it denotes the first person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity There are three that bear record in heaven as St. Iohn hath it the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And in this notion or acception of the word GOD is the father of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST whom he hath begotten to himself before all worlds generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by such a kind of generation as neither the tongue of Men nor Angels can expresse aright In this respect our Saviour saith of GOD the first person I and my Father are one and in another place which we saw before on another occasion I work and my Father also worketh In this sense God the Father saith of the second person This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And finally in this as no man living no not any of the host of Heaven is to be called the Son of God but the second Person so none of the three Persons takes the name of Father but the first alone Though GGD hath severall sons and by severall means as shall be shewed anone in the place fit for it yet only CHRIST is called his begotten son and therefore God a naturall Father if I may so say unto none but him And this is that which Gregory Thaumaturgus hath told us saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath no other son by nature but thee my Saviour The name of this generation I forbear to speak of It is a point I waived from the very first when first I undertook to expound this Creed as being of too sublime and transcendent nature for the shallowness of my capacity to inquire into It is enough that I acknowledge God to be the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST by an eternall generation though I professe my self unable to discourse thereof with any satisfaction to my self or others And for the generation of our Saviour in the fulnesse of time by which he was conceived of the Virgin Mary I shall have opportunity to speak in a place more proper So that not having more to speak of the name of Father as it is personall and hypostaticall in the first Person only I shall proceed to that acception of the word wherein it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essentially and so given to GOD that every person of the Trinity doth partake thereof But first I cannot choose but note that even in that equality or unity which is said to be between the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father seems to me to have some preheminency above the others For not only the Greek Church doth acknowledge him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head but it is generally agreed on by all Orthodox writers that the Father is first in order though not in time Pater est prior ordine non tempore as Alstedius states it and by Aquinas amongst those of the Church of Rome that the Son or second person is Principiatus non essentiatus that is to say if I rightly understand his meaning that there was a beginning of his existence though not of his essence or a beginning of his Filiation but not of his God-head And yet I dare not say that I hit his meaning for I professe my self uncapable of these Schoole-niceties because I finde it generally agreed on by most learned men that CHRIST receiveth the being and essence which he hath from the Father although not in the way of production of an other essence which was condemned as an impious heresie in Valentinus Gentilis but by communication of the same Add here that those who have most constantly stood up in the defence of the doctrine of the Trinity against some Hereticks of this Age doe notwithstanding say and declare in publick that CHRIST though looked upon as the Son of God in his eternall generation cannot be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-essentiate And that both Genebrard Lindanus and some others of the Romish Doctors have quarrelled Calvin whom Beza laboureth to excuse in that particular for saying that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath his God-head from himself wherein he is deserted by Arminius also and those of the Remonstrant party in the Belgick Countries But that the Father Almighty mentioned in my Creed was not and is not both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too hath never been affirmed nor so much as doubted of by any Christian writer of what times soever Next look we on the name of Father as it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentially in the holy Scriptures and then it is appliable to every person of the blessed Trinity each of which in his severall person or subsistence may be called our Father Thus read we of the second person for of the first there is no question to be made in the 9. of Esay that unto us a Son is born and that he shall be called wonderfull the mighty God the everlasting Father Vers. 6. Thus in St. Iames we finde that the holy Ghost is called Pater luminum the Father of lights it being his office to illuminate every soul which is admitted for a member of the Church of CHRIST in which respect the Sacrament of Baptisme in which men are regenerated and born again of water and the holy Spirit was antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or illumination The reason why the name Father doth in this sense belong respectively to each is because they equally concur as in the work of Creation God the Father creating the world in the Son by the holy Ghost so in those also of Redemption and Sanctification From whence that maxim of the Schools Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa that is to say the outward or externall actions of the Trinity are severally communicable to the whole essence of GOD and not appropriated unto any particular person And yet the name of Father even in this acception is generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the common course of speech referred to the first Person only as he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head as before was said For thus hath CHRIST himself instructed us to pray and say Our Father which art in heaven And the Church following his command who hath willed us to pray after that manner beginneth many of her prayers in the publick Liturgy with this solemn form of compellation Almighty and most mercifull Father Not that we do exclude the Son or the holy Ghost in our devotions but include them in him In Patre invocantur filius et spiritus sanctus as Bellarmine hath most truly noted And therefore though we commonly begin our prayers with a particular address to God the Father yet we conclude them all with this through Christ Iesus our Lord and sometimes add to
from the sight of men And if the wise Gentile could affirme so sadly nunquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset that he was never lesse alone then when he was by himself what need can any rational man suppose in Almighty God of having more company then himself in If this suffice not for an answer to that needlesse demand What God did before he made the World let him take that of Augustine on the like occasion who being troubbled with this curious and impertinent question is said to have returned this answer Curiosis fabricare inferos that he made Hell for all such troublesome and idle Questionists But it pleased God at last when it seemed best unto his infinite and eternal wisdome to create the World and all things visible and invisible in the same contained A point so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it And as the Scripture tels us that God made the World so do they also tell us this that because he made the World he is therefore God For thus saith David in the Psalms The Lord is great and very greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods As for the Gods of the Heathen they are but Idols but it is the Lord which made the Heavens Where plainly the strength of Davids argument to prove the Lord to be God doth consist in this because it was he only not the gods of the Heathen which created the World The like we also finde in the Prophet Ieremy The Lord saith he is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his power and established the World by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion In which two verses of the Prophet we have proof sufficient first that God made the World by his power and wisdome and secondly that this making of the World by his power and wisdome doth difference or distinguish him from the gods of the Heathen of whom it is affirmed expressely that they were so far from being able to make Heaven and Earth that they should perish from the Earth and from under Heaven But what need Scripture be produced to assert that truth which is so backed by the authority of the Learned Gentiles whose understandings were so fully convinced by the inspection of the Book of nature especially by that part of it which did acquaint them with the nature of the Heavenly Bodies that they concluded to themselves without further evidence that the Authour of this great Book was the only God and that he only was that great invisible power which did deserve that Soveraign title And this Pythagoras one of the first founders of Philosopie amongst the Grecians who in all probability had never seen the works of Moses as Plato and those that followed after are supposed to have done doth most significantly averre in these following verses which are preserved in Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be thus paraphased in our English tongue He that will say I am a Power divine A God besides that one let him first make A world like this and say that this is mine Before he to himself that title take For the next point that God the Father Almighty did create the World it is a truth so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it it being not only told us in the holy Scriptures that God made the World but also when he made it and upon what reasons with all the other circumstances which concern the same The very first words of Gods book if we look no further are in themselves sufficient to confirme this point In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth As Moses so the royal Psalmist He laid the foundations of the Earth and covered it with the deep as it were with a garment and spreadeth out the Heavens like a curtain He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is And so the whole Colledge of the Apostles when they were joyned together in their prayers to God Lord said they thou art God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Made it but how not with his hands assuredly there is no such matter The whole World though it be an house and the house of God cum Deo totus mundus sit und domus said the Christian Oratour yet it is properly to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands How then He made it only by his word Dixit et facta sunt He spake the word and they were made saith the sweet finger of Israel There went no greater paines to the Worlds creation then a Dixit Deus And this not only said by Moses but by David too Verbo Domini coeli firmatī sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum i. e. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth In which it is to be observed that though the creation of the World be generally ascribed unto God the Father yet both the Son and the holy Ghost had their parts therein Verbo Domini by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made saith the Prophet David In the beginning was the Word All things were made by him and without him was nothing made saith St. Iohn the Apostle The Spirit of God moved upon the waters saith Moses in the Book of the Law and Spiritu oris ejus by breath of his mouth were all the hosts of Heaven created saith David in the book of Psalmes Made by his word but yet not made together in one instant of time to teach us men deliberation in our words and actions and to set forth unto us both his power and wisdome His power he manifested in the Method of the worlds creat on in that he did produce what effects he pleased without the help of natural causes in giving light unto the World before he had created the Sun and Moon making the earth fruitfull and to bring forth plants without the motion or influence of the Heavenly bodies And for his wisdome he expressed in as high a degree in that he did not create the Beasts of the field before he had provided them of fodder and sufficient herbage nor made man after his own image before he had finished his whole work filled his house and furnished it with all things necessary both for life and pleasures
on Penelope by Mercury And is it not recorded in their most authentick Histories that Romulus the first King and founder of Rome was begotten by Mars upon the body of Rhea a Vestal Virgin Romulus a Marte genttus Rhea Silvia as Florus summarily reports it Had not the Lusitanians a race of Horses which they believed to be engendred by the winde the fancy growing from the knowledge of their excellent swiftness At this Lactantius toucheth in his Book of Institutes and makes it a convincing Argument in this case against the Gentiles who might as easily believe the miracle of the incarnation as give faith to that Quod si animalia quaedam vento aura concipere solere omnibus notum est cur quisquam mirum putet cum Spiritu Dei cui est facile quicquid velit gravatam Virginem esse dicimus No question but the Spirit of God might be conceived as operative as the winde or ayr But leaving these Romances of the antient Heathens though arguments good enough ad homines and beyond that they are not meant let us next look a while on the blessed Virgin who questionless did somewhat to advance the work and left it not wholly to the managing of the holy Ghost But what she did was rather from the strength of faith then nature For had she not believed she had never conceived And thereupon it is resolved by St. Augustine rightly Feliciorem Mariam esse percipiendo fidem Christi quam concipiendo carnem Christi that she was happier by believing then she was by conceiving though in that too pronounced the most blessed amongst women Now in the strengthning of this faith many things concurred as the authority of the Messenger who coming from the God of truth could not tell a lye the general expectation which the Iews had about this time of the Messiahs near approach the argument used by the Angel touching Gods Omnipotence with whom nothing was said to be impossible and so not this the instance of a like miracle wrought upon Elizabeth the wife of Zachary almost as old but altogether in the same case with Sarah who had conceived a son in her old age beyond the ordinary course of nature And to say truth these arguments were but necessary to beget belief to so great a miracle to which no former age could afford a parallel though that of Sarah came most nigh it And if that Sarah thought it such a matter of impossibility then to conceive and bear a son when it only ceased to be with her after the manner of women as the Text tels us that she did how much more justly might the Virgin think it an impossible thing for her to be conceived with childe and bring forth a Son and yet continue still a Virgin But at the last the strength of faith overcame all difficulties and by the chearfulness of her obedience she made a way for this great blessing which was coming towards her Behold the handmaid of the Lord Be it to me according unto thy word Which whether they were words of wishing that so it might be as St. Ambrose Venerable Beda and Euthymius think or of consent that so it should be as Ireneus and Damascen are of opinion certain it is that on the speaking of those words she did conceive Coelestial seed and in due time brought forth her Saviour As is affirmed by Irenaeus l. 1. c. 33. Tertullian in his book De Carne Christi Athanasius in his Oration De Sancta Deipara and divers others A work as of great efficacy unto our Salvation so of especial esteem in the Christian Church the day whereof called usually the Feast of the Annuntiation hath anciently been observed as an holy Festival as appears by several Homilies made upon this subject by Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in the year 230. and that of Athanasius in the time of Constantine A day of such high esteem amongst us in England that we begin our year from thence both in the vulgar estimate and all publick Instruments though in our Kalenders we begin with the first of Ianuary according to the custome of the antient Romans But here it may be asked why CHRIST should not be called the Son of the holy Ghost according to his humane nature considering that not St. Luke only ascribeth unto him the work of the Incarnation under the title of an overshadowing but that it is affirmed by St. Matthew in tearms more express that she the blessed Virgin Mother was found to be with child of the holy Ghost And he by whom a woman is conceived with childe is properly and naturally though not always legally for Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant as the Lawyers tell us the right Father of it A consideration which prevailed so far with some of St. Hieromes time that they began to stumble upon this opinion but with no better reason in true Divinity then Christ may be affirmed to be the Father Almighty intended in the former Articles because creation is the work of the Father Almighty and it is written by St. Iohn that by him that is to say the Son all things were made For all things were so made by the Word as the Word was made flesh or incarnate by the holy Ghost God I mean God the first Person here as generally the Scripture doth where it speaks of God without limitation or restrictions acting by them those two great works which in the holy Text are to them ascribed yet by them not as Ministers subservient to him but co-working with him God saith St. Paul hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds God made the world though he made it by his Son to the end that all things being created by him might be also for him And so 't is also in the work of the incarnation God by his Spirit fructifying the Virgins womb and sanctifying the materials with which the Word which in the beginning was with God was to be invested to the intent that the Spirit might bear witness to us that he was the beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased And yet there is another reason why he should rather be called the Son of God then of the holy Ghost because he had a pre-existence before he was incarnate in the Virgins womb as he was the Word the Word which in the beginning was not only with God but was also God by an unspeakable way of emanation from the Father only as the Word is first conceived in the minde of man before it be uttered by the voyce For as the Son is to the Father so is the Word to the Minde The Son proles parentis the Word proles mentis saith the learned Andrews God therefore being an eternal everlasting Minde did before all beginnings of time produce the Word
the soule and by a metaphor the motions of the minde whether good or evill are called spirits also as the spirit of giddiness Isa. 19.14 the spirit of error 1 Tim. 4.1 the spirit of envie Iam. 4.5 which come all from the unclean spirit mentioned Luk. 11.24 And thus in general the pious motions in the mind are called Spirits too Quench not the spirit saith St. Paul i. e. those godly motions to the works of Faith and Piety which the Holy Spirit of God doth secretly kindle in thee For the word Ghost it is originally Saxon and signifieth properly the soul of a man as when we read of Christ that he gave up the Ghost Mark 15.37 and in the rest of the Evangelists also the meaning is that his soule departed from his body he yeelded up his soule to the hands of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original Expiravit as the Latine reads it that is to say he breathed out his soul or he breathed his last Nor doth it signifie the soule onely though that most properly but generally also any spiritual substance as doth the word spiritus in the Latine a touch whereof we have still remaining in the Adjective Ghostly by which we mean that which is spiritual as our Ghostly Father Ghostly Counsel i. e. our Father in the spiritual matters counsel that savoreth of the spirit So then the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit are the same Person here though in different words and the word Holy which is added doth clearly difference him from all other spirits Not that God being a spirit is not holy also or that the Angelical spirits are not replenished with as much holinesse as a created nature can be capable of but because it is his Office to sanctifie or make holy all the elect Children of God therefore hath he the title or attribute of holy annexed unto him And yet the title of holy is not always added to denote this person though when we find mention of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit it is meant and spoken of him onely For sometimes he is called the Spirit without any adjunct the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminency but still with reference to those gifts which he doth bestow The manifestation of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Article demonstrative is given to every man to profit withall For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit Sometimes he is called the Spirit of the Father as Matth. 10.20 It is not yee that speak but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you sometimes the Spirit of the Son as Gal. 4.6 where it is said that God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father Most generally he is called the Spirit of God as Gen 1.2 and Matth. 3.16 and infinite other places of the holy Scripture and more particularly the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 in which place he is also called the Spirit of God Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if that the Spirit of God dwel in you there the Spirit of God if any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit both of God and Christ and in one verse both So far we are onwards on our way for discoverie of the nature of this blessâ—d Spirit as to have found him out to be the Spirit of God the Father from whom he doth proceed by an unspeakable way of emanation and unknown to man for he proceedeth from the Father as our Saviour telleth us and to be also the Spirit of Christ the Son of God by whom he was breathed on the Apostles and so proceeding from the Son doth proceed from both Sent from the Father at the desire and prayer of the Son I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Iohn 14.16 Sent by the Son with the consent and approbation of the Father whom I will send unto you from the Father Iohn 15.26 and so sent of both And yet not therefore the less God because sent by either than IESUS CHRIST is God God for ever blessed as St. Paul calls him Rom. 9.5 because he was sent by God the Father He sent his Son made of a woman Gal. 4.4 saith the same Apostle If any doubt hereof as I know some do he may be sent for resolution of his doubt to the beginning of Genesis where he shall finde the Spirit of God moving on the waters Gen. 1.2 And to the Law where he shall read how the same Spirit came down on the Seventy Elders Numb 11.26 And to the Psalms Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created Psal. 104.30 And to the Prophets The Spirit of God is upon me saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 61.1 which was Christs first Text And I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh saith the Prophet Ioel Chap. 1.28 which was Peters first Text The Spirit of God is God no question for in Deo non est nisi Deus say the Schoolmen rightly Not a created Spirit as the Angels were For in the beginning when God created the Heaven and the Earth and all things visible and invisible then the Spirit was and was not onely actually in a way of existence but was of such a powerful influence in the Creation of the World that on the moving of this Spirit on the face of the Waters the darkness was removed from the face of the deep and the Chaos of undigested matter made capable of Form and Beauty In the New Testament the evidence is far more clear than that of the Old by how much the Sun of Light did shine more brightly in the times of the Gospel than in those of the Law Saith not St. Peter in the Acts Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost and then addes presently Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God What saith St. Austin on this Text The Holy Ghost saith he is God Unde Petrus cum dixisset ausus eâ— mentiri Spiritui Sancto continuo secutus adjunxit quid esset Spiritus Sanctus ait non mentitus es hominibus sed Deo i. e. Therefore when Peter said unto Ananias thou hast dared to lie to the Holy Ghost he added presently to shew what was the Holy Ghost Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God Saith not St. Paul Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God How so Because the Spirit of God dwelleth in you What saith the Father unto this Ostendit Paulus deum esse Spiritum Sanctum ideo non esse Creaturam that is to say St. Paul by this sheweth That the Holy Ghost is God and so no Creature Doth not the same Apostle say in another place Know ye not that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost
Faith related not to points of doctrine which could not but be every where at all times the same because all guided by the same infallible spirit but only to the form of words wherewith they were to clothe and express those doctrines which if not in all points the same might amongst many simple and illiterate people be taken for an argument of a different faith Whereas the consonancie which all Churches held with one another not only in the Unity which they maintained amongst themselves in point of judgement but also in that uniformity wherewith they did express that consent in judgement was a strong evidence no doubt to the weak and ignorant who are governed more by words then matters that the Faith wheresoever they travelled was in all parts the same because they found it every where expressed in the self same words So that for ought appeareth by these shifts and cavils the CREED may still retain the honour which of old was given it and be as it is commonly called The Apostles Creed The next thing that I have to do is to resolve upon the course and order which I mean to follow in the performance of the work I have undertaken And here I shall declare in the first place of all that as the main of my design is to illustrate and expound the Apostles Creed so I shall keep my self to that Creed alone and not step out into those intricate points of controversie which principally occasioned both the Athanasian and the Nicene Creeds For though I thank God I can say it with a very good conscience that I believe the doctrine of the holy Trinity according to the Catholick Tradition of the Church of CHRIST yet I confess with all such is the want and weakness of my understanding that I am utterly unable as indeed who is not to look into the depths of so great a mystery and cannot but cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle did in another case Oh the unsearchableness the depth of this heavenly Oeconomie What then I am not able to inform my self in those things wherein I am not able to content and satisfie my own poor shallow understanding how can I hope so to express in words or writing as to give satisfaction and content to a minde more curious Id fides credat intelligentia non requirat was antiently the Fathers rule and shall now be mine In matters of so high a nature I believe more then I am able to comprehend the gift of faith supplying the defect of mine understanding and yet can comprehend more by the light of faith then I am able to express So that I shall not meddle in this following Tractate with the eternal generation of the Son of God or any of those difficult but divine sublimities which are contained in the Creed of the Nicene Councel nor with the manner of the holy Ghosts procession whether from the Father only or from the Father and the Son nor how God can be one in three and three in one Such lofty speculations and sublimities of so high a nature I leave to be discussed and agitated by men of larger comprehensions and more piercing judgements then I dare challenge to my self resting contented with those mediocrities which God who gives to every one his several Talent hath graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon me In other points I shall make use sometimes of such explications as the Athanasian or the Nicene Creeds do present unto me which I shall handle rather in a Scholastical and if occasion be presented in a Philological way also then a way meerly Catechetical or directly practical wherein I see so many have took pains already taking along the stating and debating of such points of Controversies as either naturally do arise from the words themselves or may be very easily deduced from thence on good and logical deductions And in such points of Controversie as shall here be handled as also in such Observations as shall be here amassed together I chiefly shall rely on the Antient Fathers whose reputation and authority is most precious with me but so that I shall now and then make bold as I see occasion to spoyl the Egyptians also of their choicest Iewels for the adorning of this body of Divinity which I had brought into the forge since my first retreat and is now ready for the Anvil St. Paul esteemed it no disparagement to his holy doctrine to strengthen it with reasons drawn from the best Philosophie to prove and press it home in a Logical way and to adorn it with the dictates of three old Greek Poets Menander Aratus and Epimenides whose testimonies he makes use of in three several places As long as Hagar doth submit herself to her mistress Sarah and not contend for the precedency with her so long she is and may be serviceable in the house of Abraham And humane literature especially in relation unto Paganish errours is of as necessary use as she in the Church of God if it conform unto the Scripture and be guided by it and do not bear it self too high on the conceit and reputation of its own great excellencies But for the main of this discourse I shall especially repose my determination on the authority and general consent of the Fathers as before I said not medling with the Protestant Writers of the forein Churches but when a doubt is to be cleared which concerns themselves nor often with the Writers of this Church of England but when I have occasion to enquire into such particulars as must be proved to be the true intent and doctrine of this CHVRCH by law established The holy Scriptures are the main foundation which I am to build on according to that sense and interpretation which have been given us of them by the holy Fathers and other Catholick Doctors of the Church of Christ who lived before the truth degenerated into Popish dotages and whose authorities and judgements I conceive most fit for the determining of such Controversies which are now on foot as being like to prove most indifferent Umpires because not any way ingaged in our present quarrels I know that Downe Dalie and others of great parts and wit have laboured to disclaim them as incompetent Judges not to be trusted in a business of such main concernment as the determination of the controversies in the Church of Christ out of an high conceit of their own great worth which is not willing to acknowledge a superiour eminence And I know well that many if not most of our Innovators whether it be in point of Discipline or Doctrine decline all trial by the Fathers Councels and other the records and monuments of the Catholick Church because directly contrary to their new devices But all this moves not me a jot nor makes me yeild the less authority to their words and writings The Church of England waves not their authority though some of her conceited children and others of her factious
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
whom with thee and the holy Ghost be praise for ever But leaving these more intricate speculations to more subtill heads The name of Father in this sense is ascribed to God by two severall titles First Iure Creationis by the right of Creation by which he is the Father of all mankinde And secondly Iure Adoptionis by the right and title of Adoption by which he hath anew begotten us in St. Peters language to an inheritance immortall undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens First GOD is said to be our Father in the right of Creation by which as all the World and all things in the same contained may be called the workmanship of his hands so may all mankinde be called his children not only those which trust and believe in him but also those which know him not nor ever read so much of him as the Book of nature those which yet live as out-lawes from the rule of reason and barbarous and savage people of both the Indies Thus Malachi the last Prophet of the Iewes Have we not all one Father hath not God created us Thus the Apostle of the Gentiles doth affirme of GOD that out of one bloud he hath made all kindreds of men And CHRIST himself who brake down the partition wall between Iew and Gentile Call no man Father on Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Not that the Lord would have us disobedient to our naturall Parents or ashamed to own them for this is plainly contrary both to Law and Gospeâ—t but that we should refer our being unto him alone which is the fountain of all beeing Solus vocandus est Pater qui creavit said Lactantius truly Now God is said to be our Father by the right of Creation for these following reasons as first because he was the Father of the first man Adam out of whose loyns we are descended or of whose likeness since the fall we are all begotten Therefore St. Luke when he had made the Genealogie of our Saviour CHRIST in the way of ascent doth conclude it thus which was the son of Seth which was the son of Adam which was the Son of God the son of God but not by generation for so our Saviour only was the Son of God and therefore it must be by Creation only Secondly GOD is called our Father because he hath implanted in our Parents the vertue Generative moulded and fashioned us in the secret closets of the Womb. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect and in thy book were all my members written saith the Royal Psalmist The bodies of us men are too brave a building for man and Nature to erect And therefore said Lactantius truly Hominem non patrem esse sed generandi ministrum Man only is the instrument which the Lord doth use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that godly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children Last of all for our souls which are the better part of us by which we live and move and have our beeing they are infused by GOD alone man hath no hand in it God breathes into our nosthrils the breath of life and by his mighty power doth animate and inform that matter which of it self is meerly passive in so great a wonder In each of these respects and in all together we may conclude with that of Aratus an old Greek Poet as he is cited by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we are all his off-spring all of us his children The second Interest which GOD hath in us as a Father in the way of adoption by which we are regenerate or anew begotten to a lively hope of being heirs unto the promises and in the end partakers of eternal glories by which we are transplanted from our Fathers house and out of the Wilderness and unprofitable Thickets of this present world and graffed or inoculated on the Tree of life Adoptare enim est juxta delectum sibi quos quisque velit in filios eligere Adoption is the taking of a childe from another family to plant and cherish in our own say the Civil Lawyers and he that so adopteth may be called our Father by approbation of the laws though not by nature Examples of this case have been very ordinary from Moses who was adopted for her son by the daughter of Pharaoh though he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter as St. Paul said of him down through all the stories both of Greece and Rome And if it may be lawful to make such resemblances the motives which induced GOD to proceed this way and other the particulars of most moment in it do seem to carry a fair proportion or correspondency with such inducements and particulars as hath been used by men on the same occasions For in the Laws adoption was to be allowed but in these four cases First Quod quidam Matrimonii onera detrectarent because some men could not away with the cares of Wedlock Secondly Quod conjugium esset sterile because God had not blessed the marriage with a fruitful issue Thirdly Quod liberi ipsorum morerentur because their own children by untimely death or the unluckie chance of War had been taken from them in which last case adoption by especial dispensation was allowed to women Fourthy Quod liberi ipsorum improbi essent degeneres because their own children were debauched and shameless likely to ruine that estate and disgrace that family into which they were born And upon such grounds as these is GOD in Scripture said to adopt the Gentiles to make them who by nature were the sons of wrath and seemed to be excluded from the Covenant which he made with Abraham to be the heirs of God and Coheirs with Christ. God looked upon the Iews as his natural children And at the first one might have known them easily for the sons of God by the exemplarie piety of their lives and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as men know commonly their neighbour children by a resemblance to their Fathers St. Paul hath made a muster of some chiefs amongst them in the 11. chap. to the Heb. But they being took away by the hand of death there next succeeded in their room a gâ—neration little like them in the course of their lives and therefore little to the comfort of their heavenly Father For his part he was never wanting unto his Vineyard nor could there any thing be done to it which he did not do yet when he looked for grapes in their proper season it brought forth nothing but wilde grapes sit only for the wine-press of his indignation So that the Lord was either childless or else the Father of a stubborn and perverse generation of whose reclaim there was no hopes or but small if any
the Spirit of prophesie as Minutius Felix well observeth Nay being spirits as they are of an excellent knowledge and either by a foresight which they have of some things in future or by conjecturing at events out of natural causes or coming by some other means to be made acquainted with the will of God they took upon them to effect what they knew would follow and to be the Authors of those publick blessings which were hard at hand so that indeed it was no wonder Si sibi Templa si honores si sacrificia tribuuntur if thereupon the people would erect them Temples and offer sacrifice unto them and yeild them other Divine honours fit for none but Gods By means whereof they did not only raise themselves into the Throne and Majesty of Almighty God and captivated almost all the world in a blinde obedience to their will and commands Sed veri ac singularis Dei notitiam apud omnes gentes inveteraverunt as the same Lactantius rightly noteth but in a manner had defaced the knowledge of the true one and only God over all the earth And in this blindeness and Idolatry did the world continue till the birth of CHRIST the Idols of Egypt falling down flat before him when he was carryed into that countrey in his Mothers arms as Palladius telleth us and all the Oracles of the Gentiles failing at the time of his death as is collected out of that work of Plutarchs inscribed De defectu Oraculorum Which preparation notwithstanding these Devils or Daemons call them which you will had gotten such possession of the mindes of men that the Apostles and Evangelists found it a far easier matter to cast the Devils out of their bodies then out of their souls and long it was before the rising of the Sun of righteousness was able to dispel those thick clowds of darkness wherewith they had thus overspread the whole face of the Earth Which with their power and influence in the acts of sin occasioned the Apostle to make this expression that he wrestled not against flesh and bloud but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers not of this world but of the darknesse of this world and against spiritual wickednesses in high places By which words as he means the Devils and infernal spirits against which the man of God is to combate daily so by those words he gives me a just ground to think that the Angels which did fall from the primitive purity and have since laboured noithing more then the ruine of man were chiefly of those Orders of Aâ—gels which are called Principalities and Powers in the holy Scriptures And this I am the rather induced to think because I finde them called by those names in another place where the Apostle speaking of Christs victory over Hell and Satan describes it thus that having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them But of this argument enough It is now time that we proceed to the Creation and fall of man as that which more immediately conduceth to the following Articles of the Incarnation death and passion of our Lord and Saviour And first for mans Creation it was last in order though first in Gods intention of the six days work it being thought unfit in Gods heavenly wisdome to create man into the world before he was provided of a decent house and whatsoever else was necessary both for life and comfort For it we look unto the end for which God made many of the inferiour creatures reperâ—â—mus eum non necessitati modo sed oblectamento voluisse consulere as Calvin rightly hath observed we shall finde that he not only intended them for the necessities of mans life but also for the convenience and delight in living And whereas all the rest of the six days work were the acts only of his power the creating of man doth seem to be an act both of power and wisdome In all the rest there was nothing but a Dixit Deus he spake the word and they were made saith the Royal Psalmist But in the making of man there was somewhat more a Faciamus hominem a consultation called about it each Person of the Trinity did deliberate on it and every one contributed somewhat to his composition For God the Father as the chief workman or the principal agent gave him form and feature in which he did imprint his own heavenly Image The Son who is the living and eternal Word gave him voyce or speech that so he might be able to set forth Gods praises and the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as the Nicene Fathers truly call him did breath into his nosthrils the breath of life Or if we look upon it as one act of all we shall finde man agreeing with many of the creatures in the matter out of which he was made but very different from them all both in form and figure For though God pleased to make him of the dust of Earth to humble him and keep him from aspiring thoughts as oft as he reflected on his first Original yet did he make him of a straight and erected structure advanced his head up towards the Firmament and therein gave him the preheminence over all creatures else which had been made before of the same materials And this is that which Ovid the Poet thus expresseth Pronaque cum spectant animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Iussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus That is to say And where all Creatures else with down cast eye Look towards th' Earth he rais'd mans Head on high And with a lofty look did him indue That so he might with ease Heavens glories view A thing of principal moment if considered rightly not only to the beeing but well being of man who is hereby instructed by the Lord his God that in the setling of his desires and affections he should take counsell of his making so to advance his meditations as God doth his head and not by fastning both his looks and thoughts on the things below him to disgrace as much as in him is the dignity of his creation and consequently merit to have had the countenance even of those very beasts whose minde he carryeth For I am verily perswaded that if the worldly minded man and such as are not well instructed in the things of God did but consider of the figure of his body only that very contemplation would promote him in the way of godliness and rectifie such errours and misperswasion wherewith his soul hath been misguided in the way of truth Certain I am that Lactantius whom I have so often cited in this present work examining the Original and growth of Atheism with which the world had been infected in the former times makes this amongst some other causes to be one of the principal that men had formerly neglected to look up
distinct natures in the Person of CHRIST and yet a communication of Properties or Idioms as they call them of the one nature to the other that CHRIST in one Person should have two distinct wils all who opined the contrary being branded and condemned by the name of Monothelites Not to say any thing in this place of those dark expressions in which the eternal generation of the Son of God and the nature of the Hypostatical Vnion have been delivered by some Writers of whom a man may say with a sober confidence that they hardly understood what they said themselves Assuredly that antient diverb Ingeniosa res est esse Christianum was not made for nought The best way therefore is to contain our selves within those bounds which are prescribed us in the Word of God in which though all things are not written which concern our Saviour yet those things which are written are sufficient doubtless to make us wise unto salvation that so we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his Name And now as far as I can go by the light of Scripture I should proceed unto the incarnation of the Son of God but that we must first behold him as he is our LORD which is the last of those two relations in which he is presented to us in this present Article Of this as it belongeth to God the Father we have already spoken in the first Article under the title of Iehovah the proper and peculiar name of the Lord our God a name so proper and peculiar to the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that it is thought by very learned men not to be understood of the Son of God or of God the Son in the whole Old Testament who is most usually expressed by the name of Adonai Thus in that celebrated place of the Psalms of David whereas we read in English thus the Lord said unto my Lord it is in the Original thus Iehovah said to Adonai or the Lord Jehovah said unto my Lord Adonai Where clearly the name of Iehovah doth denote the Father as that of Adonai the Son though both be generally Englished by the name of Lord. Now the name Adonai is derived as before was noted from the Hebrew word Eden which signifieth the basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly doth express his nature by whom as all things were created in the first beginning as St. Iohn telleth us in his Gospel so doth he still support the Earth and the pillars of it as it is told us in the Psalms But for the name or style of Lord both in Greek and Latine it seemed to be a title of such power and soveraignty that great Augustus though the Master of the Roman Empire did forbear to use it Nay which is more gravissimo corripuit edicto as Suetonius hath it he interdicted the applying of it to himself by a publick Edict The like by Dion is reported of Tiberius also a Prince who cherished flattery more then any vertue and in whose Court no men were more esteemed of then the basest sycophants This by the Statists of those times imputed to policy or Kings-craâ—t ne speciem Principatus in Regni formam converterent for fear they should be thought in that conjuncture of time when their affairs were yet unsetled to affect the title of Kings as they had the power which was most odious to the Romans But in my minde Orosius gives a better reason who thinks that this was rather done by Gods special Providence then on any foresight of those Princes His reason is because that Christ during the reign of those two Emperours had took our flesh upon him and did live amongst us Nor was it fit saith he that any man should take upon himself the name of LORD ex eo tempore quo verus totius geneâ—is humani Dominus inter nos homines natus esset whilest the undoubted Lord of all mankinde was conversant amongst us here upon the Earth And this we may the rather credit to have been done by Gods special providence because Caligula who next succeeded in the Empire our Saviour Christ having then withdrawn his bodily presence was not alone content to admit this Title but did command it to be given him by all the people Et primus Dominum se jussit appellari as it is in Victor But whether this observation of Orosius will hold good or not certain it is that from the time and instant of the Resurrection the style of LORD did properly belong unto CHRIST our Saviour Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesâ—s whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Not made that is to say not declared LORD by his heavenly Father before that time when he had overcome the sharpness of death and trampled on the grave in his Resurrection though called so sometimes before in the way of Anticipation or of civil complement Then only called now made and publickly declared the Lord of all things And certainly it might seem to stand with reason that seeing all power was given to the man Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth for now we look upon him only in that capacity that with the power he also should partake of the highest title by which that power was usually expressed and signified From that time forwards unto this there is not any thing more ordinary in the Book of God or in the Liturgies of the Church or in the common speech of good Christian people then to entitle our Redeemer by the name of the LORD and to entitle him thereby in so clear a manner as to make it more peculiar to him then to God the Father So that in all the antient Liturgies both Greek and Latine when the name of God the Father and of God the Son occur in the same Prayer or Hymne as they often do the name of Lord is constantly appropriated unto God the Son And so we also finde it in our English Liturgie According to thy promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesu our Lord as in the general Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST in the Absolution through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost as in some of the Collects And this the Church did learn no doubt from the like expression of St. Paul who thus gives the blessing The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and not of the Lord God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost and not of the Lord holy Ghost be with you all Amen And thus it also stands in the present Creed in which the title of Lord is appropriated only to the Son and neither added to the Father nor the holy Ghost Nor is he called LORD only in general tearms
is to be observed that Christ now seeing all was finished which God required at his hands to the satisfaction of his justice for the sins of man and having fulfilled all those things which were spoken of him by the Prophets did voluntarily of his own accord deliver up his soul into the hands of his Father He had before told us of himself that he was the good Shepheard which giveth his life for the sheep Ioh. 10.11 that no man had power to take it from him Si nemo utique nec mors and if none then not death as we read in Chrysostom but that he laid it down of himself vers 18. and that he gave his life as a ransome for many Matth. 20.28 And the event shewed that he was no braggard or had said more then he was able to perform For the Evangelists declare that he had sense and speech and voluntary motion to the last gasp of his breath all which do evidently fail in the sons of men before the soul parteth from the body Which breathing out of his soul so presently upon so strong a cry and so lowd a prayer seemed so miraculous to the Centurion who observed the same that without expecting any further Miracle he acknowledged presently that truly this was the Son of God And this St. Hierom noted rightly The Centurion hearing Christ say to his Father Into thy hands I commend my Spirit statim sponte dimisisse spiritum and presently of his own accord to give up the ghost moved with the greatness of the wonder said Truly this man was the Son of God The Fathers generally do affirm the same ascribing this last act of our Saviours Tragedy not to extremity of pain or loss of bloud to any outward violence or decay of spirits but as his own voluntary deed and that though God the Father had decreed he should die yet he did give him leave and power to lay down his life of his own accord that his obedience to the will and pleasure of his heavenly Father might appear more evidently and the oblation of himself be the more acceptable And to this purpose saith St. Ambrose Quasi arbiter exuendi suscipiendique corporis emisit spiritum non amisit i. e. he did not lose his soul though he breathed it forth as one that had it in his own power both to assume his body and to put it off Eusebius to the same purpose also When no man had power over Christs soul he himself of his own accord laid it down for man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so being free at his own disposing and not over-ruled by outward force he himself of himself made his departure from the body The judgement of the rest of the Fathers touching this particular he that list to see let him consult St. Augustine lib. 4 de Trinit c. 13. Victor Antiochen in Marc. c. 15. Leo de Passione Dom. serm 16. Fulgentius lib. 3. ad Thrasimundum Sedulius in Opere Paschali lib. 5. c. 17. Beda in Matth. c. 27. Bernard in Feria 4. Hebdom poenosae And for the Greeks Athanasius Orat. 4. contra Arianos Origen in Ioh. Hom. 19. Gregorie Nyssen in Orat. 1. de Christi Resurrectione Nazianzen in his Tragedy called Christus patiens Chrysostom in Matth. 27. Homil. 89. Theophylact on the 27. of Matth. and the 23. of Mark. and the 23. of Luke And for late Writers Erasmus on Luk. 23. and Mark 15. Musculus on the 27. of Matthew and Gualter Hom. 169. on Iohn all which attest most punctually to the truth of this that the death of Christ was not meerly natural proceeding either from any outward or inward causes but only from his own great power and his holy will And to what purpose note they this but first to shew the conquest which he had of death whom he thus swallowed up in victory as the Apostle doth express it and secondly to shew that whereas natural death was the wages of sin which could not be inflicted on him in whom no sin was he therefore did breath out his soul in another manner then is incident to the sons of men to make himself a free-will offering to the Lord his God and make himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankinde by yeelding willingly to that death which their sins deserved And to this death this voluntary but bodily death of the Lord CHRIST IESVS and to that alone the Scriptures do ascribe that great work of the worlds redemption For thus St. Paul unto the Romans When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.11 to the Hebrews thus For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 9.15 if by Christs death it must be by his bodily death by effusion of his bloud and by no other death or kinde of death of what sort soever And to this truth the Scriptures witness very frequently For thus St. Paul we have redemption through his bloud Ephes. 1.7 By his own bloud hath he entred into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 St. Peter thus Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Finally thus the Elders say unto the Lamb in the Revelation Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud Apocal. 5 9. Which being so it is most certain that Christ abolished sin and Satan by suffering his body to be slain his bloud to be shed unto the death or the sins of the world and not by any other way or means co-ordinate with it as some lately fable Yet so it is that some men not content with that way of Redemption which is delivered in the Scriptures have fancyed to themselves another and more likely means for perfecting that great work of the death of Christ and teach us that the shedding of his bloud to the death of his body had not been sufficient for the remission of our sins if he had not also suffered the death of the soul and thereby wholly ransomed us from the wrath of God Calvin first led the dance in this affirming very desperately that I say no worse Nihil actum esse si corporea tantum morte defunctus fuisset that Christ had done nothing to the purpose if he had dyed no other then a bodâ—ly death He must then die the death of the soul seeing that his bodily death would not serve the turn and they who pretermit this part of our Redemption never known before and do insist so much externo carnis supplicio in the outward sacrifice of his flesh are insulsi nimis but silly fellows
this blessed Spirit on the particular Members of his Congregation that is to say the joyning of the Saints together in an holy Communion the free remission of our sins in this present life resurrection of the body after death and the uniting again of Soul and Body unto life eternal This is the sum and method of the following Articles and these we shall pursue in their order beginning first with that of the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance I implore to guide me in the waies of Truth that so the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be alwayes acceptable in the sight of God the Lord my strength and my Redeemer But because the word or notion of the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various signification in the Book of God we will first look upon it in those significations and then conclude on that which is chiefly pertinent to the intent and purpose of the present Article For certainly the Orators Rule is both good and useful viz. Prius dividenda antequam definienda sit oratio That we must first distinguish of the Termes in all Propositions before we come unto a positive definition of them According to which Rule if we search the Scripture we shall there find that the Holy Ghost is first taken personaliter or essentialiter for the third person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity We find him in this sense in the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour as the principal Agent in that Work The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Luk. 1.35 And in his Baptism descending on him like a Dove to fit him and prepare him for the Prophetical Office he was then to exercise And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luk. 3.22 From which descent St. Peter telleth us that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and that from thenceforth he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil In the next place the Holy Ghost is used in Scripture to signifie the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit as in Act. 2. where it is said of the Apostles that they were all filled with the holy Ghost ver 4. not with his essence or his person but with the impressions of the Spirit the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost such as the Gift of Tongues mentioned in the following words The Gift of the Holy Ghost as it is called expresly Ver. 38. Thus read we also that the holy Ghost was given by the hands of Peter Act. 8.17 18. And by the hands of Paul Act. 19.6 In which we read that when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and Prophesied which last words are a commentary upon those before and shew that by the holy Ghost which did come upon them is meant the Gift of Tongues and the power of Prophecying both which the holy Ghost then conferred upon them And lastly it is taken not onely for the ability of doing Miracles as speaking with strange Tongues Prophecying curing of Diseases and the like to these but for the Authority and Power which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people As when Christ breathed on his Apostles and said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that is to say Receive ye an holy and spiritual power over the soules of men a part whereof consisteth in the remitting and retaining of sins mentioned in the words next following and serving as a Comment to explaine the former In which respect the Holy Ghost said unto certain of the Elders in the Church of Antioch Segregate mihi Barnabam Saulum Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 It is the Holy Ghost which cals it is his work to which they were called and therefore separate mihi separate to me may not unfitly be expounded to my Work and Ministery and consequently to the authority and power which belongs unto it Which being premised the meaning of the Article will in briefe be this That we beleeve not onely that there is such a person as the Holy Ghost in the Oeconomy of the blessed Trinity though that be principally intended but that he doth so distribute and dispose of his Gifts and Graces as most conduceth to the edification of the Church of Christ. But this I cannot couch in a clearer way as to the sense and doctrine of the Church of England than in the words of Bishop Iewel who doth thus expresse it Credimus spiritum sanctum qui est tertia persona in sacra Triadi illum verum esse Deum c. i. e. we beleeve that the Holy Ghost who is the Third Person in the holy Trinity is very God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding both from the Father and the Son by an unspeakable means and unknowne to man and that it is his property to mollifie and soften mans heart when he is once received thereinto either by the wholesome Preaching of the Gospel or by any other way that he doth give men light and guide them to the knowledge of God to the wayes of truth to newnesse of life and to everlasting hope of salvation This being the sum of that which is to be beleeved of the Holy Ghost both for his Person and his Office we will first look upon his Person on his Property or Office afterwards And yet before we come unto his Person I mean his Nature and his Essence We will first look a little on the quid Nominis the name by which he is expressed in the Book of God In the Original he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a double Article as Luk. 3.22 in Latine Spiritus sanctus or the Holy Spirit but generally in our English Idiom the Holy Ghost The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to breath and is the same with the Latine Spiro from whence comes Spiritus or the Spirit a name not given as I suppose because he doth proceed from the Father or the Son or both in the way of breathing though Christ be said to breath upon his Apostles when he said receive the Holy Ghost but because the breath being in it selfe an incorporeal substance and that which is the great preservative of all living creatures it got the name first of Spiritus vitae we read it in our English the breath of life Gen. 11.7 and afterwards came to be the name of all unbodyed incorporeal essences For thus is God said to be a Spirit God is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 The Angels are called Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 the Soule of man is called his Spirit let us cleanse our selves saith the Apostle from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit that is of the body and
and then subjoyns Glorifie God therefore in your body And doth not the same Father infer from thence the Deitie or Godhead of the Holy Ghost Ne quisquam Spiritum Sanctum negaret Deum continuo sequutus ait Glorificate portate Deum in corpore vestro Lest any man saith he should possibly deny the Holy Ghost to be God he addes immediately Glorifie and bear God in your bodies To seek for Testimonies from more of the Fathers to confirm this point were to run into an endless Ocean of Allegations there being few who lived after the rising of the Arian and Macedonian Heresies who have not written whole Tracts in defence hereof and none at all who give not very pregnant evidence to the cause in hand But where the Scripture is so clear what need they come in And so exceeding clear is Scripture as is shewn already that I marvel with what confidence it could be said by Doctor Harding in his Reply to Bishop Iewel That though the Doctrine of the Church of England were true and Catholick in this point yet we had neither express Scripture for it nor any of the four first General Councils and thereon tacitely inferreth That the Deity of the Holy Ghost depended for the proof thereof not on holy Scripture but on the Tradition of the Church and the Authority of some subsequent Councils of the Popes confirming To which that learned Prelate wittily replieth That if God cannot be God unless he be allowed of by the Pope and Church of Râ—me then we are come again to that which Tertullian wrote merrily of the Heathens saying Nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit i.e. Unless God humor man he shall not be God Some further Arguments may be used to confirm this Truth and they no less concludent than those before As namely from the Form of Baptism ordained by Christ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost From the Form of Benediction used by St. Paul The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost From the Doxologie or Form of giving glory used in the Church and used as St. Basil confidently averreth from the first beginning Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And finally from the place it holds in the present Creed composed by the joynt concurrence of the Blessed Apostles But that which I shall specially insist upon is that passage in three of the Evangelists touching the sinâ—t â—t blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God which is there said to be of that heinous nature that it shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.32 That is to say It shall never have forgiveness as S. Mark expounds it Mark 3.29 St. Ambrose gathereth from this Text a concluding Argument against the Macedonian and Eunomian Hereticks who held the Holy Ghost to be onely a created power Quomodo inter Creaturas aâ—det quisquam Spiritum Sanctum computare c. How dareth any man saith he compute the Holy Ghost amongst the rest of the Creatures considering that it is affirmed by the Lord himself That whosoever speaketh against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And to this inference of his we may well subscribe though the sin or blasphemy spoken of by our Lord and Saviour was not against the Person of the Holy Ghost but against his Power For that no sin or heresie against his person was so irremissible as to exclude the offending party from all hope of pardon is evident by the constant practise of the Primitive Church which as St. Chrysostom observeth used daily to receive again to the Word and Sacraments the Eunomian Hereticks on the recanting of their Error That therefore being not the siâ— which is here intended it would be worth the while and very pertinent to our present business to enquire into it though as St. Augustine notes right well In omnibus Scripturis sanctis nulla major quaestio nulla difficilior That there is not a greater nor more difficult question in all the Scripture And well might he say so of all men who in delivering his own judgement upon the point doth so much vary from himself that it is impossible to finde what he doth resolve on For sometimes he makes it to be final impenitency as Lib. de fide ad Pet. c. 3. Sometimes to be despair of Gods mercy as in his Comment on the Romans Sometimes to be a denying of the Churches power to forgive sins as in his Eucheirid c. 83. Sometimes to be sins of malice as De Ser. Domini in monte l. 1. And sometimes neerer to the truth to be an ascribing of the works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil as in his Tract De Quâ—st ex utroque Testam quaest 102. Nor do the Writers of the former or later times agree better in this point with one another than that Learned Father with himself Some holding it to be a renouncing of the Faith of Christ as the Novatians others the denying of the Divinity of Christ as Hilary Philastrius extending it unto every Heresie and Origen whom some of the Novatians also followed to every sin committed after Baptism For later Writers the Schoolmen generally make it to be sins of malice affirming sins of infirmity to be committed against the Father whose proper attribute is Power and sins of ignorance against the Son whose proper attribute is Wisdom and therefore sins against the Holy Ghost must be sins of malice because his attribute is Love And on the other side the Protestants as generally do make it to be final Apostasie or a wilful and malicious resisting of the Truth to the very last And so it is defined by Calvin who makes them to be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost Qui divinae veritati cujus fulgore sic per stringuntur ut ignorantiam causari nequeant tamen destinata malicia resistâ—nt in hoc tantum ut resistant that is to say Who out of determined malice resist the known Truth of God with the Beams whereof they are so dazled that they cannot pretend ignorance to the end onely to resist But God forbid that most if at all any of the sins before enumerated should come within the compass of that grievous sentence which is denounced against blaspheming of the Holy Ghost For if either every sin committed after Baptism or every sin of malice or despair of mercy or falling into heresie especially in that large sense as Philastrius takes it should be uncapable of pardon it were almost impossible for any man to be sayed And for the rest final Impenitency is not so properly a particular and distinct species
of sin as a general circumstance which may accompany any sin And many of those who have renounced the Faith of Christ under persecution or called his divinity in question did afterwards recant their Errors and became good Christians Final Apostasie indeed and a malicious resisting of the known Truth till the very last are most grievous sins and shall no question be rewarded with eternal punishment as every other sin shall be which is not expiated with Repentance but can with no more right or reason be called the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than unrepented Murder unrepented Adultery unrepented Heresie or any other of that nature Therefore to set this business right it is judiciously observed by my Learned Friend Sir R. F. in his Tractate Of the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost First That this sin so much disputed and debated in neither of the three Evangelists which record this passage is called The sin against the Holy Ghost but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Secondly That blaspheming according to the true Etymon of the Word is a blasting of the fame of another man a malicious detracting from him or speaking against him as both St. Matthew and St. Luke do expound the word Matth. 12.32 and Luke 12.10 Thirdly That these words were spoken by our Saviour Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Miracles affirming That that wondrous work of casting out Devils which he had wrought by the power of the Spirit of God as he himself affirmeth Matth. 12.28 was done by the power and help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Vers. 24. And Fourthly That the Scribes and Pharisees being the eye-witnesses of such miracles as might make them know that Christ was a Teacher come from God did notwithstanding lay that reproach upon them to the end That the people being beaten off from giving credit to his miracles should give no faith unto his Doctrine Upon which grounds he builds this definition of it viz. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was an evil-speaking or slandering of the miracles of our Saviour Christ by those who though they were convinced by the miracles to believe that such works could not be done but by the power of God did yet maliciously say That they were wrought by the power of the Devil And hereupon he doth infer these two following Corollaries First That we have no safe rule to conclude that any but the Scribes and Pharisees and their confederates committed in those times this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so condemned by Christ And Secondly That it is a matter of probability that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not a sin committable by any Christian who lived not in the time of our Lord and Saviour And to say truth If such a sin were practicable by us Christians since it must needs be a very great marvel if not somewhat more that the Apostles who were very precise and punctual in dehorting from all manner of sin should never in any of their Epistles take notice of this or give us any Caveat to beware thereof and in particular that St. Paul making a specification of the fruits of the Spirit and such a general muster of the works of the flesh as are repugnant thereunto should not so much as give a glance which doth look this way To countenance the opinion of this Learned Gentleman I shall adde here the judgement of two learned Iesuites Maldonates first Who makes this sin to be the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing our Saviour cast out Devils Manifesta Spiritus Sancti opera daemoni tribuebant ascribed the visible works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil Of Estius next who distinguishing betwixt the sin against the Holy Ghost and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost referreth to the first all sins of determined malice to the second onely such malicious and slanderous reproaches against the mighty works of God Quale erat illud Scribarum divina miracula malitiosè calumniantium As was that of the Scribes maliciously slandering our Saviours miracles And if it be a sin or blasphemy call it which you will not acted but by them and on that occasion it is not practicable now But leaving this to the determination of the Church of England lawfully and Canonically represented in an holy Synod to which that Learned Gentleman doth submit his judgement proceed we on in our discourse of the Holy Ghost concerning whose Divinity or Godhead there is not so much difference in the Christian World as in the manner of his Procession or Emission And here indeed the World hath been long divided the Greek Church keeping themselves to express words of Scripture making him to proceed from the Father onely the Latines on the Authority of some later Councils and Logical inferences from the Scripture making him to proceed both from Father and the Son And though these last may seem to have the worst end of the Cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain Text of Scripture yet do they Anathematize and curse the other as most desperate Hereticks if not Apostates from the Faith Nor will they admit of any medium towards reconcilement although the controversie by moderate and sober men is brought to a very narrow issue and seemeth to consist rather in their Forms of Speech than any material Terms of Difference For Damascen the great Schoolman of the Eastern Church though he deny that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son yet he granteth him to be Spiritum filii per filium to proceed from the Father by the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son And Bessarion and Gennadius two of the Grecian Divines who appeared in the name of that Church in the Council of Florence and were like to understand the meaning of Damascen better than any of the Latines affirmed as Bellarmine tells us of them That he denied not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as to the truth of his proceeding Sed existimasse tutius dici per filium quam ex filio quoad modum loquendi but thought onely that it was the safer expression to say That he proceeded by the Son than from the Son And Clictoveus in his Comment on that Book of Damascen l. 1. c. 12. is of opinion That the difference between the East and Western-Churches as to this particular is In voce potius modo explicandi quam in ipsa re More in the terms and manner of expression than the thing it self The Master of the Sentences doth affirm as much saying That the Greeks do differ from the Latines Verbo non sensu not in the meaning of the Point but the forms of Speech And more than so The Greeks saith he confess the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of the Son with the Apostle Gal. 4. And the Spirit of Truth with the Evangelist Joh.
16. And since it is not another thing to say The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and the Son than that he is or proceeds from the Father and the Son in this they seem to agree with us in eandem fidei sententiam on the same doctrine of Faith though they differ in words Thus also Rob. Grosthead the learned and renowned Bishop of Lincoln as he is cited by Scotus a famous Schoolman delivereth his opinion touching this great Controversie The Grecians saith he are of opinion that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Son but that he proceedeth not from the Son but from the Father onely yet by the Son which opinion seemeth to be contrary to ours But happily if two wise and understanding men the one of the Greek Church and the other of the Latine both lovers of the truth and not of their own expressions did meet to consider of this seeming contrariety it would in the end appear Ipsam contrarietatem non esse veraciter realem sicut est vocalis That the difference is not real but verbal onely Azorius the great Casuist goeth further yet and upon due examination of the state of the Question not onely freeth the Greeks from Heresie but from Schism also By consequence the Church of Rome hath run into the greater and more grievous error in condemning every Maundy Thursday in their Bulla Coenae the whole Eastern Churches which for ought any of her own more sober children are able to discern on deliberation are fully as Orthodox as her self in the truth of Doctrine and more agreeable to antiquity in their forms of Speech For if we please to look into the Antient Writers we shall finde Tertullian saying very positively Spiritum non aliunde quam à Patre per filium which is the very same with that of Damascen before delivered And Ierom though a stout maintainer of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son also yet doth he sometimes fall upon this expression Spiritus à Patre egreditur propter naturae societatem à filio mittitur That he proceedeth from the Father and is sent by the Son which none of the Greek Church will deny But if we look upon the Fathers of the Eastern Churches we shall finde not onely private men as Basil Nazianzen Nyssen Cyril not to descend so low as Damascen to make no mention of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son at all but a whole Synod of 180 Prelates gathered together in the second General Council at Constantinople to be silent in it though purposely assembled to suppress the Heresie of Macedonius who had denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost For in the Constantinopolitan Creed according as it stands in all old Records the Fathers having ratified the Nicene Creed added these words for the declaring of their Faith in the Holy Ghost viz. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of Life who proceedeth from the Father who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets No word in this of his proceeding from the Son And though this Creed was afterwards continued in the Council of Ephesus yet so far was that Council from altering any thing which had been formerly delivered as to this paâ—ticular that it imposed a curse on those who should adde unto it And so it stood a long time in the Christian Church possessing that part in the Publick Liturgies which it still retaineth But in some tract of time some Spanish Bishops in the eighth Council of Toledo added the clause à filioque and made it to run thus in their publick Formulas who proceedeth from the Father and the Son The French not long after followed their example but still the Church of Rome adhered to the old expression Whereupon Charls the Great commanded a Council of his Prelates to be held at Aken Aquisgranum it is called in Latine to consider somewhat better of this addition and caused some of them to be sent to Pope Leo the third to have his opinion in the matter who was so far from giving any allowance unto the addition that he perswaded them to leave it out by little and little And nor content to give this Counsel unto them for fear lest the addition might creep in at Rome he caused the Constantinopolitan Creed to be fairly written out on a Table of Silver and placed it behinde the Altar of St. Peter to the end it might remain unto posterity as a lasting Monument of the true Faith which he professed The like distast did Iohn the eighth declare against this addition in a Letter by him written unto Photius Patriark of Constantinople in which he gives him to understand not onely that they had no such addition in the Church of Rome but that he did condemn them who were Authors of it adding withal That as he was careful for his part to cause all the Bishops of the West to be so perswaded of it as he was himself so that he did not think it reasonable that any should be violently constrained to leave out the addition But after in the yeer 883 Pope Nicholas the first caused this clause à filioque to be added also to the Creed in all the Churches under the Command and Jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome and from thence-forwards did they brand the Greek Churches with the brand of Heresie for not admitting that clause to the Antient Creeds which they themselves had added of their own Authority without the consent of the Eastern Churches or so much as the pretence of a General Council But as my Lord of Canterbury hath right well observed in his learned Answer unto Fisher It is an hard thing to adde and anathematize too And yet to that height of uncharitableness did they come at last that whereas it was the miserable fortune of Constantinople to be taken by the Turks upon Whitsunday being the Festival of the coming of the Holy Ghost this was given out to be a just judgment on them from the Almighty for thinking so erroneously of his Blessed Spirit as if it might not be concluded in as good form of Logick That sure the Knights of Rhodes had in their lives and actions denied Christ who bought them because that Town and all the Iland was taken by the Turks upon Christmas-day or that the People of Chios had denied and abnegated the Resurrection of our Saviour who redeemed them because that Town and therewith all the Iland also was taken by the said Turks upon Easter-day I have now done with so much of the present Article as relates unto the Person of the Holy Ghost which is the first signification of the term or notion as it is taken personaliter and essentialiter We must next look upon the word as it is used to signifie in the Book of God the gifts and graces of the
from the Virgin Mary The only Son and the best beloved Son equivalent in holy Scripture Christ why entituled the first born of every creature The rights of Primogeniture what they were and how vested in him CHRIST so to be accounted the Son of God as to be also God the Son That the Messiah was to come in the form of man The testimony given by Christ to his own Divinity cleared from all exceptions The story of Theodosius the Iew in Suidas touching Christ our Saviour justified The testimony given to Christs Divinity by the Heathen Oracles The falling of the Egyptian Idols the Poet Virgil and the Roman Centurion The Heresies of Ebion Artemon and Samosatenus in making Christ our Saviour a meer natural man briefly recited and condemned The perplexed niceties of the School avoided purposely by the Author The name of LORD appropriated in the Old Testament unto God the Father but more peculiar since the time of the Gospel to God the Son The title of LORD disclaimed by the first Roman Emperours and upon what reasons CHRIST made our LORD not only in the right of purchase but also by the law of Arms. CHAP. III. Of Gods free mercy in the Redemption of man the WORD why fitted to effect it The Incarnation of the Word why attributed to the holy Ghost the Miracle thereof made credible both to Jews and Gentiles THe controversie between Mercy Peace Truth and Iustice on the fall of man made up and reconciled by the oblation of Christ then designed and promised That God could have saved mankinde by some other means then by the Incarnation and death of Christ had he been so minded The Oblation of Christ rather a voluntary act of his own meer goodness then necessitated by imposition or decree Some reasons why the work of the Incarnation was to be acted chiefly by the holy Ghost The manner of the Incarnation with a more genuine explication of the Virgins answer The miraculous obumbration of the holy Ghost made more intelligible by two parallel cases The impure fancies of some Romish Votaries touching this Obumbration and the blessed Virgin The large faculties of Frier Tekell Sleidan corrupted by the Papists The strange conceit of Estius in making Christ the principal if not only Agent in the Incarnation The miracle of the Incarnation made perceptible to the natural man to the Iews and Gentiles The Virgins Faith a great facilitating to the Incarnation The Antiquity of the feasts of Annuntiation Christ why not called the Son of the holy Ghost The body of Christ not formed all at once as some Popishs writers doe affirm and the reasons why CHAP. IV. Of the birth of CHRIST the Feast of his Nativity Why born of a Virgin The Prophesie of Esaiah the Parentage and priviledges of the blessed Virgin NO cause for the WORD to be made flesh but mans Redemption Our Saviour Christ not only born but made of the Virgin Mary and the manner how That several Heresies in the Primitive times touching this particular The time and place made happy by our Saviours birth That Christ was born upon the five and twentyeth day of December proved by the general consent of all Christian Churches The high opinion of that day in the Primitive times The miracle of Christ being born of a Virgin Mother made perceptible by some like cases in the Book of God A parallel between Eve and the Virgin Mary The promise made by God to Eve The clearest Prophesie in Scripture that Christ our Saviour should be born of a Virgin-Mother That so much celebrated Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive c. not meant originally and literally of the birth of Christ. The genuine meaning of the Text and how it was fulfilled in our Saviours birth Whether Christ were the direct heir of the house of David The Genealogie of Christ why laid down in such different wayes by the two Evangelists The perpetual Virginity of Christs Mother asserted against the Hereticks of former times defended on wrong grounds by the Pontificians The Virgin freed from Original sin by some zealous Papists and of the controversie raised about it in the Church of Rome What may be warrantably thought touching that particular The extreme errours of Helvidius and the Antidicomaritani in giving too little and of the Collyridians and the Papists on the other side in giving too great honour to the blessed Virgin Some strange extraâ—vigancies of the learned and vulgar Papists The moderation in that kinde of the Church of England The body of Christ a real not an imaginary substance and subject to the passions and infirmities of a natural body CHAP. V. Of the sufferings of our Saviour under Pontius Pilate and first of those temptations which he suffered at the hands of the Devil ANnas and Caiaphas why said to be High Priests at the self same time Of Pontius Pilate his barbarous and rigid nature and of the slaughter which he made of the Galileans By what SPIRIT for what reasons and into what part of the Wilderness Christ was led to be tempted A parallel between Christ and the Scape-goat Reasons for our Redeemers fast why neither more nor less then just forty days Of the Ember weeks The institution and antiquity of the Lenten fast and why first ordained St. Luke and St. Matthew reconciled A short view of the three temptations with a removal of some difficulties which concern the same How Satan could shew Christ our Saviour from the top of a mountain and in so short a space of time the Kingdomes of the earth and the glories of them In what respects it is said of Christ that he was or could be tempted of the Devil CHAP. VI. Of the afflictions which our Saviour suffered both in his soul and body under Pontius Pilate in the great work of MANS REDEMPTION THe heaviness which fel on Christ not so great and terrible as to deprive him of his senses In what respect it is said of Christ in his holy Gospel that his soul was sorrowful to the death The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth in the holy Penmen The meaning of our Saviours words Ioh. 12.27 No contrariety in Christs Prayer to the will of God Why death appeared so terrible in our Saviours eye The judgement of the Antients on that Prayer of Christ. The doctrine of the Schools touching the natural fear of death Why Christ desired not to receive that Cup from the hands of the Iews Of the comfort which the Angel brought unto our Saviour in the time of his heaviness A passage of St. Paul expounded Heb. 57. The meaning of the word Agony in the best Greek Writers and in the usual style of Scripture Christs Agony and bloudy sweat rather to be imputed unto a fervency of zeal then an extremity of pain The sentence put upon our Saviour in the High Priests Hall and at the Iudgement Seat of Pilate A brief survey of Christs sufferings both in soul and
everlasting and after preached by the Apostles both to Iew and Gentile was finally committed unto writing to this end and purpose that by reading it or hearing it read and declared by others we may believe that IESVS is the CHRIST the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his name as St. Iohn assures us And though this be affirmed by him of his Gospel only I mean that written by himself yet we may safely say the same of all the rest of the Apostolical and Evangelical writings as being dictated by the same Spirit writ by men equally inspired and all conducing to this end to teach us to know IESVS CHRIST and him crucifyed and to enable us to give a reason to all that aske of the faith that is in us But being the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were of too great a bulk to be committed unto memory and that there were some things in them so obscure and difficult that many ignorant and unstable but well meaning men both might and did wrest them to their own destruction other things which related rather unto moral duties then to points faith it was thought fit by the Apostles to draw the points of saving faith such as were necessarily to be believed of all Christian people into a briefe and narrower compasse It was not for the ordinary sort of men to trouble themselves with doubtful disputations as St. Paul calleth them whereof many do occurre in his Epistles disputes of too great difficulty and sublime a nature for every man especially the weak in faith either to understand or conceive aright Nor was it possible that men of mean parts and laborious callings of which the Church consisted for the most part in the first beginning should either have so much leasure as to read over their writings or so much judgment as to gather and collect from thence what of necessity was to be believed that they might be saved what not or so much memory as to treasure up and repeat by heart the infinite treasures of divine knowledge which are comprehended in the same And if it were so as no doubt it was when the Apostles and Evangelists had left those excellent Monuments of themselves in writing which the Church hath ever since enjoyed to which men might resort as occasion was for their information and instruction how necessary then must we think it was for some such Summarie and Abstract of the Christian faith to be resolved upon amongst them which men of weak memories might repeat by heart and men of shallow comprehensions righly understand Those blessed souls knew well none better how to apply themselves to the capacities of the weakest men that there were many Babes in Christ who were to be fed with milk and not with meats and that if they became not all things unto all men they must resolve amongst themselves to save but few Upon this ground then which what juster could there be to induce them to it it is conceived they drew up that brief abstract of the Christian faith which we call the CREED and couched therein whatever point was necessary for all sorts of men in all times and all places of the world both to believe in their hearts as also to professe and confesse upon all occasions though to the apparent hazard of their lives and fortunes And why this might not be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that form of sound words whereof St. Paul saith to Timothy Hold fast that form of sound words thou hast heard of me I must confesse that I could never yet see a convincing reason Certain I am that Irenaeus who lived very near the Apostles times hath said of this confession of the faith this Creed which hath so generally and unanimously been received over all the world Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad fines terrae c. The Church saith he throughout the world even to the ends of the earth received from the Apostles and their Disciples that faith which believeth in one God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth c. and in IESVS CHRIST the Son of God incarnate for our salvation and in the holy Spirit which preached by the Prophets the dispensation and coming of God and the birth of CHRIST our Lord by the Virgin his passion resurrection and ascension with his flesh into heaven and his coming from heaven in the glory of his Father to raise up all flesh and to give just judgement unto all Which words lest possibly we might interpret of the doctrine of faith which questionlesse was alwayes one and the same over all the world and not of any summary or abstract which they had digested for the use and benefit of Gods people or think that they relate rather to the substance of faith then to any set and determinate form of words in which that substance was delivered let us behold what the same Father hath delivered in another place This faith saith he which the Church though dispersed through the world received from the Apostles and their Disciples yet notwithstanding doth it keep it as safe as if it dwelt within the wals of one house and as uniformly hold N. B. as if it had but one only heart and soul and this as consonantly it preacheth teacheth and delivereth as if but one tongue did speak for all He addes which makes the point more plain that though there be different languages in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the effect and summe of the tradition i. e. the faith delivered in that forme is one and the same and I presume he means not by tradition those doctrines of faith which are delivered in the books and writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Finally he concludes with this expression and it is worthily worth our marking in the present case that he amongst the Governours of the Church who is best able to speak saith no more then this and no lesse then this the simplest and the most ignorant person which certainly he had not said but that there was one uniforme and determinate order of words which every one was bound to learn and adhere unto Tertullian he speaks plainer yet and affirmes expresly regulam fidei unam omnino esse solam immobilem et irreformabilem that there is but one rule of faith at all and that unmoveable and unalterable How could he say that there was but one rule of faith in the Church if every several Church had a several rule or that it was unmoveable and unalterable as he saith it was if there were no certain form of words prescribed which men were to keep to but every one might change and alter as he saw occasion So that I take it for a truth unquestionable that in the first ages nay the first beginnings of the Church of CHRIST there was a certain form of words prescribed for the ease and benefit of the Church a summarie or abstract of the Articles
only teach Posterity to give none to himself And having thus asserted the authority of the Creed which I have in hand declared the course and purposes of this following work and shewn you what grounds I am especially resolved to proceed upon I shall with the assistance of Gods gracious Spirit fall roundly to the work it self taking the Articles in order as they lie before me And yet before I shall descend unto particulars I think it not amiss to adde the testimony and consent of Calvin to that which is before delivered touching the Authors and authority of this common Creed according as I finde it in an old Translation of his Book of Institutes for I have not the Original now by me printed at London in the year 1561. And thus saith he Hitherto I have followed the order of the Apostles Creed because whereas it comprehendeth shortly in few words the chief Articles of our Redemption it may serve us for a Table wherein we do distinctly and severally see those things that are in Christ worthy to be taken heed unto I call it the Apostles Creed not over carefully regarding who were the Authors of the same It is verily by great consent of old Writers ascribed to the Apostles either because they thought it was by common travail written and set out by the Apostles or for that they judged that this Abridgement being faithfully gathered out of the doctrine delivered by the hands of the Apostles was worthy to be confirmed by such a Title And I take it to be out of doubt that from whence soever it proceeded at the first it hath even from the first beginning of the Church and from the very time of the Apostles been used as a publick Confession and received by the consent of all men And it is likely that it was not privately written by any one man for as much as it is evident that even from the farthest age it hath alwayes continued of sacred authority and credit among all the godly But that which is only to be cared for we have wholly out of controversie which is that the whole History of our Faith is briefly and well in distinct order rehearsed in it and that there is nothing contained therein which is not sealed with sound testimonies of the Scripture Which being understanded it is to no purpose either curiously to doubt or to strive with any man who were the Authors of it unless perhaps it be not enough for some man to be assured of the truth of the holy Ghost but if he do also understand either by whose mouth it was spoken or by whose hand it was written So he And this is very much for one who was no greater Champion of the antient Farmulas THEOLOGIA VETERVM OR THE SUMME OF Christian Theologie Positive Polemical and Philological CONTAINED IN THE Apostles CREED Or reducible to it According to the tendries of the Antients both GREEKS and LATINES THE FIRST BOOK By PETER HEYLYN Heb. 11.6 3. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Through faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Seile 1654. ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΠΤΩΠΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΠSymbolum Apostolicum secundum Graecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symbolum Apostolicum secundum Latinos St. PETRUS 1. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem St. JOHANNES 2. Creatorem coeli terroe St. JACOBUS 3. Credo in Iesum Christum filium ejus unicum dominum nostrum St. ANDREAS 4. Qui conceptus est de Spiritu sancto natus ex Virgine Maria St. PHILIPPUS 5. Passus est sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus mortuus sepultus St. THOMAS 6. Descendit ad inferos tertia die resurrexit a mortuis St. BARTHOLOMAEUS 7. Ascendit in coelos sedet ad dextram dei Patris omnipotentis St. MATTHAEUS 8. Inde venturus judicare vivos mortuos St. JACOBUS ALPHAEI 9. Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam St. SIMOE ZELOTES 10. Sanctorum communionem remissionem peccatorum St. JUDAS JACOBI FR. 11. Carnis Resurrectionem St. MATTHIAS 12. Et vitam aeternam Amen ARTICLE I. Of the First ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. PETER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem i. e. I beleeve in God the Father almighty CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of Faith the meaning of the Phrase in Deum credere the Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions HAving thus vindicated the Authority of the common Creed and intimated the design and project of this present work I now proceed unto the Explication of it and every branch and Article therein contained as they lie in order beginning first of all with that which testifieth our Faith and belief in him which is the first of all beginnings A Iove principium was the rule of old and a more excellent Rule then that who can teach us now But first as a Praecognitum unto all the rest I must insist upon the nature and interpretation of the first word of it which hath a special influence and operation over the whole body of the Formula and giveth denomination to it For from the Latine Credo comes the name of Creed from the first English word which is I believe we call the whole the Articles of our belief and so the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Ecclesiastical notion of it we interpret Faith So that in whatsoever language we behold the same the the word is verbum operativum as the Lawyers cal it a word which hath relation unto every Article to every branch and member of the whole Compositum as I believe in God the Father Almighty I believe in Iesus Christ his only Son I believe that Iesus was conceived of the holy Ghost I believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary I believe that he suffered under Pontus Pilate sic de caeteris And first for the quid nominis of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifieth to assent or to joyn credit or belief to such things as are laid before us As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the old Poet Phocylides that is to say give no credit to the talk of the common people who are unconstant and uncertain in their words and actions Derived it is from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render faith and that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the
the Apostles Creed it is said expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say I believe in the holy Catholick Church and in the Nicene Creed it was said of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in unam Catholicam Ecclesiam as the Translator of Socrates where that Creed occurreth And though the same be not expressed in terminis in the Latine Creed yet in the Grammar of the words it is understood For where the Latine Creeds run thus Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam c. that is to say I believe in the holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church c. as the English hath it either the word Credo must be interposed as Credo in Spiritum sanctam credo sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam i. e. I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the holy Catholick Church or else the Preposition In must relate to both as also to the rest that follow I know indeed that after Credere in Deum or in Iesum Christum was thought to be a different act and degree of faith from Credere Deo or Iesu Christo that men began to think it somewhat inconvenient to say as formerly Credo in sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam or Credo in Mosen Prophetas I believe in the holy Catholick Church or I believe in Moses and the holy Prophets which have been since the world began And so we are to understand both Ruffin and Paschasius when they speak thereof both fitting their expressions to such forms of words as were then authorized in the Schools of CHRIST The like is to be said of St. Augustine also viz. Credimus Paulo non credimus in Paulum c. We believe Paul saith he we believe not in Paul and we believe Peter we believe not in Peter Where note the Father speaks not of the property but of the use of the phrase according to the language of the times he lived in for ab initio non fuit sic that it was otherwise intended at the first beginning we have shewn already Whether the phrase be so peculiar an expression of the holy Ghost as that it is not to be found in the old Greek Writers I will not meddle at the present though I conceive the holy Ghost did dictate nothing of the Scriptures but the matter only and left the language thereof to the sacred Pen-men But for the Septuagint although they do not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preceding an Accusative Case which is the singularity of expression so much insisted on in this business yet use they other words to the same effect For those which stand so highly on singularity cannot choose but grant that many times they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not seldom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes also though not often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which whosoever should translate in the English tongue could not translate it otherwise then thus to believe in God So that whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Deum or Credo in Deo it makes no difference in this case no more then that these words of the Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Beza are translated Crediderunt in nomen ejus but by the Author of the Vulgar in nomine ejus which come both to one This makes it evident in part that the said distinction between Credere Deo credere Deum stands not upon so sure a ground as was imagined but I must make it yet more evident that in the true intent and meaning of the sacred Pen-men there is no difference at all to be found between them For in the 16. chapter of the Acts the Iaylor did demand of Paul and Silas what it behoved him to do that be might be saved vers 30. to which they made this following answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crede in Dominum Iesum Christum c. believe on the Lord IESVS CHRIST and thou shalt be saved and thy house It followeth thereupon in the sacred story that being instructed in the Word and baptized with water he rejoyced greatly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credens Deo as both Beza and the Vulgar read it Believing in God with all his house vers 34. where if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 34. be not the same with that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 31 verse as to the act of faith which is one in both although the Object of this Act be given us in a different manner the Iaylor had fallen short of that way to Heaven and possibly might have been as far from the hopes of Salvation as when he first proposed the question And if they be the same as no doubt they be then Credere Deo Credere in Deum differ not at all and therefore neither the distinction nor the Explication so generally true and universally to be imbraced as hath been supposed which was the first thing to be proved The second was that howsoever Credere in Deum in some texts of Scripture may possibly admit that explication which is made thereof yet can it not be possisibly admitted in this place of the Creed My reason is because all Novices or Catechumeni which were to be admitted into the Church by the dore of Baptism all children formerly baptized which either came or were brought before the Bishop for Confirmation were first to give an account of their faith to make a publick profession or confession of it in the face of the Church according to the very words and Articles of this common Creed For which see proof sufficient in the former chapter Now if by Credere in Deum in Iesum Christum the Church intended such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an adhaesion unto God in IESVS CHRIST such an assurance and perswasion of our interest in him as the phrase is pretended to import the Church did very ill to exact it from the hands of Novices or from the mouths of babes in Christ considering how strong the meat was and how agreeable unto the stomach of the strongest faith My second reason is which before was touched at because if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe in God the Father Almighty in Iesus Christ his only Son and in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life import no less then such a dependence on them as is due from the Creature to his God and that too ex vi Phraseos out of the very prhase or form of speech in Deum credere the same dependence must all Christians have upon the Church the same on the Communion of Saints and the rest that follow Will you have a reason of this reason It is because the very same phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is extant still interminis in tearms exprest in all Greek copies of the Creed and necessarily implyed in the Latine
Synagogue to be the holy Son of God IESVS the Son of God in another place What benefit do they expect from this Confession what recompence for that Belief so professed and published â— but an assurance that they have no part in David nor any inheritance at all in the Son of Iesse How so Because they knew full well no mere Creature better that CHRIST took not on him the nature of Angels but that he took on him the seed of Abraham And if he took not on him the nature of Angels as they knew he did not he could not be a Mediator between them and God and if no Mediator between them and God they have no interest in his merits nor can claim any profit by his death and passion but must continue in that state wherein God hath plunged them for their sins without hope of remedy The Devils then believe but withall they tremble and good reason for it that belief making them assured that their case is desperate and that there is no mercy for them in Gods heavenly Treasury Besides admit the Devil did believe all those sacred truths which are affirmed of CHRIST in the Book of God what will this avail them For must they not then believe this truth amongst the rest that without true repentance there can be no entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven and if they do believe that truth must they not conclude that there can be no place for them in the heavenly glories because the dore of repentance is shut against them and that the Baptism of Repentance is a way to Heaven whereof their nature is not capable Small comfort doubtless in this faith but of anguish plenty So far I had proceeded in this discourse when I incountred with a Treatise of Doctor Iacksons the late Dean of Peterburgh containing the Original of Vnbelief misbelief c. In which I finde so strong a confirmation of my opinion herein that I have thought it not unnecessary to lay down his words for the clear evidence thereof Thus then saith he To believe in God hath gone currant so long for so much as to put trust or confidence in him that now to make it go for less will perhaps be an usurpation of authority more then critical and much greater then befits us Notwithstanding if on Gods behalf we may plead what Lawyers do in cases of the Crown Nullum tempus occurrit Regi that the Antient of days may not be prejudiced by antiquity of custom or prescription especially whose Orignal is erroneous the case is clear That to believe in God in their intention who first composed this Creed is no more then to believe there is a God or to give credence to his Word For justifying this Assertion I must appeal from the English Dialect in which the manner of speech is proper and natural if it were consonant unto the meaning of the Original as also from the Latine in which the phrase being forain and uncouth is to be valued by the Greek whose stamp and character it heareth Now the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also the Hebrew phrase whereunto by sacred Writers it was framed is no more then hath been said To believe there is a God Otherwise we must believe not only in God the Father in Christ the Son and in the holy Ghost but in the Catholick Church in the Communion of Saints in the forgiveness of sins and in the resurrection of the body and in life everlasting seeing the Greek particle usually expressed by the Latine In is annexed after the same manner to all these objects of our belief as is apparent in the Antient Greek Creeds And he that diligently readeth the Translation of the Septuagint shall finde the Greek phrase which is verbatim rendred by the Latine in Deum credere to believe in God promiseâ—ously used for the other credere Deo i. e. to believe God Or if besides the evident Records of the antient Copies personal witnesses be required amongst the Antients I know few amongst Modern Writers none more competent then those that are expresly for us as Beza Mercer Drusius unto whom we may adde Ribera Lorinus also Now as to use the benefit of a truth known and testified is always lawful so to us in this case it is most expedient almost necessary For either I did not rightly apprehend whilest I read it or at least now remember not how the Schoolman removes the stumbling block which he had placed in the very entry to this Creed If to believe in God be as much as to put trust or confidence in him by exacting a profession of this Creed at all mens mouths we shall inforce a great many to profess a ly For of such as not only out of ordinary charity but upon particular probabilities we may safely acquit from actual Atheism or contradicting infidelity a great number do not put their trust or confidence in God this being the mark at which the belief of Novices must aim not the first step they are to make in this progress And not long after he makes answer unto this Objection touching the belief of Devils or of wicked Angels of whom we cannot say say some that they do believe in God though they believe his being more firmly then we can do and know his Word as clearly For as he handsomely illustrates If the Kings Majesty should proclaim a general pardon to a number of known Rebels and vow execution of judgement without mercy upon some principal offenders which had maliciously and cunningly seduced their simplicity I suppose his will and pleasure equally manifested unto both and so believed would as much dishearten the one as incourage the other to relye upon his clemency Such notwithstanding altogether is the case between men and wicked angels The one believes CHRIST took the Womans seed and therefore cannot without such wilful mistrust of the promise of life as was in his first Parents to Gods threats of death despair of Redemption by the eternal Sacrifice The other as firmly believe or rather evidently know that CHRIST in no wise took the Angelical nature and without this ground the better they believe his Incarnation the less are their hopes of their own Redemption As for the third and last Objection touching the overthrow of the distinction of Faith into Historical Temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally received and countenanced in the Protestant Schools it works no effect at all in me who am resolved not to hazard the loss of a truth to save the credit of a distinction Nor are the membra dividentia as Logicians call them so well choyced and stated as either to require such care of their preservation or not to bring them into question For all faith is Historical there 's no doubt of that and the other members of the distinction either are coincident or but degrees only of the same one faith Vrsinus the
In which estate he cast his eyes opon the Gentiles who either knew him not at all or knew no more of him then they could discern through the false lights as it were of depraved nature or the dull spectacles of Philosophie Thus witnesseth St. Paul in the 4. to the Galatians saying that when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem those which were under the law that they might receive the Adoption of sons vers 5. And in the 8. unto the Romans We have saith he received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry unto him Abba Father the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are the heirs of God and coheirs with CHRIST vers 15. Other particulars there are wherein the Adoption of us sinners to the Kingdome of Heaven holds good proportion with Adoptions made upon the earth some of which I shall briefly touch at to make the mysterie of our Adoption the more clear and signal First then Adoption by the Civil or Imperial Laws which is jus Gentium or the Law of Nations as they use to call it however privately agreed upon between the parties was never counted valid of good authority till it was verified by the Magistrates before all the people in the Town-Hall or Common Forum and under such a form of words which either law or custome had prescribed unto them Which form of words too long to be repeated here are extant still in Gellius and Barnabas Brissonius a late French Writer So our adoption unto life is ratified and confirmed unto us by the publick Minister openly in the Church in the Congregation if it may conveniently and under such a Form of words which we may not alter We have not only custom for it but a strict command that we baptize all those which are presented to the Church as the children of God In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost We finde it also in the practise though the law required it not that they who were adopted into any family used presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take unto themselves the name of that house o◠family into the which they were assumed Examples of this truth are infinite almost and obvious in the Roman stories So we being adopted into the kingdom and inheritance of our Saviour CHRIST have took unto our selves Christs name or the name of Christians And the Disciples were first called Christians at Antiochia Act. 11. Suppose we now that our adoption is confirmed ratified by the Magistrate and good in law are we hereby exempted from the power of our Natural Parents Not so the Law is otherwise and resolves it clearly Quod jura Patris naturalis minime solvuntur that the authority of our Natural Parents is the same as formerly Too many of us think not so but being once possessed with a conceit of our adoption to the kingdome of God we cast off all obedience and regard of man Neither our Natural nor our Civil Parents are to be obeyed if once the Son of God hath but made us free Thus did the Anabaptists preach in some parts of Germanie and we have had too many followers of their Doctrines here And last of all it is a Rule or Maxime in the Laws Imperial that children once adopted are to be used and disposed of in all respects ac si justis nuptiis quaesiti as if they were our own by the law of Nature And it doth follow thereupon Haeredes vel instituendi vel exhaeredandi that as we think it fit and as they deserve we may assign them portions out of our estates or exclude them utterly Whether it be thus also in adoptions unto life eternal whether it may not be revoked at the pleasure of GOD if we behave our selves unworthily need not be made a question amongst rational men Or if it be I have no list nor leisure to dispute it here Only I cannot choose but note it as an error in Monsieur de Moulin to ground the irreversible Decree of our Adoption to the Kingdom of Heaven on the like irreversibleness of adoptions here upon the Earth Ex eo quod absoluta sit inter homines adoptio as his own words are But Absque hoc The law we see is otherwise and resolves the contrary And for the error of du Moulin being it is ignorantia juris an error in point of law and not of fact whether and if at all it may be excused I leave to be resolved upon grave advice by some such learned Casuist as his friend Amesius GOD is a Father then by all ways and means by which a name of Father may be gained by any And if a Father as he is no doubt but we shall finde in him the same affections which are in Parents towards their children the same but not with all or any of those imperfections which we observe to be too often intermingled in humane affections Do Parents naturally love their children We finde the love of GOD to his not only to be equal unto that of an earthly father but to surpass the love of women Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb yes saith the Lord they may forget but I will not forget my people Do Parents out of the affection which they bear their children provide them of all necessaries for this present life Do any of them if their children ask for bread give them a stone or if they ask for a fish present him a Serpent Our Saviour thereupon inferreth that if they being evil know how to give good gifts unto their children how much more should our Father which is in Heaven give good things unto them that ask him Assuredly the love of GOD to all his children especially to those which walk after his commandements is infinitely greater then the love of our natural parents to those which are the children after the flesh Out of this love of GOD it is that he giveth us both the former and the latter rain that he makes his Sun to shine on the good and bad that their Oxen are alike strong to labour that their sheep bring forth thousands yea and ten thousands in their streets and finally that their fields do laugh and their medows sing with fruitful plenty Are parents naturally compassionate towards their children when they fall into misery and distress and pity them at least if they cannot help them Behold saith God like as a Father pitieth his own children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him for he knoweth whereof we are made he remembreth that we are but dust Are parents patient and long-suffering towards their children when they do amiss Alas what is this patience of theirs compared to that of GOD towards sinful man The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long-suffering and
of great goodness saith the Prophet David O Hierusalem Heirusalem saith the son of David how often would I have gathered thee together as a Hen doth her Chickens but ye would not But is the patience of a Father so implanted in him that it can never be worn out and converted to anger Not so we know it is a proverb that patientia laesa fit furor the greatest patience if abused may possibly be turned to the greatest fury or anger at the least in the highest degree How angry was old Iacob with his two sons the Brethren in evil when he desired his soul might not come into their secret and prayed to God to scatter them in Jacob and divide them in Israel And cannot God be angry think we with his stubborn and rebellious children when they do wilfully transgress his holy laws and with an high hand violate all his sacred precepts Why then doth he so often punish those that do amiss for Ira Dei non est aliud quam voluntas puniendi as St. Augustine hath it the anger of God is only his just will to chastise the sinner Why then did he repent of his making man or rain down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah as it is said he did Why then do we beseech him with such shame and sorrow to correct us in his judgement and not in his fury that we may not be consumed and brought to nothing He that bids us be angrie and sin not intended not the extirpation but the moderation of anger And thereupon Lactantius very well inferreth Qui ergo irasâ—i nos jubet ipse utique irascitur he that bids us be angry so we do not sin can without doubt be angrie too when he seeth occasion The like may be affirmed also of those other affections which are in Parents towards those whom they have begotten Remove the imperfections from them and the affections of themselves after separation may without any danger and as some Schoolmen think without any Metaphor be ascribed to GOD. Now out of those affections which before we specified ariseth the chief care of our natural parents which is to see us trained up in some lawful trades or in the knowledge of good letters that being put into a course of good education we may subsist with credit and escape those miseries which poverty and necessity may else bring upon us And out of that authority which they have by nature to dispose of us as they see most sutable unto our deserts ariseth the chief power of our natural parents either to make us heirs of their goods and fortunes or to leave us out First for the care of education it seemed so necessary to the Grecians in the former times that one of their Wisemen did use to say Praestat non nasci that it was better not to be born then not well instructed And by the laws of Rome which they had from Greece when as the father now grown old and out of work did sue his son for Alimonie as we use to call it it was a good plea in the son against his Father that he had never taken care of his education or trained him in the knowledge of any Art either ingenuous or mechanick Filius arte carens Patris incuria eidem necessaria vitae subsidia ne praestato was one of the laws of the twelve Tables How much more necessary must we think that part of our education which the wise Grecian never knew nor ever was prescribed by the laws of Rome that part I mean by which young children are instructed in the fear of GOD and taught betimes to run the pathes of the Lords commandements But if the Father do his office if that no care be wanting on his part to instruct his children if he admonish and advice them when they do amiss and they continue still to afflict his heart either by neglecting that imployment in which he hath placed them or wasting his estate in riotous and licentious courses is the poor Father left without further remedy then what may be had upon complaint from the Civil Magistrate No by no means The Father at the first by the law of Nations had potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death over all their children But after the receiving of the Christian faith the law was altered in that case by the following Emperours And now as the Civilians tell us Parentibus solummodo relinquitur honesta emendatio maximis ex causis exhaeredatio i. e. The fathers power consisteth most especially in these points to punish and chastise them for their smaller faults and disinherit them in time if they prove incorrigible Which power as it was used by Iacob on his eldest son Reuben because he had defiled his old fathers bed so hath it since been ordinary in the practise of all times and ages though perhaps more to be commended where it may not then where it may possibly be spared Such also is the care and consequently such the power of our Heavenly Father For who but he taught Abel how to order Sheep and Cain to till the ground or to be an husbandman Iubal to play on instruments and Tubal-cain to work in iron who but he called forth Ioshua to fight his battels and Aaron and his sons to serve at the holy Altar And for the bringing of them up in the fear of GOD he hath revealed himself so far to the Turks and Pagans and in the former times to the antient Gentiles which are his children only by the right of Creation that by the things which he hath made they may perceive both his eternal power and Godhead Though he permitted them for a while to walk in their own ways and so fulfil their several lusts yet left he not himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or without a witness in that he shewed his works unto them and filled their hearts with food and gladness Nay that which may be known of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul calleth it is manifest in them for the invisible things of God saith the same Apostle from the creation of the world are clearly seen that is as Augustine doth expound it per visibilia Creaturae pervenisse eos ad intelligent am invisiblis Creatoris by studying on the Book of Nature they came to understand the nature of GOD. For further proof whereof if more proof be necessary we need but have recourse to the former Chapter where we did prove this point that there was a God and that he is eternal and incomprehensible of infinite both power and wisdome Nor did GOD leave them so in this general knowledge but he revealed so much of his will unto them as is included or expressed in the law of Nature The Gentiles saith St. Paul which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law which
it so doth it signifie their office for Angelus nomen est officii non naturae as the Fathers tell us which is to be the messengers from God to Man as oft as there is any important businesse which requires it of them to be the Nuncios as it were from Gods supreme holiness to manage his affaires with the sons of men And unto this the Apostle also doth agree telling us that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ministring Spirits sent forth to minister unto them that shall be heires of Salvation Spirits they are according to the nature in which they were made and Ministring Spirits or Ministers as he calleth them out of David v. 7. with reference to the office unto which designed We have their nature in the word Spirits which sheweth them to be pure incorporeal substances not made of any corrupt matter as the bodies of men and so not having any internall principle of being they can have none neither of dissolution and yet as Creatures made by the hand of God they are reducible to nothing by the hand that made them although they have not in themselves any passive principle to make them naturally moral It is the priviledge or prerogative of Almighty God to be purely Simple without composition parts or passion The Angels though they come most near him yet fall short of this Who though they are not made of a matter and forme and so not naturally subject to the law of corruption yet are they made up or compounded of Act and Power or Actus aud Potentia in the School-mens language an Act by which they are a Power into which they may be reduced And being so made up of an Act of being and a Power of not being though probably that Power shall never be reduced into Act they fall exceeding short of the nature of GOD whose name is I AM and is so that it is impossible that he should not be or be any other then he is God being as uncapable of change as of composition Nay so great is the difference betwixt their nature and the nature of God so infinitely do they fall short of his incomprehensible and unspeakable Purity that though in comparison of Men as well as in themselves they are truly Spirits yet in comparison of GOD we may call them bodies But whatsoever their condition and ingredients be they owe not only unto God their continuall being by whom they are so made as to be free from corruption but unto him they are indebted for their first original without which they had not been at all St. Paul we see doth reckon them amongst things created and so doth David too in the Book of Psalmes Where calling upon all the Creatures to set forth Gods praises he first brings in the Angels to performe that office and then descends unto the Heavens and the other Creatures O praise the Lord of Heaven saith he praise him in the height Praise him all ye Angels of his praise him all his Hostes Praise him Sun and Moon c. Then addes of these and all the rest of the hosts of heaven He spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created This with that passage of St. Paul before mentioned make it plain enough that the Angels were created by Almighty God And to this truth all sorts of writers whatsoever which do allow the being of Angels do attest unanimously Apollo in the Oracles ascribed unto him having laid down the incommunicable Attributes of God concludes it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that such is God of whom the Angels are but the smallest portion Where though Apollo or the Devil in Apollo's statua would fain be thought to be an Angel and as an Angel would be thought to have somewhat in him which might entitle him to be a Godhead yet he confesseth plainly that he owed his being to the power of God and was to be obedient unto his commands Hosthanes one of the chief of the Eastern Magi not only did allow of Angels as the Ministers aud messengers of the only God but made them so subservient to his will and power ut vultu Domini territi contremiscant that they could not look upon him without fear and trembling A Creature therefore doubtlesse not of self-existence and a Creature of Gods making too or else what need they tremble when they look upon him Of Plato it is said by Tertullian briefly Angelos Plato non negavit but by Minutius more expressely that he did not only believe that there were Angels but came so near the knowledge of their constitution as to affirme that they were inter mortalem et immortalem mediam substantiam a substance of a middle nature betwixt immortall and mortall that is to say not so eternally immortall as Almighty God nor yet so subject to mortality as the children of men And herein Aristotle comes up close to his Master Plato affirming more like a Divine then a Philosopher that to the perfection of the World there were required three sorts of substances the first wholly invisible which must be the Angels the second wholly visible as the Heaven and Earth and the third partly visible and invisible partly or made up of both And this saith he is none but man compounded of a visible body and an invisible soul. The Angels then though reckoned amongst things invisible yet being reckoned amongst such things as necessarily concurred to the Worlds perfection must have the same Creator which first made the World and made it in that full perfection which it still enjoyeth and such as hath before been proved could be none but GOD. The matter in dispute amongst learned men is not about the Power by which but the time when they were created In which as in a matter undetermined by the word of God every man takes the liberty of his own opinion and for me they may Some think that their Creation is included in the first words of Genesis where God is said to have created the Heaven and the Earth others when God said Fiat lux Let there be light and that from thence they have the title of the Angels of light Some will not have them made till the fourth day when the Sun and Moon and others of the Stars were made whose Orbes they say are whirled about by these Intelligences Cum ab omnibus receptum sit ab illis Coelos torqueri saith Peter Martyr But that they were created in one of the six dayes is the received opinion of all late Divines whether they be of the Pontifician or the Protestant party If so I would fain know the reason why Moses writing purposely of the Worlds Creation should pretermit the Master-peece of that wondrous work and not as well take notice of the Creation of the Angels as of the making of the Heavens and the Sun and Moon or of the Earth and other sublunary Creatures I know the common
hath it that if he would he might continue in Gods grace and favour and attain all the blessedness which he could desire or otherwise might fall from both and so deprive himself of that sweet contentment which is not any where to be found but in God alone A greater liberty then this he had not given unto the Angels a more glorious creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Iustin Martyr And he as some of them before abused this liberty so given to his own destruction For being placed by God in the garden of Eden in Paradiso voluptatis as the vulgar reades it he had free power to eat of every tree but one in that glorious place and that tree only interdicted that God might have some tryall of his free obedience the interdiction being seconded with this commination that whensoever he did eat of it he should surely die What lesse could God have laid upon him unlesse he had discharged him of all obedience to his will and pleasure and left him independent of his supreme Power Father said the wise servant unto Naaman if the Prophet had commanded thee a great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much more then when all he saith unto thee is no more then this that thou shouldest wash and be clean Had God commanded Adam some impossible matter he might have been excused from the undertaking because it was a matter of impossibility Or had God bound him to the fruit of one tree alone and debarred him from the tast of all the rest he might have had some more excusable pretence for his flying out and giving satisfaction to a straitned appetite But the commandement being small makes his fault the greater the easiness of the one much aggravating the offence of the other For so it was that either out of unbelief as if God did not mean to sue him for so small a trespasse or that he had a proud ambition to be like to God or yeelded to the lusts of intemperate appetite or that he was not willing to offend his wife by whom he was invited to that deadly banquet he took the forbidden fruit into his mouth and greedily devoured his own destruction and so destroyed himself and his race for ever Not himselfe only but his race even his whole posterity For being the root and stock of mankinde in general which is descended from the loynes of this wretched man what he received of God in his first creation he received both for himself and them who descended from him and what he lost he lost like an unthrifty Father for the childe unborn And as the Scriptures say of Levi that he payed tithes in Abraham to Melchisedech because he was in the loynes of his father Abraham when Melchisedech met him so may we say of the posterity of this prodigal father that they were all undone by his great unthriftiness because they were all of them in his loynes when he lost Gods favour when he drew sin upon them all and consequently death the just wages of it And so saith Gregory Nazianzen surnamed the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We were so made saith he that we might be happy and such we were being made when first placed in Paradise in which we might have had the fruition of all kinds of happiness but forfeited the same by our own transgression If any aske St. Augustine makes the question and the answer too what death God threatned unto man on his disobedience whether the death of the body or of the soul or of the wholeman which is called the second death we must answer All For if saith he we understand that death only by which the soul is forsaken of God surely in that all other kinde of deaths were meant which without question were to follow For in that a disobedient motion rose in the flesh for which they covered their privy parts one death was perceived in which God did forsake the soul. And when the soul forsook the body now corrupted with time and wasted by the decaies of age another death was found by experience to ensue upon it that by these two deaths that first death of the whole man might be accomplished which the second death at last doth follow except Man be delivered by the grace of God And by the grace of God was poor man delivered from this body of death For as there is no deep valley but near so me high hill so near this vale of misery this valley of the shadow of death as the Psalmist calleth it was an hill of mercy a remedy proposed in the promised seed to Adam and the sons of Adam if with unfained faith they lay hold upon it God looketh upon them all at once in that wofull plight and when he saw them in their bloud had compassion on them and out of his meer love and mercy without other motives offered them all deliverance in a Mediator in the man CHRIST IESVS and that too on conditions far more easie then that of workes the condition and reward being this in brief that whosoever did believe in him should not perish but have life everlasting And this I take to be the method of Election unto life eternal through CHRIST IESVS our Lord. For although there be neither Prius or Posterius in the will of God who sees all things at once together and willeth at the first sight without more delay yet to apply his acts unto our capacities as were the acts of God in their right production so were they primitively in his intention But Creation without peradventure did foregoe the fall and the disease or death which ensued upon it was of necessity to be before there could a course be taken to prescribe the cure and the prescribing of the cure must first be finished before it could be fitted to particular persons And for the Fall which was the medium as it were between life and death the great occasion of mans misery and Gods infinite mercy God neither did decree it as a meanes or method of which he might make use to set forth his power in the immortal misery of a mortal creature nor did he so much as permit it in the strict sense of the word in which it differeth little from a plain command Quam longe quaeso est a jubente permittens How little differeth permitting from commanding saith devout Salvian considering he that which doth permit having power to hinder is guilty of the evill which doth follow on it God did not then permit the fall of unwary man as Moses did permit the Israelites a bill of divorce which manner of permission carryeth an allowance with it or a toleration at the least but so permit it only as the father in our Saviours parable permitted his younger Son to see strange Countries and having furnished him with a stock on which to traffick suffered him to depart and make up his fortunes whether good
or bad The ill successe that followed the young Prodigals journey was no part of his fathers purpose of his will and absolute decree much lesse no nor so much as to be ascribed unto his permission which was but causa sine qua non as the Schooles call it if it were so much Only it gave the Father such an opportunity as Adams fall did GOD in the present case of entertaining him with joy at his coming home and killing the faâ—ted Calfe for his better welcome T is true that God to whose eternal eye all things are present and fore-seen as if done already did perfectly fore-know to what unhappy end this poor man would come how far he would abuse that natural liberty wherewith he had endowed him at his first Creation Praescivit peccaturum sed non praedestinavit ad peccatum said Fulgentius truly And upon this fore-knowledge what would follow on it he did withall provide such a soveraign remedy as should restore collapsed man to his primitive hopes of living in Gods fear departing hence in his favour and coming through faith in Christ unto life eternall if he were not wanting to himself in the Application For this is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that CHRIST IESVS came into the World to save sinners of whom every man may say as St. Paul once did that he is the chief And it is as worthy of acceptance which came though from the same Spirit from a worthier person that God so loved the World the whole world of mankinde that He sent his only begouten Son into the World to the intent that whosoever did believe in him should live though he dyed and whosoever liveth and believeth in him should not die for ever but have as in another place everlasting life But what it is to believe in him and what a Christian man is bound to believe of him as it is all the subject of the six next Articles so must it be the argument of another book this touching our belief in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and all things therein with most of the material points which depend upon it beginning now to draw to a final period Chap. VI. What Faith it was which was required for Justification before and under the Law Of the knowledge which the Patriarchs and Prophets had touching Christ to come Touching the Sacrifices of the Jews the Salvation of the Gentiles and the Justifying power of Faith ANd yet before we pass to the following Articles there are some points to be disputed in reference to the several estates of the Church of God as it stood heretofore under the Law and since under the Gospel the influence which Faith had in their justification and the condition of those people which were Aliens to the law of Moses before Christs coming in the flesh For being that the Patriarchs before the time of Moses and those holy men of God that lived after him till the coming of Christ had not so clear and explicite a knowledge of the particulars of the Creed which concern our Saviour or the condition of the holy Catholick Church and the Members of it as hath been since revealed in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles it cannot be supposed that they should have universally the same object of faith which we Christians have or were bound to believe all those things distinctly touching Christ our Saviour and the benefits by him redounding to the sons of men which all Christians must believe if they will be saved And then considering that there is almost nothing contained in Scripture touching God the Father his Divine Power and Attributes the making and government of the World and all things therein which was to be believed by those of the line of Abraham but what hath been avowed and testified by the learned Gentiles it will not be unworthy of our disquisition to see wherein the differences and advantages lay which the Patriarchs and those of Iudah had above the Nations or whether the same light of truth did not shine on both through divers Mediums for the better fitting and preparing of both people to receive the Gospel In sifting and discussing of which principal points we shall consider what it is in faith it self which is said to justifie of what effect the Sacrifices both before and under the Law were to the satisfying of Gods wrath and expiating of the sins of the people by whom they were offered to the Lord and the relation which they had to the death of Christ the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world and finally what is to be conceived of those eminent men amongst the Gentiles who not extinguishing that light of nature which was planted in them but regulating all their actions by the beams thereof came to be very eminent in all kindes of learning and in the exercise of Iustice Temperance Mercy Fortitude and other Acts of Moral vertue Some other things will fall in incidently on the by which need not be presented in this general view And the mature consideration of all these particulars I have reserved unto this place that being situate in the midst between the Faith we have in God the Father Almighty and the belief required of us in his Son Christ Iesus it may either serve for an Appendix to the former part or a Preamble to the second or be in stead of a bond or ligament for knitting all the joints of this body together in the stronger coherence of discourse And first Faith being as appeareth by the definition before delivered a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed we cannot but conceive in reason that the Object of it is to be commensurable to the proportion and degree of the Revelation For as our Saviour said in another case that to whom much is given of him the more shall be required so may we also say in this that to whom more divine supernatural truths have been revealed of him there is a greater measure of belief expected Till the unhappy fall of Adam there was no faith required but in God alone For without faith it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle which Adam by the Law of his Creation was obliged to endeavour Nor could he come before the Lord or seek for the continuance of his grace and favours had he not first been fitted and prepared by faith For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as in the same text saith the same Apostle Which words we may not understand of Faith in Christ at least not primarily with respect to Adam of whom such faith was not required in the state of Innocency for where there was no sin there was no need of a Saviour but only of a faith in Almighty God the stedfast confession and acknowledgement of whose beeing and bounty was to speak
properly the fundamental act and radical qualification of the faith of Adam But after he had fallen from his first integrity and that the Lord out of meer pity to his frail perishing creature was pleased to promise him some measure of reparation in the womans seed then did the bruising of the Serpents head by the seed of the woman become a partial object of the faith of Adam and of all those who afterwards descended of him in the line of Grace And yet this was but in a general apprehension of the mercies of God and of his constancy and veracity in fulfilling his word no distinct Revelation being made till the time of Abraham so much as from what branch of the root of Adam this promised blessing was to come A pregnant argument whereof I think is offered to us in the errour of our Grandam Eve who on the birth of Cain her first-born but most wicked son conceived that he should be the man in whom the promise made by God was to be fulfilled and therefore said I have gotten a man from the Lord as our English reads it but rather possedi virum ipsum IEHOVAH I have gotten a man even the Lord IEHOVAH as Paulus Phagius a very learned Hebritian doth correct that reading And as for Abraham himself though it pleased God to tell him more particularly then before was intimated that in his seed should all the families of the Earth be blessed yet so unsatisfied was he as concerning Sarah or that this general blessing was to come of a son by her that when GOD promised such a son from that barren womb by whom she was to be a Mother of Kings and Nations instead of giving thanks to God he returned this answer O that Ishmael might live before thee And though upon the duplicate of this gracious promise that in Isaac should his seed be called he was sufficiently instructed and believed accordingly that the great mercy which God promised to our Father Adam was to descend in time from the loyns of Isaac yet that he should be born of an imaculate Virgin that he should suffer such and so many indignities and at the last a bitter and most shameful death by the hands of those who seemed to boast so much in nothing as that they were the children of this faithful Abraham as it was never that we read of revealed unto him so have we no reason to believe that it was any part or object of his faith at all The like may be affirmed in general of the house of Israel till God was pleased to speak more plainly and significantly to them by the mouth of his Prophets then he had done unto their Fathers in dreams and visions For having nothing further revealed unto them touching Christ to come then what was intimated first in generals to our Father Adam and more particularly specified to their Father Abraham the primary and principal Object of their faith was God alone conceive me still of God the Father Almighty in whom they looked for the performance of those gracious promises which he had made unto their Fathers though of the time when the manner how and other the material points which the Creed contains they were utterly ignorant and consequently could not ground any faith upon them In after times as GOD imparted clearer light to the house of Iacob for the neerer we are to the Sun-rising the more day appeareth so were they bound to give belief to such Revelations or supernatural truths revealed call them which you will which he vouchsafed to make unto them by his holy Prophets Which howsoever they contained in them a sufficient light to guide them to the knowledge of many particular points and circumstances which were to be accomplished in the time and place of Christs Nativity his course of life and sufferings and most shameful death which every one could see when they came to pass that whatsoever had been done by or concerning him did come to pass according as had been sore-signified in the holy Scriptures yet this great light of prophesie which did shine amongst them was but like a Candle in a dark Lanthorn or hid under a bushel and rather served to convince them of incredulity when he was ascended then to prepare them to receive him when he came unto them He came unto his own and his own received him not saith St. Iohn expressely And for the Prophets themselves 't is true that they have in them many positive and plain predictions of the Incarnation Nativity and Circumcision of Christ of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension as also of the most remarkable passages and occurrences in the whole course of his life And yet a question hath been made amongst learned men whether they did always distinctly foresee or explicitely believe whatsoever they did fore-tell or fore-signifie concerning Christ. Nor can I finde but that this question is resolved to this effect that though they had a right apprehension of the truths by them delivered and a foresight of all those future events of which they prophesied according to the accomplishment and sense thereof by themselves intended yet that this foresight of theirs extended not to all branches of divine truth contained in their writings or to that use and application which was after made of them by CHRIST himself and his Evangelists and Apostles with this mark of reference that such and such things came to pass that the sayings of the Prophets might be fulfilled For many things are extant in the Prophetical writings either by way of Typical prefigurations or positive and plain predictions applyable to the life and actions of our Lord and Saviour and the success and fortunes of his holy Church which in all probability was never so intended by those sacred Pen-men For who can reasonably conceive that Moses in the story of the commanded offering up of Isaac the only son of his Father intended to typifie or fore-shadow the real offering up of CHRIST the only begotten Son of God neer the self same place or that this Ceremony in the ordering of the Paschal Lamb ye shall not break a bone thereof did look so far in the first institution of it as to the not breaking of our Saviours legs in the time of his passion or that the setting up of the Brazen Serpent was by him meant to signifie and foreshew the lifting up of the Son of God upon the Cross to the end that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life as himself applyes it in St. Iohn The like may be affirmed of David to whom the Lord had promised that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore Psal. 132. that God would set his King upon his holy hill of Sion Psal. 2. with many other predictions to the same effect And yet it may be questioned upon very good reason whether he understood
the children of Infidels are saved partly by vertue of the Covenant and partly by Gods Election By vertue of the Covenant in regard they are descended of such Ancestors as were themselves within the Covenant though it be long since and that there be some interruption in the whole succession Gods mercy reaching as he tels us Exod. 20. unto a thousand generations By Election because God hath not barred himself from a power and right to communicate his Grace to those whose Ancestors were not of the Covenant For if he called those Adulti men of riper years to be partakers of the Covenant who were not within the same before why may he not in like manner if he please elect children also Finally as he doth believe that all who are elected or within the Covenant shall most undoubtedly be saved so he doth charitably conceive that those whom God takes out of this world in the state of infancy servari potius secundum electionem providentiam ipsius paternam quam a regno Coelorum abdicari are rather saved by Gods election and paternal providence then utterly excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven If the same charity make me hope the like of those famous men among the Gentiles who were not wanting to the grace of God which was given unto them why should I fear worse fortune then was found by Iunius who never yet was censured for ought I have read for that so charitable resolution in the case of Infants no not by those of the Reformed who differ in opinion from him as to that particular And so far I conceive I may go with safety without opposing any text of holy Scripture or any publick tendry of the Church of England 'T is true St. Peter telleth us in the 4. of the Acts that there is no name under Heaven given among men whereby they be saved but that of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST v. 12. But this is spoken with relation to the times of the Gospel when CHRIST had broken down the partition wall and that the Gentiles were admitted to the knowledge of the word of life a general command being laid by CHRIST on his Apostles to preach the Gospel to all Nations After this time the case was altered and the Gentiles altogether left without excuse if they embraced not the ordinary meanes of their salvation which by the universall preaching of Christ crucifyed had been offered to them And so I understand that Article of the Church of England by which all they are to be accursed who presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect that he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature Act. 18. For certainly the Article relates not to the times before Christs coming or the condition of the Gentiles in those elder dayes but only to the present condition of the Church of Christ as it now stands and hath stood since his death and passion in opposition both to Iewes and Gentiles unto Turkes and Saracens with reference to the Familists and such modern Sectaries who made the external profession of the faith of Christ but a thing indifferent so they conformed themselves by the light of nature Of which opinion one Galcalus Martius also is affirmed to be by Paulus Iovius in his Elog. doct virorum So that for ought appeares from that place of the Acts and from this Article of the Church we may conceive the charitable hope of the salvation of some of the more noble Gentiles the great example of whose vertues is transmitted to us in Classical and approved Authors But this was only in some extraordinary and especial cases some Casus reservati as the Lawyers call them which God reserved to his own Power and dispensation and not of any ordinary and common right For generally the Heathen people as they knew not God having extinguished that light of nature which was given unto them so having their understanding darkned and that light put out their will forthwith became depraved the affections of their hearts corrupted and their lusts exorbitant And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so did God give them over to a reprobate minde to do those things which are not convenient dishonouring their owne bodies amongst themselves and being filled with all unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse Nay even their greatest Clerks men of wit and learning professing themselves wise did become fooles in that they sought not after God the true fountain of wisdome and holding the truth which was revealed to them in unrighteousnesse as St. Paul saith of them were thereby made without excuse And as the light of nature was thus generally extinguished amongst the Gentiles so was the light of Prophecie as much neglected amongst the Iewes who though they were Gods chosen and peculiar people had so degenerated from the piety of their Predecessors that there was hardly either faith or charity to be found amongst them Insomuch as all the world was now of the same condition in which it was before the flood Of which God said that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth the wickedness of man grown great and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart continually and only evill Nothing could have prevented a second deluge but Gods gratious promise that there should never more be a flood to destroy the Earth nothing have respited the World from more grievous punishment had not Christ come into the World and by his suffering on the Crosse for the sinne of Man appeased Gods anger for the present and caused his Gospell to be preached unto every nation that so they might escape the wrath of the time to come Nothing required by him for so great a mercy but that we would believe in him that to the faith which every man was bound before to have in God the Father Almighty by whom we were created when we were just nothing there might be added a beliefe in IESVS CHRIST his only Sonne by whom we were redeemed being worse then nothing He knew the frailty of our nature that we were but dust that we were utterly unable to observe the Law which Adam either could not or would not keep in the state of innocency and therefore did not look so far as to the Covenant of works to require them of us but to the Covenant of faith as the easier duty God in the Covenant of works required of every man for his justification an absolute and entire obedience to the Law which he had prescribed and that obedience to the Law had it been performed had justifyed the performance of it in the sight of God But finding man unable to fulfill the Law he made a second Covenant with that sinfull Creature and required nothing of him for his justification but only faith in God and his gracious promises for the redemption of the world
look to finde it in any writings or records of the antient Gentiles So that we may affirme of the knowledge of CHRIST as Lactantiuss did in generall of the ttue Religion Nondum fas esse alienigenis hominibus Religionem Dei veri justitiamque cognoscere the time was not yet come in which the Gentiles should be made acquainted with those heavenly mysteries which did concern the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour T is true the Sibylline Oracles cited by Lactantius and others of great eminence in the Primitive times speak very clearly in some things concerning the life and death of CHRIST in so much that they seem rather written in the way of History then in that of Prophesie And though the learned Casaubon and others of our great Philologers conceive them to be pious fraudes composed of purpose by some Christians of the elder ages and added as a supplement to the true Originals the better to win credit to the faith of CHRIST yet dare I not so far disparage those good Catholick writers as to believe they would support so strong an edifice with so weak a prop or borrow help from falshood to evict the truth Or if they durst have been so venturous how easie had it been for their learned Adversaries Porphyrie Iulian and the rest of more eminent note to have detected the Imposture and silenced the Christian Advocates with reproach enough Letting this therefore go for granted as I think I may that the Sibylline Oracles are truly cited by the Fathers and that they do contain most things which hapned to our Saviour in his life and death yet could this give but little light to the Heathen people touching CHRIST to come because they were not suffered to be extant publickly and consequently came not to the knowledge of the learned Gentiles till by the care and diligence of the Christian Writers they were after published For so exceeding coy were the antient Romans of suffering the Sibyls or their works to go abroad having got into their hands the best copies of them that those times afforded that they commanded them to be kept closely in the Capitol under the care and charge of particular Officers whom from the number of fifteen for so many they were they called Quindecemviri and to whom only it was lawful to consult their papers Nec eos ab ullo nisi a Quindecemviris fâ—s est inspici as Lactantius notes it very truly And it is also very true that many of the antient and most learned Grecians had a confused notice of a second Deity whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Word making him aiding and subservient to Almighty God in the Creation of the world and therefore giving him the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the worlds Creator The several testimonies to this purpose he that lists to see may finde them mustered up together in that laborious work of the Lord du Plessis entituled De veritate Religionis Christianae cap. 6. So frequently occurs this notion in the old Philosophers especially in those of the School of Plato that Porphyrie an Apostate Christian and a Platonick in the course of his sect and studies blasphemously averred that St. Iohn had stollen the first words of his Gospel viz. In the beginning was the Word c. from his Master Plato And though the affirmation of that vile Apostata intended only the disgrace of the holy Evangelist and of the Gospel by him written for the use of the Church yet had it been a truth as indeed it was not it could have been no greater a disparagement to St. Iohn to borrow an expression from a Greek Philosopher then to St. Paul to use the very words of three Grecian Poets But the truth is that both St. Iohn and the Platonicks together with the rest of those old Heroes borrowed the notion from the Doctors of the Iewish Nation as Maldonate hath proved at large in his Comment on that Text of the blessed Evangelist who withal gives it for the reason why S. Iohn made choyce rather of this notion then of any other in the front or entrance of his Gospel because it was so known and acceptable both to Iew and Gentile Philosophos non dubium est ab antiquis Hebraeis hausisse sententiam vocabulum accepisse Proinde voluit Johannes accommodate ad usum loqui saith the learned Iesuite But then withall we must observe that though we finde such frequent mention of the Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the writings of the antient Gentiles yet finde we almost nothing of him but the name or notion nothing that doth relate to the salvation of man the taking of our nature upon him or being made a propitiation for the sins of mankinde That as before I noted was a secret mysterie not to be manifested to the sons of the Gentiles till CHRIST himself was come to make one of both and call them to the knowledge of his grace and faith in him Being so called they were no longer to be differenced by the name of Gentiles but fellow-heirs and of the same body whereof CHRIST is Head and as the members of that body to joyn in the Confession of the self same faith not only as to God the Father in the acknowledgement of which Article all the Nations meet but as unto his only Son IESVS CHRIST our Lord from whence the faith hath properly the name of Christian. Now that which we believe touching CHRIST our Saviour and is to be the argument of this present Book is thus delivered by the pen of our Reverend Iewell in the name and for the use and edification of the Church of England Credimus Jesum Christum filium unicum aeterni patris c. i. e. We believe that IESVS CHRIST the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been determined before all beginnings when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man that he might declare unto the world the secret and hidden will of his Father and that he might fulfil in his humane body the Mysterie of our Redemption and might fasten our sins unto the Cross and blot out that hand-writing which was against us We believe that for our sakes he dyed and was buryed descended into Hell and the third day by the power of his God-head rose again to life and that the fortieth day after his Resurrection whiâ—est his Disciples looked on he ascended into Heaven to fulfil all things and did place in Majesty and glory the self same body wherewith he was born in which he lived upon the earth in which he was scornfully derided and suffered most painful torments and a cruel death and finally in which he rose again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father above all principalities and powers and might and dominion that there he
Servator on us in the place thereof Concerning which St. Augustine hath this observation that antiently Salvator was no Latine word but was first devised by the Christians to express the greatness of the mercies which they had in Christ. For thus the Father Qui est Hebraice JESUS Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostra autem locutione Salvator Quod verbum Latina lingua non habebat sed habere poterat sicut potuit quando voluit Nay Cicero the great Master of the Roman elegancies doth himself confess that the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of too high a nature to be expressed by any one word of the Latine tongue For shewing how that Verres being Praetor in Syracusa the chief town in Sicily had caused himself to be entituled by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he addes immediately hoc ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit And thereupon he is compelled to use this Paraphrase or circumlocution Is est nimirum Soter qui salutem dedit i. e. He properly may be called Soter who is giver of health So that the Latine word Servator being insufficient to express the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the Hebrew IESVS the Christians of the first times were necessitated to devise some other and at last pitched upon Salvator which to this purpose hath been used by Arnobius l. 1. adv Gentes Ambros. in Luk. c. 2. Hieron in Ezek. c. 40. August de doctr Chr. l. 2. c. 13. contr Crescon l. 2. c. 1. besides the passages from Ruffinus and the same St. Augustine before alleadged So then the name of Iesus doth import a Saviour and the name of IESVS given to the Son of God intimates or implieth rather such a Saviour as shall save his people from their sins This differenceth IESVS our most blessed Saviour from all which bare that name in the times foregoing Iesus or Ioshua the son of Nun did only save the people from their temporal enemies but IESVS CHRIST the Son of the living God doth save us from the bonds of sin from our ghostly enemies IESVS the son of Iosedech the Priest of the Order of Aaron did only build up the material Altar in the holy Temple but IESVS the High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech not only buildeth up the spiritual Temple but is himself the very Altar which sanctifieth all those oblations which we make to God Iesus the son of Sirach hath no higher honour but that he was Author of the book called Ecclesiasticus a book not reckoned in the Canon of the holy Scripture but IESVS CHRIST the Son of God and the Virgin Mary not only is the subject of a great part of Scripture but even the Word it self and the very Canon by which we are to square all our lives and actions I am the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us in St. Iohn Look on him in all these capacities he is still a IESVS a Saviour of his people from their sins and wickednesses a builder of them up to a holy Temple fit for the habitation of the holy Ghost a bringer of them by the truth and way of righteousness unto the gates of life eternal a true IESVS still So properly a IESVS and so perfectly a Saviour to us that there is no salvation to be found in any other nor is there any other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby they must be saved but this name of IESVS Aâ— name if rightly pondered above every name and given him to this end by Almighty God that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in Heaven and earth and under the earth And there may be good reason besides Gods appointment why such a sign of reverence should be given to the very name not only a name above other names and therefore to be reverenced with the greater piety but as a pregnant testimony of that exaltation to which God hath advanced him above all other persons We bow the knee unto the persons of Kings and Princes And therefore Pharaoh when he purposed to honour Ioseph above all the Egyptians appointed certain Officers to cry before him saying bow the knee CHRIST had not been exalted more then Ioseph was had bowing of the knee been required to his Person only and therefore that there might appear some difference betwixt him and others the Lord requires it at his name And though the Angels in the heavens and the Spirits beneath have no knees to bow which is the principal objection of our Innovators against the reverent use of bowing at the Name of Iesus used and enjoyned to be used in the Church of England yet out of doubt the spirits of both kindes both in Heaven and Hell as they acknowledge a subjection to his Throne and Scepter so have they their peculiar ways such as are most agreeable to their several natures of yeilding the commanded reverence to his very Name Certain I am St. Ambrose understood the words in the literal sense where speaking of the several parts of the body of man he maketh the bowing at the name of JESUS the use and duty of the knee Flexibile genu quo prae caeteris Domini mitigatur offensa gratia provocatur Hoc enim patris summi erga filium donum est ut in nomine JESU omne genu curvetur The knee is flexible faith the Father whereby the anger of the Lord is mitigated and his grace obtained And with this gift did God the Father gratifie his beloved Son that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow Nor did St. Ambrose only so expound the Text and take it in the literal sense as the words import but as it is affirmed by our Reverend Andrews there is no antient Writer upon the place save he that turned all into Allegories but literally understands it and liketh well enough that we should actually perform it Conform unto which Exposition of the Antient Writers and the received usâ—ge of the Church of Christ it was religiously ordained by our first Reformers that Whensoever the Name of IESVS shall be pronounced in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of curâ—esie and uncovering of the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necesâ—aâ—ily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed Which being first established by the Queens Injunctions in the yeer 1559. was afterwards incorporated into the Canons of King Iames his reign And if of so long standing in the Church of England then sure no Innovation or new fancy taken up of late and bâ—t of laâ—e obtruded on the Church by some Popish Bishops as the Novators and Novatians of this present age the Enemies of Iesu-Worship as they idlely call it have been pleased to say And should we grant that this were no duty of
least some secret influence in the work if not a publick and Oracular admonition And that it was not done but upon serious consultation had amongst themselves and a devout invocation of the name of God the greatness of the business the piety of the first Professors and other good authorities do most strongly assure For if upon the naming of Iohn the Baptist there was not only a consultation held by the friends and mother but the dumb father called to advise about it and if we use not to admit the poorest childe of the parish into the Congregation of Christs Church by the dore of Baptism but by joint invocation of the Name of God for his blessings in it with how much more regard of ceremony and solemnity may we conceive that the whole body of Christs people were baptized into the name of Christians But besides this we have an evidence or record sufficient to confirm the truth of our affirmation For Suidas and before him Iohannes Antiochenus an old Cosmographer first tels us that in the reign of Claudius Caesar ten years after the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven Euodius received Episcopal consecration and was made Patriarch of Antioch the great in Syria succeeding immediately to St. Peter the Apostle And then he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. And at this time the Disciples were first called Christians Euodius calling them to a solemn conference and putting this new name upon them For before they were called Nazarites and Galileans Some of the Heathens not knowing the Etymon of the name called them Chrestiant and our most blessed Saviour by the name of Chrestos For thus Tertullian of the Christians perperam a vobis Christianus appellatur and thus Lactantius for our Saviour qui eum immutata litera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solent dicere But this was only on mistake not on studyed malice Et propter ignorantium errorem as Lactantius hath it the very name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chrestianus intimating nothing else but meekness and sweetness as Tertullian very well observeth And though Suetonius following the errours of the times calleth our Saviour CHRIST by the name of Chrestos yet Tacitus who lived in the same age with him hits right as well on Christus as on Christianus Quos vulgo Chrestianos appellabat And then he addeth Auctor nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat Having thus rectified the name and asserted it to its true Original we may do well to have a care that we disgrace not the dignity of so high a calling by the unworthiness and uncleanness of our lives and actions In nobis patitur Christus opprobrium in nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum that Christ and Christianity were ill spoken of by reason of the wicked lives of Christian people was the complaint of Salvians time God grant it be not so in ours And God grant too that as we take our name from CHRIST so the like minde may be in us as was also in him that is to say that we be as willing to lay down our lives for the brethren especially in giving testimony to his Faith and Gospel as he was willing to lay down his life for us and that as his Fathers love to him brought forth in him the like affections towards us and to his Commandements so his affection unto us may work in us the like love towards our brethren and to all his precepts For hereby shall men know we are his Disciples if we abide in his love and keep his Commandements as he hath kept his Fathers Commandements and abide in his love But see how I am carried to these practical matters if not against my will yet besides my purpose I proceed now to that which followeth ARTICVLI 3. Pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Filium ejus unicum Dominum nostrum i. e. His only Son our Lord. CHAP. II. That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God why called his only or his only begotten Son Proofs for the God-head of our Saviour Of the title of Lord. THat which next followeth is the first of those two Relations in which we do behold our Saviour in this present Article his only Son i. e. the only Son of God the Father Almighty whom we found spoken of before That God had other sons in another sense there is no question to be made All mankinde in some sense may be called his sons The workmanship of his creation Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us saith the Prophet Malachi in the Old Testament Our Father which art in Heaven saith Christ our Saviour for the New The Saints and holy men of God are called his sons also in the more peculiar title of adoption For who else were the sons of God in the 6. of Genesis who are said to take them wives of the daughters of men but the posterity of Seth the righteous seed by and amongst whom hitherto the true worship of the Lord had been preserved More clearly the Evangelist in the holy Gospel To as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God even to them which believed in his Name Most plainly the Apostle saying As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God having received the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry to him Abba Father And in this sense must we understand those passages of holy Scripture where such as are regenerate and made the children of God by adoption of grace are said to be born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Iohns phrase is both in his Gospel and Epistle Not that they have the Lord God for their natural Father for so he is the Father only of our Lord Iesus Christ but because being begotten by immortal seed the seed of his most holy Word they are regenerate and born again unto life eternal This is the seed of God spoken of by St. Iohn which remaineth in us by which we are begotten to an inheritance immortal undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens as St. Peter tels us In neither of these two respects can we consider Christ as the Son of God For if he were the Son of God in no other respect then either in regard of Creation or Adoption only he could not possibly be called Gods only Son or his only begotten Son but at the best multis e millibus unus one of the many thousands of the sons of God There is a more particular title by which some more selected vessels both of grace and glory have gained the honourable appellation of the sons of God that is to say by being admitted to a clearer participation and fruition of eternal blisse or made more intimately acquainted with his secret will In the
first of these respects the blessed Angels have the title of the sons of God Where wast thou saith the Lord in the book of Iob when I laid the foundation of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy The sons of God that is to say the holy Angels Per filios Dei Angeli intelliguntur saith the learned Estius on the place And so St. Augustine doth determine who hereupon inferreth that the Angels were created before the stars and not after the six days were finished as some it seems had taught in the times before him Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta sunt autem sydera die quarto as he most rationally concludes from this very text In this respect also the Saints in glory are called the sons or children of God and said to be equall to the Angels in St. Lukes Gospell not that they have all the prerogatives and properties which the Angels have sed quod mori non possunt saith the text but because they are become immortall and no longer subject as before to the stroke of death In the last meaning of the word though all the Saints and holy men of God may be called his children because they are adopted to the right of sons and made co-heires with CHRIST their most blessed Saviour yet is the title more appliable to the Prophets of God at least appliable unto them after a more peculiar manner then unto any others of the children of men I have said saith David ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most High Of whom here speaks the Psalmist of Gods people generally or only of some chosen and select vessels Not of Gods people generally there 's no doubt of that though both St. Augustine and St. Cyril seem to look that way but of some few particulars only as Euthymius and some others with more reason thinke And those particulars must either be the Princes and Judges of the earth who are called Gods by way of participation because they do participate of his power in government or else the Prophets of the Lord who are called Gods and the sons or children of the most High by way of communication because God doth communicate and impart to them his more secret purposes that they might make them known to the sons of men Them he called Gods as Christ our Saviour doth expound it then whom none better understood the meaning of the royal Psalmist ad quos sermo dei factus est i. e. to whom the word of the Lord came as our English reads it And what more common in the Scripture then this forme of speech factum est verbum Domini c. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah Isa. 38.4 The word of the Lord came to Ieremiah Ier. 1.2 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.3 et sie de caeteris If then such men to whom the word of the Lord came might justly be entituled by the name of Gods and called the sons of the most High assuredly there was not any of the children of men which could with greater reason look to be so called then the holy Prophets And yet in none of these respects abstracted from an higher consideration is CHRIST our Saviour here called by the name of the Son of God or so intended in this Creed For Angel he was none in the proper signification of the word though called the Angel of the Covenant in the way of Metaphore Nor did he take the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham as St. Paul tels us to the Hebrews We may not think so meanly of him as to ranke him only in the list of the Saints departed it being through the merits of his death and passion that the Saints are made partakers of the glories of heaven and put into an estate of immortality T is true indeed he was a Prophet the Prophet promised to succeed in the place of Moses that Prophet in the way of excellence in the first of Iohn v. 21 25. But then withall as himself telleth us of Iohn the Baptist he was more then a Prophet that word which came unto the Prophets in the times of old and to whom all the Prophets did bear witness for the times to come A King indeed he is even the King of Kings though not considered in that notion here upon the earth nor looked on in that title in the present Article Or if we could reduce him unto any of these yet take him as an Angel or a Saint departed or a King or Prophet every of which have the name of Sons in the book of God he could not be his only Son the only begotten Son of God the Father Almighty who hath so many Saints and Angels so many Kings and Prophets which are called his Sons It must needs follow hereupon that IESVS CHRIST our Lord is the Son of God by a more divine and near relation then hath been hitherto delivered And hereunto both God and Man the Angels and internal spirits give sufficient testimony The Lord from heaven procliamed him at his Baptisme and Transfiguration to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And Peter on the earth having made this acknowledgement and confession saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God received this confirmation from our Saviours mouth that flesh and bloud had not revealed it unto him but that it came from God the Father which is in Heaven The Angel Gabriel when he brought the newes of his incarnation foretold his mother that he should be called the Son of God the Son of the most High in a former verse And a whole Legion of unclean Spirits in the man possessed joynes both of these together in this compellation IESVS thou Son of God most high A thing not worthy so much noise and ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner then any of the sons of men who either lived with him or had gone before him had there not been something in it extraordinary which might entitle him unto so sublime and divine a priviledge Though Iohn the Baptist were a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yet we do not finde that the Devils stood in awe of him for Iohn the Baptist did no miracles or looked upon him in the wilderness as the Son of God To which of all the holy Angels as St. Paul disputes it did the Lord say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And who can shew us any King but him that was the Son of God as well as of David whom God the Lord advanced to so high an honour as to cause him to sit down at his own right hand till his enemies were made his footstoole Though Angels Kings and Prophets were the sons
of God by a communication of more speciall Grace then had been granted generally to the sons of men yet none but CHRIST our Lord is honoured with those high prerogatives of being called his own Son his only Son his only begotten Son the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things that so in all things he might have the preheminence Which glorious attributes and titles being laid together do put a very signall and materiall difference between the sons of God by adoption and grace and IESVS CHRIST our Lord and most blessed Saviour who is his son by nature his begotten Son begotten by his Father before all times generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an unspeakable manner of generation without help of woman and yet made of a woman in the fulness of time generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a supernatural kind of generation without help of man In terris sine Patre in coelis sine Matre as it is in Origen Without a Father on the earth without a Mother in heaven the very true Melchisedech which hath no descent who neither had beginning of days as the Son of God the Father alone nor shall have any end of life as he is the Son of God and the Virgin Mary Now of this twofold generation of the Son of God we will first speak of that which is last in Order his generation in the womb of the Virgin Mary in which he was incarnate by the holy Ghost and was made flesh and dwelt amongst us for a season that we might live with him for ever For being begotten and conceived in the Virgins womb after such a supernatural and wonderful manner by the Almighty power of God he is in that regard if there were no other Gods own Son or his son by nature his only and his only begotten Son take which phrase we will The Angel Gabriel doth affirme this twice for failing Behold thou shall conceive and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest And then unto the Virgins Quaere he returns this answer The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God What called the Son of God only and not be so really Not so but that being really and truly the Son of God he shall declare the same by such several means ut sic merito ab omnibus vocetur that so he shall be called and counted over all the world For that he was really and truely the Son of God by this his generation in the fulness of time the miraculous manner of his conception without any other Father then the power of God doth most assuredly evince A son begotten in that manner may very well be called natura filius non tantum beneficio filius a son by nature not by grace and indulgence only saith the learned Maldonate Quia non ex viro sed ex solo Deo concipiendus because begotten not by man but by God alone Nay so peculiarly doth this miraculous manner of his generation entitle him to be the true and proper Son of Almighty God that so he might be justly called and accompted of had he not been the Son of the living God by a preceding generation even before all times And so doth Maldonate resolve it in his Commentaries on St. Lukes Gospel though otherwise a great assertor of the eternal generation of the Son of God whose words I shal put down at large for the greater certainty Etiamsi Christus Deus non fuisset illo tamen modo genitus quo genitus fuit merito Dei Filius vocatus fuisset non solum ut caeteri viri sancti sed singulari quadam ratione quod non alium quam Deum haberet patrem neo ab alio quam ab eo generatus So he I think exceeding rightly to the point in hand His instance or exemplification in the case of Adam who is called the Son of God by the same St. Luke quia non a viro sed a Deo genitus erat because he was begotten by God and not by Man I cannot by any means approve of the production of our Father Adam not being to be reckoned as a generation but to be esteemed of as a work of Creation only But to proceed as Christ is properly and truly the Son of God by this his generation in the womb of his Virgin-mother so in the same respect is he called in Scripture the only and the only begotten Son of God the Father I know that generally the style or attribute of the only begotten Son of God is used for an argument or convincing reason to prove that Christ our Saviour is the Son of God by an eternall generation long before all worlds But by their favours I conceive that he is called Gods only begotten Son either in reference to this his generation in the womb of the Virgin because the only Son of God which was so begotten or else because he was most dearly loved of his heavenly Father as commonly an only Son is best and most affectionately beloved of an earthly Parent To the first sense I have the testimony of Vrsinus a Divine of the reformed Churches who though he hold that CHRIST is principally called the only begotten Son of God secundum divinitatem suam according to his Divine nature yet he concludes that aliquatenus after a sort he may be called so in his humane nature His reason is Quia etiam secundum hane tali modo est genitus quali nunquam quisquam alius ex Virgine nimirum incorrupta vi Spiritus sancti that is to say because according to that nature he was begotten in such a manner as never any had been before or since as being conceived of a pure Virgin by the holy Ghost And to the second sense I have that of Maldonate who on these words Hic est filius meus dilectus in the 3. of Matthew observes that filius dilectus and filius unigenitus are termes reciprocal that not alone in Homer but in holy Scripture the best beloved Son is called the only begotten and on the other side that by only begotten in St. Iohn he means best beloved God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that is to say his best beloved Son For unigenitum posuit pro charissimo as his words there are But what need Maldonate be produced in so clear a case which hath so plain an evidence from the word of God For read we not that God commanded Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as our English reades it unigenitum filium tuum the only begotten Son as the Vulgar hath it So the Greek reads it also
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word used of Christ in the present Article in the 11. Chap. to the Hebrewes vers 17. And yet we know that Abraham had another son a son whom he had circumcised by Gods own command of whom twelve Princes were to come and whom God promised to make a puissant Nation And therefore Isaac must be called his only son because preferred before the other in the love of his Father Filius tuus unigenitus i e. filius quem diligis Isaac thine only son that is to say the son whom thou only lovest as there the text without the help of commentator doth expound it self And if the name of unigenitus or Gods only Son may warrantably be applyed to Christ in his humane nature there is not much question to be made but that in the very same capacity he may be called filius proprius or Gods own Son He spared not his own Son by which name he occurreth in St. Paul to the Romans Lesse question is there to be made or indeed no question but that according to the same humane nature and in relation to his being begotten in the fulness of time he is entituled in the Scriptures the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things though there be something in those titles which doth require a further consideration For first his being called the first born of every Creature gives no incouragement at all to the Arian factions to make the Son of God a created essence no more then Kings may be called creatures of the peoples making because called an ordinance of man humana creatura in the Vulgar latine in the holy Scripture The reason why our Saviour is there called by the Apostle Primogenitus omnis Creaturae or the first born of every Creature is neither to give him the precedency of all Creatures else or to rank his whole Person in the list of created substances but either to entitle him to the rights of Primogeniture which were great amongst the sons of men or to denote that he supplyed the place of the first begotten and was the general ransome or redemption for them Concerning which we may take notice that by the Law of Moses the first that opened the matrix of all living Creatures were holy and cousecrated to the Lord if of clean beasts then to be offered up in kind to the Lord their God but if of men or unclean Creatures then either to be redeemed for a piece of money or some clean beast was to be brought unto the Lord in exchange for it as in the case of the first male child a pair of Turtle doves or two small Pigeons The reason was because the Lord having slain the first born of Egypt both of man and beast had spared all the first born of the house of Israel and therefore he required the first male of every Creature to be offered to him in sacrifice that so the whole off-spring might be sanctifyed and made useful to them But being the offering of a dumb Creature was really and of it self no sufficient price for the redemption of the first male child which opened the Matrix nor able to sanctifie both male and female in every family to the Lord their God for he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctifyed must be all of one as the Apostle doth infer therefore did CHRIST take upon himself the place of stead of the first born that being offered unto God the clean for the unclean he might sanctifie all things unto God and make them acceptable in the sight of their Lord and maker which were of a nature capable of such sanctification and acceptance as the Lord requireth in his creature Now as the ransome of the first born was discharged by him so was it just that all the rites of Primogeniture should belong unto him which were the Principality the Priest-hood and the double portion Those Reuben having forfeited by his great offence were so distributed amongst his Brethren that the Priesthood was bestowed on Levi the Principality on Iudah the double portion upon Ioseph who thereupon was branched into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasses But they were all again united in the person of CHRIST that being thus made the first born of every Creature he might in all things have the preheminence The Principality he had for the Lord gave unto him the throne of his Father David the Priesthood for he was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech the double portion for all power was given unto him both in heaven and earth In all respects the first borne of every Creature but how the first born from the dead which is another of the titles given by the Apostle considering we finde many examples of men that had been raised from the dead before his resurrection both in the old Testament and in the new The answer to this doubt is easie For though those mentioned in both Testaments were for a time raised from death to life yet were they raised to die again as in fine they did But to be primogenitus ex mortuis the first born or first begotten from the powers of death includes an everlasting freedome from the jaws thereof in which regard the Scripture saith of Christ and of Christ alone that being risen from the dead he now dyeth not death hath no more power or dominion over him But of this Priviledge we shall speak more at large hereafter in its proper place That which remaines is that he was heir of all things Heb. 1.2 to the intent that he might prove himself for the Son of Abraham the promised seed in whom all the nations of the world are blessed The promise which was made to Abraham that he should be heir of the world was never verifyed in his person nor in any of his posterity neither till the coming of CHRIST Who being begotten by the power of Almighty God on a daughter of the seed of Abraham and having the nations given him for his inheritance as had been prophecied before by his Father David might properly be entituled the heire of all things according to the rights of his humane nature which nature he derived from David the son of Abraham Thus have we shewn how CHRIST is properly and truly the Son of God his natural and only begotten Son according to his generation in the fulnesse of time without relating to his generation before all time was But yet we must not give off here For by this generation in the fulnesse of time he was not only the Son of God but so the Son of God after such a manner as that he was also the son of man But by his generation before all times he was not only the Son of God but so the Son of God after such a manner that he was also God himself God for ever blessed
Deus in secula brnedictus as St. Paul calleth him in the 9. Chap. to the Romans vers 5. Deus in carne manifestatus God manifested in the flesh in the first to Timothy St. Iohn speakes home unto the point and doth more puzzle the Socinian and Arian hereticks then all the book of God besides In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning when was that When God created first the heaven and the earth when the earth was without forme and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep then the word was that is to say it had a perfect actuall being when all things else did but begin to be and having then an actual and a proper being it could not at that time nor at any time since begin to be but was and is and so continueth without ending In the beginning was the word what word that word by which the worlds were made as St. Paul hath it by whom all things were made saith St. Iohn and without which nothing was made saith the same Evangelist The word which after was made flesh and did dwel amongst us and by the brightnesse of his glory did declare himself to be the only begotten Son of the Father Ioh. 1. The expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 the image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 That word in the beginning was and was God the word the Son of God not by communication of grace but nature therefore the natural Son of God but so the Son of God his begotten Son as to be very God for the word was God The Word was God saith the Apostle not only by a participation of power or communiâ—ation of a more abundant measure of his graces in which respects some of the Sons of Men are called Gods in Scripture Ego dixi Dii estis saith the royal Psalmist but properly and truly God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very true God and the Son of God We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ who is the true God and the life eternal saith the same Apostle Here have we CHRIST the Son of God and CHRIST the true God both in one and what need further evidence in a point so clear Such further Topicks as are used for the proof hereof from the names given him in the Scripture the attributes and mighty workes ascribed unto him and the company of such texts in the book of God as being spoken of the Father in the old Testament are applyed in the new unto the Son I purposely forbear at present and shall content my self with such ample testimonies which CHRIST himself hath given to his own Divinity For though it be an unusual thing to admit a mans own testimony in his own cause according unto that of our Lord and Saviour If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true that is to say it would not passe for currant or be taken for truth yet when a man lyeth under any accusation he may then speak what he can in defence of himself and his testimony be allowed of towards his acquitment or justification And therefore Christ our Saviour being challenged by the Pharisees who were apt to cavil at his sayings for speaking in his own behalfe returned this answer Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Upon this ground then we proceed and though it be the last in order of our Saviours life yet we will first alleage that passage which happened in the high Priests hall on the day of his passion The high Priest finding no sufficient testimony for his condemnation resolved to put him to the oath of ex officio and therefore did adjure him by the living God to tell them whether he were the Christ the Son of God to which our Saviour answered saying Thou hast said Which though it be equivalent to an affirmation yet to make sure work of it and put it out of doubt St. Marke hath given his answer in these positive termes Iesus said I am In which it is to be observed that when the high Priests put our Saviour to this dangerous question he spake not of the Son of God in that vulgar sense in which the just and righteous persons were called his sons but of the Son of God in the natural sense in which he could not verifie himself for the Son of God without including necessarily that he was also God As in the 5. Chap. of St. Iohn where our Saviour having said My Father worketh hitherto and I also work the incensed Iews intended him some present mischief not only because he had broken the Sabbath but had said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God And this appears yet further by the following words where it is said that the high Priest rent his clothes saying he hath spoken blasphemy and thereupon pronounced him to be guilty of death which vote they after prosecuted before Pontius Pilate affirming that he ought to die by the Law of Moses because he had made himself the Son of God Assuredly their meaning was that he had made himself the true and natural Son of God and not the Son of God by especial grace for otherwise they had not voted him to be guilty of death Nor had the high Priest rent his clothes if he had only taken upon himself the name of CHRIST or of the Messiah because that could not come within the compasse of Blasphemy For they knew well that the Messiah or the Christ was to come in the forme of man though with more outward pomp and glory as they supposed then our Saviour did and therefore though they might have condemned him of folly in that being a man of no reputation he had taken on himself the name of CHRIST they had no reason in the world to accuse him of Blaspheming the name of God Now that the Messiah was to come in the form of man being he was to come of the womans seed was a thing so perfectly resolved on that Eve immediately on the promise made that her seed should bruise the Serpents head supposed that Cain her first born was to be the man and therefore said upon his birth I have gotten a man or rather the man from the Lord Possedi virum ipsum Jehovah I have gotten a man even the Lord Jehovah as Fagius the learned Hebrician upon severall revises readeth it The like conceit possessed the Parents of Noah as many good Authours do conceive upon which ground they said when they gave him that name this same that is this son of ours shall comfort us concerning our work Nor had the very Iewes of our Saviours time sent to enquire of Iohn the Baptist
whether he were the Christ whom they did expect but that they knew he was to come in an humane shape and that it was no Blasphemy to own that title So then the quarrel which the Iewes had against our Saviour was that he called himself the Son of God in the literal and natural signification of the word And this appeares more plainly yet not only by a former passage where they sought to slay him because he said that God was his Father making himself thereby to be equal with God but by a solemn conference which they had on the like occasion In which our Saviour did not only own himself to be the CHRIST and to claim God to be his Father in the proper sense of the word Father but added further an expression more unpleasing to them saying I and my Father are one For which when the Iews took up stones to stone him and were demanded for which of his many good workes they were so resolved they answered thus For a good worke we stone thee not but for blasphemy because thou being a man makest thy selfe God It seems the Iewes were of opinion that none could properly and naturally be the Son of God or so call himself but he must make himself to be also God or else their accusation had been falsly grounded And if our Saviour had not known himself to be very God as well as his natural proper and begotten Son he ought so far to have consulted the honour of God as to have traversed the enditement refelled the ill-grounded crimination and told them plainly this that he was not GOD but wronged exceedingly by them in so false an inference which the Logick of his discourse would by no means bear For if Iohn Baptist being asked on the like occasion denyed himself to be the MESSIAH and said plainely I am not the Christ and if Paul and Barnabas when the Lystrians would have offered sacrifice unto them rent their clothes and said Sirâ— why do ye these things we are men of like passions with your selves how much more was our Saviour bound to have done the like and not to let the Iewes run on in their misperswasion But our Redeemer doth not so He lets them peaceably enjoy their opinion of him that is to say that by calling God his Father he had made himself God and doth not go about to perswade them otherwise Only he laboureth to take off the edge of their malice towards him by telling them that according to the grounds of their own Law it was no such heinous or unpardonable crime for men to call themselves by the name of God And if they were called Gods in Scripture to whom the word of God came as it did to the Prophets and called so without any offence that was taken at it with how much better reason might he call himself the Son of God even in that sense wherein they understood his words without incurring either the sin or punishment of Blasphemy This is the summe of the discourse between Christ and the malicious Iewes in the tenth of St. Iohn and this doth evidently prove that CHRIST did so affirme himself to be the Son of God the Father as that he would by no means deny himself to be God the Son Adde unto this that in another Dialogue betwixt him and the Iewes he took unto himself the name I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antequam Abraham fieret â—goâ—sum saith the Vulgar Latine that is to say Before Abraham was made or born I am Which being the very self same name by which God calleth himself in the book of Exodus saying Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you may serve for a concluding Argument that as CHRIST was not ashamed to call himself the son of man so neither was he afraid to own himself for the Son of God and so to be the Son of God as to be also true God God for ever blessed Thus have I done with such Records and evidence of holy Scripture which are intrinsecal to this cause and have been chosen by me out of a greater number with reference to the limitations fixed to my design Some other evidence there is which I count extrinsecal because borrowed from the writings of Iews Greeks and Romans no friends unto the cause if not open enemies And first beginning with the Iews we finde this testimony given to our Lord and Saviour by Iosephus the Historian that it was hardly lawful to call him a man and in the close of all that he was the CHRIST Erat eodem tempore Jesus quidam c. There lived saith he one IESVS much about that time a wise man if at the least it be lawful to cal him a man For he did many miracles and was a Teacher of those who do receive the truth with gladness drawing many after him both Iews and Gentiles This was the CHRIST This said he speaks in brief of his crucifying under Pontius Pilate his resurrection from the dead on the third day after and then concludes Et ad hunc usque diem Christianorum gens ab eo cognominata non dâ—sinit that the Sect of the Christians being denominated from him continue to this very day Though this be more then we have reason to expect from a Iew yet that of Thedosius which we finde in Suidas is more full then this This Theodosius was a Iew living in the time of Iustinian the Emperour Iustinian the Emperour having some acquaintance with one Philip a Christian Merchant told him a story to this purpose viz. That there were in the Temple of Hierusalem 22 Priests in ordinary attendance and that as often as one died another was chosen in his place that IESVS in regard of his piety and learning was chosen into one of the void places and his own name together with the name of his Parents being to be inrolled in the publick Register his Mother came to answer in that behalf who being interrogated of his Fathers name reported the whole story of his incarnation as she had heard from the Angel and thereupon his Name was entred in these words IESVS the Son of the living God and the Virgin Mary This Book or Register the same Theodosius doth report to have been carefully preserved in Tiberias a City of Galilee after the destruction of Hierusalem and that he had often seen and perused it there he being one of the principal Citizens and of authority in that place I know the truth of this relation hath been much disputed in regard that our Redeemer was of the Tribe of Iudah and so not capable of the Aaronical or Levitical Priest-hood Nor can I tell whether it will help the matter to report out of Ranulph the Monk of Chester that Hismerias the Mother of Elizabeth which bare the Baptist and Anna the Mother of the Virgin Mary were sisters and the
daughter of a Levite whose name was Isachar This I am sure may be affirmed in defence of the story that the Iews were not then so punctual in keeping themselves unto their Tribes as they had been formerly that even the High Priesthood it self had been bought and sold to persons both unworthy and uncapable of so high an honour that we finde IESVS to have preached in the Temple often and to have done in it other Ministerial Offices which questionless the Priests and Pharisees would never have suffered had he not had some calling to it which might authorize him And if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacerdotes in the Text of Suidas we may have leave to understand some inferiour Ministers and not the very Priests themselves as possibly enough we may the story may then stand secure above all exceptions Next let us look amongst the Gentiles and they will tell us that Augustus the Roman Emperour in whose time the Lord CHRIST was born consulting with the Oracle of Apollo touching his successor received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus An Hebrew childe whom the blest Gods adore Commands me leave these shrines and back to Hel So that of Oracles I can no more In silence leave our Altars and farewell Which answer being so returned Augustus built an Altar in the Roman Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI i.e. the Altar of the first begotten of God The general ceasing of Oracles much about this time gives some strength to this And so doth that which we finde mentioned in Eusebius touching the falling of the Idols of Egypt upon our Saviours first coming into that countrey St. Ambrose in his Commentary on the 119. Psalm doth affirm as much Nor is it yet determined to the contrary by our greatest Criticks but that the Prophet Esaiah may allude to this where bringing in the burden of Egypts he saith Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift clowd and shall come into Egypt and the Idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence But whether the Prophet do allude unto this or not we have no reason to misdoubt of the truth of the story and the acknowledgement which the false Gods of the Gentiles made to the Divinity of the true In and about these times lived the Poet Virgil one of whose Eclogues being a meer extract of some fragments of the Sibylline Oracles hath many passages which cannot properly be applyed to any but our Saviour Christ though by him wrested to the honour of Marcellus the Nephew and designed Heir of Augustus Caesar. For example these Iam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenes Coelo demittitur alto Chara Deunt soboles magnum Iovis incrementum Which may be Englished in these words Now shines the Virgin now the times of peace Return again and from the Heaven on high Comes down a sacred and new Progenie The issue of the Gods Ioves blest increase More testimonies of this nature might be added here but these shall serve at this time for a tast of the rest And so we end with that of the Centurion of Pilates guard who noting all that hapned in our Saviours passion could not but make acknowledgement of so great a Prophet saying Surely this was the Son of God And this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as could possibly be delivered in so few words Which being so it is the more to be admired that such as take unto themselves the name of Christians should think and speak less honorably of their Lord and Saviour then the Iews Gentiles and the Devils themselves yet such vile miscreants have there been in the former ages and I doubt are still And of those Ebion was the first who savouring strongly of the Iew had made up such a mixture of Religion as might please their palates and taught no otherwise of CHRIST then that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ordinary natural man begotten in the common course of generation Eusebius so informs us of him St. Hierome addes that for the suppression of this heresie St. Iohn at the request of some Asian Bishops wrote his holy Gospel of purpose to assert the Divinity of CHRIST ut divinam ejus nativitatem ediceret are St. Hieromes words of which but little had been said by the other Evangelists After him there arose up Artemon or Artemas in the days of the Emperour Heliogabalus who held the same opinion concerning CHRIST as the Ebionites did affirming him to be no other then a meer natural man saving that he was born of the Virgin Mary after a more peculiar manner then the rest of mankinde and was to be preferred before all the Prophets And against him there was a Book written as Eusebius telleth us though the name of the Author came not to his hands But that which is a matter of most admiration is that Paulus Samosatenus a Christian Bishop a Bishop of one of the four Patriarchal Sees even of the City of Antioch should not only set on foot again this condemned Heresie but have the impudence to affirm that it had been the antient and approved Doctrine of the Church of Christ No wonder if the Prelates of the Church did best in themselves when such a foul contagion was got in amongst them and therefore they assembled in the City of Antioch that by the authority of their presence and the sincerity of their doctrine so dangerous a Monster might be quelled in the face of his people This was about the time of the Emperour Aurelianus Nor had there been a more celebrious Councel in the Church of Christ from that of the Apostles mentioned in the 15. of the Acts unto that of Nice The issue and success whereof was so blessed by God that from those times until these last and worst ages of the Church wherein Socinus Osterodius and their followers have again revived it this wretched heresie was scarce heard of but in antient Histories And on the other side some of the antient Writers and the later Schoolmen the better to beat down the dotages of such frantick Hereticks as had impugned the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour have so intangled the simplicity of the Christian faith within the Labyrinth of curious and intricate speculations that it became at last a matter of great wit and judgement to know what was to be believed in the things of Christ. And of this nature I conceive are those inexplicable and perplexed discourses about the consubstantiality and coequality of the Persons which how it can consist with the School-distinction that the Father doth all things authoritative and the Son all things sub-authoritative it is hard to say that the Son is coeternal with the Father as in the Creed of Atâ—anasius and yet Principium a principio in the Schoolmens language that there should be two
reconciled to man as Peace had desired And so that was fulfilled which the Psalmist speaks of Mercy and truth are met together righteousness or justice and peace have kissed each other Arminius followeth this conceit a little further and addes that when the different parties had pursued their interesses Wisdome was called on to advise what was best to be done to give satisfaction to them all whose advise was that the punishment due to the sin of man should be changed into an Expiatory sacrifice by the voluntary oblation of the which justice might be appeased and place made for mercy But then began a new debate where they should finde a Priest fit for such a sacrifice Angel it could not be because it was not reasonable that an Angel should suffer for the sin of Man And Man it could not be because being terrifyed with the guilt of his own transgressions he had not confidence enough to draw near to God nor had he any thing of his own which was held worthy to be offered to so high a Deity Wisdome was therefore called again by whom it was finally resolved that there must be some man begotten who being made in all things like unto his Brethren might be the more sensible of their infirmities but so that he should be free from sin and not obnoxious to the power and criminations of Satan Holy he was to be or rather holiness and therefore to be conceived only by the holy Ghost by whose great power the ordinary course of nature was to be supplyed and in this flesh the Word it self to be incarnate who offering up that flesh in sacrifice for the sins of the world might so performe the work of poor mans redemption But leaving these conceits though indeed very ingenious there is no question to be made but God had other means to save us then by the incarnating the word and humbling his only begotten Son unto the death even the death of the Crosse if he had so pleased But a better and more convenient way to demonstrate his love and mercy towards us to manifest his Power and wisdome and yet withall to shew his justice against sin and Satan the Scriptures have not laid before us The Fathers have resolved it thus Et â—ine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae peccatis laxaret habenas effraenatis quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones God saith St. Cyprian was able to have pardoned this great sin without this sacrifice but the sacrifice of the pardon would have loosned the reines to unbridled sins which even the sufferings of Christ are scarce able to represse The like saith Nazianzen It was possible for God saith he to save man by his only will without taking of our flesh upon him as he did and doth work all things without help of a body Damascene to the same effect He was not otherwise unable that can do all things by his Almighty power and strength to take man from the tyrant that possessed him The like occurreth in St. Ambrose St. Augustine and Pope Gregory also In the darke ages of the Chrurch the same truth was held For thus St. Bernard in those times Was not the Creator able to restore his work without this difficulty Able he was but he chose rather to wrong himself then the most lewd and hateful vice of unthankfulnesse should finde any colourable place in man And it holds also since the times of the reformation Calvin affirmes it in plain terms Poterat nos Dominus verbo aut nutu redimere nisi aliter nostra causa visual esset the Lord saith he might have redeemed us with a word or beck but that for our sakes he thought good to do otherwise Zanchius comes very close to Calvin What saith he could not mankind be delivered by any other means then the death of Christ No doubt but that he might have done it solo nutu et jussu et voluntate divina by the only beck commandement and will of God Conforme to which expression of the antient and modern writers the Church of England hath declared in the book of Homilies that it was the surest pledge of Gods love to man to give us his own Son from Heaven For otherwise he might have given us if he would an Angel or some other Creature and yet in that his love had been far above our deserts They who conceive that God was not able otherwise to effect this work or had no other meanes to bring it to passe then that which he made choise of to effect the same do wilfully intrench upon his Omnipotence which is larger then either his will or his works For though his works be alwayes measured by his will yet must his Power be limited unto neither of them because God is able to do many things which he never did nor will do as hath been shewn before in the first Article And in his works to bind him unto any necessity to do as he did and not to leave him at his own liberty to do what he pleaseth and in a way which seemeth most agreeable to his heavenly wisdome were to revive the accursed errour of the Manichees Against whom St. Augustine thus resolveth it Nullam ergo necessitatem patitur Deus neque necessitate facit quae facit sed summa et ineffabili voluntate ao potestate God saith the Father is not bound by any necessity nor is he necessitated to do those things which he doth but doth them by his supreme and unspeakable power As then there was not any necessity on the part of God the Father Almighty to send his only begotten Son into the world to take our humane nature on him and suffer an accursed death for the sins of the world so neither was there any necessity on the part of the word by which he was enjoyned or compelled to take upon him the office of a Mediator and be incarnate in our flesh That it was agreeable to the work in hand that the word should be made flesh and in that flesh accomplish the whole mystery of our redemption there are many reasons to perswade For who was fitter to be cast out into the Sea to stay the tempest of Gods anger against sinful man then the Ionas for whose sake it rose Almighty God was first displeased for the wrong offered to the word in that man desired to be like unto God and to know all things in such sort as is proper to the only begotten Son of the Father The sin was caro verbum then vile flesh aspired to be made like unto the word therefore the remedy now must be verbum caro the word so farforth humbling it self as to be made flesh Verbum caro factum Who fitter to become the son of man then he that was by nature the Son of God Patrem habuit in coelis Matrem quaesivit in
terris as St. Bernard hath it Who could be fitter to make us the Sons of God by adoption and grace then the word by which we were to be begotten unto life eternal or to repair the image of God decayed in us then he that was the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the expresse image of his Person Finally who more fit to settle the minds of men in a certain and undoubted perswasion of the truth of such things as are necessary to be believed and thereby bring us into the way of life everlasting then he that was the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us of himself in St. Iohns Gospell Vt homo fidentius ambularet ad veritatem ipsa veritas Dei filius homine assumpto constituit et fundavit fidem as St. Augustine hath it That man saith he might with more confidence travell in the wayes of truth the truth it self even the Son of God taking the nature of man upon him did plant and found that faith which we are to beleive By which it is apparent that it was most agreeable both to our condition and the nature of the word it self that he should take upon himself the office of a Mediator between God and Man but so that he was bound thereto by no necessity but only out of his meer love and goodness to that wretched Creature The Scriptures and the Fathers are expresse in this Walke in love saith the Apostle as Christ hath also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet smelling savour And anon after Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it And in pursuance of this love he took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. So that first out of his love and goodness towards us he offered himself to serve and suffer in our places and after out of the same love submitted himself unto the punishment which our sins deserved God not imposing this upon him by necessity of any inevitable decree but mercifully accepting his compassionate offer which did so powerfully conduce unto mans salvation and the most inexpressible honour of his only Son The sufferings of CHRIST in regard of man do take their value from his Person the excellency of which did prevail so far as to make the passion of one available for the sins of all But the merit of those sufferings in regard of himself is to be valued by that cheerful freedom with which he pleased to undergo them and had not been so acceptable nor effectual neither if they had not been voluntary For Fathers which affirm the same we need take no thought having both Reason and the Scriptures so expresly for it though this be universally the Doctrine of all Catholick wrirers some of whose words I shall recite and for the rest refer the Reader to their Books For the Greek Church thus saith Athanasius CHRIST seeing the goodness of his Father and his own sufficiency and power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was moved with compassion towards man and pitying our infirmities cloathed himself with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and willingly took up his cross and went uncompelled unto his death And thus St. Augustine for the Latâ—ne The Word saith he was made flesh by his own power and was born suffered died and rose again nulla necessitate sed voluntate potestate by no necessity laid upon him but meerly of his own good will and that authority which he had to dispose of himself See to this purpose the same Augustine in Psal. 8. de Trinit l. 4. c. 10. Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. 55. in Ioh. Hom. 82. Amb. in Psal. 118. Serm. 6. De Fide l. 2. c. 1. Hieron in Isai. cap. 3. in Psal. 68. Not to descend to those of the later Ages The passages being thus laid open we now proceed to the great work of the incarnation wherein the holy Ghost was to have his part that so none of the Heavenly powers might be wanting to the restauration of collapsed man That our Redeemers Incarnation in the Virgins womb was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost is positively affirmed in St. Matthews Gospel first in the way of an historical Narration Before they came together as man and wise she was found with childe of the holy Ghost ch l. 1. 18. and afterwards by way of declaration from an Angel of Heaven saying Ioseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the holy Ghost vers 20. Nor wanted there especial reason if at least any reasons may be given in matters of so high a nature why this miraculous Conception was committed rather to the holy Ghost then either acted by the sole power of God the Father or by the sole vertue of the Word who was aboundantly able to have wrought his own Incarnation For as the Word was pleased to offer himself to take humane flesh the better to accomplish the great work of the Worlds redemption and as God the Father knowing how unable poor man must be to work out his own salvation otherwise then by such a Saviour was graciously pleased to accept the offer so it seemed requisite that God the holy Ghost should prepare that flesh in which the Word of God was to be incarnate Besides the power of quickning and conferring fruitfulness is generally ascribed to the Spirit in the Book of God who therefore in the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitane Creed is called the Lord and giver of life For thus saith David for the Old Testament Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thus the son of David for the New Testament Spiritus est qui vivificat i. e. It is the Spirit that quickneth The holy Ghost then was the proper Agent in the Incarnation So St. Matthew tels us But for the manner and the means by which so wonderful a conception was brought to pass that we finde only in St. Luke The blessed Virgin as it seemed made a question of it how she should possibly conceive and bring forth a son considering that as yet she had not had the company of her husband Ioseph Quandoquidem virum non cognosco that is to say since as yet I do not know my husband for so I rather choose to read it then to translate it as it stands in our English Bibles seeing I know not a man For that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and Vir in Latine do sometimes signifie an Husband every Schoolboy knows and so the words are rendred in our English Bibles Ioh. 4.16 17 18. and in other places And
is not concerned who by the power of the most High understands here the very person of God the Son and by this over-shadowing of the blessed Virgin his voluntary Incarnation in her sanctified womb His words are these Per virtutem Altissimi intelligi ipsum Dei Filium qui est virtus brachium potentia Patris quique obumbraturus significatur Virginem illapsu suo in uterum Virginis per occultum Incarnationis mysterium But by his leave I cannot herein yeild unto his opinion though Chrysostom and Gregory for the antient Writers Beda and Damascene for the Authors of the middle times do seem to contenance it For not St. Augustine only as himself confesseth and Euthymius a good writer also are against him in it but the plain text and context of the holy Scripture which makes the quickning of the womb of this blessed Virgin to be the work only of one Agent though it be expressed by different titles Nor are such repetitions strange or extraordinary in the Book of God nor can it give any colour to distinguish the power of the most High from the holy Ghost as if they were two different Agents unless we can distinguish the Lord our God from him that dweleth in the Heavens because we finde them both together in the 2. Psalm He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision And though it cannot be denyed but that the Son of God is the very power and strength of his Father yet himself doth give this very name of power to the holy Ghost For when he commanded the Apostles to abide in the City of Hierusalem donec induantur virtute ex alto i. e. until they were â—ndued with power from on high what else did he intend thereby but that they should continue there until they were endued with the holy Ghost Of which see Act. 2.4 Besides if this opinion should be once admitted we must exclude the holy Ghâ—st from having any thing to do in so great a mysterie and so not only bring the Creed under an Expurgatorius Index but the Scripture too Letting this therefore stand for a truth undeniable that the over-shadowing as the Text calleth it of the blessed Virgin was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost let us next see whether the nature of the miracle be not agreeable to the operatioâ—s of the holy Spirit or such as may not be admitted for a truth undoubted by equal and indifferent men though they be not Christians nor take it up upon the credit of the Word of God And first that of it self it is agreeable to the operations of the Spirit the course of his Divine power in the works of nature doth expresly manifest For as in the spiritual regeneration though it be Paul that planteth and Apollo that watereth yet it is God who gives the increase without whose blessing on their labours their labours will prove fruitless and ineffectual so also in the act of carnal generation though the man and woman do their parts for the pro creation of children yet if the quickning Spirit of God do not bless them in it and stir up the emplastick virtue of the natural seed they may go childless to their graves It is the Spirit which quickneth what the womb doth breed And therefore in my minde Lactantius noted very well Hominem non Patrem esse sed generandi Ministrum that man was nothing but the instrument which the Lord did use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that goodly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children It is the Spirit of God as the Scripture tels us which first gave form unto the world from whence that known passage of the Poet Spiritus intus alit had its first Original of which we have made use in our former book And if the chief work or rather the principal part in the work of nature in the ordinary course of Generation and first production of the Word may be ascribed as most undoubtedly it must unto the powerful influence of this quickning Spirit with how much more assurance may he be entituled to the Incarnation of the Word to which one sex only did contribute and that the weakest without the mutual help and co-operation of the seed of man Nor is the greatness of the Miracle so beyond belief but that there is sufficient in the holy Scripture to convince the Iew and in the writings of the Poets to perswade the Gentiles to the admission of this truth and consequently to confirm all good Christians in it Out of the Virgin-Earth did God first make Adam and out of Virgin Adam he created Eve Adam first made without the help of man or woman and Eve made after out of Adam who had no wife but this which was made out of him Why might not then the blessed Virgin be as capable of conceiving a Son by the sole power and influence of the holy Ghost without help of man as Adam was of being Father unto Eve by the self same power without the use of a woman Without a Mother Eve without Father CHRIST Adam without both Father and Mother but all the handy-work of God by the holy Spirit Equivalent in effect to the creation of Adam and the production of Eve was the birth of Isaac conceived by Sarah when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women by consequence as indisposed to the act of conception as if she had been still a Virgin or which is more then that under years of marriage The strength that Sarah had to bring forth that Son was not natural to her for she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the age of childe-bearing as the Text informs us but a strength supernatural given from God on high and therefore called a received strength she received strength to conceive seed Heb. 11.11 because not naturally her own but received extraordinarily from God As Isaac was in many things a Type of CHRIST so in no one thing more exactly then that he was the only Son or the dearly beloved Son of his Father begotten on a woman past the time of her age whose dead womb could not but by such a miracle be revived again To this the Iews most cheerfully do give assent boasting themselves to be the children of Abraham by this very venter What reason have they then not to yeild to this but that they resolved not to yeild to reason Next for the Gentiles do we not finde it in their Poets that Venus was ingendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth and influence of the Sun that Pallas issued from Ioves brain and Bacchus from the thigh of Iupiter Do we not read that most of their Heroes so much famed of old were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures as Hercules on Alcmena by Iupiter Phaeton on Clymene by Phoebus and Paâ—
transgression was an untouched Virgin a Virgin though betrothed to her husband Adam for she was a Virgin espoused from her first creation when she conceived sin and brought forth iniquity and Mary was an espoused Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Ioseph when she conceived the Son of righteousness and brought forth salvation And as the first woman conceived death by believing an evill Angel without consulting with her husband till the deed was done so the espoused Virgin of the present Article conceived in her body the Lord of life by believing the words and message of a good Angel her husband being not made privy to it till he perceived she was with child Some reasons then there were why it should be so why Christ our Saviour should be born of the purest Virgin though those reasons do not make it to be lesse a miracle for nothing but a miracle and the holy Ghost could have begotten such a child upon such a Mother That by this means the miserable fall of man was to be repaired it pleased God to declare unto our wretched Parents before they were exiled from the garden of Eden It was the first and greatest comfort which was given unto them that the seed of the woman should break the head of the serpent and that the serpent should but bruise the heel of the womans seed that is to say that there should one be born of the womans seed who by the sufferings of his body his inferiour part should overcome the powers of Hell and set man free from that captivity in which he was held bound by Satan And as it was the first in the generall promise so was it as I think the cleerest and most evident light to point us out to the particular of bringing this great work to passe by a Virgin-birth Though Adam was the root of mankinde and lost himself and his posterity by his disobedience yet was the promise made to Eve a Virgin and not to Adams seed at all nor any to be procreated from the seed of man It is a common resolution of the Schoolmen that if Eve only had transgressed Adamo in innocentia permanente Adam continuing still in his first integrity neither the souls of their posterity had been tainted with original sin nor their bodie made subject unto death It was in Adam that all die as St Paul hath told us It is in Adam that all die but 't was in Eve that all should be made alive not in Eves person but her seed The promise made to Eve a Virgin that her seed should break the serpents head fore-signifyed that our redeemer should be born of a Virgin Mother such as Eve was when this first publication of Gods will was made A clearer evidence then which as to this particular I think is hardly to be found in the book of God that so much celebrated place of the Prophet Isaiah Behold a Virgin shall conceive not being primarily intended of the birth of CHRIST though in his birth accomplished in a more excellent manner then first intended by the Prophet The estate of Ahaz King of Iudah at that time stood this A storme was threatned to his Kingdome from the joynt forces of Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Samaria which so dismaid the hearts of Ahaz and of all his people that they were as the trees of the wood moved with the wind as the text informes us not knowing upon what to fasten nor for what to hope In this great consternation comes Isaiah to them with a message from God assuring them of the speedy destruction of those Kings whom they so much feared But this when Ahaz durst not credit nor would be moved to aske a signe from God to confirme his faith and to assure himself of a quick deliverancâ— it pleased God to give him this by the mouth of the Prophet Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel Butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evill and choose the good For before the child shall know to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings To say that this was literally and originally meant of the birth of CHRIST is not consistent with the case and circumstances of the present businesse The King and people were in danger of a present war and nothing but the hope of a present deliverance was able to revive their desparing hearts And what signe could it be to confirme that hope that after 700. years and upwards for so long time there was between the death of Ahaz and the birth of Christ a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a Son Cold comfort could there be in this to that generation who could not hope for so long life as to see the wonder So that the literal meaning of the Prophecie is most like to be that before some noted Virgin then of fame and credit or else within that space of time that any who was then a Virgin should conceive a child according to the ordinary course of nature and that that child should be of age to know good from evill the two Kings spoken of before should be both destroyed That so it is seemeth very evident to me by the successe of the businesse For in the next Chapter we find that Isaiah went unto the Prophetesse perhaps the Virgin spoken of in the former passages and she conceived and bare a Son whom the Lord commanded to be called Maher-shalal-hash-baz and gives this reason for the name being so unusuall that before the child shall have the knowledge to cry my Father and my Mother which is the same with that of refusing the evill and choosing the good the riches of Damascus and the spoyle of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria And so it proved in the event For before this Maher-shalal-hash-baz so conceived and born was able to distinguish of meats or know his Father and Mother from other people was the word fulfilled which God had spoken by the Prophet touching their deliverance Pekah being slain by Hoseah the son of Elah and Rezin by Tiglath-Pilesar the King of Assyria within two or three years after the said signe was given Of which see a King 16.5 6 7 c. Chron. 17.1 But then we must observe withall that this Prophecie being thus fulfilled in the literal sense according to the Prophets intent and purpose contained in it a more mystical meaning according to the secret purpose of Almighty God this temporal deliverance of Ahaz and the house of Iudah from the hands of two such potent enemies being a type or figure of that spiritual and eternal deliverance which he intended unto them and to all mankinde from the tyranny of sin and Satan Which secret will and purpose of Almighty God being made known to the Evangelist by the holy Ghost he might
as good authority as the Laws and Statutes of the Realm can give unto it Which holy time had it been as carefully and conscionably observed by all sorts of people as it was prudently and piously ordained at first we had no doubt escaped many of those grievous plagues with which the Lord of late hath scourged us and even consumed us unto nothing by our own licentiousness But to proceed to the third general point contained in the story of the Lords temptation in which there is a doubt as before was said touching the very moment and point of time which the old Tempter took to give the onset occasioned by the different narrations of the three Evangelists that is to say whether the Devil tempted him all those forty days and then gave him over or that he did not trouble him and begin the business until the forty days were past and his fast was ended St. Matthews words do seem to intimate nay to say expresly that the Tempter did not come unto him till his fast was ended and that afterwards he was an hungred and this more literally agrees with the particulars of the following story But on the other side it is said in Luke that he was led into the Wilderness being forty days tempted by the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek text reads it and then how could the Devil set him upon one of the Pinnacles of the Temple if he were all the time of his Temptation within the bowels of that Desert For resolution of which point Eusebius and St. Cyril two Greek Fathers though they keep the words yet they do point them otherwise then we read them now in our printed copies referring the forty days which are there spoken of not to his being tempted of the Devil but to his being in the Wilderness And then the reading will be thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say And he was led into the Wilderness forty days being tempted of the Devil c. And so it seems it stood in those antient copies which were consulted by the Author of the Vulgar Latine whosoever he was in which we read Et agebatur in Spiritu in deserto diebus quadraginta tentatur a Diabolo Which reading if it be allowed of as I see no reason but it may then the doubt is ended and the appearing difference fairly reconciled Otherwise we may say and no doubt most safely that he was tempted by the Devil all those forty days as is said by Luke and after they were ended also as we finde in Matthew that is to say as Euthymius very rightly noteth the Devil tempted him in those days the said forty days as it were a far off by sleep sloth heaviness and the like but after he knew him once to be hungry then he set upon him prope manifeste as the Author hath it more visibly and hand to hand namely in those three great temptations which the story mentioneth So then the nick and point of time in which the Devil did apply himself most closely to the work intended was cum esuriret when he began to be an hungry As long as our Redeemer kept himself unto prayer and fasting the Devil either did not trouble him or it was either with such trivial and light temptations as made no impression and neither interrupted him in his holy course nor caused him to intermit the business he was then upon by making any necessary replies to his lewd suggestions But when he began to be an hungry when his minde seemed to be upon his belly if I may so say then did the Devil think it was time to work him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it was notably well observed by Chrysostom to this very purpose So excellent is the force and efficacy of an holy fast that it keeps the Devil at a distance This difficulty thus passed over we shall next look on the particular temptations which those Gospels speak of In which it is to be observed that whereas St. Iohn makes mention of three kindes of lust which mightily prevail on the affections of us mortal men viz. the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the Devil tempted CHRIST in all and in all was vanquished He tempted him in the first place with the lust of the flesh when he found that after such and so long a fast he began to be hungry and was reduced to such extremities as to be forced to seek his bread even in desolate places and said unto him if that thou beest the Son of God as the late voyce from heaven did seem to signifie command that these stones be made bread to appease thy hunger and satisfie that natural necessity which is now upon thee An opportunity well taken and as strongly followed had it been answered with success For commonly when men are in distress and want they are then most apt either to distrust the Lord their God as if he left them to themselves without hope of relief or else to use unlawful means to relieve themselves which was the point the Devil thought to bring him to by this first temptation But when he failed of this design he pressed him in the next place with the lust of the eye taking him up upon an exceeding high mountain shewing him all the Kingdomes of the World and the glories of them and offering to bestow them all upon him if he would only yeild so far as to fall down and worship him Impudent wretch thou worst of all wicked spirits saith Ignatius how was it that thou didst not fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to utter such a sawcy voyce to the Lord of all things And yet a far more impudent braggart to make an offer of those things which he had no power of the Kingdomes of the earth and the glories of them being holden of no other Lord then the Lord our God And here it is to be observed that whereas in the former onset which only did relate unto Christ himself he only did reply upon him with a Scriptum est in this wherein the glorie of his heavenly Father was concerned so highly he addes an Apage or rebuke Get thee hence thou Satan So that the Devil failing at the two first weapons betakes himself unto the last the pride of life setting him on a pinnacle of the holy Temple saying if thou bee the Son of God as credulous men are made believe by the late great miracle of a voyce supposed to be from heaven do somewhat to confirm them in that belief teque assere coelo somewhat which may indeed make manifest that thou art from heaven and answerable to the testimony which that voyce gave of thee and a more sure and easie trial thou canst never meet with then by casting thy self down from hence knowing so well how all the Angels are at hand to attend upon thee and carry thee upon their
for sin should he not redeeme us Since therefore he was at this time to bear the burden of our sins in his body and to have the chastisement of our peace laid upon him and did withall behold the fiercenesse of Gods wrath against sinfull man how could he choose but fear the effects thereof and pray against them For though he were assured that this wrath of God would not proceed against him unto condemnation yet he knew well that God had infinite means to presse and punish humane nature above that which it was able to bear And therefore he addressed himself to his heavenly Father being sure that God at his most earnest and fervent prayer would proportion the pain he was to suffer according to the weaknesse of that flesh which he bare about him that neither his obedience might be staggered nor patience overwhelmed and swallowed up in despair Besides there might be somewhat else in the cup provided for him then the wrath of God with all the fears and terrors which depend upon it which might make him so unwilling to tast thereof so earnestly desirous to decline the same For many of the Fathers think that Christ did pray more vehemently to have that cup passe from him because he saw the Iews so eagerly inclined to force it on him and knew that if he drank thereof and took it from their murderous and bloudy hands it could not but draw down upon them such most grievous punishments as the dispersing of their nation and the rejection of them from the Covenant and grace of God For thus saith Origen for those men then whom he would not have perish by his passion he said Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me that both the world might be saved which was the principal matter aimed at and the Jews not perish by his suffering St. Ambrose thus Therefore said Christ take this cup from me not because the Son of God feared death but for that he would not have the Jews though wicked to perish Ne exitialis esset populo Passio sua quae omnibus esset salutaris lest his passion should be destructive to them which was to be healthfull unto all Of the same minde is Hierome also Christ said not let the cup passe from me but let this cup passe from me i. e. this cup provided by the Jews which can have no excuse of ignorance if they put me to death considering that they have the Law and the Prophets which foretell of me So that Christ makes not this request as as fearing to suffer but in mercy to the former people Sed misericordia prioris populi ne calicem ab illis propinatum bibat that he might not drink the cup which was offered by them Whose judgement in this point is so well approved by venerable Bede our Country-man that he is loath to change the words And certainly this consideration of those worthies stands on very good reason For if he so much pitied the ruine of the City and desolation of their land by the hands of the Romans that he wept upon the thought thereof what sorrow and disconsolation shall we think he took to thinke of the perpertual destruction of so many thousands and their posterities for ever thorow their own madnesse in thirsting after his bloud What grief and anguish must it be unto him to foresee the rejection of that people from the favour of God by their rash and wicked desire to have his bloud upon them and upon their children at his arraignment before Pilate For if Moses and Paul so vehemently grieved at the fall of their Brethren according to the flesh that for their sakes the one wished to be wiped out of the book of God the other most sacredly protested the great heavinesse and continual anguish which he felt for them in his heart how much more might it grieve the Saviour of the world who much exceeded both the other in compassion and mercy to see himself who came to blesse them and to save them to be the rock and stone of offence that should stumble them and their children striking them with perpetual blindnesse and bruising them with everlasting perdition through their unbelief But whether this was so or not as it may be probable most sure it is that many things concurred together to make up the measure of those sarrowes fears and terrors which were then upon him and against which he prayed so fervently and with such prostration Insomuch that having offered up his prayers and supplication to him that was able to save him from death with strong crying and tears to him who was able had he pleased to take away that cup from him but howsoever able and willing both to mitigate the sharpnesse of it and abate the bitternesse the Lord thought fit to send him comfort from above by his heavenly Ministers And there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthning him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek which by the vulgar Latine is translated confortans eum comforting him by the translatour of the Syriack confirmans eum strengthning or confirming him as our last translation The word in the Original will bear both constructions both being of especial use in the present businesse For if we look upon our Saviour in the middest of his anguish praying unto the Lord that if it were possible that cup might passe from him the Angel may be thought to be sent unto him with a message of Comfort touching the mitigation of his sorrows the speedy end they were to have and the inestimable benefit that by his sufferings should redound unto all the world and then it is confortans eâ—m as the vulgar Latine But if we look upon him as resolved to submit himself to his Fathers pleasure not my will but thy will be done and patiently to endure whatever he should lay upon him the Angel may be thought to be sent unto him to strengthen and confirme him in that resolution and then it is confirmans eum as the translatour of the Syriack reads it But which soever of the two it was certain it is that the appearance of the Angel had some special end God doth not use to send about those heavenly messengers but on businesses of great importance And though there be no constat in the book of God what this businesse was on which the Angel was sent down by the Lords appointment yet we may probably conceive that it was to give him this assurance that his prayers were heard whether they tended to the mitigation of his present sorrows or the accepting of his death and passion as a full perfect and sufficient satisfaction for the sinnes of the world For the Apostle having told us in the fift to the Hebrews that when in the days of his flesh he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from
death he addeth in the very next words that he was heard in that he feared that is to say the prayers and supplications which he made to God were not ineffectuall but he obtained that of the Lord for which he prayed so earnesly and devoutly to him in regard that his said prayers proceeded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the text from a godly and religious fear such as the School men call by the name of the fear of reverence Now that the matter of these prayers might be in reference to his offering of himself for the good of mankinde many of the Fathers say expressely St. Paul here saith as Ambrose writeth that Christ offered prayers and supplications non timore mortis sed nostrae causa salutis not so much for the fear of death as for mans salvation and thereupon Paul saith in another place that the bloud of Christ cryed better things for us then the bloud of Abel so saith Primasius Totum quicquid egit Christus in carne c. All that Christ did in the flesh were prayers and supplications for the sins of mankinde and the shedding of his bloud was a strong cry in which he was heard of God his Father in regard of his reverence i. e. for his voluntary obedience and most perfect charity The like saith Haymo on the text a writer of the middle times but of very good worth who keeps himself in the particular to the words of Primasius But above all Sedulius comes most home to the point in hand a writer of good credit under Theodosius the 2. Ann. 430. or thereabouts Christ saith he prayed with tears not shed for fear of death but for our salvation and was heard of God the Father when the Angel did comfort him for his reverence either his with his Father or else his Fathers towards him So that if either the mitigation of those feares and terrors which were then upon him or the acceptance of his death in ransome for the sins of the world were any part of those prayers which he made in the Garden as in all likelihood they were it could not but be most comfortable news unto him that his prayers were granted and the Angel a most welcome messenger by whom such comfortable news was sent And this we may the rather think to be the message which the Angel brought in regard that after this we finde no more mention of those fears and sorrows which formerly had seized upon him but that he cheerfully prepared himself for the stroke of death and called up his Disciples to go forth to meet it So carefull was his heavenly Father of his dearest Son as not to hold him in suspence but to impart unto him upon all occasions how grateful his obedience was how infinitely he was pleased with that zeal constancy which he had manifested in his greatest and most fiery trials In which regard no sooner had he driven away the Devil in that great temptation which at first he suffered in the Wilderness but behold the Angels came and ministred unto him as St. Matthew telleth us And here no sooner had he overcome the difficulties which flesh and bloud and humane frailty had proposed unto him and called upon the Lord for strength to goe through with so great a work and for the acceptation of that offering he was then to make but straight an Angel came from Heaven to strengthen him in his sufferings and comfort him in his afflictions No mention after this of those fears and sorrows which formerly had seised upon him and of the which he had complained so sensibly unto his Disciples But then perhaps it will be said If on the coming of the Angel he received such comforts what then could bring him to that Agony which the Gospel speaks of and speaks of in the very next words to those of the appearance of the holy Angel an agony so sharp and piercing that his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud I know indeed that many do impute this Agony to that extremity of grief which our Saviour suffered and others to those hellish and infernal torments which they conceive according to the new devise to have been within him and that the bloudy sweat which the Scriptures speak of was an effect or consequent of those griefs and torments But on a further search into the business we shall finde it otherwise the Agony into which he fell proceeding not from the extremity of pain or sorrow but from a greater vehemency in prayer And being in an agony saith the Text he prayed more earnestly in which he was so zealously inflamed against sin and Satan that he powred forth not only the strength of his soul but the very spirits of his body For though the word Agony be sometimes improperly taken for fear yet properly it is affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is ready to descend to any combat or conflict as Orion a most antient Grecian observeth in which regard Damascen gives this exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing in doubt or fearing lest we fail in our undertakings we are said to be agonized or to be in an agony And hereto Aristotle that great and wise Philosopher agreeth also where he sheweth not only that an agony may be where there is no fear as when we attempt things honest and commendable though difficult to be attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which men strive and are agonized without fear but also that sweating in an agony proceeds not from fear but rather from zeal and indignation An agony saith he is not the passing of the natural heat from the higher parts of the body to the lower as in fear but rather an increase of heat as in anger and indignation and he that is in an agony is not troubled with fear or cold which crosseth ex diametro this new devise but with expectation of the event So that an agony to speak properly inferreth neither fainting fear nor deadly pain as some misconceive it but noteth a contention or intension of body or minde whereby men labour to perform their desires and strive against the dangers which may defeat them of and in their enterprise And for this agony of Christs if we compare it with those circumstances which attend the text we shall plainly see that it proceeded not from the extremity of grief or sorrow against both which he had received strength and comfort by the hands of the Angel but from that fervency of zeal and contention of minde to prevail in that which he desired and to remove all rubs and difficulties which were set before him The Devil as we know did attempt our Saviour at the first entrance on his Ministery when he was first proclaimed to be the Son of God though then he had no more quarrel to him then to finde out the truth of that proclamation whether he were the Son of God or not
Augustine doth informe us saying Id enim sacrificium est quod successit omnibus sacrificiis quae immolabantur in umbra futuri that this one sacrifice succeedeth in the place of all those which were offered in relation unto Christ to come But before him St. Ireneus did more plainly affirme that same who living in the next age to the Apostles is able to instruct us better in the mysteries of the Christian faith then any other more remote and of lesse antiquity And he tels us this viz. that as God caused his Gospel to be preached over all the world in stead of the innumerable ordinances of the Law of Moses so he ordained that for those several sorts of sacrifices which are there prescribed simplex oblatio panis et vini sufficiat the offering of bread and wine only should be held sufficient More plainly yet as plainly as he could expresse himself by words and writing he doth thus deliver it Sed suis Discipulis dans consilium c. Christ saith he giving his Disciples charge to offer the first fruits of every creature to the Lord their God not that God standeth in need of their oblations but that they might not be esteemed to be either unfruitfull or ungratefull tooke ordinary bread eum qui ex natura panis est and having given thanks said This is my body and taking the cup into his hands such as we use to drink of the fruit of the vine acknowledged it to be his bloud What then for this we know already It followeth Et novi testamenti novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert Deo By doing which saith that old Father he taught us the new sacrifice of oblation of the new Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles doth offer unto God over all the world So that the holy Eucharist was ordained by Christ not only as a Sacrament but a sacrifice also and so esteemed and called by the most antient writers though many times by reason of several relations it hath either severall names or severall adjuncts that is to say a sacrifice a commemorative sacrifice an eucharisticall sacrifice a spiritual sacrifice the Supper of the Lord a Sacrament A sacrifice it is and so called commonly in reference unto the oblation or offering of the bread and wine made unto God in testimony and due acknowledgment that all which we possesse is received from him and that we tender these his creatures to him as no longer ours but to be his and to be spent in such employments and for such holy uses as he shall please to put it to In this respect it is entituled Oblatio panis et vini the offering or oblation of bread and wine as before we saw from Irenaeus the sacrifice offered by us Gentiles hostia quae ipsi a nobis Gentibus offertur of the bread and wine presented in the holy Eucharist as in Iustin Martyr Sacrificium panis vini the sacrifice in plain terms of bread and wine as Fulgentius hath it For clearing of which point we may please to know that antiently it was the custome of the Primitive Christians to bring their bread and wine to the Church of God and offer them to the Lord by the hands of the Priest or Minister part of the which was consecrated for the use of the Sacrament the rest being usually given to the poor and needy as having a letter of attorney from the Lord of heaven to receive our bounties For thus we read in Iustin Martyr who lived the next dore also to the Apostles Prayers being done saith he we salute one another with an holy kisse Then do we offer to the Bishop for such is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he speaks of there bread and wine mixt with water as the use then was which he receiving offered to God the sacrifice of praise and glory c. And thus St. Cyprian speaking of a rich but covetous Widow who came not with her offering to the Church as her poor neigbours did charged her that she came into Gods house without her sacrifice and eat of that which had been offered or sacrificed unto God by far poorer folke Locuples et dives Dominicum celebrare te dicis but there dominicum signifyeth the Lords day plainly qui corbonam omnino non respicis qui in dominicum there it is the Church sine sacrificio venis qui partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis are his words at large Where sacrificium in both places signifyeth the bread and wine which they used to offer to the Lord to be consecrated and employed in celebrating the memorial of our Saviours passion It is called next a commemorative sacrifice a Sacrifice commemorative and representative by Dr. Morton Ld. B. of Durham in his book of the Sacrament in regard that it was instituted by our Saviour Christ for a perpetual memory of that one perfect and al-sufficient sacrifice which he offered of himself upon the Crosse. And to this end it was that Chrysostome having called the Sacrament of the Lords supper by the name of a Sacrifice addes presently not by way of correction or retractation as I know some think but by way of explanation only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was the remembrance rather of a sacrifiâ—e or a commemorative sacrifice as some others call it Which word commemorative as I take it detracts not from the nature of a sacrifice as if it were the lesse a sacrifice because commemorative but only signifyeth the end to which it is specially directed For as the sacrifices of the old law were true and proper sacrifices in respect of the beasts or â—owles or other things which were offered although prefigurative of that sacrifice made upon the Crosse which was then to come so are the sacrifices of the Gospel true and real sacrifices in reference to the oblation made of bread and wine for the service of God although commemorative of the same great sacrifice now already past It was called thirdly a spiritual and Eucharistical sacrifice by reason that Gods servants therein make profession of their due acknowledgements for all the blessings which he hath vouchsafed to bestow on their souls and bodies especially for the redemption of themselves and of all mankinde by the death of Christ and therewith offering up themselves their souls and bodies as a pleasing and most acceptable sacrifice to the Lord their God For thus we finde in Iustin Martyr that the Bishop or President of the Congregation having received the bread and wine from the hands of the faithful offered by them the sacrifice of praise and thanks to God the Father of all things in the name of the Son and the holy Ghost for all those blessings which he hath graciously from time to time bestowed upon them And thus Irenaeus Oportet nos
oblationem Deo facere et in omnibus gratos inveniri fabricatori Deo c. It becometh us saith he to make oblations unto God and to be thankefull in all things to our heavenly maker offering to him the first fruits of his own creatures with a right belief and faith without hypocrisie in hope assured and fervencie of brotherly affection which pure oblation the Church alone doth offer to the maker of all things out of his own creatures with praise and thanks-giving And last of all it is called the Sacrament sometimes the Sacrament of the Lords Supper sometimes the Sacrament of the Altar by reaso that the bread and wine thus dedicated to the service of Almighty God and righly consecrated by his Ministers are made unto the faithful receiver the very body and bloud of Christ our Saviour and do exhibit to us all the benefits of his death and passion Of which it is thus said by the old Father Irenaeus that the bread made of the fruits of the earth and sanctifyed according to Christs ordinance jam non communis panis est sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans terrena Coelesti c. is now no longer common bread but the blessed Eucharist consisting of two parts the one earthly and the other heavenly that is to say the outward elemental signe and the inward and spiritual grace In which respect it was affirmed of this bread by Cyprian if at the least the work be his which is somewhat doubted non effigie sed natura mutatum that though it kept the same shape which it had before yet was the nature of it changed not that it ceased to be what before it was as the Patrons of the Romish Masse do pervert his meaning but by being what before it was not just as an iron made red hot retaineth the proportion and dimensions which before it had and is still iron as at the first though somewhat of the nature of fire which is to warme and burn be now added to it And this was antiently the doctrine of the Church of Christ touching the sacrifice of the Lords supper or the blessed Eucharist before that monstrous Paradox of Transubstantiation was hammered in the brains of capricious Schoolmen or any such thing as a Propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead affabulated to the same by the Popes of Rome Now such a sacrifice as this with all the several kinds and adjuncts of it we finde asserted and maintained by the Church of England though it condemn the sacrifices of the Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt as dangerous deceits and blasphemous fables and censureth Transubstantiation as repugnant to the plain words of Scripture destructive of the true nature of a Sacrament and to have given occasion to much superstition For if a true and proper sacrifice be defined to be the offering of a creature to Almighty God to be consecrated by a lawfull Minister to be spent and consumed to his service as Bellarmine and the most learned men of both sides do affirme it is then is the offering of the bread and wine in the Church of England a true proper sacrifice for it is usually provided by the Church-wardens at the charge of the people and being by them presented in the name of the people and placed on the Altar or holy table before the Lord is now no longer theirs but his and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine and being consecrated by the Priest is consumed and eaten by such as come prepared to partake thereof The whole prayer used at the consecration doth it not plainly manifest that it is commemorative and celebrated in memorial of that full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world which our Saviour made upon the Crosse for our Redemption And when the Priest or Minister doth call upon us in the Exhortation above all things to give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ and that we do accordingly entirely desire his fatherly goodness mercifully to accept that our sacrifice of praise and thanks-giving and therewith offer and present unto him our selves souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him do we not thereby signifie as plainly as may be that it is an Eucharistical and spiritual sacrifice Finally that it is a Sacrament I think none denies and that thereby we are partakers of the body and bloud of CHRIST I think all will grant the people giving thanks to Almighty God for that he hath vouchsafed to feed them with the spiritual food of the most precious body and bloud of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and calling upon him to grant that by the merits and death of his Son Christ Jesus and through faith in his bloud both they and all his whole Church may obtain remission of their sins and all other benefits of his passion Nor doth the Church of England differ from the Antients as concerning the change made in the bread and wine on the consecration which being blessed and received according to Christs holy institution become the very body and bloud of Christ by that name are delivered with the usual prayer into the hands of the people and are verily and indeed saith the publick authorized Catechisme taken and received of the faithfull in the Lords Supper The bread and wine though still the same in substance which before they were are changed in nature being made what before they were not according to the uncorrupted doctrine of the purest times and the opinion of the soundest and most learned Protestants I add no more but that if question should be asked with which of all the legal sacrifices this of the Church of Christ doth hold best proportion I answer that it it best agreeth with those Eucharisticall sacrifices of the Law which were called peace-offerings made unto God upon their reconciliation and atonement with him In which as the creature offered a sacrifice to the Lord their God might be indifferently either male or female to shew that both sexes might participate of it so being offered to the Lord the one part of it did belong to the Priest towards his maintenance and support as the skin the belly the right shoulder and the brest c. the rest was eaten in the way of a solemn feast by those who brought it for an offering before the Lord. And in the feast as Mollerus very probably conjectureth the man that brought this offering did use to take a cup of wine and give thanks over it to the Lord for all his benefits which was the Calix salutis whereof the Psalmist speaketh saying I will take the
cup of salvation and â—all upon the name of the Lord Psalm 116.13 But I crave pardon for this digression if at least it be one and passe from the commemoration to the thing remembred To return back therefore unto Christ our Saviour whom we left hanging on the Crosse and who by yielding up his soul into the hands of his Father had put a finall period unto all his sufferings it could not be but that his death being of so great consequence to the sons of men though most unjustly brought about by these sons of Belial must be accompanyed with some great and signal testimonies from the God of heaven And so accordingly it was For the text telleth us that the sun was darkned from the sixth hour to the nineth that the vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottome and the earth did quake and the rocks were rent It could not otherwise be supposed but that the whole fabrick of the world would be out of joynt and the course of nature suffer interruption when he by whom the world was made and nature put into an ordinary course did suffer such a dissolution of his body and soul and took his farewell of the world in so strange a manner Which wondrous accidents together with the circumstances of the time and place being so necessary to the knowledge of our Saviours passion and to the clearing of some difficulties which occurre therein shall be a little further enquired into for the readers satisfaction and mine one And first beginning with those signes and wonders which did accompany his death some of them were so generall as to be observed in parts far remote and by men that had no reference unto Christs affaires and other being of more private and particular nature not taking notice of but by those of Iewry whom it most principally concerned Of this last sort was the renting of the vail of the Temple in twain from the top to the bottome Concerning which we may please to know that the Temple of Hierusalem consisted of two parts besides the Courts that is to say the body of the Church which they called the holy and the quire or châ—ncell of the same which they called the Sanctum sanctorum or the holy of holies or the holiest of all Heb. 9.3 into which none might enter but the high Priest only and that but once a year neither when he made offerings for himself and for the errours of the people This parted from the other by a very high wall reaching to the top and glittering with gold and curiously engraved with the work of the carver having one only dore which opened inwardly into it before which hung the vail here mentioned being made of silk and artificially embroidered with most curious works to hinder the people from looking into the inmost Sanctuary of the Temple Now for the renting of this vail it either signifyed the discovery and laying open of the Iewish rites which before were hidden and concealed from the eyes of the Gentiles as Theophylact is of opinion or the abrogation of the Iewish ceremonies by the death of Christ as Calvin thinks or rather the breaking down of the partition-wall by which the Iews and Gentiles had before been separated and bringing both into one Church or Mystical body And unto this most probably alludeth the Apostle saying of Christ that he hath made of both one and hath broken down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that middle wall of partition which was between us that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Crosse. As for the earth-quake and that darknesse which the speaks of it was so general and remarkable over all the world that other writers of those times have observed the same and left their observations on record to confirme those truths left the Evangelists might have been suspected to have been partiall in relating the affaires of Christ. For Origen proves it out of Phlegon an old Greek writer of those times that in the reign of Tiberius Caesar under whom Christ suffered universum orbem tenebris offusum the whole world was covered with a prodigious darknesse and that many fatall earthquakes hapned in the same times also Eusebius doth observe the same out of Phlegon also adding withall that the sun never suffered such a notable defect of light as was then observed and that many Cities of Bithynia but specially the City of Nice were miserably shaken with those earthquakes Tertullian also speaking of this present Eclipse builds not alone on the Evangelists whose credit he conceived the Gentiles would not much relie on but doth appeal to the Records and Archives of the Roman Empire A darknesse or eclipse the more remarkable because so plainly contrary to the course of nature and therefore by St. Augustine called mirabilis et prodigtosus as being at the full of the Moone for at that time the Iewes did keep the feast of the Passeover whereas all Eclipses of the sun do naturally happen in the wane of the old moone or the first quarter of the new Touching the time of our Redeemers being fastned to the fatall Crosse there seems to be some difference between the Evangelists St. Marke saith It was the third hour and they crucifyed him Mark 15.25 St. Iohn that it was about the sixt hour when Palate delivered him unto them to be crucifyed cap. 16. v. 14 16. This hath occasioned some to think that the text in one of the Evangelists hath received a change and that the Copies differ from the first originall The Commentaries on the 77. Psal. ascribed to Hierome is of opinion that the text in Marke hath been corrupted by the carelesnesse of the Transcribers and the third hour put down in stead of the sixt and hereunto Cajetan on the place Sixtus Senensis Biblioth l. 6. Annotat. 131. and Canus in the second of â—is Common places cap. 18. do conform their judgments And on the other side Theophylact is of opinion that the corruption lyeth in the text of Iohn which antiently had spoken of the third houre in numeral figures not at length and that by the like fault of the transcribers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are the numeral figures were mistaken the sixt being there put down in stead of the third And though it cannot be denyed but that some very antient Copies do read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there as it is in Marke yet Beza who observes and approveth the same thinks it very unsafe to alter any thing in the text or depart only upon that authority from the usuall readings with great both piety and prudence So that the readings in both places as they stand now in our Bibles being very antient and extant in all the Fathers who have written on them or otherwise discoursed occasionally of our Saviours passion it hath exceedingly exercised the wits of judicious men
said he addes this of the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thus in fine they saw Hell spoyled Epiphanius in this order marshalleth the acts of Christ He was crucified buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he descended to places under the earth he took captivity captive and rose again the third day By which we see that the taking of captivity captive was one of the effects of his descent into Hell and that both his descent and victory over Hell and Satan are placed between his burial and Resurrection In the Homiliâ—s which Leo the Emperour made for the exercise of his style and the Confession of his Faith wherein no doubt he had the judgement and advice of the ablest men that were about him he doth thus deliver it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Christ is risen saith he bringing Hades or the Devil prisoner with him and proclaiming liberty to the Captives He that held others bound is now bound himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is now come from Hell or Hades with his ensign of triumph as appeareth by the sowre and heavy looks of those which were overthrown that is to say of Hades meaning there as first the old Satan himself together with Death also and the hateful Devils Dorotheus in his Book de Paschate very plainly thus What means this that he led captivity captive It means saith he that by Adams transgression the Enemy had made us all captives and had us in subjection and that Christ took us again out of the Enemies hand and conquered him who made us captive And then concludes Erepti igitur sumus ab Inferis ob Christi humanitatem that we were then delivered from the power of Hell by the manhood or humanity of Christ our Saviour St. Cyprian though more antient and not so clear as he in this particular doth yet touch it thus Descendens ad inferos captivam ab antiquo duxit captivitatem that Christ descended into Hell brought back those captives which had before been captivated And in another place which we saw before When in the presence of Christ Hell was broken open and thereby captivity made captive his conquering soul being first presented to his Father returned unto his body without delay But to look back again to the old Greek Fathers who are far more positive and express in this then the Latines are we are thus told by Athanasius in another place that the Lord rose the third day from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having spoyled hell trodden the enemy under foot dissolved death broken the chains of sin with which we were tyed and freed us which were bound from the chains thereof St. Cyril of Alexandria thus Our Lord saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. having spoyled death and loosed the number of souls which were detained in the dens of the earth rose again the third day from the dead Which words of Cyril are repeated and approved in the Councel of Ephesus and afterwards confirmed in the fifth General Councel holden at Constantinople St. Hierom finally on the parable of the strong man which was bound and spoiled Mat. 12. gives this observation which I had almost pretermitted viz. that this strong man was tyed and bound in Hell and trodden under the Lords feet and the Tyrants house being spoyled captivity also was led captive In which quotations from the Fathers we must take this with us that when they speaking of spoyling Hell and vanquishing the powers thereof they do allude as evidently to the spoyling of principalities and powers mentioned in that to the Colossians as they insist upon the taking of captivity captive expressed in that to the Ephesians In a word take the sum of all which by the Antients is delivered upon those two Texts in these words of Zanchius a very learned Writer of the Reformed Churches The Fathers saith he for the most part are of this opinion that Christ in his soul came to the place of the damned to signifie not in words but with his presence that the justice of God was satisfied by his death and bloudshed and that Satan had no longer power over his Elect whom he held captive c. As also that he might carry all the Devils with him in a triumph as it is Coloss. 2. He spoyled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them leading them as captives in a triumph by the vertue of his Cross by which he had purged away sins and appeased the justice of God So Zanchius But the most clear and pregnant place of holy Scripture for proof of Christâ— descent into Hell is that of the 2. of the Acts where the Apostle citing those words of David Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine holy One to see corruption applyeth it thus unto our Saviour that David seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hell neither did his flesh see corruption In which particular words those before recited it is clear and manifest that the soul and body of Christ were by God appointed to be superiour to all contrary powers that is the soul to Hell and the flesh to the grave and that from both Christ was to rise an absolute conquerour that he might sit on his heavenly Throne as Lord over all not by promise only as before but in fact and proof But for the whole Sermon of St. Peter made on this occasion it may be summed up briefly to this effect that is to say that the Prophesie of David neither was nor could be fulfilled in any no not in David himself but only in the promised Messiah for that his soul should not be left in Hell or Hades nor his flesh see corruption but was fulfilled in that Christ whom ye cruelly crucified He it is that is risen Lord of all in his own person the sorrows of death being loosed before him he is ascended up to Heaven as David likewise foretold of him and there sitteth on the right hand of God untill all that be his enemies in the rest of his Members be made his foot-stool and thence hath he shed forth this which you now see and hear even the promise of the holy Ghost received of the Father for all his And therefore know ye for a surety that God hath made him both Lord and Christ i. e. Lord over all in Heaven Earth Hell and Christ even the Anointed Saviour of all his Elect. And to this purpose saith St. Augustine Quamobrem teneamus firmissime c. Wherefore let us most firmly hold that which is comprehended in our Faith or the heads thereof confirmed by most sound authority namely that Christ dyed according to the Scriptures and was buried and according to the Scriptures also rose again the third day with the rest of those things which are most clearly testified of him in the written Word
favour of God pronounced against them in that day by the dreadful Judge in the word Discedite depart ye cursed by which they are not only excluded from the Kingdome of God but utterly confounded with the grief and shame of that rejection which they shall suffer at his hands before men and Angels This is that curse our Saviour speaks of in his holy Gospel where he affirmed unto the Iews that there should be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when they should see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and themselves thrust out Of this it is St. Augustine telleth us that to be banished for ever from the Kingdome of God to want that plentiful aboundance of the sweetness of God which he hath aboundantly laid up in store for those that fear him tam grandis poena est ut ei nulla quae novimus tormenta possint comparari is such a grievous pain or punishment that no torments which we know can compare unto it St. Chrysostom is more express where he speaks of those who seem to make it their only desire to scape the miseries of hell whereas I saith he am of opinion that to fall or be rejected from the glories of heaven multo durius est tormentum quam gehena ipsa is a far more insupportable torment then hell it self Nor do I think saith he that we ought so much to grieve at the evill of hell as at the loss of heaven and the glories of it Qui nimirum cruciatus est omnium durissimus the sense whereof will be more grievous then of all the rest And so much saith St. Basil briefly affirming that the estranging or rejecting from God is a more intolerable evil then any that is to be feared or expected in hell And yet these torments might be borne with the greater courage if there were any hope of release in time if their damnation were not so confirmed in the Court of Heaven that they are utterly deprived of all expectation of having any favour from God in the times to come if there were any end to be expected of those unsufferable torments which are laid upon them Hope makes an heavy burden light whereas despair of being eased makes a light burden insupportable And this despair is that which doth most afflict them when they are once condemned to the pit of torments Omni tormento atrocius desperatio condemnatos affliget No torment saith the same St. Basil afflicts the damned like despair So much the more by reason that to hope that Gods irrevocable judgment shall be altered or his counsel changed were to hope that God would be false in his word or wavering in his will so publickly and solemnly pronounced which were a sin that would deserve an heavier punishment then they suffer yet The punishment of the damned shal be everlasting no hope that ever it will end And it shall be an everlasting fire as the scriptures tell us a fire which shall prey upon the body and torment the soul and yet neither devour the one nor consume the other I know some late Divines do perswade themselves that the fire of hell is allegorical that there is no such real fire to be found therein as the world hath hitherto been made beleive But when I hear our Saviour Christ pronounce this sentence sitting in his most dreadful Court of Iudgement when there shall be but little use of tropes and figures Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I must crave leave to tie my faith to express words of Scripture rather then to the quaint conceits of deceitful men Of this I shall speak more at large in another place but whether in the Article of Christs coming to judgement or in that of everlasting life is not yet resolved In the mean time I take it for a good rule which we finde in Augustine that in expounding of the Scriptures we flie not unto Tropes or Figures unless the proper signification of the words in any place be either against the truth of faith or against the honestly of manners as in these it is not Which grounds thus laid I would fain know of Calvin or any of his followers whether that all or any of these punishments which belong properly to the damned and may be truly and directly called the pains of hell were suffered by our Saviour in his soul and body or his soul alone It could not be remorse of conscience for where there is no sin there is no Compunction Christ might be sorrowful and afflicted for the sins of man upon a knowledge of those miseries which attended on them Remorse there could be none where there was no guilt and guilt there could be none where there was no sin And he alone it was who could do no sin and in whose mouth was found no guile as St. Peter tels us Rejected he was never from the favour of God it were indeed an hellish blasphemy to conceive so of him The sentence of rejection is denounced against those alone who have provoked God unto anger by their sins and wickednesses and made him of a friend and Father to become an Adversary But God was neither angry with nor adversary to his Son CHRIST IESVS his well beloved Son at first in whom he was well pleased to the very end And so much Calvin doth confess Nec tamen innuimus unquam Deum fuisse adversarium illi vel iratum And yet saith he we do not intimate hereby that God was either set against him or offended with him Nor doth he say it only but gives reason for it For how saith he could God be angry with his beloved Son in whom only he was well pleased or with what confidence could Christ intercede for us with Almighty God si infensum haberet ipse sibi with whom he stood in need of a Mediator to reconcile him to himself As for despair if he were neither touched for remorse of conscience nor fallen from the love and favour of his heavenly Father there was nothing that he could despair of but a release in time from the fires of hell which though they might afflict his body could not hurt his soul. And Calvin takes it for a grievous calumny which was charged upon him Me desperationem ascribere filio Dei quae fidei contraria sit that he ascribed to Christ any such despair which was not consistent with true faith For wiping off such stain he declares expresly that though our Saviour did complain of his being forsaken ne tantillum quidem deflexit a bonitatis ejus fiducia yet he did never start nor waver in that confidence which he had in the goodness of the Lord and useth this for an especial argument to confirm the same as indeed it is that whilest he did complain that he was forsaken Non desinit vocare Deum suum he ceased not
to proceed with them by the authority of Scripture and of reason both To the old Testament and our proofs from thence we shal challenge an obedience from them because by them confessed for Scripture and reverenced as the Oracles of Almighty God And for the new the writings of the holy Evangelists we shall expect submission to the truths thereof so far forth as it shall appear to be built on reason and unavoydable Demonstration Now the old Testament consisteth in that part thereof which doth reflect upon the birth and actions of our blessed Saviour either of types and figures or else of Prophecies and examples and the first type which looks this way is that of Isaac the only son the only beloved son of a tender father a type both of his death and his resurrection In which observe how well the type and truth do agree together The Altar was prepared the fire kindled Isaac fast bound and ready to receive the blow the knife was in his Fathers hand and his arme stretched out to act the bloudy part of a Sacrificer And yet even in the very act and so near the danger God by his holy Angel and a voice from heaven delivered the poor innocent from the jawes of death and restored him back unto his father when all hopes had failed him How evidently doth this fact of Abrahams stretching out his hand to strike the blow and being withholden by the Angel from the blow it self fore-shadow those sacred fundamentall truths which we are bound to believe concerning the true bodily death and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The Iews themselves in memorie of this deliverance did celebrate the first of Tisri which is our September usually called the Feast of Trumpets with the sound of Rams hornes or Corners and counted it for one of the occasions of that great solemnity which shews that there was somewhat in it more then ordinary somewhat which did concern their nation in a speciall manner Needs therefore must the Iews of our Saviours time be blinde with malice at the least with prejudice that look upon this story of Isaac the child of promise only as the relation of a matter past not as a type and shadow of the things to come this only son of Abraham this child of promise the only hope or pledge of that promised seed which was expected from the beginning being to come thus near to death and yet to be delivered from the power thereof that so the faith of Abraham touching the death and resurrection of his son the heir of promise might be tryed and verifyed or rather that by experiment our Saviours death and resurrection might be truly represented and foreshadowed in Isaacs danger and delivery And this is that to which St. Paul alludeth saying By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure i. e. a figure of the resurrection of Christ the promised seed represented by it though Abraham probably looked no further then the present mercy Isaac then was the true representation and foreshadowing of our Saviours death and resurrection And so the wonderfull increase of Isaacs seed in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed was as full an embleme of our Saviours seed and generation which cannot be numbred he having begotten unto God since his resurrection more sons and daughters throughout all nations then all the children of Abraham or Isaac according to the flesh though like unto the sands of the Sea for multitude But the circumstances of our Saviours selling and betraying his cruell persecution both by Priests and people the whole story of his humiliation unto death and exaltation after his resurrection are more perfectly foreshadowed by the cruel persecutions of Ioseph procured by his brethren by his calamity and advancement in Egypt The story is so well known it needs no repeating And the afflictions laid on both by the sonnes of Iacob in a manner parallel themselves Both of them were the first-born of their several Mothers both of them the best beloved sons of their Fathers and for this cause both of them envied and maligned by their wicked and ill natured brethren by whom they were both severally betrayed and sold for a contemptible piece of money So far the parallel holds exactly goe we further yet The pit whereinto Iosephs brethren cast him as also the pit or dungeon unto which he was doomed by a corrupt and partial Iudge on the complaint of an imperious whorish woman without proof or witnesse what was it but the picture of our Saviours grave to which he was condemned in the sentence of death by as corrupt a Judge as Potiphar on the bare accusation and complaint of an Adulterous generation as the Scripture cals them without proof or evidence And the deliverance of Ioseph from both pit and dungeon his exaltation by Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt and his beneficence to his Brethren whom he not only pardoned but preservation from famine what were they but the shadowes and resemblances of Christs resurrection his sitting at the right hand of God the Father by whom all power was given him both in heaven and earth and finally his mercie to the sons of men whose sins he doth not only pardon but preserve them also from the famine of the word of God The Kings ring put on Iosephs hand the gold chain put about his neck and the vesture of fine linnen or silke wherewith he was arraied by the Kings command what were they as the Antients have observed before but the resemblances of those glorious endowments with which the body or Humanity of Christ our Saviour hath been invested or apparelled since his resurrection More then this yet The name of Zaphnath Paaneah given to Ioseph by the Kings appointment and the Proclamation made by Pharaoh that every knee should bow before him what is it but a modell or a type of that honour which God the King of Kings hath ordered to be given to Christ to whom he hath given a name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bowe of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Where by the way and that addeth something farther to the parallel also the name of Zaphnath Paaneah as the Hebrew reads it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psonthem Phanech as the Septuagint is naturally as the learned Mr. Gregory very well observeth a Coptick or Egyptian word and signifyeth an Interpreter of hidden things or a revealer of secrets And so not only the Babylonish Targum and others of the Rabbins do expound the word but we finde the same exposition in Theodoret also 〈◊〉
dark as St. Iohn hath it or very early in the morning at the breaking or dawning of the day as St. Matthew tels us but that they came not to the Sepulchre till the Sun was risen Or else we may resolve it thus and perhaps with greater satisfaction to the text and truth that Mary Magdalen whose love was most impatient of a long delay went first alone for St. Iohn speaks of her alone when it was yet dark but having signified to Peter what she had discovered she went to make the other women acquainted with it and then came all together as the Sun was rising to behold the issue of the business As for the seeming contradiction in St. Matthews words we shall best see the way to discharge him of it if passing by the Vulgar Latine from whence the contradiction took its first Original we have recourse unto the Greek In the Vulgar Latine it is Vespere Sabbati in the Evening of the Sabbath and that according to the Iewish computation must be on Friday about six of the clock for with them the Evening did begin the day as we saw before But in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English in the end of the Sabbath and then it is the same with St. Marks expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Sabbath was past And this construction comes more neer to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which points unto a thing which is long since past as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hour being now a good while spent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you lost your opportunity by your tardy coming And so the word is here interpreted by Gregory Nyssen by birth a Grecian and therefore doubtlesse one that well understood the Idiotisme of his own language in whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew is made to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very hour and moment of the resurrection Which ground so laid let us subjoyne these words in St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 18. to the last words of St. Lukes Gospel Chap. 23. and then this seeming contradiction will be brought to nothing St. Luke informes us of the women who had attended on our Saviour at his death and burial that having bought spices to imbalme his body they rested on the Sabbath day according to the Scripture v. 56. And then comes in St. Matthew to make up the story as all the four Evangelists do make but one ful history of our Saviours actions which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Sabbath was now past and that the first day of the week did begin to dawn they went unto the Sepulchre as they first intended We have not done yet with the time of his resurrection although the difficulties which concern that time have been debated and passed over We finde it generally agreed on by all four Evangelists that the resurrection was accomplished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the first day of the week and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the dawning of the day as St. Matthew hath it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the rising of the Sun as St. Marke informes About the dawning of the day for certainly it was not fit that the Sun of Heaven should shine upon the earth before the heavenly Sun of righteousnesse Nay therefore did our Saviour prevent the sun by his early rising to teach us that the whole world is enlightned only by the beams of his most sacred Gospell and that he only is the light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his people Israel And there was very good reason also why he should choose the first day of the week to be the day of the resurrection more then any other that as God the Father on that day did begin the creation of the world in which we live the life of nature so God the Son should on the same day also begin the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in the souls of men by which they live the life of grace here and are thereby prepared for the life of glory in the world to come The sixt day in which our father Adam did begin to live was the same day in which the second Adam did begin to die And the seventh day on which God rested from his labours in the great work of our Creation was also rested by our Saviour in the far greater businesse of our Redemption Rested I say by him not sanctifyed For Christ did therefore pretermit and sleep out as it were the Iewish Sabbath that from thenceforth the observation of that day should be laid aside and that in that neglect of his there should no further care be taken of the legal Ceremonies And as God sanctifyed that day in which he rested from the work of the worlds Creation so the Apostles first as it was conceived and afterwards the Church of Christ by their example did sanctifie and set apart that day for religious offices in which our Saviour cancelled the bonds of death and finished the great work of our Redemption The Israelites were commanded by the Lord their God immediately on their escape from the hands of Pharaoh to change the beginning of the year in a perpetuall memory of that deliverance With very good reason therefore did the Church determine to celebrate the Christian Sabbath if I may so call it upon a day not used before but changed in due remembrance of so great a miracle as that of our Saviours resurrection from the power of the grave and our deliverance thereby from the Prince of darknesse The Parallel of the worlds Creation and the Redemption on all mankind by Christ our Saviour with the change which followed thereupon in the day of worship is very happily expressed by Gregory Nyssen in his first Sermon upon Easter or the Resurrection where speaking of Gods rest of the Sabbath day he thus proceedeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By that first Sabbath saith the father thou mayest conjecture at the nature of this this day of rest which God hath blessed above all dayes For on this the only begotten Son of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are who out of a divine purpose of restoring mankind did give his body rest in the house of death and afterwards revived again by his resurrection became the resurrection and the life the day-spring from on high the light to them that sit in darknesse and the shadow of death Finally to insist upon this point no longer three days our Saviour set apart for the performance of this work and wonder of the resurrection and answerably thereunto the Church did antiently set apart three days for the commemoration of that work and wonder which was then performed In which respect the feast of Easter is entituled by the said Gregory Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three days festivall The next considerable circumstance of the
resurrection is that he pleased to work that miracle upon himself in a terrible and fearfull earthquake an earthquake so extreme and so truely terrible that the graves did vomit up their dead whose ghastly apparitions wandered up and down Hierusalem and were seen by many of their friends and old acquaintance Which as it was an extraordinary dispensation and far above the Common law and course of nature so was it done by him for a speciall end and did not only verifie the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour ut Dominum ostenderent resurgentem as St. Hierome hath it but also served to assure Gods faithfull servants of the resurrection of their bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Chrysostome So that the Earthquake of it self being great and terrible and made more terrible by the rising of so many dead men from the bonds of death no marvell if the Souldiers of the guard were amazed and terrifyed and in that fright betook themselves unto their heels and forsook their charge At first indeed the affright and astonishment was so great upon them that they seemed even as dead men as the text informes us But the first terrors being over we finde them presently in the City with the chief Priests and Elders declaring the sad news of their ill successe and publishing the glorious wonder of the resurrection So wonderfull was the providence of Almighty God that those means which were projected for an hinderance of the resurrection should add unto the fame and glory of so great a miracle and that those very Souldiers which were hired to guard the Sepulchre should be the first Evangelists if I may so call them by whom that miracle was signifyed to that stubborn nation And yet God had a further end then this in the great hast made by the affrighted Souldiers to the Priests and Elders which was by their departure from the holy Sepulchre to give the safer opportunity to his Disciples who were to be the witnesses of his resurrection both to Iew and Gentile to satisfie themselves in the truth thereof For though the women might presume on the Souldiers gentlenesse who commonly are faire conditioned to that sex yet for the Apostles to adventure thither till the Souldiers of the guard were removed from thence had been to run themselves in the mouth of danger and make themselves obnoxious to the accusation of the Priests and Pharisees And this was a remote cause of the honour which befell that sex in being first acquainted with the news of the resurrection and is another of the circumstances which attends the action God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly wisdome that as a woman was first made the Devils instrument to perswade man to sin and consequently unto death so the same sex also should become the instruments of publishing this glad news that the Lord was risen and the assurance thereby given of a resurrection to all mankinde from the hands of death Withall observe the power of Almighty God never so clearly manifested in the sight of men as in the weaknesse of his iustruments and that although it was a work sufficient for the ablest Prophet to foretell the resurrection of the Messiah yet was it so easie when accomplished that ignorant and silly women and more then so that women laden with sins should be the first that did proclaime it And there was somewhat in that too that Christ first shewed himself unto Mary Magdalen a woman so infamous for her former life that she is branded in Scripture by the name of Peccatrix as one who had deserved to be so intituled and first of all men unto Simon Peter as great a sinner in his kinde as Mary Magdalen For this he did no doubt to let mankind know that there is no sinner so great whosoever he be to whom if he repent him of his former sinnes the fruit and benefit of Christs resurrection ought not to be extended and applyed though some restraine the same to some certain Quidams men more of their election then Almighty Gods Whereas the Scriptures plainly tell us that as in Adam all dyed so by Christ all men shall be restored to life who being risen from the dead is become the first fruits of all them that slept But here perhaps it will be said How can our Saviour Christ be called the first fruits of them that sleep considering how many severall persons had been raised from the dead before both in the old Testament and in the new The answer unto this is easie and the difference great between them and Christ their being raised from the dead and his resurrection For first our Saviour rose again from the dead virtute propria by his ownproper power and virtue but they were raised again to life virtute aliena by the power and ministry of some other In which regard we read notin the story of his resurrection that he was raised from the dead as if he had been wholly passive in the businesse and did contribute no more to it then did the Shunamites child or the daughter of Iairus but resurrexit he was risen or had raised himself which sheweth him to have been the principall Agent Nor let it stumble any one that in some places of the holy Scripture the Father is said to raise him as in Act. 11. Both will stand well enough together For by the same power that the Father is said to have done it by the same was it done also by the Son I and my Father are one but one power of both and therefore whether it were done by both or by either of them it comes all to one Secondly Christ our Saviour did so rise from the dead as to die no more to have an everlasting freedome from the power of death whereas others have been raised from death to life but to die again Christ being raised from the dead saith the great Apostle dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him He is not only free from death or the act of dying but from the pains perils and the fears of death and all those sicknesses and sorrows which make way unto it But so it was not with the son of the widow of Sarepta or of the widow of Naim no nor with Lazarus his most dear friend neither who though they were restored again to this mortal life yet it was still a mortal life when it was at best and that mortality was to them as the Prisoners chain by which he is pulled back again though he chance to scape He only did so rise again as by his rising to destroy death and to cloath himself with immortality Thirdly though some were raised before under both Testaments yet that was but a private benefit to themselves alone or perhaps unto their Parents or some few of their friends yet the fruit and benefit thereof did extend no further But by the
power of God as our Saviour calleth it Luke 22.69 And as the right hand is applyed to God as the hand of power by which he ruleth all things both in heaven and earth so is it sometimes also ascribed unto him and not to him alone but to Christ nor Saviour as the hand of love by which he cherisheth and protecteth his faithful servants For what else is the reason why the sheep in the day of Judgement shall be placed at the right hand of the King of Heaven but to shew that they are his beloved ones his Benjamins the children of his right hand as that name doth signifie And for what reason is it said that he doth imbrace the Church his Spouse with his right hand but to shew that ardour and sincerity of affection wherewith he doth cherish and protect her Cant. 2.6 8.3 Be it the power of God or his fidelity and love it 's the right hand stâ—ll There is another word to be looked on yet before we shall finde out the full meaning of this branch of the Article which is the word Sâ—det which we render sitting In which we must not understand as I think some Protestant Writers do any constant posture of the Body of Christ at the right hand of God For he who in the Creed and in divers places of the Old and New Testament is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is by St. Stephen who saw him with a glorified eye affirmed to stand Behold saith he I see heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand Sitting and standing then for both words are used denote not to us any certain posture of our Saviours body but serve to signifie that rest and quiet which he hath found in Heaven after all his labours For what was our most blessed Saviour in the whole course and passages of his life and death but a man of troubles transported from one Countrey to another in his very infancy and from one City to another when he preached the Gospel compelled to convey himself away from the sight of men to save his life exposed to scoffs and scorns at the hour of his death Noahs Dove and he were both alike No rest for either to be found on the face of the earth no ease till they were taken into the Ark again out of which they were sent And this St. Paul doth intimate where he tels us of him that for the joy which was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And unto this construction of the word Sedere St. Ambrose very well agrees saying Secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui aliquo opere perfecto victor adveniens honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat It is saith he our usual custome to offer a chair or seat to him who having perfected the work which he had in hand doth deserve to sit And on this ground the man CHRIST IESVS having by his death and passion overcome the Devil and by his Resurrection broken open the gates of Hell having accomplished his work and returning unto Heaven a Conquerour was placed by God the Father at his own right hand Thus far and to this purpose he The like may be affirmed of standing or of standing still which doubtless is a great refreshment to a wearied Traveller a breathing bait as commonly we use to call it and many times is used in Scripture for a posture of ease as Quid statis toto die otiosi Why stand you here all the day idle But to proceed a little further in this disquisition there may be more found in the words then so For standing is the posture of a General or man of action ready to fall on upon the Enemy Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori said the Roman Emperour And it is also the posture which the Iews used in prayer as appears Matth. 6.5 Luk. 18.10.13 From whence they took that usual saying Sine stationibus non subsisteret mundus that were it not for such standings the world would not stand And sitting is we know the posture of a Judge or Magistrate in the act of Iudicature of Princes keeping state in the Throne Imperial And this appears as plainly by our Saviours words to his Apostles saying that they which followed him in the Regeneration should when the Son of man did sit in the Throne of his glory sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And so the word is also used in Heathen Authors as Consedere duces consâ—ssique ora tenebant in the Poet Ovid when the great cause was to be tryed for Achilles armour When therefore St. Stephen beheld our Saviour Christ and saw him standing at the right hand of God the Father he found him either ready as a Chief or General to lead on against the enemies of his persecuted and afflicted Church or as an Advocate Habemus enim Advocatum for we have an Advocate with the Father IESVS CHRIST the righteous pleading before Gods Throne in behalf thereof or offering up his prayers for the sins of his people And when St. Paul and other texts of holy Scripture do describe him sitting they look upon him in the nature of a Iudge or Magistrate the Supreme Governour of the Church and then sedere is as much as regnare as St. Hierome hath it to reign or rule And to this last St. Paul doth seem to give some countenance if we compare his words with those of the Royal Pâ—almist Sit thou at my right hand saith the Psalmist till I have made thy enemies thy footstool Psal. 110.1 Oportet eum regnare saith the Apostle For he must reign or it behoveth him to reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.25 Of this minde also was Sedulius an old Christian Poet Aethereas evectus abit sublimis in auras Et dextram subit ipse Patris mundumque gubernat Ascending into Heaven at Gods right hand He sits and all the World doth there command This said we will descend to those Expositions which have been made by several men on this branch of the Article and after pitch on that which we think most likely Some think this sitting at the right hand of God to signifie the fame with that which was said before of his ascending into Heaven which opinion Vrsin doth both recite and reject And he rejects it as I conceive upon very good reason it being very absurd as lie truly noteth in tam brevi Symbolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 committi that a tautologie should be used in so short a summary It had been very absurd indeed and yet more absurd if they should intimate the same thing in a figurative and metaphorical form of speech which they had formerly expressed in so plain a way as was familiar
eyes of his people did he establish him in the office of the high Priest saying Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech That so it was in his advancement to the throne of his father David shall be made evident in the course of these present Commentaries when we shall look upon him as invested with the regal power And that it was so in his establishment in the Sacerdotal shall be made evident by the testimony of the great Apostle whose words here presently ensue Christ saith he glorifyed not himself to be made the high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee did confer it on him As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech that is to say that from the day and moment of the resurrection at what time the fiâ—st of the two Prophecies were fulfilled which God delivered by the mouth of the Psalmist saying Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee was our Redeemer to begin the execution of the high Priests office after the order of Meschisedech And this appeares to be the meaning of the Apostle in the present place by the words ensuing For presently on the recitall of the words before recited viz. Thou art a Priest after the order of Melchisedech he addes of Christ that in the dayes of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death if he had so pleased But finding his Fathers resolution to the contrary he learned obedience though a Son by that which he suffered and finally that being perfect or rather consecrated for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import most properly he was made the Authour of eternall salvation unto all those that obey him and was called or publickly declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech And to say truth had not the Scriptures been so clear in the proof hereof yet necessary consequence grounded upon comparing of one text with another and that applied according to the principles of natural reason would evince it for us The Priesthood of Melchiseâ—ech as the Scripture telleth us was an everlasting or eternall Priesthood Thou art a Priest for ever for no shorter term and therefore of necessity to be exercised and enjoyed by one who must be as eternal as the office is and yet a man and taken from amongst the Sons of men to offer gilts and sacrifices for the sins of the people But such our Saviour was not take him as a man though otherwise more qualifyed and prepared then any for so high an office untill he had so crushed and broken all the powers of death that death had now no longer title to him or dominion over him which doubtlesse was performed at the resurrection And therefore then and not before when all the ceremonies of his consecration were fulfilled in order did he begin to exercise the function of an endlesse everlasting Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech The order of Melchisedech that comes after next And touching that we will examine these three things 1. Who Melchisedech was 2. Wherein his high Priesthood did consist 3. In what the Parallel doth stand between Christ and him Concerning the first point who and what he was hath been a great dispute amongst learned men some thinking that he could not be a mortal man and therefore must needs be either the holy Ghost or else the Son of God then appearing to Abraham in the likenesse and similitude of an earthly Prince The last is most eagerly defended by P. Cunaeus a very learned man and a great Philosopher in his book de Republ. Hebraeorum The reason of this difficulty and his errour are those words of St. Paul where he describeth Melchisedech to be without father without mother without descent having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life And this thought he can be no other then the Son of God Others with greater probability both of proof and reason declare him to be Sem the third son of Noah out of whose loins our father Abraham was descended and this opinion hath found most acceptance generally amongst the learned though some of very eminent parts do opine the contrary But whether he were Sem or not or rather some petty King of the Land of Canaan who went forth to congratulate Abraham upon his returne they are much troubled to apply the negative character which St. Paul hath given us to any upon whom they desire to fasten The best and clearest resolution of the doubt which I yet have met with is that Meschisedech whosoever he was is said to be without father and mother in the same sense as he is after said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators render without descent of which his being without father or mother is one branch or member And he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. without genealogy and not without descent as our English reads because he hath no predecessour either father or mother amongst the rest of the Patriarks whose Genealogies are recorded in the book of God And in this sense as he is said to have no beginning of dayes because the time of his birth is no were remembred so is he also said to have no end of his life because neither the time of his death nor the succession of any after him in his two great offices is specifyed upon the Registers of sacred writ And yet if the Catena Arabica be of any credit we have heard more news of late touching this great man then hath been till of late made known in these Western parts For in their Marginal notes on the 10. of Genesis they say of Phaleg of whom we finde mention vers 25. And this Phaleg was the Father of Heraclim the Father of Melchisedech But in the Chapter going before his Generation is set down in this formal pedegree viz. Melchisedech was the son of Heraclim the son of Phaleg the son of Eber And his Mothers name was Salathiel the daughter of Gomer the son of Japhet the son of Noah And Heraclim the son of Eber maried his wife Salathiel and she was with child and brought forth a son and called his name Melchisedech that is the King of righteousnesse called also the King of Peace By this account Melchisedech was the sixth from Sem and Cousen german unto Serug who was Abrahams Grandfather and being of the linage and house of Sem might well confer that blessing on his Cousen Abraham which had been given to Sem by their father Noah And then one of the greatest arguments to prove Melâ—hisedech to be Sem that namely which is borrowed from the forme and manner of the blessing which he gave to Abraham will be answered easily And were this true as I can hardly reckon it
after this description without father c. that he was likened unto the Son of God and continueth a high Priest for ever it may be said that he did purposely devest himself of all natural relations putting off all references unto Father and Mother wife and children which necessarily do represent both a beginning and end of days that being thus transformed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle and turned out of his own proper and natural shape he might be made more like to the Son of God who being told that his Father and Mother sought him weeping seemed not to note their tears or regard their sorrows but put them off with this short answer Wist ye not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse But take it in the former sense because most received and then Melchisedech is a perfect type or embleme of our Saviour Christ who as he had no beginning of dayes â—or in the beginning was the word before time it self So shall he have no end of life the man CHRIST IESVS being freed from the powers of death and made by God a Priest for ever till time be no more after the order of Melchisedech In the performance of the office which is the next part of the parallel our Saviour did all that Melchisedech did and consequently may pretend to all which Melchisedech claimed Melchisedech blessed Abraham so the text informes us and questionlesse that blessing was accompanied with prayers to God that he would ratifie the blessing then pronounced upon him Blessed saith he be Abram of the most high God possessour of heaven and earth And blessed be the most high God which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand In which we finde Melchisedech the high Priest of God not only blessing Abraham in the name of God but offering prayers and praises unto God for so great a victory in behalf of Abram which are two principall parts of the Priestly function And these our Saviour did performe as soone as he was consecrated and established in his holy and eternall Priesthood For after his glorious resurrection from whence his Priesthood doth commence as before was proved and before he did withdraw his bodily presence from his Disciples it is said that he lift up his hands and blessed them And questionlesse his blessing was accompanied with prayers to God that he would furnish them abundantly with all gifts and graces which were necessary for the Ministery he had called them to he having told them formerly and it proved accordingly that he would pray unto his Father to send down the Comforter by whom they should be guided in the wayes of truth Nor did he so accumulate his blessings upon them alone that he hath none left in store for us St. Peter hath resolved it otherwise saying to the Iewes that God had raised up his Son Jesus and had sent him to blesse them in turning away every one of them from his iniquities And yet this blessing came not to the Iewes alone but upon the Gentiles and for that we have St. Paul to witnesse CHRIST saith he hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come unto the Gentiles The difference only is in this that Christ is more authentick and authoritative in his blessings then Melchisedech was Melchisedech indeed blessed Abraham but he blessed him only in the name of the most high God and not as having power to confer the blessing But Christ doth blesse us of himself by his own authority and hath withall a power to make good the blessing All power saith he is given me both in heaven and earth and therefore power to give the blessings of the earth and the blessings of Heaven the blessings of this life and the life to come Nor are we only blessed by him in the sense aforesaid but we are also blessed for him we are blessed through him and all unto this end and purpose to be everlastingly blessed in him For him it is that we are blessed and therefore dare not aske any good thing at the hands of God but it is propter merita Iesu Christi for the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ which either explicitly or implicitely is in all those prayers which we do or ought to make to the Lord our God Through him it is that we are blessed he being as it were the Conduit or Channell through which the blessings of the Lord are conveied unto us in which regard the Church concludeth most of her formes of prayer with this solemne clause per Dominum nostrum I. C. through Jesus Christ our Lord. And finally we shall at last be blessed in him when we are made partakers of that endless happiness which formerly consisteth in our union with him when we are so united to him that we seem to be incorporated in him and all make up together but one glorious body whereof CHRIST IESVS is the head The next part of the Priestly function consisted in offering up the peoples prayers to Almighty God or offering up his own prayers for the weal of the people Melchisedech did both in the case of Abraham for first he prayed unto God for a blessing on him and then he praised God in his Name for his blessings to him And so doth Christ our Saviour also St. Iohn who had presented him unto our view in the first Chapter of the Revelation clothed in Priestly garments as before was said doth in the eight present him in the execution of his Priestly Office For there he telleth us of an Angel standing before the Altar having in his hands a golden Censer to whom much Incense was given that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints those upon the earth upon the golden Altar which was upon the Throne vers 3. This Angel was our Lord Christ Iesus as St. Augustine telleth us the Mediator of the New Covenant as the Scriptures call him who offereth up the prayers of his faithful servants to the Throne of God and addes much also of his own incense which was given unto him to offer it together with the prayers of the Saints that so they might be made more acceptable in the sight of God This that he doth and doth it by the vertue of the Priestly function is more cleerly evidenced by St. Paul This man saith he discoursing of our blessed Saviour because he continueth for ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood and therefore he is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them And for performance of this Office his sitting at the right hand of God doth so fitly serve as if he were advanced to it for this purpose only We touched upon this string before and now to make the Harmony more compleat and perfect I shall adde that also of St. Paul in another
place where he brings in our Saviour sitting at the right hand of God and making intercession for us In this respect he is called the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 12.24 that is to say one that doth intercede betwixt God and man to make up the breach that was between them and reconcile poor man to Almighty God And this is such a trust such an high imployment as never was committed unto Saints or Angels but purposely resolved by God for this great High Priest As we acknowledge but one God so can we have no more then one Mediatour and this can be no other then our Lord and Saviour There is one God saith the Apostle and one Mediator between God and man even the man CHRIST IESVS Do we desire to know more of him in this Office from the holy Scriptures hear him then speaking of himself and saying I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me So excellently true is that gloss of Augustines Non est quo eas nisi ad me non est qua eas nisi per me Our Saviour in this case saith he is both the journeys end and the way also Do you desire to hear more from him in this Office from the holy Fathers take then this passage of S. Ambrose Ipse est Os nostrum per quod Patri loquimur he is the mouth by which we speak unto the Father if we hope to speed To state this point more fully as a point in Controversie we are to lay these two truths for a certain ground of our proceeding the first that men are sinners from the very womb and all their righteousness no other then a menstruous cloth the second that God is a God of pure eyes and such as cannot patiently behold our iniquities Such being then the disproportion between God and man how could God look on man without indignation or man lift up his eyes to God without confusion God therefore out of his most infinite mercy gave his Son unto us first for a Sacrifice to be the Propitiation for the sins of the world and after for an High Priest to intercede an Advocate to plead for us unto God the Father to be the Mediator between God and man in all cases of difference and as it were the General Solicitour of our suites and businesses in the Court of Heaven Nay having raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places he made him Master of the Requests appointing him and him alone to receive those petitions and addresses which we make to God and in our name to tender them unto his Father adding his own incense unto our sweet odours that so they might finde welcome at the hands of God And here me thinks this story of Themistocles will not seem impertinent who being banished from Athens his own native soyl was fain to have recourse to Admetus King of the Molossians hoping to finde that safety in a strange land which his own Country could not give him Being admitted into the Kings Chappell he snatcheth up the young Prince into his arms kneels down with him before the Altar and so presented his desires and himself to the King the young Princes Father Which kinde of suing or Petitioning as my Author tels me the Molossians held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the most effectual means of dealing with him and such as could not be denyed I think the Application were superfluous to ingenious ears yet for the driving of it home to our present point take it briefly thus We by our Covenant made to God in holy Baptism are become Aliens to the world and as much hated by it as he at Athens in that respect as much necessitated to cast our selves upon the love and mercy of the Lord our God as he to seek protection in the Court of Admetus And as the young Prince whom he used as his Mediator was of a mixt condition between a King and a subject the Heir not differing from a servant when he is a childe So is our Saviour also between God and man God of the substance of his Father before all worlds man of the substance of his mother born in the world as Athanasius in his Creed Finally as Themistocles did assure himself that he should speed in his requests with King Admetus because the Kings son seemed to solicite for him so we with greater confidence may proceed in our prayers to God the Son of God making continual intercession for us that they may be granted Where note that not our pressing into the Chappel as a thing of course nor falling down before the Altar as a point of ceremony but taking Christ into our arms as he did that Prince will make our prayers to be effectual This verified by Christ himself in his holy Gospel Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name saith he that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son And in another place of the same chapter also Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full If on these grounds we make no other Mediators of Intercession then him that was the Mediator of Redemption too for such a nice distinction have some men found out the better to deceive their own souls and rob Christ of his glory Let us not stand accused for Hereticks in the Court of Rome or if we must so stand accused yet let us still worship the God of our Fathers after the way which they call Heresie Certain I am that in the way which they call heresie the Lord was worshipped by our Fathers in the Primitive times Ignatius who lived neer the time of the Apostles and conversed with some of them willeth us to have Christ only before our eyes when we make our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Irenaeus who lived next to him I mean in time and not in place gives this counsel also Orationes nostras ad Deum dirigere qui fecit omnia that we address our prayers to him only by whom all things were made Origen goes the right way too though in many other things he was out extreamly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we should make our supplications unto God alone who is over all things to God alone as the chief Donour of the blessing but unto God by Christ as the means to gain it Remember what was said before out of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine to the point in hand and we shall finde no other Mediatours of intercession in the times of the Fathers then the man CHRIST IESVS though those of Rome in pity as it were to our Saviour Christ whom they would gladly ease of so great a burden have liberally bestowed the Office on the Saints departed And though a fullerâ—search into their Position is to be made hereafter in a place more proper when
from sin and Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from the yoak of bondage which the Romans had then laid upon them Thus was it also with the whole body of his Disciples when convened together at the very time of his Ascension Wilt thou at this time say they restore again the Kingdome unto Israel The Kingdome What Regnum illud temporale quod ablatum erat a Iudaeis the temporall power which by the Romans lately had been taken from them And now I thinke it cannot reasonably be expected that the Gentiles should conceive otherwise of the Kingdome of Christ if they knew any thing at all of it then the whole nation of the Iews or his own Disciples Nam post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit It was no shame for them to mistake in that which was not rightly understood by his friends and followers If they that satâ— in the light saw so obscurely how could they see at all that sat in darknesse and in the shadow of death There had continued in the East saith Tacitus and Suetonius both a received opinion fore ut Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur that out of Iewry should proceed a most puissant Prince who should in fine obtain the Empire over all the world A report founded questionlesse upon that of Micah and to this purpose cited in St. Matthews Gospel viz. that out of Judah there should come a Governour which shall rule my people Israel This prophecie the Roman Historians of those times referred in the accomplishment unto Vespasian and his sons who being the Provincial Governours of Iudaea did afeâ—rwards by force of the Eastern Armies obtain the empire But it wrought further as it seems upon Domitian who is reported to have sought out all those of the line of David which his care and diligence could discover and to have murdred them being found Which howsoever some ascribe to his accustomed cruelty without further aime yet I am verily perswaded that jealousie in point of state the better to secure himself from those on whom that prophecie did reflect originally did induce him to it And possible enough it is that Pilate grounding his proceedings on the same mistake might think quod scripsi scripsi an high part of wisedome and that therein he did great service to the Roman Emperors in terrifying others from aspiring to the name of King which Iesus upon so good title and without any prejudice unto their affaires had presumed to own But all this while he was a King in title only or a King designed We must next look upon him as inaugurated and put in full possession of the regal power And that this was not done till his resurrection is positively affirmed in two texts of St. Peter and very concludingly inferred by a text of St. Paul We will take that of St. Peter first delivered in the first Sermon that he preached on the Feast of Pentecost where speaking of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour and having pressed the point home to their souls and consciences he concludeth thus Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both Lord and Christ Not made him Lord nor Christ till then neither King nor Priest The very same St. Paul affirmeth in more positive termes Who speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132 Psalme that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his throne for evermore resolveth it thus The promise which God made unto our Fathers hath he fulfilled in us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the 2. Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Of this we have already spoken more fully in the 13. Chapter and therefore shall not need to repeat it here And if the word head be used in Scriptures and other creditable Authors to signifie the King or supreme Governour of a body politick as no doubt it is we have St. Paul as positive in this particular as St. Peter was That so the word head hath been oft times used I shall not need to prove out of many witnesses when two or three will be sufficient Of these the first shall be the Prophet Isaiah saying The head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Israel is Samaria they being the principall and commanding Cities of those severall Kingdomes And more then so the head of Damascus is Rezin and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah who were the Kings of those two Realms whereof Damascus and Samaria were the principal Cities Thus doth the Poet say of Rome Roma caput mundi that it was the head of the world i. e. the chief or commanding state to which all the residue of the world did owe subjection And thus doth Chrysostome say of Theodosius the Roman Emperour that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of all people on the earth It followeth then that Christ being called in Scripture the head of his Church which is indeed his mystical body and exercising all that power and authority which the head hath upon the members of the body natural must needs be understood for the King thereof the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter called him And that Christ was not made the head of his Church till the resurrection was accomplished it 's by St. Paul affirmed so plainly and in terminis that it needs no Commentary The God of our Lord IESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places above all principalities and powers and might and dominions that is to say above the whole Hierarchie of the Angels c. And given him to be head over all things unto the Church which is his body This makes that clear and evident which before we said that though our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor inthronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension And this distinction serves most fitly to clear the meaning of St. Paul in that other place from which the same may be concludingly inferred It is a passage in his Sermon made unto the Pisidians where speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132. Psal. That of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore v. 12 13. he resolves it thus The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Many Interpreters I know both antient and modern do expound these words of the eternal generation of the Son of God and fancie to
not then be cheated by this new distinction that Kings are Gods Vice-roys but not Iesus Christs though the distinction be much hugged by our great Novators Who intend nothing else thereby but to throw down Crowns and lay them at the foot of their Presbyteries and to set up instead of the Regal power their own dear Tribunal a Soveraignty in all causes Ecclesiastical to over-rule it first and extirpe it afterwards as the right learned Bishop of Kell-Alla very well observeth In these ways and by these several means and subordinate Ministers doth Christ administer the Kingdome committed to him And this he doth continually sitting at the right hand of God the Father and there to sit untill his enemies be made his footstool This David did fore-see by the spirit of Prophecy The Lord saith he said unto my Lord i. e. the Lord God almighty said to my Lord CHRIST IESVS Sit thou on my right hand untill thy enemies be made thy footstool This the Apostle also verifieth and affirms of Christ. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins is set down for ever on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool And this he also telleth us in another place saying of Christ that he must reign till he shall have put all his enemies under his feet Till then his Kingdome is to last and till that time he is to sit at the right hand of God in all power and Majesty If it be asked when that will be that all his enemies shall be subdued and subject to him we answer at the end of this present world when there is no enemie left to be destroyed Now the last enemie which is to be destroyed is death saith the same Apostle And thereupon we may inferre that while death reigneth in opposition to the Lord of life and sin in a defiance to the Lord of righteousness that hitherto we have not seen all things put under him and therefore must expect yet a little longer before he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father But then indeed when Death is utterly destroyed and all the Saints admitted to the glories of eternal life when all things are subdued unto him then also shall the Son himself be made subject to him that did put all things under him that is God the Father Then when he hath put down all rule and all authority and power then cometh the end and then he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father that God may be all in all This is the summe of St. Pauls argument in that point In which there being many things not easie to be understood I shall not think my time ill spent to make a short Paraphrase and discourse upon it that so we may perceive more fully the Apostles meaning And first he saith that CHRIST must reign till he hath put all things under his feet that being one of the especial parts of the Kingly function as before was shewn to save and defend his Church from the hands of her enemies and for the enemies themselves to crush them with a Scepter of iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel When this is done when he hath trodden under foot all his mortal enemies the persecutors of his Church false Prophets false Apostles and the great Antichrist himself which labour to seduce even the very Elect when he hath subjugated the powers of Hell and that sin hath no more dominion over us yet we shall still lie under the power of death untill the last and general Resurrection Death therefore is the last enemie to be destroyed that being delivered from his thraldome raised from the grave which is his prison and all those bonds and fetters broken by which we were held captive under his command we may be made partakers of eternal life and reign with Christ for ever in his heavenly glories When that time cometh when there are neither enemies from which to protect his Church nor any Church to be instructed in the wayes of godliness according to the Nomothetical part of the Regal Office then cometh the end the end of all things in this world which shall be no more the end of Christs Kingdome as the Mediator between God and man man having by the power of his mediation attained the end of his desires the guerdon and reward of his faith and piety This being done the rule of Satan and the authority of sin and the power of death being all broken and subdued he shall first raise our mortal bodies in despight of death pronounce the joyful sentence of absolution on them in despight of sin and finally advance them to that height of glory from which Satan fell to the confusion of the Devil and all his Angels And having so discharged the Office of a Mediator for executing which he sate at the right hand of God he shall deliver up unto God the Father the right and interest which he had in the Kingdome of Grace consisting in the building up of his Elect in faith hope and charity that they with him and he with them may reign forevermore in the Kingdome of glory Where there shall be no use of Faith for they shall see God face to face and faith is the existence of things not seen and less of hope for hope is the expectancy of things desired which being once obtained puts an end to hope Charity onely shall remain for that never ceaseth and therefore said to be the greatest of the three Theological vertues of which the Apostle there discourseth 1 Cor. 13.13 And so Primasius hath resolved it In this present life saith he there are three in the life to come onely the love of God and his Augels and of all the Saints That therefore is the greater which is alwayes necessary then that which once shall have an end The like St. Austin before him The greatest of all is charity because when every one shall come to eternal life the other two failing charity shall continue with increase and with greater certainty And finally before both thus St. Chrysostome and these three witnesses enough The greatest of these is Charity because they passe away but that continueth I must confess there is hardly a more difficult Text in all the Scripture then this of Christs delivering up the Kingdome unto God the Father nor which requires more care in the Exposition for fear of doing injurie unto God or Christ conceive me still of Christ in his humane nature For neither must we so understand the place as if God reigned not now at the present time nor was to reign at all untill this surrendry of the Kingdome by Christ our Saviour That were injurious to the power and Majesty of Almighty God by whom all things were made and by whom all made subject unto Christs command for he it is who did put all things
under him saith the Apostle Nor must we understand it so as it Christ delivering up the Kingdome had no more to doe but was reduced to the condition of a private Saint that were injurious to the dignity of our Lord CHRIST IESVS Nec sic arbitremur eum traâ—iturum Deo Patri ut adimat sibi as St. Austin hath it we must not think saith he that he will so deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father as to devest himself of all Power Majesty Not so His meaning is but this at most taking the word Kingdome in the usual and accustomed sense that the form of governing this Kingdome shall then be altered Sâ—n Hell and Death being all subdued as in himself before so in all his Members and Heaven replenished with those Saints for whose sakes principally he received the Kingdome And though this Exposition be both safe and general yet I conceive it may admit another sense and such as do most happily avoid those difficulties which otherwise it may seem to be subject to What then if we should say that by Regnum here we are so understand only filios Regni if by the word Kingdome in this place St. Paul meaneth those who are called the Children of the Kingdome in another place and that by the delivering up of the Kingdome unto God the Father we are to understand no more then the presenting of his children Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me to the fight of God to be received into his glories and crowned by him with immortality Assuredly if I should both say it and stand to it too I should not think the Exposition either forced nor new Not forced for Metonymies of this kinde in the Book of God and in all Classick Authors too are exceeding obvious For Classick Authors first to name two or three we have in Tacitus Matrimonium Principale pessimum principalis Matrimonii instrumentum for the Princes wife And in the Poet Coelum Heaven for Coelites the heavenly Citizens as Coelo gratissimus amnis a River very acceptable unto those in heaven O Coelo dilecta domus an house beloved of the Gods in another Poet. Thus also in the holy Scripture Regale Presbyterium a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. vers 8. is put for a society of Royal Priests Regnum which is the word here used is in our English rendred Kings Fecit nos Regnum sacerdotes saith the Vulgar Latine He hath made us Kings and Priests saith our Translation Apoc. 1. vers 6. And more then so in the 13. of St. Matthewes Gospel the word Regnum is directly used by Christ our Saviour pro filiis Regni the Kingdome for the sons of the Kingdome The Kingdome of Heaven saith he is like a Merchant man i. e. the children of the Kingdome of Heaven are like to Merchant men seeking godly pearls vers 24. Use but the word so here as in that of St. Matthew and the delivery of the Kingdome unto God the Father will signifie no more then the presenting of the Saints as before I said or tendring Gods adopted Sonnes which are the children of the great King and the Kingdome too to their heavenly Father This shews the Exposition is not forced we are sure of that And we have hopes to prove that it is not new being I think as old as St. Augustines time For asking this question of himself What is the meaning of this Text Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father He makes this answer Quia justos omnes in quibus nunc regnat c. The meaning is that he shall bring the righteous persons in whom he reigns as Mediator between God and man unto the blessed Vision of Almighty God that they may see him face to face And in another place to the same effect It is as much as if he should have said in other words Cum perduxerit credentes ad contemplationem Dei Patris Then shall he bring the faithfull to behold the face of God the Father Which Faithfull or the body of his holy ones he cals plainly in another place by the name of Regnum the word here used by the Apostle affirming of the Saints of God eos ita esse in Regno ejus ut ipsi etiam sint Regnum ejus They are saith he estated in the Kingdome of God but so as to be his Kingdome also But this discourse is out of season though not out of the way For though our Saviour shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father in what sense soever we understand it yet shall not this be done till after the day of general Judgement till he hath judged the quick and dead and given to every one according to his works Which is the last act of his Regal Office and the subject of the following Article ARTICLE VIII Of the Eighth ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed unto St. MATTHEW 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Inde venturus judicare vivos mortous i. e. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to Iudgement both of quick and dead The souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgment and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action WE are now come unto the last and greatest act of the Regal Office the supreme power of Iudicature and to the best part also of the Royall power potestas vitae mortis the power of life and death as the Lawyers call it All other acts of the Kingly function he executeth sitting at the right hand of God in the Heavenly places But when he cometh to judge both the quick and the dead his Judgement-seat shall be erected in some visible place though still at the right hand of Almighty God where both the wicked shall behold him to their finall confusion and his obedient Servants finde accesse unto him to their endlesse comforts And this is also the last and highest degree of his exaltation the last in order but the highest in esteem and honour The first step or degree of his exaltation was his descent into hell to beat the Devill at his own home in his strongest fortresse and take possession of that part of his Kingdome Devils as well as Men and Angels things under the earth as well as on the earth and above the heavens being to bow the knee before him and be subject to him This was done only in the fight of the Devils and the infernal fiends of hell but in the next which was his resurrection he had both men and Angels to bear witnesse to it and some raised purposely from the dead to attend him in it The third degree or step for he still went higher was his ascending into heaven performed openly in the sight of the people and so performed that it excelled all the triumphs which were gone
that as they sinned together or served God together so they may share together of reward or punishment But because many times the soul sins without the body and many times without it doth some works of piety which God is pleased to accept of therefore as requisite it is that the soul separated from the body should either suffer torment or enjoy felicity according as it hath deserved in the sight of God whilest yet the body sleepeth in the grave of death And on these grounds next to the dictates and authority of the book of God the doctrine of the general judgement hath been built so strongly that only some few Atheists amongst the Gentiles and none but the wicked Sect of Manichees amongst the Christians had ever the impudence to denie it That which concernes us most as Christians and doth especially relate to the present Article is that this judgement shall be executed by our Saviour Christ sitting with power at the right hand of God the Father but in the nature and capacity of the Son of man Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of the Aire Mat. 26.64 See the same also Mark 14.62 and Luk. 22.69 The like we have also in St. Iohns Gospell The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son Chap. 5 22. What to the Son according to his eternal generation as the Word of God Not so but to the Son of man For so it followeth in that Chapter viz. And hath given him power also to judge because he is the Son of man V. 27. And this we have directly from the Lords one mouth The Apostles also say the same St. Peter first God raised him up the third day and shewed him openly And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which is ordained of God to be judge both of quick and dead St. Paul next Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all those that love his appearing So for St. Iude Behold the Lord shall come with thousands of his Saints to give judgment against all men and to rebuke all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all the cruel speakings which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And this he citeth out of the Prophecies of Enoch the seventh from Adam which sheweth that even the Patriarchs before the flood were thoroughly possessed with this sacred truth and therefore not concealed from the holy Prophets which have been since the world began That it was manifested also to the antient Gentiles I have no reason to believe For though they might collect upon grounds of reason that there should be a day of judgement in the world to come yet that this judgement should be executed by the man CHRIST IESVS could not in possibility be discovered to them by the light of reason nor indeed by any other sight then by his alone who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles as well as to be the glory of his people Israel And therefore in my minde Lactantius might have spared that part of his censure upon the judgment of Hydaspes before remembred in which he approves of his opinion concerning the last day or the day of doom but addeth that his not ascribing this great work to the Son of God was omitted non sine daemonum fraude by the fraud and suggestion of the Devill If Hermes or Mercurius surnamed Trismegistus understood so much quod tamen non dissimulavit Hermes as it followeth after and that the verses by him cited from the antient Sibyls were by them spoken and intended as he saith they were of CHRIST our Saviour and of his coming unto judgement in that dreadfull day we must needs say they had a clearer Revelation of it then any of the Prophets of the most high God which for my part I have not confidence enough to say For in which of all the Prophets finde we such a description of Christs coming to judgement as this which he ascribeth to one of the Sibyls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Rolling up heaven earths depths I shall disclose Then raise the dead the bonds of fate unloose And deaths sharpe sting and next to judgment call Both quick and dead judging the lives of all Letting this therfore passe as a thing improbable that any of the Heathen Prophetesses should know more of Christs coming to judgement then was revealed to any of the holy Prophets or else deliver it in more clear expressions then do occurre in any of the Prophetical writers we shall proceed unto the execution of this judgement by our Lord and Saviour according to the scope of this present Article For which although no reason was or could be given by those antient sages as those which lived before the coming of CHRIST and consequently were not made acquainted with his life and actions yet there is reason to induce a Christian unto this belief were we not biassed to it by the text of Scripture For what could be more just in Almighty God then to advance his Son to the seat of judgment to the end that having been dishonoured publickly both in life and death scorned and contemned and brought unto a shamefull end in the eye of men he might have opportunity to shew his great power and majesty in the sight of all but specially of his barbarous and ungodly enemies And unto this the Prophet Zachariah alludeth saying They shall look on me whom they have pierced Which words although St. Iohn applyeth in his holy Gospel unto the piercing of Christs side Chap. 19.37 yet in the Revelation he applyeth it to his sitting in judgement Behold saith he he cometh in the clouds and all eyes shall see him and they also that pierced him Chap. 1.17 And from these words it is conceived I think not improbably that the wounds in our Saviours body shall then be visible to the eyes of all spectatours to the great comfort of the faithfull who do acknowledge their redemption to the bloud of the Lamb and to the astonishment and confusion of all his enemies but most especially of them qui vulnera ista inflixerunt by whose ungodly hands he was so tormented Here then we have good grounds to proceed upon both in the way of faith and reason for the asserting of the day of general judgement And yet somewhat further must be said to remove a difficultie which may else disturbe us in our way before we look into the particulars of it For possibly it may be said that there will be but little use of a general judgement except it be
on the authority and warrant of the holy Scriptures yet certainely the Scripture as we see by these two last passages is against him in it That which occasioned his mistake if I guesse aright was those words of David viz. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement which is not to be meant of their not appearing but of their not daring to stand to their tryall but shrinking under the heavy burden of their sinnes and wickednesses Thus have I made a brief but a full description of Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead according as it is laid down in the book of God The substance of it we have there delivered in so plain a way that every one that reads it understands it also unlesse he wilfully mistake and turn all to Allegories But for the Circumstances of this great and most glorious action that is to say the method and the manner of it the time and place and other things co-incident to those particulars in those I shall crave leave to enlarge my self a little further as well for my own satisfaction as the content of the reader And first beginning with the time there is but little I confesse to be said of that Our Saviour telleth us in plain termes that of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in heaven neither the Son but the Father And yet as plain as these words are they have given great matter of dispute in the Christian Church especially that part of them which concernes the Son and his not knowing when that day and that hour should come The Arians hereupon concluded against CHRISTS divinity as being ignorant of some things which the Father knew But unto this the Fathers of that age answered very rightly that Christ speaks not of himself as God or as the Word both made and manifested in the flesh but as he was the Son of man to whom the Father had not pleased to communicate the knowledge of so great a mysterie And of this minde were Athanasius Serm. 4. cont Arium Ambrose l. 5. de fide c. 8. Nazianzen Orat. 4. de Theolog. Theodoret Anathem 4. cont Cyrill Cyril of Alexandâ— l. 9. Thesaur c. 4. the Author of the imperfect work on St. Matthews Gospel ascribed to Chrysostome Which though no doubt it was the most ready and most satisfactory answer which could be given unto the objection yet when the learning of the Schooles came to be in credit this answer was conceived to be derogatory to the honour of CHRIST and many quaint devises found to avoid the Argument some of them so derogatory to the honour of Christ that I think a greater scandall could not possibly be laid upon him And such I take to be that of Estius though I thinke him to be one of the modestest men that ever came out of the Schoole of Ignatius Loyala who telleth us that Christ is said to be ignorant of that day and hour quia non sic eum didicerat a Patre ut illum ulterius hominibus mâ—nifestare deberet because he had not so learned it of his Father as that he ought to make it known to us men More briefly thus Christ saith he doth doth not know of that day and that hour ut videlicet nobis notum faciat he doth not know it so as to tell it us Which is in plain termes neither better nor worse then to make Christ the author of equivocation so much in use amongst the Iesuits For though our Saviour was not bound nor did thinke it expedient to communicate all those things unto his Disciples which had been imparted to him by his heavenly Father yet to put such a speech in the mouth of Christ viz. I know it not that is to say I do not know it so as to tell it you is such a cunning piece of Iesuitisme that it is hardly to be matched in all their writings And therefore leaving them to their strange devises we will look back again upon the answere of the Antient Fathers which though both right and satisfactorie as before I said yet was it so deserted in the age next following that the Themistiani in the time of the Emperour Mauritius were accounted hereticks and nick-named commonly Agnâ—etae because they taught that Christ considered in his humane nature was ignorant of that day and hour of his own coming to judgment And possible enough it is they might still passe for hereticks did they live amongst us if they maintained this universally of Christs humane nature as if he neither did know it nor were capable of it and not with reference to the time in which he spake it there being many things communicated to him after his resurrection which before were not known unto him And therefore I for my part shall subscribe unto that of Origen who telleth us that when our Saviour spake these words he was indeed ignorant of the day of judgement post resurrectionem vero seivisse quod tunâ— Rex Judex a Patre constitutus sit but that he knew it after his Resurrection because he was then made by God both our King and Iudge But whether Christ did know of that day or not seemes not much materiall to some men who because they would be wiser then Christ our Saviour have marked us out the precise time of his coming to judgement And some there be who think they do not trespasse at all upon Gods prerogative to whom it only doth belong to know the times and the seasons Act. 1.7 if they content themselves with a certain year and do not look so narrowly into it as to name the day Of the first sort was a Dutch Priest in the parts near Noremburg who being skilful in Arithmetical calculations concluded out of the numerical letters of this prediction in the Gospel videbunt in quem pupugerunt Ioh. 19.38 that the world should end Ann. 1562. And having fooled himself in that he presumed so far as to name the very day nay the hour it self in which the world should end and Christ come to judgement so far prevailing on his Parish that they gave beliefe to his prediction and at the day and hour appointed met all together in the Chappel or Parish Church to hear their Prophet preach and expect Christs coming It were pity to leave the story so and therefore I will tell the successe thereof which in brief is this No sooner were the people assembled together but there fell a great storme with thunder and lightning and that in such a violent and fearfull manner that they looked every minute for the Lords appearing But the day waxing fair again and no Saviour coming the people finding how they had been abused fall on the Priest and had doubtlesse slain him in the place if some of the more moderate men had not stayed their fury and helped the silly Prophet to get out of their fingers Somewhat
Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the
the East the Donatist in the South and the Novatians in the West who made one Faction onely though of several names were antiently of this opinion and set up Churches of their own of the New Edition For flattering themselves with a conceit of their own dear sanctity they thought themselves too pure and pious to joyn in any act of worship with more sober Christians and presently confined the Church which before was Catholick to their own private Conventicles and to them alone or intra partem Donati as they pleased to phrase it Who have succeeded them of late both in their factions and their follies too we all know full well The present ruptures in this State do declare most evidently that here is Pars Donati now as before in Africa A frenzy which gave great offence to the Antient Fathers who labored both by Speech and Pen to correct their insolencies and of such scandal to the Churches of the Reformation that Calvin though a ridged man and one inclinable enough unto new opinions did confute their dotages and publickly expose them to contempt and scorn The Antients and the Moderns both have agreed on this That though the Church of Christ be imperfect always and may be sometimes faulty also yet are not men to separate themselves so rashly from her Communion or make a rupture for poor trifles in the Body Mystical It argueth little Faith and less Charity saith renowned Cyprian if when we see some Errors in the Church of God De ecclesia ipsi recedamus we presently withdraw our selves and forsake her fellowship And here we might bring in St. Augustine and almost all the Fathers to confirm this point but that they are of no authority with the captious Schismatick and now of late disclaimed by our neater wits Therefore for further satisfaction of the stubborn Donatist we will behold the Constitution of the Church in the Book of God and take a view of the chief Types and Fortunes of it to see if we can finde there such a spotless Church as they vainly dream of In Adams family which was the first both Type and Seminary of the Church of God there was a Cain a murderer that slew his brother Amongst the Sons of God in the time of Noah how many that betook themselves to the daughters of men and in Noahs Ark the next and perhaps the greatest a Cham which wretchedly betrayed the nakedness of his aged father In Abraham's house there was an Ishmael that mocked at Isaac though the heir and the heir of promise in Isaac's a prophane Esau that made his belly his God and sold Heaven for a break-fast in Iacob's there were Simeon and Levi Brethren in evil besides a Reuben who defiled his old Fathers Bed And in the Church of Israel when more large and populous how many were mad upon the worship of the Golden Calf more mad in offering up their sons to the Idol Moloch Thousands which bowed the knee to Baal Ten thousands which did sacrifice in the Groves and prohibited places yet all this while a Church a true Visible Church with which the Saints and Prophets joyned in Gods publick worship Let us next look upon the Gospel and we shall finde that when the bounds thereof were so strait and narrow that there were few more visible Members of it than the Twelve Apostles yet amongst them there was a Iudas that betrayed his Master When it began to spread and enlarge it self to the number of One hundred and twenty there were among them some half Christians such as Nicodemus who durst not openly profess the Gospel but came unto the Lord by night and some false Christians such as Demas who out of an affection to the present world forsook both the Apostle and the Gospel too She then increased to such a multitude that they were fain to choose seven subordinate Ministers the better to advance the work and one of them will be that Nicholas the founder of the Nicolaitan Hereticks whom the Lord abhorred Follow it out of Iewry into Samaria and there we finde a Simon Magus as formal a Professor as the best amongst them and yet so full of the gall of bitterness within that Ignatius in plain terms calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first-born of the Devil Trace it in all the progress of it thorow Greece and Asia and we shall see the factiousness of the Corinthians the foolishness of the Galatians and six of the seven Asian Churches taxed with deadly sin Good God into what corner of the Earth will the Donatist run to finde a Church without corruption free from sin and error It must be sure into the old Utopias or the new Atlantis or some Fools Paradise of their own in terra incognita unless as Constantine once said unto Acesius a Novatian Bishop b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they can erect a Ladder of their own devising and so climb up into the Heavens Whilest they are here upon the Earth they have no such hopes and do but fool themselves in the expectation The chief occasion of these Errors which the two opposite Factions in the Church of Christ have thus faln into is a mistake of the right constitution of the members of it For those of Rome condemning all the Protestant party for Hereticks and the Eastern Churches for Schismatical and then excluding Hereticks and Schismaticks from being any members of the Church at all not onely appropriate to themselves the name of Catholick but consequently confine the Church within their Communion And on the other side the Donatist and their Modern followers out of the dear affection which they bear themselves first make the Church to consist of none but the Elect and none to be Elect but those who joyn fellowship with them and so by the same necessary consequence have confined the Church within the Walls or Curtains of their private Conventicles Both faulty and both grounding their unsound Conclusions upon as false and faulty principles For taking it for granted first which will never be yeilded by us nor made good by them that both the Christians of the East are Schismaticks and the Protestants of the North are no better then Hereticks yet are they not presently to be cut off from being any Members of the Church at all as Bellarmine and others of the Church of Rome have been pleased to say A Schismatick in the true meaning of the word is he Who holding an entire profession of the truth of God and joyning with the Church in all points of doctrine do break the peace thereof and disturb the order by refusing to submit themselves to their lawful Pastors and yeild obedience to her power in external matters If he stay there and withal fall not into manifest Heresie and set on foot some new Opinion as most Schismaticks have used to do the better to justifie themselves in their separation so
us and his ear still open to our prayers which he hath both the will and the power to grant so far forth as he seeth it fitting and expedient for us He suffered for our sins as he is our Priest forgives them as he is our God and mediates as our Head with his Heavenly Father for the remission of those sins which he suffered for The medicine for our sins was tempered in his precious blood and therein we behold him in his Priestly Office the application of this medicine was committed to the sons of men whom he by his Prophetical Office authorized unto it The dispensation of the mercy thereof still remains in God as an inseparable flower of the Regal Diadem for who can forgive sins but God alone said the Pharisees truly And this forgiveness of our sins as it is the greatest blessing God ca◠give us in this present life because it openeth us a door to eternal glory so is it placed here as the first in order of those signal benefits which do descend upon the Church from her Head Christ Iesus For we may hopefully conclude that since Christ was not onely pleased to die for our sins but doth intercede also with his Heavenly Father that we may have the benefit of his death and passion those prayers of his will make that death and passion efficacious to us in the forgiveness of those sins under which we languish With the like hope we may conclude from the self-same Topick That if we have our part in the first Resurrection that namely from the death of sin to the life of righteousness we shall be made partakers of the second also that namely from the death of nature to the life of glory For Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That where the Head is will the members be If therefore Christ our Head be risen from the grave of death the members shall be sure of a Resurrection If Christ our Head be glorified in his Fathers Kingdom the members in due time shall be glorified also So that as well the Article of the Forgiveness of sins as those of the Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting depend upon Christs being Head of this Mystical Body and that too in the method which is here proposed The forgiveness of sins being given us as a pledge or assurance that we shall have a joyful Resurrection in the day of judgment as that is but a way or passage to eternal life First then we are to speak of the Forgiveness of sins and therein we will first behold the whole body of sin in its own foul nature that so we may the better estimate the great mercies of God in the forgiveness of the same And for beholding the whole body of sin in its own foul nature we must first take notice That it pleased God in the beginning to exhibite to the world then but newly made a lively copy of himself a Creature fashioned ad similitudinem suam after his own Image saith the Text. In the creating of the which as he collected all the excellencies of inferior Creatures so did he also crown him with those heavenly graces with which he had before endued the most holy Angels that is to say a rectitude or clearness in his understanding whereby he was enabled to distinguish betwixt truth and error and with a freedom in his will in the choice of his own ways and counsels Ut suae faber esse possit fortunae That if he should forsake that station wherein God had placed him he might impute it unto none but his wretched-self It is true God said unto him in the way of Caution That in what day soever he did eat of the fruit forbidden he should die the death But he had neither undertaken to preserve him that he should not eat and so by consequence not sin much less had he ordained him to that end and purpose that he should eat thereof and so die for ever And true it is that God fore-knew from before all eternity unto what end this Liberty of man would come and therefore had provided a most excellent remedy for the restoring of lapsed man to his grace and favor Yet was not this foreknowledge in Almighty God that so it would be either a cause or a necessity or so much as an occasion that so it should be And it is therefore a good rule of Iustin Martyr seconded by Origen and divers others of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Prescience of God say they is not cause or reason why things come to pass but because these and these things shall so come to pass therefore God fore-knows them So that God dealt no otherwise in this case with our Father Adam than did the Father in the Parable with his younger son gave him that portion of his goods which fell to his share and after left him to himself And as the Prodigal childe being an ill husband on the stock which his Father gave him did quickly waste the same by his riotous living suffered the extremities of cold and hunger and was fain to cast himself again on his Fathers goodness so man not using well that stock which the Lord had given him gave himself over to the Epicurism of his eye and appetite By means whereof he lost those excellent endowments of his first Creation was shamefully thrust out of Paradise without hope of return and in conclusion fain to cast himself on the mercies of God as well for his subsistence here as his salvation hereafter The story of mans fall makes this plain enough and wholly frees Almighty God from having any hand or counsel in so sad a ruine For there we finde how God created him after his own Image placed him in Paradise commanded him not to meddle with the Tree of good and evil threatned that in case he did eat thereof he should surely die and lastly with what grievous punishments he did chastise him for violating that Commandment All which had been too like a Pageant if God had laid upon him a necessity of sin and death and made him to no other end as some teach us now but by his fall to set the greater estimate on his own rich mercies So excellently true is that of Ecclesiasticus though the Author of it be Apocryphal That God made man in the begining and left him in the hands of his own counsels And this is the unanimous doctrine of the New Testament also where it is said That by man came death and that not onely of the body but of the soul 1 Cor. 15.21 That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners Vers. 19. That all die in Adam Vers. 22. And in a word That no man ought to say when he is tempted that he is tempred of God for God tempteth no man but every
Monuments of the Catholick Church to signifie the death and not the birth-day of the Saints departed And more particularly we are thus informed by St. Augustine Solius Domini Beati Iohannis dies nativitatis in universo mundo celebratur i. e. That onely the day of the nativity of our Lord and Saviour and of St. Iohn Baptist were celebrated in his time in the Church of Christ Of Christ because there is no doubt but that he was conceived and born without sin original and of the Baptist because sanctified in his Mothers womb as St. Luke saith of him And for particular men it is said by Origen Nemo ex sanctis invenitur hunc diem festum celebrasse c. That never any of the Saints did celebrate the day of their own nativity or of any of their sons and daughters with a Solemn Feast The reason was the same for both because they knew that even the best of them were conceived in sin and brought forth in wickedness and therefore with no comfort could observe that day which the sense of their original corruptions had made so unpleasing But on the other side those men who either knew not or regarded not their own natural sinfulness esteemed that day above all others in their lives as that which gave them their first-being to enjoy their pleasures and they as Pharaoh in the Old Testament and Herod in the New failed not to keep the same as a Publick Festival Soli peccatores super hujusmodi diem laetantur as it is in Origen And hereupon we may infer without doubt or scruple that having the authority of the Scripture and the Churches practise and that practise countenanced by Authors of unquestioned credit not to say any thing further in so clear a case from the concurrent Testimonies of the Antient Fathers That there is such a sin as Birth-sin or Original sin a Natural corruption radicated in the Seed of Adam which makes us subject to the wrath and indignation of God Thus have we seen the Introduction of sin the first act of the Tragedy let us next look upon the second on the Propagation the manner how it is derived from Adam unto our Fore-fathers and from them to us And this we finde to be a matter of greater difficulty St. Augustine in whose time these controversies were first raised by the Pelagians did very abundantly satisfie them in the quod sit of it but when they pressed him with the quo modo how it was propagated from Adam and from one man to another he was then fain to have recourse to Gods secret justice and his unsearchable dispensation Et hoc quidem libentius disco quam doceo ne audeam docere quod nescio as with great modesty and caution he declined the business For whereas sin is the contagion of the soul and the soul oweth its being unto God alone and is not begotten by our parents the Pelagians either would not or could not be answered in their Quere How Children should receive corruption from their Parents not could the good Father give them satisfaction unto their demand But as a Dwarf standing on the shoulders of a Giant may see many things far off not visible to the Giant himself so those of the ensuing times building on the foundations which were laid by Augustine have added to him the solution of such doubts and difficulties as in his time were not discovered Of these some have delivered That the soul contracts contagion from the flesh even in the very act of its first infusion the union of the soul and body nor is it any thing improbable that it should so be We see that the most excellent Wines retain their natural sweetness both of taste and colour as long as they are kept in some curious Vessel but if you put them into foul and musty bottles they lose forthwith their former sweetness participating of the uncleanness of the Vessel in which they are Besides it is a Maxim amongst Philosophers Quod mores animae sequuntur temperamentum corporis That the soul is much byassed and inclined in the actions of it unto the temper of the body and if the equal or unequal temper of the body of man can as it seems incline the minde unto the actual embracing of good or evil then may it also be believed that the corruptions of the flesh may dispose the soul even in the first infusion of it to some habitual inclinations unto sin and wickedness Than which though there may be a more solid there cannot be a more conceiveable Answer But others walking in a more Philosophical way conceive that the accomplishment of the great work of Generation consists not in the introduction of the form onely or in preparing of the matter but in the constituting the whole compositum the whole man as he doth consist both of soul and body And that a man is and may properly be said to beget a man notwithstanding the Creation of his soul by God because that the materials of the Birth do proceed from man and those materials so disposed and actuated by the emplastick vertue of the Seed that they are fitted for the soul and as it were produced unto Animation Which resolution though it be more obscure unto vulgar wits is more insisted on by the learned than the former is and possibly may have more countenance from holy Scripture When God made man it is said of him That he was created after Gods own Image that is to say Invested with an habit of Original Righteousness his understanding clear and his will naturally disposed to the love of God But Adam having by his fall lost all those excellent endowments both of grace and nature begot a Son like to himself And therefore it is said in the fifth of Genesis That he begot a son in his own likeness after his own image and he called his name Seth Though Adam was created after the Image of God and might have still preserved that Image in his whole posterity had he continued in that state wherein God created him yet being faln he could imprint no other Image in the fruit of his Body than that which now remained in him his own Image onely the understanding darkned and the will corrupted and the affections of the soul depraved and vitiated Qualis post lapsum Adam fuit tales etiam filios genuit such as himself was after his Apostasie such and no other were the Children which descended of him â—s Paraeus very well observeth And if it fall out commonly as we see it doth that a crooked Father doth beget a crook-backed Son that if the Father look a squint the Children seldom are right-sighted and that the childe doth not onely inherit the natural deformities but even the bodily diseases of his Parents too It is the less to be admired that they should be the heirs also of those sinful lusts with which their
Parents were infected from the very birth Nor doth it any way advantage us in this present case that our Parents were regenerate for so we may suppose when they did beget us and being washed themselves from Original sin by the laver of regeneration should therefore in congruity be inabled also to beget children like themselves free from that pollution For the Regenerate are never so absolutely cleared from this corruption but that there is a law in their members which doth still war against the Spirit and that which as the Scripture telleth us hath in it self such an unpleasingness to God as maketh it to have somewhat in it of the nature of sin It is true that by the Sacrament of regeneration the guilt thereof is washed away and man thereby acquitted from the punishment of it yet there remaineth in us still that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wisdom or sensuality of the flesh as St. Paul entituleth it whereby we are inclined to resist at all times and sometimes actually do rebel against the Spirit Or were it so that in the state of grace and regeneration we were all cleansed throughout yet might our children be partakers of those corruptions which naturally and originally were inherent in us For let the Husbandman Wâ—ndow and Rie and Pick his Wheat with all care and industry till there be neâ—ther Chaff nor Tare nor ill Seed amongst it yet when that Wheat is sown and the stalk grown up into an Ear those Ears will be as full of Chaff as was the Seed it self out of which they came before such care and pains had been took about it And so St. Augustine hath resolved it saying Oleae semina non oleas generare sed oledstros That the wilde Olive springs from the true Olive Tree What then may any man complain as it seems too many did in the time of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What reason is it that we should be punished and afflicted it is for him we suffer for Adams fault and not our own that we are thus scourged Assuredly there is no such matter and we may say to such complainers as that Father did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not so saith he it is no such thing we suffer not for his but our own transgressions The best man hath too many sins which he is to answer for besides that of Adam and therefore none to lay the blame of his guilt and punishment upon Adam onely as if he onely had offended and not we our selves There is not one who hath not wretchedly increased that stock of wickedness which his Father left him adding transgressions of his own many actual sins to that original corruption which he had from Adam And howsoever we are unthrifts on that stock of grace which God is pleased to give unto us and eiâ—her hide our Talents in a Napkin as we know who did or else mispend them like the Prodigal on our riotous lusts yet we are too good husbands on that stock of sin which is bequeathed us by our Parents There is not a man amongst us but improves that patrimony adding one sin unto another as Lust to Drunkenness Murder to Adultery Rebellion to Secret Treasons Lascivious speech to loose Affections and unchaste actions unto both Which though they are the necessary consequents of original sin unless exceedingly held in by the bridle of grace so are they daily multiplied and increased continually by giving way to our corrupt affections and following the example of that first Transgressor Sic instituere majores posteri imitantur as he in Tacitus The Fathers manner of life is the Sons example So that the followers of Pelagius when they imputed sin unto imitation had they intended it of actual not original sin they had not been much wanting of the mark they aimed at We are made guilty of original sin immediately from our own Parents as they from theirs ascending till they came to Adam in the way of Propagation and make their actual sins our own in the way of imitation Nor need we press this further than with that of Origen Parentes non solum generant filium sed imbuunt qui nascuntur non solum filis Parentibus sunt sed Discipuli in reference unto sin and wickedness we are the Scholars of our Parents not their Children onely But whether it be by Propagation or by Imitation or by transcending all examples which have been before us most sure it is that we are all corrupt and become abominable that there is none that doeth good no not one being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness Maliciousness full of envy murther debate malignity insomuch as from the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but swellings and soars and putrifaction More sure it is that even our righteousness is but like to a menstruous cloth and that our justest actions are not able to endure the trial if they should come to be weighed in the sight of God by the severity of the Law and the exact ballance of the Sanctuary Vae enim laudabili hominum vitae si remotâ misericordiâ discutias eam Woe saith Augustine to the most commendable part of all our lives should not God look upon us with the eyes of mercy and through the Spectacles of the merits of our Lord CHRIST IESVS Not to insist longer on those curiosities which are and may be made by unquiet men about the Introduction Propagation and universal over-spreading of the body of sin we must resolve as he that fell into a pit did resolve the Passenger who was inquisitive to know how he came into it At ille obsecro inquit tecum cogita quomodo hinc me liberes c. My friend said the poor fellow take no care to learn how I fell into it but do the best you can to help me out of it That we are fallen into the pit not only of Original but of Actual filthiness we all know too well and we know too that we first fell into it by the fault of our Father Adam but have since plunged our selves more deeply in the mire of sin then Adam by his personal error could have brought upon us If we are yet unsatisfied with the manner how notwithstanding all that hath been formerly here delivered and may be elsewhere found in the Antient writers we may do well to take as much care as we can for our getting out and not molest our selves and others with those needless questions which have been made about the manner of our falling in And this is that which we are next to go in hand with For if there were no way to get out of this pit the knowledge which we have of our falling in and of the condition we lie under till we be delivered would so perplex us and afflict us that Christians of all men would be most miserable But so
Peters Sermon so that they asked him What they were to do that they might be saved He presently chalked them out a way by Baptism and Repentance to obtain the remission of sins even of that bloody sin it self of crucifying by their wicked hands the Lord of glory If any had more reason to despair than they it must be none but such of the Scribes and Pharisees who saying that our Saviour Christ had cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils may properly be said to have blasphemed against the Holy Ghost and consequently to have committed such a sin as in the judgment of our Saviour is pronounced unpardonable He that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him as St. Luke expresly And yet St. Ambrose is so charitable as to think that some of them were pardoned it being probable that some of those very Scribes and Pharisees were present at St. Peters Sermon and so within the compass of repentance and forgiveness of sins And then withal we may observe that though it be expresly said That the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven yet it may well be understood with a qualification impossibility being sometimes used in holy Scripture to denote a difficulty As where it is affirmed as positively and expresly to be impossible for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Where certainly it was not the intent of Christ utterly to exclude all rich men from the hopes of Heaven but onely to declare how hard and difficult it was for those who trusted in their riches and wallowed in the pride and pleasures of a prosperous fortune to set their mindes upon the blessings of eternal life And so it is also in the present case in St. Chrysostoms judgment Ideo dici nunquam remitti quia difficilius remittitur Of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost saith he it is therefore said that it shall never be forgiven because it is more hardly pardoned and with greater difficulty than any other sin whatever And that this qualification or the like is to be admitted appears yet further by the words which are next before it and to which these in question must needs have relation where it is said That all sins and all blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men In which he did not could not mean that all sins and at all times should be pardoned to all sorts of men for then no sin were damnable but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which is most untrue Therefore the sense must be in both That all sins ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be forgiven unto men upon true repentance but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not so ordinarily be forgiven or shall more hardly be forgiven than any other Not that it cannot be forgiven at all Non utique quod remitti non possit as most truly Maldonat But because they who do blaspheme against the Holy Ghost Nullam peccati sui excusationem habent have seldom any thing to allege in excuse thereof and so were more unpardonable than other men As for those passages pretended from the holy Scripture in maintenance of the irremissibility of some kinde of sin and in particular of this against the power of the Holy Ghost they neither prove the point which they are produced for nor were intended by the Sacred Penmen of the Word of God of that sin or blasphemy In the first place it is alleged from St. Paul to the Hebrews To be impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh But this the Fathers understand not of a difficulty or impossibility of admitting such men unto repentance but that they could not be admitted to a second Baptism and thereby to be renovated and illuminated to die be buried and rise a second time in Christ in so facile and compleat a washing of sin as the Sacrament of Regeneration did afford at first Chrysostom is express for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He doth not take away repentance but a second Baptism St. Ambrose also saith the same and sheweth that the meaning of this Text is and must be De non iterando baptismate not of repelling sinners from the thought of repentance and the remission of their sins by the Churches Ministry as the Novatians falsly taught but of the not admitting them to a second Baptism which some began to introduce upon that occasion And that the Apostle speaks of a second Baptism is evident by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or illuminatos which was used antiently to signifie those that were baptised as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or illumination for Baptism the very Sacrament it self Secondly by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or renovare which intimates or implies our renovation by that holy Sacrament Per lavachrum enim renovamur per quod renascimur as St. Ambrose notes it We are renewed by the laver of regeneration by which we are new-born to the life of righteousness And thirdly from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of crucifying again the Lord of life our Baptism being as the figure of his death or crucifixion in which our old man is crucified with him as St. Paul hath told us That the body of sin might be destroyed and buried in his grave by Baptism And thereupon if followeth by St. Pauls illation Non magis quenquam bis baptizari quam Christum bis crucifigi posse saith the learned Knight Sir Daniel Heinsius That the impiety is as great for a man to be baptized again as if Christ should again be crucified The like may be affirmed of a second Text alleged from the same Apostle where it is said That if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Which Text as that before is applied by Calvin to such as fall away from the Faith and Gospel whom he excludes utterly from all hope of pardon as men that sin against the holy Spirit of God but very wrongfully in all For first although we read it wilfully in our last Translation yet is it onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek originals which Beza rendreth uliro the Vulgar Latin voluntario our old Translation willingly as the Rhemists do And to say truth the word doth signifie no more though to comply with Calvins Comment on the Text our last Translators who inclined too much unto his opinions do now read it wilfully And if it be but willingly as indeed it is not I would know in what a desperate estate we Christians were if every sin which is committed willingly after truth embraced shall either be reputed in the sight of God for
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
expresly by St. Peter to the sorrowful and afflicted Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins By Ananias unto Saul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord By Paul himself who had experimentally found the efficacy and fruit thereof in his own person That God according to his mercy hath saved us not by works of righteousness which we have done but by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and finally by St. Peter also That Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ This also was the judgment of the Antient Writers and that too long before the starting of the Pelagian Heresies to which much is ascribed by some as to the advancing of the efficacy and fruit of Baptism by succeeding Fathers For thus Tertullian Quotidiè nunc aquae populos conservant deleta morte per ablationem delictorum Exempto scilicet reatu eximitur poena Ita restituetur homo Deo ad similitudinem ejus qui retro ad imaginem Dei conditus fuerat Now saith he do the Waters daily preserve the people of God death being destroyed and overthrown by the washing away of sins for where the guilt is taken away there is the punishment remitted also St. Cyprian thus Remissio peccatorum sive per Baptismum sive per alia Sacramenta donetur propriè Spiritus Sancti est that is to say that the remission of sins whether given in Baptism or by any other of the Sacraments is properly to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost The African Fathers in full Council do affirm the same and so doth Origen also for the Alexandrians of both which we shall speak anon in the point of Paedo-baptism Thus Nyssen for the Eastern Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saith he is the expiation of our sins the remission of our offences the cause of our new-birth and regeneration Thus do the Fathers in the Constantinopolitan Council profess their Faith in one Baptism or being onely once baptized for the remission of sins And finally That this was the doctrine of the Church in general before Augustines time who is conceived to be first that did advance the power and efficacy of Baptism to so great an height in opposition to the Pelagian Heresies appears by a by-word grown before his time into frequent use the people being used to say when they observed a man to be too much addicted to his lusts and pleasures Sine illum faciat quod vult nondum enim baptizatus est i. e. Let him alone to take his pleasure for as yet the man is not baptised More of this we shall see anon in that which follows Nor is this onely Primitive but good Protestant Doctrine as is most clear and evident by that of Zanchius whom onely I shall instance in of the later Writers Cum Minister Baptizat c. When the Minister baptizeth I believe that Christ with his own hand reached as it were from Heaven Filium meum sanguine suo in remissionem peccatorum aspergere besprinkleth the Infant with his Blood to the remission of sins by the hand of that man whom I see besprinkling him with the Waters of Baptism So that I cannot choose but marvel how it comes to pass that it must now be reckoned for a point of Popery that the Sacraments are instrumental causes of our justification or of the remission of our sins or that it is a point of learning of which neither the Scriptures nor the Reformed Religion have taught us any thing So easie a thing it is to blast that with Popery which any way doth contradict our own private fancies But here before I do proceed further in this present Argument I shall make bold to divert a little upon the antient use of Baptismal-washings before our Saviour Christ ordained it for an holy Sacrament that we may see what hint our Saviour took in this Institution who thought it no impiety to fit the antient usages of the Iews and Gentiles to the advancement of the Gospel though now to hold conformity with the Church of Rome in matters very pertinent to the same effect is reckoned for the greatest Error in our Reformation First for the Iews that they used very frequent washings is most clear in Scripture For not onely the Pharisees particularly who were a superstitious supercilious Sect but the Iews in general have this Character given them by St. Mark That they eat not except they wash their hands oft that they washed as often as they came from market or any publick place of meeting and that they did observe upon old Tradition the washing of Cups and Pots of brazen Vessels and of Tables And this they did not onely in the way of cleanliness or in point of manners to wash away the filth of their bodies when they went to eat or to make clean their Vessels and other Vtensiles which they ate or drank in But rather out of an opinion that by those frequent washings they preserved themselves from the filth and corruption of the world especially in their return from the streets and market places where possibly they might meet with some that were uncircumcised or otherwise obnoxious to an ill report by which they thought themselves defiled And this I take to be an antient custom of the Iews because I finde it much in use amongst the Samaritans who were in many if not most of their common Ceremonies but the Apes onely of the Iews Who on the same opinion of their own dear sanctity which had so perfectly possessed their neighbors of Iudah did use when they had visited any of the Nations to sprinkle themselves with urine upon their return and if by negligence or necessity of business they had touched any not of their own Sect to drench themselves over-head and ears in the next Fountain The reason of which is thus delivered by Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because they held it for an abomination to come near a man that was of a different Religion or perswasion from them But this appears more plainly by that passage of St. Iohns Gospel where there is mention of six water pots of stone at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the purifying of the Iews Where by no means I can consent to Maldonâ—tes interpretation who will not have these water-pots to be used at all for any Legal or Mosaical purification Qua qui secundum legem polluti erant mundabantur in which they used to wash themselves who had incurred some legal pollution but onely for those Pharisaical washings which the Pharisees used often in the midst of a feast Which had it been the
ab his putat exigendam fidem quos novit nullam propriam habere culpam The justice of Almighty God saith he doth not think it fitting that having committed no particular sin of their own he should exact of them a proper and particular faith of their own but as they were undone by anothers fault so they should be relieved by anothers faith To which effect though not so fully I have read somewhere I am sure in St. Ierome but cannot well remember where Qui peccavit in altero credat in altero That he which hath sinned in others may believe by others For the next point though we maintain the necessity of Baptism as the ordinary outward means to attain salvation and do correct those Ministers by the Churches censures by whose gross negligence or default if required to do it an Infant shall die unbaptized Yet we conceive it not so absolutely necessary in the way to Heaven but it is possible for a man to be saved without it For antiquity supplied in some the want of water by blood which many times was the case of Martyrs in others the inevitable want of Baptism by the Holy Ghost the earnestness of the desire if it might have been had supplying the defect of the outward Ceremony Hence came the old distinction of Baptismus fluminis Baptismus flaminis and Baptismus sanguinis Concerning which the Fathers teach us this in brief That where men are debarred by an evitable impossibility from the outward Sacrament Faith and the inward conversion of the heart flying unto God in IESUS CHRIST through the sweet motion and gracious instinct of the Holy Spirit may be reckoned for a kinde of Baptism because thereby they obtain all that which they so earnestly sought after in the Sacrament of Baptism if they could have been partakers of it And if it be so that an ordinary degree of Faith do sometime obtain salvation without the Baptism of Water much more may that which makes men willing to suffer death for Christs and the Gospels sake and be baptized as it were in their dearest blood It was not simply the want of Baptism but the neglect and contempt thereof which antiently in the Adulti men of riper years was accounted damnable But what may then be said in the case of Infants in whom are no such strong desires no such sanctified motions Shall we adjudge them with St. Augustine to eternal fire as some say he did who thereby worthily got the name of Infanto-mastyx or the scourge of Infants as he had gloriously gained the title of Malleus Pelagianorum The Maul or Hammer of the Pelagian Hereticks No God forbid that we should so restrain his most infinite mercies unto outward means Or shall we feign a third place for them near the skirts of Hell as our good Masters do in the Church of Rome We have as little ground for that in the holy Scripture Rather than so we may resolve and I think with safety that as the Faith of the Church and of those which do present such as are baptized is by God accepted for their own so the desire and willingness of the same Church and of their God-fathers and Parents where Baptism cannot possibly be had is reputed theirs also Or if not so yet we refer them full of hope to the grace of God in whose most rigorous constitutions and sharpest denunciations deepest mercies are hid and who is still the Father of mercies though the God of justice And so I shut up this discourse with these words of Hooker That for the Will of God to impart his grace to Infants without Baptism the very circumstance of their natural birth may serve in that case for a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in a charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their salvation to whom the benefit of Christian parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath no power himself to avoid So he of those which are descended of a Christian stock What may be thought of children born of unbelievers hath been said elswhere And so much of the first ordinary outward means ordained by Christ for the remission of our sins the holy Sacrament of Baptism Proceed we next unto the other which is the power of the Keys committed in the person of St. Peter to the Catholick Church and those which by the Churches order are authorized and appointed to it That miserable man being wrought upon unto repentance by the power and preaching of the Word may on confession of his sins be forgiven of God or have the benefit of absolution from the hands of his Ministers if their spiritual necessities do so require For certainly there is not a more ready way to forgiveness of sins than by sincere and sound repentance nor any speedier means to beget repentance than to present our sins unto us in their own deformity by the most righteous myrror of the Word of God For when the sinner comes to know by the Word of God the heinousness of his misdeeds the wrath which God conceives against him for his gross offences together with the punishment which is due unto them according to his rigorous judgments The thought thereof must needs affect him both with fear and horror and make him truly sensible of his desperate state To whom then shall he flie for succor but to God alone humbly confessing unto him both his sins and sorrows How can he look to be recovered of the biting of these fiery Serpents but by looking with the eye of faith on that brazen Serpent which was exalted on the Cross for his Redemption Or if he finde his Conscience troubled and his minde afflicted and that he hath not confidence enough to draw near to God then let him go unto the Priest whom God hath made to be the Iudge between the unclean and the clean whom God hath authorized to minister the word of comfort to raise up them that be faln and support the weak to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide their feet in the way of peace This is the Method to be used the course to be pursued by those who do desire to profit in the School of repentance And about this as to the main and substance of it there is but little difference amongst knowing men For that Repentance is a necessary means required for the remission of sins committed after Baptism the Antients and the Moderns do agree in one The Fathers used to call it secundam tabulam post naufragium the second Table after Spiritual shipwrack on which all those who had made shipwrack of the Faith and a good conscience used to lay hold after they had foregone the benefit received in Baptism to keep them up from sinking in the depth of despair from being overwhelmed in the bottomless Ocean of sin and judgment
Cajetan was a publick Confession and in generals onely sed non confessio Sacramentalis Not such a private and particular one as is now required not such a Sacramental one as is now defended But we might well have saved this particular search it being ingenuously confessed by Michael de Palacios a Spanish Writer That notwithstanding all their pains to found it on some Text of Scripture they are so far from being agreed amongst themselves that it is much to be admired Quanta sit de hac re concertatio What contention there is raised about it and how badly they agree with one another And if they have no better ground for the main foundation how little hopes may we conceive of finding any good in their superstructures And yet upon no better grounds do they exact a most unreasonable particularity of all mens affairs to be delivered to them in confession requiring of all persons being of age a private and distinct confession of all and every known mortal sin open and secret of outward deed and inward consent together with all circumstances thereof though obscene and odrous not fit to be communicated to a modest ear and that too once a year at least if they do not oftner For this we need not go much further than the Council of Trent where we shall finde Oportere à poenitentibus omnia peccata mortalia quorum post diligentem sui discussionem conscientiam habent in confessione recenseri etiamsi occultissima sunt tantum adversus duo ultima Decalogi mandata remember that they divide the last Commandment into two commissa c Which how impossible it is to do should one go about it what an intanglement it may prove unto the conscience of a penitent sinner and what a temptation also to the Priest himself to be acquainted with particulars so unchast and lustful I leave to any sober Christian to determine of who shall finde more hereof in Alvares Pelagius de Planctu Ecclesiae L. 2. Art 2 3 27 73 83. and Agrippa de Vanitate Scientiarum cap. 64. Writers of their own than I think fitting at this time they should hear from me who do not love to rake in such filthy puddles So then the business of Confession doth stand thus between us That we conceive it to be free whereas those of Rome will have it obligatory we that it is Iuris positivi onely but they Iuris divini we that it is a matter of conveniency and they of absolute necessity And then for the performance of it they do exact a punctual enumeration of all sins both of commission and omission together with all the accidents and circumstances thereunto belonging which we conceive in all cases to be impossible in some not expedient and in no case at all required by the Word of God Now as we disagree with those of the Church of Rome about the nature and necessity of private confession so have we no less differences with the Grandees of the Puritan faction about the efficacy and power of Sacerdotal Absolution which they which speak most largely of it make declarative onely others not so much whereas the Church hath taught us that it is authoritative and judicial too Authoritative not by a proper natural and original power for so the absolving of a sinner appertains unto God alone but by a delegated and derived power communicated to the Priest in that clause of their Commission Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained Iohn 20.23 Which proves the Priest to have a power of remitting sins and that in as express and ample manner as he can receive it But though it be a delegated Ministerial power yet doth not the descent thereof from Almighty God prove it to be the less judicial Then Judges and other Ministers of Justice sitting on the Bench may be said to exercise a judicial power on the lives and fortunes of the Subjects because they do it by vertue of the Kings Commission not out of any Soveraign power which they can chalenge to themselves in their several circuits Now that the Priests or Ministers of the Church of England are vested with as much power in forgiving sins as Christ committed to his Church and the Church to them the formal words Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted c. which are still used in Ordinations do expresly signifie Which though some of the Grandees of the Puritan faction have pleased to call Papisticum ritum an old Popish ceremony foolishly taken up by them continued with small judgment by our first Reformers minore adhuc in ecclesia nostra retentus and with far less retained by the present Church yet we shall rather play the fools with the Primitive Christians than learn wit of them And for the exercise of this power we have this form thereof laid down in the Publick Liturgy where on the hearing of the sick mans confession the Priest is to absolve him with these formal words viz. Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left power unto his Church to absolve all sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences And by his authority committed unto me I absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen In which we finde that the Sacerdotal power of forgiving sins is a derived or delegated Ministerial power a power committed to his Ministers by our Lord and Saviour but that it is Iudicial also not Declarative onely It is not said That I do signifie or declare that thou art absolved which any man may do as well as the Priest himself but I do actually absolve thee of all thy sins which no mortal man can but he In this the Priest hath the preheminence of the greatest Potentate And in this sense it is that St. Chrysostome saith Deus ipse subjecit caput Imperatoris manui Sacerdotis i.e. That God himself hath put the head of the Prince under the hand of the Priest For as no man whatsoever although he use the same words which the Minister doth can consecrate the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ because he wants the power of Order which should inable him unto it so no man not in Priestly order can absolve from sin though he may comfort with good words an afflicted Conscience or though he use the same words which are pronounced by the Minister in absolution The reason is because he wants the power of order to which the promise is annexed by our Saviour Christ which makes the sentence of the Priest to be so judicial which when the penitent doth hear from the mouth of the Minister he need not doubt in foro conscientiae but that his sins be as verily forgiven on Earth as if he had heard Christ himself in foro
not look upon it in its first Original or as it was obtruded on the Church by Hereticks but as by some good pious men it was refined and rectified and so commended to them for a Catholick point And he that took the pains to refine it first and make it more agreeable to an Orthodox ear was Papias Bishop of Hierapolis a City of Phrygia a pious man Sed modico admodum judicio praeditus but otherwise of mean parts and of little judgement And yet because of the opinion which the world had of him he was herein followed by Irenaeus and some others as Eusebius telleth us who perhaps might think it a good bargain if they could better the opinion and thereby hope to get the Iews and the Iudaizers to come over to them St. Hierom speaks of him as the first who published that Iewish Tradition of Christs earthly Kingdom the first he meaneth that published it so refined and bettered and that after the Resurrection the Saints should reign together with the Lord in the flesh for a Thousand years Hic dicitur mille annorum Iudaicam edidisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicens post resurrectionem Dominum in carne cum Sanctis regnaturum as he tells us of him And then he adds That he was followed herein by Iraeneus and Apollinarius as also by Tertullian in his book De spe fidelium by Victorinus Pictaviensis and Lactantius Gennadius adds Tychonius Afer who in his Commentaries on the Revelation did affirm the same And so did also Iustin Martyr Melito Sardensis and Severus Sulpitius in the life of St. Martin So did St. Augustine for a while Hoc etiam was aliquan do opinati sumus as himself informs us but after upon better consideration he receded from it By all these it is held for a truth undoubted That Christ shall come down from Heaven in the end of the world and converse with men and govern them with Peace and Iustice and that the Saints which shall be raised and they who shall be found alive at the time of his coming shall reign with him a thousand years and serve the Lord with righteousness and perfect holiness So far they generally agree though some not fully cleared of the former errors and amongst them Lactantius must go for one conceived That those just men who were found alive should generate an infinite number of subjects infinitam multitudinem generibunt with which to people this New Kingdom The greatest difference amongst them did consist in this Whether the computation of this Millenary or thousand years was to commence before or after the day of Iudgment Lactantius being of opinion that it should be after but Iustin Martyr and most others that these thousand years should be first accomplished and then the general Resurrection and the day of Iudgment should succed immediately And though St. Augustine for his part did think the opinion thus reformed to be somewhat tolerable yet being vehemently opposed by Ierom who upon all occasions doth declare against it accounting it but a remainder of the Iewish dotages it became by little and little to be less esteemed and in a very short time after to be quite deserted Nor was it ever since revived till these later times in which the Anabaptists first gave the hint unto it and since that numerous brood of Sectaries which have swarmed from them have once more published it abroad to the view of the world As for the ground on which those Antient Writers built this Kingdomâ—hey â—hey either were some promises made by God to the house of Israel concerning the coming and the Kingdom of Christ in the time of the Gospel or else some words of Christ himself which they interpreted that way or finally some passages in the Revelation which did directly seem to give countenance to it First For the Promises made by God in the Old Testament however they may seem to favor those of that opinion yet is it candidly acknowledged by Tertullian though he held the Tenet That they were to be understood non de terrena sed coelesti promissione of heavenly not of earthly promises In the New Testament the first place which they build upon is that in the nineteenth of St. Matthew where it is said That every one who hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life that is to say according to St. Marks expression An hundred fold now in this life time and in the world to come life everlasting But that this is not to be understood in a literal sense nor the accomplishment thereof to be made in that Golden Kingdom St. Ierom reasoneth very tartly For then saith he it needs must follow Ut qui unam uxorem pro domino dimiserit centum recipiat in futuro that he who doth forsake one wife for the love of Christ should in that Kingdom of theirs receive an hundred Which how absurd it were he leaves them to judge In the next place they fasten upon that of Luke in which our Saviour said unto his Apostles That they should eat and drink at the same Table with him in his Kingdom But neither these words must be taken literally as they seem to sound or if they be they will be found directly contrary unto that of St. Paul assuring us That the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The like may be replied to that other place by them alleged to this purpose viz. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vine until that day when I shall drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom These words St. Ierom doth interpret of the Blood of Christ not to be drank unless we do ascend with him into the upper Chambers of the Heavens above and from his hands receive the Cup of the New Testament Et inebriemur ab eo vino sobrietatis and be made drunken as it were with the Wine of Sobriety Which Answer how it satisfied the Millenarians I am not able to say but I profess sincerely it doth not satisfie me Nor have I met with any Exposition of this difficult place which doth not leave it as perplexed as before it was And yet I am not of the minde that it can possibly be alleged in favor of the Millenarians because it is in Regno Patris mei in my Fathers Kingdom which generally is used in Scripture for the Kingdome of Heaven and not in Regno meo my Kingdom or the Kingdom of Christ as in that of Luke Though that of Luke be but a metaphorical form of speech and signifieth no more than that degree of nearness to their Lord and Saviour which the Apostles should obtain in the Kingdome of Glory such as is commonly between those who ordinarily
us out the way unto life eternal both by thy Doctrine and Example Conduct us we beseech thee in the pathes of righteousness suppress that itch of curiosity which hath not left one Article of the holy Faith without stain or censure and make us chearfully submit our Reason to the Rule of Faith And thou O God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth send down thy holy Spirit into our hearts that by his Grace we may believe in thine onely begotten son JESUS CHRIST our Lord place all our hopes upon the merits of his most precious death and passion our comforts in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension That by his means and mediation we may be made true Members of thy Catholick Church enjoy a right Communion with thy blessed Saints and the remission of our sins in this present world That so we may be made partakers of the Resurrection unto Life eternal in the world to come So be it Amen FINIS Eccl. 12.12 Plautus Rom. 2.1 Eccl. 4.7 Tacit. Ann. Pag. 350. Pacian in Biblioth Patr. Whitac Contr. 2. q. 9. c. 8. Horat. de arte Poet. Ovid. Triâ—t Eleg. 1. Virg. Aen. l. 1. Ambros. in Hexaemer 1 Cor. 12.20 Ephes. 5.32 De Civit. dei l. 22. c. 17. Hos. 2.19 Eph. 5.30 Eph. 4.5 1 Cor. 12.13 Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. Joh. 3.16 Joh 20.31 2 Pet. 3.16 Rom. 14.1 Heb. 5 13 14. 2 Tim. 1.13 Iren. adv haeres l. 1. c. 2. Id. ibid. c. 3. Iren. adv haeâ—es l. 1. c. 3. Tertull. de veland Virgin Aug. Serm. de Temp. 115. Aug. de fide Symb. c. 1. Id. in Encheirid a Laur. Ruffin in Symbol Aug. Serm. 115. de Temp. Ambros. Serm. 38. Hieron Epist ad Pammach 61. Leo Epi. 13. ad Palcher De Eccl. Officiis l. 2 c. 3. Cap. 56. Terent. in Andria Aug. Encheir ad Laurent Id. lib. de fide Symb. c. 1. Epist. 61. ad Pammach c. 9. Lib. 1. c. 3. Tertul. adv Praxeam Ignat. Epist. ad Trallian Euseb. Hist. l. 1. c. ult Examen Concil Trident. sess 4. Articl of 1562. Art 134. Contra Donat. l. 4. c. 23. Field l. 4. c. 21. Vigilius contra Eutych l. 4. Hooker Eccles. Polit. l. 5. Apolog. pro Confess Remon Durand Rationale Divin Field of the Church l. 2. c. 1. Ruffinus in Exposit. Symb. Concil Agathens Can. 13. Aug. Homil 42. Conc. Foro-Iuliens Apud Binium Tom. 3. par 1. l. 1. p. 262. Durand Rational Divin Anast. apud Platinam in Collect. Concil Durand Rational Divin Baron Annal Eccl. A. 44. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Id. ibid. B. Bilsons Survey p. 664. August de doctr Christian. Id. de Civit. l. 11. c. 3. B Bilsons Survey p. 664. Binuis in Annot. in Concil Tolet. IV. Tom. Concil 2. part 2. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Mar. 16.15 Isocrat in Orat. ad Nicoclen Aristol Analytic prior Quintilian l. 2. cap. 13. Philo de vita Mofis l. 3. Iulii Etist decretal c. 8. Mat. 28 20. Paci Epist. 1. ad Symp. Downs of the Authors and Authority of the Creed Ruffinus in posit Symb. Lact. l. 2. c. 9. Act. 17.28 1 Cor. 15.33 Tit. 1.12 B. Iewels challenge Pet. Mart. de votis coelebat Chemnit Examen de Tradition c. 6. August Epist 19. Hieronyn ad Damas. Epist. 57. Vincent Lirin adv haeres c. 38. Id. ibid. c. 2. Augustin in Epist. 118. Id. contr Iulian. Pelagi l 2.9 Id. ibid. c. 10. Canon An. 1571. cap. de Concionator An. 1. Eliz. cap. 1. Saravia de divers ministerii gradibus Calvin Inst l. 2. c. 16. sect 1â— (b) Coke in Calvins case (c) Phocylid sentent (d) Rom. 8.38 (e) Philip. 1.6 (f) Valla in Annotat. in N. Test. (g) Zanch. de Natura Dei c. 3. (h) Melancht in Exam. Artic. de Iustificatione (i) Vrsin in Exposit. praecept 1. (k) Arist. in lib. Demonstrat (l) Joh. 4.39.41 42. (m) 2 Pet. 1.21 (n) 2 Thes. 2 10 11 12. (o) Heb. 11.1 (p) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (q) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (r) 2 Tim. 2.18 (s) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (t) Heb. 3.14 (u) Budaeus in Comment Gr. Linguae (x) 2 Cor. 9.4 11.17 (y) Ephes. 6.12 (z) Haymo in Heb. 11. v. 1. (a) Id. ibid. (b) Rev. 1.20 (c) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (d) August in Psalm 77. (e) Id. in Iohan tract 29. (f) Compend Theol. lib. 5. c. 21. (g) Zuinglius in Matth. 23.13 (h) Muscul. loci commun loco de Fide n. 3. (i) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. lib 2. c. 14. n. 3. (k) Mat. 8.26 (l) Mat. 28.2 c. (m) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 2. v. 11. (n) Joh. 4.39 (o) Davenant in Coloss. 2. v. 2. (p) Joh. 11.42 (q) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 11. v. 42. (r) Joh. 1.12 (s) Joh. 2.23 (t) Calv. in locum cap. 2. v. 23. (u) Joh. 2.24 (x) Muscul Loci commun de fide (y) Exod. 14. v. 31. (z) Muscul. ut supr (a) Exod. 19.9 (b) Basil. de sancto Spiritu c. 14. (c) Socrat. hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 25. (d) Ruffin in Exposit. Symboli (e) Paschas de Spirit sancto lib. 1. (f) August in Ioh. tractat 29. (g) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. l. 2. c. 14. (h) Joh. 2.23 (i) Act. 16 31. (k) Hermes (l) Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prooemio (m) Hilar. de Trinitate l. 10. (n) Symbol Caroli M. (o) Heb. 11.6 (p) Iewel Apol Eccles. Anglic (q) Act. 8.13 (r) Calvin Instit. l. 3. c. 2. â— 10. (s) Idem in Act. 8.13 (t) Act. 8.21 22. (u) Ignat. Epi. (x) 1 Tim. 1.19 20. 2 Tim. 2.17 18. (y) 1 Tim. 1.20 (z) Calvin Instit l. 3. c. 2. n. 11. (a) Rom. 6.22 (b) Act. 5.4 (c) Act. 8.23.21 (d) 1 Tim. 1.19 (e) Act. 8.22 (f) 1 Tim. 1.20 (g) 1 Cor. 5.4 (h) Rom. 1. 18.20 (i) Jude v. 6. (k) Mat. 25.30.1 (l) Mark 1.24 (m) Mat. 8.29 (n) Heb. 2.16 (o) Sect. 1. ch 2. (p) Vrsin Theses Theol. c. 13. (q) Id. ibid. (r) Iackson of justifying faith c. 2. (s) Vrsin Cutech part 2. qu. 21. n. 2. (t) Matth. 13.20 21. (u) Bucan Com. loc de Fide (x) Vrsin Catech part 2. qu. 21. (y) Mat. 17.20 (z) 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. (a) Cicer. in Tusc. quaest l. 1. (b) Lactant. l. 3.8 (c) Act. 14.16 17. (d) Tacit. de mor. German (e) Lactant. l. 1.2 (f) Ap. Morâ— de vera Relig. (g) Lactant l. 1. c. 11.13 c. (h) Lucan Pharsal l. 10. (i) Lactant. l. 2. (k) Iuvenal Sat. 13. (l) August de civit Dei l. (n) Minut. Fel in Octavio (o) Lactant. l. 1.6 (p) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (r) Mereur Trism in Paeman c. 2 3 4 c. El in Asclep c. 6 7. (s) Lactant. l. 1.6 (t) Id. cap. 7. (u) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (x) Clem. Alexand in Proâ—rept (y) Laert. in vita Socrat. (z) Tertul. in Apolog. c. 46. (a) Laert. in vita Socr. (b) Plato in Epist. 13. ad
seventh Chapter where we were purposely to treat of our Saviours sufferings And we have looked upon it also as an especial part of his Consecration unto the everlasting and eternal Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech a Priesthood which consisted not in outward sacrifices but in prayers and blessings For when the Son of God our Saviour did offer himself upon the Cross for our Redemption he neither was a Priest after the Order of Aaron How could that be considering he was of the Tribe of Iudah nor after the Order of Melchisedech He was not qualified for that till his Resurrection but a Priest only in fieri as Logicians call it in the degrees and progress of his Consecration Which Consecration once performed he was no more to offer Sacrifice either bloudy or unbloudy whatsoever that so he might conform more fully to the Type of Melchisedech of whom we no where read that he offered sacrifice further then as it may be intimated in the name of Priest For though I will not say and I think I need not be put to it that Melchisedech never offered any Sacrifice yet since we do not read of any I may safely say that that part of his Sacerdotal function is purposely omitted by the holy Ghost that so he might more perfectly represent our Saviours Priesthood who after he was consecrated to that sacred Office had no more sacrifice to offer And possibly it might be done in the way of prevention to keep the Church from errour in this point of the Sacrifice who not content with the Commemoration of it the Eucharistical and Commemorative Sacrifice of his own ordaining might fall into a fancy of reiterating that one Sacrifice as is now practised and defended in the Church of Rome and make it expiatory of the sins both of quick and dead How guilty they of Rome have been in this particular and what strange positions they have broached in pursuit hereof would appear most fully if one would look no further then the Councel of Trent from the determinations whereof there lyeth no appeal though sometimes they will finde some evasions from it For in that Councel it is said that in the Masi our Saviour Christ is really offered by the Priest unto God the Father that it is the same propitiatory Sacrifice which was offered by Christ upon the Cross that it is propitiatory for all persons both quick and dead serving to purge them of their sins to ease them of their pains and satisfie for the punishment which they have deserved that being so beneficial and meritorious to all sorts of people it is to be reiterated and often offered not only day by day but many times in the same day as often as the Priest shall think fit to do it Which doctrine how plainly contrary it is unto our Apostle the scope and drift of the Epistle to the Hebrews especially the ninth and tenth Chapters of it do most clearly evidence And though it was a very uncharitable guess of our Rhemish Papists that the Protestants would have refused this whole Epistle but that they falsely imagine certain places thereof to make against the Sacrifice of the Mass yet we may finde by that where the shooe did wring them and that they thought there were some passages in this Epistle with which their Mass was inconsistent and which the Protestants might alleadge for I regard not the word falsely to their disadvantage Well therefore was it done of the Church of England not only to assert the true Catholick Doctrine of the one oblation of Christ finished on the Cross but to adde another Proposition to it in condemnation of the errours of Rome The Orthodox truth asserted is St. Pauls expressely viz. The offering of Christ once made is that perfect Redemption Propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both Original and actual and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone The conclusion followeth naturally on the former evidence viz. Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits For what fable can be more blasphemous then that a poor Priest should have power to make his Maker that having made him with the breath of his mouth he should fall down and worship what himself had made that having worshipped him as God he should presume to lay hands on him and offer him in sacrifice assoon as worshipped that his oblation thus made should be efficacious both to quick and dead both to the absent and the present and finally that such as be present at it may if they finde their stomachs serve devour their God A thing of such reproach scandal to the Christian faith that Averroes the Moore but a very learned man and a great Philosopher hath laid this stain or brand on the Religion it self viz. that he had travelled over most parts of the world but never found a wickeder and more foolish Sect then that of the Christians His reason is Quia deum quem colunt dentibus devorant because they did devour the God whom they worshipped And what deceit can be more dangerous to a Christian soul then that which leads him blindfold into gross idolatry and teacheth him to give Divine honour to a Deity of a poor Creatures making for though the Elements be sanctified by the Word and prayer and are made unto the faithful receiver the very body and bloud of Christ yet are they still but bread and wine as before they were When therefore we incounter with some passages in the works of the FATHERS in which they either speak of the daily Sacrifice or say that Christ is daily offered on the Altar as sometimes they do we must not understand them of a Real Sacrifice as to the offering up of Christ unto God the Father a Sacrifice propitiatorie to the quick and dead such as is now maintained in the Church of Rome but only of an Eucharistical and Commemorative Sacrifice which by Christs death is represented to the eyes of the people which is the Sacrifice defended by the Church of England But here perhaps it will be asked that if our Saviour be to offer no more Sacrifice and that which he once offered upon the Cross be not to be reiterated as the Priest thinks necessary what use there is to us of his Priestly Office as concerning Sacrifice I answer with St. Paul on another occasion much every way For though he offereth no more Sacrifices then that made already yet the effect and fruit thereof is still to be applyed to the souls of men the merit of it still to be represented in the sight of God Of these the first may seeme to be the Office of the holy Ghost but the later most assuredly is the Office of our High Priest and of him
alone Who when he findes his heavenly Father troubled with our perversness our high hand of sinning and ready to execute vengeance on us for our great misdeeds doth interpose the merit of his death and passion shews him the print of the Thorns in his sacred head his hands and feet boared through with nayls and his side pierced with the spear At sight whereof Gods heavy anger fals away and his wrath is pacified and he lays by the instruments of his rage and vengeance Tela reponuntur manibus fabricata Cyclopum as the Poet hath it and he resolves to tarry a little longer and expect the amendment of his people An Office from the which our High Priest never can desist whilest there are men upon the world to provoke God to anger and though we dare not say of him as St. Paul did of himself that he dyeth daily yet we may safely say and make it the rejoycing which we have in CHRIST IESVS our Lord that the merit of his death and passion are daily hourly nay continually presented by him to the view and consideration of Almighty God A point of no mean consolation to us whilest we are subject to the sins and lusts which we bear about us in the flesh and cannot otherwise be excused from them but by changing our mortal into immortality And this is that which was prefigured in the Law of Moses by the High Priests entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum which was parted with a vail or traverse Curtain from the rest of the Temple to make atonement with the Lord for the peoples sins The parallel stands thus between them First none might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum or the holiest of all but the High Priest only Levit. 16.3 So Christ our High Priest and none but he hath entred into the holy places not made with hands to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Secondly as the veil of the Temple was lifted up or drawn aside to make room for the High Priest to enter into it so did the vail of the Temple rent in sunder at the very instant when the soul of our High Priest did depart from his body and enter the Celestial Sanctuary Mattb. 27. Thirdly the High Priest was apparelled in his Priestly vestments Levit. 16.10 and so our Saviour is described in the Rev. 13.13 Fourthly the High Priest entred into the Sanctuary but once a year which was upon the Feast of the Expiation Exod. 30.10 So did Christ enter once into the holy place which was upon the day of his death and passion whereon he obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 And last of all as the High Priest made an offering for the sins of the people though it were only of the bloud of Calves and Goats before he went within the veil Levit. 16.12 15. which bloud he was to sprinkle on the Mercy-seat vers 14 15. and thereby made atonement in the holy place for all the Congregation of Israel vers 17. So before Christ our High Priest entred into the Heaven of glories he made an offering of himself Heb. 9.25 and by his own bloud entred into the holy places vers 12. which bloud of his that is to say the merits of it he sprinkleth on the Mercy-seat of Almighty God and thereby doth avert him from his displeasure and reconcile him daily to poor sinful man Which Parallel thus made we may the better understand St. Pauls drift and meaning in comparing the High Priests together and the excellency of Christs Priesthood above that of Aaron The Priests saith he i. e. those of inferiour order went into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God But into the second went the High Priest alone once every year not without bloud which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people But Christ being made an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands neither by the bloud of Goats and Calves but by his one bloud did he enter into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us Not that he should offer himself often as the High Priest entred into the holy place every year with the bloud of others but that being offered once a sacrifice for sin he might for ever sit at the right hand of God chap. 10. ver 12. to appear in the sight of God for us unto our Salvation and to make intercession for us Thus standeth the case with our High Priest in the point of Sacrifice in which as in the other Offices of offering up our prayers to God interceding for us and pouring down his blessings on us he doth perform the Office or Function of an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech But there is yet one Argument more that St. Paul brings in proof of Melchisedechs Priesthood which is that he tithed Abraham or took Tithes of him Heb. 7.2 9. And if we prove not this also of our Saviour Christ the parallel betwixt him and Melchisedech will not be complete nor his high Priesthood so asserted as it ought to be But herein the Apostle will not fail us neither affording us two arguments to make good this point the one derived from the eternity of our Saviours Priesthood the other from the Prerogative which Melchisedech had in this particular above Aaron and the sons of Levi. The first stands thus Melchisedech took Tithes of Abraham in his own right as Priest of the most high God whose Priesthood being everlasting in the Person of Christ for he hath an unchangeable Priesthood vers 24. the right of taking Tithes is inherent in him on the meer taking on himself of Melchisedechs function I mean in being made a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech And this is that to which St. Paul alludeth saying Here men that die receive Tithes that is to say Here in the land of Canaan by the Law of Moses the Priests and Levites of our Nation being mortal men and subject to the stroke of death aswell as we do receive tithes of us to shew that we acknowledge them to be our Superiours in their place and Ministery But there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth His meaning is that when Melchisedech received Tithes of Abraham he received them as a Type of our Saviour Christ who now liveth with God and by his Resurrection did make known that he liveth for ever and lived to execute the Office of a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech He then of whom it is witnessed that he liveth receiveth Tithes or hath at least a right and title to receive them in regard of his unchangeable and eternal Priesthood But he receiveth them not in person having transferred all his interests in them and title to them upon the Ministers of his Gospel No otherwise then God conferred the Tithes of the land