and most perfect essence in three existences or as the church vseth to speake persons Mat. 28.19 1. Ioh. 5.7 namelie subsisting of the eternall Father the eternall Sonne and the eternall holie spirite truely distinct among themselues yet without all diuision being both beginning and cause of all thinges II. That so euerieperson by it selfe is true god that yet there be not three gods For so wee doe beleeue and haue learned out of the holie scriptures that the father by himselfe is true and perfect god the Sonne by himselfe is god and the holie spirite by himselfe is god and yet that they are not manie but one onelie god Almightie Rom. 11.30 of vvhome all things by vvhome all things and for vvhome all things are III. One person to be distinct from another in personall proprieties but in essentiall they differ from euerie creature And because the holie scriptures doe so speake of god that they attribute vnto him manie proprieties both essentiall and personall and they teach that in the essentiall he differeth from all things created but in the personall one person to be distinguished frō another we therefore doe so beleeue that as to begett the Sonne is such a proprietie of the Father as can agree neither with the Sonne nor the holie spirite and againe to be begotten can agree to none but the Sonne and so of the rest so likewise to be most pure eternal immeasurable present euerie where simplie knowing all thinges simplie almightie simplie good and such like are in such sorte the verie proprieties of god that they can by no meanes bee communicated to anie creature so as it should bee good for example sake in that immeasurable goodnesse or omnipotent in the same omnipotencie that god is IIII. The essentiall proprieties in god doe not in verie deede differ from the essence For we acknowledge that in god for his singlenesse the essentiall proprieties doe not in deede differ from the essence and therfore they without this cannot be communicated to anie creature and therefore no creature can be or can be said to be for example sake omnipotent simplie iust wise or such like Euen as our Lord Iesus speaking of one proprietie Matt. 19.17 teacheth of them all saying none is good simplie but god V. That nothing is or can be made simplie such as god is vnlesse the same might simplie be god Wherefore they which will affirme that anie created substance euer could or can bee made partaker of those diuine proprieties whereby it should be such as god is as simplie omnipotent and such like they must needs then confesse that the same is or that it can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same substance with god for asmuch as neither the sonne himselfe is simplie omnipotent but as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall with the father nor yet the holie spirite VI. A confirmation of the former opinion Whereuppon we also vnderstand how it is that sith the sonne is no lesse omnipotent thē the father and so likewise the holie ghost yet we doe not saie that they are three almighties Atha creed but wee confesse with Athanasius and the whole church that they are one onlie almightie because indeed of them all there is but one and the selfe same substance Therefore seeing no creature hath one the selfe same essence with God but a farre other and diuerse and if the same by cōmunication of the diuine omnipotencie could also be made omnipotent then it must follow that there might be more almighties then one which wee beleeue can not without blasphemie be affirmed VII Errors Wherefore we condemne and detest all heresies which haue risen against this first article of our faith or haue sprong from hell bin condemned by the holie fathers in their lawfull councells as those of Cerin thus Ebion Valentinus Marcion Manichaeus Arius Eunomius Sabellius Praxea Fotinus and such like as Seruetus and Tritheitae also the blasphemies of Iewes and Turkes and lastlie all heresies which haue bin inuented by the diuell either against the vnitie of the diuine essence or against the true Trinitie of persons Yea and those therefore which denie either the Sonne to be true and euerlasting god or the holie ghost to be so or which do cōfound these persons and saie they bee one and the selfe same existence which for diuers respects is called by diuerse names of Father Sonne and holie Ghost We also condemne all those errors which doe seperate the essentiall proprieties of god from the diuine essence which it seemeth vnto vs that these men verie vnaduisedlie doe which teach that those essentiall proprieties in verie deed may be communicated or rather at already cōmunicated to creatures without cōmunication of the essence CHAP. III. Of the foreknowledge and praedestination of god I. God did foreknovv and foresee all thinges from the beginning WE beleeue that God before he made the worlde euen then from before all things by his immeasurable wisedome foreknew all things yea and what good he ment himselfe to doe and what ill he meant to suffer to be done so farr forth as nothing was euer hidden or could be hidden from him but all things aswel what hath bin done is done or shall be done as what cā be done though it neuer be done Heb. 4.13 Act. 15.18 wee doubt not but hath and doth lye open and manifest all waies in his sight II. God hath determined all things in his eternall counsell and hath before hand ordayned them to the best ends And we beleeue that God hath not onely foreseene all things and that they are present in his sight Act. 4.28 but also in that his most wise and eternall counsell he hath certenly established whatsoeuer did or doeth appertaine to the creation and gouernement of the world or to the selecting of his church from the vncleane filth of other people or to our redemption and eternall saluation and that he ordained through his infinite goodnesse that those euills which in his wisedome he would suffer to be done should bee to good endes so that not one haire can fall from our head Mat. 10.29.30 without the will of the Father or without cause III. All men to be praedestinate some to life and some to death Wherefore we also doubt not that God when he created all men to speake nothing of Angells in Adam righteous he foresawe that in him all should sinne and elected some in Christ Eph. 1.4.5 that they should be holiē and vndefiled in his sight in charitie and therefore predestinated them of his meere grace and according to the purpose of his will Rom. 9.22 to eternall life other some he would not vouchsafe that grace and therefore prepared them as vessells of wrath for destructiō because of his iustiudgement that in the one sort his infinite mercie in the other his iustice might bee knowne to the whole world to his great glorie IIII. The
that they may auoide condemnation XI Errors Therefore wee condemne those which reiect the law out of the church as vnprofitable and not pertaining to christians and againe those which teach that a man may either wholie or in part bee iustified by the lawe fith it was rather giuen Io. 1.29 to shutt vp all men vnder sinne and to leade them to Christ who alone taketh away the sinnes of the world And this is brieflie our confession of the law deliuered from god by Moses and declared by the Prophets vvhich prepareth disposeth and bringeth men vnto Christ Rom. 10.4 and therefore Christ is ende thereof as the Apostle writeth CHAP. XI Of Christ the redeemer I. A summe of the faith of the person and office of Christ the redeemer WHen therefore the fullnesse of time was come Gal. 4.4 wherein the promise of redemption made vnto the first man was to be accomplished by the second God the euerlasting father sent his onely begotten sonne and eternal and therefore true God of the same nature vvith the father made of a vvoman alone and vvithout the seede of a man and therefore true man but vvithout sinne and so true Christ made subiect to the lavve and therefore circumcised that he in most perfect obedience might fulfill that lavv in the name of vs all made obedient to his father euen vnto death namely for vs for he being vvithout sinne deserued not to die that he might redeeme those which vvere vnder the law and all the elect euen by his obedience by his death and bloodshedding that is by a sacrifice of exceeding vertue for it vvas the blood of God and a most effectuall ransome that he might I saie redeeme vs from sinne to the old image of god to perfect righteousnesse yea from death to eternal life and from the kingdome of Satan to the kingdome of God and that we might receiue adoption of children and so in the ende bee taken into full and perfect possession of the heauenlie inheritance as sonnes and lavvfull heires And lastlie that he might gather together all thinges in heauen and in earth vnder one head and ioyne them to himselfe Eph. 1.10 for the glorie of God the father II. Christ the redeemer is true God and true man We beleeue therefore Iesus Christ to be the onely begotten sonne of God Ioh. 1.14 Mich. 5.2 Phil. 2.6 1. Ioh. 5.20 Mat. 1.1 and so the sonne in nature consubstantial and coeternall to the father and lastlie true God almightie also true man of the true seed of Abraham and Dauid conceiued vvithout the help of a man Heb. 4.15 Mat. 26.35 but onlie by vertue of the holie ghost in the vvombe of the virgine and vvithout sinne and borne of her indued vvith a true soule and a humaine minde and made like vnto vs in all thinges sinne onelie excepted so that he is true God of the substance of the father Ath. in sym begotten before all vvorldes and true man of the substance of his mother borne in the vvorld III. Onely the Sonne to be both God and man and onely Christ But so vve beleeue that the sonne of God is both true God and true man and therefore the true Christ and him alone vve confesse to bee such sith vve read that neither the father neither the holie Chost but onelie the vvorde it selfe vvas made flesh Ioh. 1.14 and the Apostle saieth that the sonne onelie vvas made of a vvoman and that he onelie suffred Gal. 4.4 although to the creation of the nature vvhich the sonne tooke vppon him not onely the Sonne but the Father also and the holy ghost vvere all concurrent IV. That the sonne vvas made man without anie change of himselfe but onely assuming to himselfe humaine nature And vvee beleeue that the sonne of God vvas made man vvithout making any confusion of the diuine and humaine natures vvithout his conuersion into flesh or anie chaunge in the flesh onely by assuming of the humaine nature into the vnitie of that person and as Athanasius speaketh In sym not by conuersion of the godhead into flesh but by taking of the manhood into God so that that vvhich he vvas he did by no meanes leese or let goe but that vvhich he vvas not he tooke vppon him as the Apostle saith Ieb 2.16 the sonne tooke on him the seede of Abraham and as he teacheth that as the sonne taking vppon him vvas not chaunged into the thing taken for God cannot be chaunged at all but remained the same that he vvas trulie distinct from the thing assumed and taken So that seede taken on him vvas not turned into the thing that tooke it but was vnited with the diuine nature into the vnitie onely of the same person according to that saying The word was made flesh The flesh therefore remained flesh and was not changed into the word V. Nether one nature tooke on it another nature nor one person another person but the person of the sonne of God tooke on him mans nature Whence also wee vnderstand that neither the diuine nature common to the three persons nay indeed one and the self same nature of them all did take on it humaine nature nor one person tooke on it another person but onelie another nature For neither did the sonne of God take on him any sonne of Abraham but the seed of Abrahā that is humaine nature spreading from Abraham therefore wee acknowledge not two persons in Christ but onely the same alone by which all thinges were made and which was so perfect before it tooke on it the seede of Abraham that by the same taking it is not made anie other or anie perfecter person or yet indeed any whitt vnperfect VI. The humaine nature was not taken to make a nevv person in Christ or to make perfect the former but onelie to be coupled and vnited to his eternall and most perfect person For albeeit we acknowledge two natures in Christ the diuine and humaine yet we doe not admit that the humaine was therefore assumed that either a new person compounded of that this as of the parts should be made in Christ or that the former and the eternall person should bee made the perfecter by the coupling of a newe nature but onelie that mans nature beeing taken into vnitie of that most perfect and euerlasting person the sonne of God remaining the same that he was might be made that he was not and might haue what to offer vnto his father for vs. And therefore we doe not simplie allow it if one saye so the person of Christ is compounded of the diuine and humaine nature as the person of a man consisteth of a soule and a bodie But we allow the vsuall phrase in the church that Christ clothed himselfe or was clothed with our flesh Whereupon Augustine saith Christ came downe from heaven as a naked man comes downe a hill but he went vp againe clothed with our flesh as vvith
a garment For this manner of speach although it doe not perfectlie declare the personall vnion Hypostatica yet it sheweth a manifest difference beetweene the person of the sonne of god taking and our nature taken For this same cause we embrace those kindes of speaches of the Fathers as mans nature was borne of the sonne of god to subsist in the person of the sonne of God and such like separating the person of the sonne of god taking from the nature taken and teaching that the person of the sonne of God by the comming of mans nature was made neither other nor more perfect VII A confirmation of the former opinion with an exposition of the place of Athanasius Surelie we confesse with Athanasius that as the reasonable soule and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ that is Christ is onelie one person although there bee in him two natures yet not that the person of Christ if we will speake properlie is constituted or made of both these natures as of the parts as to the perfect cōstitution of man no lesse the bodie as an essential part then the soule must ioyne together seeing the person of Christ was alreadie 1. Cor. 10.9 1. Pet. 3.19 and that whole and most perfect before it was shewed in the fleshe but the person of man as of Adam was none at all vntill the foule was coupled with the bodie and sith that nether the soule doth assume vnto it selfe a body or the body a soule as the sonne of God assumed vnto himselfe the seed of Abraham into vnitie of the same person And further sith the bodie and the soule are two existences as it is manifest in the creatiō of Adam but mans nature did neuer subsist by it selfe but onelie in the person of the sonne of God so that verie vniustlie doe some abuse this godlie saying of the holie man for proofe of their owne dreames For he which did shew himselfe and he is the person of the Sonne of god must needs differ frō the flesh wherein he did shewe himselfe and that not onelie before but also after his resurrection and sitting at the right hand of his father which as saith Augustine added a glorie to the flesh but took not away the nature VIII How Christ is one onely person and that eternall and vnchangeable but there are in the same two natures and how it is said to consist of them We therefore acknowledge and confesse against Nestorius that in Christ is onelie one person and that eternall most simple most perfect and the same shall remaine for euer namelie the person of the euerlasting sonne of God Further that vnto this eternall person there came in time not another person but another nature namelie mans nature and the same not as a parte of that person of whome it was taken but a thing farre different from it and yet takē vnto it into vnitie of the same And therefore we thirdly confesse that in one the selfe same person of Christ there is now two natures the diuine and the humaine in which we doubt not that the same doth subsist doth liue and doth worke for which cause also we feare not to speake thus Christ consisteth now of his diuine nature his humaine being taken into the vnitie of person that he is after a sort compounded of them both IX Hovve the tvvo natures are vnited into one person without alteracion or confusion the properties and actions of either of them remaining whole and distinct But we beleeue and confesse that these two natures are truelie and inseparablie ioyned and vnited into one person of Christ that yet we doubt not but each of them remaineth whole and perfect and the one truely distinct from the other yea and that they do hold the essentiall properties and operations of each of them distinct without all manner of confusion so that as the diuine nature holding the properties remaineth vncreated infinite immeasurable simplie omnipotent and simply wise euen so the humaine nature holding hirs remaineth created comprehensible determined with certen limitts And as the diuine nature hath will and power whereby Christ willeth worketh as god such things as are of God so hath the humaine nature will and power whereby Christ as mā willeth worketh those thinges which are of man so farre forth as Christ in that he is God hee willeth not nor worketh by humaine will or power so neither as he is man willeth he or worketh he by diuine wil or power as it hath bin learnedly determined by the fathers both against Eutyches and against Macarius We therefore did alwaies like wel of that saying of Leo the first Epi. 10. c. 4 writing vnto Flauianus about the same thing where he saith He which is true God the same is also true man and in this vnitie there is no vntrueth whereas there meet together the basenesse of manhood and the excellencie of the godhead For as God is not chaunged by the partaking so man that is mans nature in Christ is not consumed by the dignitie for each forme vvorketh with communion of the other their ovvne propertie namelie the vvord vvorketh that which is proper to the vvord and the flesh performeth that vvhich is proper to the flesh Thus farre Leo that learned man which hee afterwards fetteth out by examples whereby it is plainelie shewed that as the natures are truelie vnited in Christ yet remaine distinct and not confounded so also were and are the actions for thinges which were proper to the word the flesh did not performe but the word that which was proper to the flesh the word performed not but the flesh To raise againe Lazarus from death was proper to the word but to crie Lazarus come forth was proper to the flesh yet both those actions were vnited to the raising vp of Lazarus because they were both one and in one Christ tend both to one purpose and yet they were distinct Likewise to forgiue sinnes was a proper actiō to the diuine nature but to say thy sinnes bee forgiuen thee was proper to the humaine nature To restore his sight that was born blinde was an action of his diuine nature but to put clay vppon his eies and to say goe and wash was of the humaine nature Therefore this personall vnion as it did not confound the natures so neither did it the actions but kept them distinct neither yet did it confound the properties of the natures For there be in one the same person of Christ these three things Natures the proprieties and faculties of the natures and the actions of them and these proprieties of natures in Christ are after the verie same manner that the natures and actions are Therefore as it is cleere that one nature passeth not into another nor one action is confounded with another so is it apparent that their proprieties are after the same sorte X. That it cannot bee prooued by the vnion
personally vnited to the diuine therefore the gifts of God conferred vpon the same are without measure as is declared in the aphorisme following The 12. aphorisme Although when I wrote this confession I thought to my selfe that I had hādled al things which belong vnto this article of the person of Christ yet I thought for the better explaining thereof to ioyne this also which followeth to that which I said before 1 There is and euer was one onely person of Christ For there is but one onely begotten sonne of God and one and the same Christ 2 This person being from all eternitie by the naturall begetting of the father is proper vnto the word but in time was made common to the humaine nature taken to it by vertue of the personall vnion For in the word the essence which it hath common yea the verie same with the father the holie ghost is to bee distinguished from the proper manner of subsisting whereby it comes to passe that it is a certaine Hypostasis or person distinct from the father and the holie ghost and therefore is and is called the Hypostasis or person proper to the sonne or to the worde But this eternall Hypostasis proper by nature vnto the word is by this vnion made common as we said with the diuine nature and the humaine taken vnto it namely that the vvorde doeth no lesse subsist really in this humaine form thē it doth in that diuine form in that respect is no lesse true and perfect man then true and perfect god yet the natures properties and actions remaining safe and distinct 3 Therefore into the vnitie of that immeasurable most pure and most perfect person was taken the humaine nature that is that lumpe consisting of the reasonable soule and flesh of man finite compounded and needing many things But how not so as that for example it cōtained that infinite person within the boūdes or limitts of it owne finite or determinate substance or that it spredd it selfe as it were stretched out into the largenesse of it And that which wee say of this propertie the same is to bee thought and beleeued of all the rest because they all remaine vnchaungeable and vnmixed How then was the humaine nature taken surely it was so taken into vnitie of the same person that yet it is not made the verie person but rather existeth in the person is borne and sustained of the person and euer dependeth wholly vpon the same For this vniō of the natures according to the Hypostasis or vniting of the Hypostasis is made without alteration confusion or diuision 4 Whereby it also followeth that the nature taken to speake properly is not a part of this person as is aforesaid For like as of the vnion of the two natures there is not framed a third nature so neither by taking the humaine nature into vnity of the diuine person is there framed as it were a new person which should be the proper person of Christ and should differ from the person of the word which is the word it selfe For it is altogether the verie same nor doth it differ from it selfe except herein that the same which subsisted onely in the forme of God and was onely God now subsisteth also in the forme of a seruant is also man and before was as a king naked but is nowe clothed with our flesh as with a purple garment so that for this cause the fathers not amisse called the same in some sort a compounded person But marke also this difference besids the rest that the garmēt pertaineth not to the essence of a king but the humaine nature in Christ is in such sorte that without it cannot be defined what Christ is 5 Which is the cause why the humaine nature thus takē is to be reputed acknowledged as it were a part of the person of Christ namely because it is so taken into vnity of his person that as the vvorde with this humaine flesh is said to be and is man so also this flesh in the word and with the word God is said to be and is God as Athanasius Gregorie Nazianzene Damascene and other fathers haue proued out of the scriptures for that flesh is God not by nature but by Hypostasie in which sense the same flesh is omnipotent and present in all places whereuppon it comes also that what honour belongeth to the word of it selfe the same is also to bee giuen to the flesh in the word and for the word because of them both there is but one and the same Hypostasie 6 Add this moreouer for better explications sake that the word although wheresoeuer it bee and it is in all places there also the same is not onely god but also man and that because it hath in all places the humaine nature vnited therunto by Hypostasie yet where soeuer it is it selfe it doth not make it selfe an Hypostasis or personal to the humaine nature but only there where the same nature existeth namely so as that nature is sustained borne and wrought or mooued by it For how should the same be said to bee sustained where it doth not exist the feete are sustained by the soule not wheresoeuer the the soule is be it in the head but onely where they themselues are existing When the flesh was in the virgins wombe the word being then personally vnited vnto it did not thē sustaine the same out of the wombe of Marie but onely it was Hypostasis vnto it in the womb which sustained the same there and not in any other place which is also to bee said of all the time of Christs life when he liued in diuers places Likewise after his death it was Hypostasis vnto his bodie when it was dead and buried sustained the same in it selfe but where surely not in heauen where the bodie was not but onely in the graue euen as also it was Hypostasis to his soule separated from his bodie not in the graue but out of the graue sustained the same in it selfe And now it sustaineth both the soule and bodie together in heauen not in earth much lesse euerie where 7 Neither doth it follow vppon this doctrine that the personall vnion is dissolued neither doeth it come to passe that the whole person is not Hypostasis to the flesh but onely in parte The reason is because this person of the word as it is infinite so also is it most simple and pure and therefore both is wholly Hypostasis to the flesh wheresoeuer the flesh existeth is also wholly Hypostasis in other places where the flesh existeth not being it selfe existing in the forme of god Indeed the soule as is aforesaide is wholly Hypostasis to the head giuing life to it and sustaining it but where not in euery part of the body but onely in that where the head it selfe is and out of the head is also wholly hypostasis to the feet sustaining them too not where the head is but where the
Iohn himselfe but by some one of Iohns disciples who expounded not vnto thē the true doctrine concerning God and therefore baptized them not rightlie But all the fathers doe hold beyond all controuersie that they which are not rightly baptized into Iesus Christ as the naturall Sonne of God mediatour and so also into his father and the spirite of them both the same must bee rightlie baptized And therefore those twelue were not as being not baptized rebaptized but as being not rightlie baptized Paule did baptize them with true baptisme first teaching them the true doctrine of the trinitie which also Iohn had preached vnto them And thus much of the authoritie of the fathers from whome either in their assertions or in their expositions of Scriptures especiallie where they all for the most part doe agree I dare not decline for my cōscience sake vnlesse I be cōstrained by most apparant reasons Thus I freelie cōfesse to the whole church of Christ The reason also besids the authoritie of the fathers brought as we saw before euen by the fathers out of the verie text confirmeth me in the same opinion This reason is partly gathered out of those words which these Ephesians being asked by Paule whether they had receiued the holie ghost that is the gifts of the holie ghost aunswered saying that they had not so much as heard whether there bee that is whether that holie ghost bee existent whome Paule would haue to bee the author of those gifts so farre from thē it was that they should haue receiued him and his gifts and partlie it is gathered out of the wordes which Paule vsed concerning the doctrine and baptisme of Iohn saying Iohn verily baptized with the baptisme of repentance saying vnto the people that they should beleeue in him which should come after him that is in Christ Iesus as if he had said you haue not rightlie beleeued in Christ such as he is the sonne of God God seing yee know not his spirite The conclusion followed that therefore they although they were baptised by I knowe not whome into Iohns baptisme yet were not rightlie baptized seing they were not instructed in the doctrin of the person of Christ in whome they ought to beleeue namelie that he was not onelie man and the Messias but also the sonne of God God from whome also from the father proceedeth the holie ghost and consequentlie not in the doctrine of god the father the sonne and the holie ghost in the name of all which baptisme is to be giuen And therefore that they ought to learne the true doctrine concerning the father sonne and holie ghost and resting therein to receiue lawfull baptisme that afterwardes by laying on of hands they might receiue the gifts of this holy spirite which Luke teacheth to bee afterwardes done saying but vvhen they heard it namely those twelue Ephesians what whē they heard euen when they perceiued Paules doctrine concerning true faith in Christ the sonne of God and so in his father and the holie ghost which faith Iohn had also preached and wherein they resting were baptized c. This is the interpretation of the fathers namelie that those twelue were not rightlie instructed in the doctrin of god the father the sonne holie ghost and so neither rightlie baptized and it may be confirmed both by the kindred and cuntrie of those twelue and also by the cause for which Paule letting alone al the rest peculiarly asked them whether they haue receiued the holie ghost since they beleeued By kinde they were Iewes as appeareth by Iohns baptisme vnto which they saide they were baptized and they were baptized by a Iewe. But the Iewes for the most part neuer rightlie held the doctrine of the three persons subsisting in one essence And therefore these 12 Iewes also though they graunted Iesus to bee the true Messias yet they seemed to acknowledge but onely two persons the person of God the father and the person of the Messias euen as the most thought a bare mā but yet such a one as in whome God the father dwelt but that they were altogether ignorāt that the holie ghost was an existing thing the giuer of those graces they are conuinced by their owne words But surely there was some cause why Paule comming into Ephesus where were manie of Christs disciples asked this question of the 12 Iewes onely Surelie it is to bee thought by their aunswer that the Apostle either by their owne talke or by telling of some other of the brethren perceiued that these twelue did not thinke aright concerning the holie ghost Finallie this was the Apostles argument whereby he would prooue by their owne aūswere that they were not baptized with the true baptisme of Iohn Whosoeuer hath bin baptized with the true baptisme of Iohn he hath also heard his doctrine concerning god the father the sonne the holy ghost and hath professed the same and consequently hath knowne also the holy ghost This proposition is not expressed but the proofe of it the Apostle bringeth in the 4. verse saying Iohn baptized c. that is Iohn preached not onely repentance but also faith in Christ namely that he is not onely man the Messias but also the sonne of God God from whome as also from the father proceedeth the holie ghost and that hee shall baptize in the holie ghost and therefore all which desire to bee saued must also beleeue in him as the true Sauiour But you haue not heard this doctrine nor professed it therfore haue not truely beleeued in Christ such as he is For yee your selues say yee haue not so much as heard whether there bee an holie ghost namelie when yee were baptized Therefore c. So consequentlie it remaineth that professing this doctrine and faith yee nowe receiue lawfull baptisme and afterward by the laying on of handes those giftes of the holie ghost This is the declaratiō of the argument according to the exposition of the fathers but Luke as the Prophets and Euāgelists vse to doe cōprehended the whole summe in few words And I praye what absurditie can followe hereō or what iniurie is done to the Apostles narration is the heresie of the Donatiftes Anabaptists maintained nothing lesse For they rebaptize such as are rightlie baptized the Apostle baptizeth them which had not beene rightly baptized as hauing not heard nor professed the true doctrine concerning God he tooke care they should be rightlie baptized And such when they come into the catholicke church we speake of them that bee of yeares of discretion all the fathers teach they must be baptized with true baptisme instructing them first in the doctrine concerning God Christ their Sauiour Touching the text it selfe it is no whitt wrested That their aunswer But wee haue not so much as heard whether there be an holie ghost cā not bee vnderstood of the giftes of the holie ghost it appeareth by Paules demaund following being asked with an admiration Vnto what were yee then
Martyrs confirmed and the faithfull do yet assuredly hold Thus saith Vigilius By this the very same is vndoubtedly prooued which was also by the other before namely not onely that the worde and flesh cannot possiblie be both of one nature as the Monophysites affirmed but also that the proprieties of the one nature cannot really be communicated to the other so as indeed it should haue the same in it selfe and that the one nature should be made the very like that the other is as thus that the flesh by reason of the vnion with the word should also with the same word bee made present in all places in it owne esseuce For from this proposition which is held for graunted of all sound beleeuers namely The flesh through the vnion with the word hath not gotten this proprietie of the word that it selfe should with the word be present in all places in it owne substance from this proposition I say he concludeth therefore neither is it made of the same nature with the word This certenly is the argument of Vigilius yea of the whole catholicke church What remaineth onely this that if it may be said to bee present in all places it can be said to bee so by no other meanes then by the Hypostasie of it which is the very word For in Christs humaine nature there be only two things the proper essence of his nature with his proprieties and gifts created and the common Hypostasis with the diuine which is the word it selfe His proper essence is finite or determinate and so is onely within one place The Hypostasis is infinite immeasurable and most simple or vnmixt And therefore in this onely and not in the proper essence the flesh of Christ can be and in verie deed is present in all places That which hath bin said of this propriety the same is also to be thought of all the rest aswell those of the word as of the flesh For also in the argumēt before going against the Monophysites book 4. chap. 4. he concludeth the same from certaine proprieties of the word as is to be vncreated inuisible vntouchable said that it is impossible the flesh should partake in those qualities Hereuppon he concluded therefore the flesh cannot bee of one nature with the word sith it can by no meanes be made inuisible vncreated vntouchable vnderstand this in it owne essence whereas notwithstanding in the Hypostasis of it which is common to it with the vvorde it is in verie deed as in all places present so also vncreated inuisible vntouchable and what not seing in the same Hypostasis it is also god These things are all most assured and plaine and do depend vpon that infallible rule which he deliuered in the fift booke and second chapter namely We saye better and more catholically it is common in him and not vnto him And we say better it is proper to him and not in him I beseech all christians by our Lord Iesus that setting aside all the vaine dreames of priuate men and reiecting all the affections hatreds enmities of their flesh and imbracing the assured and wholesome doctrine of the aūcient church and christian loue wee maye all ioyne together into one holy league of friendship euen as we haue all one God one mediatour one baptisme one hope of our vocation to the glorie of Gods name the building vp of the church the saluation of our soules For sooner then we suppose shall wee be summoned before Christs tribunall seate that euerie one may giue account for that which he hath done in the bodie and in this life seing that after this life there is no hope of pardon no place for amendment CERTAINE POSITIONS OF THE same Zanchius Of some principall articles of our christian faith against diuers heresies at sundrie times disputed on partly at Heidelberg partly at Newstade FOr what purpose I published this confession with my obseruations vpon it for the verie same cause at this time haue I gathered together these positions concerning sundrie matters in question which were handled partly vnder Frederick the third of godly memory at Heidelburge partly vnder my fauourable Lord Iohn Cassimier erector of this schoole here at Newstade against diuers heresies and being all brought together I thought good to haue them printed with my confession thereby that al posteritie might euidently see that I neuer consented to any of these heresies which in these dayes of ours haue beene fetcht againe from the depth of hell and this to Gods glorie the edification of the church and the saluation of manie through our Lord Iesus Christ Amen Of one true god eternall father sonne and holy ghost yeare 1572. 1 THere is one onely Iehouah creatour of heauen and earth and God of Israell 2 And this God though he bee one onely Iehouah yet is he not one but meere Elohim the number and names of whome the sonne of God manifested in the flesh hath clearlie and apparātly reuealed vnto vs without all doubt namely the eternall father the eternall sonne and the eternall holie ghost 3 Further these three Elohim are true existences and those vndeuided liuing vnderstanding willing and therefore as the church hath euer vsed to speake true persons 4 And the father sonne and holie ghost are so distinct among themselues as the one is not the other 5 Yet euerie one of them is the true Iehouah 6 Yet are there not therefore manis Iehouahs but onely one Iehouah Of the nature singularitie and immeasurablenes of one true God yeare 1573. 1 BY the name of the nature of God is vsually signified not onely his essence simplie considered in it selfe but also all his proprieties or attributes by which hee is declared to vs and for our sakes of what sort he is 2 And therefore God is rightly saide of his owne nature to be gentle wise good and such like 3 But albeit hee vseth to applie many qualities like to this his owne nature vnto men by which wee are made iust good wise yet his owne nature he doth communicate to no created thing which hee cannot indeede communicate vnlesse their could more Gods bee made 4 God also besides his other proprieties is simplie simple or vnmixt that he can no waies be said to be compounded of many things no not of his being and essence 5 For although hee attribute vnto himselfe manie thinges in the Scriptures as it were manie qualities as to bee good iust mightie c yet no quality doth in very deed fal into god but of what sorte soeuer hee is the same hee is in his owne simple essence but by these diuerse names the infinite perfection of his most simple essence is signified vnto vs. 6 But God not onely admitteth no composttion in himselfe but also falleth not into concretion or substance of any created thing as that he should bee either the forme or matter thereof 7 God is furthermore truely immeasurable and in finite therefore present euery where and that
of the natures that there is a true and a reall chaunging of the diuine proprieties into the humane nature of Christ For wee allow that axiome or principle of the Fathers against the Eutychians and Monothelities namelie that they vvhich haue the same essentiall proprieties haue also the same natures and essences and they whose naturall proprieties are confounded they haue also their natures confounded Which being of it selfe true in all things then is it especiallie true in God in whome the essentiall proprieties are indeede nothing else but the essence it selfe that it must in verie deed needs follow if those essentiall proprieties can truelie and properly be communicated to anie created substance so that it may be made such as God is as for example simplie omnipotent then the diuine essence it selfe cā also be communicated vnto it so that it might be made equall to God in substance therefore consubstantiall with God if it might be made equall vnto him in power or anie other proprietie So herein is admitted a double that a grecuous offence One is that when we communicate truelie and properlie to a creature those thinges which belong to God wee make the creature equall to god Neither can this exception serue to shift it that God hath them of himselfe but the humaine nature in Christ taketh them of the Godhead For euen the Sonne is not of himselfe nor hath he his diuine essence of himselfe but of the Father yet is he notwithstanding equall to the father and hath the same nature with the Father Another offence is that vvhile vve attribute diuine and so infinite proprieties to the humaine nature as infinite povver we depriue the same of the ovvne and proper qualitie not othervvise then the glorie of the resurrection shall depriue our bodies of the basenesse of corruption vvhen it shall bee truelie communicated vnto them and not othervvise then the cleare light of the Sunne if it bee let into the ayre vvhich vvas lightened onelie vvith the light of a candell it extinguisheth that light For if the infinite povver vvorketh and doth all thinges the finite shall be idle and therefore none at all But sith this heresie euen in our time is largely and plainly refelled by many learned men we which doe here exhibite this briefe simple confession of our faith to the church of God and to all posteritie will add no more to that which hath bin said XI Hovve great the force of this personall vnion is Meane while wee beleeue and confesse the force of this vnion of the natures in the person of Christ to be so great that first whatsoeuer Christ is or doeth according to the diuine nature that same whole Christ the Sonne of man may be said to be or to doe and againe whatsoeuer Christ doth or suffreth according to his humain nature that same whole Christ the sonne of God God himselfe is said in the holie Scriptures to bee to doe and to suffer As that God that is Christ man and God redeemed the church vvith his bloode Act. 20.28 vvhenas the force of the redemption pertained to the god head the shedding of his blood onelie to the manhood Yet both these actions are ioyned in one and each of them may be spoken alike of whole Christ although they were and are distinct because the natures although distinct yet are coupled together in Christs one person Yea Christ the mediatour according to his humanitie neuer did or doeth anie thing wherin his diuinity did not or doth not work together and he neuer performed anie thing according to his diuinitie whereunto his humanitie was not assisting or consenting that the Fathers verie fitlie called all the works of Christ the Mediatour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is performed both by God and man Secondlie as the force of the vnion is so great betweene the Father and the Sonne that he doeth nothing nor communicateth anie good thing to the world but by the Sonne euen so the force of the personall vnion of the two natures is so great that no grace no saluation no life can come to vs from the deitie but by the humanitie apprehended of vs by faith so that hee must needs be coupled to the flesh of Christ that will be partaker of eternall life whereunto that saying of Christ tendeth Ioh. 6.53 vnlesse ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man ye shall haue no life in you Lastlie it causeth that wee cannot adore the deitie in Christ but wee must also therewith adore the humaine nature and that the diuine and humaine nature must both bee reuerenced with one reuerence onelie according to that same And when he bringeth in his first begotten sonne into the vvoolde Heb. 1.6 he saith and let all the Angells of God worship him Him saith hee that is whole Christ God and man together when as notwithstanding the humaine nature of it selfe and considered alone in it selfe nether can nor ought to bee worshipped for God alone is to bee worshipped but the vnion not whatsoeuer but this personall vnion of the diuine nature with the humaine causeth it Therefore albeit that God dwell in the Saintes yet they are not to bee worshipped nor prayed vnto as is Christ the man Wherfore we confesse this vnion whereof we speak to be of great force yet we saie that it is an vnion which excludeth al confusion and transfusion For if the vnion betweene the father the sonne and the holie ghost in one essence then which vnion there can be none greater thought or imagined doe not take away the distinction of the persons then nether this vnion of the natures and so of the proprieties and actions in one person can take awaye the distinction of the same and bring in confusion XII Christ in that he is man is indued with a very great yet a determinate power and other gifts Finallie wee beleeuē that Christ like as in that he is God he is simplie omnipotent simplie wise and so it may be said of all his other attributes so in that he is man hee is indued of the father with a power and knowledge verie farre yea almost infinitelie exceeding the power and knowledge of all thinges created either in heauen or earth and yet a determinate or finite power and so it may be saide of all his other gifts and vertues loue prudence fortitude iustice grace trueth and the rest of which Esaias saith Esay ii 2 Ioh. 1.14 Luk. 2.52 and the spirit of the Lord shall rest vpon him c And Iohn He was full of grace and trueth Also Luke he grew in wisedome and fauour with God and man For which cause also he is saide Ioh. 3.34 Col. 2.3 in that he is man to be exalted aboue all principalities and povvers also that the spirite is giuen vnto him aboue measure also that in him lye hidden the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Whereby it comes to passe that he in that hee is man is
iustly denie Tho. 3. p. q. 2. ar 4 For what proportion can there bee betweene that which is finite and the infinite betweene the creature and creator But by the way confessing with the auncient fathers that it maye be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compounded in that sense as the scripture saieth the word was made flesh and that he which was in the shape of God was now made in the likenesse of man And this is nothing else but that this eternall Hypostasis doth now subsist in two natures so as Christ is no lesse true man then true God Hereunto tendeth it which before we said of the similitude of the soule body for of these two as true and essentiall partes consisteth the person of man how the same doeth not agree fitly euerie way and yet we allow of the same similitude in that sense which Athanasius and other fathers vsed it to shew the true and substantiall vnion of the two diuerse natures although it do not fully agree in all things to this great misterie as Iustinus in his exposition of faith and other fahters haue freely cōfessed The similitude of the garment is much vsed of the auncient fathers especially of Athanasius and it is agreeable to the scriptures For the flesh of Christ wherewith his deitie was couered the Apostle calleth a vaile Heb. 10. ve 20. And most excellently by this similitude of the garment that opinion of the reall imparting and communication of the diuine proprieties with the humaine nature is quite ouerthrowne which some doe much labour to prooue by the similitudes of a fire-hoatiron and of a bodie with life in it which they can neuer doe The seuenth aphorisme We haue said that the bodie and the soule are two existenees which is manifestly prooued in Adam whose bodie did first subsist by it selfe then the soule being also a substance subsisting by it selfe was ioyned vnto it The same is also prooued by the separation of the soule from the body whereof each doeth remaine subsisting by it selfe But seing they are the essentiall partes of a man each of them indeed seuerally are existences but yet vnperfect and being ioyned they make a perfect existence that is the person of man But thus standeth not the case in Christ touching the diuine and humaine natures for his humaine nature neuer subsisted by it selfe any waies before he took it on him nor subsisteth yet after the taking but onely in the word which word was euer by it selfe a most perfect existence The 10. aphorisme The similitude of the sunne doth not altogether so fittly agree as that similitude of the glorie which our bodies shal receiue because that glorie shal cleane take away al the shame and reproch of our flesh but the sunne doeth onely dimme the light of a candle and not cleane put it out yet notwithstanding this similitude of the sunne doth plainly shew what we meane namely that by the reall communication of the sunne with the ayre the light of the candell is made altogether vnprofitable and so as it were put out and to be no light at all yet that the essentiall proprieties of the flesh are neuer quite taken away or so weakened by the personall vnion that they serue to no vse it is manifest And yet this indeede could by no meanes be auoyded if the humaine nature should really participate with the diuine omnipotencie so that it could doe whatsoeuer God could doe For the word the sonne of God neuer tooke vnto him held or holdeth any thing in vaine Therefore by this similitude of the sunne is strongly confirmed that which is prooued by the similitude of the glorie which shall take awaye all ignominie from our bodies The 11. aphorisme That same whole Christ c. Here in the first part to the name of Christ is added the sonne of man in the other parte the sonne of God God that we might shewe how that diuine attributes are spokē of Christ the man and humaine of Christ God seing the very person of Christ is ment in either part For the same Christ one and the same person is whole God whole man though not wholy as Damascene speaketh for in two distinct natures he subsisteth one and the very same This doth Damascene thus declare lib. 3. cap. 7. The whole Christ is perfect God but the vvhole subsistance of Christ is not onely God for it is not onely God but also man And the vvhole Christ is perfect man but the whole subsistance of Christ is not onely man for it is not onely man but also God For the whole subsistance doth represent the nature but whole Christ the person But whereas we spake of his actions done by him either according to his humane nature or according to his diuine that yet one and the same and whole Christ performeth the same it depēdeth vpon this that the actions were as the schools say of supposite natures But the diuersitie of the actions proceedeth from the diuersnesse of the natures or formes by which they were done Sith therefore there is in Christ two natures and but one person thereon it comes that there is but onely one worker namely whole Christ two natures that can worke and two kinde of actions Now these actions are called the actions of God and man not so much for that they proceede from one agent which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man as that not onely the deitie but also the humanitie meet together for this worke of our saluation each ioyning his actions with the others actions And this is the first and principal force of this hypostaticall or personall vnion namely that by it the two natures and their properties actions are so vnited in one and the same person that he who by the forme of God wherin he hath frō the beginning subsisted is God and by the forme of a seruant wherein he now subsisteth is man and the same being whole God is whole man and being whole man is whole God and consequently is wholy omnipotent and euerie where present whole inomnipotent and existing in a certen place and the same whole died and whole by dying destroyed death And thus it finally followeth that to the obtaining communicating applying of our saluation not onely his diuine nature worketh but also the humaine worketh with it The secōd force followeth of the first namely that the humaine nature was made the deities instrument vnited personally thereunto and therefore a most forcible and effectuall instrument to bestow all benefites vpon vs. The third that by this vnion this masse or lumpe of humaine nature is lifte vpp to such dignitie that we neither can nor ought to bēd our actions of adoration faith prayer loue to the onely deitie of Christ as is declared in the confession For we are cōmaunded to worship the sonne himself that is the person Heb. 1. and to beleeue in him The fourth force is that because this humaine nature is
draw life frō that but we must also draw it from this To declare plainly this neere and reall copulation of our flesh with the flesh of Christ he brings a similitude of waxe not that it euerie way agreeth in all thinges as is manifest but because it fittly sheweth our communion with Christ to be reall and substantiall And this he ment when concluding he said not onely spiritually but also corporally that is not onely in respect of the spirite but also in respect of the bodie both Christ is the vine and we his braunches This therefore he spake not of the manner of our coupling to Christ whether it be spirituall or corporall but of the thinges which are coupled namely that not onely our soules and our spirites are most neerely ioyned with the soule and spirit of Christ but also our flesh with his flesh This is to be gathered out of the aduersaries proposition against which he argueth which is that wee are not ioyned with Christ in flesh Coll. 500. B. These aduerbs therefore spiritually corporally in Cyrill doe not signifie the meanes by which we are vnited to Christ the vine but the things which are vnited as is already said and declared But the meanes also Cyrill graūteth to be spirituall that is by our faith and by the spirite of Christ for in euerie place hee teacheth and specially vpon the sixt of Iohn that we eate the flesh of Christ by faith And by this eating he prooueth our incorporation Vpon the 13. chapter The 7. aphorisme If any shall make exceptions concerning the law thus were not the elect in the old Testament indued with grace to keepe the law as wee in the new are indued with grace to beleeue the gospell I answer They were but not to the hearing of the law as vve are with faith to the hearing of the gospell but because they first beleeued in the euangelicall promises concerning Christ and for that cause receiued the gift yet but vnperfectly and in part onely to keep the law not because they heard the law but because they beleeued in Christ to come that alwaies the obedience of the lawe might follow of the faith in Christ euen as an effect followeth the cause Vppon the 24. chapter Aphor. 1. When wee saide that the signification of a Sacrament is so receiued that not the word alone nor the element alone but the element together with the word is called a sacrament we ment nothing els but that as the word alone without the element or signe cannot bee said to be a Sacrament so neither cā the signe without the worde For a Sacrament as the church hath vsed to define it is a visible signe of an inuisible grace add by the word that is by Christs institution consecrated to that purpose that is altered from the common vse to that matter So Augustine Tom. 5. de ciuit Dei lib. 10. ca. 5. The visible sacrifice is a sacrament or a holie signe of the inuisible sacrifice And in D. de cons dist 2. ca. sacrif A sacrament saieth he is a visible forme of an inuisible grace And the same Augustine Tom. 9. in Ioh. tract 80. saith concerning the word of the gospell the vvorde commeth to the element and so is made the sacrament euen that visible vvorde as it were A sacrament therefore according to the receiued signification in the church we doe euer did acknowledge to bee a visible signe And whereof of an inuisible grace But from whence hath it the vertue to bee signe of such a thing from the word of Christ the institutor For take away the word and it shal be no Sacrament Pull away the word saieth Augustine and what is the water but water This is the meaning of our words not that the word is the sacrament or to speake properly any parte of the Sacrament in as much as a Sacrament is defined to bee a visible signe of an inuisible grace but because without the word a visible element cannot be a Sacrament of an inuisible thing but therefore it is the visible signe of an inuisible thing because by the word of the Lord it is instituted thereunto Irenaeus also making no mention of the word because that is alwaies supposed hath left in writing that the Eucharist that is the Sacrament of the Eucharist consisteth of two matters an earthly that is the signe a heauenly that is the thing signified neither yet the thing signified is the signe or the Sacrament but because the signe cānot be without the thing signified for else wherof should it bee a signe therefore hee said that the Sacrament of the Eucharist consisted both of an earthly matter that is the signe and a heauenly matter that is the thing signified This belongeth to the confirmation of that which we said concerning the word and the element Vpon the 25. chapter Of baptisme The third aphorisme Of the water it appeareth in the Acts where it is manifestly shewed that neuer any thing was mixed with the water by the Apostles Other forme of baptizing besides that which we haue in the 28. of Matthew Christ did not institute and that the Apostle did simplie follow Christ is beyond al cōtrouersie Where as therefore we read in the Acts that the Apostles baptized some in the name into the name of Christ that doth nothing pertaine to the christian forme of baptisme Iohn indeed baptized into the name of Christ as it appeareth in which name notwithstanding as Ambrose expoundeth it the trinitie was closelie signified as the person anointed that is of the sonne in that he had taken the nature the person annointing that is the father and the annointing that is the person of the holie ghost But Christ himself expresly set downe the proper forme of baptisme saying in the name of the father of the sonne and of the holie ghost Wherefore it is manifest that the phrase of speach to be baptized into the name of Christ doth nothing belong to the forme of christian Baptisme Which is also hereby confirmed that wee neuer reade that the Apostles baptized any saying that they baptized them into the name of Christ but we read onely that many were baptized in the name and into the name of Christ Then what mēt the holie ghost by that forme or manner of speach he ment in my iudgement summarily to shewe thus much First in that they which professed faith in Christ were commaunded to be baptized that it should be done by the name authoritie and commandement of Iesus Christ yea that they should be baptized in this forme In the name of the father the sonne and of the holy ghost euen by commaundement of Christ Therefore they were baptized in the name of Christ that is according to the commandement forme prescribed by Christ Secondly they which were so baptized as they were now incorporated into Christ by faith in Gods sight and admitted into the fellowship of the new couenant so are they by
this signe of the new couenant consecrated vnto Christ in the sight of the congregation sealed for to hold fast the faith in him and to performe obedience to his commaundements and to bee ingrafted into the bodie of his church and receiued into the communion of Saintes and to a perpetuall amendment of life and to a continuance of faith in Iesus Christ to their liues end For the whole church and euery of the faithful are baptized into the death of Christ and buried with him whereof the signe is the very dipping into the water that thereby we may learne that throughout our whole life we must die vnto sinne and liue vnto righteousnesse which is to be truely baptized into the name of Christ who died and was buried for vs. The fourth aphorisme The substance also of the law yea the canonicall law is perpetual and for euer to be holden For Christ came not to destroy the law or the Prophets touching the substance of doctrine And it belongeth to the substance of the law of circumcision that they which are the couenant should be sealed vnto god with the signe of the couenant But now the signe of the couenant is baptisme which succeeded circumcision Coll. 2. Add the place of Peter out of the Acts. 2. ver 38. Repent ye and be baptized euerie one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for remission of sinnes and yee shall receiue the gift of the holte ghost For the promise is made vnto you and to your children to all that are a farre of euen as many as the Lord our God shall call To whomsoeuer therefore the promise of saluation by Christ belongeth to them also belongeth baptisme But Peter teacheth that the promise belongeth to the yong children of the faithfull therefore yong children are to be baptized Aphorisme 6. Whereas wee saide that Paule baptized againe those of whome it is spoken in the 19. of the acts as being not rightly baptized we said it without preiudice to any learned interpretor for we condemne none Onely we desire the reader to conster fauourably of that word rebaptize For we meant not that they which were rightly baptized were afterwards baptized againe but they which were not baptized with true baptisme where the true doctrine of God the father the sonne and the holie ghost went before it they after Paule had taught them the true and sound doctrine of Christ then they tooke true baptisme and after baptisme by the laying on of handes receiued the holy ghost and the gifts thereof this to speake properly was indeed not to be rebaptized but to be truely baptized Now why I thought so and do yet thinke I was induced by the authoritie both of the fathers and especially Ambrose and Hierome so expounding that place and also by a reason drawne from the text it selfe Touching the authoritie first neuer any of the fathers did teach that these words and when they heard it they vvere baptized were the words of Paule spoken of them which heard Iohn Baptist but expoūded them as the words of Luke spoken of them which heard Paule So Chrysostome Tom. 3. in act hom 40. So Occum in act ca. 19. So Augustine Tom. 7. cont Petil. ca. 7. So Gregory Tom. 1. in euang hom 20. So Bede in act ca. 19. So all the rest Moreouer most of them do in plaine tearms write that these twelue disciples were baptized by Paule or at least by Paules commandement as hauing not bin rightly baptized before because they heard not the doctrine of the holie ghost nor were baptized into his name Ambrosius Tom. 2. de spi san ad Theo. imp ca. 3. Lastly they themselues also which said wee haue not so much as heard whether there be an holy ghost were afterwards baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ And this abounded vnto grace because they then by Paules preaching knew the holy ghost neither must it be thought a contrarietie because although afterwardes no mention is made of the holy ghost yet it is beleeued and that which is omitted in wordes is expressed in faith For when it is saide in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ by the vnity of the name is fullfilled the whole misterie neither is the holy ghost separated from the baptisme of Christ because Iohn baptized to repentance Christ in the holy ghost Thus farre Ambrose Hierome Tom. 6. in Ioel. ca. 2. pa. 66. Therefore saith he the sauing health of God cānot bee seene except the holy ghost bee powred downe and who so saith that he beleeueth in Christ and beleeueth not in the holy ghost he hath not the eyes of perfect faith Whereon also in the Actes of the Apostles they which were baptized by Iohns baptisme into him that was to come that is in the name of the Lord Iesus because when Paule asked them they aunswered wee know not whether there be an holy ghost they were baptized againe yea they receiued true baptisme because without the holie ghost and the misterie of the trinitie whatsoeuer is receiued in the name of the one or the other person is vnperfect c. Augustine cont Petil. cap. 7. coll 498. saieth Paule baptized those twelue either because they had not receiued Iohns baptisme but lyed or else if they had receiued it yet they had not receiued Christs baptisme For he thought with Cyprian and Tertullian and other fathers that Iohns baptisme and Christs did differ of which matter more hereafter Of our owne writers also that learned man Wolff Musculus about the place of the Act. 19. thinketh as Ambrose doth in his cōmon place the place of baptisme whose words because he hādleth that place very largely we wil not repeat and before Musculus Bucer both on the third of Matth. and on the fourth of the epist to the Ephes vpon Math. he hath these words To those Ephesians which had beene baptized with Iohns baptisme not knowing what it was because as then they knewe not the holy gnost wherewith Paule had preached that Christ should baptize them wee reade that he said Act. 19. Iohn baptized indeed with the baptisme of repentance saying vnto the people that they should beleeue in him which should come after him that is in Christ Iesus Nowe what do we else or ought we to do in baptizing For ours is also the baptisme of repentance so long as those whome we baptize we also burie into the death of Christ that is we ascribe them into that nūber which throughout all there life must die vnto sinne and liue vnto righteousnesse and yet shall not receiue that neither but by the gift of Christ Therefore of such as be of years of discretion whom we baptize we require their faith in Christ the infants we commit vnto the church to be brought vp to the same faith Therefore Paule would neuer haue rebaptized those Ephesiās if they had beene baptized with Iohns baptisme that is with that baptisme wherewith he vsed to baptize into
baptized For no mā is baptized vnto the giftes of the holie ghost but vnto the holie ghost it selfe as also vnto the father and the sonne And the Apostles held it for certaine beyond all doubt that whosoeuer were baptized either of Iohn his true disciples or of Christs disciples they were surelie baptized with instruction of the true doctrine of the holie ghost also according to Christs institution Hereupon was that admiratiō Vnto what were ye then baptized They answered him vnto Iohns baptisme For Paule thought this could not stād together that they should bee baptized with Iohns lawfull baptisme and yet should not knowe nay not so much as heare whether there were and whether there did exist an holie ghost whom Iohn both knewe and preached vnto all that came to his baptisme neither did he preach Christ without this holie ghost For he said that he baptized in water but Christ Iesus should baptize in the holie ghost Hereupon was it that meaning to cōuince them that they were not baptized of Iohn nor of his true disciples he added saying Iohn indeed c. This truely or verely is an aduersatiue particle wherby he would shew how it could not agree with the lawfull baptisme of Iohn that they said they had not so much as heard namelie when they were baptized whether there be an holie ghost or no Sith Iohn baptized none without mentioning the same And to this truely here expressed doeth a but closelie vnderstood make aunswer so that the argumēt is such as before we set downe Iohn indeed baptized c as though he had said Iohn preached both repentance and faith in Iesus Christ such as he is namely the sonne of god from whome as also from the father proceedeth the holy ghost and who baptizeth in the holie ghost and into the confession of this doctrine he baptizeth men The minor was to be added which Luke expressed not because it is contained in the twelues owne confession but vvee haue not so much as heard c. what is plainer then this text That therefore which followeth in the fift verse But when they heard it c is Lukes owne words shewing truelie and brieflie what followed vpon Paules argumentation But when they heard c namely these 12 whē they heard what what it is truelie to beleeue in Christ that he baptized men according to the confession of this doctrine concerning Christ his father and the holie ghost and that Christ alone as the onely Sauiour baptized men into the holie ghost when they heard I saye these things not onely with the eares of their bodies but also of their mindes and so beleeued and confessed the same They vvere baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus that is into Iesus as he is called and described in the Scriptures not onelie man but also the sonne of God God from whome as also from the father proceedeth the holie ghost and therefore as a true and onelie Sauiour baptizeth vs with his holy spirite Add this also that by the new interpretation there is admitted in a little narration no smale Battologie or superfluitie of words For when Paule said Iohn verily baptized vvith the baptisme of repentance saying vnto the people that they should beleeue in him which should come after him that is in Christ Iesus to what ende should the Apostles haue added this concerning thē whom Iohn baptized but whē they heard namely that companie or those men were baptized For who could not vnderstand by the wordes going before if Iohn baptized they therefore which had heard professed his doctrine concerning repentance and faith in Christ were by Iohn baptized To conclude if I should allow that interpretation I see not what Paule could els proue by this whole narration but that those Ephesians had beene rightlie baptized and therefore that nothing else remained but that by laying on of hands they might receiue the holy ghost But this conclusion I doe not thinke to agree with that which goeth before it but to bee needelesse I haue to my power declared the exposition of the fathers vpon this place and that modestlie and without preiudice to anie to no other end but that I may by such reasons as I am able declare vnto the brethren which perhaps haue tooke offence at that particle in my confession That Paule did baptize those twelue againe vvhich had not bin rightly baptized that I did not put those words rashlie in my confession By the way as I said we condemne no other mens interpretation And this also I freely professe that my cōscience is such that I cannot be easily drawne to dissent frō the auncient fathers either in their assertions or in their interpretations of scriptures Vnlesse I be cōuinced enforced by manifest testimonies of holy scriptures by necessary consequences plaine demonstrations For so doeth my conscience rest and in this setled stay of minde I desire to die And therefore I humbly desire of all the brethren that if in this behalfe my opinion be not altogeather as theirs is they will by no meanes take offēce especially seeing that in all the principall points of Christian faith we haue a sound agreement Vpon the 16. chapter The 9. aphorisme The place of the 1. to the Corinth 6. beeing diligently marked as also we noted before in the 15. chap. and 14. Apho. may well decide the controversie about the wicked mens Eating that is the Hypocrites and of the sacramentall eating We say that hypocrites doe not eate the tru body of Christ sith they are void of faith namely they eare it not truely and indeede sith it is not indeede eaten but onely by true faith which they want but onely sacramentally that is they eate indeede the sacrament and the signe it felfe The Adversaries say also that hypocrites doe eate the true body of Christ onely sacramentally but by this word they meane that they receiue not onely the sacrament that is the signe but all the thing it selfe though not vnto salvation If they mean this in the same sence that the Apostle doth when he said The Corinthians were all sanctified iustified c. namely that by receiuing baptisme the sacrament of true Regeneration and sanctification they were reckoned to haue receiued the thing also sith the very sacrament hindred not but they might also be pertakers of the true sanctification although all of them did not indeede obtaine the same by reason of their hypocriticall faith thē doubtlesse I see not but such a manner of speaking may be well allowed so it be declared as it ought after the Apostles meaning This I only alleadge that the brethren may bethinke them of some good meanes of agreement that so great an offence and scandale may be rooted out of the Church We must all stand before Christs Tribunall seate Vpon the 16. chap. Apho. 10. Here should a subdistinction haue beene added of the godly because some doe come worthely some vnworthely yea one and the
onely make ruleth and worketh all thinges in time without himselfe but also can bring to passe infinite things which he neuer will doe 8 Whereuppon it is also that the same is vsually deuided into actuall power which worketh whatsoeuer hee will and into absolute power whereby he can also do infinite things which he will not because otherwise he could not be said to be simply omnipotent 9 For as we hold not with them which think God is therefore called omnipotent because simplie whatsoeuer can bee saide or thought whether it be good or ill or if the same implie a contradiction he can doe the same so neither doe we subscribe to their opinion which hold that God is called and is omnipotent for no other cause but for that he can do whatsoeuer he wil that his power should so stretch no farther then his will but we beleeue he is therfore almighty in that besides he can do whatsoeuer he will he can also both will bring to passe innumerable things which he will neuer will nor bring to passe 10 For when the Scripture saith that God did whatsoeuer he would it plainely teacheth that he could haue done much more if he would And he which saieth hee will haue mercie on whome he will and he will harden whome he will he sheweth manifestly that he could aswell haue mercie on all or harden all as he can harden some and haue mercie on some and therefore that hee can haue mercie on more then he will haue merdie on and so that there are more things which he can doe then he will doe 11 For that which he can doe be can by his nature doe and therefore can not but be able to doe it vnlesse he could also so doe as that he should not be God But whatsoeuer without himselfe he willeth he freely willeth it and therefore could also not will it so as it is manifest that God can do more then he will seing he can will that he will not 12 Now we say God can doe all those thinges which are not repugnant either with his personall proprieties or with his essence and nature or which implie not a contradiction or lastly which are not of the defect or want of power if they be admitted 13 Thus although the father cannot bee the sonne nor the sonne the father neither also the father cā beget of himselfe another sonne or the sonne any other of himselfe yet therefore doeth nether the Sonne nor the Father cease to be omnipotent 14 For these are personall proprieties that the father should begett and not be begotten but the sonne be begotten not begett neither doth the essence of God beare it that there should be more fathers or more sonnes 15 Neither is any thing taken away from the power of god in that he cannot bring to passe but that he must be good iust wise seing he cā not be God vnlesse he be such as the scripturs describe him 16 So we take no power from God nor weakē it at all if we say God cannot sinne he cannot suffer he cannot bring to passe either not to be that which he is or that those things which are done should not haue bin done because these things are partly of the defect of power and partly they implie a contradiction And therefore are directly repugnant to the trueth of God and simply impossible 17 And so is it the propertie of God to be omnipotent as that it can belong to no created thing 18 For seing omnipotencie is nothing else but the verie immeasurable infinite essence and able to be communicated to no creature that it should agree to that thing to be omnipotēt vnto which it doeth not agree to be God in it owne essence 19 Neither can a thing finite bee capable of a thing infinite seing euerie thing is receiued according to the measure as they saye of the receiues 20 Also it is no lesse contrary to the nature of God that there should bee more almighties then that there should be more gods Whereupon christian religion will not allow that the three persons in God should be said to be three almighties 21 Wherefore although the man Christ Iesus is truely omnipotent because hee is not man onely but also God yet his humanitie cannot be or be said to be properly omnipotēt without impietie 22 For the humaine nature of Christ though it be vnited to the diuine nature into one person of the word and yet as it is not therefore made God so neither is it made properly omnipotēt but held still the owne weakenes whereby it was able to suffer for vs and to die 23 For neither could it haue suffred if as God so also it had beene made omnipotent seing to be able to suffer is impotencie and therefore God could not suffer because hee is omnipotent 24 And if the humaine nature of Christ was made omnipotent through the hypostaticall vnion in Christ why doe the Scriptures attribute it not to his humanitie but to his deitie that his bodie sawe no corruption or that this soule being restored to him he rose from the dead 25 Furthermore as a humaine bodie through the vnion with the minde neither is made an incorporeall substance indued with will and vnderstanding neither receiueth from it either immortalitie or the vertue of vnderstanding or willing so neither the humaine nature through the vnion with the diuine nature of the word is made an essence subsisting by it selfe most simple and most perfect or hath receiued from it to be properly omnipotent 26 Noreouer the argument whereby the father 's prooued against the Arrians Christ to bee true God by the omnipotencie attributed in the holie Scriptures to the sonne is quite ouerthrowne if we graunt that the omnipotencie maye bee communicated to any created thing 27 Lastlie concerning religion wee must not speake but agreeable to the Scriptures and to the analogie of faith But the holie Scriptures doe declare none but onely God to be omnipotent neither did the church euer professe any otherwise in her creeds 28 Whereas Christ saide after his resurrection alpower is giuen vnto me Authoritie is one thing and power another neither said he it is giuen to my humanitie but to me neither was this spoken in respect of his nature but of his office of a mediatour And that office was and is of his whole person according to both natures 29 Therefore as we beleeue by the holie ghost God alone to bee truely and properly omnipotent so also with the whole church do wee confeffe and preach 30 But we doubt not that the humaine nature of Christ is indued both with that power though finite which farrexceedeth the power of all created things aswel in heauen as earth and therefore wherein it may well properly be called the mightiest of all creatures also forthe hypostatical vnion with the truely omnipoten worde although properly in it selfe it be not such yet we graunt it may in some sort be said
like as no other but the verie same Christ rose from the dead so he rose in no other but in the verie same bodie in which he suffred died and was buried 14 For he could not be truely said to be raised and to rise from the dead except that which truely died the verie same quickened againe should rise againe 15 Now the bodie wherein Christ suffred died and was buried was a true humane bodie visible palpable circumscribed Therefore Christ after his resurrection had and retained no body but that which was circumscribed in a certaine place and wheresoeuer it was and is might and may be seene and handled 16 Add also that the Apostle carefully discoursing of the qualities with which our bodies being raised vp to eternall life shal be indued he saith not that they shal not be subiect either to the eye or to the touch or not bee circumscribed in a definite place but he rehearseth onely incorruption glorie and power as is the agilitie thereof and that they shall rise spirituall not that the corporall substance shal be chaunged into an incorporeall but that they shal be as the greeks call it immortall and shal be full of the holie spirite dwelling and working in them The Apostle therefore taught that these are qualities neuer to bee seperated from the bodies namely that they shal be circumscribed visible palpable Wherefore neither did Christs body after his resurrection put of these qualities 17 Neither is that exception any thing that Christ after he was risen came in to his disciples the dores beeing shut For it was not therefore either made vnvisible or vncircumscribed or vnpalpable seeing Christ being come in and seene of his disciples presently saide Feele or handle and see Luc. 24. for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me haue And therefore as the Fathers teach there was no chaunge made of Christs bodie no more then there was when he or Peter walked vpon the waters but by the omnipotency of his diety hauing power ouer all things the doores gaue place to the true and firme bodie of the sonne of God 18 Wherefore not without cause did the Fathers condemne not onely Marcion the Maniches and others which taught that Christ tooke not a true and firme humane bodie but a phantasticall one and did all things according to imagination and phantasie but also the Originists Iohn of Hierusalem and Euticius of Constantinople Hier. tom 12. ad PaÌ„mach Greg. in Iob. lib. 24 c. 29. Bishops and others which said that Christs bodie after his resurrectioÌ„ was made so spirituall that it was more thinne then ayre and therefore invisible and vnpalpable 19 Seeing then that in the supper no other bodie of Christ is giuen vs to be eaten but that which was broken for vs that is truely suffered and died it followeth that Christs 〈◊〉 body which we eate in the Supper is truely circumscribed visible and palpable and consequently seeing nothing is seene touched or perceiued in the Supper besides bread the same body cannot in it owne substance really be contained vnder the formes of bread and wine or lie hidden in the very bread and wine 20 Nowe we acknowledge the resurrection of Christ is both the cause and an example of our as well spirituall as corporall resurrection The cause of the spirituall because the Apostle saith to the Rom. 4. he rose againe for our iustification and an example because he saith Rom. 6. we are burâ—ed togither with him by baptisme into his death that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should vwalke in newenesse of life 21 But that he is the cause of our corporall resurrection we doubt not 1. Cor. 5. for that the Apostle saith If Christ be risen againe we shall also rise againe and for that he also saith Christ is the first fruits of them that rise and an example for that the same Apostle also writeth he shall chaunge our vile bodies Phil 3.21 that they shall be like his glorious bodie 22 Wherupon It also followeth either Christs bodie not to be invisible vnpalpable vncircumscribed and so not spirituall bodies but incorporall spirits 23 For where Christ saith Feele and see for a spirite hath not flesh and bones as yee see me haue hee did not onely conclude that himselfe was no spirite but he especially taught this that there is no flesh nor bones but may bee seene and felt 24 The Scripture teacheth and the church coÌ„fesseth that our Lord Iesus Christ being raised from the dead did shew vnto his disciples for fortie daies space by many arguments that he was truely risen and then euen in the beholding of the Apostles that he was lifted vpp from the earth ascended into heauen Therfore like as no other Christ rose againe then he which died so no other ascended into heauen nor in no other body then he in which that truely rose againe froÌ„ the dead the sonne of God truely humane visible palpable and circumscribed 25 Wherefore as the conuersation of the same Lord Iesus Christ wherein he conuersed amoÌ„g his Apostles after his refurrection for fortie daies space was not fantasticall but reall and true so also his ascension was not onely visible but also truely as the fathers say locall when the Apostles sawe him ascend from the earth vp into heruen 26 But such an ascension and mouing cannot agree to his divine nature therefore he ascended according to his humane nature 27 Yet by the way we denie not this but that Christ as God like as he is said to haue descended from heauen in respect that he abased himselfe taking vpon him the vile forme of a seruant and suffred in it so also it may rightly be said that he is exalted and ascended vp into heauen namely in respect that in the very same forme of a seruant when it was glorified euen the forme of God was after a sort glorified by his ascention and after it that is was made glorious in the wholle world 28 But it is apparent that as this consequence is not good Christ himselfe beeing God and man ascended into heauen in a locall and visible moouing Therefore he in the same sort ascended according to his dietie so neither is this good Christ God and man is with us to the ende of the world truely and in his owne essence therefore he is present on earth as wel in the substance of his body and soule as in the essence of his dietie 29 If also the Apostles sawe with their eies Christan his owne body by chaunge of place ascending from earth into heauen then the heauen into which he did ascend caÌ„not be an vbiquitary heauen but it must needes be farre distant from the earth 30 Moreover nature and all right requireth that for every thing some certeÌ„ place must be assigned as we see god hath done in all the things which he created Seing then no created thing
cannot bee mooued from place to place according to it whole selfe as true philosophie teacheth christian theologie cōfirmeth which sheweth that God therefore is not mooued from place to place because being immeasurable he fileth all things 78 Neither can that bodie also which is euery where be rightly said to sitt at the right hand or the left of another but you must needs cōfoūd the substance of him that sitteth with the substance of the right hand at which with the substance of him whose right hand he sitteth at seing therefore euen the father the sonne the holy ghost filling heauen earth are euery where both all and each of them because they are one and the same essence 79 Finally we think this doctrine of the inuisible vnpalpable presence of Christs flesh euery where is neither true nor profitable 80 Not true indeed because wee could neuer see the same shewed either by any manifest testimonies of holie scriptures or any necessarie consequences drawne out of them nay wee haue obserued the same to bee repugnant to the scriptures and to the catholicke consent of the old church rightlie expounded by the rule of faith contained in the Apostles creede 81 Yea and wee see it so contrary to the scriptures that without a manifest implying of a contradiction yee cannot graunt both those things which the creed deliuereth and those things which the authors of this Vbiquitary doctrine do deliuer 82 Neither is it profitable because that which is not agreeable with gods word to propoūd beleeue and obserue it as agreeable and necessary vnto saluation is a sinne The Lord saying Add not nor diminish and the Apostle Deut. 12 32 Rom. 14.23 Rom. 6.23 All that is not of faith is sinne and the wages of sinne is death 83 Finally because if that opinion of the Vbiquitie of Christs bodie should be beleeued to be true it would bee a hinderance that a man could not apprehend and eate with a minde lifted vp Christ to the true flesh of Christ Iesus being in heauen whereunto notwithstanding both the Apostle the church calleth vs saying lift vp your hearts And seeke those thinges which are aboue where Christ is sitting at gods right hand 84 They thē do nothing lesse then eate Christs flesh which doe not behold the same in heauen where indeede it is but imagine him to bee really present euerie where in his owne substance Aesops dogg leauing the true flesh did foolishlie catch at the vaine shaddowe of the flesh because it seemed a bigger peece A question out of the 1. of Ioh. 4.3 S. Iohn describing Antichrist saith Euery spirite which confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the true humane flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist And seing that Christ neuer laid aside that flesh which he once tooke but carried it with him vp into heauen and shall returne againe in the clouds in the same apparēt vnto all mē to iudge the quicke and the dead The question is of what spirite they are and by what name to bee called who make no doubt with the old heretikes to forge for our Lord Iesus Christ I know not what kinde of inuisible flesh vncircumscribed vnpalpable whole and in his whole substance forsoth really existing in all places in heauen in the starres in the ayre in the earth vnder the earth in hell in all the seuerall partes of the world and the parcells of the partes yea and in the least parcells of the parcells against Scripture and against the sound agreement of the whole catholike church Of the dispensation of saluation by Christ Out of the first chapter of the Ephesians yeare 1580. 1 OVr Lord Iesus Christ ver 7 8 in whome wee were elected vnto saluation not onely once redeemed vs by his owne blood hauing obtained remission of sinnes and gottē the victorie but doth also dayly dispense and communicate vnto his the grace of redemption and saluation 2 For it belongeth to a perfect redeemer not onely by paying the ransome to redeeme but also to make the redemption knowne to them that be redeemed and to deliuer them quite out of the hands of the tyrant into freedome as it also belongeth to a good head to impart the life sense and motion which it hath vnto the members 3 Nowe Christ vseth to dispense this grace of saluation by the word of trueth that is ver 13 by the gospel of our saluation with which wee ioyne the Sacraments as seales and instruments of saluation 4 For by the gospell hee makes knowne vnto vs the misterie of his diuine wil ver 9 10 concerning our saluation through Christ and concerning the gathering together aswell those that are in heauen as these that are on earth concerning the knitting of them to one head Christ 5 Neither doth he onely make knowne vnto vs the mistery of saluation by the gospell ver 13 but also effectually calleth draweth vs to himselfe to the communion of himselfe so to the participation of redemption saluation 6 For by the preaching of the gospell ver 13 Rom. 10 hee vseth to stirr vp faith in our hearts whereby wee beleeue in him and are receiued into his communion 7 For he giueth vs his holy spirit by which he regenerateth vs ver 13 and sealeth vs with the expresse image of God to the full possession of an eternall inheritance 8 By the same spirite he stirreth vp worketh and leadeth vs to the studie of a holy life and good workes 9 And if it so be ver 14 we fall into sinne such is our frailtie he lifteth vs vpp by repentance giuen vnto vs maketh vs more assured of forgiuenesse and by that meanes through the same spirite as it were a pledge he more and more daily confirmeth vs in that assurance of saluation 10 And these benefits Christ bestoweth on vs neuer vtterly forsaking vs till he hath brought vs by his grace and singular loue towards vs from the first redemption which is our redēption from the guilt and seruitude of sinne and from the power of the deuill to the other redemption namely the full libertie which consisteth in the perfect assuring and full possession of the heauenly inheritance 11 But our Lord Iesus as he is our redeemer the head of the whole church ver 22 according to both the natures so also he cōmunicateth eternall life saluation not onely as he is god but also as he is man according to that same Beleeue my sonne thy sinnes be forgiuen thee And immediatly after but that he might know that the sonne of man hath power to forgiue sinnes he saieth to the sicke of the palsey arise take vp thy bed goe vnto thy house where each nature worketh that which is proper to it with communion of the other 12 For as the natures are so vnited within thēselues in one person that yet there is made no
the diuine in the abstract also by reason of the simplicity thereof For this proposition is as true and proper he deity is omnipotent as this God is omnipotēt yea euen omnipotency it selfe And againe Humanity and a man is mutable 34 Of the person expressed by the proper name and that name Rule 4 which noteth both the natures or by a name signifying the office of a mediatour as well the things which are proper to the one or to the other or to both the natures together may truely and properly be spoken as Christ is omnipotent also Christ is man Christ died Also Christ is a redeemer a mediatour Also the mediator is God is man is immortall died redeemed vs. 35 Of the person signified by a name of one nature Rule 5 the things which are proper therevnto may truely and properly be spoken as This God or onely begotten sonne of God is eternall and omnipotent Also This man or the sonne of man was borne in the last daies Rule 6 died 36 Those things which are proper to the wholle person cannot be spoken but by a Synechdoche a part taken for the wholle of one nature signified either by an abstractiue or concretiue name as The flesh quickeneth God redeemed his Church 37 Wherefore this saying of Leo each forma worketh that which belongeth to it selfe we with Damas say to be all one with this and that properly Christ worketh according to each forme 38 So where Iohn said his blood washeth vs from sinne and Christ saith my flesh is meate indeede also where it is said to quicken and that it is to be worshipped those wordes are put for concretiues namely the flesh of Christ for Christ incarnate and the blood of Christ for Christ by his blood 39 For he which said he that eateth my flesh hath eternall life the same said He that eateth me he shall liue by me And he which writ his bloode washeth vs from sinne the same expounding himselfe saith Christ shall wash vs from our sinnes by his blood And they which taught that Christs flesh was to be worshipped they also expressed the cause namely not because it was flesh but because it was flesh of God and therefore that Christians do worship not flesh properly but God incarnate 40 Of the person signified by the name of the one nature Rule 7 the things that belong to the other nature may indeede truely and really be spoken but yet improperly and figuratiuely by communicatiō of the proprieties As the sonne of man it both in heauen and on earth at once Also the onely begotten and Lord of glory was crucified 8. Rule 41 Here of followeth another of the one nature signified in a concretiue name the thinges propper to the other may truely be spoken by reason of the person togither noted yet not really but onely in respect of the name As God taken in the formall signification died man is eternall 42 Wherefore we say that those thinges are praedicated or spoken by communication of the proprieties which beeing proper to one of the natures are made common also to the other in the concrete by the mutuall manner of praedication namely while they are really attributed to the person wereof each nature is a part 43 For seeing Christ most truely and really is both God and man we doubt not to say and with the wholle Church to teach that he suffered namely for example sake according to the one nature and suffered not namely according to the other 44 And seeing the scripture saith both that God is immortall also that the same died was crucified we teach that in the former speech the name of God is taken essentially in the latter hypostatically or personally and therefore that both these are true in the speach concerning Christ but that both of them are spoken of the same in a diuerse manner of praedicatiō 45 Whatsoeuer things we reade to haue beene really giuen to Christ in time after the vnion the same may truely and really be spoken of the person in respect of the humanitie therfore also of the humanitie it selfe but it is to be vnderstood that they cannot be spoken in respect of the divinity and being signified by a concrete name but onely by communication of the proprieties An example of the first Esai 11. the spirit of wisdome shall rest vpon him c. An example of the other Ioh. 3. He hath giuen vnto him his sonne who is from heauen whōe the father sent his spirit aboue measure For he as he is the onely begotten sonne cannot be said to haue really receiued the spirit but onely by communication of the proprieties 46 But the thinges which we confesse were giuen after this manner were not the essentiall proprieties of God but onely gifts of creation and as they call thē habituall graces which belong partly to the perfection of Christs humaine nature partely to the perfecting of the office of a mediatour partely to the honour of the head of the Church 47 For the essentiall proprieties of God are vnited most really with the humaine nature in the same person but they are not really communicated to it in it owne verie essence 48 For to omitte almost infinite of other reasons testimonies of the Apostles aūcient Fathers what things Christ receiued as Man in the essence of his humaine nature he receiued the same that he might as beeing head deriue thē into his mēbers as Athanasius Cyril are witnesses seing he therefore sanctified himselfe that we also might be sanctified and the oile was powered vpon Aarons head that it might runne downe on al his members euen to the skirts of his clothing 49 And who except a mad man would saie that the essentiall proprieties of God are deriued vnto vs. 50 The cause also why Christ as he is God cānot be said to haue receiued gifts of creation is by Cyrill assigned to be this Because as God he needed them not Therefore if also as he is mā he receiued the essentiall proprieties of God really communicated vnto him he cannot then be said to haue receiued the created gifts of the holy ghost For to that ende serueth a finite power in him which is indued with an infinite power really communicated vnto him Finis
they could not quickly or easily be driuen out againe what should the inhabitaÌ„ts of that cuntrey do to prouide for the safety of theÌ„selues their childreÌ„ First they must flie into the strong defensed citties tarry there vntil by gods help the cuntrey might bee deliuered out of their enemies haÌ„ds Next least being besieged they should perish by famine or be coÌ„strained to yeld theÌ„selues to the enemie they must looke for as plentifull prouisioÌ„ of vittailes as may be And because vnlesse the Lord do keep the cittie the watchmaÌ„ watcheth but in vaine therefore all the people must with earnest prayers call vpoÌ„ god daily to bee with them keep defend theÌ„ Hereunto it is neâ—dâ—ul that al within the citty do obserue coÌ„stantly a brotherly faith loue peace concord among theÌ„selues sith euery kingdome deuided in it selfe as the Lord vsed to say cannot stand euen the heatheÌ„ do witnes that by coÌ„cord smale matters grovve to encrease by discordgreat things fal to decay Neither is the health of body to be neglected wherin the cittizens must be kept souÌ„d strong as much as may be for the profite defence of the coÌ„moÌ„ wealth For the sick deseased especially at such a time caÌ„ profite the common state very little nay they are a great burden combrance to it so far ar they froÌ„ being able to fight against the enimy Therfore it is very needfull that euery one looke to his health then there is need of a careful diligent watch least the foes by any suddain assault or by some deceite or vndermininges should pearce into the citty set vpon vs vnawares vnprouided hereupoÌ„ are night watches prouided But how can there be any watching without sobriety For by surfeting dronkenesse heauy sleepe is prouoked so that there can no watch bee kept Therefore least being ouer drowned in wine sleepe we should bee catched by our enimies we had need of sobriety what is more needefull then alwaies to haue weapons in our hands whereby we our selues may both be kept defeÌ„ded froÌ„ the blowes of our enemies and may also be able to repell and put back the enemie therefore ouer and besides our strong walles wel defensed raÌ„piers the cittizeÌ„s theÌ„selues must also be ready in their armour But nothing can happeÌ„ more pestilent pernicious to the coÌ„moÌ„ wealth theÌ„ if within their citty especially in time of warre they haue fauourers of the enemie who may indeed giue them a wipe priuily howsoeuer they may pretend friendship with the citizens and professe in words that they coÌ„sent vnto them in al matters such are perfidious traiterous fellowes Therefore there must great care be taken that diligent inquirie bee made who be in the citie what they doe what life they lead wheron they liue and if there be any founde to goe out of course from the common profession life manners of the cittie they may be knowne examined corrected punished or driuen out of the cittie But as there is nothing that can either set a deeper marke of infamie vppon the citizens or make theÌ„ deserue to be more seuerelie punished then if being entised by large promises or bribes of the enemies they betraye their cuntrey or being terrified by their threatnings they slipp from their ruler shamefully yeeld themselues so contrarywise there is nothing more honorable more profitable or worthie of greater praise and reward then if keeping sound thy faith to thy prince and cuntrey with the publike profession of the faith thereof thou constantly standest to it euen vnto death and fightest it out to the last man Therefore there is need of constancie in thy faith giuen to thy prince and cuntrey and a publike professioâ— of that faith euen vnto the death By these defensed cities I meane those churches which were once builded vppon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and afterwardes were repaired againe out of the gospel and truely reformed and so do hold the same foundatioÌ„s of the Apostles doctrine firme and fast with the holy scriptures vnderstaÌ„ding expouÌ„ding the same according to the sound interpretations of the auncient fathers These foundations the church was wont to compreheÌ„d in that short forme of doctrin which they cal the catechisme wherein is contained the Apostles creed the Lords praier and the ten coÌ„mandements The creede brieflie sheweth both what we must beleeue and in whome we must place the whole hope of our saluation The Lords praier manifestly directeth vs both who is to be prayed vnto and what is to bee prayed for as also for what causes God is onely to bee called vppon and that we aske all that we aske of him onely namely because his onely is the kingdome the power and the glory by which addition our assured hope is kindled vnto praier The decalogue or ten commandemeÌ„ts very briefly and plainely prescribeth how wee must behaue our selues to god-ward with what â—â—â—uice we must worship him in what sort also we must liue with our neighbours how we must die vnto our selues that is to our coÌ„cupiscence in withdrawing froÌ„ it euermore all such things as it coueteth against the law of god Vnto these three those chiefe partes of the catechisme is ioyned a fourth part the doctrine of the sacrameÌ„ts which by a Synecà oche is whollie comprehended in the great creed as they cal it vnder the name of baptisme All these thinges summarily gathered out of the holy scriptures reduced into a briefe compeÌ„diary we doubt not with the whole auncient church to cal the fouÌ„dations of al christian religion And because heretikes when they durst not simplie denie these foundations were euer wont to wrest yet do wrest and wring the same for the most part by false interpretations to their owne heresies therefore that the true churches may bee discerned from the conuenticles of heretikes we must vnderstand and expound those principles and chiefe pointes of doctrine in no other sense then as the auncient church agreeably to the scriptures by common consent specially in the best approued counsailes expounded them For what to say something for exaÌ„ple fake can be more firme certen manifestly spoken for the article in the creede of the person of Christ then those things which weâ—e determined out of the scriptures in the couâ—cel at Nice at Ephesus Constant Chalced. add also the 5. 6. by the godly fathers against Arrius Samosatenus Apollinaris Nestorius Eutiches the Monothelites whosoeuer therefore teacheth concerning Christs person against the determinations of those counsells certainely they doe not rightly hold this principall foundation of christian religion Further concerning the grace benefite of Christ the beginning whereof is his eternall loue towards vs his free election of vs to the participation of redemption euerlastin life but the proceeding of it is the free dispensation of the same redeÌ„ption once performed vpoÌ„ the crosse the effectual vocatioÌ„ iustification sanctification
the gift of constancie in the faith the end is our glorious resurrectiō euen eternal life I say for this other principal foundation of christian religion what cā be said more plainly more largely thē that which hath bin in the councells of Africa determined out of the scriptures by Meliuitanus Arausicanus others against the Pelagians which were written by Augustine to say nothing of others in manie bookes against the same Pelagians Concerning the holy Catholike Church what is there needfull to bee knowne which hath not beene most plentifully and plainely set downe by Augustine aswell in other places as especially in his bookes against the Donatists euen out of he foundations of the holy scriptures But it is a matter of great moment to knowe what and where the true church of Christ is being out of the church there is no saluation and therefore it is an article of faith not of the least accompt About the points of the sacraments also if a man will cōtent himselfe with the simple truth what is more euident then the doctrine which the auncient fathers Iustine Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian and chieflie Augustine haue deliuered out of the scriptures and left vnto vs in their writings One saith Like as Iesus Christ being by the word of God made flesh had flesh and blood so also we haue learned that the foode hallowed by him by the word of prayer and thanks giuing is the flesh and blood of the same incarnate Iesus Christ euen according to those words of Christ This is my bodie But Christ that is the vvorde was made flesh without anie chaunging of it selfe into flesh but onely by a hypostaticall or personall vnion therefore neither is the bread made the body of Christ by any transubstantiation of it selfe into the body but onely by an vnion and that not a physicall or bodily or hypostaticall but onely a sacramētall vnion Also he saith by that foode namely of the blessed bread our blood and our body is nourished by a certaine chaunging of it selfe namely into Christ therefore that chaunge which is made in the supper is not of the bread into Christs body nor of Christ into vs but of vs into Christ by reason of our ingrafting as also wee reade in Augustine that Christ should say speaking of the receiuing of the Eucharist I shal not be chaunged into thee but thou shalt be chaunged into me The same man saith vnto this the foode of the Eucharist none is to bee admitted but they that beleeue that our doctrine is true being washed with the water of regeneration vnto remission of their sinnes so liuing as Christ hath taught them Therfore no infidells and heretikes nor they which haue not receiued the baptisme of Christ not they which liue in such apparent sinne and wickednes that they giue no notice to the church of their amendment are to bee admitted to the supper Another of them saieth the eucharist consisteth of two matters an earthly and an heauenly The bread though it be sanctified yet he calleth it an earthly matter why so because it comes from the earth it existeth on earth and is eaten with an earthly mouth the body of Christ he calleth a heauenly matter not because the substāce of it is out of heauen but partly because it is taken into vnitie of the person of the word and partly because it is in heauen endued with heauenly qualities For although in the hypostasie which is the very word it bee euerie where yet in the owne proper essence it is only in heauen and not on earth Whereupon it also followeth that it is not eaten either by earthly men or by the teeth of an earthly body but onely of those men who being borne from aboue do carrie the image of heauenly men eate it in a heauenly manner namely in soule spirite And yet notwithstanding the very bodies also of the faithful while they eate onely an earthly matter they also participate of a heauenlie matter to their glorious resurrection are nourished by it as the same author in that place very learnedly expoundeth I think that by this which I haue spoken out of the creede concerning foure principal partes of christian doctrine your Hon. can well gather such is your piety learning wisedome what is to be concluded concerning the whole body The summe is this that those bee the true churches of Christ and therefore called of vs the truely defensed citties of Christs kingdom which professing generally the sacred scriptures and specially the catechisme in all places receiued doe so reuerence the auncient church and auncient fathers hauing therefore friendshipp and communion with them being now in heauen that neither in their opinions nor yet in their expositions of the holy scriptures they will easily decline from them but onely then whenas they bee forced to dissent both by manifest wordes of the holy scriptures and also by testimonies and consequences beyond all doubt necessary drawne from the principles of faith This surely was counted for a notorious fault in Nestorius and it is written to bee the cause of his vile heresie that contemning the fathers and trusting vpon his owne witt he expounded the holy scriptures after his owne braine What speake I of Nestorius yea that the same contempt of the fathers and some confidence of their owne witts and their owne learning did cause diuers more besides otherwaies verie notable men to fall into sundrie heresies I could easilie shewe out of the Ecclesiasticall histories and councells if the breuitie of an epistle would suffer me For whence I pray was it that after that most holy councell at Nice so many heretikes forth with arose of whome some oppugned the true and euerlasting deity of Christ others his true and perfect humanitie others the true vniting of both the natures in one and the same person others the true distinctiō of their natures their proprieties hence surely that contēning the determinations of the fathers in the Nicene councell and their expositions vpon the holy scriptures and trusting confidently to their owne witts and puffed vp with humane knowledge and eloquence they dared euery one to expound yea indeed to depraue wrest the holy scriptures and foundations of the faith according to their owne fansies Hereunto pertaineth that which Vigilius left written in his first booke of the causes of heresies against Eutyches but they blow forth saieth he these smoakes of vaine accusations chieflie because they are euen sicke of the infirmity of ignorance or disease of contention and whilst they are gogged on with a fond conceite of minde they despise the rules of faith deliuered of old by the fathers onely for this cause to bring in their owne conceited opinions of innouations into the church Thus saith Vigilius This that I say is confirmed by the dispositions imitations and wordes of the sound fathers on the other side who expounding the scriptures and the foundations of christian faith
promised by grace to saue vs. WHen therfore the first earthly man by his owne fault had fallen into so miserable an estate through disobedience and together with him all his posteritie which had sinned in him and were in deede to bee conceiued in sinne and to bee borne the children of wrath we beleeue that god of his meere grace and fauour promised vnto Adam and Eue and in them to all mankinde an other man from heauen Gen. 3.15 1. Cor. 15.47.48 Mat. 1.20 Luc. 1.34 Ebr. 4.15 Ios 7.14 that should be the true substance of verie woman but cōceiued without the seede of man so should be born of a virgine without sinne in whome as in another head of mankinde consisting of a diuine and humaine nature beeing the true image of the father and full of the holie spirite that should bee supplied which in Adam the first head by his owne fault was decaied that is that hee the second man in the name of all vs which were to bee ingrafted into him by his spirite Rom. 6.5 11.17 and by a spirituall regeneration should become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Io. 5.6 Eph. 5.29 Phil. 2.8 Rom. 5.19 Eph. 2.13.14 should most perfectly bee obedient vnto god and by his obedience and death should take away sinne should appease the wrath of god should redeeme vs iustifie vs sanctifie vs and gouerne vs by his spirite should indue vs with true libertie and with power to do god and lastly should saue vs glorifie vs to eternall life II. The promise of redemption by Christ was verie necessarie For Adam not as a priuate person but as the parent and originall of all mankinde as he was indued with a righteousnesse which he should haue dispersed into all his posteritie as hereditarie for which cause it is vsed also to be called originall righteousnes so by his disobediēce in stead of righteousnes he brought vppon all men great iniquitie and a spring of all sinne and in stead of eternall life eternall death Therefore there was neede of an other head from whome through his obedience that true and heauenlie righteousnesse holinesse and life might bee deriued into all the members This same is Christ III. To what ende that promise was made presently after the transgression And wee beleeue that this promise was made immediatlie after the transgression euē from the beginning of the worlde and afterwards oft times mētioned to the holy fathers declared yea and confirmed and sealed by diuerse and sundrie meanes signes and sacraments that not onely wee which were to bee borne after the comming of the Messias but also all other which from the first creation should beleeue in this promise and in true faith should imbrace the Sauiour which was to come might by that faith bee made partakers of the following redemption might bee iustified and saued IV. As manie as beleeued in Christ that vvas to come from the first beginning were saued Wee beleeue therefore that as manie since the making of the world as beleeued in Christ promised and to come they were ingrafted vnto him by this faith made partakers of his following obedience of his passion death and redemption that they did eate his bodie that was to come and to bee betrayed and dranke his blood that was to bee shedd and finallie that they were all christians and indued with the spirite of Christ and saued vnto eternall life as well as we V. Errors Therefore wee condemne and abhorre all those which saye that none were saued that were before the comming of Christ and that those fathers receiued no promises concerning eternall saluation but onely concerning things temporall CHAP. X. Of the law I. The law of Moses came betweene the promise of redemption by Christ and the accomplishment thereof and to what ende BVt betweene the promise of redemption by Christ made first vnto Adam after more manifestly declared aswell to others as most especially to Abraham sealed with the sacrament of circumcision and confirmed as it were by the death of Isaac his first begotten offered for a sacrifice and established by an euerlasting couenant betweene the accomplishment of the fame promise the lawe was giuen which Moses deliuered the people which came of Abrahams seed beeing gathered together and wonderfully encreased of whome also Christ should be borne and beeing also deliuered out of the bondage of Egypt by a wonderfull meanes that God might haue a church knowne and visible and separate from other nations and gathered together in one certaine place in which church that promise concerning Christ made vnto the fathers might be kept safe and an acceptable seruice of God maintained euen vnto the comming of the true promised redeemer The law I say deliuered by Moses from God vnto his church came betweene containing three kindes of commandements Morall by which the life and pietie of euerie one should bee directed Ceremoniall with the forme whereof the church should bee gouerned in her outward seruice and religion and iudicial pertaining to the gouernement of the whole common wealth in matters politick and oeconomicall that by these meanes the people of God of whome Christ was to come might both bee restrained from the prophane manners idolatries of wicked nations might be kept within their duetie and obedience to Gods will and finallie might be vpholden in the faith and hope of the promise to bee performed concerning the true redemption by Christ and so might bee prepared more and more for the receiuing of Christ and so in that people God might be glorified II. VVhatsoeuer was necessarie to be done for saluation is contained in the law of God To let passe then the two latter parts of the lawe which doe not appertaine to vs and to speake onely of the former wee beleeue that in that law as it is declared in the bookes of Moses the Prophets and Apostles 2. Tim. 3.16 al things which are necessary to saluation are so perfectly set downe and Gods will Deut. 2.4 5.22 12.32 which he will haue vs to do in his word so reuealed as nothing can be added or taken from it III. The law of the Decaloge or ten commandements is a declaration of the law of nature and a picture of the image of God We also beleeue that this law is a declaration of the lawe of nature which was written in the heartes of the first men perfectly of others imperfectly and but in part and therefore by this law is condemned whatsoeuer is not agreeable to that image of God whereunto man was created and is commaunded whatsoeuer is agreeable to the same For God would shew by that law what man was in his first estate and what hee was made in the second estate and what manner one he ought to be and further what he should afterwards be in the third estate in parte and vvhat perfectly in the fourth by Christ so that the lavve is nothing else but a
all into euerlasting glorie with Christ Neither doe wee doubt but Christ purposed to foreshew vnto vs the second by the first and the third by the second that by that which was alreadie made we might bee confirmed in the hope of that which was to be made VI. As the first vnion was made that satisfaction might bee made for our sinnes so the second is made that vve might bee partakers of that satisfaction Wee beleeue therefore that letting passe those things which pertaine not to this matter in hand wee may come neerer that the Sonne of God by the euerlasting will of the Father and therefore of himselfe also and of the holy ghost like as he tooke vpon himselfe into vnity of his person our flesh that is mans nature conceiued by vertue of the holy ghost in the wombe of the virgine that he might in himselfe purge vs of our sinnes and in that flesh he most perfectlie fulfilled the lawe of God for vs beeing made obedient vnto his Father euen vnto death and at the length the same flesh being offred vp in sacrifice for our sinnes he obtained in himselfe eternall saluation for vs so also that he might make vs partakers of this saluation by sacrifice of his flesh assumed for vs he was willing accustomed to take vnto him and to knitt and ioyne all his elect vnto him in another kinde of vnion namelie in such a coupling as in it wee may bee vnited with him though not into one person yet into one misticall bodie whereof he is the head and euerie one of vs members and may be made partakers of his diuine nature VII As the first is made by vertue of the holie ghost so is the second As we certainelie knowe that as the Sonne of God our Lord Iesus Christ in the first vnion coupled vnto himselfe our flesh and blood by vertue of his spirite for he was conceiued man of the holie ghost and therefore without sinne for which cause also he is called the man from heauen so also in the secōd vnion he doth communicate his flesh and his blood and his whole selfe vnto vs and in the same communion doth knitt ioyne and incorporate vs into him by the power of the same his spirite that alwaies the bonde where with Christ is coupled with vs and we with Christ might bee the same spirite of Christ which as it did bringe to passe in the wombe of the virgine that the sonne of god should be made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so also by working in our hearts and incorporating vs into Christ it bringes to passe that wee likewise by participation of the bodie blood of Christ should be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh especiallie seeing hee stirreth vp that faith in vs whereby wee acknowledge and embrace him for true God and man and therefore a perfect Sauiour VIII The vnion of vs with Christ is spirituall yet so as it is true and reall So we beleeue that this other vnion also is almost no lesse then the former so spirituall if we may so speake that yet it is true reall Because that by the spirite of Christ wee allthough remaining on the earth yet are truely and reallie coupled with the bodie blood and soule of Christ raigning in heauen so as this misticall bodie consisting of Christ as the head and of the faithfull members sometime is simplie named Christ So great is the coniunction of Christ with the faithfull and of them with Christ that surelie it may seeme not to be said amisse that as the first vnion was made of two natures in one person so this is made of many persons as it were into one nature 2. Pet. 1.4 Eph. 5.30 according to those sayings That ye should be made partakers of the diuine nature And Wee are members of his bodie of his bones and of his flesh IX A confirmation of the former opinion hovve straight this vnion is For like as the soule in a man because it is one and the same and no lesse whole in the head and in each member then it is in all the bodie together it causeth that all the members do vnite and ioyne themselues into one bodye vnder one head euen so by vertue of Christs spirit because it is one and the same in Christ and in euery of the faithfull it causeth that all of vs knitte spiritually together both in soules and bodies into one we are all one and the selfe same body with Christ our head a body I say misticall and spirituall because it is ioyned and compact by a secret band of the same spirite X. This vnion because it is made by vertue of the holie spirit cannot be hindred by anie distance of place Whereupon it followeth that this true and reall vnion though spirituall of our bodies soules with the bodie and soule of christ can be letted by no distance of place though neuer so great because that spirite is so mightie in operatiō as it reacheth from earth to heauen and beyond and ioyneth in one no lesse strictly the members of christ being on earth with their head in heauen sitting at the right hand of the Father then the soule of a man ioyneth together the hands and leggs and other members into one bodie with the head yea though that man were so great that his head did reach vnto the ninth spheare and his feete stand fast in the center of the earth So great is the vertue of the soule thē how great is that of the holie spirit the true and almightie God XI The spirit by whome this vnion is made is giuen of Christ to the preaching of the gospell and administration of the Sacraments Furthermore wee beleeue that his spirite whereby christ both coupleth himselfe vnto vs and vs vnto him ioyneth his flesh with ours and ours with his is communicated of the same christ vnto vs by his meere grace when and where and how he please yet ordinarily at the preaching of the gospell and administration of the Sacramēts Of which thing was a visible testimonie which we read how that they in the primitiue church which imbraced the gospell by faith and were baptised in the name of christ or vpon whomsoeuer the hands were laid besids the inuisible grace receiued also diuerse sensible giftes of the spirite XII This vnion is the especiall ende of the gospell and Sacraments Whereuppon we do easily gather which is the principall end both of preaching the gospell and administring the Sacraments namelye this communion with christ the Sonne of God incarnate who suffered and died for vs but now raigneth in heauē and imparteth saluation and life to his chosen which communion was begonne here but was to be perfected in heauen so that we by this true reall copulatiō of our selues with his flesh blood and his whole person may also be made partakers of eternall saluation which was purchased by him and stil remaineth and
our sinnes shall no more bee imputed vnto vs as being once washed away in Christ but shal be pardoned by the fauour of God for Christs sake alone Ia. 2.21 and on the other side that Christs righteousnesse shal bee imputed to vs as our owne and that wee being clothed there with shall be and shal bee counted iust in the sight of God An assured and manifest testimonie whereof is as wee saide before that same begonne and inhaerent righteousnes in vs which consisteth in the detesting of sinne and the loue of righteousnesse and the studie of good workes VI. A confirmation vvhat it is to be iustified by faith Wherefore when we saye a man is iustified by faith or through faith we doe not meane that the vertue of faith is that verie thing whereby as by the forme as they speake and by true iustice he is iustified or that for which we deserue forgiuenes of our sinnes and iustification or that which as the head of al other vertues and the cause or fountaine of all good works doeth drawe with it all other vertues charitie cleanesse of heart in ward iustice and good workes whereby wee are iustified But because it is as the light whereby looking into the glasse of the gospell we behold in what state wee are in Christ by the free bountie will of God and through the merites of the same Christ and also because it is as the hand whereby we grasp and take hold vppon that fauour of God and benefite of Christ shewed vnto vs in the gospell and performed in the person of Christ or to say more brieflie as the matter is wee are said to be iustified by faith that is by remission of sinnes and by the imputation of Christs righteousnesse apprehended by faith so that faith is taken for the thing that is beleeued or apprehended by faith As we read of Abrahā Gen 15.6 He beleeued God it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse namely that which he beleeued of the seede promised vnto him that is Christ For he is the righteousnesse of all the chosen which beleeue and of the children of the promise as the scripture calleth them VII Men are iustified by faith alone Here by it is easily vnderstood what is mēt in that wee haue euermore confessed and doe yet constantly confesse with the holy scripturs and with the godly fathers that wee are iustified by faith alone For sith to bee iustified by faith in the sight of God is nothing else but to be accounted iust by the remission of sinne and iustice of Christ apprehended by faith that this is onely the true righteousnes whēas whatsoeuer inherent righteousnesse there is in vs and whatsoeuer good worke wee doe is such as cannot stande in the sight of God according to that saying Psal 142.2 Enter not into iudgement with thy seruant O Lord Psal 130.3 for no flesh is righteous in thy sight and that also if thou markest what is done amisse O Lord Lord vvho can abide it it most plainely appeareth that our beleefe concerning iustification by faith alone is most certaine and most true VIII Not onely in the beginning of our conuersion but euen in the whole course of our life to our death wee are iustified onely by faith And hereby also is it that wee cannot but beleeue and constantly affirme that not onely in the beginning when of vngodly men we bee made righteousse but also all the whole course of our life euen vnto the end we are iustified onely by faith in Christ so that our righteousnesse is alwaies from faith to faith For there is no man which doth not daily sinne so that we haue need continually to say Mat. 6.12 Psal 32.6 1. Cor. 1.30 1. Ioh. 2.2 Forgiue vs our sinnes and To thee saieth Dauid shall euerie one that is godlie make his prayers for forgiuenes of his sinnes And Christ not once but euermore is our righteousnesse sanctification redemption and the propitiation for our sinnes IX Iustification by faith alone is no imaginarie or fained matter Now least any man might thinke that wee forge a certaine imaginarie righteousnesse which hath no foundation nor force in vs we will againe repeat that which we haue before made profession of First that this faith where by we say that we are iustified is a faith that is liuely and worketh through loue then that God doeth not so iustifie vs by the forgiuing of our sinnes and imputing Christs righteousnesse vnto vs but that he also makes vs partakers of his diuine nature but that he regenerateth refineth sanctifieth vs giueth inherent righteousnesse to vs and makes vs conformable to the image of his sonne and this begun righteousnesse in vs is a manifest testimonie of that other true and perfect righteousnesse which wee haue in Christ alone and wee confesse that both of these are ioyned together by the band of the same holy spirit Rom. 5.15 as the Apostle saith not onely the grace of God but also the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ hath abounded vnto manie For euen as not onely the disobedience of Adam was imputed vnto vs but also the corruption of his nature flowed into vs so also not onely the obedience righteousnes of Christ is imputed to vs which are ingrafted into him but also his holy nature is truely communicated vnto vs 2. Cor. 5.17 Eph. 2.10 Tit. 2.14 that wee may be made new creatures righteousse and holie euen in our selues followers of good workes X. Inherent righteousnesse is increased by good works But like as we say that the former iustice is neither due to our good works nor begonne nor increased by them so the latter although it be not due nor begunn by our good works that wēt before for they are all sinne sith good workes goe not before him that is to be iustified but followe him that is iustified yet wee confesse that by these following good works and exercises of godlinesse it is much preserued set forward and increased 2. Tim. 1.6 as the Apostle teacheth the gifts of God bestowed on vs are stirred vp nourished and maintained with such māner of exercises like vnto a fire and of this increase of righteousnesse Iohn saith Hee that is righteousse let him be righteousse still Apo. 22.11 And therefore when wee speake onely of this inherent righteousnesse we denie not but that a man is iustified by good works and not of faith onely that is he is made more and more iust XI A man is iustified by that iustice vvhich consisteth in the forgiuenesse of sinnes and imputation of Christes iustice and not properly of his owne works but by them he is declared to be iustified to be iust But if we bee asked of the former kinde of iustifying wee aunswer that a man is neuer iustified by his workes but alwaies properly by faith alone but yet that it is declared by his works whether he bee iust
or no aswell in the one kinde as the other sith none is iustified by the former iustice but he is also indued with the latter and both of them are declared by good workes in which sense wee doubt not but Iames spake XII Errors We condemn all Pelagians which thought that infants were conceiued without sinne therefore needed not the forgiuenes of sinns and benefite of Christ for their saluation and those also which teach that although they must needes haue forgiuenesse of sinnes yet that the same maye bee obtained without faith in Christ And those too which thinke that although wee neede to haue faith in Christ yet that the same is not sufficient but that wee need also our owne works as merites necessarie for the obtaining forgiuenes of sinne but especially those that teach the same to be done by vngodly worship and fonde superstitions Neither doe wee allowe of those which haue taught that we are iustified by no other iustice then that inwarde and inherent iustice Nor those which thought that the remissiō of sinns can stand without the internall renuing and iustice Wee also condemne them which suppose they may bee iustified and saued by the historicall faith cōcerning Christ which Iames calleth a dead faith that is none at all Yea and there opinion is disallowed of vs which teach that a mā is iustified not by remission of sinns and imputation of Christes iustice but euen by the verie essentiall righteousnesse as they call it of Christ really communicated to vs. CHAP. XX. Of the regenerate mans freechoise and power to do good I. They that are iustified in Christ are also regenerate in him and receiue power to doe good WE beleeue that they which are ingrafted into Christ like as they are iustified in him so they bee regenerated in him and made new creatures by participatiō of his diuine nature and consequētly are made free and doe take force from Christ himselfe as members from the head and as braunches from the vine to eschew euill and to follow that which is good As Christ saieth if the sonne of man shall make yee free Ioh. 8.36 ye shall bee free indeede But then be we made free when wee are ioyned vnto Christ and regenerate by his spirite as the Apostle also saith where the spirite of the Lord is there is libertie II. Christ liueth and worketh in men regenerate For with the Apostle we cōfesse that Christ liueth in vs Gal. 2.20 Phil 2.13 Rom. 8.26 that are regenerate by his spirit and liueth not idelie but worketh both that vvee may will and that wee may performe for the great loue that he beareth vnto vs and by his spirite doth help our infirmities III. A regenerate man in matters pertaining to the sensible and humaine life doth beare himselfe better then one not regenerate and therefore is more free So a regenerate man besids that he alwaies keepeth his will free from all constraint as also the vnregenerate doth he doth likewise beare himselfe better and more warelie then the vnregenerate euen in such actions as pertaine to the sensitiue and humaine life wherein the vnregenerate may bee circumspect sith in those actions also a regenerate man is wrought by the holy spirit who lighteneth his minde gouerneth his will and his thoughts and draweth his actions out of a good fountaine that is out of a good heart directeth them to their principall ende that is to the glorie of God Whereunto the Apostle also exhorteth vs 1. Cor. 10.31 saying Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoeuer yee doe doe all thinges to the glorie of God And therefore he is euen in this kinde of actions more free then the man vnregenerate namely in that he is not violently drawne by his owne lustes to the doing thereof as the other vnregenerate is but beeing wrought by the holy ghost thinketh willeth and attempteth all things more warily wisely and religiouslie euermore heedfully respecting this that he do all things to the glorie of God his owne saluation and some profite of his neighbour Rom. 147.8 For he alwaies obserueth that rule of the Apostle None of vs liueth to himselfe nether doth any die to himselfe for whether we liue we liue vnto the Lord or whether we dye vve dye vnto the Lord whether we liue therefore or dye vvee are the Lords And therefore he commendeth all his actions to the diuine prouidence saith with Iames or at least thinketh if the Lord will I will doe this or that or I will goe to this place or that IV. Likewise in getting the morall vertues a regenerate man is freer and of more force then the vnregenerate And albeit we confesse that a man vnregenerate helped by the speciall aide of God cā bee possessed with the morall vertues yet wee hold that this speciall aide of God is much more forcible in the regenerate and that through the presence of the holie ghost Tert. in the Apol. c. 4.5 Aug. cont Iul. Pel. lib. 4 c. 3. De Ciu. De. lib. 19 c. 25. Orig con cels by whome they are lightened gouerned driuē forward as it was well prooued of the auncient fathers against the vaine boast of the gētilles that those vertues which they call morall were farre other manner of giftes in the christians then they were or could bee in the infidells sith in them they were onely the images or shadowes of vertues but in true christians they were the verie vertues indeed V. Vnto such things as are of God and pertaine to his kingdome onely the regenerate man is by the holy ghost enlightened inclined wrought to the vnderstanding choosing and performing them But we beleeue that in the true vnderstanding choosing and performing those thinges which pertaine to the kingdome of God onely the regenerate are so guided by the holie ghost that they alone truely vnderstand will and doe the same sith the Apostle saieth The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirite of God 1. Cor. 2.19 neither can he perceiue them but of the regenerate he addeth The spirituall man discerneth all things Phil. 2.13 and in another place God worketh in vs both to will and to performe VI. A regenerate man is not onely vvrought but also worketh by the holy spirite Being so taught by these words of the Apostle and other testimonies of the holy scriptures wee confesse that regenerate men are so wrought by the holy ghost that they themselues doe likewise worke and God so worketh in them to will and to performe that they are the same which do will and doe performe For they are not blocks nor beasts but men indued with reason whereby they vnderstand and with a wil whereby they desire and whereby they commaund ouer the other powers of the soule bodie that such things as are good should be put in execution VII The povver of free choise in the regenerate is yet weake so that vve haue still neede of the help
of his discipline And therefore wee beleeue that it belongeth to the true gouernment and edification of the church that princes should chiefly subiect themselues to be taught admonished and reformed by the word of God whereby others by their example may doe so also the more chearfully and that if they refuse to do it the princes or rulers maye more freelie punish them for it and compell them to their dueties IX Errors We therefore condemne all contemners of magistrats rebells seditious persons enimies of their common wealth and whosoeuer doe either openly refuse to performe their dueties which they owe to their rulers or doe craftely shift the same We condemn by name the error of the Anabaptists saying it is not lawful for a christiā man to beare office much lesse to vse his authoritie ouer his subiectes in the course of religion affirming that it is free for all men to follow what religion he will none ought to be compelled to faith We disallow them also which giue authoritie in religion vnto magistrats onely as they saye for names sake denying that they haue authoritie to call Synodes to consult about religion to reforme churches and to determine out of the scriptures such thinges as pertaine to the peoples saluation and will haue them to bee nothing else but the executors of those things which the bishop appoint As also neither do we allow those magistrats who without a sufficient knowledge in the causes do alter religion vpon their owne pleasures do condemn men neuer heard and spoile and confiscate their goods set downe rules of religion not out of the scriptures but rather against the word of God and beare themselues not as seruants of God in the church of God but as Lords ouer the churches nor will bowe their neck vnder the yoake of the sonne of God For whome that they may haue a greater knowledge of God and better mindes wee praye and beseech God the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ CHAP. XXVII Of perpetuall remisson of sinns in the church of Christ I. There is a perpetuall dispensation of remission of sinnes in the church and thereunto is the perpetuall ministerie of the word ordayned WE haue before confessed that so soone as any one is ingrafted into Christ by his holy spirit he presently obtaineth forgiuenesse of all his sinnes committed and draweth a new life from his head Christ and so is made a liuelie member of the church But because the most holie ones that are in this militant church do daily sinne euē to the last ende of their liues so that they haue still need of new forgiuenesse of their sinnes and also of new repentance and new faith to apprehend forgiuenesse of sinnes in Christ that faith and repentance is stirred vp by the ministerie of the word and sacraments therefore wee beleeue that remission of sinnes is dispensed and bestowed perpetually in the church by the ministerie of the word and sacraments and that the ecclesiasticall ministerie which is perpetuall in the church is ordained thereunto II. What we meane by the name of remission of sinnes And sith there be three things in sinne the action it selfe the wickednesse of the action therefore the sinners fault remaining in him and lastlie the desert of due punishment cleauing vnto the fault then we vnderstand that our sinnes are forgiuen vs when not onely the faulte and wickednesse of the action is not imputed vnto vs but also when as the desert or guiltinesse is taken awaye and the due punishment pardoned For then are our sinnes properlie forgiuen vs and we when wee desire in prayer that our sinnes may be forgiuen vs wee desire not onely to bee absolued from the fault and that the iniquitie maye not bee imputed vnto vs but also that the punishment and condemnation due vnto vs for the iniquitie may be forgiuen and we deliuered from our debts and guiltinesse seing that neither we can say that we forgiue our brethren their debts vnlesse wee set them free from the debt it selfe and from all satisfaction and seing it is certaine that we are not commaunded to aske any thing but that which he will giue vs and that Christ hath cancelled the hand writing of all our debts hauing himselfe made a perfect and full payment and satisfaction III. The afflictions vvhich the children of God endure after their sinnes are pardoned are not punishments and satisfactions for sinnes past but fatherly chastisement for those to come But whereas God after the forgiuenesse of sinnes is wont to afflict and scourge his children with manie torments wee beleeue that God doth it not for that they should by that meanes either wholly or in part satisfie his iustice for their sinnes seing that one full satisfaction of Christ for vs is inough and more then inough but that by them as by fatherly corrections we may afterwards be more warie and take heed what belongeth to the mortifying of sinne that dwelleth in vs and that we should no more so easilie slipp into sinne whereuppon we with Augustine do cal them and teach that they are to bee called T. 7. de pec mer. Rē lib. 2. c. 33 34. not the punishments of sinne but the tryalls of faith and exercises of the Saints IV. Sinnes are properly remitted of God alone freely and for Christs sake our mediatour Wee beleeue also Ies 43.25 that our sinnes are properly forgiuen vs of God onely by meere fauour and for Christ our mediatour sith also it is he alone against whome we properly commit sinne both mediatly and immediatly whē as we breake his lawe Luc. 23.34 and it is alwaies in the power onely of the creditour to gratifie his debtors and to forgiue their debts Whereupon Christ also as man prayed his father for them which crucified him that he would pardon them Luc. 5.21 c and forgiue them their offences when the Iewes said vvho can forgiue sinnes but onely God he partly by holding his peace and partly by shewing a miracle confirmed it Wherefore in that that Christ of his owne authority forgaue sinnes we with the fathers do beleeue it may well bee concluded he is true God sith the same cannot bee done by any meere creature but onely ministerially or as being a minister as they speak in the name and authoritie of God Mat. 18.18 Ioh. 20.23 Which wee knowe was equallie giuen not to one alone but to all the Apostles and so to all lawfull ministers of the gospell V. Christ God and man indeed forgiueth sinnes but in a diuerse manner as he is God as he is man Whereon it also followeth that Christ god and man which wee also confesse together with the father and the holie ghost forgiueth sinnes but he doth it in one sort as he is God and in another as he is man For as he is god he doeth effect the same properly and of his authoritie but as he is man he doth it and did
theruppon and to the reuerend brethren N. N. and other coÌ„gregations round about vs who haue al of them liked very wel thereof Thus farre out of the letters of that learned man almost to the same purpose could wee bring many things besids out of letters written from other about the same matter but for that it greatly needeth not wee will for breuitie sake omitt the same Therefore to our matter An obseruation vpon the whole confession When we vse the word of condemning we meane nothing els theÌ„ that the heresies which haue bin condemned by the catholick church the same also wee condemne and which it allowed not the same also we allow not and this we desire to leaue witnessed to all posteritie Vpon the first chapter aphorisme 4. Whereas we haue giuen the first place next after the canonicall books to the Apocryphi in the volume of the Bible we did it induced by the authoritie of the greek and latine churches who did alwaies giue that honour vnto them that they should be ioyned with the canonicall books See the places in Hierome Cyprian and the councell of Laodicea cyted in the confession the first chapter fift aphorisme Moreouer we spake of books not of any manner of writinges For otherwise wee preferre the generall creeds before the Apocryphi Vpon the second chapter Of God The first aphorisme Though the propertie of existences bee to exist in the essence yet speaking of God we would rather vse another manner of speach that more vsuall for certaine causes as namely to teach against the reproches and skoffes of the Arrians of our time that the diuine essence is not found but onely in the persons and therefore that we do not make an essence aparte by it selfe subsisting from the persons wherein yet three persons should subsist as though the catholicke church should forge foure existences in God The third aphorisme Of this reall communication of the essentiall proprieties of God we haue also written a seuerall treatise in the booke which shal be intituled Of the incarnation of the sonne of God vppon the words to Phil. 2. Who when he was in the forme of God c. Vnto which we referre the reader who so he bee that desireth a further explanation of this doctrine Surely the Lord Iesus when he said No man knoweth the sonne but the father and no man knovveth the father but the sonne and he to whome the sonne will reueale him he plainely excepted his created minde from that essentiall knowledge wherewith the father knoweth that is as the schoolemen speak comprehendeth the sonne and the sonne the father teaching that what knowledge soeuer creatures haue in themselues coÌ„cerning God the same is some waye reuealed vnto them and therefore such knowledge is not the essential infinite knowledge which is in God but a created and a finite or determinate knowledge Vpon the 5. chapter of the worlds creation c. The 2. aphorisme That the heauen of the blessed wherein the Lord Iesus is now in his bodie doth differ froÌ„ the earth and from the other heauens and is aboue all those visible heauens besides that which hath bin already said these few proofs do also confirme Eph. 4. Christ is said to haue ascended aboue all heauens in another place he is read to haue ascended into heauen and to bee in heauen and to sitt at the right hande of the father Therefore this heauen is aboue the other heauens and differeth from them So in the third to the Colloss the Apostle distinguisheth the place where Christ is at the right hand of the father from the earth and calleth it vpward saying Seeke yee the things aboue sett your affections on things aboue where Christ is and in the 4. of the first to the Thess he saieth the Lord shall descend from heauen namely into these lower partes and all the godlie shal be caught vp into the ayre to meete Christ in the cloudes That heauen therefore is aloft not on the earth not in the ayre much lesse in euerie place For he shall come downe in the visible shape of his body froÌ„ the high heauen into these parts to iudge the quick and the dead Of this heauen wee haue spoken particularly in our bookes Do operibus dei of the workes which he created in the sixe daies Wee therefore disallow of that doctrine which is contrarie which distinguisheth not the heauen from the earth nor this heauen from other heauens but would proue it to be euerie where Vppon the 7. chapter The 11. aphorisme Among other thinges which Iulianus the Pelagian obiected to Augustine proouing defending originall sinne these were some that either he made God an author of sinne or the deuill a creator of man and that because the Pelagians thought that Aughstine made originall sinne the very substance of man Al which obiections he confuted in his 7. Tome against Pelag. the 5. booke and first chapter in these words Neither do we ascribe iniustice to God but rather equitie in that euen infants are punished not vniustly with such and so many euills as we see neither doe we attribute the making of man but the corrupting and depraâ—ing of mans originall to the deuill neither doe we graunt a substance in the sinne but an actâ— of it in the first man and a contagion thereof in all his posterity neither do we graunt vnto infants a conscience without knowledge in vvhome is neither conscience nor knowledge but he knewe what he did in vvhome all haue sinned and from whome all haue drawnâ— corruption c. Vpon the 9. chapter The 5. aphorisme How they can winde themselues out of this errour which denie that the fathers did eate the true flesh of Christ we see not as though because he was not as yet indeede existing in nature therefore he was not existing in the assured promise of Christ consequently could noâ— be apprehended and eaten by faith For this proposition is generall and to all men at all times belongeth Vnlesse ye eate the flesh of the sonne of man yee haue no life in you For life is not imparted but onely to those which by faith as members to the head are ioyned to the flesh of Christ by the flesh to the spirit or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the word which is life Vpon the 10. chapter The 3. aphorisme For God would shew c. That which I said of the first second third and fourth estate had bin more cleare if I had told what man was before he sinned what after hee had sinned what vnder grace and what he shal be in his glorie Vpon the 11. chapter of Christ the redeemer aphorisme 6. That the person of Christ speaking properly is compounded of the diuine nature which is immeasurable and most pure and of the humaine which in respect of the diuine is lesse then a pricke to an infinite masse as of two partes truely and properly so called wee together with the schoolemen do
feet themselues are Is then the vnion which the soule hath with the head dissolued because out of the head it is wholly also in the feet 8 Finally that all things which haue bin spokē of this personal vnion may more plainely be declared I add these also The soule is Hypostasis to the eyes to what eyes such as they are namely instruments vsed for sight not for hearing on the other side to the eares for hearing not for seing So the word was Hypostasis to the humaine nature not to destroy death which was a propertie of the word but to suffer death which was a propertie of the flesh Lastly it is Hypostasis to the flesh not to this end that the flesh should bee it and such like which of which sort the word is but it should be it and such like which and of which sort it is it selfe either by nature or by grace reallie put into it which they call infused or habitual grace For the grace of this vnion is this that it is taken into this vnitie of person This same doctrine of ours is confirmed by those things which are deliuered both by the scriptures and the fathers concerning the office of the mediatour that is concerning the end of his incarnation Many ends of this incarnation are noted of the fathers in the scriptures and particularly of Anselme in his booke intituled Cur Deus homo why God is man but the principall and immediate ende was not simplie that the vvorde God might saue vs for he could haue performed it by his omnipotencie and by his onely commaundement without taking flesh but that hee might by such meanes saue vs from death namely by death of his owne person and by his owne resurrection might raise vs to life according to that of the Apostle to the Hebr. 2. ver 14. That by death he might destroye him vvho c. And in the 2. to Tim. 1.10 VVho hath abolished death and hath brought life c. To which the old church consented saying vvho by dying destroyed death and by rysing againe repaired life Leo the first declared this end saying The sonne of God tooke our flesh that by one nature he might dye by the other he might not dye Therefore he tooke vpon him flesh to this principal ende that for the performing of our saluatiō he might doe such thinges by that flesh which of himselfe being in the forme of God hee could not performe as to suffer and to dye For to kill death simply he could by himselfe haue done it but to kill it by death he could not in himselfe doe it without taking mortall flesh into vnitie of his person Wherefore the vvorde did not take flesh that by the flesh it might doe such actions as were the proper actions of it selfe but that it might worke our saluatiō by such meanes namely by the owne proper actions ioyned with the actions of our flesh Vpon the 12. chapter The 8 aphorisme Concerning this true and essentiall vnion of vs and of our owne flesh with the flesh of Christ there is a notable place in Cyrill vpon Iohn lib. 10. cap. 13. Col. 500. We denie not but wee are spiritually ioyned to Christ by true faith and sincere loue but that wee haue no manner of coniunction with him according to the flesh that we flatly denie and affirme it to bee cleane against the scriptures For who euer doubted but Christ is so the vine and we the braunches that from him we draw life vnto our selues Heare what Paule saith Wee are all one bodie with Christ for though we are many yet in him we are one for wee all are partakers of one bread Doth he perchaunce thinke that the vertue of the misticall benediction is vnknowne vnto vs Which being in vs doeth it not also make Christ to dwell in vs corporally by communication of the flesh of Christ For why are the members of the faithfull the members of Christ know ye not saith hee that your members are the members of Christ shal I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlott God forbidd Our Sauiour also said He which eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him whereby wee maye consider that Christ is in vs not onely by dwelling in vs which is perceiued by loue but also by a naturall participation For euen as if one take waxe melted by the fire mingle it with other waxe likewise melted so as of them both hee make but one thing so by this communication of the bodie and blood of Christ he is in vs and we in him For otherwise this corruptible nature of the body could neuer be brought to incorruption and to life vnlesse the bodie of naturall life were ioyned vnto it Beleeuest thou not me telling thee this Beleeue I pray thee Christ himselfe Verily verily saith he I say vnto you vnlesse yee shall eate the flesh of the sonne of man and drinke his blood yee shall haue no life in you He which eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him at the last day Thou hearest him plainely crying out that we shall haue no life vnlesse we drinke his blood eate his flesh In you saieth he your selues that is in your bodie By life may well bee vnderstood the flesh of life for that doth raise vs vpp at the last daye And so need I not think it an vncurrant speach to say the flesh of life being made flesh of the onely begotten sonne is brought to the vertue of life and therefore cannot bee ouercome of death And therefore being made in vs putts death from vs For gods onely begottē sonne is neuer absent from it whereuppon because he is one with his flesh I saieth he will raise him vp Why then should it be denied that we are called braunches according to the flesh May it not fittly be said that the vine is his humanitie and we the braunches for the identitie or likenesse of our nature For the vine the braunches are of the same nature So both spiritually and corporally are wee the braunches and Christ the vine Thus farre Cyrill In this whole text Cyrills purpose was to shew that Christ not onely according to his deitie as his aduersaries the Nestorians did thinke but also according to the flesh was the vine from which life flowed into vs as braunches and cōsequently that we as braūches were ioyned not onely to his deitie but also to his humanitie and so to his flesh doe draw life and all our spirituall nourishment not onely from his deitie but also from his flesh And the reason is brought from the Hypostaticall vnion which maketh the word his flesh taken into vnitie thereof to bee but one person one and the same Christ one and the same vine Therefore that we cannot be ioyned to the deitie of Christ but also we must be vnited to his flesh nor can we
repentance and the faith of Christ but seing they were as Luke reporteth onely baptized into Iohns baptisme which notwithstanding they knew not what it was and were altogether ignorant of the baptisme of Christ that is of the spirit he baptized them shewing vnto thē what Iohns baptisme was and how he baptized into Christ not into his owne sprinkling or dipping of the water as though that could be any profite vnto them He therefore baptized them with this baptisme of Iohn that is as Iohn vsed to do into the name of the Lord Iesus and by by after laying on his hands he baptized thē with the baptisme also of Christ that is with the spirit For immediatly the holy ghost came on them as it is there read This there And vpon the epistle to the Ephes chap. 4. the same Bucer writeth thus Hereby it is also manifest that the twelue men at Ephesus which knew not whether there were an holie ghost or no whome Paule baptized were not baptized with the baptisme of Iohn that is with that which he administred but as they witnessed themselues they were baptized into Iohns baptisme For Iohn preached vnto all whome hee baptized that Christ should baptize them with the holy ghost and exhorted them that they would beleeue in him and that of him they might receiue the holy ghost And therefore these Ephesiās could not haue beene ignorant of the holy ghost if they had bin washed with that baptisme which might truely be called Iohns which also the Apostles words to those men doth sufficiently declare Iohn verily baptized with the baptisme of repētance saying vnto the people that they should beleeue in him which should come after him that is in Christ For by these wordes he would teach vs that they neuer receiued Iohns baptisme who as yet knew not Iohns preaching of Christ and the promise Thus farre Bucer Seing then the fathers expound this place in Act. 19. as wee haue nowe declared who I pray am I that I should dare or that I ought to gaine-say so many and so learned men in such an exposition of this scripture which neither doth any whitt wrest the text nor contrarieth any other scriptures nor is against the analogie of faith nor bringeth with it any absurdities For if any man shall obiect out of the text that same truely and but it prooueth nothing against the fathers exposition seing it is no vnusuall thing with the Apostle where hee saieth first truely not alwaies to ioyne the aduersatiue particle but Rom. 3. ver 2. Coll. 2. ver 23. and in other places And vnto this truely another but which Luke for breuitie sake left out might bee vnderstood verie fittly as hereafter we will shew so that it is no necessitie with this truely to ioyne that but which followeth in the 5. verse in which verse the fathers will haue not Paules speach but Lukes to be continued Therefore the fathers exposition is not repugnant to the text nor yet with any other scripture For if any man say Paule writeth to the Corinthians that he is gladd he baptized none but the house of Stephana it may be answered it is true namely at Corinth but these twelue were baptized at Ephesus and besides he speaketh of such as were baptized with his owne hand but these twelue he might baptise by some other to dispute no longer about the circumstance of the time And it is most certaine it is not repugnant to the analogie of faith nor bringeth with it any absurdities because the fathers do not speake of a baptisme rightly administred as though Paule had repeated that again This expositiō therefore of the fathers in my iudgement cannot easily be refelled And this therfore is the chiefest cause why I haue euer thus thought and yet thinke of this action of Paule although indeed I cannot consent vnto them all in the cause why Paule baptized them but onely to Ambrose and Hierome That Iohns Baptisme Christs Baptisme did differ the fathers teach both by this that Iohn saide how he baptized onely with vvater but Christ should baptize with the holy ghost with fire and also by this that the baptisme of Iohn is called the baptisme of repentance but Christes baptisme is said to bee giuen for the remission of sinnes And because that he prepared the waye to this as Tertull. speaketh that baptisme of repentance was as it were a sueing for the remission of sinnes and sanctificatiō in Christ which was to follow after Read Tertul. of bap pag. 707. So Cyprian also in his sermon of the baptisme of Christ and of the manifestation of the Trinitie pag. 430. So August To. 7. against Petil cap. 7. But all of vs doe not knowe what the father 's mēt by this differēce of the baptisme For they ment not that the one diffred from the other in the matter or in the signe or in the doctrine and forme of baptisine but onely in efficacie that namely although remission of sinnes was giuen to them which were washed with Iohns baptisme yet the same was not of Iohns baptisme that is of water but by the baptisme of Christ which is the baptisme of the spirite whereunto that belongeth I baptize with water but he with the holy ghost And with this baptisme of the spirit were they only baptized which beleeued in Christ whome Iohn saide was then come though all knewe him not Therefore Iohn in his baptisme did inculcate and often repeate this faith as Paule witnesseth in that place of the 19 of the Actes They therefore are deceiued who for this diuersitie did thinke the baptisme of water was to be repeated August against Petil. as we touched a little before sheweth how some held opinion that the 12 did lye vnto the Apostle when being asked vnto what they were baptized they answered vnto Iohns baptisme So by this that first those Ephesians saide vnto him that they had not yet heard whether there were that is whether that holy ghost did exist or not namely the giuer of those giftes whereof the speach was the Apostle might be said to conuince thē of a lye by this argument Whosoeuer haue bin baptized they haue professed faith in Christ as the sonne of God and consequently in the father and in the spirite of them both For Iohn did require this faith according to the same he baptized men and in baptizing he alwayes vrged that Iesus Christ was he which should baptize in the spirit But you by your owne cōfession do not know this spirite c. and so beleeue not rightly in Iesus Christ Therefore c. But surely to saye that these twelue did lye vnto the church and to the Apostle it seemes to me to be to hard and vile a thing in mē which professed Christ And for this cause we did euer better allow of the opiniō of Ambrose Hierome that the 12 did say truely whē they said they were baptized vnto Iohns baptisme but yet not by
anie portion of gouerning and keeping the clergie is committed and also a watchfullnes and inquirie that there be none in this order vngarded or vnlooked vnto Thus farre Bucer not onely rehearsing but also commending the custome of the auncient church ordaining diuers orders of ecclesiasticall functions whereof we before spake I should also haue had consideration of those churches which albeit they imbrace the gospell of Christ Iesus yet they still retaine their bissiops and Archbishops both in deed and name What that in the churches euen of the protestants neither bishops indeed nor archbishops are wanting whome hauing turned the names out of good greeke into badd latine they call Superintendents and generall Superintendents yea there also where neither those old names in good greeke nor these newe in ill latine are vsed at all yet there are wont to bee some superior persons in whose hands is almost the whole authoritie The controuersie then hath beene about the names but seing wee agree about the thing why should wee cōtend about the names By the way as I did not disallow the Fathers in that matter whereuppon the question is so can I not but loue the zeale of our men which do therefore hate those names because they are afraide least with the names the old ambition and tirannie should bee brought in againe to the destruction of the church Aphorisme 12. For neither did Christ ordaine any such head neither would the fathers admit therof because it was not expedient for the church but contented themselues with the foure Patriarches of Rome Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria all which were of an equall authoritie and power and euery of them conteined within his owne bounds as also it was decreed in the coūcel at Nice cōfirmed in others that not without many very weightie causes whereof in my iudgement this was not one of the least least there should bee a doore set open to tirannie in the church but rather if that any one durst attempt any thing against the sound doctrin of Christ against the libertie of the church then the other archbishops with their bishops of no lesse authoritie might oppose themselues against him suppresse his insolencie and cut of his tiranny The church in respect of Christ is a kingdome in respect of men which are in it and ether rule or be ruled it is an Aristocracie Aphorisme 21. These be two questions farre differēt whether bishops may also be princes and princes bishopps keeping also their principalities in their hands and whether they which are both bishops and princes besids their ecclesiastical authoritie may also haue ciuill power ouer those that are their subiects and so whether their subiects must obey them as princes or not In my Aphorisme I spake not one word of the former question for it was not needful but onely of the latter Now who seeth not how I shewed by apparent demonstrations that princes must be wholly obeyed howsoeuer rightfullie or wrongfullie they bee made princes For why should not they that are subiects both to the princes and Archbishops of Colone Mentz and Treuers in matters that are not repugnant to christian pietie be obedient vnto them Surely it were meere sedition in them not to obey them And if to these why should not they also which are within the iurisdiction of the bishop of Rome in the same matters for the same cause obey him For there is one and the same reason of them all Of the former question as I saye I spake not at all neither purposed I nowe in this briefe confession to discourse thereof knowing that all are not herein of one opinion much may be said to and fro both wayes that place in the 20 of Mat. Yee know that the Lords of the Gentiles haue dominion ouer them and they that are great exercise authoritie ouer them But it shall not bee so among you some expound it one waye of the Apostles onely and ministers of the word others another waye of all Christs disciples and all christians An appendix to the eleuenth chap. Of Christ the redeemer or of the person of Christ THey which write that the essentiall proprieties of the diuine nature are reallie communicated to the humaine nature not that they be in the same either essentiallie and formally or subiectiuelie and habitually but onely by the reason and respect of the personall or Hypostaticall vnion for so they speake darkelie indeede and ambiguouslie when both they might and ought to speake plainer if they meane this in no other sense then as Vigilius writ and thought namely that the proprieties of the natures are made proper to Christ himselfe but are common to the natures betwixt themselues not in thēselues but in Christ that is in his person I will not surelie gainesay them neither do I thinke that any good or learned man will gainesay them For Vigilius according to the catholick churches doctrine speaking out of the councell at Calcedon said and declared that the proprieties of the humaine nature were made commō to the diuine in the verie same sense that the diuine are also saide to bee communicated to the humaine But now these proprieties of the humanitie as to suffer or to die are so communicated to the deitie that for all that yet the verie deitie is not made in verie deede passible or mortall the cause whereof Vigilius setteth downe to be this namelie because to die and to suffer are not made common to the deitie but onely in the person so that they can not truely be said but of the humaine nature by it selfe and of the person in respect of the humaine nature Wherefore we must euen so thinke and saye altogether of the communication of the diuine proprieties Vigilius owne wordes bee these booke 5. chap. 2. And now sith out intention is chiefly bent against those which following the error of one nature doe with a willfull obstinacie resist the decree of the Calcedon councell I thinke it not amisse for the remoouing of their vaine contradictions and beating to peeces their glassie opinions with the mallett of truth to rehearse some fewe things concerning the humaine nature of the sonne of God which they euerie waye denie to be in him and to shew what want of christianity is in them and how farre of they bee from the hope of euerlasting life It is a rule of the catholick faith to confesse one and the same Lord Iesus Christ as true God so also true man one of them both not two into one the same without all time borne of the father the same in time borne of the virgine so that each of these births do so hold on Christ that he suffred not any losse in either retaining in himself that was proper to him both waies that is that the nature of the word should not be chaūged in the flesh the nature of the flesh was not swallowed vpp in the word Hereuppon the same Lord Iesus Christ
God Of the first the Apostle Saint Paule saieth VVee are predestinated into the adoption of the sonnes of God and therefore to a heauenlie inheritance of the other that it was done for the praise of the glory of his grace 6 The saluation therefore of the elect in Iesus Christ is certaine and necessarie the foundation whereof is the ternall free and vnchaungable purpose of the will of God 7 Who so haue beene chosen from the beginning in Christ vnto life euerlasting and to the meanes thereunto all they and onely they in the time appointed of the father ver 7 which is called the fulnesse of time were in verie deede through Christ and in Christ redeemed from their sinnes and so from the euill which followeth sinnes the Apostle saying in Iesus Christ vvee haue redemption euen remission of sinnes 8 Neither were we redeemed Tit. 3. v. 5 ver 7. according to the merits works of righteousnes which we haue done but according to the mercies of God and according to the riches of his grace by the blood of Christ Iesus both which are manifestly confirmed by the Apostle 9 And albeit the eternall father redeemed saued vs by his sonne by whome he also created vs yet the â—onne is he which by an especiall respect the church of God vseth to call the redeemer of mankinde and our Sauiour 10 For the Sonne alone Lev. 25. ver 48.49 was and is God and man and he alone had the right of proprietie as they call it or of kindred to redeeme vs hee alone shedd his blood whereby as by a ransome we were redeemed Lastlie he it is alone in whose person our redemption is made perfect and accomplished 11 By the name of this ransome which wee are said to haue in Christ â— Cor. 1. v. 30 wee meane that full and accomplished redemption in as much as it containeth not onely remission of sinnes in this life but also in the life to come after this a perfect deliuerance from all ill and from the bondage of all corruption so that there is no ransome which we haue not in Christ our most perfect redeemer who as he is made vnto vs by God our wisedome righteousnes sanctification so also our redemption Of the resurrection of Christ Iesus from the dead his ascension into heauen and sitting at Gods right hand out of the first of Paule to the Ephesians yeare 1581. 1 GOd did effectually shewe the greatnes of his power in Christ Eph. 1. â—â— by raising him from the dead therefore onely God by his infinite power is the efficient cause of the resurrection of Christ and all the dead 2 Yea but Christ also by his power raised him selfe from death as he said destroy this temple Ioh. 2.19 and in three dayes I will build it vp but hee spake of the temple of his bodie and that Ioh. 10.17 I lay downe my life that I may take it againe Christ therefore is no lesse God then the father neither is hee God of lesser might 3 But one and the same cannot be truely the raiser and the raised from the dead vnlesse he consist of diuers natures of the diuine according to which he doth raise and the humane according to which he is raised Therefore the same Christ as he is true God coessentiall with the father so hee is true man coessentiall with his mother and his brethren 4 Neither can any bee truely said to be raised and to rise from the dead vnlesse the same bee truely said to be dead and to haue died But death consisteth in a true separation of the soule froÌ„ the bodie whereby the body which dieth may presently bee rightly called a dead carkasse Christ then if he truely rose from the dead it can by no meanes be denied but that he also truely died his soule being truely separated from his bodie 5 If then sith he truely died neither his soule for that time of his death was in his bodie neither sith he was truely buried his bodie while it honge vppon the crosse was in the graue or while it lay in the graue hong vppon the crosse neither sith God truely raised him from the dead either his soule recalled his body or his body recalled himselfe from death to life therefore the humane nature in Christ was neither omnipotent nor euery where present in it owne substance 6 For as this consequence is not good Christ Iesus himselfe was dead and buried and rose againe from the dead therefore he was dead and buried and rose againe according to both his natures So neither is this behold I am vvith you euen to the ende of the vvorlde therefore not onely in his deitie but also in the substance of his humanitie hee is really present with vs on the earth 7 But as this consequence is good Christ being God suffered therefore he suffered not according to his deitie but according to his humanitie so is this other Christ Iesus being man is euerie where and simply omnipotent therefore he is euery where and omnipotent not according to his humanitie but according to his deitie seing the diuine nature is no lesse vnited to the humane then the humane is to the diuine in the same person of Christ Iesus 8 If God himselfe and so the diuine nature in Christ raised his body from the dead not by the same bodie but by it selfe namely by the diuine nature then it is false that the diuine nature in Christ did all things and doeth not onely in and with but also by the humane nature 9 For the soule of Christ Iesus doth not work all thinges by the bodie as neither doe our mindes vnderstand or will thinges by the bodies and that for this cause that as the philosophers also taught our minde dependeth not on the bodie Much lesse then doth the deitie of Christ worke all thinges by the flesh which it tooke 10 For doth the deitie vnderstand by the humane vnderstanding or doeth it will by the humane will or doth it keepe or sustaien the humane nature in the person of the word by the verie same humane nature or doth it beare all thinges by the humane flesh or rather by the word of it owne vertue Lastlie if the forme of God doe nothing but by the forme of a seruant how can that saying of Leo be true each fo rme doth the propertie of it selfe vvith communion of the other 11 Like as therefore the forme of God is one and the forme of a seruant another so the actions and proprieties of the one and of the other be diuers though manie times both the one the other haue one and the same worke and operacion 12 Wherefore this is no coÌ„sequence to whomsoeuer Christ commeth with the father according to the forme of God to him he also commeth and abideth in him in his owne substaÌ„ce according to the forme of a seruant much lesse that he is so euery where 13 Further
can be found more excellent then Christs body both for the vnion with the word and for the wonderfull gifts created in the same and so also for the most perfect glorie and happines wherein he nowe liveth It must needes be that this bodie must exist in some certaine most happie place 31 Neither can it proceede but onely from trupiety and from our true reverence towardes Christ that we should beleeue that his body doth dwell not vnder the earth not in the earth not in the waters not in a peece of bread not in every leafe of a tree not in the ayre or in the celestiall speres but in a place as the most happie faire perfect so the highest of al others which we with Ambrose think the Apostle spake of when he said that he was caught vp 2. Cor. 12.2 4. into the third heaven and into paradise 32 To this the same scripture also teacheth the Catholike faith beleeueth and confesseth that the same Iesus Christ shall come out of that heauen in the cloudes Phil. 3.20 1. Thes 4.16 1. Thes 4.17 to iudge the quicke and the dead and that we beeing raised from the dead shall be caught vp into the aire to meete him in the cloudes and so shall be with him in that heauen for euer 33 And this heauen Ioh. 14.2 which is called the Fathers house and the heauenly citty and by many other names The scripture prooueth to be placed aboue all the visible and mooveable heauēs saying that Christ is ascended aboue all heauens Eph. 4.16 and that he is in heauen 34 For this heauen wherein he is in his body and wherein we shall be in our bodies and soules cannot be some vast and I knowe not what vncreated roome partly because nothing is vncreated but God partly because it is plainely to the Hebr. Heb. 11.10 said to be Gods workmāship 35 Moreover the chiefe and principall efficient cause of that moouing wherein his bodie was carried vp into heauen was the divine nature remaining in him according to that to the Phil. 2. God hath exalted him And he was taken vp of God into glory But a secondary efficient cause was the gift of agility which followed his glorious resurrection bestowed on the humane nature by the diety by which agility that flesh ascended vp not held and sustained by angels or by the cloudes as once Elias was in the fierie chariot but of it owne accord and without trouble or difficultie and therefore that motion was not a violent motion 36 Now this ascention of Christ our head was the cause and the example of our ascension which shal be into heaven For sith the head is ascended it must needes be that the members shall ascend and as his ascension was so ours shall bee For he shall chaunge our vile bodies to be like to his glorious body and we shall be caught vp into the cloudes to meete Christ in the ayre and so we shall be with the Lord for euer 37 If then ours shall be a true ascention and that we shall truely be lifted from the earth into heauen Therefore Christs body also did truely ascend from earth into heauen not imaginarily or putatively 38 And this doctrine of Christs true ascention into that highest heauen and his perpetuall abiding there is most profitable and full of cōsolation 39 For first it serueth to strengthen our faith about the certaine place where with the eyes and hands of our faith we may behold touch and take hold of the body of Christ Then to establish our hope namely that it shall be that before the resurrection of our bodies our soules beeing separated from our bodies they shall neither discend beneath the earth nor shall flote in the waters or the aire nor roule about with the spheres but shall be carried aboue all these heauens to that blessed and heauenly house of the Father into which Christ in his body is already entred that they may be euer with Christ Lastly to kindle in our hearts the loue and desire of a heauenly life and conversation as the Apostle saith If ye be risen vvith Christ seeke those things which are aboue set your affections on thinges vvhich are aboue vvhere Christ sitteth at the right hand of God 40 Of Christs sitting at the right hand of the father thus speaketh the Apostle And hath set him Christ raised from the dead and carried vp into heauen in the heauenly places farre aboue all principallities and power and might domination and euerie name that is named not onely in this vvorld but also in that which is to come and hath made all thinges subiect vnder his feete c. YVhatsoeuer is read otherwise in the holy scripture or confessed by the church in the Creedes concerning this sitting is agreeable vnto this 41 But we cā no where read that for this sitting at Gods right hand either Christ Iesus tooke any other body call it howesoeuer or that in his naturall body there was any chaūge made of the substance of it or of any of those naturall qualities and essentiall proprieties which it retained after his resurrection It is therefore manifest that in what body Christ rose and ascended into heauen namely a visible palpable and circumscribed body in the same he also sitteth at the Fathers right hand in the highest heauens and wheresoeuer he is or pleaseth to be he keepeth still to himselfe such a body 42 The Apostle also witnesseth and the church confesseth in the Creedes that Christ first died was buried raised from the dead and taken vp into heauen before he fare at the Fathers right hand Therefore either it is false that Christs humaine nature thē first receiued a gift for substance of his body to be really euery where or if it be true then it receiued it not by the hypostaticall vnion which was made in his very incarnation 43 Neither is this exception any thing that by the hypostaticall vnion this was giuen him in the first act as that if he would he might be present every where but by the sitting at Gods right hand it was giuen him in the second act that is that he was indeed present every where 44 For besides that the tearmes of this distinction are tearmes not taken from the fountaines of Israel but out of the puddles of sophisters Christ himselfe also refelleth this exception when speaking not of the first act but of the second that is of his actuall presence he said both a little before his death Where two or three shall be gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them and after his resurrection bofore his ascension he said Beholde I am vvith you even to the ende of the world 45 By those sayings it evidently appeareth that either Christ spake not of the reall presēce of his body but onely of the presence of his diety and power of his spirit or that he is present to vs
therefore cannot really be communicated to the other nature as to be impassible eternall immeasurable Some are proper to the humaine nature and therefore cannot altogether indeede be communicated to the other nature as to be made to be finite and passible And other some propper to the wholle person consisting of both natures and therefore common to both natures together as to be a mediatour a redeemer a Sauiour 9 To this third kind pertaine those actions which the greeke Fathers called the actions of God maÌ„ or actions divine and humaine because in the workes of our redemption each forme worketh not the property of the other but of it selfe yet with the communion of the other the worde working that which belongeth to the word the flesh performing that which belongeth to the flesh 10 Of these three kinds of Atributes we find in our selues an example not vnlike For in a man some thinges are proper onely to the soule as to be immortall to vnderstand to wil soÌ„e thinges to the body only as to be mortall palpable heauy Some things common to them both as be such works to the performaÌ„ce whereof each part worketh that which is proper to it with communion of the other as to write to speake to runne and to doe whatsoeuer is done by the ministery of the body yet not without the vertue and guidance of the soule 11 Nowe of this which hath beene saide of the diuers Subiects Praedicats there followeth a diuersitie also of PraedicatioÌ„ Euery Praedication therefore of Christ is either proper and simple or els improper and figuratiue 12 The proper and simple PrÄ™dication falleth two waies one is when those thinges which are proper to one nature they are predicated or said of the person of Christ beeing expressed by a name either denominated of the same nature or proper to the person as this our God or Christ is omnipotent and euery vvhere present also this man or Christ suffered and died The other is when such things as are proper to the wholle person they are said also of the wholle person signified by a name that containeth both the natures such as these are that belong to the office of a mediatour and the honour of an head as Christ Imanuell God incarnate redeemed vs sanctified vs saued vs is a King to be vvorshipped which are said therefore to be proper to the person because they can be seuerally applied to neither of the natures Nowe all such be proper and simple propositions because in all which are of the same kinde the Praedicates be coupled with the Subiects in all those thinges which are of the verie same kinde 13 The improper and figuratiue praedication is likewise twofold one wheÌ„ as these things which are proper to the wholle person either belonging to the office of a mediatour or to the honour of an head the same are saide of on of the natures signified either by an abstractiue or a concretiue name As the flesh quickeneth the blood washeth from sinne God redeemed the Church the Mediatour of god and men Man c. The other when that which is proper to one nature is said of the other nature signified by a name which is concretiue and which be tokeneth the person as God suffered and died man when he was on earth was also at the same time in heauen 14 For in thâ—se improper propositions of the latter sort the proprieties of diuerse kindes are coupled as wordes concretiue and therfore god is vnproperly said to suffer in as much as the name God in it owne propper signification doth betoken the divine essence which cannot suffer but in respect of the person being meant which is also man it is a true though an improper propositioÌ„ therefore these things are said of the wholle person by a Synechdoche whereas indeede they agree not to the same but onelie in respect of one nature 15 This latter forme of an improper speech we call the coÌ„munity of proprieties as the greeks doe which Theodoret expounding calleth the communitie of names And Damascene the troope of retribution 16 For with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a concretiue worde signifying the proprietie of some nature And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was when as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or proprieties of one nature were mutually and reciprocally spoken of the concrete name of the other nature which name did signifie the person so that it is meere folly to thinke that the Fathers when they spake of the comnication of the Idiomes that they meant to speake of any reall powering or communication of the essentiall proprieties of one nature into the other seing they write plainely the vnitie maketh the names common but neuer maketh the things common 17 For if our talke be of the natures themselus Theod. diâ— 3. p. 67. B. which are in Christ Theodoret with other fathers teacheth vs that wee must so speake as we do not saye that those which are proper to the one nature are in very deed common to the other but that wee giue to either of them alone that which belongeth to it Euen as that which belongeth to the soule wee giue it not to the body and contrary wise But if we speak of the person we must so frame our speach that we may declare those things which are proper to each nature to bee truely and indeed common to the whole person euen as also we giue to the whole man really and in trueth aswell those things which belong to the soule as to the bodie Now his very wordes after his bringing in of the similitude of the soule and the body the whole man follow thus So we must speake of Christ And when we speake of the natures in Christ wee must geue to each of them those things which do befitt each we must know what things are proper to the diuinitie what to the humanitie but whenas we speake of the person we must make those things which are proper to the nature common and must fitt these verie same to our Sauiour Christ and we must call him both God and man both the sonne of God and the sonne of man both the sonne of Dauid and the Lord of Dauid both the seede of Abraham and the creatour of Abraham and so of all the rest The same doctrine he also confirmeth out of Amphilochius bishop of Iconium and out of other fathers in many places in his dialogues 18 Damascene also to expound the same matter to wit how the same thinges which belong to one nature should be communicated to the other namely in person writeth thus The word doth approprsate vnto it selfe those things which belong to man For those thinges which pertaine to his holy flesh be his and he doth by a manner of mutuall praedication impart those things which are proper to himselfe vnto the flesh by reason of the being of the partes mutually one within the other and their
hypostaticall or personall vnion 19 Out of which place it euidently appeareth first that those things which are of the flesh are no lesse giuen to the word then the things of the word to the flesh then that they which belong to the word are giuen to the flesh after no other manner then they which pertaine to the flesh are giuen to the word lastlie that this manner of giuing is called the manner of mutuall pradication not simplie and in the abstractiue names of the natures but in the concretiue noting the person 20 Moreouer what this manner of praedication is and why it is so called the same Damascene expoundeth in the 4. chapter both by example and by the cause in these wordes This manner of mutuall praedication is vvhen those things vvhich are proper to one nature are spoken of the other nature by reason of the hypostaticall identitie or personall vnion of them both and for that the one nature is in the other for example vvee may say of Christ this our god was seene vpon the earth and conuersed with men and this man is vncreated not subiect to passion not circumscribed in any place And the examples added doe manifestlie shewe howe one nature doeth attribute those things which are proper vnto it selfe to the other and for what cause For God in that by this name is ment the diuine essence was not seene on earth but onely in that the person is ment by it which is both God and man 21 Therefore we mislike not that receiued description of the communicating of proprieties The communication of the proprieties is a praedication wherein the proprietie agreeable to one nature is giuen to the person in a name concrete because these two natures the vvorde and the humane nature taken are one existence or person 22 Thus therefore we iudge that the communication of the properties may not amisse be defined the communication of the proprieties is a praedication or a manner of speach wherein the proprietie that is the concrete name signifying the proprietie of one nature is spoken really of Christs person signified by the name of the other nature and is spoken onely in worde of the other nature in the concrete by reason of the coniunction of the natures the personall vnion thereof 23 But we say it is all one to be praedicated or said of the person signified by the coÌ„crete name of the other nature and to be said of the concrete name of the other nature signifying the person as also the proprietie and the concrete name signifying the proprietie of the one nature are in this matter alone 24 For this question was propounded by the fathers against the heretikes not so much about the things themselues as about the manners of speaking which the holy scripture vseth speaking of Iesus Christ when sometime it saieth The Lord of glorie vvas crucified sometime The sonne of man vvhen he vvas on earth vvas also in heauen and other such like namely how such phrases should be vnderstood 25 For none of any sound iudgemeÌ„t euer doubted but as the natures so also the essentiall proprieties of both the natures remained distinct whole and vnconfounded in the person of Iesus Christ after the vnion so as for example sake neither the deitie was made passible and locall nor the humanitie impassible and vncircumscribed as some heretickes falsifying the scriptures haue blasphemed 26 Now the very foundation of this whole exposition was the true and neere vniting of the two natures within themselues and a meeting of them into one and the same person vnspeakably made without conuersion without confusion without diuision without separation 27 For Damascene declaring this after he had taught how those things which are of the flesh are giuen to the vvorde and likewise how the things of the word are communicated to the flesh namely according to this manner of praedicaâ—ation he adioyneth the cause thereof saying by reason of the meeting together of the partes one with the other and the hypostaticall or personall vnion in the 4. chapter This is the manner saith he of mutuall predication vvhenas one nature doth giue the proprieties of one nature to the other which it doth in respect of the personall identitie the ioyning of the natures one with the other Now this ioyning of the natures one with the other is the very vnion that is an inward absolute and most perfect vniting them together As Damascene both els where especially in his 4. booke and 19. chapter expouÌ„deth it saying But the diuine nature once going through the flesh gaue vnto the flesh also an vnspeakable going to the diuine nature vvhich vvee call the vnion 29 We our selues add that this vnion is also the finall cause of this forme of speaking because therefore this reciprocall praedication is deliuered in the holie scripture that the true vnitie of the natures in one person of Iesus Christ might be shewed which is the cause why these verball praedications can by no meanes be said to be vaine or to no purpose seing they haue great vse shewing how the two natures are vnited into one person without confusion 30 Moreouer this same communication of the proprieties for example in this proposition God was crucified we say to be both verball and reall in diuers respects For in that by this concrete word God is ment a person which is not onely God but also man it is a reall predication For because he was man therefore he truly and indeed died But as the deitie is meant by the formall signification as they speake or as God simply is meant thereby it is a verball praedication and that a true one For god is truely said to haue died by reason of the person togither meant and that which is God indeed died not nor could die although he which is God did truely die 31 These thinges thus declared it is easie to iudge of the diuers enunciations which be tru and which false and in what manner of Praedication each one is to be taken Neither one nature nor the proprieties thereof can by any meanes neither in the abstractiue name nor in the concretiue be predicated or spoken of the other nature signified in the abstractiue For it is as false to say The humaine nature or the humanity is God as to say The humanity is the dietie And as false to say the humanity is immeasurable and infinite as to say the humanity is very immeasurablenesse or infinitenes Therefore in all the scriptures is no such kind of speech to be found 32 Neither can one nature or the proprieties thereof be spoken in the abstract of the other nature signified either in an abstractiue or concretiue name For both these propositions are false God is the humanity and the Deity is the humanity 33 Of either of the natures signified by what name soeuer the thinges that are proper therevnto may truely be spoken and that of them both in the concrete but of
place next vnto the Canonicall bookes V. The rules of faith can be prooued onely by the canonicall bookes And therefore wee vse only the canonicall bookes for proofe of the rules of faith Hieron in praef in lib. Sal. Cypr. in sym p. 377. Con. Laod. cap. 59. and with the fathers wee teach that they are to be vsed but wee thinke the rest to be of great force to confirme the same rules beeing before sufficiently prooued VI. The canonicall scriptures take not their authoritie from the Church VVherefore this we hold without all controuersie and wee thinke it is to be holden that although the Church beeing taught of the first fathers namely Prophets and Apostles who receiued their doctrine immediatly from god and committed the same to writing and beeing also instructed by the holie ghost hath deliuered to the posteritie by a continueing and perpetuall tradition which are canonicall and which are not canonicall bookes yea and hath giuen and shall alwaies giue testimonie vnto them of the holie and heauenlie truth yet that these writings haue not receiued their authoritie from the same Church but of god onely their onely proper author and therefore that of themselues because they are the word of God they haue power ouer all men and are worthie to bee simplie beleeued and obeyed of all VII Yet that the Churches authoritie doth much auaile to make men beleeue the holie Scriptures Although wee denie not by the waie but that the authoritie of the church hath an especiall force to mooue men to the hearing and reading of the holie Scriptures as the word of god according to that of Augustine I had not beleeued the gospell for so he meant vnlesse the authoritie of the church had mooued me Tom. 6. cont Epi. Fund ca. 5. Yet the same Augustine notwithstanding in all places pronounceth that his beleefe came not from the church but from the bolie spirite whose gift faith is VIII That the church hath nopovver ouer the holie scriptures But to dispute whether the authoritie of the church be greater then that of the holie scriptures yea and much more to set downe the affirmatiue part as though the church ouer and aboue the gift of knowing the spirits and of discerning canonicall scriptures from others and of testifying of them and of interpreting of them should haue also authoritie either of adding too or diminishing anie thing from them and of dispensing with thē we iudge it more then sacriledge Deut. 4.2 5.31 12.32 Apoc. 22.18 19. For God commandeth that no man shall add or diminish nor anie one shall decline to the right hand or to the left but all together shall simplie obeye him speaking vnto them in the holie scriptures in all manner of thinges IX The holie scriptures are so perfect that nothing may be added to or taken from them For the scriptures are so holie and meerlie perfect plentifully containing whatsoeuer is necessarie to saluation that nothing can bee added vnto them written with such perfection and wisedome that nothing may bee taken from them X. And therefore men ought to rest vppon them VVherefore wee euen as all godlie men ought to doe doe rest our selues vppon the doctrine of those holie writinges holding that same spoken by the Apostle 2. Tim. 3.16 all Scripture inspired from aboue is profitable to doctrine c. XI Nothing must be established concerning religion vvithout the vvord af god but all things to be reformed by it VVe hold therefore Dist 9. that nothing must be determined cōcerning religion in the church of god which hath not apparent testimonie in the canonicall bookes or may out of them be conuinced by manifest and necessarie consequence And if at anie time there hath crept into the church anie thing either concerning doctrine or the seruice of god which is not agreeable to the holie scriptures the same ought by some lawfull meanes either quite to be taken away or els to be reformed by the rule of gods word and that all controuersies in religion ought lawfully to be iudged and decided out of the same holie scriptures XII Traditions truely apostolicall and catholicke are to be retained in the church And the traditiōs in meane while which it is manifestlie knowne haue come from the Apostles Aug. tom 7. con Donat. lib. 4. ca. 24. tom 2. 2d Ian. ep 118. D. 11. c. 8. to haue beene euer obserued in all churches as that of hallowing the Lords daie in place of the Sabaoth and such like and allthough there be no expresse commandement in the scriptures for the obseruing of them yet wee iudge that they are to be retained in the church XIII The scripture is verie perspicuous in such things as be necessarie to saluation and therefore ought to bee read of all Yea wee thinke and knowe the whole doctrine of saluation not onely plentifully but plainelie and perspicuouslie to bee deliuered in the holie scriptures and sith God neuer spake vnto his people but in their natural language which might bee vnderstood of all that it is a great iniustice and tirannie to forbidd the reading of them to anie men consequentlie the turning of them into the proper tongue of anie nation which the Lord hath willed and commaunded should be read of all men for their owne saluations sake yea should be continuallie borne about in their hands daie and night XIIII The faithfull interpretations by learned godlie men are not to be contemned Although the holie scriptures in those matters which are necessarie to saluation be plaine and easie yet wee dissolue not the interpretations and expositions of skillful and learned godlie men 1. Thess 5.21 aswell aimcient as later namely such as are grounded vppon the same scriptures and so farre forth as scriptures are expounded by scriptures and that in correspondence to the chiefe principles of faith the summe whereof is contained both in the Apostles Creede and also in the Creedes of the true generall and of the auncient holie councells gathered together against those which were notorious heretikes XV. The onely word of god to be the piller of faith and foundation of religion For our faith nether cā nor ought to groūded vppon anie other thing Rom. 10.17 then the word of god deliuered in the holy scriptures that faith may be allwaies of hearing and hearing by the vvord of god wherunto whatsoeuer in any mens works is repugnāt we reiect it whatsoeuer is agreeable we embrace it but that which standeth in a newtralitie as it shall be expedient or not expedient to the church we allow or disallow it and so we teach that it is to be allowed or disallowed CHAP. II. Of God and of the diuine persons and properties I. That there is one onely god distinct in three persons AS wee are taught therefore by the holie scriptures Deu. 4.6 which are his owne word we beleeue that there is only one god that is one simple indiuisible eternall liuing