Moses a little before his death though in effect they had submitted to whatsoever should be required in Gods name by Moses when they passed the red Sea under his conduct Only it is to be observed that the Covenant of Circumcision which God had made with Abraham when he gave him the Land of Promise remained for their Title to it when the promise thereof became limited by the Law Which limitation because they submitted to by leaving Aegypt under the conduct of Moses and being shadowed by the Cloud saw their enemies drowned in the red Sea therefore are they elegantly said by S. Paul to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea For if being redeemed from the Aegypt of this world we undertake to leave it under the conduct of our Lord Christ If hereupon our sins be drowned in the waters of Baptism Were not they baptized in the same sense as we passe the red Sea at our comming out of Aegypt But both upon supposition of the correspondence between the two Testaments without which all this argument could neither have force nor relish And therefore I cannot but admire to see men learned in the Scriptures to maintain by this place that the Sacraments of the Old Testament are the same with the Sacraments of the New Not distinguishing whether immediatly or by way of correspondence For if you make the Kingdom of Heaven and the Land of Promise all a thing then is Baptism and the passage of the red Sea all one But then it will be all one to believe in Christ and to submit to his conduct to Paradise as to believe in Moses as the Israelites did hereupon Exod. XIV 31. and to put themselves under his conduct to the Land of Promise Which is my Argument But if setting aside the correspondence you make their ingagement to God under Moses for obtaining the Land of promise one thing and our ingagement to God under Christ another Certainly the immediate assurance of this and the immediate assurance of that which by means of the correspondence becoms also the assurance of this are severall things And if there be between the Old and New Covenant that correspondence which makes that the figure of this they may as well be said to be one and the same and by consequence the Sacraments of them as a mans Picture is called by his name when seeing the Pictures of our Princes for example we say This is H. the eight and this Queen Elizabeth But to say that the Sacraments of the Old Law do immediately figure or assure the same thing which the Sacraments of the Gospel do is the same thing as to say the rest of the Land of Promise and the everlasting rest of the Kingdom of Heaven are both one and the same Let us now see by what right that is upon what ground S. Paul argues that concerning the Gospel from the words of Moses Deut. XIII 11 -14 which is manifestly said by him concerning the Law Rom. X. 6 -10 The righteousnesse that is of Faith saith thus Say not in thine heart who will ascend into Heaven To wit to bring down Christ Or who will go down into the deep To wit to bring up Christ from the dead But what saith it The Word is near thee in thy mouth and in thy heart That is the word of Faith which we Preach That if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart a man believes to righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation The argument is this If Moses duly warn the Israelites that they have no excuse for not obeying the Law which he had put as it were in their mouths and into their hearts so plainly had he taught it them then cannot those that hear the Apostles Preach the Gospel excuse themselves in not obeying it being so plainly shewed That if they professe Christ with their mouths believing with the heart that God raised him from the dead they should be saved That this word of Faith is put as it were in their mouths and in their hearts Can this be made good to be Moses his meaning not supposing that the Spirit of God intended the Gospel by the Law Or can it be denied so to be supposing it If therefore the profession of an Israelite tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Christians Shall not the professing of Christ which the Apostle speaks of be the undertaking of it For S. Paul by saying that they were baptized into Moses under the Cloud and in the Sea plainly sheweth that as their undertaking to march under the conduct of Moses towards the Land of Promise through the red Sea was rewarded by God with the drowning of their enemies and the overshadowing of the Cloud So our undertaking to follow Christ towards that Kingdom which he obtained by his Crosse is rewarded with the extinguishing of sin and the refreshing of the Holy Ghost in our travel to the world to come And therefore the ingagement of the second Covenant being inacted and settled upon us by the Sacrament of Baptism the promises of the Covenant must needs depend upon the same What else shall the name of a New Covenant or a New testament signifie if we will not have them to signifie nothing Some man perhaps may marvel whence it comes that the agreement between God and his ancient People being alwaies represented in the Old Testament in the nature and terms of a Covenant the New is by the Apostle proved to have the nature of the last Will and Tessament of our Lord Christ Hebr. IX 16 17. But if this Testament be also a Covenant as the same Apostle saith Hebr. VIII 9. He hath obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which is inacted upon better promises there will be no cause to marvell The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ordinary Greek signifies no more than a mans last Will and Testament But in the use of the Jews that spoke Greek such as are the Apostles the translators of the Old Testament into Greek and others it fignisies also a Covenant If further it pleased God that our Lord Christ should die to assure us of everlasting life on his part which thereby he purchased obliging God on his part to give it to those that shall be found qualified for it well may the Apostle affirm that it is the last Will and Testament of him who died to make it irrevocable because mens Wills are not so till death But it containeth nevertheless a Covenant because men become not Sons of God by birth but by choice accepting the adoption which is tendred being
be baptized who cannot make or are tied to any such promise To these I say no more but this that it is one thing to answer arguments and to give grounds of a contrary truth another thing to object difficulties which even the truth is not clear of especially that which comes by revelation from without as Christianity doth Because to the verifying of revealed truth it is not necessary that all things should be alike clearly revealed that are necessary to the clearing of objections The obligation of sticking to that which is revealed taking place no lesse though something belonging to the clearing of it be not so clearly expressed And generally that which is evident is never the lesse evident because there is something else evident the evidence whereof I cannot reconcile with it But this I say not as though I meant to dismiss these difficulties without that which I conceive ought to satisfie But because I have learned of Aristotle that it is the fashion of the unlearned to demand at once both the grounds of the truth and the clearing of difficulties A thing which might be done here but so that another place would require it to be done againe and not without balking the order which I intend My designe will bring me in due time to speak with the Pelagians first and afterwards with the Anabaptists To those points I will remit the answer to these objections Onely for the present to the former of these doubts I would say this That all that hath been said hitherto concerns onely that disposition which he that will come to salvation by Christianity must be firmly qualified with as the condition which the Covenant of Grace requireth All which being supposed it may and doth still remaine questionable how and by what meanes in the nature of an effective cause a man becomes qualified with the disposition so required To wit whether by the meer force of free will or by the help of Gods Grace And that being resolved upon what consideration in the nature of a meritorious cause those helps of Gods grace are furnished To wit whether by the free Grace of God or in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ provided by Gods free Grace as the reason for which and the measure by which the helps of his Grace are dispensed To the latter of them I would onely say here That I conceive I have here maintained that reason for the necessity of Baptisme to the salvation of all Christians upon which the necessity of the Baptisme of Infants is to be tied Which is to say in plain English That I have by the premises re-established that ground for the necessity of Baptisme in generall the unsetling whereof was the onely occasion to make the necessity of Baptizing Infants become questionable CHAP. VI. Justifying Faith sometimes consists in believing the truth Sometimes in trust in God grounded upon the truth Somtimes in Christianity that is in imbracing and professing it And that in the Fathers as well as in the Scriptures Of the informed and formed Faith of the Schools NOW for those Scriptures wherein the nature of justifying faith is described by those effects which the promises of the Gospel tender I must here observe that which all observe that faith is many times made by the Scriptures to consist in believing the truth of Christs Message which he came to preach Otherwhiles neverthelesse in a grounded trust and confidence in the goodnesse of God declared through Christ For what is more manifest then that of S. Paul Rom. X. 9. If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the deád thou shalt be saved Where first that which the heart believeth is the rising of Christ from the dead signifying by one Article the rest of the Faith then that which the mouth professeth is nothing but the same truth Therefore neither the inward nor the outward act of faith reacheth any further then the acknowledgment of the said truth So the Apostle 1 John V. 15. 10. Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Messi as is begotten of God Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witnesse in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the witnesse which God beareth of his Son Where it is plain that no difference is made between believing God and believing in the Son of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then to believe Gods witnesse Mat. IX 28. Jesus faith to the blind Believe you that I am able to do this They say unto him yea Lord. Then touched he their eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you That faith which consisted in believing that he was able to do it So of John the Baptist our Lord Mat. XXI 32. John came to you in the way of righteousnesse and ye believed him not but the publicans and harlots believed him Which you seeing repeated not afterwards that ye might believe him And sure they obtained the grace of Christ that believed John the Baptish Our Lord to the father of the Lunatick Mat. IX 23. 24. If thou caust believe all things are possible to him that believeth And straight the father of the childe crying out said Lord I believe help my unbeliefe If thou canst believe that I am able to do this as afore Mat. XI 23. 24. He that shall say to this mountaine be thou removed and cast into the sea and doubt not in his heart but believe that what he sayeth cometh to passe is shall come to passe to him as he sayeth Therefore I say unto you all things that ye ask by prayer believe that ye shall receive and they shall come to passe to you John V. 24. He that heareth me and believeth him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh not into condemnation but is passed from death to life XX. 31. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believeing ye may have life through his Name Acts VIII 37. Philip said to the Eunuch If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest be baptized He answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Upon which faith he is baptized Rom. IV. 3. Abraham believed God saying to him Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven Gen. XV. 5. and it was impâ—â—â—ed to him for righteousnesse On the other side it is no rare thing to finde faith described by trust and confidence in God and the effects of saving faith ascribed to it as in the description of the Apostle Heb. XI 2. Now faith is the substance of thing hoped for the evidence of things not seen That which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which the Hebrew expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
qui post Baptismum supervixerit non sufficiat nisi sanctitatem mentis corporis habeat quae sine sobrietate difficile custoditur It is to be noted that faith alone is not enough for him that survives after Baptisme unlesse he have the holinesse both of mind and body which without sobriety is hardly preserved Here you have S. Jeromes distinction between the works of Faith and of the Law and Baptisme the boundary of righteousnesse by Faith alone without the works of Faith And if any man be so impertinent as to suspect S. Jerome for a Pelalagian wherein he agrees with Pelagius S. Austine may perswade him that Pelagius is no Pelagian in this but speakes the sense of the Church Serm. LXXI De Tempore Quomodo fides per dilectionem operatur Et quomodo justificatur homo per fidem absque operibus legis Quomodo intendite fratres Credit aliquis percepit fidei Sacramenta in lecto mortuus est Defuit illi operandi tempus Quid dicimus Quia non est justificatus Plane dicimus justificatum credentem in eum qui justificat impium Ergo rite justificatus est operatus non est Impletur sententia Apostoli dicentis Arbitramur justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus Legis Latro qui cum Domino crucifixus est corde credidit ad justitiam ore confessus est ad salutem Nam fides quae per dilectionem operatur etsi non sit in quo exterius operetur in corde tamen illa fervens servatur Nam erant quidam in lâ—ge qui de operibus Legis gloriabantur quae fortasse non dilectione sed timore faciebant volebant se justos videri praeponi Gentibus quae opus legis non fecerant Apostolus autem praedicans fidem Gentibus cum eos qui accedebaut ad Dominum videret justificaetos ex fide utram quia crediderant bene operarentur non quia bene opetati sunt credere mererentur exclamavit securus ait Quia potest justificari homo ex fide sine operibus Legis Vt illi magis non fuerint justi qui quod faciâ—bant timort faciâ—bant Cum fides per dilectionem operetur in corde etiamsi foris non exit in opere How workes Faith by Love And how is a man justified by Faith without the workes of the Law Brethren marke how A man believes receives the Sacraments of Faith in his bed and dies wants time of working What shall we say That he is not justified Plainly we say he is justified believing in him that justifies the wicked So he is justified but wrought not The saying of the Apostle is fulfilled I suppose a man is justified by Faith without the workes of the Law The thiefe that was crucified with our Lord believed with the heart to righteousnesse and confessed to salvation with the mouth For Faith that worketh by love when there is nothing to work upon outwardly remaines neverthelesse fervent in the heart For there were those under the Law that boasted of the workes of the Law which perhaps they did not for love but for fear and would seem righteous and be preferred before Gentiles that had not done the work of the Law But the Apostle preaching the Faith to the Gentiles and seeing those who come to the Lord justified by Faith so that they did well because they had believed and not merited to believe by well doing cries out securely and sayes that a man may be justified by saith without the workes of the Law So that they who did what they did for fear of the Law rather were not righteous Whereas faith may work by love in the heart though it go not forth in any work Againe Libro quaestionum LXXXIII quaest LXXVI Si quis cum crediderit mox de hac vita discesserit justificatio fidei manet cum illo Non praesentibus bonis operibus quia non merito ad illam sed gratia pervenit Nec consequentibus quia in hac vita esse non sinitur If a man depart out of this life straight after he hath believed the justification by faith remaineth with him good workes neither accompanying because he came not to it by merit but by grace nor following because he is not suffered to live The reason being the same for which those who depart without Baptisme if not by their own fault are held to be saved In regard whereof S. Bernard Epist LXXVII thinkes that the Gospel Mark XVI 16. Having said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Doth not repeat He that is not baptized shall be demned But onely He that believeth not shall be demned Here the onely case in which a Christian can be saved without good workes is when time obliges him not to bring them forth And the onely reason why the workes of the Law justifie not is Because the Spirituall obedience of the Law presupposeth faith the knowledge of the Law according to the letter reaching onely to produce the outward work without that inward disposition which onely Christianity effecteth as well as requireth A thing which S. Austine in the dispute with Pelagius so often repeateth De Spiritu Litera Cap. VIII XXIX Contra duas Epistolas Plagianorum III. 2 7. De Gratia Christi peccato Originali I. 13. II. 24. De Gratia lib. arbitrio Cap. XII Origen in Rom. III. Libro III. Indulgentia namque non futurorum sed preteritorum criminum datur Igitur ut ad praepositum redeamus justificatur homo per fidem cui ad justificationem nihil conferunt opera Legis Vbi vero fides non est quae credentem justificet etiamsi quis opera habeat ex lege tamen quiâ— non sunt adificata supra fundamentum fidei quamvis videantur esse bonâ— operatorem suum justificare non pessunt si eis deest fides quae est signaculum corum qui justificantur a Deo For faith granteth indulgence of sâ—nnes past not to come He therefore is justified by Faith to returne to our purpose to whose justification workes of the Law contribute nothing But where that faith which justifieth him that believeth is not though a man have workes according to the Law yet because they are not built upon the foundation of Faith though they seeme good they cannot justifie their workers wanting Faith which is the maâ—ke of those that are justified by God The same Origen in the same book bringeth in the example of the thiefe upon the Crosse and of the woman that had been a sinner but was saved by her Faith Luke VII to the same purpose And I will not omit the wordes of S. Jerome upon that of Isa LXIV 5. All our righteousnesse is like a menstruous ragge Libro XVII In quo considerandum quod justitia quae in Lege est ad comparationem Evangelicâ— puritatis immunditia nominetur Etenim non est glorificatum quod prius glorificatum suit propter excellentem gloriam And
because all agreed that they transgressed therefore they were excluded the Church But Vincentius besides this advanceth another mark to discern what belongs to the Rule that is what the ground and scope of our Creed requires For it might be said that perhaps something may come in question whether consistent with the Rule of Faith or not in which there hath passed no decree of the primitive Church because never questioned by that time Wherein therefore wee shall be to seek notwithstanding the decrees past by the Church upon ancient Heresies Which to meet with Vincentius saith further that whatsoever hath been unanimously taught in the Church by writing that is alwaies by all every where to that no contradiction is ever to be admitted in the Church Here the stile changes For whereas Irenaeus Tertullian and others of former time appeal onely to that which was visible in the practice of all Churches By the time of the Council at Ephesus the dare of Vincentius his book so much had been written upon all points of Faith and upon the Scriptures that hee presumeth evidence may be made of it all what may stand with that which the whole Church had taught what may not I know this proposition satisfieth not now because I know Vincentius proceedeth upon supposition that the Church was and ought to be alwaies one Body in which that which agreeth with the Faith might be taught that which agreeth not might not Which is the question now in dispute For upon other termes it had been madnesse in him to allege and maintain the Council of Ephesus condemning Nestorius as infringing the Rule of Faith upon this presumption because ten received Doctors of the Church had formerly delivered the contrary of his doctrine It is well enough known that there are many questions in which though there may be ten Fathers alleged on one side yet there may be more alleged on the other side And it were a piteous case if Vincentius or I could tell you no wiser a way for the ending of Controversies in Religion than by counting noses The presumption lies in this That the witnesles that depose being of such credit in the Church as the quality which they beare in it presupposeth it cannot reasonably be imagined that they could teach that for truth which is inconsistent with Christianity but they must be contradicted in it and their quality and degree in the Church questioned upon it And that the Church having been alwaies one and the same Body from Christ whosoever should undertake to teach that for the Christian Faith which from the beginning had been counted false hee would have been questioned for contradicting that profession which qualified him for that rank which hee held in the Church It is the case of Nestorius who venting his Heresie in the Church gave the people occasion to check at it and the Council of Ephesus to condemn it Now Vincentius his discourse presupposeth that the doctrine of those ten whom hee allegeth had not been contradicted A thing which must needs be presupposed by him that supposed the Great Council of Nicaea had decreed no more than that which had alwaies been taught in the Church For it is plain that without questioning the Faith setled at Nicaea there is no room for the opinion of Nestorius But otherwise should ten of that quality which hee allegeth be so considerably contradicted that it must be presumed their doctrine was suffered to passe not as not taken notice of but as not contradicting the common profession of Christians it will appear a presumption that neither part is of the substance of Faith but both allowed to be taught in the Church And if it appear further that the fewer in number and the lesse in rank and quality in the Church hold that which dependeth more necessarily upon the Rule of Faith which containeth the substance of the Scriptures it will be no way prejudicial to the Unity and authority of the Church as a Corporation founded by God that a private man as I am should conclude it for truth against the greater authority in maters depending upon the foundation of the Church If it be said that this evidence supposeth the necessity of Baptisme to the making of a Christian Which not onely the Leviathaâ— is farr from granting who professeth himself bound to renounce Christ at the command of his Soveraign But the Socinians also and some of our Sectaries hold indifferent to salvation whether baptized or not I answer That the question here is not what belongs or belongs not to the Rule of Faith and Christian conversation necessary to the salvation of all Christians but whether there be any such Rule or not That the original and universal custome of Carechizing all Christians evidenceth such a Rule by the consent of all Christians as you have seen it evidenced by the frequent mention thereof in Scriptures That therefore it stands recommended to us by the same means and upon the same grounds for which wee receive the holy Scriptures And that though when the World was come into the Church and many more were baptized infants then afore it cannot be said that this order of Catechizing was so substantially performed as afore Yet the mater and theme of it remaining in the Tradition of the Creed and the sense of it in the writings of the Fathers and the decrees of the Church against Hereticks it remains still visible what belongs to it what not as I shall make appear in that which is questioned within the subject of this book Onely this is the place where I am to allege against the Leviathan why the profession of Christianity is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Whereupon it will follow without further proof that it is necessary to salvation to believe more than that Jesus is the Christ To wit whatsoever this Rule of Christianity containeth the profession whereof is requisite to Christianity Heare our Lord Mat. X. 32 33. Luke XII 8 9. Whosoever shall renounce mee before men him will I renounce before my Father which is in heaven And whosoever shall acknowledge mee before men him will I acknowledge before my Father which is in heaven And S. Paul Rom. X. 9 10. If thou confesse with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lard and believe with thy heaâ—t that God raised him from the dead that shalt be saved For with the heart a man believes to righteousnesse and with the mouth hee professeth to salvation And a Tim. II. 12. If wee deny him hee will deny us Our Lords Commission to his Apostles is Mat. XXVIII 19. Go make disciples all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Who are then Christs Disciples That wee may know what the Apostles are to make them whom they make Christs Disciples Yâ—e are my Disciples saith our Lord if yee do whatsoever I command you And John XV. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that yee heart 〈◊〉 fruit
that the Grace whereby we are justified is a quality habitually informing the soule of man as supernaturally infused by God into it But onely that Faith Hope and Charity are infused into them that are justified and inherent in them as shed into theire hearts by the Holy Ghost Which they say may all be understood supposing that a man is justified by the acts of Faith Hope and Love infused or shedde into the hart by the Holy Ghost as well as by habites supernaturally created to reside in the soule For you may see by Morinus in his Late worke de Administrationâ— Pâ—nitentiâ— VIII 2. 3. 7. that for MCC yeares after Christ a good while after the Schoole Doctors were come in there was no question at all made whether we are justified by an infused habit of grace or not and that it was about the yeare MCCL that this opinion intirely prevailed in the Schooles Whereby it appeareth that as this opinion containes nothing destructive to the faith if it be understood in that sense which the Church of Rome allowes that it is not the naturall worth of it which justifies but Gods accepting of it to that effect So if it did yet could not the Church of Rome be said to teach any thing destructive to the faith But onely to allow since â—uch things to be taught For the Council of Vienna under Clement V. determines it not as matter of faith but as the more probable opinion as you may see Clement de summa Trin. Fide Cathol Tit. I. Cap. VII And therefore Albertus Pâ—ghius de libero Arbitrio lib. V notwithstanding this decree stickes not to count this doctrine forged without any authority of Scripture And those that speake of it with more respect then he thinke not themselves tied to that which the Council holdâ— the more probable It is indeed manifest by the experience of all Christians that the custome and practice even of supernaturall actions to which the inclination of corrupt nature is utterly averse breedes in a man an habituated disposition of doing those things with â—ase and pleasure which at the beginning of his Christianity he could not doe without offering himselfe much violence But that habit which custome and practice leaves behind it though supernaturall for the cause or effect of it because the acts upon which it accrues as also those which it produces cannot accrue from meere nature without the helpe of Christs grace is notwithstanding for that wherein it consists a disposition really qualifying the nature and substance of the soule and inclining it to act otherwise then without it Besides the Gospell promising the Holy Ghost for a Gift to abide with and dwell in those that are baptized nothing hinders the Gift thereof to be held and termed an habituall grace In these regards I find it neither prejudiciall nor inconsequent to the Christian faith to acknowledge habituall grace though neither scripture nor tradition of the Church owne any habit of grace created by God and infused into the soule in a moment as the Schoole imagineth But they seeme to have committed another mistake in that the Church having decreed against Pelagius that the Grace of Christ is necessary to all truly good actions and therefore that man cannot merit the first grace this infused habit of grace they have made to be that First grace which God giveth before man will indeavor any thing towards it For so the Master of the Sentences determineth that grace which preventeth mans indevors to be faith with Love libro II. distinct XXVI D. which though it be capable of a very good sense That the motion to beleeve the truth of Christianity out of the love of God is that which Gods grace prevents all mans compliance with yet in what sense they swallowed it will appeare by the difficulties and dispuâ—es they were intangled with about that sorrow which the heart conceives for sinne out of meerâ— love to God not feare of punishment which the love of our selves breedeth For this sorow being necessarily a disposition preparing him for justification that cometh to God in regard the first grace which God preventeth all manâ— indeavors with is to them this infused habit of Faith and love which formally justifieth how he should come prepared for justification by that contrition which without Gods grace man cannot have who is justified by that infused habit of grace which he was first prevented by God with hath been among them the subject of endlesse jangles Whereas it is manifest the maintenance of the Faith against Pelagius requireth no more then that the resolution of persevering in Christianity to the â—nd be thought necessarily to depend upon the motion to imbrace it which God first preventeth man with without respect to any act of man obliging God to grant it And therefore it is manifest that the Church decreed no more against Pelagius but that the first motion to become a good Christian that every man is prevented with must be ascribed to Gods free grace through Christ not ingaged by any act of mans goeing afore Now requiring onely the actuall assistance of Gods preventing grace it is easy enough to say not how attrition that is sorrow for sinne in regard of punishment accompanied with slavish feare is changed into contrition that is sorrow for sinne out of the love of God whome it offendeth For it is not possible that he who loveth God should be sory for sinne for the same reason which he was sorry for while he loved the world But how the man that was attrite becomes contrite For when first the Gospell reveales unto a man his desperate estate in and by the first Adam it is not possible that he should remaine uâ—touched either with sorrow for the present or apprehension for the future And yet no lesse unpossible is it according to Gods ordinary way of working even by his Grace that he should in an instant resolve to imbrace the onely way to give him peace in that exigence But while he neither casts off the motion of grace nor resigneâ— his interest in himselfe and the world to it but considers upon what reason it behoves him to resolve this consideration by the worke of Gods Spirit disâ—overing to him how much God and the next world is to be preferred before himselfe and this as the love of God and the world to come prevailes in him above the love of himselfe and this accordingly of necessity must the greife of having offended God afore prevaile in him above all that he can conceive for the misery he hath incurred And all this by virtue of those helpes which God grants though allwayes in consideration of our Lord Christ yet not by virtue of that Covenant which is not contracted till â— man be baptized but of his owne free goodnesse dispensing the effects of Christs coming according to the reason of his secret wisdome which the Covenant of grace discovers not I neede say no more to show how a
in opposition to the flesh seeing the soules of the Fatherâ— which by the dispensation of the Law appeared not freed from the Devin wâ—re indeed free by the Gospel uâ—der the Law it is no marvaile that â—ur Lord Christ represents his soule as in the power oâ— those who had the power oâ— death who â—aith This is your time and the time of the powers of darkenesse Doâ—h S. Paul make any more oâ— thâ—s text Heare his words Actâ— Xâ—Iâ— 34-37 That he raised him from the dead no more to returne to corruptioâ— thus he saith I will give you the sure meâ—cies of David Wherefore he saith also in an other Psalm Thou shall no suffer thine holy one to see corruption For David having served the counsaile of God in his generation fell asleep and was added to his Fathers and saw corruption But he whom God raised â—â—w no corruption He argues the mysticall sense in our Lord Christ 〈◊〉 the literall sense in David was come to nothing by his death but how the mysticall sense in our Lord Christ By his triumphing in Hell or by rising againe Therefore S. Paul againe Rom. X 6-9 thus wrâ—steth the words of Moses out of the Jewes hands to the establishing of the Gospel upon supposition that the law is the figure of it Say not in thy heart who shall goe up into heaven as Moses Deut. XXX 12. faith The Law is not in heaven that thou shouldest say would to God some body would bring it us from heaven that we might heare and doe it So saith he of the Gospel thou needest not say would to God some body would go up into heaven To wit to bring downe Christ Or who shall goe downe into the deep as Moses addeth The Law is not beyond sea that that thou needest say would to God some body would goe beyond sea and bring it us that we might heare and doe it So thou needst not say would to God some body would goe downe into the deep To wit to bring Christ up from the dead But what saith it The Law correspondent to the Gospell The word is neere in thy mouth and in thy heart That is the word of Faith which wee preach That if thou prâ—fesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus believing with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Here it is plaine the deepe is not named for the place of the damned but for that place or for that state out of which it was hard to recover Christ supposing him dead As it was hard to bring the law from beyond the seas The deep I deny not represents to us the place of the damned Luke VIII 31. as also the parts that are under the earth Phi. II. 10. Apoc. V. 13. may comprehend also the dead Therefore the deep signifies the place of the damned not necessarily as here but because the speech is of the region of Devils of the sealing up of the devill in the deep Just as I said of the grave the pit and the place under the earth that when the scripture speakes of the Giants of the enemieâ— of Gods people of Davids enemies in Gods people it signifies either the place or at least the state of the damned which the Old Testament must needs acknowledg acknowledging the happinesse of Gods people Psalme IX 18. Proverbs V. 8 VII 27. IX 18. And so went Corah and his complices quick into Hell Num. XVI 30 33. So Psalme LV. 24. LXIII 10. The proper place of the dâ—mned spirits seemeth to be properly called by S. Peter Tartara when he saies that God delivered them to be kept for judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in chaines of darkenesse being cast downe into Tartara or Hell 1. Peter II. 4. Now the state of death brings not Christian soules into Hell unlâ—sse wee suppose that the place of good souls under the Law which supposition I have destroyed Therefore the bringing of Christ from the deep is done by raising him again So quoting David againe Ephes IV. 8 9 10. Therefore he saith Psa LXVIII 17. Going upon high he led captivity captive and gave men gifts Now that he ascended what is it but that he first descended into the lower paâ—ts of the Earth He that descended is the same that ascended far above all things to fill or fulfill all things The Psalme speakes of the Arke going up into the Tabernacle or Temple figuring the going up of our Lord to the right hand of God as Psalme XXIV 6-10 XLVII 5. The going up of the Arke was Gods triumph over the Idolatrous nations whom he cast out of the Land of promise giving gifts to his people in it The going up of our Lord Christ S. Paul saies implies that he had come downe before into the lower pâ—rt of the Eearth Either in respect of mount Sinai upon which the Psalme describes God with that attendance which the aâ—ke the Cherubines thereof signifie his host of Angels in the words just afore Or we may well understand the lower parts of the earth to signifie by the figure of apposition the earth that is below as flumen Rheni Vrbs Patavii signifie the river Rhine and the City Padna For we have a peremptory instance in Psa CXXXIX 15 where David saith that he was fashioned in the lower parts of the earth speaking of his mothers wombe therefore meaning the earth below The ascension therefore of Christ pretending to fill rather then fulfill all with his graces of which he proceeds to speake requires no descent into hell which he pretends not to fill with his Graces If the resurrection ascension of Christ satisfie these texts so that they require no further descent then into the state of deaâ—h supposing what I said before of the soules of the fathers under the Old Testament I must needs conclude that the body of Christ being buryed his soule went with the good theifes soule into Paradise or the bosome of Abraham where the soules of the Fathers were refreshed of their travells till the first and then the second comming of our Lord. Paradise we know was the place of mans happniesse wherein he was created whence having sinned he was shut out In our Lords time Gods people it is plaine understood well enough the state of the righteous soules in the other world You have seene it out of those boâ—kes which we call Apocrypha Supposing the place unknown as indeed it is how could it be more properly signified then by the name of Paradise opening unto us the whole allegory by which the happinesse which wee seeke to recover by the covâ—nant of grâ—ce was expressed to us by God first in the Land of promise secondly in the Church after in the heavens after the redemption of our bodies The true Land of promise to which the Gospell and the Church secretly taught and built under the Law introduceth us because the Law cannot is that Paradise to which Christ restoreth Adam that was
I said there can be no sect as communicating in nothing visible as Christians But I need not have recourse to such an obscure Sect as this For the same is necessarily the opinion of all the sect that makes every Congregation Independent and Sovereign in Church maters For if particular Congregations be not obliged to joyn in communion to the constitution of one Church wee may perhaps understand the collection of all Congregations to be signified at once by the name of the Church but wee cannot imagine that the Church so understood can be obliged by any sentence that can passe in it And if this opinion be true it must be acknowledged as of late years it hath been disputed amongst us that there is no crime of Schisme in violating the unity of the Church but when a breach is made in a Congregation obliged to communicate one with another in Church maters For where there is no bond of unity what crime can there be in dissolving it This is then the ground of all Independent Congregations that there is no such thing as the Church understanding by the name of the Church a Society or Corporation founded upon a Charter of Gods which signification the addition of Catholick and Apostolick in our Creed hath hitherto been thought to determine But there is a second opinion in the Leviathan who allowes all points of Ecclesiastical Power in Excommunicating Ordaining and the rest to the Soveraign Powers that are Christian Though before the Empire was Christian hee granteth that the Churches that is to say the several Bodies of Christians that were dwelling in several Cities had and exercised some parts of the same right by virtue of the Scriptures As you may see pag. 274-279 287-292 Making that right which the Scriptures give them for the time to eschete to the Civil Power when it is Christian and dissolving the said Churches into the State or Common-wealth which once Christian is from thenceforth the Church And this I suppose upon this ground though hee doth not expresly allege it to that purpose Because the Scripture hath not the force of a Law obliging any man in justice to receive it till Soveraign Powers make it such to their subjects but onely contains good advice which hee that will may imbrace for his souls health and hee that will not at his peril may refuse Thus hee teacheth pag. 205. 281-287 If therefore the act of Soveraign Power give the Scripture the force of Law then hath it a just claim to all rights and Powers founded upon the Scripture as derived from it and therefore vested originally in it Hence followeth that desperate inference concerning the right of Civil Power in mater of Religion not for a Christian but for an Apostate to publish that if the Soveraign command a Christian to renounce Christ and the faith of Christ hee is bound to do it with his mouth but to believe with his heart And therefore much more to obey whatsoever hee commandeth in Religion besides whether to believe or to do The Reason Because in things not necessary to salvation the obedience due by Gods and mans Law to the Soveraign must take place Now there is nothing necessary to salvation saith hee but to believe that our Lord Jesus is the Christ All that the Scripture commandeth besides this is but the Law of Nature which when the Civil Law of every Land hath limited whosoever observes that Law cannot fail of fulfilling the Law of Nature These things you have pag. 321-330 The late learned Selden in his first book de Synedriis Judaeorum maintaining Erastus his opinion that there is no power of Excommunicating in the Church by Gods Law grants that which could not be denied that the Church did exercise such a Power before Constantine but not by any charter of Gods but by free consent of Christians among themselves pag. 243 244. Which if hee will follow the grain of his own reason hee is consequently to extend to the power of Ordaining and to all other rights which the Church as a Corporation founded by God can claim by Gods Law And upon this ground hee may dissolve the Church into the Common-wealth and make the power of it an eschere to the Civil Power that is Christian with lesse violence than the Leviathan doth Because whatsoever Corporations or Fraternities are bodied by sufferance of the State dissolve of themselves at the will of it and resolve the powers which they have created into the disposition of it And that this was his intent whoso considereth what hee hath written of the indowment of the Church in his History of Tithes of Ordinations in the second book de Synedriis of the right of the Civil Power in limiting causes of divorce in his Vxor Ebraica hath reason to judge as well as I who have heard him say that all pretense of Ecclesiastical Power is an imposture I say not that hee or the rest of Erastus his followers make themselves by the same consequence liable to those horrible consequences which the Leviathan admits But I say that they are to bethink themselves what right they will assign the Civil Power in determining controversies in Religion that may arise And what assurance they can give their subjects that their salvation is well provided for standing to their decrees Besides I was to mention these opinions here that those who take the sentence of the Church to be the first ground of Faith into which it is lastly resolved may see that they are to prove the Church to be a Corporation by divine Right before they can challenge any such power for it For that which is once denied it will be ridiculous to take for granted without proving it And whatsoever may be the right of the Church in deciding controversies of Faith it cannot be proved without evidence for this charter of the Church as you shall see by and by more at large CHAP. III. That neither the sentence of the Church nor the dictate of Gods Spirit can be the reason why the Scriptures are to be received No man can know that hee hath Gods Spirit without knowing that hee is a true Christian Which supposeth the truth of the Scripture The motives of Faith are the reason why the Scriptures are to be believed And the consent of Gods people the reason that evidences those motives to be infallibly true How the Scriptures are believed for themselves How a Circle is made in rendering a reason of the Faith The Scriptures are Gods Law to all to whom they are published by Gods act of publishing them But Civil Law by the act of Soveraign Powers in acting Christianity upon their Subjects IT would not be easie to finde an entrance into such a perplexed Question had not the dispute of it started another concerning the reason why wee believe the Scriptures whether upon the credit of the Church or for themselves or whether nothing but the Spirit of God speaking to each mans heart
nothing but sufficient evidence that they came from God could have brought to passe Here if any man should say I know I have the Writings of Homer Aristotle or Tully by the Writings themselvs he might be convicted by tendering them to one that knowes nothing of Tully or Homer or Aristotle and asking him whether hee can say by those books whether they be Homers or Aristotles or Tullies Writings Bu◠he that first understands what account the world alwaies hath had their Writings in and studying them finds the marks in them may well say that hee knows the authors by their Writings So tender the Scripture in Ebrew or Greek to a savage of the West-Indies and ask him whether they be the Word of God or not who believes not in God as yet do you believe hee can tell you the truth But convict him of that which I have said how and by what means they came to our hands how they have been and are owned for Lawes to the hearts and lives of Gods people and hee will stand convict to God if hee believe not finding that written in the Books which the men own for the rule of their conversations So by the same means that all records of Learning are conveyed us are the Scriptures evidenced to be mater of historical faith But inasmuch as the mater of them had never been received but by the work of God in that regard they become mater of supernatural faith in regard of the reason moving in the nature of an object to believe as well as in regard of Gods grace moving in the nature of an effective cause I know there have been divers answers made to assoile this difficulty by those that dispute Controversies That the Scriptures authority is better known in order of nature the Churches in that order by which wee get our knowledg as Logicians and Philosophers use to distinguish between notius naturâ and notius nobis because our knowledg rises upon experience which wee have by sense of particulars and yet the general reason being once attained by that means is in some sense better known than that which depends upon it That the authority of the Scripture is the reason why wee believe but the authority of the Church a condition requisite to the same creating in the mindes of men that discreetly consider it a kinde of inferior Faith though infallible which disposes a man to accept the mater of that Faith which God onely revealeth though the reason why we believe is only the act of God revealing that which he obligeth us to believe But all this to no purpose so long as they suppose the foundation of the Church in the nature of a Corporation for the ground of admitting the mater of Faith not the credit of all believers agreeing in witnessing the motives of Faith I remember in my yonger time in Cambridge an observation out of Averrois the Saracene his Commentaries upon Aristotle which as I finde exactly true so may it be of good use That in Geometry and the Mathematicks the same thing is notius naturâ and nobis to wit the first principles and rudiments of those sciences which being evident as soon as understood produce in time those conclusions which no stranger to those studies can imagine how they should be discovered For being offered to the understanding that comprehendsthe meaning of them they require no experience of particulars with sense time brings forth to frame a general conceit of that in which all agree or to pronounce what holds in all particulars Because it is immediately evident that the same holds in all particulars as in one which a man has before his eyes The like is to be said of the processe in hand though the reason be farre otherwise Hee that considers may see that the motives of Faith assured to the common sense and reason of all men by the consent of believers are immediately the reason why wee believe the Scriptures in which they are recorded to be the Word of God without so much as supposing any such thing as a Church in the nature of a Corporation indowed with authority over those of whom it consists The consent of Christians as particular persons obliging common reason both to believe the Scriptures and whatever that belief inferres As this must be known before wee can believe the Scriptures so being known it must be if any be the onely reason why we believe either the Scriptures or that Christianity which they convey unto us And if it be the onely reason why wee believe then is it better known in order of reason as well as of sense to be true than the authority of the Church the knowledg whereof must resolve into the reason why wee are Christians And if this be true then is not the authority of the Church as a Corporation to be obliged by the act of some members so much as a condition requisite to induce any man to believe All men by having the onely true reason why all are to believe being subject to condemnation if they believe not But not if they believe not the Corporation of the Church unlesse it may appeare to be a part of that Faith which that onely reason moves us to believe Neither doth the credit which wee give to all Christians witnessing the motives of Faith to be true by submitting to Christianity in regard of them create in us any inferior Faith of the nature of humane because the witnesse of man convayes the motives thereof to our knowledg But serves us to the same use as mens eyes and other senses served them when they saw those things done which Moses and the Prophets which our Lord and his Apostles did to induce men to believe that they came from God For as true as it is that if God have provided such signs to attest his Commission then we are bound to believe So true is it that if all Christians agree that God did procure them to be done then did hee indeed procute them to be done that men might believe For so great a part of mankinde could not be out of their wits all at once Let not therefore those miracles which God hath provided to attest the Commissions of Moses and the Prophets of our Lord and his Apostles be counted common and probable motives to believe unlesse wee will confesse that wee have none but common and probable motives For what reason can wee have to believe that shall not depend upon their credit Unlesse it be the light of natural reason which may make that which they preach more evidently credible but never evidently true If these works were provided by God to oblige us to believe then is that Faith which they create truely divine and the work of God Though had all men been blinde they had not been seen and had all men been out of their wits wee might presume that they had agreed in an imposture And now it will be easie to answer the
remains under that sin which by refusing the Gospel hee refuses to escape The man whom God showes competent reasons to convict him of the truth of Christianity does hee not thereby oblige to believe If so then is Christianity by those reasons and by out Lord and his Apostles advancing them published for Gods Law to all them to whom those reasons become known Suppose that not onely the Apostles but God himself do no more than perswade men to believe can any Secular Power do more For what can it do more in making a Law than declare the will of the Soveraign under a punishment expressed And doth not God declare when hee sends those that are furnished with means to convict the world of the truth of Christianity that it is his will that they become Christians And is it not competent punishment to inact a Law that by disobeying men become incapable of escaping their own sin and the punishment of it If Christianity be no Law because a man hath his choice whether hee will believe or not hath not a thief his choice whether hee will be hanged or not steal or is not the mischief that comes by refusing the Faith as great as that As for the point of justice is not gtatitude justice doth not God oblige them in point of justice whom hee obligeth in point of gratitude doth hee not oblige them in point of gratitude whom by his Gospel hee showes the way to come from under sin to everlasting happinesse Again is it not justice that mankinde should be subjects and not rebels to God doth not the Gospel preach that mankinde are become rebels to God and that they ought to return and become his Subjects If wee can owe a debt of justice to God or to our selves the greatest is that which the Gospel bindeth upon us But suppose not onely that which this Dogmatist granteth that hee who is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth when his Soveraign commandeth is bound to believe him with his heart at the same time let mee demand by what Law hee is bound to it if the Scriptures be not Law Or how a man can be bound to believe in heart that our Lord Jesus is the Christ and not be bound to receive either the mater or the motives to believe that which Christ teacheth which is all that the Scriptures containe Wherefore wee are by no means to admit that which this Author presumes upon as evident truth That it is one thing to demand why a man believes the Scriptures another thing to demand how a man knowes them to be the Word of God and a third by what authority they become Law Because saith hee one man believes for this reason another for that But to know the Scripture to be the Word of God is a thing that no man can do but onely hee to whom this or that Scripture was revealed For it is true that one man believes for this reason another for that if they believe not for that reason for which they ought to believe But there is but one reason for which God requires us to believe namely his will declared by the motives of Faith which hee by his messengers or deputies hath presented us with And hee that is moved to believe for any reason besides that is but called a believer for hee is not such in Gods esteem And hee that by these reasons stands convict that those messengers came from God though hee cannot know by the report of his senses nor by any evidence of the mater which they contain that the Scriptures are the Word of God yet may hee reasonably be said to know that they are so because hee knowes those reasons by which hee stands convict that they are no otherwise And I have now further showed that the publishing of Christianity that is the tendering of the Scriptures with this evidence that they contain the word and will of God bindes them for a Law upon the consciences of all that receive them so obliging them not onely to believe all that they contain to be true but to undertake and do whatsoever they require Wherefore it is true that the Scriptures or Christianity becomes the civil Law of a State because the Soveraign Power thereof inacteth it But wee are further to demand whether Secular Power is able to do this because it is Soveraign or because it is Christian For if because it is Sovetaign it will follow of necessity that those who are not subject to Christian Powers are not obliged to believe the truth of the Scriptures nor to be Christians if there be no other Law to require it at their hands but the will of their Soveraign Because the onely reason which this opinion saith obliges them to believe that is the act of Soveraigne Power is wanting If because it is Christian the question will have recourse what it was that obliged the Soveraign Power to become Christian For the act of Soverâ—igne Power hath no effect upon it self but upon those that are under it And yet the same reason why the Soveraign Power is bound to believe will convince all that are under it that they also ought to believe because concerning them as men or at least as those men whom the motives of Faith are published to not as of this or that Common-wealth But in this businesse I am most ashamed for Euclid's sake that a man so studied in Geometry should build such a vast pretense in Christianity upon such an imaginary ground Forsooth Abraham and the Patriarchs after him and then Moses had the Soveraign Power of their Families and of Gods people the Patriarchs by their birth and estate Moses by the contract of the Israelites accepting of God for their Civil Soveraign and Moses for his Lieutenant The same Patriarchs and Moses were absolute in maters of Religion because Gods people inferiors were to be ruled in it by no other Laws then those which God published to them by the hands of those Superiors Hee that will go about to draw the conclusion from these principles whether granted or onely supposed shall easily see that it followes not For half an eye will serve to distinguish two qualities in the Patriarchs and in Moses the one of Soveraignes the other of Prophets or Depuries and Commissaries or Interpreters of the will of God to his people And this distinction being made I will not be beholden to any man to say which of the two it was that could oblige their inferiors to obey as Gods Lawes those things which persons so authorized should declare in his name For if those whom God by sufficient evidence had witnessed to be his Prophets and messengers should falsify his trust the blame of that which should be done upon such deceit must needs redound upon God And therefore this author pag. 231 287. agreeth with that which I argued even now that revelations and inspirations of Gods Spirit are not granted under the Gospel but to those
who fall away in time of persecution are not to expect to be restored by Penance makes their Excommunication without release which therefore hee granteth may be released ù on repentance in the case of other sins To which purpose the Apostle 1 John V. 16 17. If a man see his brother sin a sin not unto death let him ask and hee shall give him life To such as sin not to death There is a sin to death I say not that yee pray for it All unrighteousnesse is sin but there is a sin not to death The meaning of these Scriptures I have argued and cleared more at large in my book of the Right of the Church in a Christian State pag. 17-40 by such reasons as have not been disputed by those that have questioned this power of the Church since the publishing of it But I will remember in this place that which I have also pleaded there pag. 13-16 that all this power is grounded upon the power of baptizing to forgivenesse of sins because of the evidence lately produced for the interrogatories of baptisme and the profession of Christianity which the Church did injoyn and all that were baptized undergo The promise of everlasting life in the world to come and the gift of the Holy Ghost inabling to performe so great an undertaking depending upon it according to such termes as the preaching of the Gospel importeth For if the Church be trusted by God first to induce men to believe Christianity then to instruct them wherein it consisteth is it not properly said to forgive the sins of them who upon that instruction undertake that profession with a good conscience and a heart unfained which God requireth of those that seek his promises And this is the ground of that which is there argued that the power of the Keyes is first seen in granting baptisme though not in ministering of it other acts of the same power depending upon this I will not here omit S. Cyprian Ep. LXXIII Manifestum autem est ubi per quos remissa peccatorum detur quae in baptismo scilicet datur Nam Petro primum Dominus super quem aedificaviâ— Ecclesiam unde unitatis originem instituit ostendit potestatem dedit ut id solvereâ—ur in coelis quod ipse solvisset in terris Et post resurrectionem quoque ad Apostolos loquitur dicens Sicut misit me Pater ego mitto vos Hae cum dixisset inspiravit ait eis Accipite Sp. Sanctum Si cujus remiseritis peccata remittentur illi Si cujus tenueritis tenebuntur Vnde intelligimus non nisi in Ecclesia praepositis in Evangelicâ Lege ac dominicâ ordinatione fundatis licere baptizare remissam peccatorum dare Foris autem nec ligari posse nec solvi ubi non sit qui ant ligare possit aut solvere Here it is plain that the Keyes of the Church and the power of remitting sins is exercised in baptizing according to S. Cyprian For thus hee writeth Now it is manifest where and by whom remission of sins is given which forsooth is given in baptisme For first our Lord gave power to Peter upon whom hee built his Church and in whom hee settled and declared the original of Unity that it should be loosed in heaven which hee should loose on earth And after his resurrection hee speaketh also to his Apostles saying As my Father sent mee so I also send you And having said so hee breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins yee remit they shall be remitted whose sins yee retain they shall be retained Whence wee understand that it is not lawfull but for those that are set over the Church and founded upon the Evangelical Law and the Ordinance of our Lord to baptize and give remission of sins But that without nothing can be either bound or loosed where there is no body that can either binde or loose This is then the ground of Excommunicating out of the Church The profession of Christianity is as necessary to obtain the promises of the Gospel at Gods hands as baptisme at the Churches The Church is trusted to allow or to refuse the profession tendered and accordingly to receive into the Church or exclude out of it And shall not hee that transgresses the profession of a Christian as visibly as hee made it which not onely Hereticks and Schismaticks but Adulterers Murtherers Apostates and the like do shall hee not forfeit the communion of the Church which hee attained by it Adde hereunto the consideration of that which I observed afore out of the Constitutions of the Apostles VIII 32. specifying what professions and trades of life there were which then were refused Baptisme unlesse they would professe to leave them as inconsistent with Christianity For example all that lived by the Stewes by the Stage by the Games and by the Races of the Pagans all Soothsayers Diviners and Fortune-tellers all that kept Concubines and refused to conforme themselves For let no man think this book the onely witnesse of this truth You have it in many other writers of the Church But especially in S. Austines book de Fide Operibus The subject whereof concernes those who having put away wives or husbands and married others were refused Baptisme for it This some plain Christians marvelled at and thought it reason that all should be baptized that would then taught their duty Which whoso regarded not might neverthelesse as they thought be saved so as through firâ— according to S. Paul And this is that which S. Austine disputes from the beginning to the XIV Chapter of that book that no man is to be baptized till hee undertake to live like a Christian marvailing afterwards cap. XVIII where those Christians had lived and spent their time who seeing every day before their eyes Whores Players Fencers Panders and the like refused Baptism found it strange that those adulteries which Christianity no lesse condemned never to inherit the kingdome of heaven should not be admitted into the Church without a promise to leave them for the future Certainly if the Church have power not to admit those who undertake not this then is the power of excluding those who undertake it and perform it not well grounded I shall not repeat here the reasons that I have elswhere to show that Penance and by consequence Excommunication is to be counted in the number of Traditions introduced with the force of Lawes into the Church by the Aposâ—les It is enough that they remaine intire I confesse they inferre an opinion thâ—â— is not so common That under the Apostles some sins of the deepest dye were not admitted to Penance nor to regain the Communion of the Church by the same But referred to the mercy of God whereof it was not alwaies thought fit that the Church should become surety or warrant And this brings in an interpretation of some very difficult texts of Scripture which is not received
corrupted the truth As Paul also saith A man that is an Heretick after one reproof and a second avoid Knowing that such a one is perverted condemned by himself Where you see it is not I but Irenaeus that expoundeth those words of S. Paul to this purpose The same Irenaeus III. 4. Cerdon autem qui ante Marcionem hic sub Hygino qui fuit octavus Episcopus saepe in Ecclesiam veniens exomologesim faciens sic consummavit Modò quidem latenter docens modò verò exomologesim faciens modò verò ab aliquibus traductus in his quae docebat malè abstentus est religiosorum hominum conventu But this same Cerdon also that was before Marcion under Hyginus who was the eight Bishop many times addressing to the Church and confessing ended accordingly Sometimes covertly teaching his Heresie sometimes confessing And sometimes being detected by some in those bad things which hee taught was excluded the assembly of the Religious Tertullian de praescript cap. XXX informes us that Marcion though hee was at the first refused Penance by the Church of Rome as I shall show you out of Epiphanius yet afterwards was cast out of the Church there which supposeth him admitted afore with Valentinus the Father of another Heresie and having been received once again at the last for good and all For having obtained to be re-admitted upon this condition that hee should reduce with himself all that hee had seduced at length hee died before hee was able to accomplish the same These things coming to passe so soon after the Apostles as they did and the same course being held in separating those Heresies from the Church which sprung up in their several ages afterwards there is no room left for any pretense that the Church never had power to do that which there never was any time that shee did not do For it is to be noted that these Heads of Heresies being condemned and cast out of the Church in which they first appeared and which they attempted to divide were thenceforth disowned by all Churches being certified of the proceeding that had passed against them upon the place And therefore Vincentius Lerinensis Commentario I. expounding S. Pauls words Gal. I. 8 9. Let him be Anathema Anathema sit inquit id est separatui exclusus nè unius ovis dirum contagium innoxium gregem Christi venenatâ permistione contaminet That is saith hee let him be separated set aside shut out least the direfull contagion of one sheep with any mixture of poison stain the innocent flock of Christ And again afterwards handling the words of S. Paul 1 Tim. VI. 20. Keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane novelties of words What is it to avoid With such one not so much as to eat What is avoid If any come to you saith hee and bringeth not this doctrine receive him not home nor bid him God speed Where you see these are none of my collections gathered out of the Apostles words but that exposition of them which the practice of the Catholick Church inferreth CHAP. X. Evidence of the Apostles act from the effect of it in preserving the Vnity of the Church Of the businesse of Marcion and Montanus That about keeping Easter That of the Novations of rebaptizing Hereticks of Paulus Samosatenus of Dionysius Alexandrinus and Arius Of communicatory leters and the intercourse of the Church under and after the Apostles THis is indeed the true demonstration and evidence from the effect that the will of God and not the consent of men is the ground upon which the Corporation of the Church subsisteth The whole number of Christians dispersed over all the Empire and beyond the bounds of it continued for divers hundred years in one communion and in the unity of one Church Those that indeavoured to alter the Rule of Faith or to impose such Lawes as were found by the greatest part not to stand with the end for which the Church was founded being by the consent of the whole excluded the communion of it for Hereticks and Schismaticks Hee that sayes this was not the work of God or the means of effecting it none of his declared will why should not hee say the like of Christianity Indeed since the Council of Ephesus the Churches of Mesopotamia and Assyria are fallen from the Unity of the whole since the Council of Chalcedon those of Aegypt and Aethiopia Since that the Eastern Churches under the Patriarch of Constantinople have been divided from the Western under the Pope of Rome And these from one another into so many parties since the Reformation that wee are now come to dispute whether they ought to be united or not That ever they will be is so hopelesse that no man would undertake to dispute that they should be were it possible to preserve that little of Christianity that remaines without re-uniting the Church I allege here the most eminent passages that fell out in the Church from the Apostles to Constantine to show that it is a question whether the evidence be more That by Gods appointment there was from the beginning and ought to be alwaies one Catholick Church Or the hope lesse that ever it will be so again I cannot begin with a better evidence than that of Irenaeus because it containes the effect of the aforesaid ordinances of the Apostles for the separating of the Heresies set on foot by Simon Magus and Cerinthus from the Communion of the Church that the Unity thereof might be preserved by remaining distinct from them Wee understand by reading his first book that Basilides at Alexandria Saturninus at Antiochia Valentinus first in Aegypt then in Cyprus afterwards at Rome Cerintbus in Asia and elsewhere others in several parts of the World indeavored to adulterate that Christianity which the Apostles had delivered That they were so unanimously rejected and excluded out of the society of the Church from East to West that hee is able to affirm I. 3. that though dispersed all over the world yet it preserves the doctrine once preached as if it dwelt all in one house believing the same faith as if it had the same soul and heart and preaching and teaching the same as if it had but one mouth And can common sense imagine that the remotest parts of the world could remaine united to one another separated from Heresies sprung in the remotest parts of it which they could not have intelligence of but by communication of it with those parts of it where they sprung without that continual correspondence wherein the actual communion of the Church consisteth But the words of Irenaeus are so vigorous that I cannot leave them out here as they stand in his original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Unity therefore of the Church was visible Otherwise it had been senslesse for Irenaeus to assume it as an evidence of the truth of that Faith the unity whereof became visible by the
unity of the Church which professed it Thus then writeth Irenaeus This preaching and this faith the Church having received as I said afore though dispersed all over the world carefully keepeth as if it inhabited one house And believeth these things alike as if it had one soule and one heart And harmoniously preacheth and teacheth and delivereth them as if it had but one mouth For there be divers languages in the world but the Tradition signifies the same Nor do the Churches seated in the Germanies believe or deliver otherwise nor those in the Spaines nor among the Gaules nor in the East nor in Aegypt nor in Africk nor those that are seated in the middle parts of the world But as the Creature of God the Sun is one and the same in all the world so shineth the preaching of the truth every where inlightning all men that will come to the knowledge of the truth And neither will any of those that Rule in the Churches though powerfull in speaking say things diverse from these for the Disciple is not above his Master nor hee that is weak in speech abate of that which is delivered For to the same Faith neither hee that is able to say much of it addeth nor hee that is able to say little abateth of it Hee that acknowledges this to be Gods doing must of necessity acknowledge the means of it the concurrence of all Churches to the maintainance of unity in the same Faith by disowning those that pretended to break it not left to mans will but injoyned by Gods And Irenaeus his instance in the Church of Rome serves to good purpose to make out this evidence For all Churches that is as Irenaeus sayes Christians of all Churches having necessarily recourse to Rome for all occasions because it was the seat of the Empire might there inform themselves and their Churches of the perverse doctrines that might be on foot and of the consent of the Churches in refusing the same In the next place I will not forget the relation of Epiphanius concerning Marcion in the beginning of his Heresie because it is next in time and of great consequence Hee being put out of the Church by his Father Bishop of Sinope in Pontus and making sure to be admitted by the Church of Rome received this answer That they could not do it without his Fathers consent because the Faith is one and the Unity the same Compare herewith the proceeding of Synesius against Andronicus Ep. LVIII LXXIX though so much distant in time which in the first book de Synedriis Judaeorum pag. 304. is said to be of a high strain Hee saith that if any Church neglecting his Church of Ptolomais as a poor Church being the Church of a small City shall receive to communion those whom it had excommunicated hee shall be thereby guilty of dividing the Church which Christ will have to be one And tell mee how this proceeding differs from that which in Marcions case Epiphanius sayes was done at Rome so near the Apostles Certainly if one Church should receive into communion those whom another Church excommunicates there could remaine no unity in the whole Church because no distinction from those that are not of the Church When therefore it appears that the Church held it for a Rule from the beginning not to do so shall not this be evidence that the reason is that which was alleged to Marcion at Rome which Synesius alleges To wit the Unity of the Church For the same reason Montanus having as it seems by pretended revelations and inspirations such as at that time there can be no question but the Church was graced with brought the Churches of Phrygia to his intent but being rejected by the Churches of Asia went or sent to Rome to induce that Church to undertake and prescribe the same Rules to all that adheered unto it For why otherwise should hee labor for the consent of that Church before others but in hope that having induced it to receive his Rules the authority thereof might induce other Churches to do the like because they found it necessary for them to hold correspondence with the Church of Rome Now I beseech you were all Christians utterly out of their five senses to contend about the communion of the Church if there were no such thing in point of fact Were they all from the beginning possest with a frenzy that they were bound to maintain it by voiding all questions that might impeach it if there were no such obligation in point of right Is it not plain that the issue of such questions was this whether the Unity of the Church or the advantage of such Rules to the common cause of Christianity wayed most How is Tertullian otherwise counted a Montanist that is as I suppose a Schismatick Wee may believe Tertullian in a mater which all Christians at Rome then might know when hee tells us that Zephyrinus then Bishop of Rome was about to admit unto his communion the Churches of Asia and Phrygia that had acknowledged Montarus and his Prophets and Prophesies Contr. Prax. cap. I. Though Pope Soter afore Zephyrinus had writ against Montanus as well as Apollonius Bishop of Ephesus if wee believe Sirmondus his Praedestinatus Haer. XXVI When hee sayes that afterwards the contrary was resolved upon informations brought from Asia by Praxeas an Heretick That which appears that the Montanists were disclaimed wee must admit That which appears not upon what information it was done wee need not dispute Tertullian hereupon drawes after him a company which called themselves a Church at Carthage and subsisted there after Tertullian till they were reduced by S. Augustine as wee learn by Sirmondus his Praedestinatus Haer. XCVII and S. Augustine de Haeresibus This makes Tertullian a Schismatick That rather than rest content with those Rules which the rest of the Church satisfied themselves with hee departed from the Unity of it Otherwise those blasphemies for which the followers of Montanus are counted Hereticks preferring their own revelations above and against those of the Apostles hee is not chargable with Proceed wee now to the businesse of keeping Easter and the debate about it between Victor Bishop of Rome and the Churches of Asia These resolutely adheering to the custome which in all appearance they had received from their founder S. John to keep the Passion when the Jewes kept it that is upon the fifteenth day of the Moon that was the next equinoctial and the Resurrection the third after that The Church of Rome and almost all Churches beside keeping thc Passion on the Friday the Resurrection on the Ladies day following The one aiming at winning the Jewes when it was first set on foot the other to protest against them as incorrigible It is well enough known how Victor intending to withdraw his Communion from the Churches of Asia was reduced to tolerate them by the perswasions of Irenaeus then Bishop of Lions Certainly had not the Communion of the
chargeth them that professing to honor the Prophets by building their monuments but hating himself and his Apostles they made themselves the heirs of those that killed the Prophets And pursuing the same discourse addeth That hee would send them Prophets and Scribes and Wisemen which were his Apostles and Disciples whom they should crucifie and scourge and persecute from City to City that all the righteous bloud that had been shed from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias might come on their heads The same is testified by the Apostle Ebr. XI 36 37 38. where having through the whole Chapter showed that the Fathers before and under the Law were saved by Faith as Christians are hee addeth Others had trial of mockings and scourgings and bands and imprisonment were stoned were sawed asunder were tempted died by the sword went about in sheeps and goats-skins wanting afflicted and distressed of whom the world was not worthy wandring in deserts upon mountaines in caves and holes under ground Which being the condition of the Christians to whom hee writes exhorting them by all that Epistle to indure persecution of the Jewes rather than to deny Christianity by turning to the Law which the Jewes indeavored to force them to by raising them trouble makes it manifest that the same righteousness for which the Jewes then persecuted the Christians was that for which their Fathers had persecuted the Prophets and other righteous men under the Law And hee that shall make trial to maintaine the truth of Christianity against the Jewes that acknowledge all the Old Testament as well as wee shall finde that the Fathers of the Church have reason when they allege this against the Jewes to show that the salvation which the Patriarchs and Prophets and other righteous men before and under the Law obtained was not by Judaisme but by Christianity Eusebius by name de demonstr Evang. lib. I. There was no need then that the Law should condition that this should be believed and it was agreeable to the immediate intent of the Law onely to suppose it For at that time by reason of their deliverance out of Aegypt they did acknowledge God to be the onely true God searcher of hearts and Judge of the world to come Though formerly they had been tainted with the Idolatries of the Aegyptians as by the Prophet Ezekiel XX. 7. and their often relapses to Idolatry upon occasion of the company that joyned themselves to them when they came out of Aegypt Exod. XII 38. Num. XI 4. Exod. XVI 2. XXXII 1. may appear Therefore this Law being tendred for the Civil Law of that people it is not sâ—range that hee should covenant with them no further than that they should expresly acknowledge him for their God in opposition to all other pretended Gods and serve him by such ceremonies as hee should appoint Governing their civil life by such Lawes as hee should allow an interest in the Land of Promise to those that should observe having appointed those to be cut off from it that should not observe the same Though this being the immediate intent of the Law another principal and utter intent of it must be acknowledged to make way for that inward and spiritual righteousnesse which the Gospel requireth For those who by the temporal punishment of the Law should be constrained to yield outward obedience to it and abstaine from such evill deeds as should put them out of protection of it being assured by the doctrine of their Fathers before the Law maintained by the Prophets under the Law of Gods particular providence and the immortality of the soul and the reward of good and bad according to that spiritual righteousnesse which they themselves lived in were thereby sufficiently obliged to obey God not onely as their Soveraigne in this world civilly but inwardly and spiritually as him whom they expected to be judged by and remaine with everlastingly in the world to come For as the necessity of Christs coming is necessary to the maintenance of Christianity so it is also necessary to the same purpose that wee maintain this coming of his to have been fore-told and signified by the Old Testament and yet the intent of it not covenanted for because the intent of his coming was to covenant for it Which had it been covenanted for by the Law hee should not have needed to come for the purpose of introducing and establishing a Covenant which was already effectually accepted and in force Nor to do the miracles which yet serve not to convince the Jewes that this was the intent of the Law so farre were they from being convinced without them True it is indeed that though this Covenant had been established by the Law and accepted by Gods people the coming and miracles of Christ would have been no lesse necessary to introduce the Faith of the holy Trinity But it is manifest that the revelation of that Faith was necessary as the means to procure this Covenant to be accepted as obtained by the Son and made effectual by the Spirit And therefore the coming of Christ tending to convince the world thereof it is manifest that the end for which the world was to be convinced thereof that is to say that the Covenant of the Gospel might be accepted was not in effect before not brought to passe without it I do therefore much approve of the comparison which Grotius hath made between Moses his Law and the Romane Lawes which had their rise from the Pretors Edicts Who being annuall Magistrates and having a great Jurisdiction in their hands were wont because at the first written Lawes were not provided to signifie at their entrance by posting up an Edict what pleas they would receive and give processe to But so that of course they retained the most points which their predecessors had declared which therefore being translated of course out of this yeares Edict into the next were called tralatitia and thereupon all things that are customary and usuall are properly called tralatitia in Latine Wee must understand further that the Fathers afore the Law had separated themselves from the Nations that had fallen and were falling away every day from the true God to the worship of Idols not onely by acknowledging and serving the onely true God but by very many Lawes and Customes whereby they ruled their Families and inferiors in religion and justice among themselves It must therefore be concluded that those principles upon which their Religion stood were not blotted out when they received that taint of Aegyptian Idolatries But remained in force and virtue among them at such time as by receiving the Law becoming a free State they undertook to serve God and to govern themselves according to the Lawes which hee should give For it is evident that divers Lawes and Customes which were in force among them before the Law are presupposed and further limited by the Law and therefore not introduced by it but derived from the Fathers as our Lord observeth of
their sufferings under Epiphanes The purpose of these Visions toward the Jews being the same with that of the Apocalypse toward the Christians to comfort them with resolution to adhere to the Law under to great trials the good success whereof the same Prophesie which foretold the Persecutions assureth It is not my businesse here to enter into any farther exposition of the particulars presuming that the reasons which confine the Interpretation being so concluding those that will look into the writings of those that walk within the bounds of Epiphanes his time especially Grotius the latest and ablest will find a more proper sense within those times than any can be imagined otherwise If therefore the Persecutions then related be fulfilled in the sufferings of the Jews under Epiphanes then the Kingdom which there is soretold to be given the Saints and People of God after vengeance executed upon him Dan. VII 18 22 27. XII 2 3. must also of necessity be understood of that Dominion which that Nation attained by freeing themselves from the Dominion of the Macedonians under the Maccabees Now there being such correspondence not onely between the main intent of both Prophesies but also between the particulars of them in very many things which no man can read both with diligence but must observe though it is true that many figures are used in S. Johns Revelations which are found to correspondent purposes in the Visions of others of the Prophets concerning Gods ancient people I conceive no man will be able to reprove the consequence that both the Persecutions which pretended to make the Christians renounce Christ as Antiochus pretended to make the Jews renounce the Law are intended by the fifth Seal and also the coming of Constantine to the Empire whereby the Government of the world came into the hands of Christians by the sixth Seal As well as the Dominion of the Maccabees succeeding the persecution of Epiphanes by the raign of the Saints foretold by Daniel From whence I argue that S. Pauls Prophesie cannot intend any that should professe Christianity with an intent to corrupt it because of the terms which hee useth Hee that exalteth himself against all that is called God or to be worshipped so as to seat himself in the Temple of God showing himself that hee is God Being the same in which Epiphanes is described Dan. XI 36 37. And the King shall do what him list Hee shall exalt himself and magnifie himself against all that is God and shall speak marvelous things against the God of Gods and shall prosper till the wrath be accomplished For the determination is made Neither shall hee regard the God of his Fathers nor the desires of women nor care for any God For hee shall magnifie himself above all For who is it that magnifies himself above all that is called or accounted God and worshipped for God though by his own Predecessors but hee that appoints the Jews whom they shall worship for their own the true God in the Temple But hee that appoints the Christians to whom they shall sacrifice Which as of all other Princes that had the Jews in their power none did but Epiphanes so all the Emperours that raised persecution against the Christians did necessarily do For as it is manifest that both the Macedonian Kings and Roman Emperours were themselves worshipped for Gods by their Gentile Subjects so can none be said to advance himself above all that is called or worshipped for God but those that first forbid the worship of the true God then of false Gods allow or disallow the worship of whomsoever their own fansie directs which is a thing common to Antiochus Epiphanes with the Roman Emperours For the saying of Tertullian is well enough known Apolog. V. cap. Nisihomini deus placuerit deus non erit Spoken in regard of the Power that State used to allow or disallow the Religions and the Gods which they pleased Whereupon hee rests and sayes That such Gods if they have not man to friend must be no Gods And besides the Emperours by assuming the Legal power of Pontifex maximus were invested with a Civil Right of allowing or disallowing whomsoever should pretend to be worshipped for God within the bounds of the Empire Whether then that wee suppose that the Prophesie of S. Paul to the Thessalonians and the Revelations made to S. Iohn do concern Antichrist or not seeing the Scripture no where saith that either the one or the other intendeth to speak of Antichrist And for the present omitting the dispute whether that Antichrist whom S. Iohn in his first Epistle II. 18 19. IV. 1 2 3. admitteth to be appointed to come though other Antichrists were come afore whether I say that Antichrist be such a one as by persecution should seek to constrain Christians to renounce Chirst or such a one as by professing Christianity should induce Christians to admit the corruption of Christianity and thereby to forfeit the benefit of it I say omitting to dispute this for the present out of the premises I shall easily inferr that there is neither in S. Pauls Prophesie nor in S. Iohns Revelations any thing to signifie that they are intended of any that should bring in the corruption of Christianity by making profession of it Whereupon it followeth that though wee suppose the mystery of iniquity which S. Paul foretelleth to be the same that S. Iohn saw as truly I do suppose and both to begin with the preaching of Christianity yet from thence no exception can be made to the interpretation of the Scriptures and the determination of things questioned in Christianity from that which may appear to have been received by the whole Church from the beginning Onely I will adde that it is a very barbarous wrong that is done the Church whether by the Socinians or by whosoever they are that allege the testimony of Hegesippus in Eusebius acknowledging That the Church which during the time of the Apostles was a pure Virgin after their departure began to be adulterate with the contagion of pestilent doctrines to argue that this being the mystery of iniquity which S. Paul prophesieth is also the corruption of the Papacy which beginning so early leaves nothing unsuspected that can be presumed upon the consent of the Church For it is manifest that Hegesippus speaks of the abominable doctrines of the Gnosticks which as it is manifest by the writings of the Apostles that they were on foot during their time so may wee well believe Hegesippus that upon their death they spread so sarr that in comparison of what succeeded the Church of the Apostles may well be counted a pure Virgin It is also manifest from the premises that the Gnosticks could finde in their hearts to counterfeit themselves as well Christians as Jewes or Gentiles to secure themselves from punishment and winn followers But it is also manifest that as they were discovered by the Church so they were put out of the Church and forced
large vvord to make good But if vve look upon the intent of those that spake it and the mater vvhich they had in hand it will appear very unreasonable to extend it to any thing else Now I suppose upon the premises that the Prophets Esay and Ieremy in the first and literal and obvious sense intend to soretell the return of the people of Israel from Captivity and the great change that should be seen in their faithfulnesse to God though figuring thereby that knowledge of God and that fidelity of Christians which the preaching of the Gospel should produce And truly I do challenge all them that are best acquainted with the state of that people from the beginning to show me any greater change in it then that which we see came to passe upon their return from the Captivity To wit that they who formerly before the Captivity had been every day falling away from their own the true God to the worship of imaginary Deities should from thenceforth continue constant to him when tempted with the greatest torments in the world to renounce him for the worship of Idols as we see by the relations of the Maccabees And is it strange then that I should say that this is the change which these Prophesies intend to declare Especially when I say not that this is all they intend because I know that the Apostles have declared them to be intended of the times of the Gospel But that this is that which they intend in the first instance which by the premises must be a figure and step to that which the Gospel intends to declare And yet in regard of the manifold Idolatries which prevailed before the Captivity it shall be most truly and significantly understood that the people of God who after the Captivity never departed from the true God shall not then teach one another to know the true God because that Law the summe of the old Law should be written in their hearts and entrails so that they should have no need to teach one another to know the true God If this be true referring this Prophene to the Gospel of which the Apostle expounds it in the mystical sense Heb. VIII 8 it will be much more evident how those that are baptized upon the profession of the Christian faith who are the new Israel according to the Spirit shall have no need to teach one another to know the true God who both know God and the way to God which is the Law of God which they bear in their hearts if their Christianity be not counterfeit So that when God promiseth to establish this new Covenant he promiseth neither more nor lesse then the conversion of the world to the Christian faith Accordingly S. John truly tells the Christians to whom he writes that they knew all things and had no need that any man should teach them because the unction that was in them taught them the truth because he doth not mean that they knew the secrets of Geometry or the mysteries of nature or whatsoever is or is done in the utmost parts of the world or any thing else impertinent to his present discourse But because they had in them a principle sufficient to condemn those errors which he writes against there to wit those that deny both the Father and the Son by denying Jesus to be the Christ which saith the Apostle is the spirit of Antichrist For surely he that hath unfainedly professed the Christian Faith upon being catechized in it hath in him a principle sufficient to preserve him from such gross infections which the Holy Ghost wherewith he is anointed upon being baptized into this profession out of a good conscience sealeth up in his heart so that such corruptions can have no access to infect it And therefore the Apostle might well call upon them to try such Spirits whither of God or not seeing that the comparing of their pretenses with that which they had once received must needs be sufficient to condemn that which is opposite to it by the judgement of any man that unfainedly adhereth to it So that S. Paul when he bids the Thessalonians try all things but hold that which is good demands no unreasonable thing at their hands if we understand those things which he would have tried to be such as are triâ—ble by the rule of faith common to all Christians Indeed the same Apostle when he writeth to the Corinthians that the spiritual man is judged by no man but himselfe judgeth all things seems to speak more generally not onely of the rule of Faith but of the secret counsel and good pleasure of God in dispensing the revelation thereof one way to the ancient Prophets another way to the Apostles both by the Spirit of God and Christ Which secret counsel those spiritual men that he speaketh of were able to interpret in the Scriptures of the Old Testament by comparing spiritual things with spiritual things That is the revelations granted under the Law with those which the Gospel had brought forth Which though the Apostles could do yet the grace of understanding the Scriptures of the Old Testament by the Holy Ghost was no more common to all Christians at that time then now that the understanding of the Scriptures is to be purchased by humane indeavours it can be common to all Christians to be Divines By all which it appeareth not that the Scriptures con in all things necessary to salvation clearly to all that want it but that Christianity affordeth sufficient means of instruction in all things necessary to the salvaâ—ion of all that learn it And those who to find this instruction turn simple plain meaning Christians to that translation of the Bible which they like to find resolution in the pretenses of the sects which can arise cannot be said either to teach them Christianity or sufficient means to learn it For he who hath not only acknowledged the substance of Christianity but grounded the hope of his salvation upon it will rather deny his own senses then admit any thing contrary to it to be the true meaning of the Scripture whatsoever be the sound of the words of it But he that onely knoweth the Scriptures to be Gods truth and believeth he hath the spirit of God to conduct him in seeking the sense of it not supposing the beliefe of Christianity to be a condition requisite to the having of Gods spirit may easily be seduced by his inbred pride to devise and set up new positions sounding like the Scriptures which the Church acknowledgeth no more then that meaning of the Old Testament which our Lord and his Apostles first declared was acknowledged by the Scribes and Pharisees And thinking he doth it by the same right as they had must needs take himselfe and his followers for our Lord and his Apostles but the Church for the Scribes and Pharisees As for that extravagant conceit of Cartwright I will once more stand amazed at it A man of so much
it must be upon the terms of my position the practice of the Church giving bounds to the sense of the Scripture I can therefore safely agree with the Constitutions of the Apostles with S. Cyprian and Leo and whosoever else teaches that it is not safe for the people to assure their consciences upon the credit of their Pastors But it is because I suppose the Unity of the Church provided by God for a ground upon which the people may reasonably presume when they are to adhere to their Pastors when not To wit when they are owned not when they are disowned by the Unity of the Church For though this provision becomes uneffectual when this Unity is dissolved yet ought not that to be an argument that the goodnesse of God never made that provision which the malice of man may defeat But that whosoever concurrs to maintain the division concurrs to defeat that provision which God hath made As safely do I agree with all them who agree that whatsoever is taught in Christianity is to be proved by the Scriptures For if it belong to the Rule of Faith it is intended by the Scriptures though that intent is evidenced by the Tradition of the Church If to the Lawes of the Church the authority of it comes from the Scriptures though the evidence of it may depend upon common sense which the practice of the Church may convince If over and above both it is not receivable if not contained in the Scriptures And in this regard whosoever maintains the whole Scripture to be the Rule of Faith is throughly justified by all those testimonies that have been alleged to that purpose For though it be not necessary to the salvation of all Christians to understand the meaning of all the Scriptures yet what Scripture soever a man attains to understand is as much a Rule to his Faith as that which a man cannot be saved if hee understand not the sense of it whether in and by the Scripture or without it And though a man may be obliged to believe that which is not in the Scripture to have been instituted by the Apostles yet is he not obliged to observe it but upon that reason which the Scripture delivereth And upon these terms is the whole Scripture a Rule of Faith from which as nothing is to be taken away so is nothing to be added to it as the saying of S. Chrysostome in Phil. II. Hom. XII requireth And the saying of S. Basil in Esa II. and Ascet Reg. I. condemning all that is done without Scripture takes place upon no other terms than these Not as Cartwright and our Puritanes after him imagine that a man is to have a text of Scripture specifying every thing which hee doth for his warrant For as it is in it self ridiculous to imagine that all cases which fall out can be ruled by expresse text of Scripture our Christianity being concerned infinite wayes of which it is evident that the Scripture had no occasion to speak So if the words of the Scripture be lodged in a heart where the work of them dwelleth not a thing which wee see too possible to come to passe it is the ready way to make the Word of God a color for all unrighteousnesse not onely to others but to the very heart of him who hath that cloke for it It is therefore enough that the reason of every thing which a Christian doth is to be derived from that doctrine which the Scripture declaeth And where a man proceedeth to do that for which hee hath not such a reason so grounded as reasonable men use to go by then cometh that to passe which S. Basil chargeth Ascet Reg. LXXX That What is not of faith is sin It is true according to that sense which hitherto I have used after many Church Writers the Rule of Faith extendeth not to all the Scriptures but onely to that which it is necessary to salvation to believe and to know Which every man knowes that all the Scripture is not For though it be necessary to salvation to believe that all the Scripture is true yet is it not necessary to salvation to know all that the Scripture containeth And the reason why I use it in this sense is to distinguish those things contained in the Scriptures which Tradition extendeth to from those to which it extendeth not For upon these terms is the sense of them limitable to the common Faith But I quarel not therefore the opinion of them that maintaine the whole Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith acknowledging that whatsoever it containeth is necessarily to be believed by all that come to understand it And whatsoever it containeth not though the Scripture alone obligeth not to believe the truth of it is not necessarily to be observed for any other reason but that which the Scripture declareth As for S. Basil making it apostasy to bring that which is not written into the Faith It is a thing well known that the Arians were charged by the Church for bringing in words that were not in the Scriptures saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was a time when Christ was not And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That hee was made of nothing On the other side after the Council of Nicaea the Arians charged the Church for bringing in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same substance Where then lay the difference between the Inndelity of the Arians and the Faith of the Church Theodoret showes it Hist Eccles I. 8. out of Athanasius de Actis Concil Niceni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith hee They were condemned by written words piously understood But how appears this piety For I suppose the Arians would not have granted it Hee addeth that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been used by the Fathers which had it been inconsistent with the sense of the Church could not have been indured in a mater concerning the Rule of Faith whereas their terms were contrary to that which is found in the Scriptures Now S. Basil acknowledgeth that hee had elsewhere dealing with Hereticks used terms not found in the Scriptures to exclude their sense contrary to the Scriptures as you shall finde by the Authors alleged that the Council of Nicaea had done but to those who desired information with a single heart hee resolves to rest content with the Scriptures The terms whereof his meaning is that the Hereticks did not rest content with because they had a minde to depart from the Faith Upon the same terms Tertullian pronounces the Wo that belongs to them which adde to Gods Word upon Hermogenes because his error concerned the Article of our Creed that God made heaven and earth And S. Austine presumes the reason why there is no clear Scripture for the original of the soul to be because hee presumes that it concerns not the substance of Faith Besides these Observations some of those passages which are alleged may concern Christianity rather than the Scriptures
Christianity as the corruption of it Surely he that considers not amiss will finde that it was a great ease to them that were convinced to acknowledg a God above them to imagine the name and honor of this God to rest in something of their own choice or devising which being set up by themselves reason would they should hope to please and have propitious by such obedience and service as they could allow Correspondently God having given the Jewes a Law of such precepts as might be outwardly performed without inward obedience whosoever believe the most difficult point of Gods service to be the submission of the heart will finde it a gain that hee can perswade himself of Gods peace without it whatsoever trouble whatsoever cost hee be at for that perswasion otherwise If then there be in mans nature a principle of Paganism and Judaism notwithstanding that men cannot be at quiet till by imbracing a religion they think they are at peace with God Is it a strange thing that they who have attained the truth of Christianity should entertain a perswasion of peace with God upoâ— terms really inconsequent to or inconsistent with the true intent of it Surely if wee reflect upon the motives of it and the motives of them it cannot seem strange I have said and it is manifest that the nature of Christianity though sufficient yet were purposely provided not to be constraining that the effect of them might be the trial of those dispositions that should be moved therewith And is it a mervail that means to perswade those that have received Christianity that things inconsistent with that which was first delivered are indeed consequent to the same should be left among those that professe that they ought to receive nothing but what was first delivered by our Lord and his Apostles I say nothing now of renouncing Christianity while men professe this for I confesse and insist that while men do believe that there is a society of men visible by the name of the Church it will not be possible for them to forget their whole Christianity or to imbrace the contrary of it But I say that notwithstanding the profession of receiving Christianity from our Lord and his Apostles the present Church may admit Lawes whether of belief or of Communion inconsistent with that which they received at first I allege further that so long as all parts of the Church held free intercourse and correspondence with one another it was a thing either difficult or altogether impossible to bring such things either into the perswasion or practice of all parts of it according to the difficulty of bringing so great a body to agree in any thing against which any part might protest with effect And this held not onely before the Church was ingraffed into the State of the Romano Empire but also so long after as this accessory help of Christianity did not obscure and in the end extinguish the original intercourse and correspondence of the Church For then it grew both possible and easie for them who had the Secular Power on their side to make that which the authority thereof was imployed to maintain to passe for Tradition in the Church Seeing it is manifest that in the ordinary language of Church Writers Tradition signifies no lesse that which the Church delivers to succeeding ages than that which it received from the Apostles Adde hereunto the opinion of the authority of the Church truly pretended originally within the true bounds but by neglecting the due bounds of the truth of Christianity which it supposeth infinitely extended to all States which Powermay have interest to introduce For if it be not impossible to perswade those who know they have received their Christianity upon motives provided by God to convince the judgments and consciences of all that see them to imbrace those things to which the witnesse of them may be applyed that they are to imbrace whatsoever either the expresse act or the silent practice of the Church inforces whether the motives of Faith be applicable to them or not Then is it not impossible to perswade them any thing which this Power shall think to be for their Interest to perswade For no mans Interest it can be to go about to perswade the world that expresse contradictories are both true at once And if it were not impossible that the imaginations of most of them that dispute Controversies for the Church of Rome should be so imbroyled with the equivocation of this word Church as not to distinguish the Infallible authority thereof as a multitude of men not to be deceived in testifying the truth from the authority of it as a Body constituted upon supposition of the same Shall it not be easie for those who can obtain a reputation of the World that their act is to oblige the whole Church to obtain of the same to make no difference between that which is presently decreed and that which was originally delivered by the Apostles The said difference remaining disputable not onely by any text of Scripture but by any record of historical truth testifying the contrary to have passed for truth in any other age or part of the Church Upon these premises I do appeal to the common sense of all men to judge whether the Church professing to hold nothing but by Tradition from the Apostles may not be induced to admit that as received from the Apostles which indeed never was delivered by the Apostles For when the Socinians pretend that the Faith of the Trinity of the Incarnation and Satisfaction of our Lord Christ not being delivered by the Apostles in their writings crept into the Church as soon as they were dead they still maintain that nothing is to be admitted but what comes from our Lord and his Apostles But upon their supposition that Antichrist came into the Church as soon as they were dead are obliged to renounce all that can be pretended to come by Tradition and in that very next age Which I yield and insist that whosoever shall consider the intercourse and correspondence visibly establisht by the Apostles between all parts of the Church shall easily perceive to be a contradiction to common sense But when so much difference is visible between the State of the Church in several ages and what change hath succeeded in things manifest to inferre what may have succeeded in things disputable Hee must have his minde well and thoroughly possessed with prejudice to the utter renouncing of common sense that can indure a demand so contrary to all appearance to be imposed upon his common sense The same I say to the other demands of certain and sensible distances of time which they that see the end of may be certainly assured what was received at the beginning of them and so by mean distances this age what was held by the Apostles Of the like time for blotting out the remembrance of the truth as for introducing falshood For it is evidently true that
for the waters are come in even unto my soul And Let not the water-stood drown me neither let the deep swallow me up And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me And XLII 9. One deep calleth another because of the noise of thy water-pipes All thy waves and billows are gone over me Whereupon S. Paul Romans VI. 3 4 5 Know ye not that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death We are therefore buried with him by baptism into death that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should also walk in newnesse of life For if we have been planted into the like death of his then shall we be also into the like of his rising again For when he saith again Rom. X. 7. Who shall go down into the deep to wit to bring up Christ from the dead He sheweth plainly that by the waters of the deep he understands death whereby I suppose it appears sufficiently that the water of Baptism not the fire of the Holy Ghost is the antitype to the waters of the deluge Besides the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is not called Baptism but by resemblance of the fire thereof infusing it self into all the soul as the whole body is drenched in the waters of baptism Therefore it is not called absolutely Baptism but with an addition abating the property of the sense the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire Therefore where the term Baptism stands without this addition or any circumstance signifying the same it cannot be understood Again the interrogating of a good conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as all men of learning agree metonymically or by Synecdoche the answer or rather the stipulation consisting of the interrogatories of Baptism and the answer returned by him that is baptized undertaking to believe and to live like a Christian For it is manifest that it Fath been alwayes the custom in the Church of God as still in the Church of England which S. Peter here shews that it comes down from the Apostles to exact of him that is baptized a solemn vow promise or contract to stand to that which he undertaketh And this it is which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies whereof he that doubts may see enough in Grotius his Annotations to make him ashamed to doubt any more When therefore S. Peter saith that Baptism saveth us not the doing away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God he does not intend to distinguish the Baptism of water from the Baptism of the Holy Ghost in opposition to the same But to distinguish in the Baptism of water the bodily act of cleansing the flesh from the reasonable act of professing Christianity which being done out of a good conscience towards God he saith saveth us And that by the resurrection of Jesus Christ By vertue whereof S. Paul also saith that if we planted into the like death to Christs death we shall also be planted into the like resurrection of Christs Supposing that whosoever is baptized takes upon him the profession of Christs Crosse that is the bearing of it when his Christianity cals him to it For when our Lord saith in the Gospel I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. XII 50. And again to the sons of Zebedee Mat. XX 22. Are ye able to be baptized with the Baptism which I shall be baptized with He shews sufficiently that his Baptism is his Crosse In consideration whereof that is of undertaking to bear it out of a good conscience as Christ was raised from death to life again by the Spirit of Holinesse which dwelt in him without measure So those that are planted into the likenesse of Christs death in Baptism are promised the Grace of Gods Spirit to dwell in them and to raise them from sin here to the life of Grace and from death hereafter to the life of Glory in the world to come as I shewed you in the first Book So that S. Pauls argument proceeds not upon consideration of the Ceremony of Baptism and the naturall resemblance it hath with the duty of a Christian to rise from sin because he professes to die to it For that were to think that the Apostles have but weak argumens to inforce the obligation of Christianity with when this prime one is made to signifie no more then an indecorisne impertinence or inconsequence in signifying and professing that by our Baptism which by our lives we perform not But maketh Baptism the protestation of a solemn vow and promise to God and men and Angels to live for the future as the profession of Christians importeth And is it possible to show man overtaken in sin a more valuable consideration to expect salvation upon and therefore a stronger means to inforce the performance of what he hath undertaken then his own ingagement upon such a consideration as that We are therefore baptized with Christ unto death because we have undertaken upon our Baptism to mortifie our selves to the world that we may live to Gods service And upon that condition we promise our selves that we shall be raised from the dead again though by vertue of Christs rising again Being buried with him in Baptism wherein ye are also risen with him by faith of the effectuall working of God which raised him from the dead saith S. Paul Col. II. 12. For by obliging our selves to the profession of Christianity from a good heart and clear conscience we obtain the promise of the Holy Ghost whereby God effecteth the raising of us to a new life of righteousnesse necessarily consequent to the mortifying of sinne Besides these how many and how excellent effects are attributed to Baptism in the writings of the Apostles which without S. Peters distinction might seem strange that they should depend upon the clensing of the flesh but that they should by Gods appointment depend upon that ingagement whereby we give our selvs up to Christ for the future according to his distinction not at all For that this ingagement should not be effectuall till consigned unto the Church at Baptism cannot seem strange to him that believes the Catholick Church to be as I have shewed a corporation founded for the maintenance and exercise of that Christianity to which we ingage our selves by Baptism When the Jewes were pricked in heart to see our Lord whom they had crucified to be risen again and asked the Apostles Men and Brethren What shall we doe Acts II. 37 38. Peter saith unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you unto remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Which if it depend upon Baptism what promise of the Gospel is there that does not To the same purpose Heb. VI. 6. It is impossible for them that have once been inlightned and tasted the heavenly gift and become partakers
is necessarily presupposed to baptizing namely that Catechising which I spoke of afore but that they should make men Disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost limiting thereby the quality of Disciples to which the Holy Ghost is promised to those who should have received the Sacrament of Baptism and so been made Disciples Seeing then it appears so plentifully that the Gift of the Holy Ghost promised by our Lord a little before his departure to supply his bodily presence is limited by him to the Sacrament of Baptisme Of necessity that new birth by Water and the Holy Ghost which our Lords words to Nicodemus require of all that shall enter into the Kingdom of heaheaven dependeth upon the Sacrament of Baptism whatsoever Nicodemus might understand by the terme of water at the time when our Lord spake them and this promise was not published Of which I shall have occasion to say more in another place Neither will is be to the purpose to object that it is the actuall assistance and not the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost that regenerateth supposing for the present but not granting that which all that pretend to Christianity do not acknowledge and therefore that the promise of the Holy Ghost to succeed upon Baptism no way obligeth us to understand that water which with the Holy Ghost regenerateth of the water of Baptism For the actuall assistance of the Holy Ghost regenerating a man to become a Christian may well be understood to go before the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost upon Baptism And in my opinion is to be understood when our Lord goes on and saies That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Marvell not that I said unto thee ye must be born again The wind bloweth where it lifteth and ye hear the noise of it but cannot tell whence it commeth nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Holy Ghost And therefore what shall hinder water and the Holy Ghost to signifie one and the same thing in this place the cleansing vertue and operation of the Holy Ghost being often signified under the figure of Water in the Scriptures So that Water and the Spirit may well stand here for no more than the Spirit that cleanseth I say all this will not serve the turn For the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost being promised Christs Disciples upon his departure to inable them to make good what they undertake by being hâ—s Disciples it is manifest that the actuall assistance of the holy Ghost regenerating to Christianity only prepares the way for it Seeing then that the gift of the Holy Ghost depends upon the Water of Baptisme it is manifest that the cleansing vertue of Gods Spirit in the new birth of sinners comes not to effect without the same I will further draw into consequence those texts of Scripture which I alledged in the first book to show that there was a certain Rule of Christianity delivered by the Apostles and acknowledged by them that undertook to be Christians for there are some of them that signifie plain enough that this acknowledgment was made at their baptism as the condition which it praesupposed When S. Paul thanketh God for the Romans that they had obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which had been delivered them Rom. VI. 17. What is this obeying from the heart but that answer or stipulation of a good conscience towards God in Baptism which S. Peter saith saveth us as you have seen And S. Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. VI. 12. 13. Fight the good fight of Faith lay hold of eternall life to which also thou wast called and madest a good profession before many witnesses I charge thee before God that quickeneth all things and Christ Jesus that witnessed the good Profession under Pontius Pilate that thou keep the command unspotted and blamelesse unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ What profession was it that our Lord died to witnesse but that he was ordained by God the King of them whom he was sent with the Gospel to save in regard whereof he is called by the Apostle Hebr. III. 2. the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Because he bore the Crosse afore us to witnesse that righteous cause which we are to maintain by bearing the same And what is that profession which Timothy made afore many witnesses but that of bearing Christs cross when he was baptized And what is the commandement which he is charged to keep unspotted and blamelesse but that Christianity which he became charged with at his Baptism Wherefore when S. John alledgeth an Unction from the Holy one even our Lord Christ which teacheth Christians all things so that they need not be taught to avoid the Heresies of that time because they knew the truth hut withall chargeth them to abide in that which they had learned from the beginning and in that Unction which teacheth them all things He sheweth us manifestly that the Unction of the Holy Ghost is granted by our Lord Christ to teach us all things which we have learned To wit that we be not seduced from that which we have learned from the beginning of our Christianity Now as it hath appeared that this Christianity was then learned and acknowledged in order to Baptism so likewise that the gift of the Holy Ghost dependeth upon the same Otherwise what shall we say to S. Peter ascribing remission of sins to Baptism Acts 11. 38 What shall we say to Ananias exhorting S. Paul Acts XXII 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord What shall we say to S. Paul affirming that as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. III. 27. and that those that are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death Rom. VI. 4. Which is to say that God on his part granteth them power to perform that which they on their part professe to undertake And again Eph. V. 25 26. Christ gave himselfe for his Church that he might sanctifie it by cleansing it with the laver of water through the Word And again Titus III. 5 6. Not by works of righteousnesse which we had done but according to his mercy he saved us by the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he powred upon us plentifully through our Saviour Jesus Christ And the Apostle to the Hebrews X. 21 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts cleansed from evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the profession of faith without declining from it what starting hole is here left for him that had a mind to prefer his own prejudices before the Word of God to avoid the evidence of these testimonies for the concurrence of Baptism to the qualifying of a Christian for the promises of the
holy Ghost though they presuppose not in themselves the profession of that true Christianity which the Catholike Church teacheth and whether baptized or not Whether supposing themselves praedestinate to life from everlasting upon the dictate of the same Spirit or justified by that faith which consisteth in revealing to them their praedestination from everlasting Alwayes supposing they have the Spirit in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ without supposing the truth of that Christianity which they professe as a condition required by God in them whom he gives his Spirit But the opinion of the Socinians having in detestation this unchristian as well as unreasonable Principle acknowledgeth the gift of the holy Ghost to be granted by God to those who believing our Lord Jesus to be the Christ resolve to live according to all that he hath taught but denieth any consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ either in his sending the Gospel or in his giving the holy Ghost to enable a man to perform that which it requireth Onely acknowledging the free grace of God in sending those terms of reconcilement which the Gospel importeth and the free choice of man in accepting or refusing the same But upon the accepting or refusing of them concluding the promises of the Gospel to be necessarily due And therefore presuming that it is altogether unreasonable to make them still to depend upon an outward ceremony of Baptisme by water the consideration upon which they are tendered being already performed And therefore construing the proceeding of the Apostles and the Scriptures wherein they are mentioned upon such presumptions as these they conclude the reason and intent of the Baptisme which they gave according to the Commission of our Lord to be particular to the condition of those who being Jews or Gentiles before were thereby to acknowledge their uncleannesse in that estate and to professe a contrary course for the future So that the reason ceasing why they did Baptize the obligation also of their Baptisme must necessarily cease But in this great distance between the grounds upon which these extream opinions inferre the indifference of Baptisme it is easie to observe something common to both Namely that neither of them acknowledgeth any Catholike Church or any presumption of the visible unity thereof limiting that part of the Doctrine taught by the Scriptures which it is necessary to the salvation of all Christians that they professe as received from hand to hand by the Churches of the Apostles founding to be exacted of them whom they Baptize into themselves For this being set aside why should not Enthusiasts perswade themselves that they have the Spirit of God and a title to all the promises of the Gospel depending upon it by Christ if the Socinians can perswade themselves that they may have it by the meer act of their free will accepting the tender of the Gospel by believing that our Lord is the Christ and resolving to live as he hath taught without any consideration of his merits and sufferings Both being perswaded that for their salvation they are to make what they can of the Scriptures without any regard to the Church for securing the intent and meaning of it What shall hinder them indeed supposing the way plained to them both by admitting the necessity of Baptisme to be such that all the effects and consequences thereof may be thought to be had and obtained before and without it Certainly the waving of those grounds upon which the necessity of Baptisme may appear to be consistent with the undoubted efficacy of that Christianity which the heart onely feeleth is the breach that hath made a gap for these Heresies to enter into Gods Church For if no man can be thought to have right to be baptized that hath not true and living Faith which true and living faith alone qualifies any man for Remission of sins and salvation whether it consist in believing that our Lord Jesus is the Christ because he who believes that is obliged to live as he teacheth the Scriptures according to the Socinians Or in believing that we are praedestinate to life in regard of our Lord Christ dying for us according to the Enthusiasts what remaineth for Baptisme to procure that is not assured already before a man be Baptized And therefore I conceive I demand nothing but reason For all the gaine that I demand from all this is no more but that it be freely acknowledged that justification by faith alone and that faith which alone justifieth be not so understood as to make the promises of the Gospel due before Baptisme to which the Scripture interpreted by the consent and practice of the whole Church testifieth that Baptisme concurreth A thing which can by no means be obtained but by placing that faith which alone justifieth aswell in the outward act of professing as in the inward act of believing This profession containing an expresse promise or vow to God whereby we undertake to live as those who believe the Gospel of Christ are by Gods Law to live And that promise or vow to be celebrated and solemnized by the Sacrament of Baptisme appointed by our Lord Christ to that purpose For seeing the professing of Christianity and not the believing of it is that which brings upon the Church that persecution which the Crosse of Christ the mark of a disciple signifies neither can it be reasonable that God should allow the promises of the Gospel to any quality that includeth it not nor unreasonable that he should make them depend upon it And seing it is not the profession of any thing that a man may call Christianity though perhaps grounded upon an imagination that he hath learned it from the Scriptures which God accepteth whatsoever a man may suffer for the maintenance and affirmation of it but of that which himself sent our Lord Christ to preach It is no marvel if God who esteemeth nothing but for that affection of the heart wherewith it is done should notwithstanding accept no disposition of the heart towards the profession of Christianity but that which is executed and solemnized by such an outward ceremony as himself hath limited his disciples their successors to celebrate it with For supposing that God hath founded the unity of his Church upon supposition of professing that Christianity which he gave his Apostles Commission to preach consisting in the visible communion of those offices which God is served with by Christians it will be evident why God who esteemeth the heart alone hath not allowed the promises of his Gospel to any but those who professe Christianity by being admitted to Baptisme by the Church Because as it is not any beliefe or resolution that may be called Christianity but that which the Church hath received from the Lord and his Apostles that qualifies a man for those promises which God tenders by the Covenant of Grace So it is not the profession of any beliefe or resolution that qualifies a
under the discipline of the Prophets their masters that Amos VII 22. alledges it as a strange thing that God had made him a Prophet of an heardsman and that therefore he could not but do his message And is Saul among the Prophets became a riddle rather then a Proverb not to be resolved but by another question And who is the father of them that is that God the Father of all Prophets could give his Graces where he pleased without meanes 1 Sam. X. 11. 12. And therefore at the election of S. Matthias to the office of an Apostle to which this grace belonged the disciples pray Acts I. 24. Thou Lord that knowest the hearts of all shew whether of these thou hast chosen shewing the Christianity of the heart to be the foundation of that choice And when S. Paul exhorteth to think soberly of themselves according to that measure of Faith which God had divided to every one it is manifest that this measure of faith extends to all graces the thought whereof may carry a man beyond the bounds of sobriety That is a'l wherein Christianity consisteth So that the measure or proportion of Faith is the measure and proportion of Christianity which being given by God though seconded with graces which all had not he forbids them to be puffed up with Againe when the same Apostle hopeth that the faith of the Corinthians being increased should be magnified abundantly through them by his preaching the Gospel to the parts beyond them according to his own rule 2. Cor. X 15 16. What is that increase of faith but the setling of them in their Christianity which when it were done he hoped by their meanes to find accesse to preach to their neighbours I do confidently chalenge to this signification that text of S. Paul Gal. V. 6. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith that is acted by love Because I know that no man that understands Greek can deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in this place passive and because it cannot be understood without violence how faith should be acted by love but when that profession which we make at our Baptisme is performed for no other motive but that of God and his love What is then that work of the Thessalonians faith which S. Paul commendeth 1 Thes I. 3. which he prayeth God powerfully to fulfill 2 Thes II. 11. but the doing of that which they undertook to do when they were made Christians And what is the ministry of the Philipians faith Philip. II. 17. but the service which S. Paul did God in labouring to make them good Christians And what is the faith in which he would have the Corinthians to stand 1 Cor. XVI 13 Wherein He and Barnabas exhort the Churches to continue Acts. XIV 22 The bare profession of Christianity or the liabituated resolution of living according to it By which reason whensoever the profession of Christianity is signified by the name of Faith in the writings of the Apostles in which sense it stands as frequently there as in any other this habituated resolution is presupposed because upon presumption thereof men are made Christians to the Church as well as to God For that no man is really and naturally a Christian to God untill he be so legally to the Church unlesse it be when the effectuall purpose of being so is prevented by that necessity which reasonably cannot be prevented And hereupon it is that though men believe the truth of Christianity before they are made Christians by being baptized yet even in the Scriptures themselves believers and Christians are many times all one 1 Tim. V. 8. 16. If any man provide not for his owne and especially those of his houshold he hath denyed the faith and is worse then an infidell If any believer he or she have widows let them support them and let not the Church be charged VI. 2. Those servants that have believing masters let them not despise them because they are brethren but serve them the ratheâ— because they are faithfull and beloved Titus I. 6. If any man be blameless the husband of one wife having children that believe not blamed for riotousnesse or disobedience Apoc. XVII 14. They that are with the Lamb are such as are called and choice and believers And hereupon when the Apostle faith John III. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His meaning of necessity is this Beloved thou shalt do like a Christian what thou shalt do for the brethren and strangers Because no private trust but the common tye of Christianity obligeth to do good to Christian travelers of whom he speakes there And therefore Acts II. 38 44. S. Peter having said to those that were pricked in heart upon conviction of the resurrection of our Lord Repent ye and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ unto remission of sins And this being done it followeth But all the believers were together and had all things common Here I must not forget the stile and language of the most ancient Fathers of the Church who deriving from and referring all their studies to the Scriptures must needs speak in the same stile with them in matters of Christianity I do not intend therefore to say that they do not use the word Faith to signifie the belief of those things which the Gospel declareth to be true and that trust and confidence in God through Christ which the truth thereof naturally tendeth to produce Having shewed that both these conceptions are frequently signified by the terme of faith in the writings of the Apostles their masters But I say further that it is oftentimes used by them in this third sense which I spake of last to signifie Christianity that is the profession thereof presumed by the Church not to be counterseit This is very visible in Tertullian in whose language Faith and Baptisme are many times the same thing de exhortatione castitatis Cap. I. Nec secundas post sidem nuptias permittitur nosse And is not permitted to know any second marriage after Baptisme De Pudicitia Cap. XVI Quae amisso viro Fidem ingressa She who entered into the faith having lost her husband Is that became a Christian Ibid. Cap. XVIII Ante fidem post fidem Signifies before and after Baptisme Therefore in his Scorpiace Cap. VIII Talia a primordio prâ—cepta exemplâ— debitricem Martyrii Fidem ostendunt Such precepts such examples from the beginning shew that Faith is indebted in Martyrdome For it is Baptisme that obliges a Christian to Martyrdome rather then renounce the Faith So S. Cyprian following his master Epist ad Antonianum Si fidei calor praevalet If the heat of faith prevail And Deâ—opere Eleemosyna Credentium fides novo adhuc fidei calore fervebat The faith of believers was servent with the heat of faith being yet new For so Tertullian had said of Morcion in the place alledged in the first book Cont. Marc. IV. 4. In
time of persecution but the performance of it alwayes because alwayes difficult and laborious alwayes the following of Christ with his Crosse on our shoulders When the powers of the World professe Christianity then is the scandall of profession taken away because they must cherish so farre must they needs be from persecuting that which they professe But the scandall of the Crosse in performing of it remaines so much the more difficult to be avoided by how much a man is more subject to be tempted by evill example to hope for salvation without performing it Therefore as I shewed you asore those who professe to believe the truth of Christianity many times delayed their Baptisme in the Primitive Church whether as loth to retire to that strictnesse of life which it required or as sensible of their own weaknesse and desiring to finde confidence of themselves that they might walk worthy of it before they undertook it Whereupon Tertullian as I shewed you advises to deferre it till a man were setled in a state of continence or wedlock And because the reason of this delay was doubtfull therefore there remained in the Church some doubt of the salvation of those that died in this estate But to him that should resolve to wear the profession for a quality rendring him capeable of the priviledges of a Christian by the laws of Christian powers but to fulfill it no further then the law should require to him is the scandall of Christs Crosse quite voided though by as great a scandal as that which diverts from Christianity namely that of Simon Magus who became a Christian for gaine He that expressely resolves not this within himselfe but in the effect of his life and conversation hath no more regard to the reason of his Christianity then if he had expressely resolved it is necessarily of the same form and all that care not to perform what they undertake according to the ranck and degree of their negligence reducible to it But besides it is manifest that during the heat of persecution those that believed not the whole faith of a Christian that is hereticks those who for matters not concerning the Faith broke the unity of the Church that is schismaticks were many times ready to suffer death for their sect and for that part of Christianity which it allowed So far were they from dis-believing it Shall we say that any of these had in them the virtue of faith Let us consider what might move them to believe and it will appear first that they might be moved to believe that for their own sake which a Christian believes for Gods sake then that it can be no part of the virtue of Faith to believe the truth for a mans own sake and not for Gods If sensuality can move a worldly man to believe the truth so long as the advantages of the world attend it well may it be said to be the grace of God that gives him sufficient reason to believe supposing for the present not granting that these reasons are the helps of Gods free grace to bring men to believe but that he sets himself in Gods stead in believing that for his own advantage which he should believe out of obedience to God and for his service is not grace but wickednesse be it never so true never so holy that he believes He that dis-believes part of that which it is necessary to salvation to believe he that breakes the unity of the Church upon true grounds though not necessary for who can make a sect without some pretense in our common Christianity he hath the fulfilling of his own will and singularity for his reward and cannot claime that faith to be a grace of God which God rewardeth not Nor is this to say that the least beginning of Faith is to be had without Gods Grace supposing for the present but not granting that the worke of Salvation is the work of Gods praeventing Grace from the very beginning of it But that there may be a reall beleefe of Christian truth in the understanding of him that hath no part of good will to be a true Christian The Vâ—article of the Councill of Orange providing only Initium fidei ipsumque credulitatis affectum That the beginning of Faith and the very inclination to beleeve be thought to come Per inspirationem spiritus sancti corrigentem voluntatem nostram ab infidelitate ad fidem ab impietate ad pietatem By inspiration of the Holy Ghost correcting our Will from unbeleefe to faith from ungodlinesse to godlinesse For though when first a man is shewed reason to beleeve both these reasons and the least inclination to follow them be ascribed to Gods Grace because the scandall of the Crosse is to be overcome to which all that inclination tendeth yet when that scandall is voided by falling upon as great the assent of the understanding remaines the effect of humane discourse upon the sufficience of reasons proposed all the goodnesse that otherwise must have been ascribed to Gods Grace in the inclination of the will being void and dead And all this though properly said of those that are converted to Christianity at yeares of discretion seeing the difference between the cases is punctually true in them that are bred Christians supposing them to have the Grace of the Holy Ghost by being baptized infants and to have destituted the same afterwards The beleefe that remaines in them being meerly the effect of humane discourse upon the motives of Faith which are indeed helpes of Grace without us without any respect of submission to the will of God for the effect of them within us which who giveth cannot be so wanting to the Grace of God as we suppose these But this being said I shall now leave it to the Reader to judge whether this may have been the occasion or upon what other occasion it may be thought to have come to passe that in the Doctrine of the Schoole the inward act of beleeving without the inward resolution of outwardly professing hath been taken for the whole virtue of Faith I say without including that inward resolution of the heart whence that outward profession proceedeth when it is true and is alwaies presumed by the Church to proceed when the contrary appeares not And that from hence have proceeded the disputes concerning faith without forme which they will have to be that dead faith without works which S. James II. 17 19 20. compareth with the faith of devils that believe and tremble And faith informed by the love of God which they will not have to adde any thing to the nature of it so that it shall consist in any thing else then in believing the truth of the Gospel but to qualifie it to justifie him that before was a sinner to God as containing in it all the righteousnesse of a Christian But though at the present I determine not what is true in this position what not I must determine as to the point in
having received the promises but having seen them afarre of and being perswaded and having saluted them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims upon earth for they who say such things declare that they seek a country And had they been mindfull of that which they were come out from they might have had time to turn back But now they desire a better that is an heavenly Whereupon God is not ashamed to be called their God For he had prepared them a City And againe 39 40. These all being witnessed by faith received not the promises God having provided some better thing for us that they might not be perfected without us Where it is plaine that they according to the Apostle expected the kingdom of heaven by virtue of that promise which is now manifested and tendered and made good by the Gospell whereof our Saviour saith John VIII 98. Your father Abraham leaped to see my day and saw it and rejoyced And againe Mat. XIII 17. Verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things ye see and have not seen them and to hear the things ye hear and have not hard them CHAP. IX Of the Faith and Justification of Abraham and the Patriarkes according to the Apostles Of the Prophets and righteous men under the Law Abraham and Rahab the harlot justified by workes if justified by Faith The promises of the Gospel depend upon works which the Gospell injoyneth The Tradition of the Church HAving thus shewed that the interest of Christianity and the grounds whereupon it is to be maintained against the Jewes require this answer to be returned to the objection it remaines that I shew how the apostles disputations upon this point do signify the same Of Abraham then and of the Patriarches thus we read Heb. XI 8 10. By faith Abraham obeyed the calling to go forth unto the place he was to receive for inheritance and went forth not knowing whither he went By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as none of his own dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise For he expected a City having foundations the architect and builder whereof is God Is it not manifest here that both parts of the comparison are wrapped up in the same words which cannot be unfolded but by saying That as Abraham in confidence of Gods promise to give his posterity the land of Canaan left his country to live a stranger in it So while he was so doing he lived a pilgrim in this world out of the faith that he had conceived out of Gods promises that he should thereby obtaine the world to come And is not this the profession of Christians which the Apostle in the words alledged even now declareth to be signified by the pilgrimages of the Patriarchs And is not this a just account why they cannot be said to have attained the promises by the law but by faith Therefore that which followeth immediately of Sarah must needs be understood to the same purpose By faith Sarah also her self received force to give seed and bare beside the time of her age because she thought him faithfull that had promised Therefore of one and him mortified were born as the stars of heaven for multitude and as the sand that is by the sea shore innumerable For S. Paul declareth Gal. III. 16. IV. 22 Rom. IX 7 8 9. that the seed promised Abraham in which all the nations of the earth shall be blessed is Christ and the Church of true Spirituall Israelites that should impart the promise of everlasting life to all nations And this promise you saw even now that Abraham and the Patriarchs expected Sarah therefore being imbarked in Abrahams pilgrimage as by the same faith with him she brought forth all Israel according to the flesh so must it needs be understood that she was accepted of God as righteous in consideration of that faith wherewith she traveled to the world to come Neither can it be imagined that S. Pauls dispute of the righteousnesse of Abraham by faith can be understood upon any other ground or to any other effect then this What then shall we say that Abraham our father got according to the flesh saith he Rom. IV. 1-5 For if Abraham was justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not towards God For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse But to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the wicked his faith is imputed for righteousnesse The question what Abraham found according to the flesh can signifie nothing but what got he by the Law which is called the flesh in opposition to the Gospel included in it which is called the Spirit Did he come by his righteousnesse through the Law or not For had Abraham been justified by works that should need none of that grace which the Gospel tendreth for remission of sinnes well might he glory of his own righteousnesse and not otherwise For he that acknowledges to stand in need of pardon and grace cannot stand upon his own righteousnesse Now Abraham cannot so glory towards God because the Scripture saith that his faith was imputed to him for righteousnesse which signifies Gods grace in accepting of it to his account not his claime as of debt Whereupon the Apostle inferreth immediately the testimony of David writing under the Law in these words As David also pronounceth the man blessed to whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works Blessed are they whose iniquities are remitted and whose sinnes are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne What can be more manifest to shew that the Apostle intends no more then that the Fathers pretended not to be justified by those workes which claimed no benefit of that Grace which the Gospel publisheth Especially the consequence of Davids words being this Psal XXXII 2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sinne and in whose spirit there is no guile For the Prophet David including the spirituall righteousnesse of the heart in the quality of him to whom the Lord imputeth righteousnesse without works the Apostle must be thought to include it in the Faith of him to whom the Lord imputeth it for righteousnesse Now when S. Paul observeth in Moses that Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Upon the promise of that posterity which he expected not Gen. XV. 6. It cannot be said that Abraham had not this faith afore Or that it was not imputed to him for righteousnesse till now Because the Apostle to the Hebrews hath said expresly that he had the same faith and to the like effect ever since he left his country to travail after Gods promises And certainly it was but an act of the same Faith to walk after the rest of those
the plurall number the Sacraments of faith within that faith which alone justifieth But the same S. Ambrose Offic. II. 2. Habet ergo vitâ—m aternam fides quia fundamentum bonum est habent bona facta quia vir justus dictis et rebus probatur Therefore faith hath eternall life because the foundation is good And so have good works because a man is tried to be righteous by both saying and doing That is by doing as he saies By doing these works which by his Baptisme he undertakes to do S. Basil De spiritu sancto cap. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith is perfected by Baptisme and Baptisme is founded upon faith and both are fulfilled by the same names For as we believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost so are we baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And profession goes afore introducing to Salvation but baptisme followes sealing up our assent Not onely to the demand doest thou believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost but when it is further demanded wilt thou be baptized upon these termes And this profession so sealed is that which saveth him that departs upon it not him that survives to falsifie it S. Chrysostom in Rom. IV. 2. Hom. VIII makes a long comparison to shew that man glorisies God more by believing then by keeping his commandments Which certainly proceedeth not not can hold in those workes that presuppose faith having in them all that whereby faith glorifyeth God and more And therefore is to be limitted to works done before faith And therefore of those workes is S. Chrysostme to be understood when he sayes as oft times he doth that a man is justified without workes by Faith or by Grace in Gal III. 12. In Rom. III. 27. Homil. VII In Ephes II. 10. Homil. IV. The reason being alwayes that of Theodoret upon Galat. III. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seripture of God convinceth both those that were afore the Law and under it as transgressors as well these of Moses Law as those of the Law of Nature Offering the salvation that is promised by faith for an antidote both for these and for those If the Law of Moses were not of force to justify much lesse the Law of Nature Now the Gospel supposeth both Jewes and Gentiles under sinne and liable to Gods wrath till the Gospel come as S. Paul in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romanes declareth Not as if no man had been saved under the Law or before it But because they who then were saved belonged not to the Law of Moses or that of Nature but to the Gospel as saved by the meanes of it So said S. Jerome afore that they were saved by the preaching of Faith under the Law of Nature And thinne was the number of them who thus were saved that it was requisite the Gospel should come least the meanes which God had used to restore man afore might seem to have been imployed to no purpose So to be saved by faith and not by workes is the same with S. Paul according to the Fathers as to be justified by being a Christian and not by being a Jew by the Gospell and not by the Law So Tertullian cont Marc. V. 3. Ejus ergo Dei erit fides in qua vivit justus cujus Lex in qua non justificatur operarius Proâ—nde si in Lege maledictio est in Fide benedictio Therefore that faith whereby the just liveth shall be the same Gods whose the Law is whereby he that worketh is not justified Accordingly if the curse come by the Law then the blessing by faith For that Faith which properly stands in oppostion to the Law is Christianity S. Hilary In Mat. Can. VIII Movet Scribas remissum ab hommine peccatum Hominem enim tantum in Jesu Christo intuebantur remissum ab eo quod Lex laxare non poterat Fides enim sola justificat The Scribes are moved that sinne should be remitted by a man For they looked upon Jesus Christ as a meere man who remitted that which the Law could not loose For Faith alone justifieth Faith onely justifieth in opposition to the Law which remitteth no sin Therefore faith is Christianity Clemens Alexandr Strom. II. To learn is to obey the commandments which is to believe God Because forsooth to professe the Faith is to undertake to live by Gods commandments Strom. IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He therefore playes false with God that believes not God But he that keepeth not the commandments believes not Againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All therefore whatsoever ye do do to the glory of God whatsoever it is permitted to do under the rule of Faith Here that part of Christianity which prescribes a Christian what he is to do what not is called the Rule of Faith Because he believes that God requires it at his hands though he undertake more then to believe it Strom. VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is a believer or faithful that receives the commandments upon due consideration and keeps them Pelagius upon Rom. X. 4. Talis est ille qui in Christum credidit die qua credidit qualis ille qui universam legem implevit Such is he that believeth the day that he believeth as is he that hath fulfilled the whole Law In the day of his Baptisme that is if he lives not to transgresse it His title to heaven is as good as if he had done whatsoever the Law requireth I shewed you before that Pelag. in the matter of justification departs not from the Church Clemens of Rome S. Pauls Scholar whom I will end with in his Epistle to the Corinthians p. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham who was called friend was found faithful in that he became obedient to the word of God p. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore was our Father Abraham blessed was it not because he did righteousnesse and truth through Faith p. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were all therefore glorified and magnified not by themselves or their owne workes or just actions which they had done but by his will And therefore we who are called by his will through Christ Jesus are not justified by our selves or our owne wisdome or understanding or workes that we have done with holinesse of heart But by faith whereby Almighty God hath justified all from the begining of the world The Fathers were not justified by their own workes but because being called by the will of God as we to Christianity through Christ Jesus they were found faithfull in doing righteousnesse truth through faith as he said of Abraham before For the workes of Faith cannot be counted our own works which we had never done had not Gods call gone afore That Faith then which alone justifieth importeth as great and as reall a change in the jugdement and resoution of him that attaineth it from unrighteous to righteous as the
not believe him when he tells them heavenly things Because none of them have been in heaven as the Sonne of man who being come from heaven notwithstanding remaines in heaven Whether he mean onely That having been there in heaven and learnt the effect of his commission and being still there in heart as all Christians are he can tell them things from heaven which they will not believe Or that having been in heaven and not having forsaken it for his coming into the World he knowes the truth of all that he witnesses here by seeing the counsailes of God there even while he is here And that these are those things which he hath seen in his Fathers house to wit those counsailes which the Father out of his love to him had made him acquainted with and taught him to execute even as they had learnt in the devils shop their Father to execute his designes For can any man imagine that his being onely born of the Virgine by the power of God which is they say the holy Ghost is a sufficient reason why God should not onely shew him what he meant to do for our salvation but joyne him with himself in the work and that honour for it whereof no Angel that is the highest creature is capeable Or that all this is such an expression as manhood can bear of that participation of Gods counsailes which the Word having been acquainted with from everlasting was no stranger to while being in the World he was executing the same Surely when our Lord sayes that he is to leave the world to go back to the Father he declares an intent to abide in heaven for everlasting Therefore when he saies he came forth from the Father to come into the world To understand onely that he left the private life he had lived afore he began to preach to appear publickly to the World in his Office might justly be accounted a piece of frenzy if there were not haeresy in it The opposition between heaven where the Father is and the world being so manifest in the words that nothing but the vaine glory of maintaining a party could cause it to be overseen If these things be true we shall not need to go farre for the sense of our Lords words John XVII 5. And now glorify thou me O Father with that glory which I had with thee before the foundation of the World Because we see how many times in this Gospel by being with the Father our Saviour expresseth not his being in heaven when the Baptist began to preach but his being in heaven from the beginning of the World till he was born upon earth For can any doubt be made that the glory which he had with the Father from the beginning is that which he was to be exalted to at his rising againe As for that answer of his to the Jews that demanded of him having said Abraham your Father desired to see my day and saw it and rejoyced Thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham To which Jesus answered and said Verily verily I say unto you before Abraham was I am John VIII 56 57 58. I perceive the World is ashamed to hear what Socinus is not ashamed to answer That the sense of the words is and so they ought to be translated Before Abraham become Abraham Or before he become Abraham I am Meaning that here you see me before the calling of the Gentiles whereby the Prophesie of Abrahams name Father of a great people is fulfilled For the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make both the name of Abraham to go before the Verbe in sense and the verb to signifie the time past So that there must have been another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as this that goes afore and if there had been so it must have been translated before Abraham was Abraham or before he was Abraham not before he become Abraham But for our Lord to say before Abraham was I am to wit in the purpose of God is no lesse impertinent to their question then to say I am here before the calling of the Gentiles And to imagine that our Lord would give an answer utterly impertinent to their question I know not how it can stand with his profession though not to declare all that truth which for the present they were not able to beare may well stand with it CHAP. XIV The Name of God not ascribed to Christ for the like reason as to creatures The reasons why the Socinians worship Christ as God do confute their limitations Christ not God by virtue of his rising againe He is the Great God with S. Paul the true God with S. John the onely Lord with S. Jude Other Scriptures Of the forme of God and of a servant in S. Paul BUT the Apostle adds still more and goes forwards saying And the Word was God Though here the Socinians thinke they have enough to plead when they can say that the name of God which is here used is not proper to signify God himself which the name of four letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so signifyeth in the Old Testament that it is never attributed to any creature but by abuse That is to say as imployed to expresse the sense of such men as believe not in the true God alone but attribute his honour to some of his creatures For it is very well known and granted on all hands that the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translateth is attributed first to Gods Angels then to Gods ministers in governing his People The reason whereof I take to be this that having entred into covenant with God to have him for their soveraigne and to live by his Lawes they must needs be bound to acknowledge and to honour those who had commission from him whether immediately or mediately to govern his people by the said Lawes in stead of God himself as deputies Commissioners or Ambassadors represent the persons of those Soveraigns from whom they come This I suppose is a generall reason why this name of God in the Old Testament is communicated to the Governours of Gods people which the Socinians cannot with any reason refuse Neither can I imagine how it should be more evidently justified then by that of God to Moses Exod. VII 1. Behold I have made thee Pharaohs God and Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet For Aaron is made Moses his Prophet to publish his Orders to Pharaâ—h because he was a man of a ready tongue which Moses was not Exod. IV. 14 15 16. Prophet being no more then Interpreter or Truchman as Onkelâ—s translates it And therefore Moses is called also here Aarons God because he was to give the Orders which Aaron was to publish But Pharaohs God as Ruler and Prince over Pharaoh who was Ruler and Prinâ—â— of all Egypt as to those things which God should by him command Pharaoh to
say that there is enough in the doctrine of the Schoole or in the dâ—cree of the Council of Trent to show that they cannot intend the first sense but that they must acknowledge it to Gods free promise which being accepted becomes the Covenant of Grace This followes upon severall points of their doctrine First as they make at least the materiall of originall sinne to consist in concupiscence the remains whereof in the regenâ—rate â—re therefore even with them of the same nature and kind though rebated and acquiâ—ed of the nature and effect of sinne which is to make liable to death For this cannot hold but in regard of severall Lawes whereof the one forbiddeth this concupiscence the other allowes reconciliation and grace supposing it as I said afore that Law that succeedes being the Covenant of Grace Secondly as it requires the Sacrament of Baptisme to the allowance of this righteousnesse in lieu of the reward which it challenges For the Sacrament of baptisme being a part of the Christian Law which is the Covenant of Grace and so a Secondary and positive provision for the salvation of mankind lost by Gods originall Law it were a contradiction to say that any thing claimed by viâ—tue thereof should be due by Gods originall Law Thirdly and lastly in regard of that sound sense in which they clearely and freely maintaine the satisfaction of Christ which by the promises is nothing else but the consideration for which God accepts the acts and the quâ—litiâ—â— which the Gospell requires in due plea for that which it premisâ—s For imputation being nothing else in common reason but the immediate consequencâ— of satisfaction the righteousnesse which God imputes to Abrahams spirituall seed as to his person according to S. Paul Roâ— IV. 16 24 cannot depend upon the meer worth of the condition required but upon the free grace of God accepting it for that it is not worth in consideration of the obedience of Christ Lastly I say there is appearance of reason to move men that are jealous of the glory of Gods grace to thinke that they claâ—me the promises of the Gospel as due by Gods originall Law to that infused righteousnesse by having whereof they say we are righteous before God First in that they depart from the language of the Scripture and the true meaning thereof in making justification to consist in the infusion of righteousnesse which though it presupposeth by the premises formally it signifieth not For having showed that the condition which the Gospell requires is allowed of grace in consideration of Christ to qualify us for the promises of it it remains beyond question that the righteousnesse which the Gospell requireâ— is of it selfe râ—all true righteousnesse because it is God that allowes it and accepts it to that effect to which he accepts not the righteousnesse of an hypocrite Allwayeâ— understanding it to be the righteousnesse of one that turneth from sinne with a sincere and effectuall resolutâ—on to serve God in all thinges for the future Whose righteousnesse may well be called infused righteousnesse in regard of the helpes of Gods grace whereby it is effected though we suppose no other kiâ—d of quality beside that disposition which brings a man to Baptisme to succeede upon it but onely the habituall assistance of the Holy Ghost promised â—o inable all them that sincerely undertake Christianity to preforme what they undertake Thus then making justification to consist not in Gods allowance but in his act of infusing righteousnesse they create appearance â—o reason that the righteousnesse so infused is in their opinion that righteousnesse before God to which the promises of the Gospell are due by his originall Law For if there were not other points of theire doctrine to create another interpretation of it there could be no other sense for it then this Secondly in that they make this righteousnesse to consist not in any acceptation and allowance of God but in his grace really infused into that soule which out of an act of the love of God raised by the helpes of his grace supposing faith and hope joyned with servile feare afore had resolved upon Baptisme For what allowance can this love be imagined to need as of grace to make the promises of the Gospell by Gods originall Law due to it if it be admitted for righteousnesse before God Here I must doe them right I must not say that it is the Council of Trent or that it is any act of the Church obligatory to all the Communion that ownes it that obliges them to attribute the effect of justifying to Gods infused Grace by virtue of the nature of it and not by virtue of his Grace in accepting it to that purpose For it is notorious and you may find the names of the Doctors in Vasquez in 1. 2. Disput CCIV. Num. 1. 2. 3. that hold this grace not to render men gracefull to God for it selfe but by his free accepting it to that effect The Nominals in particular besides Durandus and Alliacensis by name In the meane time no man can deny that it is lawfull to â—old that we are justâ—fied by the worth and naturall perfection of Gods infused Grace Which though he freely giveth yet can he not refuse justification having given it And therefore they who place their Religion in making theire distance from Hereticks as our Puritaines from Antichrist as wide as they can possible have taught and still doe teach that the supernaturall infused righteousnesse of Christans which as I said they make to consist principally in the love of God above all thinges of it owne worth and intrinsecall perfection and not by Gods accepting of it to that effect not onely formally remitteth sinne as formally it expelleth the same but so justifieth that God were unjust should he not justify Christians in consideration of it And what could have been said more expresse that it is due by Gods originall law not by any dispensation in it which the promise of the Gospell importeth That the grace of God in Christ iâ— not seene in rewarding that disposition which the Gospell requireth but in giving those helpes whereby we attaine unto it A thing never a whit more contradictory to that which hath been proved here then to other points of their owne Profession alleged even now Before I leave this point for the clearing of that which I said that the Council of Trâ—â—t seemeth to have inacted the doctrine of the Scholâ— for mater of Faith not that indeed it hath so done I will observe that it hath not decreede that we are justified by Grace habitually dwelling in the Soule But onely that through the merit of Christs passion the love of God is diffused in the harts of those that are justified and is inherent in them so that in theire justification with remission of sinnes they receive Faith Hope and Charity as infused into them Sâ—ss VI. Cap VII For here it is expressely claimed by Doctors of that Church not
bring all that might be alleged Because I may make this generall inference from the premises that all precepts all exhortations all promises all threats made to induce man to perseverance in that estate to which the promises of the Gospell are any way signified to be due are necessary arguments to show that those to whome they are made may faile of the perseverance to which they induce And this by virtue of the generall reason premised that they are all evidences of that free will of men which the grace of God destroyeth not but cureth And therefore as when they are used to induce men to imbrace Christianity they containe an evidence that he may doe otherwise So also when they are used to induce man to persevere in that profession which he hath once undertaken they must necessarily by the same reason containe an evidence that it is possible for any man not to persevere who is induced by them to persevere in the course of a Christian For if it be said that without the grace of God they cannot with it they cannot but be effectual Either it is supposed the grace of God here named shal become effectuall to induce them to persevere to the end supposing that God foresees that they shall soâ—persevere or something else including the fore-sight of the perseverance it selfe or not If so it is no mervaile that the said exhortations cannot but prove effectuall because God foresees they shall be effectuall and that which shall not be can never be foreseene But if not supposing this any man undertake to say that the exhortation of the Gospell with the helpe of Gods inward grace must necessarily prove effectuall he will necessarily fall into all the inconvenience which I have charged them with who maintaine that the will of man is immediately determined by the will and operation of God to doe whatsoever it doeth Which is no lesse then the destruction aswell of all civility as of Christianity But let us see what the Apostle writes Heb. VI. 4-7 For it is not possible to renew unto repentance those that being once inlightned and having tasted the heavenly gift and been partakers of the Holy Ghost and relished the good word of God and the powrs of the world to come fall a way and crucify to themselves and traduce the Sonne of God For the earth that drinkes the raine that oft comes upon it and beares herbes fit for them by whome it is tilled receives a blessing from God But that which beares thornes and thistles is reprobate and neare a curse the end whereof is to be burned Could more have been said to expresse the state of grace For if any man can undertake to have the Spirit of God without premising Christianity I say confidently there is no cause why any man should be a Christian Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here as Ebr. X. 32. signifieth neither more nor lesse then Christened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the ancient Church signifies Baptisme because of the darknesse of Hethenisme or Judaisme which it dispelleth What is then the heavenly Gift which Christian tast be it remission of sinnes or be it the Gift of the Holy Ghost that followes expressing the same thing in severall parallel termes my businesse is done if the Gift of the Holy Ghost be not granted but upon that condition which makes all other promises of the Gospell due Wherefore I am content that relishing the good word of God shall signify no more then that conditon to wit That sense of Christianity which resolveth a man to undertake it But to relish the powers of the world to come no man can be understood but he that upon supposition of the said condition becomes sensible of that peace and joy of the Holy Ghost which under Christianity onely Christianity can give And therefore though I dispute not here how he means that it is impossible to renew those that fall from Christianity to repentance yet I challenge that impossibility of renewing to contain both a former right in and a possession of that estate to which they are renewed by repentance and also the present losse of it by falling from the condition which gâ—ves it So that the comparison which followes of fruitful and barren land upon tillage as it expresses a promise of following helpes of grace to them that use those which went a fore aright contained in the promise of giving the Holy Ghost to inable them who sincerely professe Christianity to performe that which they undertake So it convinceth the fruitlesse to be liable to the curse of fire which it is said to be neare because it is called reprobate The same is the effect of the like exhortation Ebrews X. 26 -29. For if we sinne voluntarily after receiving the acknowledgement of the truth there remaines no more any sacrifice for sinne but a certaine terrible expectation of vengeance and glowing of firâ— that is to consume opposers If one set at naught the Law of Moses without mercy he dies upon two or three witnesses Of how much worse punishment think you shall he be thought worthy that treads the Sonne of God under foot and esteems the blood of the Covenant by which he is sanctified unâ—leane and doth despite to the Spirit of Grace I say this is to the same effect if it be once granted that this sinne may be committed by a true Christian which no man can deny For can a Christian be thought to doe that despite to the Spirit of Grace which the Scribes and Pharises are said in the Gospell Matt XII 28. 32. Marke III. 29. Luke XII 10. to doe in sinning that sinne against the Holy Ghost which our Lord there pronounces irremissible Is it not manifest that their sinne consisted in attributing the miracles by which our Lord sought to convert them to the uncleane spirit being in Judgment convinced that by the Holy Ghost alone they were done And is it not as manifest that a Christian having received the Spirit of Grace promised to those that are baptized out of a sincere resolution of Christianity abuses the spirit which is so given him and which he hath and which had allready wrought that worke of conviction which the scribes and Pharises sufferd not to take effect in their harts Especially when the Apostle expressely premiseth the washing of them called here sanctifying by the blood of the Covenant which is the cleansing of that vessell by remission of sinnes into which the new wine of the Holy Ghost is to be put Wherefore I will not say that the faith of these men is true faith if you meane that onely to be true faith which lasts to the end which is many times in common language that which truth signifieth But if you meane that to be true faith which effecteth remission of sinnes and qualifieth for the world to come he must set the scripture upon the rack that will make it confesse any other sense Now consider what the Apostle
Moses is certainly a transcript or rude draught of this originall righteousnesse due from man to God And therefore purposely made so curiously scrupulous that even the earthly promises of the land of Canaan and temporall happinesse in it should not be obtained by the exact observation thereof as I observed afore But it was also an intimation of the Gospell of Christ not onely in the provision which it made for expiation of transgressions the signification whereof the greatest part never understood but in those grounds of assurance which it gave those that should observe it from the heart as before God and for his love of the reward of the world to come In which regard S. Paul and the Apostles so often alledge the saying of the Prophet Abac. II. 4. The just shall live by faith and Saint Paul Rom. I. 15. saith that the righteousnesse of God is revealed by the Gospel from faith to faith That is from the faâ—th of Christ to come to the faith of Christ come And Saint John Baptist saith of our Lord John I. 16. Of his fullnesse we have all received grace for grace Because the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ So that though the grace of the Gospel came by Christ yet it succeeded the same grace under the law though as under a fainter light so in a scarser measure And Saint Augustine rightly accounteth those that attaine truâ— righteousnesse under the law to belong to the New Testament as carnall Christians under the Gospell to the Oâ—d But if the faithfull at that time were saved by that scarse measure of righteousnesse which the faint light they were under required then were they also saved though not by fullfilling the originall Law of righteousnesse due from man to God yet by fulfilling that rule of Evangelicall righteousnesse which God under the Law required at their hands In which regard if the Fathers by things recorded of them in the Old Testament may be seene to have attained that perfection which Saint Paul calles his glory in doing that which he was not commanded as a meanes to the discharging of that wherein the perfection of Christians consisteth that which became mater of precept under the Gospel is necessarily to be taken for mater of counsell under the Law Alwayes understanding that as those helps of grace without which I have showed that they had not been able to performe such righteousnesse under the Law were granted even then in consideration of our Lord Christs interposing his mediation to the redeeming of mankind so was the righteousnesse then performed accepted in no consideration but of the obedience of Christ and his righteousnesse CHAP. XXXIII Whether any workes of Christians be satisfactory for sinne and meritorious of heaven or not The recovery of Gods grace for a Christian fallen from it a work of labour and time The necessity and efficacy of Penance to that purpose according to the Scriptures and the practise of the Church Merit by virtue of Gods promise necessary The Catholicke Church agrees in it the present Church of Rome allowes merit of justice ANother dispute there is that makes an endlesse noise never to be decided but upon this ground not to be maintained admitting it That is Whether the workes of Christians merit heaven or not which I must inlarge into another point of so neer nature to it that both may as easily be resolved as the one Whether the humiliation for sinne in praying fasting giving â—lmes by Christians in confidence of the satisfaction of Christ to obtaine pardon of God be satisfactory for sinne or not For in as much as to be free from evill is good and to obtaine a discharge from punishment is as much as to deserve a reward in so much it is all one to satisfie for sinne so as to be discharged of punishment and to fulfill an obligation so as to claime a reward Whereupon as I said afore that all satisfaction is necessarily of the nature of merit To this question then or to these questions the answer is necessarily consequent from the premises That if we regard the originall law of God neither can any man make God satisfaction for his sinne nor merit the reward of everlasting life at his hands But if we regard that dispensation in it which the Gospel preacheth in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of our Lord Christ neither shall any man attain forgivenesse of sinne without making satisfaction for it nor the reward of everlasting life without making it due to him by virtue of Gods promise The proofe of the first point consists in all those passages of Scripture which require repentance as a condition requisite to the obtaining remission of sins whether in the New Testament or in the Old In as much as I have showed that the promiseâ— of the Gospel were obtained under the Law upon the same termes and conditions for substance as under the Gospel though for the measure proportionable to that light of knowledge and those helpes of Grace which the dispensation of God under the Old Law afforded In particular taking notice of the theme of Saint John Baptist which our Lord also took for the argument of his preaching Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand Mat. III. 2. IV. 17. Mark I. 15. which the Apostles also followed Acts II. 38. III. 19. Upon that ground which Saint Paul also debates in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romanes that the necessity of the Gospell and Christianity is grounded upon a supposition that both Jewes and Gentiles are liable to sinne without Christ and by consequence to judgement And againe of those texts of the Apostles writings wherein there is mention or intimation of Penance required or injoyned by them or by the Church in their time for the obtaining of remission of sinnes by the keyes which I have handled in another place And thirdly of those passages which I have quoted in this book disputing of Justification by faith to show that remission of sinnes done after baptisme is obtained for Christians by prayer joyned with fasting and giving of almes to move God to give us pardon as we forgive or give to our brethren But this proofe consists also in all those scriptures which I have alledged to show that the bloud of Christ and his sufferings are truly and properly satisfaction for the sinnes of mankind For as he that believes this can by no meanes imagine that any man can make satisfaction for his own sinnes by the originall Law of God for then the coming of Christ had been in vaine as not necessary neither had there needed that dispensation in Gods proceeding with mankind upon the originall rule of righteousnesse which the Gospel declareth So can he by no meanes imagine the satisfaction which any man can tender God for his sinne to import any more then the fulfilling of that condition which God by his Gospell requireth to qualify any man that
so that the precept concerns the Church no more then that grace appears But that the effect of it reaches to all ages of the Church abating that which depended upon the miraculous graces proper to the Apostles time For suppose remission of sinne past warranted the sick by the Keyes of the Church that have passed upon him Yet all Christians are to assure themselves that their spirituall enemies are most busie about them in that extremity Whither out of despair to prevail if not then or out of hope then to prevail Their malice being heightned to the utmost attempt of casting him down by the extremity of that instance God forbid then that the Prayers of the Church should be counted unnecessary in such an instance though the remission of sinne be provided for otherwise For all obstructions to Gods grace requisite in so great weaknesse to overcome being the effect and consequence of sinne Neither can it be said that the Apostle attributeth the remission of sinne to the Unction by the promise which he annexeth to the injunction whereby he imployes the Keyes of the Church to that end Nor can it be indured in a Christian to count the removing of them unnecessary and superfluous especially the patient being so disposed and in such a capacity for the effect of them by submitting to the ministery of the Church for the remission of his sinne And therefore certainly as it is necessary to presume that the promise of bodily health is not absolute and generall but where it pleaseth God to give evidence of his presence in and to his Church by the effect of his temporall blessings So that health of mind necessary to resist the tempter with which Christianity obliges us to suppose that Christians prayed for with bodily health the Prayers of the Church are not effectuall to obtain but upon supposition of that disposition which the Church requireth and that procured by the Keyes of the Church supposing the party obliged to have recourse to the Church for it How well this opinion agreeth with the sense of the Catholick Church I have argument enough both in the sayings of the Fathers whereby they express the reason of anointing the sick and in the practice of the Church Origen Homil. II. in Levit. Est adhuc dura laboriosa per paenitentiam remissio peccatorum cum lavat peccator in lachrymis stratum suum fiunt ei lachrymae suae panes die ac nocte cum non erubescit sacerdoti domini judicare peccatum suum quaerere medicinam secundum eum qui ait Dixi pronunciabo adversum me iniquitatem meam domino tu remisisti impietatem cordis mei In quo impletur illud quod Apostolus dicit Si quis autem infirmatur vocet Presbyteros Ecclesiae imponant ei manus ungentes eum oleo in nomine domini oratio fidei salvabit infiâ—num si in peccatis fuerit remittentur ei There is yet a hard and painfull remission of sinnes by Penance when the sinner washeth his Couch with tears and his tears become his bread day and night and when he is not ashamed to declare his sinne o the Priest of God and seek his cure according to him that saith I said I will declare my sinne to the Lord against my selfe and thou forgavest the impiety of my heart Wherein is also fulfilled that which the Apostle saith But if a man be sick let him send for the Priests of the Church and let them lay hands on him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and if he be in sinne it shall be forgiven him Here he gives Priests the power of forgiving sinne from S. James S. Chrysostome de Sacerdotio â— II. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For not onely when they regenerate us by Baptism but afterwards also have they power to remit sinnes For is any man sick among you saith he let him call the Pastors of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of Lord. Shall we then ascribe the effects of this power to the bodily act of anointing with oyl or to their Prayers not supposing that disposition to be procured by their ministery which the promise of remission supposeth Neither of both will stand with the premises seeing the Prayers of the Church cannot be effectuall to them that submit hot to the Ministery of the Church when it becomes uecessary for the procuring of that disposition which qualifies for remission of sinne so that the sense of the ancient Church declared here by Origen and S. Chrysostome must be understood to proceed upon consideration of the power of the Keys exercised upon the sick person that receiveth the unction with prayers for his ghostly and bodily health S. Augustine de Tempore Serm. CCXV Quoties aliqua infirmitas supervenerit corpus sanguinem Christi ille qui aegrotat accipiat Et inde corpusculum suum ungat ut illud quod scriptum est impleatur in eo Infirmatur aliquis Videte fratres quia qui in infirmitate ad Ecclesiam accurrerit corporis sanitatem recipere peccatorum indulgentiam merebitur obtinere As oft as any infirmity comes let him that is sick receive the Body and Blood of Christ And then let him anoint his Body that that which is written may be fulfilled in him If any man be sick See brethren that he who shall have recourse to the Church in sickness shall be thought worthy to obtain both the recovery of bodily health and indulgence for his sinnes Now I ask whether the Rule of the Church will allow the communion of the Eucharist to him that hath not recourse to the Church for the cure of his sinne when he ought to have recourse to it For if we suppose the Eucharist to be given him upon confession of sinne then the reason which I pretend appears If without it is because nothing obliges him to have recourse to the Keyes of the Church at that time And so the prayers of the Church and the Eucharist and the unction are therefore effectual because the Church rightly supposeth him qualified for remission of sinnes without recourse to other means For daily sinnes and hourly are abolished by daily and hourly devotions with detestation of the same and yet more firmly abolished by partaking of these offices ministred by the Church Here I must give notice that I undertake not that this Sermon is S. Augustines own which I see is censured among those pieces that have crept under his name by mistake or by imposture For the stile also seemeth to make it some hundreds of years later then his time But I think it more advantage to my opinion that it held footing in the Church so long after S. Austin then that it appeareth to have been the sense of his time For the sense of the now Church of Rome that remission of sin