. 2.1 Tim. 3.1 and St Pauls Epistles also for they confute their errors Montanus that perswaded women to leave their husbands Montanus Synods of Asia condemned him Eus l. 5. c. 3.14 17. to become Prophetesses He called himselfe the Holy Ghost as did also Macedonius after him and forbad second marriage contrary to Paul Rom. 7.3 Many other there were I only shall reck on the chiefe Some added cheese to their bread in the holy Supper as the Artotiritae In the third hundred yeers more weeds appeared Some denied the writings of St John as the Alogi Some met in stoves naked men and women called Adamiani Some denied Christs divinity as the Theodotiani Some magnified Melchisedeck above Christ Some would have no possessions but approved voluntary poverty and accounted marriage an unclean estate of life these were called Apostolici Some would not procreate children yet fornicate like Onan Gen. 38.9 10. these were Origeniani Some said Euseb l. 6. c. 33. if one denied Christ for fear of persecution and yet held the faith in their heart sinned nor yet Christ approveth it nor Luke 12.9 nor St Paul 2 Tim. 2.12 Novatus following Novatus con demned in the Councils at Rome Eus lib. 6. c. 41. So at Antioch So at Ancyra tom 1. Concil Sozom. l. 7. c. 12. was clean contrary for he held that a man doing so was never to be admitted into the Church upon what repentance soever contrary to Gods word Isa 1.18 He was excommunicated by Cornelius Bishop of Rome and Cyprian Bishop of Carthage but his heresie continued longer then any before Arrius coming in under a shew of zeale and holinesse and because they held as well as the true Catholicks the divinity of Christ and suffered for it under the Arrian persecution which ensued His followers were called Catharoi or Puritans Sabellius confessed one God Sabellius but denied three Persons So doth the Socinians in a manner also if they think that the Trinity is nothing but a distinct manner of apprehending the Godhead without personality This Heretick Sabellius was the disciple of one Noetus in the daies of the Emperour Gallus and in the year of Christ 257. and before him affirmed by Hermogenes and Prazeas but nursed up by Sabellius Ruffi l. 1. c. 29. which opinion confounds substance and subsistence together and so they understood that the Father suffered when the Son suffered for us because all the three terms of Father Son and Holy Ghost are by them given to one person and not only to one God and therefore they were called Patrispassiani father-sufferers In the year Nepotians 264. an Aegyptian Bishop Nepos in Galienus reigne raised the opinion which the Millenaries or Chiliasts hold now that the godly should rise from the dead before the wicked and should live with Christ So held Papias Bishop of Hierapolis in the first century of yeers on earth in all earthly pleasures as Cerinthus held before in the first hundred yeers after Christ Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria confuted Coracion who held this opinion in three daies disputations at
one Ardaeus a Syrian Then followed the Messalians called Euchitae because they thought the whole duty of man consisted in praiers not hearing by which St Paul tels us that faith is begotten by which praier must be offered up They were also called Enthusiasts because when they were transported they thought the spirit was infused into them Theo. l. 4. c. 7. so that they needed neither holy discipline for the body as fasting nor doctrine for the soule Apollinaris followed who denied Christ to have any humane soule but that his divinity supplied the place of it But then Christ was not perfect man Donatus Bishop of Numidia held that the Catholick was bounded among those of his society in Africa and that no baptisme was rightly administred but by them The wildest branch of this heresie was the Circumcilionists who would cast themselves down from clifts and rocks and into fire and water out of assurance that it was martyrdome and fruits of their faith Our Quakers are like them Aug. con Donat. Collyridiani worshipped the Virgin Mary and offered cakes to her Epiph. cont haeres as the Jewes did to the Queen of heaven and as the Papists do adore her as a mediatrix There were some also after these that said Joseph knew Mary after she had borne Christ because of the word in Mat. 1.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till which word signifieth never oftentimes As 1 Sam. 15.25 So Mat. 28.20 Samuel saw Saul no more till the day his death i. never So 1 Sam. 6.23 Michal had no child till the day of her death and all the Fathers generally hold she was a perpetual virgin and so have taken those words of the Apostles Creed born of the Virgin Mary as if of one that ever was a virgin Yea some of them have argued it from Ezek. 44.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of allegory that as the East gate of the Temple was to be shut up that no man might enter in nor go out there but the Prince So was the blessed Virgins body made the Temple of the Holy Ghost and her womb only for the ingresse and egresse of Messiah the Prince And though that some of the disciples were called Christs brethren as James and Joses Simon and Iude we know that those were so called in Scripture that were but Cozen germans and so these might be the sons of Iosephs brother or sisters or of Maries sister as Iames is said to be the son of Mary Cleophas Danaeus de heres fo 224. Epiph. de heres fol. 166. Or some might be the sons of Ioseph by a former wife if he were eighty yeers of age before he was contracted to Mary and so the more unlikely to know her after the flesh These hereticks were of the same mind with Nestorius and Helvidius who succeeded them But these were called from their opinion Antidicomarianitae After them sprang up the Seleucians that said that the Chaos of which God made the world was coeternall with God and that Angels created the souls of men Aug. and that Christ did not carry our nature up to heaven as it is said Acts 2.34 and cap. 3.23 Rom. 8.34 Ephes 1.20 but that he left his body in the body of the Sun These received not baptisme by water They denied the resurrection of the body and said only that was performed by succession of generation which it may be they borrowed partly from Plato and Pythagoras Himeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.18 Pelagius affirmed that men by nature were able to fulfill the law of God contrary to Rom. 8.7 And denied originall sin contrary to Psal 51.5 and that it came not by propagation but imitation of Adams sin and that children need not be baptized for remission of sin Aug. con Pela and that the holy men that confessed sin did it rather for example of humility then for any necessity or guiltinesse Nestorius followed who denied the personall union of the divine and humane nature of which the blessed Virgin was the medium or mean and in that respect only called the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother of God because she brought forth him that was by union both God and man inseparably and Nestorius would have her called only the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother of Christ and therefore condemned by the first Councill of Ephesus and banished by Theodosius the Emperour and his tongue rotted in his mouth Eutyches confounded two natures in Christ humane and divine by saying that the divine swallowed up the humane and so Christ had only the divine nature He was condemned by the generall Councill of Chalcedon where sate 630. Fathers and the Emperour Martianus and it was decreed That the natures of Christ though united yet were not confounded Next followed those that worshipped the crosse and divers images which filth the Church of Rome hath licked up together with the worship of reliques One Godescalcus a Dutch man said that by predestination men were forced both to do good and evill About 1100. yeers after Christ a kind of monomachy arose between the Greek and Latine Churches about the bread in the Sacrament whether it should be leavened or unleavened The Greek Church was called Fermentarii the Latine Azymitae the first did leven it the other did not After this one Petrus Abolandus a French man said the Holy Ghost was the soul of the world and not of the substance of God the Father Almericus also of France said that God was the essence of all creatures and that they all should be converted into God again The Paleneni about Tholouze in France affirmed that a man might attain to such perfection in this world that he might be void of all sin and that such were not subject to any Civill or Ecclesiastick power that they had no need of praier and fasting or any exercise whereby grace may be increased These laid some grounds upon which the Anabaptists build now Others under a colour of Religion and charity made all things common and women also These surely began the Family of Love About 1600. years after Christ sprang up the Anabaprists but before I come to speak of them and others following from their time I must tell you according to your question how and when the Protestants came in and how persecuted by Papists and opposed by hereticks and schismaticks Mathe. I thank you for your remembrance and entreat you so to do Phila. You must take notice that the Protestant Religion hath been maintained in her doctrine from the beginning of the Primitive times First by the Bishops of Rome themselves for the first 300. years after Christ and many of them were Confessors and Martyrs though their pride began to appear 100. years before in Zepherinus and other Bishops following him as hath been declared before But after that they were grown rich and potent by the favour of Emperours and got
entrance into the Church nor are they so called holy because they are legitimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or born in wedlock for so an heathens child may be as holy as they but holy as heirs to the covenant the vertue whereof is so powerfull that it can rather entitle a wife by an husband or a husband by a wife unto it and therefore much more the child than contrary Mathe. Hath baptisme of Infants been from the Primitive Church or not Phila. I conceive it hath because no man can tell when it began but we find by all ancient writers and Churches Aug. l. 4. â—â— bapt infant and l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. that it was practised in their times and things of that nature were alwaies held to be of some decree of a generall Councill or else of Apostolicall tradition Some would bear you in hand that Pope Innocent the third brought it in first who lived about the year 1213. which is about 356 years since whereas we read of childrens baptisme 1000 years before that For Origen that lived about 226 years after Christ alledging Ps 51.5 Orig. in Com. in Ep. ad Rom. cap. 6. In sin my mother conceived me saith that for this cause the Church received a tradition from the Apostles to baptize children Many of the ancient Fathers as Austin and Jerome mention this custome of the Church against those that denied originall sin 1 Cor. 15. as St Paul instanced in the baptizing of the dead to refute those that denied the resurrection So St Cyprian about the year 250. affirmed that children might be baptized before the eighth day And the Milevitane Councill decreed such to be accursed that denied children baptisme especially if sick or in danger of death And Irenaeus before this the Bishop of Lyons Iren. cont Her cap. 39. the Martyr and Disciple to Polycarpus who was scholler to Saint John wrote that children as well as elder people were saved by their new birth in Christ viz. by water and the spirit And from those ancient times look upon all Christian Churches confessions and practice from the beginning you will find it alwaies in use As 1. Among the Greeks who do annually excommunicate the Pope to whom St Paul was preacher 2. The Russian punisheth all with death that refuse or deride it or neglect it and yet call the Pope an Heretick which I think they would not do if they had received baptisme from him To these St Andrew preached So the Abyssins and Aethiopians who received the Gospell by St Mathew So the Armenian Christians to whom St Bartholomew brought the blessed tidings of the Gospell So the captive Christians in Aegypt who received the Gospell by St Mark and yet have no communion with the Pope So the Indians to whom St Thomas preached So did the Brittains who were taught by Simon Zelotes with other sorts of them and it being so generally received one may wonder with Erasmus what devill entred them people that forbad baptizing children which had been evidently done above 1400 years Beside as we find it done long before the Popes corruptions came in so we find it still used by those that are reformed from Popish doctrines even the Protestant reformed Churches as you may see in all their Confessions and Articles of Religion as well in England as France and Germany as the French Galatius de exord Anab. l. 8. Helvetian Bohemian Dutch Saxon and Augustan Confessions all which States and Churches have punished with death those of contrary opinion that either have denied baptisme to children or rebaptized any Cod. Just lib. 1. tit 7. Justinian the Emperour made it a law At Vienna they drowned them England hath burned them Mathe. But they say that they rebaptize because they were not rightly baptized before And they were not rightly baptized because they dipped them not Phila. This is indeed one of their tenets but surely to baptize with though not in water in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be denied to be true baptisme the washing sprinkling or drenching is but the circumstance only and therefore one may fully and rightly be baptized without dipping as I have already shewed you from the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath divers significations and signifieth as well to die colours and wash as well as to dip And whereas they urge the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in alwaies to signifie in because it is said John baptized in Jordan yet they may find it in the third of Matthew to signifie with where St John saith of Christ he shall baptize you with the Holy-Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with fire Beside they consider not the place where they were so baptized in the Primitive times which was an hot Country where it was ordinary for people to wash themselves often in a day nor the time of the first age of the Church when they had hardly Churches or Font nor consider they the multitude of converts which could not be well baptized but in places of much water as Aenon was where John baptized If we should use the same way now and in these cold Countries it might be the death of many tender creatures I know they say our children may stay while they be older Christ was not baptized till he was thirty years of age But they consider not that Christ could not be baptized sooner for John was but new sent with commission from God to baptize nor they perceive not that by deferring it that they indanger the childs salvation it wanting the means appointed whereby they should be brought to Christ their Saviour Mathe. Were not these tenets held by some in the Church before Anabaptisme sprung up in Germany Phila. Yes for about the year 250. after Christ some taught that all that were baptized by Hereticks ought to be rebaptized by the Orthodox Ministers of the Church and their reason was because Hereticks themselves had no part in the Church and therefore could give no baptisme Cyprian Of this opinion was St Cyprian a Bishop of Carthage in Africa martyred in the daies of the Emperour Valerian who beheaded him Against him Stephanus Bishop of Rome opposed himselfe by calling a Synod at Rome against it which concluded that according to the tradition and custome of the Church hereticks and those that were baptized by them might be received into the Church upon submission and recantation of their errors without rebaptizing And I beleeve this opinion of Cyprian hath been the ground of the Anabaptists rebaptization who will not recant it 1. Concil Nic. Can. â— 19 though St Cyprian is reported to have recanted his which they might wel do if they would distinguish of hereticks for some hereticks destroied the foundation of faith as the Samosatenians who said that Christ was not of the substance of the Father but called the Son of God only for his vertues
God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world
which the ungodly have no propriety of estate By which doctrin the people are filled with mad zeale and coveting of rich mens estates and marking them out for destruction by fire and sword God keep his people from becomming their prey Mathe. What are our Antisabbatarians Phila. Such as are against the keeping of any Sabbath whether the Jewish Sabbath or the Christians Lords day Of which opinion was one Hetherington a Box-maker who said not only the Jewes Sabbath day was of no force since Christs time and the Apostles but also taught that every day was a Sabbath as much as the Lords day But he recanted his error at Pauls Crosse God be praised And good reason for though the Jewish Sabbath being but a shadow of Christ be now abolished and we are not to be judged by the keeping of it Col. 2.16 yet the morality of that Commandement is observed in keeping still one day in seven holy to the Lord for delivering us from the bondage of sin by Christs resurrection as the Jewes kept theirs in remembrance of their freedome from the bondage of Egypt Deut. 5.15 And thus the Law by the Christians observing the first day of the week Rom. 3.31 is not made void but established It is true that there is no precept for the changing of it because there was no need for the morall intent of the Law commanded only that one day in seven be kept so that if the Patriarchs before the Law was given by Moses kept a seventh day in respect to the creation and the Jewes kept a seventh in respect of their liberation from Egypt and the Christians keep their seventh day in relation to Christs redemption that Commandement is fulfilled so far as it requireth an holy seventh day And though we have no precept for changing yet we have their practice and examples who had the mind of Christ For the first day of the week called since Christs time the Lords day was first kept at Jerusalem Acts 2.1 upon which the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles Then again at Troas Acts 20.7 in which verse is declared that it was their usuall meeting day And the holy Fathers have alwaies observed it Epist ad Magnes and urged the keeping of it as Ignatius scholler to St Iohn the Apostle his auditor about thirty years the second Bishop of Antioch and a Martyr but 107 years after Christ in the raign of the Emperour Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith let every one that loveth Christ instead of the Sabbath celebrate the Lords day And Basil saith that when all daies prescribed by the Law are abolished yet there remains one great day of the Lord which shall never be abolished Of this opinion for the seventh day Jewish Sabbath and against the celebration of the Lords day Traskilus was one Iohn Trask and Theophilus Brabourn but both recanted their errors for which glory be to God Trask preached against eating of blood and unclean creatures upon mistake of the injunction of the first Councill of the Apostles to the Gentiles Acts 15.2 where blood and things strangled do not relate to such things prepared for meat but to the barbarous or canibal eating of things halfe alive and halfe dead in their blood or eating any thing that was torn from a living creature therefore Paul saith that every creature of God is good Mathe. What are your Soule-sleepers Phila. Those that revive that Sect in the time of Origen Soul-sleepers in the third centurie of years after Christ who held the soule did sleep in the dust with the body after death because God said to Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return not perceiving this was spoken of the body only not of the soule which came not from thence Gen. 2.7 And also because Solomon saith Eccle. 3.10 that man and beast all return to one place yet they might have considered that he saith also the spirit of a beast goeth downward and the spirit of a man goeth upward even to God that gave it Eccles 12. and that the soules of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord Wisd 3. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die but they are in peace Mathe. What are your seekers Phila. Surely people that have so long contended about truth and the Church Seekers that they have quite lost it and therefore they say there is no true Church nor Minister nor Ordinances yet they expect and seek with Loe here it is and then there it is and catch at every thing but hold nothing like one that leaps out of a boat into the water and then catches at every rush and flag to save himself Mathe. What are your Divorcers Phila. Another sprout of the Anabaptists Divorcers who like the Jewes would put away their wives for a small cause under pretence that he finds her not an help meet for him But this is contrary to Christs rule Mat. 5.31 and c. 19.9 that no man should put away his wife but for whoredome lest he cause her to commit adulterie or another man to marry her and so he commit adultery Mathe. Is there any more such weeds in the Churches field Phila. Yes surely for I hear of some that account the Scriptures a thing of nought both the holy books of the Old and New Testament such were put to death under Moses Law Heb. 5.28 But we live in greater times of liberty I may say Libertinisme The Lord hold the reine which Magistrates let too slack lest these unruly creatures hurry both the Church chariot and the horsemen of Israel to destruction Mathe. I pray what are the Shakers Phila. A kind of people that pretend to have the spirit by fits But what spirit it is that casts them into these seeming or swooning extasies I know not but I doubt much whether it be the spirit of God or of Satan or of dissembling I have read of the spirit of Apollo that used such feats upon the bodies of those whom he had possessed namely of shaking and quaking which being past they have spoken some words which have been received for his Oracles So I have read and heard of Nuns pretended to be possessed by evill spirits beyond the seas which the Friers can expell at their pleasure But I never knew nor ever read in any credible author that the spirit of God doth or hath entred the body of men in any such manner but hath enlightned the mind with sober knowledge and sound repentance and comfortable faith and well grounded speeches that are unreprovable and lead them in a life unblameable But these Quakers their speeches are confused and yet perverse and peremptorie Their lives erroneous not knowing or refusing to use the creature of God as lawfully they may I find them people of no sound knowledge yet despising learning and rejecting Gods Ministers and Ordinances by which they may be better instructed They dare not use their
own native language as the word you either because the Scripture useth the word thou or else because they think every man their fellow The books that some of their own have written shew enough of their simplicity Mathe. Are we not troubled with some of the old Pelagians Phila. There have been some long agoe that held some of the opinions of old Pelagius Britto the Welsh man alias Morgan Cond in the fift Council of Carthage and in others Pontanus Cat. Haeret. who lived in the time of the Emperour Theodosius the younger about the year 416. His followers of latter time are reckoned to hold many errors as 1. That Adam should have died by the course of nature though he had not sinned yet we find that God joins death to disobedience Gen. 2.17 So 2. They say Adams sin only hurt himselfe not his posteritie yet Paul saith otherwise Rom. 5.12 by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men because all men did partake of that one sin yea even those that never sinned as Adam did ver 14. i. actuallie but not originallie as children have no sin but that and yet die August Beza But therefore 3. These Pelagians denie originall sin in children but how then saith David in sin my mother conceived me Psal 51. and therefore originall sin is propagated by generation 4. They say the children of the faithfull though not baptized are saved and they shall enjoy everlasting life but not in heaven but Christ saith Joh. 3. that those which belong to Gods Kingdome must be baptized with water nor doth the Scripture set forth to us any third place between heaven and hell 5. They say that men are born in Adams perfection stature and age excepted yet sure they are not born in such integrity as Adam was made for then all would be equally wise and good when they come to age 6. They say men have free will by which they are enabled to do well without Gods grace yet saith Paul not I but the grace of God in me 7. Gods grace they say is obtained by the merit of our works yet Paul saith that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore by naturall works they cannot merit grace 8. They say that the word grace in Scripture doth not signifie remission of sin or donation of the Holy Ghost but the doctrine of the Gospell But this is found otherwise for as there is the doctrine of faith Fides quam credimus fides quâ credimus which is preached Rom. 10.8 and the vertue of faith by which we beleeve it and are thereby justified Rom. 5.1 So the promulgation of the Gospell is a common grace afforded to many Tit. 2.11 teaching us to denie ungodlinesse and next by it is begot saving grace 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in me with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ 9. They say that faith is the knowledge of the Law and the Historie not any speciall work in us but then the faith of divels and good Christians are both alike Jam. 2.19.10 They say the Law is not impossible for a man to keep and it is satisfied by the externall obedience why then doth Paul say that by the work of the Law no man can be justified Rom. 3.20 yet he that can fulfill it may be justified by it and hath no need of Christ Gal. 3.12 So 11. They say that to pray for the conversion of sinners or for the Saints perseverance is vain because it is in the power of their own free will But surely the will of man hath not power to revive him though he had power to kill himselfe and therefore praier is very fit to be used for people unconverted and also for the godly because of their frailties therefore Christ bids us pray for our enemies and Paul boweth his knees dailie for the Ephesians c. 3.16 So 12. They slight the doctrin of predestination which is applauded by St Paul Rom. 8. and comfortable to Gods people Many other errors they hold not worth relating Mathe. But I hear of some called Independents and Levellers I would willingly know what they are Phila. Independants are those that set up a congregationall government which shall depend upon no other Church Synod nor Classis and though they be against the Bishops yet they would have in every Church Bishop-Independants and so many Parishes so many prelacies because they are Independant upon any other They are bred from Separatists and Brownists The first of them that I can hear of was one Mr Robinson who leaving Norwich turned a rigid Brownist at Leyden He dying many of his followers went from thence to New England and planted at Plymoth there and spread their errors by discourse and into old England by letters where they endeavor to set Church against Church and Conventicles against our Churches which they call steeple-houses which were at first set up for the honour of God and his service though abused by the Papists to superstition yet are they never the worse when they are returned to a right use for as there is no inherent righteousness in their wals so neither is inherent superstition in them It is true that Jehosaphat took away the high places and groves because God had appointed and a place was consecrated for his service 2 Chro. 17.6 and such high places and groves were forbidden But they just contrary to Jehosaphat pull down the consecrated places and set up high places in chambers and meet in the groves and woods God give them a right understanding in the use of Churches Beside this they set themselves to overthrow learning and to rob it of all maintainance and the ministers of all dues and yet ask wherein have we robbed God Mal. 3.8 where God answereth them in tithes and offerings which God thought a fit way to maintaine his Priests And Christ bids the Leper go shew himselfe to the Priest and pay his offering Mat. 8.4 And Paul found it was equity that as they which did wait on the Altar were partakers of the Altar So that it was Gods Ordinance that they that preach the Gospell should live on the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Yet these like Julian the Apostate would rob the Church of maintainance that there might be no ministrie because they despise prophecie Again they allow no set forms of Praier no not Christs form and yet they will say St Pauls namely The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost c. Yet it hath ever been the practice of all true Churches Jewes and Christians to have set forms as well for the uniform consent of the people Rom. 15.6 in praier and in praise as also for the confining not of the spirit as they suppose but of their inconsiderate spirits to the words of truth and sobernesse Yet there was alwaies liberty enough to shew
the works of mortification till we have crucified the old man and even wounded sin to death by becomming to us the spirit of judgement and burning Esa 4.4 both to condemn our selves and to consume our drosse therefore it continually lusteth against the flesh and makes our hearts to rise against sin Gal. 3. as it doth against any thing we hate and if at any time we yeeld to the flesh this good spirit becomes like a voice behind calling to us that we are out of the way Esa 30.21 by daily good motions and checks of conscience and by baptizing us with fire Mat. 3.11 inflaming our hearts with an holy revenge upon sin and with a love to all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth Then next he doth infuse divine graces into the heart which are like so many letters commendatory of us to God as faith to beleeve above reason naturall as Abraham did Rom. 4.17 and without any visible means Heb. 11.1 so also he worketh in us love to God by which we tender the pleasure of God above all things in doing and suffering of which we are never ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by this holy spirit which he hath given us Rom. 5.5 and makes us wait by hope for the righteousnesse to be revealed Gal. 5.5 with longing and sighing Rom. 8.23 and praying by the spirit of supplication poured by him upon us Zac. 12.11 and never leaves till he hath made us partakers of the divine nature resembling God in selfe-contentment though we be shut out of the worlds society and in being in love with good men that are begotten of God 1 John 5.1 therefore he is called the spirit of love Rom. 15.30 and in wisedome Mar. 13.11 whereby the elect discern those mysteries which none knoweth but God and they for they are not discerned by others 1 Cor. 2.14 and also in transforming them into the practise of those things they hear and beleeve by this spirit from one glorious grace to another 2 Cor. 3.18 and this through the sanctification of obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 by which he gives us comfort by giving us peace of conscience and joy in assurance of remission and freedome from the guilt of sin in which respect he is called the comforter John 16.7 and so he is but especially in the times of affliction wherein he gives them such tastes of heavenly glory as makes them to contemn all earthly things and rejoice in tribulations Rom. 5.4 because this spirit of glory resteth upon them 1 Pet. 4.14 Thus he goeth alwaies with the elect working in them a spirituall strength to persevere though sometimes they be like smoking flax almost choked in their sad melancholy fumes or like bruised reeds that have no strength then doth he establish the inward man Eph. 3.16 by nourishing the seeds of grace sown in our drie ground by his sweet dew from above Esa 44.3 and by his secret and powerfull assistance in the times of triall 2 Cor. 12.9 bearing witnesse to them that they are the sons of God for all their crosses in this world Rom. 8.15 which he sealeth to them by the promises beleeved concerning Christ and himselfe Eph. 1.13 All which considered we should make much of this spirit and not grieve it nor quench it Not grieve it by acting without it by our own sensuall desires and separating our selves from the societies where he doth affoord his gracious dispensations Jud. 19. or do not acknowledge his power in giving them skill and abilities to perform their severall places and callings nor asking counsell of him or direction from him Esa 30.1 but rather despise it even in his ordinances 1 Thes 4.8 and turn their ear from it as Neh. 9.20 30. and harden their hearts against it Zac. 7.12 and rebell against his doctrine and so grieve him in his ministers Esa 63.10 and Acts 7.51 as St Stephen told the Jewes yea to tempt him by venturing to try whether he will punish them or no as Ananias and Saphira did Acts 5.9 by all which they shew that whatsoever portion of the spirit they have received yet it is in vain Also we must not quench it as some do fire by casting on water or withdrawing that which should feed it â— Tim. 1.6 or lose it as we do springs for want of endeavor to draw or pump them And this men do when after they have had some taste of heavenly gifts in remorse for sin or some joifull apprehensions of Gods promises yet they fall away and having begun in the spirit yet end in the flesh Gal. 3. So when they fall into grosse sins after calling to grace they cause the Holy one to cease from them in his operation for a time and so lose the joy which formerly they found in Gods service So do they discourage the spirit of their Teachers so that they cannot do their work with joy but griefe Heb. 13.17 Thus by living in known sins they sad the spirit which would seale them to the day of redemption Eph. 4.30 which may possibly conduce to the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost if these be not repented of Mathe. I pray declare to me that sin as plain as you can Phila. It is a wilfull and totall falling away from the grounds and true beginnings of Christ and from that spirituall fellowship which one hath had with the people of God therein after ones illumination and outward sanctification contemning the Gospell and despighting the methods and operations of the Holy Ghost without repentance even to death All this may be gathered from Heb. 6.4 5 6. and Heb. 10.25 26 27. But this must be rightly understood As first that he must be one inlightned with some competent knowledge in true religion and sanctified by outward calling at least to the covenant of grace Heb. 10.29 and the seals thereof though not sanctified by saving grace which shewes it selfe by true repentance from all sin and by relying on Christ by faith for his salvation So next he must wilfully apostate Heb. 10.26 as it were without temptation not as David by lust or Peter by feare yea it must be a totall falling from all parts of truth which may possibly over-power his nature by the terrors of the law Also he must despise the Gospell and even loath the way of salvation by Christ and scorne the Gospel which is the meanes of sanctification and hath in some manner worked formerly upon himselfe some change of mind and manners Besides he must offer some despight by blasphemie and persecution and that not of ignorance as Paul did but of desperate malice and that not only to the person of the holy as many have done to the person of the Father and Son by many presumptuous sins but to the work of grace and operating power of the Holy Ghost in us by which God commeth more neer to us then in other things or to his power shewed outwardly for approving
of Christ Lactant. de errore Orig. lib. 2. cap. 16. anno 300. for we are not to make images of things in heaven to worship them Therefore the most ancient religious men have set themselves against pictures and images in Churches as did Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus anno 390. as appeareth in his Epistle to John of Jerusalem Epist ad Joan. Jerusal concerning whom see Trip. hist lib. 9. cap. 4. But worst of all is their adoration of the reliques of Saints which hath not any shew of warrant in Scripture nor antiquity but is a meer will-worship Col. 2.23 We find it given neither to Patriarch nor Prophets nor Apostles whose bodies no doubt were more honorable then others till the Church began to be corrupted by idolatry and superstition which they borrowed from heathens and hereticks as Carpocrates who with his Marcellina carried about them little images of silver and gold of Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and also of Christ all which they worshipped Epipha cont Haeres or else from some filthy dreamer Jude ver 8. such an one as Eguainus of the order of Benet an English Monk sware in the Council held in London anno 712. that the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream and told him it was her will that her image should be set up in the Churches to be worshipped It was therefore concluded it should be so by Pope Constantine the first and Boniface his Legat then here in England and so images were set up in England It is written Amb. lib. de morte Theodosii that Hellen the Empresse found Christs Crosse but yet she worshipped only him that died upon it But these images and worshipping of reliques might the more easily be obtruded upon the people after that Libraries were destroied by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals by which means ignorance and negligence crept into the Church Much lesse is the signe of the Crosse then to be worshipped as a thing that either sanctifieth or puts the devill to flight as the Papists say for that belongs to the efficacy and merit of Christs death nor have we any command or example in Scripture for so doing It is true that the sign of the Crosse hath been anciently used by Christians as a mark of distinction that they were neither Jewes nor heathens but for worshipping of it or attributing vertue or merit to it I read nothing though I find it used by the confession of Fathers 1400 years agoe even at baptisme Cyprian ad Demet. prop. â—â—nem nor thought unfitting by our modern and protestant divines as Bucer Zanchius Zuinglius and others Nor do I think that daies ought to be dedicated to Saints now in the Church triumphant nor to be celebrated in regard of any mysterie inhering to them nor are they more holy then other daies nor the keeping of them a part of divine worship farther then an holy duty done upon that day extendeth it selfe though I know it is lawfull for the Church by a common consent without superstition or idolatry to appoint certain daies for divine duties as to hear the word of God and to pray for the turning away of Gods judgements Aug Epist 128. ad Jan. and to give thanks for benefits received spirituall and temporall As Mordecai appointed the Feast of Purim and Judas Machabeus the Feast of the Dedication But these and all other festivals in the old Testament was set up for the honor of God and so those in the New Testament to the honor of God in Christ one morall in the place of the Jewish Sabbath called the Lords day the other are Ecclesiasticall appointed by the Church in remembrance of what Christ hath done for us But to appoint Holy daies for other use then to God and his worship or to place merit of grace and favor of God in keeping them In vigilis Ap. in fâ—st com Martyrum as the Papists do as appears in their praiers at those times is superstitious so it is also to dedicate such daies to Saints departed I know that some daies of old time hath been kept in the memory of some holy Martyrs for the confirming of Christians in those places where they have suffered but are now out of use Hieron apud Eusebium lib. 4. cap. 14. yet they then did only remember their suffering and gave thanks to God for their constancy in the faith Mathe. What do you count the Church militant to be Phila. That company of faithfull people here upon earth who are governed by one certain head and under his banner do fight against the world flesh and devill and all afflictions in spirituall armour Eph. 6.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. In regard of which battell it comes to passe that the Church militant is not alwaies in one happy state to outward appearance but as Israel and Amaleck one prevailing and sometimes the other like the moon waxing and waining or Noahs Ark sometime tossed on the flood and sometimes resting on the mountain or like Christs ship now in a calm anon in a storm or a lilly among thorns or a childing woman sometimes groaning and anon rejoicing The reason hereof is that God may be known and feared by his Church as a correcting father Pro. 3.13 who will chastise his children for their offences 1 Cor. 11.32 that they may not be disinherited nor condemned with the world the main end whereof is that God may be glorified in delivering of his Church as he was in delivering Israel out of Egypt and from Pharaohs pursuit of them Exod. 15.1 and from the captivity of Babylon Psal 126.2 and that they may learn to hate sin which causeth God to bring afflictions Isa 63.10 and to serve God more sincerely Jer. 31.18 19. by hearty zeal and repentance Rev. 3.19 also that the Church may give an evidence to their profession of the truth Mat. 10.22 and be confirmed to Christ their head Rom. 8.29 who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6.13 and so be distinguished from hypocrites who in time of trouble fall away not understanding that by the crosse the Church is propagated and by dissipation increased and that the blood of martyrdome is the seed of the Church to whom the promise of a better life is made but it must be expected to be performed by hope Mathe. Who is the head of this Church militant Phila. He that is the head of the Church Catholike generally God in Trinity but more particularly Christ who is the Churches mysticall head and she is his body and kingdome Eph. 1.22 and the 4. cap. ver 15 16. and he governeth as her head principally by the scepter of his word and spirit Phil. 2.13 Now thus Christ hath a kingdome naturall or dispensatorie His naturall headship or kingdome is that whereby he reigneth in unitie of essence with the Father and the holy Spirit from all eternity which shall never have an end The
are to beleeve that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in regard that his humane nature was produced from the blessed Virgin by his power and united to the divine but assumed by the Son the second person upon the Holy Ghosts preparation of the Virgins seed and carrying it to the place of conception which Luke 1.42 is called the fruit of her womb that is the whole man or humane substance without the accident of sin which followeth only generation not this wonderfull conception Therefore our sin was to him imputed not by nature imparted and death therefore seized not upon him by necessity but he gave his life voluntarily and it was taken away violently by others sin not his own Mathe. What necessity was there that Christ should be conceived in so holy manner and what are the effects of it Phila. He must be conceived on his mothers part that he might be a man and so fit for a surety for us yet by the Holy Ghost that so the substance might be separated from the accident of originall sin by his power who in the moment of conception united it to the second person with whom it made but one person which was no person before though it consisted of a soule and body and so though it came from Adam and was originally in Adam yet it never sinned in Adam because it took not personality from Adam though it did nature which nature was made so holy by this union that it needed no other sanctification as other men do who are to be sanctified by the blood of the Covenant through the operation of the Holy Ghost which not being warily observed hath made many heresies For the Marcionites and Manicheans not well understanding the conception of his manhood supposed that Christ had an incorporeall body and only passed through the blessed Virgins body And Apollinaris thought Christ had no soule because he understood not how he could take sinfull flesh as Rom. 8.2 3. and not be sinfull and so he determined him to be but halfe a man and that his divinity supplied the place of the soule Others stumbling at the conception of the Holy Ghost say that in this Christs nature was sanctified by the Holy Ghost which cannot be but his humane nature by the Holy Ghost was separated in respect of the substance of it from the blessed Virgin Mary and in the same moment of conception was united to the second person and was holy in it selfe for if it needed sanctification it needed justification Now the effects of this conception and personall union are many As 1. A communication of those properties to Christs person which are in themselves only proper to either nature Mat. 9.6 as to say the Son of man can forgive sins which is proper to the divine nature so to aseend where he was before so to say when he was on earth that the Son of man is in heaven Iohn 6.62 and his blood is called the blood of God though proper only to man 2. Effect of this union was a reception of gifts in his body and soule for his body received the highest degree of perfection that any body could attain unto though it was not much revealed till his resurrection save in his transfiguration after which it became impassible and now shineth in heaven far brighter then any other creature doth or can do So upon his soule was poured knowledge and love beyond the measure in any creature by vertue of this union For his knowledge was such by the light of nature that he knew thereby all things that could be known by it not only by experience of some things but by reasoning he could tell all those things he had no experience of for his own sufferings he could tell all that we suffer Heb. 2.18 And in this wisedome he did grow and increase Luk. 2.52 and by this knowledge he knew more then any man Beside this Christ had a knowledge of infusion or revelation by which heavenly are understood by the light of grace By this he discerned spirituall things more clearly then any man Isa 11.2 for the spirit of wisedome and counsell understanding and knowledge did rest upon him Again he had the knowledge of vision to see God as the blessed do in heaven yet exceeding them all he being the cause of bringing men to this blessednesse and also because his soule is more neer to God by this union then any others are And as knowledge was poured out on him by this union so was divine charity more then upon all men either just or good Rom. 5.6 7. As for faith or hope he had them not farther then as to depend on God and expected those things he saw by the knowledge of vision for he both saw God and enjoied him But faith is an evidence of things not seen and hope argueth no present possession of things hoped for Next he had the grace of office by this union of both natures for hereby he was made a fit mediator between God and man to reconcile us to God yet so as that the actions of the divine and humane nature were not confounded but each nature performed what was proper to it selfe by the assistance of the other As the humane nature was given as a sacrifice for us but the divine nature made it acceptable being offered up by the eternal spirit which therefore might be rightly called the Altar which sanctified the gift rather then the crosse which only bore his body crucified Lastly he had the grace of honour and worship due to his humane nature as it was united to the divine in one person for alone and separated it cannot lawfully have divine worship given to it but so far as it is directed to him that is God and Man Mathe. What doth the knowledge hereof profit to a Christians life Phila. A Christians life consisting in the meditation comfort and practice of what Christ hath done This union may move us first to admire the work it selfe And secondly to consider the glory of God therein And thirdly what comfort redounds to us thereby 1. To admire this work in which both mortality and immortality meet in one person That the same person is uncreated and created without beginning and yet takes a beginning a man in nature and yet God manifested in flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 In his divine nature he makes man in the humane nature he delivers man Aug. The Son of God becomes the son of man not by changing what he was but assuming what he once was not taking what was ours yet not diminishing what was his for in this union the divine majesty did not consume the humane nor the humane diminish the divine This high mystery is rather to be beleeved then argued namely that it was then how it was Next we are to consider the glory of goodnesse and wisedome in this work 1. His goodnesse who not only gave nature to us in creation and grace to us by