Exaltation namely Resurrection Ascension and Glorification in Heaven ARTICLE V. The third day he rose again from the dead Tho' being a Christian I need no Proof of Christ's rising from the Dead yet to confirm my belief of so eminent an Article God has given me the Testimony of Angels of the Men that guarded the Sepulcher the many Apparitions of Christ after he was risen the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the Miracles done by them in his Name So that I have just ground to believe and profess That the Body of Christ saw no Corruption as did the Bodies of the Patriarchs And because it was impossible he should be holden of the Power of Death I do believe that he did really rise again and that the very same Body and Soul of our Saviour which were separated by Death were by his own Divine Power reunited in his Resurrection And as to the time when he arose I have been taught and do believe That it was the Third day after his Death which hapned to be the First day of the Week Which Day we celebrate in memory of his Resurrection and which has immemorially been called The Lord's Day ARTICLE VI. He ascended into Heaven and sitteth c. I believe That Christ ascended by the same Power he rose And that this was no other Power than that of his own Divinity by which as an High-Priest of good things to come he once ascended visibly and locally into the Heaven of Heavens as the High-Priest once every Year entred into the Holy of Holies And the End of his Ascension was I believe to prepare a place for Believers and to receive them to it that where he is they might be also After Christ's Ascension into Heaven he took his Place at the Right-Hand of God Not that I think God who is a most absolute Spirit hath either Right or Left Hand but that this is spoken after the manner of Men who place those whom they will most honour upon their Right-hand And from Christ's being thus placed in Heaven I collect That he there took up his Abode in a State of Majesty and Power to shew that he was above all Creatures in Heaven and Earth and that he is exalted to be the King of Saints and Judge of Sinners the Prince of our Salvation and High-Priest of our Profession and that in him there was an Union of the Regal Power and Priestly Office when he sat down at the Right-hand of the Father Almighty So that by the former he is perfectly able to subdue all his Enemies and by the latter he doth ever intercede for and eternally save those that are his ARTICLE VII From thence he shall come to judge c. As I believe that Christ redeemed me by his death and passion and that by his Ascension he is become my Advocate and Intercessor with God so I believe that he shall come the second time from Heaven with great Glory to judge the World For besides the particular Judgment that passeth upon every Man immediately upon his Death when the departed Soul is set at God's Tribunal and examined of all its Thoughts Words and Actions I say besides this particular Judgment I believe their shall be a general Judgment when all shall be judged as well the Quick that shall be alive at that day as the Dead who shall then be raised up And that this last Judgment Christ himself as a Supream Judge shall pass the final Sentence and that the Saints as Assessors shall pass their Sentence of Approbation I believe too That I and all Men shall be judged of all things done in the Body whether Good or Evil And that upon the pronouncing of the Sentence the truly penitent shall pass to an Estate of Eternal Happiness and finally the Impenitent to an Estate of Eternal Misery ARTICLE VIII I believe in the Holy Ghost Having briefly declared what my Faith is in God the Father and God the Son I am next to declare what I believe concerning God the Holy Ghost And first I believe That without Faith in the Holy Ghost I cannot believe in God the Father nor in his Son as my Lord. For no Man can call God Father but by the Holy Ghost nor can any Man say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Whom I believe to be the Third Person in the Divine Being and therefore True God And that as he proceedeth from the Father and the Son which I believe he doth he is a Person distinct from both The Spirit in whom I believe is called Holy because in himself he is without all Pollution and sin and because he is the Author of all Holiness in me and all who truly believe in him So that all my Holiness is but a Ray or Effusion of the Holy Ghost which doth furnish my Heart with spiritual and saving Graces by the Work of Sanctification ARTICLE IX I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints After this plain Account given by me of the Articles which concern the Blessed Trinity I will now give the like Account of those that follow which respect such only as truly believe in and obey and Worship the Trinity in Unity and who are here called the Church Which I plainly take to signifie all those whom Christ hath called out of the World to be his peculiar People Over whom he hath a Sovereign Authority in regard of which they willingly and chearfully pay him Homage and obey his Law and Ordinances For by Church I have been taught to understand the Corporation and General Family of all true Believers which Family truly deserves to be called Holy in respect of its Head which is Christ who is Holy in himself and whose Holiness is imputed to all sincere Believers And who through the Grace given to them do labour study and endeavour to be Holy And the Church in this familiar acception I believe is Universal as well as Holy and that there are in all the Quarters of the World those who by Baptism are admitted into it and so made Members of Christ's Mystical Body who are guided by his Spirit nourished by the Word and Sacrament and who are obedient to the Rule and Government of the Bishops and Pastors lawfully called to their Offices And of this Society of Believers which constitute the Church some are in a state of War continually fighting against their own and Christ's Enemies but yet in daily expectation of Triumph and a Crown And these are called the Church Militant which is on Earth And some are in a state of Peace for having fought the good Fight of Faith and finished their Warfare they are entred into their Master's Joy And these make the Church Triumphant which is crowned in Heaven Now these I hold are not two divers Churches but the same Church under a different State and Condition For I believe the Church to be essentially but one And as Christ's Mystical Body the Church
truth defend them how loudâ—y soever your Tongue may accuse them He only who confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy If you thus forsake your sins God is faithful and â—ust to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 He â—s bound in Fidelity and Justice â—o fulfil that promise of Pardon to you which he has made to all Penitents upon their humble Confession of sins and sincere Reformation This being the only course whereby you may free your self from all punishment of sins and become capable of Mercy XXXII But besides this Confessioâ— thus to be made to God theâ— is also a Confession to be madâ— unto the Guide of Souls in case of a troubled and doubting Coâ—science and to the Church 〈◊〉 point of publick Offence and Scaâ—dal Which sorts of Confessioâ— as to their conduct profitableneâ— and necessity I shall not now haâ—dle having designed them a dâ—stinct Treatise XXXIII The second branch or ingredient of Repentance is Sorrow which naturally results from Confession For when by this you as you must needs have inform'd your self how you are guilty of many and heinous sins and the miseries to which they have exposed you it were strange if the sight thereof should not make you sorrowful XXXIV But seeing sorrow for sin has vulgarly engrost the whole Notion of Repentance and that men are prone to think they have quite extinguisht the wrath kindled by sin when they have dropt a few tears upon it I shall here mind you of the nature of that sorrow which accompanies true Repentance And first you will find it to have a double spring the one a fear of danger the other a dislike of sin And first XXXV That sorrow which ariseth only from a sense of the danger to which your sins have betray'd you it doth not say the Schools break the heart but only fret it So that this sense or fear of present danger being blown over the sorrow caused by it doth also vanish not leaving any mark of amendment behind it And yet to this sorrow that we shall be punished called Attrition though never so empty of reformation by the absolution of the Priest is turn'd into Contrition say the Roman Casuists Which is aâ— most unkind deceit of Souls the Scripture having made noâ— promise that flying from the wrath to come shall be sufficient to obtain pardon without bringing forth meet fruits of Repentance XXXVI Secondly There is a sorrow arising from a dislike to sin and conscientious thoughts that thereby you have undutifully grieved and provoked so good a God so compassionate a Father so gracious a Redeemer and so blessed a Sanctifier And this never misses of producing the effect of true sorrow which is to sin no more For for a man to be sorrowful out of an apprehension of the punishments God has annext to sin rather than that hereby his Law has been transgressed and the Conscience polluted this is to grieve rather that God is just than you are guilty XXXVII Sorrow for sin is very propeâ— to turn your stomach against it and you must have less sense than the Brute you ride on iâ— you shun not that has caused you to smart and put you to pain But yet there are otheâ— fruits of Repentance that musâ— deliver you from the wrath to come for meer fear of dangeâ— can be no further reasonable oâ— useful than as it disposeth you to forsake the sins that causeâ— it But if you should be so faâ— bewitched through the deceitfulness of sin that you will noâ— leave it though you die in it arms or if you grieve thaâ— you have sinn'd and yet still go on to sin if knowing the malignity and having poised and found the weight of sin to be as a talent of Lead upon your Soul and notwithstanding all this you still venture on to commit it this will leave you unpardon'd because unreform'd and make all your tears as water spilt upon the ground XXXVIII Sorrow for having offended God the greater it is the more acceptable it is to him and profitable for your self For it being a sort of punishment the more afflictive it is the more surely it will accomplish the intent of all punishments even the amendment of the Offender And if you once have felt the pain and trouble of a wounded Conscience you will have no great mind to venture afresh upon the sins that caused it In short sorrow arising out of fear of danger proceeds from love to your self and therefoâ—â— can never avail you for pardoâ— But godly sorrow working â—pentance to salvation ariseâ— from a love to God whom 〈◊〉 more you love the more yoâ— will grieve to have offendeâ— him Sorrow arising from seâ— of Gods vengeance usually teâ—minates and ends in a sullen dâ—spondency and desperate dâ—jection of Spirit but sorrow 〈◊〉 having provoked God changeâ— the mind turns you from 〈◊〉 to holiness and the constaâ—â— practice of all those Christiâ—â— Duties which the Gospel râ—quires at your hands But you find your self herein to â—â—lumpish and heavy and thâ— you cannot grieve to that dâ—gree you ought then the waâ— to quicken up your penitentiâ— sorrow is to quicken up yoâ— love to God to which his continual favours do most powerfully oblige you Wicked men love those that love them and if you were sensible which is impossible of no other of Gods kindnesses but his sparing you when you deserved punishment and his giving you space to repent when he might have cut you off in your sins this were enough to engage you to love him with all the kinds and degrees of the purest affection Imagine how many have been snatcht hence in a moment whose offences have perchance not been so provoking as your own Consider what could move God to spare you in a continued course of many years disobedience against him but his own unspeakable goodness and because he was loth to have you perish Let pure thoughts of Gods love dwell in your heart and they will melt it down into an humble and contrite sadness that you have dealt so unkindly as to forsake the Lord. XXXIX And if the sole consideration of Gods long-suffering be so ingenuous an Engagement to make you grieve for having sinn'd against him you will find the multitude of his other mercies to cause Rivers of waters to run down your eyes for having broken his Laws And if your heart be so hard that it will not relent upon these considerations then have you great reason to importune God with humble prayer that he would smite that Rock your heart that it may flow with the tears oâ— true repentance the waters oâ— a second Baptism that he would give you such a clear sight of your sins as may at once cause you to sorrow for and abandon them XL. Reparation is a third branch of true Repentance and is due to God to Man First to God who in all injuries is the first party injured For though you may
you may here do wisely to call to mind by what occasions and with what baits you have been â—nd still are apt to be drawn away and enticed to the end you may with greater vigilance and courage avoid and resist them For common Prudence will teach you to strengthen the Fence where the Beast useth to break in and to re-inforce that Avenue where the Enemy is wont to make and prevail in his Attack XLVIII The last thing I shall mention concerning your Religious Resolutions is their speedy execution for delay therein has ever been thought dangerous aâ— having a throat wide enough tâ— swallow the biggest opportunâ—ty And you cannot be suâ—â— till you practise what you puâ—pose for seeing your life coâ—tinually walks to and fro â— a breath and that you have 〈◊〉 warrant of being able to do thâ— the next hour which this yoâ— neglect and put off this througâ—ly concludes for the present dâ—ing of what you purpose Anâ— if holy Resolutions might safeâ—â— be delay'd yet they can be delay'd no longer than your comâ—ing to the Scarament becauâ— you cannot safely approach thâ— Ordinance without stedfastâ— purposing to lead a new lifâ— for till you are a new Creaturâ— or begin to lead a new life yoâ— are in sense of Scripture deaâ— And how absurd a thing is it 〈◊〉 put Bread and Wine into a deaâ— mans mouth none so stupid aâ— not to imagine You may indeed naturally eat and drink the Bread and Wine receive into your stomach the elements of the Sacrament but if you live in the liking much more in the commission of any thing you know to be sin you can receive no more spiritual nourishment in the Sacrament than a dead Carcass at the best Entertainment XLIX And this is another consideration that lays upon you a necessity presently to renounce your sins to give them a Bill of Divorce and to withdraw from them all degrees of kindness and respect For without this you can be in no fit disposition to be married to Christ and to embrace all the Graces flowing from him In short that Resolution which I call a branch of Repentance and which is indispensible required of you when you come to the Lords Table is made up of these two things First Renouncing of all sin Secondly Embracing of all Christian Vertues The first without the second is but sweeping the house without furnishing it And therefore when you have cleansed your Soul of the nastiness and dirt of sin you are not to let it lye empty but to furnish it with all those Graces commanded you in the Gospel such especially as are required in every one coming to the Supper of the Lord. And those are chiefly three namely Faith Charity and Devotion L. The necessity of Faith is expresly taught you by your first Catechism where it saith That a lively Faith in Gods Mercies through Christ is required of every Communicant and that the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper For it is by Faith that you there look upon him whom God hath set forth to be the Propitiation for your Sins even Jesus Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Rom. 3.25 John 1.29 You easily perceive the necessity of Faith when you mind that in receiving the Holy Sacrament you are to believe that Jesus is the true Seed of the Woman which was promised in the beginning and was sent in the fulness of time that in hiâ— all the Nations of the Earth iâ— they will may be blessed he being the Universal and Mighty Saviour who both will and can save all that come unto him there being no other in whom Salvation is to be expected Yoâ— are likewise to believe that he was crucified or died an ignominious or cursed death and that the Merits of his death are sufficient to save all Sinners and that all those Merits are convey'd to you in the Sacrament when it is worthily received LI. But as to the clear Nature oâ— that Faith now required of you the Church fairly intimates whaâ— it is when she calls it a lively Faith in Gods Mercy through Christ LII And Faith is said to be lively when it works through Love shewing it self in well doing for where Life is there will be Action And the Life of Faith like that of Nature will shew it self in the Heart Tongue and Hands In the first by sincereness of Devotion and holy Thoughts in the second by wholsome and gracious Communication And in the last by works of Justice and Charity LIII The Object of this lively Faith is God's Mercy upon which it reflects as the Fountain whence the Scriptures have proceeded in which Gods Covenant for Mans Redemption is established and his Promises to believing penitent Sinners are contained And if you shall inquire into the reason of all this you will find that nothing but his meer Mercy moved God to make known his Will and in the Holy Scriptures to reveal the Means of Salvation and make the way to Heaven plain and easie It was onely to shew the great love wherewith he loved you and the exceeding Riches of his Grace that prevailed with God to be thus kind unto you LIV. But all this is through Christ he is the Conduit of all these Blessings being of God made unto all Believers Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption He is the Author oâ— all true Knowledge the cause oâ— your Justification your Sanctification and will be also of your Deliverance and rescue from all Calamities that you are subject to in this Life and at last from Death it self by raising you again 1 Cor. 1.30 And as by a voice from Heaven God declaed with Solemnity that he was well pleased with Christ so he hath likewise declared that he is well pleased with Believers only for his sake By Christ you are predestinated adopted accepted and pardon'd and shall be glorified So that in your own Person you may speak as the Apostle did in the Name of all Christians Ephes 1.3 4 5 c. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed me with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly things in Christ according as he hath chosen me in him that I should be holy and without blame before him in Love LV. In whom I have Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of Sins according to the riches of his Grace c. It is impossible in any Duty without Faith to please God or to be accepted of him because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin But in the matter of the Holy Sacrament Faith hath a more appropriate Office for by it as by a Hand Mouth and Stomach you receive eat and digest the spiritual Food and heavenly Sustenance by which your Soul is nourished to eternal Life And in the sense of the Spirit to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ is properly to believe on him
kept so long for this speaks it your want of Will and not of Power and that it was not your Weakness but something else that moved you to leave the Road wherein you had walked so long a time with ease and safety XC Use makes hard things easie the chief if not onely difficulty in Holiness is want of practice and a being accustom'd to the contrary The ways of Gods Commandments neither waste the Spirits nor gall the Feet of those who use constantly to walk in them Let the like serious and holy Thoughts possess your Soul for the future that you have the day of receiving and continue to co-operate with that Grace God gives you at the Sacrament and I see not why your whole Life may not be all of the same piece and your Conversation continue as vertuous and well-govern'd after as it was at the time you came to the Holy Communion from which I will no longer stay you than with this hearty Wish That when you come thither to renew your Covenant in Vows and Purposes of better Obedience God may vouchsafe to assist you with his Grace and to strengthen you with his Power that you may pay the Vows you then make unto him and that by Virtue of the heavenly Nourishment you there receive you may grow up in Grace and Holiness till at last you come to be a perfect man in Christ Amen THE Communicants Assistant BEING A COLLECTION OF DEVOTIONS To that purpose A Prayer before communicating WHY should I O God who by innumerable wayes have offended thee why should I dare to come to thy Table which none ought to approach but obedient Children and faithful Servants But seeing thy fatherly Goodness this day doth invite me to receive the blessed Pledges of my Peace and Reconciliation with thee and seeing thy well-beloved Son whose Death I now with all Thankfulness commemorate doth call unto him those and only those who travail and are heavy laden to whom the remembrance of their Sins is grievous and the burthen of them is intolerable Finding my self in this number I know thou wilt not reject me Raise O raise up my Heart and Spirit unto thee Strengthen my Faith and help my Infirmities Grant me power to perform and to persevere in all those good things thou now requirest at my hands and grant that the whole course of my Life may be answerable to the present purposes of my Heart and bring me at last to the enjoyment of those Blessings which at this thy holy Table thou art pleased to propound unto me Amen O My God raise up my Thoughts unto thee increase my Faith Hope and Charity warm my Heart with the divine Fire of thy Love purifie my Conscience with the Spirit of Sanctification Grant this day I may with full affiance in thee receive the Pledges of thy Goodness and the Seals of that Covenant which thou hast graciously contracted with me by the Mediation of thy Son my Saviour O My God save and deliver me from all my Offences and at the end of my Life receive me into thy heavenly Kingdom to the accomplishment of all those things which are represented at thy holy Table Let my future Conversation be as one of thy Sheep living in thy Church an Example of Peaceableness Charity Humility Patience and Justice Give me a firm reliance upon thy Promises a holy zeal for thy Worship and a sincere obedience to all thy Commands Fill my Heart with spiritual Joy keep me from the immoderate Cares of the World and among all disquiets here give me that Peace which the World can neither give nor take away from me For forgiveness of Sins FOrgive me my Sins O Lord forgive me the Sins of my Youth and the Sins of mine Age the Sins of my Soul and the Sins of my Body my secret and my whispering Sins my presumptuous and my crying Sins the Sins that I have done to please my self and the Sins that I have done to please others Forgive me my wanton and idle Sins forgive me my serious and deliberate Sins forgive me those Sins I know and those Sins which I know not the Sins which I have striven so long to hide from others that at last they are even hid from mine own Memory Forgive them O Lord forgive them all and of thy great Goodness let me be absolved from all mine Offences Amen PRAYERS FOR The several things required of those who come to the Lords Supper 1. To repent them truly of their former Sins A Prayer for true Repentance TO thee O God all Hearts are open all desires known and from thee no Secrets are hid so that if I would I cannot conceal my Sins from thee And now that I confess my Sins unto thee it is not to inform thy infinite Knowledge but to obey thy gracious Pleasure and to make me capable of that forgiveness promised to all who confess their Sins With a sorrowfull Heart therefore I confess my Sins unto thee I accuse my self here before thee of innumerable wicked thoughts and desires which I have conceived form'd and foster'd in my Heart of infinite corrupt and evil Words that I have utter'd with my Tongue of many naughty and ungodly Deeds which I have wrought with my Hands by all which I have provoked most justly thy Wrath and Indignation against me but it is thy Nature and Property always to have mercy and to forgive the Sins of them that are penitent Grant me therefore Holy Father the Grace of true repentance create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Grant I may truly lament my Sins whose burden is intollerable and whose remembrance is so grievous unto me And for the future inable me to cease from evil and learn to do well to cast away the Works of Darkness and to put on the Armour of Light and to bring forth Fruits of Repentance in amendment of Life to the Praise and Glory of thy Grace in Jesus Christ my blessed Redeemer 2. Stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life A Prayer for Perseverance in good Purposes GRant O God that I may bring the good Purposes with which this day I come to thy Holy Table Grant I may bring them to good effect I know I am light and unconstant turn'd with every blast diverted by every allurement and ready to yield to every Temptation But do thou O God who art the same Yesterday to Day and for ever do thou graciously impart some of thy unchangeableness to establish my Understanding in Truth and to keep it from the Snares of all seducing Spirits that I may not be led away with the Errours of those who are cunning to deceive Fix my irresolute and wavering Will and cause it faithfully to adhere unto that which is good Let neither the Flatteries of the World nor of my own Heart so far work upon my Affections as to draw me from that intire Obedience which I resolve from this day forward to
other Reasons those that have been thus briefly intimated may at least assist to clear the first question and answer of the Catechism from the guilt of Trivialness Vanity and Impertinency As to what is objected against the Second question and answer it will be sufficient to reply That our Church therein is confo mable to the Primitive For Tertullian a Father of the Third age saith positively That it was the custom of the Church in his time to adm t none to the benefit of the Scriptures or to any dispensation concerning sacred and divine things or to the scanning and examination of particular Questions of Religion who could not first give a clear account of all material circumstances of their Reception into the Ark of Christ's Church By whom at what time and after what manner they were received which are the Ingredients of the second answer in the Church-Catechism and whether they did stedfastly believe and maintain all those general Principles wherein there ever was an universal an unanimous agreement among all Christians And those who could not give an account thereof were looked upon as such who had no right to the Communion of Christ's Church and the Priviledges of his Kingdom This Testimony of the Churches practice is to be seen in Tertullian's Praesc advers Haeretic A piece which was written by him as I conceive before the provocations of the Roman Clergy tempted him to turn a Montanist and to be led away with the Enthusiastick delusions of that Sect. He lived in the third age and was so high in the esteem of the humble and modest St. Cyprian that he usually called him his Master Hierom. in Cat. Script Eccles Abraham Buchol Chronolog The imposition of the Name being confined to the precise time of Baptism is by some looked upon as an impertinent Rigor and tasting highly of Superstition But they would be of another mind if without prejudice they would have recourse to the Use of the Church which hath always given Names to those Children she admitted into her Fellowship at the punctual time of their admission And this will be plainly discerned if we look back unto Circumcision the first Characteristical Sacrament for from the time of its Institution to that of its legal abolishment the Male received his name at the Celebration of that truly primitive Initiatory Nor doth it any way evacuat this Assertion that we read of some who had names before they were circumcised after that admissory Rite was appointed as Benoni Gershom and the Israelites born in the Wilderness Gen. 35.18 Exod. 2. 4. Josh 5.2 whom we may suppose not to have wanted Names as they did Circumcision But as touching the Example of Benoni it affords little of Objection seeing that at Circumcision his Name was changed And what happen'd concerning Gershom it was as the instance of the Israelites in the Desart in this case not at all argumentative because it was extraordinary and when necessity forced them to dispence with Law So that notwithstanding all this we may conclude that Circumcision was the usual time for the imposition of Names And the like custom has always been observed at Christian Baptism the Church thinking it most convenient that the Baptised should at the same time receive his Christian Name whereat he became a Christian But that for which the Church seems least accountable and which makes the greatest noise and which is objected with the fairest plausibility is that which concerns Sureties in Baptism whose Office is decri'd as unwarrantable because they undertake what they cannot discharge And the very name of Godfathers and Godmothers is spoken against as a prophanation of the most Holy Name being a Transgression of the Third Commandment And this is an Objection which cannot be better assoiled than by laying down a clear Scheme of the Antiquity and Reasonableness of Sureties in Baptism And in the first place the antiquity of Sureties at and for the reception of Persons into the Church is indisputable For if we look into the Jewish Church when she was in her best Purity we shall find that ever since the institution of Circumcision there were still some appointed to be present and hold out the Male to the Mohel to be circumcised And the person allotted for this Office was some special Friend of the Fathers who is called the Master of the Covenant but usually in Latin Initiationis Arbiter Susceptor Compater who at the Door of the Synagogue receives the child from the women who are permitted to go further and entring the Synagogue the Susceptor holds the child till the Hammohel Circumciser has taken away the Foreskin And how this custom was primitively observed among the Jews and in point of Sureties derived to the Christians may be collected from what Junius has intimated upon Esay 8. compared with Saint Luke 1. from the 57 to the 60 Verse Now this custom of Sureties in the Jewish Church need not at all reflect upon the like in the Christian Being it was in the power of the latter to retain any Rite of the former that was apparently decent significant and edifying For if every thing used by the Jew were to be rejected by the Christian then most of our Religion must be cast out of doors For it was not the design of our great Law-giver to abolish Judaism but to amend supply and heighten it Besides we find not that those who were or are the greatest Impugners and most impetuous gainsayers of Sureties in Baptism ever did it upon the account that it was a Rag of Judaism But how dark and questionable this custom may seem to some in its derivation and pedigree yet its practice is clearly to be found in the first times of Christianity As they must needs know who have observed how frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occur in the Greek Fathers and Susceptores Sponsores and Fide jussores in the Latin And how in both the words signifie and refer to Undertakers at Baptism Platina ascribes the Institution hereof unto Hygin who saith he ordain'd that at the least one Patrimus or Matria should be present at Baptism and there hold the Infant till he was baptised Patrimus and Matrima are old Words which by new imposition denoted those who undertook for the Vertuous and Pious education of the Baptised Now if it be granted that Hygin Bishop of Rome was the Author of Godfathers and Godmothers then this custom is of an uncontroulable ancientness for Hygin lived in the Second Age and was a Martyr in the 144 of Salvation And it is generally granted that this good Bishop took occasion from those Persecutions which were heavy upon the Church to appoint Sureties in Baptism That in Case the Parents should fall into violent restraint banishment or death there might be some to take care of their childrens instruction in the truth of that Religion into which they were initiate But whatever was the first