deceit and villanie and mischievous imaginations and invincible malice But of all miracles of Omnipotence mentioned in the Scripture there is not in my judgement any one more eminent then that which he wrought upon the children of Ammon and Moab and those of Mount Seir when they joined all their Forces together against Iehosaphat the good King of Iudah For by a strange misprision which God sent amongst them the children of Ammon and Moab fell upon the inhabitants of Mount Seir and slew them and destroyed them utterly and when they had made an end of the Inhabitants of Seir every one to destroy another Never so great a slaughter made never so signal a deliverance given to the people of God by the swords of their Enemies even by the swords of those who had joined together to root out their memorial from the face of the earth If now we should dâ—scend from Scriptures to Ecclesiastical History shall we not finde the great power of God exemplified as visibly in the protection and defence of the Christian Church and that not only in the miraculous propagation and increase thereof and bringing to calamitous ends her greatest enemies but working on the hearts of the sharpest Persecutors to intermit their rage and lay down their fury Witness the Edict of Trajan the Author of the third Persecution De Christianis non inquirendis that no such Inquisition should be made against them as in former times that of the Emperour Adrian Ne Christianus indicta causa puniatur that no Christian should from thenceforth be punished without some crime laid to his charge in which he had offended against the Laws Antonine adding unto this ut delator poenae subjaceat that the Promoter should be lyable to punishment if he proved it not The like of Marcus as great a Persecuter at the first as any which had been before him who did not onely stay the fury of the Executioners but mortem iis minabatur qui Christianos accusabant but threatned death to the accusers Nor staid God here but for the further manifestation of his mighty power in ruling and over-ruling the hearts of men he wrought so wonderfully and Omnipotently on the hearts of some of their greatest enemies that from their bitter and most violent Persecutors they became their Patrons Witness the Mandate or edict of the Emperor Galienus not only for the intermitting of the persecution which Valerianus his Father had raised against them but authorizing the Prelates and other Ministers Vt cuncta munia pro consuetudine obirent to perform all the sacred Offices which belonged unto them Finally witness the like Edict of Maximinus one of the chief Instruments of Diocletians butcheries and a great slaughterman himself when he came to the Empire commanding that the Christians should be left to their own Religion and not compelled as formerly under pain of death to offer sacrifice to Idols but wonne if possibly it might be blanditiis adhortationibus by the fairest means and the best perswasions that the wit of man could lay before them These things as they were marvellous in the eyes of all men so marvellous that they could not choose but see and say A Domino haec facta that they were all of them of the Lords own doing so was it as easie to be seen that they were the effects of his Omnipotence proceeding from the love and power of a Father Almighty ARTICLE II. Of the Second ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed unto St. IOHN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Creatorem Coeli et Terrae i. e. Maker of Heaven and Earth CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods mighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence WITH very great fitness doth the Article of the Worlds Creation come next the Attribute of Almighty as being that act which might alone entitle GOD unto Omnipotence were there none besides For what but an Omnipotent power could out of no praeexistent matter create that goodly edifice of Heaven and Earth and all things in the same contained which every naturall man beholdeth with such admiration that possibly he cannot choose but say with the royall Psalmist The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Earth sheweth his handy work A work so full of wonder to the antient Gentiles that some of them made the world a God Vis illum i. e. Deum mundum vocare non falleris as it is in Seneca others more rationally conceiving GOD to be the soul of the World as giving animation or being to it And though they erred as well in making the World a God as making GOD to be the Soul of the World yet they might very well have said as one since hath done that the World is nothing else but God unfolded and manifested in the Creature Nil aliud Mundus universus quam Deus explicatus as Cusanus hath it And certainly the speciall motions which did induce GOD unto this great work were a desire and purpose to expresse his power to exercise his providence and declare his goodness For though GOD needed not to have made the World in regard of himself for the World we know was made in the beginning of time but GOD is infinite and eternal before all beginnings yet it seemed good to him to create it at last as a thing most conducible to his praise and glory Some measuring the God of Heaven by their own affections and finding nothing so agreeable to their own dispositions as to be in company conceive that God being at last weary of his own solitude did create the World that he might have the company of the Angels in Heaven and make a start into the Earth when he saw occasion to recreate himself with the sons of Men. Quae beata esse solitudo queat What happiness said Hortensius can be in solitude To which Lactantius not being furnished with a better doth return this answer that GOD cannot be said to be alone Habet enim Ministros quos vocamus nuncios as having the society of the holy Angels But then Lactantius must suppose that the Angels have been coeternal with GOD himself which were to make all Gods and no God at all or else his Answer is no answer as to that Objection How much more rightly might we have thus replyed unto them that the supreme contentment possible to Almighty God is by reflecting on himself and in himself contemplating his own infinite glories which being co-aevall with himself even from all eternity he needed no no more company before the World was made then he hath done since Lactantius being a man of a very geat reading though indeed a better Humanitian then Divine could not but know those sweet delights which a man habited in learning takes in contemplation and the society which he hath of his own dear thoughts though never so much removed
antient Romans when any of their Generals did return victorious against a powerful and considerable enemy to honour him with a Triumphant reception into the City of Rome The pomp and manner of which was that the General apparelled in a garment of state called Trabea or Vestis Triumphalis and having on his head a garland of lawrel and sometimes a Crown of gold which the Senate had bestowed upon him was carried in a rich and open Chariot the Senators and others of the principal Citizens going forth to meet him and conduct him in the spoyls and treasures gotten in the war passing on before the souldiers with their Coronets their bracelets and other militarie rewards following next the General and in the Rere of all those miserable men whether Kings or others whom the unlucky chance of war had now made Captives Examples of this kinde in the Roman stories are obvious to the eye of every Reader And such as this if I may safely venture upon such comparisons is the Ascension of the Lord described to be by the Royal Psalmist He made a chariot of the clouds and so ascended up on the wings of the winde apparelled in the Robe of his own righteousness more glorious then a Rayment of needlework wrought about with divers colours and having on his head that Crown of eternal Majesty which the Lord God his Heavenly Father had conferred upon him in testimony of that Soveraign power over Heaven and Earth which he since hath exercised But of this we shall speak more anone To make his entrance into Heaven the more magnificent the Blessed Angels those great Citizens of the new Hierusalem did attend upon him conducting him into the place of endless glories as erst they had done Lazarus into Abrahams bosome St. Austin so affirmed it saying Sublatus est Christus in manibus Angelorum c. The Lord was carryed up by the hands of Angels when he ascended into Heaven not that he would have fallen had not they supported but that they might serve him in that work so saith St. Athanasius for the Greek Church also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that being carryed up by Angels he ascended thither as man and took our flesh upon him into Heaven St. Cyprian saith that though he did not need the Angels to support or carry him yet that they did attend him in that glorious triumph and praecedentes subsequentes applaudebant victori And thereto Nazianzen agrees also if Christ ascend saith he to Heaven ascend thou with him and joyn thy self unto the Angels which did accompany him or receive him Take which of these you will and we finde the Angles to have no small part in our Saviours Triumph And certainly it stood with reason that they who had ministred unto him in the whole course of life when he did seem to be in disgrace and poverty should have the honour to attend him in the time of his glories and if we do observe it well we shall finde no special passage of our Saviours life in which the blessed Angels did not do him service An Angel served to usher in his incarnation to proclaim his birth unto the Shepheards to join in consort with the rest of the Quire of Heaven and sing the Anthem of Gloria in excelsis Deo No sooner was he born but all the Angels of the Lord did adore and worship him saith St. Paul to the Hebrews when he had overcome the Devil in the Wilderness the Angels came and ministred unto him as St. Matthew hath it and being at his last conflict with him in the garden of Gethsamene an Angel of the Lord did come down to comfort him To testifie unto the truth of his resurrection we have two Angels cloathed in white proclaiming this glad news that the Lord was risen and here we have two men in white which were Angels doubtlesse assuring the Apostles of their Lords ascension Not that there were no more then two because no more spoke of but that two only staid behinde to testifie unto the truth of so great a miracle Who as they also certifyed them in the way of prediction that in the same manner as he went from thence into heaven he should return again in the day of judgment so in that day they shall not only wait upon him but have their speciall place and ministry as we shall see hereafter in the following Article But in our Saviours train there were more then Angels To make this triumph answerable to the former Platforme there must be Souldiers also to attend his Chariot which must receive their severall rewards and crowns for their well deservings and captives there must be to be led in triumph and to be made a spectacle unto men and Angels And so there was Ignatius telleth us in plain termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he went down to hell alone but he ascended to his father with a great train after him And before him Thaddeus whom St. Thomas the Apostle sent to the Prince of Edessa used the self same words More company there was then than the holy Angels of more sorts at least for those of whom Thaddeus and Ignatius spake were such as did ascend from the parts below but who these were hath been a matter much disputed in these latter times Shall we affirme as generally the Papists do that they were the souls of the Fathers who died under the Law whom our redeemer brought from Limbo when he went down into hell I thinke we need not be reduced into that straight neither And as for my opinion in that point it hath been shewn already in another place All I shall add now in brief is this that they which did ascend in our Saviours train and made up a great part of his glorious triumph were either his Souldiers or his Captives His Souldiers I call those of the Saints departed whose graves were opened at the time of his resurrection who being united to their bodies rose and came out of the their graves and went into the holy City and appeared unto many It was not probable that they were raised from the dead to die again much lesse to be left wandering up and down the earth as if they had no certain ubi to repair unto Nor could they ascend into the heavens before our Saviour who as in all things so in that also was to have the preeminence They must then ascend with him as a part of his train and go in with the Bridegroome as the wise Virgins did when the doors were open For my part I can see no reason why being made partakers of his resurrection they should be rejected or cast off at his ascension That they were Saints whose bodies had been raised by so great a miracle is affirmed expressely in the text and therfore were in some possession of the heavenly glories And that their bodies had been putrefyed
Fathers as do touch upon it as may appear by that of Hilarie and Ambrose before delivered By which the other passages of holy writ as Iude v. 6. Mat. 8.29 and Rom. 2.5 it is plain and manifest that the torments of the damned and the Devils too which are inflicted on them for the present time are far lesse then the vengeance of eternal and external fire reserved untill the day of judgement and then augmented upon all the reprobate both men and Angels For grant the most which had been said by any of the Antients as to this particular and we shall finde that it amounteth to no more then this that the souls of wicked men departed are presently made to understand by the righteous judge the sentence due unto their sins and what they are to look for at the day of doome Postquam anima de corpore est egressa subito judicium Christi de salute cognoscit as St. Augustine hath it Which being once made known to the sinfull soul standing before the throne of Christ in the sight of heaven she is forthwith hurried by the evill angels to the mansions of hell where she is kept as in a Prison under chaines and darknesse untill the judgement of the great and terrible day Iude v. 6. And so we are to understand those words of St. Cyril saying Anima damnata continuo invaditur a daemonibus qui eam crudelissime rapiunt ad infernum deducunt unlesse we rather choose to refer the same unto the executing of the sentence of their condemnation at the day of doome as perhaps some may But howsoever they be hurryed by the Devils into the darknesse of hell as to the place wherein they are to be secured till the day of judgement yet that they feel that misery and extremity of torments which after the last day shall be laid upon them neither they nor any of the Antients have delivered to us For of that day it is not the day of their death of which Scriptures doe report such terrible things saying that the heavens shall vanish away and be rolled up like a scroule that all the mountaines and the hils shall be moved out of their places and that the Kings of the earth and the mighty men c. that is to say the wicked of what sort soever shall say unto the hils and rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to endure it And certainly the terrors of that day must needs be great incomprehensible not only to the guilty conscience but even unto the righteous souls who joyfully expect the coming of their Lord and Saviour For in that day the Sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from heaven and all the powers thereof shall be shaken And the signe of the Son of man shall appear in heaven and then shall all the kindred of the earth mourne and they shall see the son of man coming in the cloudes of heaven with great power and glory And he shall send his Angels with the great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together the Elect from the four windes from one end of the heaven to the other So far we have described the fashion of that dreadfull day from the Lords one mouth St. Luke unto these former terrors doth add the roaring of the Sea and the waters also St. Peter that the elements shall melt with fervent heat and that the earth also and the works thereof shall be utterly burned In this confusion of the world and general dissolution of the works of nature the Lord himself shall descend from heaven in a shout and in the voice of an Archangel and the sound of a trumpe and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which live and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds for though we shall not all die we shall all be changed 1 Cor. 15.51 and all together shall meet the Lord Jesus in the Aire The meaning is that at the sounding of this last trump the very same bodies which the Elect had before though mangled by tyrants devoured by wild beasts or burnt to ashes shall be raised again and being united to their souls shall be made alive and rise out of the bed of sleep like so many Iosephs out of prison or Daniels from the den of the roaring Lyons But as for such of the Elect who at that sudden coming of our Lord shall be found alive the fire which burneth up the corruptions of the world and the works thereof shall in a moment in the twinkling of an eye as St. Paul telleth us overtake them as it findeth them at their several businesses and burning up the drosse and corruption of their natural bodies of mortall shall make them to be immortall which change shall be to them in the stead of death In this sort shall they meet the Lord coming in the cloudes of the Aire where the Tribunall or judgement-seat of Christ shall be erected that the ungodly man the impenitent sinner who is not capable of coming into heaven for so much as a moment for no unclean thing or any one that worketh abomination shal finde entrance there Apocal. 21.27 may stand before his throne to receive his sentence So witnesseth St. Iohn in the Revelation And I saw a great white throne and him that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and the heaven And I saw the dead both small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged of those things which were written in the books according to their deeds And the Sea gave up the dead which were in her and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to his works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire To the same purpose and effect doth Christ himself describe this day and the manner of his coming unto judgement in St. Matthews Gospell that which St. Iohn calleth the white throne being by Christ our Saviour called the throne of his majestie Mat. 25.31 At which time all the nations of the world being gathered together before him the good being separated from the bad and a brief repetition of their works being made unto them the righteous shall be called into the Kingdome prepared for them from the foundations of the world the wicked man be doomed to fire everlasting prepared for the Devil and his Angels For though Lactantius seem to think that the wicked shall not rise in the day of judgement and doth it as he sayeth himself literis sacris contestantibus
he is deceased Having thus took some pains concerning the time and place of this great action let us next proceed unto the manner from thence unto the method of it and so make an end And in the manner of his coming there are specially thâ—se three things to he considered viz. the sign of the Son of man the sound of the Trumpet and the Ministry of the blessed Angels in all of which we shall finde something worth our Observation Touching the sign of the Son of man which our Saviour speaks of as of a certain note and token of his coming to judgement it stands thus in Scripture Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clowds of Heaven with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 This sign then whatsoever it is is the prodromos or fore-runner of Christs coming to judgement of his second coming as was the Star which shined in the East of his birth or first coming into the world And this to make the Parallel more full and pertinent shall appear visibly in the East also if the Authors whom I have consulted do not much mistake it If you would know what sign this is I answer that it is the sign of the Cross a sign like that which Christ vouchsafed to shew from Heaven to the famous Constantine Of whom Eusebius hath reported from his own mouth too that being imbarked in a war against Maxentius and much perplexed in minde about that affair there shewed it self unto him in an afternoon the form of a Cross figured in the Ayr and therein these words written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say in this sign thou shalt overcome He addes that after that Christ appeared to him in his sleep holding forth the very like sign unto him bidding him cause the like to be framed or fashioned in the Standard-Royal and it should give him victory over all his enemies Which apparition of the Cross or sign of the Son of man in the time of Constantine was a fore-runner as it were of that petit Sessions which Christ at that time held against the cruel Persecutors of his Church and people Diocletian Maximinus Maximianus Licinius and the aforesaid Maxentius all which in very little time were brought to most shameful ends And that the sign of the Son of man which our Saviour speaks of as the fore-runner of the great and general Sessions shall be no other then the sign of the Cross shining in the Ayr hath the approved authority of the Antient Fathers and the consent and testimony of the Western Church and of the Aethiopick also For if you ask St. Hierom what this sign shall be his answer is Signum hic Crucis intelligimus that it was to be understood of the sign of the Cross. St. Augustine also saith the same Quid est signum Christi nisi crux Christi what is the sign of Christ or the Son of man but the sign of the Cross Prudentius a Christian Poet of the Primitive times in an Hymne of his saith of this sign Iudaea tunc signum crucis experta that then the Iews shall have experience of the sign of the Cross. Our venerable Bede is of the same minde in this with the other Fathers Nor is it marvail that he was for it was grown by this time the received opinion of the Western Church as appears plainly by that Anthem in her publick Rituals viz. Hoc signum Crucis erit in Coelo c. This sign of the Cross shall be seen in Heaven at Christs coming to judgment So also for the Eastern Churches that it shall be the sign of the Cross S. Chrysostom affirms expressely saying withall that the light or lustre of it shall be so glorious that it shall darken and obscure the Sun Moon and Stars Euthymius and Theophylact say as much for the Greek Churches and so doth Ephrem Syrus for the Syrian also The Aethiopian Church is so peremptory in it that it it is put into the Articles of their Creed as their Zaba cited by Mr. Gregory doth affirm for certain And finally that it shall appear in the East is with no less certainty affirmed by Hippolytus Martyr a Bishop of the Primitive Ages whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. For a sign of the Cross shall rise up in the East and shine from East to West more gloriously then the Sun it self to give notice to the world that the Iudge is coming And to say truth there may be very good reason for this old Tradition of the Cross. For what can be more honourable to our Lord and Saviour or more full of terrour to his enemies then that the Cross of Christ which they counted foolishness and more then so esteemed the greatest obloquie and reproach of the Christian faith should at that day be made the Herald to proclaim his coming and call all Nations of the world to appear before him No wonder if the Tribes of the Earth did mourn when that so hated sign did appear in Heaven to call them to receive the sentence of their condemnation For the Trump next we finde it mentioned in all places almost in which we meet with any thing of the day of Iudgment Our Saviour telleth us of the coming of the Son of man that he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet Matth. 24.31 St. Paul the like In a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last trump for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed 1 Cor. 15.52 And in another place more fully The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trump of Christ and the dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes. 4.16 Now that which Christ and his Apostle say of the time to come the same St. Iohn saith of it as of a thing done before his face speaking expressâ—ly of this trumpet both in the first chapter of his Revelation vers 10. and in the 4. chapter vers 1. So far it is agreed on without doubt or scruple But then the difference will be thus whether the speech be proper or only figurative whether it were a real Trumpet or but Metaphorical If figurative then the phrase doth signifie no more then this that Christ shall finde a means to call all the Nations of the world to appear before him as if it were with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet being used amongst the Iews by Gods own appointment for calling the Assembly and removing the camp of Israel If but a Metaphorical Trumpet then it may signifie no more then a mighty noise wherewith the dead shall be awakened from the sleep of the Grave such as that voyce spoken by
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
before the beginning of time and shall be also as it is when time it self shall be no more In this regard he tels us also of himself that he is A and Ω or the first or the last which was and is and is to come still the same for ever And finally in this respect it is said by Tertullian Ante omnia Deus erat solus et erat sibi tempus mundus et omnia i. e. Before all things were God was and he was also to himself time the world and all things He was alone quia nil aliud extrinsecus praeter illum because there was not any thing without or besides him and yet not then alone if we weigh it rightly Habebat enim Deum quod habebat in semet ipso c. for he had alwayes with him that divine wisdome which he had alwayes in himself And so the old Philosophers are to be expoonded when they say of God that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortal and eternal or everlasting that is to say not only a parte post as Angels and the souls of men are called mortal but also a parte ante which none was but God Which makes up that conclusion of the royal Psalmist Before the mountaines were brought forth or ever the earth and the world were made thou art God from everlasting and world without end world without end a parte post from everlasting also a parte ante but in both eternall Of the same nature is that infiniteness in Almighty God in respect of dimensions which by a name distinct may be called immensity whereby he is of infinite extension not circumscribed with any bounds filling all places whatsoever but contained of none Of this immensity or unmeasurableness doth the Prophet speak saying Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his Hand and meted out heaven with his span and comprehended the dust of the earth in his three fingers after such a manner as men take up a dust or sand and weighed the mountaines with scales and the hils in a balance Who taketh up the Isles as a very little thing before whom all nations are as nothing as the drop of a bucket This by an other name and in other respects is also called Vbiquity or Omnipresence by which our GOD is present in all places every where and confined to none but as a sphere as very understandingly said Trismegistus whose Center is every where his circumference no where In reference to this we finde it said by Moses of the Lord our God that he is God in Heaven above and in the earth below The very same with that of the royal Psalmist If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I goe down into Hell thou art there also And so we have it both in Moses and in the Psalms In reference unto this it is said by Ieremy Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord And Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him And so we have it in the Law and the Prophets too And though the Gentiles did exceedingly stomach at the primitive Christians for giving this Vbiquity or Omnipresence to their Lord and God Discurrentem scilicet illum volunt et ubique praesentem as Cecilius in the Dialogue did object against them yet did the Fathers of all times stand most stoutly to it and would not yeild a jot to their importunities For thus saith the renowned Augustine Deus meus ubique praesens ubique totus nusquam inclusus My GOD saith he is in all places present in all places wholly but so in all places as contained in none More fully Gregory the great Deus est intra omnia non inclusus extra omnia non exclusus supra omnia non elatus i. e. GOD is in all things but not inclosed he is without all things but not excluded he is above all things but not lifted up and finally beneath all things and yet not depressed And though it may be truly said of the sons of men Qui ubique est nusquam est he that is every where is no where that is to say he that ingageth himself in every business will goe thorow with none yet so it cannot be affirmed of the God of Heaven unlesse perhaps it be in a qualifyed sense interpreting nusquam esse by non includi And in that sense is that saying of St. Bernard exactly verifyed Nusquam est et ubique est i. e. He is no where because no place either reall or imaginary can comprehend or contain him and he is every where because no body no space nor spirituall substance can exclude his presence Proceed we next to the third species or kinde of infiniteness which we called the infinity of comprehensions by which all things whatsoever as well things future as things past are alike present to him and for ever before him by which he knoweth things that are not as if they were and doth accordingly decree and determine of them with as much perspicacity of wisdome and infallibility of judgment as if they were actually before his eyes For first God being of an infinite knowledge most perfectly and simply knoweth all things in himself which ever were or shall be in the times to come and then being of an infinite wisdome to dispose of all things as may conduce most to his honour and glory hath either given them bounds which they shall not passe or left them a dispositive power of their own occasions putting upon things necessary the law of necessity and leaving things contingent to the lot of contingency The due consideration of which weighty point brought the Apostle to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God Which two though two distinct acts and attributes in our apprehension yet differ not in GOD as before was said nor perhaps very much in themselves at all For wisdome is but the excellency of knowledge consisting either in the dignity or usefulnesse of the matter known or the more perfect manner of discerning what they truely are And of this wisdome or more usefull kind of knowledge there are these two offices the one stedfastly to propose a right end the other to present a right choice of means for effecting thereof But being it is equally consonant to Gods infinite wisdome and not a whit derogatory to his infinite power that some things should be as truely contingent as other are really and truely necessary therefore hath God been pleased as well to decree contingency as to decree or fore-determine of necessity Hereupon it will follow by good rules of Logick that though there be an immutability in the counsails of God arising from the infiniteness of his knowledge and wisdome yet that there are some things which might not have been and that some things are not which yet might have been or might have been far
from the sight of men And if the wise Gentile could affirme so sadly nunquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset that he was never lesse alone then when he was by himself what need can any rational man suppose in Almighty God of having more company then himself in If this suffice not for an answer to that needlesse demand What God did before he made the World let him take that of Augustine on the like occasion who being troubbled with this curious and impertinent question is said to have returned this answer Curiosis fabricare inferos that he made Hell for all such troublesome and idle Questionists But it pleased God at last when it seemed best unto his infinite and eternal wisdome to create the World and all things visible and invisible in the same contained A point so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it And as the Scripture tels us that God made the World so do they also tell us this that because he made the World he is therefore God For thus saith David in the Psalms The Lord is great and very greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods As for the Gods of the Heathen they are but Idols but it is the Lord which made the Heavens Where plainly the strength of Davids argument to prove the Lord to be God doth consist in this because it was he only not the gods of the Heathen which created the World The like we also finde in the Prophet Ieremy The Lord saith he is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his power and established the World by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion In which two verses of the Prophet we have proof sufficient first that God made the World by his power and wisdome and secondly that this making of the World by his power and wisdome doth difference or distinguish him from the gods of the Heathen of whom it is affirmed expressely that they were so far from being able to make Heaven and Earth that they should perish from the Earth and from under Heaven But what need Scripture be produced to assert that truth which is so backed by the authority of the Learned Gentiles whose understandings were so fully convinced by the inspection of the Book of nature especially by that part of it which did acquaint them with the nature of the Heavenly Bodies that they concluded to themselves without further evidence that the Authour of this great Book was the only God and that he only was that great invisible power which did deserve that Soveraign title And this Pythagoras one of the first founders of Philosopie amongst the Grecians who in all probability had never seen the works of Moses as Plato and those that followed after are supposed to have done doth most significantly averre in these following verses which are preserved in Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be thus paraphased in our English tongue He that will say I am a Power divine A God besides that one let him first make A world like this and say that this is mine Before he to himself that title take For the next point that God the Father Almighty did create the World it is a truth so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it it being not only told us in the holy Scriptures that God made the World but also when he made it and upon what reasons with all the other circumstances which concern the same The very first words of Gods book if we look no further are in themselves sufficient to confirme this point In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth As Moses so the royal Psalmist He laid the foundations of the Earth and covered it with the deep as it were with a garment and spreadeth out the Heavens like a curtain He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is And so the whole Colledge of the Apostles when they were joyned together in their prayers to God Lord said they thou art God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Made it but how not with his hands assuredly there is no such matter The whole World though it be an house and the house of God cum Deo totus mundus sit und domus said the Christian Oratour yet it is properly to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands How then He made it only by his word Dixit et facta sunt He spake the word and they were made saith the sweet finger of Israel There went no greater paines to the Worlds creation then a Dixit Deus And this not only said by Moses but by David too Verbo Domini coeli firmatī sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum i. e. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth In which it is to be observed that though the creation of the World be generally ascribed unto God the Father yet both the Son and the holy Ghost had their parts therein Verbo Domini by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made saith the Prophet David In the beginning was the Word All things were made by him and without him was nothing made saith St. Iohn the Apostle The Spirit of God moved upon the waters saith Moses in the Book of the Law and Spiritu oris ejus by breath of his mouth were all the hosts of Heaven created saith David in the book of Psalmes Made by his word but yet not made together in one instant of time to teach us men deliberation in our words and actions and to set forth unto us both his power and wisdome His power he manifested in the Method of the worlds creat on in that he did produce what effects he pleased without the help of natural causes in giving light unto the World before he had created the Sun and Moon making the earth fruitfull and to bring forth plants without the motion or influence of the Heavenly bodies And for his wisdome he expressed in as high a degree in that he did not create the Beasts of the field before he had provided them of fodder and sufficient herbage nor made man after his own image before he had finished his whole work filled his house and furnished it with all things necessary both for life and pleasures
that built all things is God T is true that Aristotle being a great enquirer into the works of nature conceived the World to be eternal and yet not alwayes constant unto that opinion But then it is as true withall that there was something else which inclined him to it then his meer admiration of the works of nature Democritus and some others of the old Philosophers had been of opinion that the World was made in the first beginnings fortuitis atomorum concur â—ionibus by the accidentall union or communion of severall parcels of which the Vniverse consisted that man himself was only voluntaria Elementorum concretio a voluntary mixture of all the Elements into which he finally was resolved To which absurd opinion as indeed it was though it then found a generall embracement amongst most Philosophers when Aristotle knew not how to submit his most exquisite judgment and yet was destitute of such further light as might more fully have instructed him in the true Originall he rather chose to grant the world to be eternal then to be made of such ridiculous and unsound though eternal Atoms Et maluit pulchram hanâ— Mundi faciem ab aeterno esse quam aliquando ex aeterna deformitate emersisse as Vallesius pleades in his behalf and I thank him for it who am I must confesse a great friend of Aristotles the Praecursor as some call him of our Saviour CHRIST in naturalibus as John Baptist was in divinis And now I am thus fallen on these old Philosophers I shall produce the testimonies of some chiefs among them for proof of this that the Creation of the World was an effect of the most infinite power of Almighty God the knowledge whereof in such particular termes as by them delivered was first communicated to the Grecians by the wise men of Egypt who questionlesse had learned it of the Hebrewes when they lived among them And first Mercuâ—ius Trismegistus not only doth affirme that God made the World but that he made it by his word that he did only say Existat Sol let the Sun arise and presently the Sun shined on the face of the earth and that by the power and efficacie of the same Word the Elements were distinguished the Heavens beautifyed with stars the Earth adorned with herbs and plants of each several sort as his words are cited by St. Cyrill Thales one of the wise men of Greece who had spent some part of his time in Egypt and was the first qui de Coelestibus disputavit who brought the knowledge of divine matters amongst his Country-men making the Element of water to be the first matter as it were whence all things proceeded Deum autem eam mentem quae ex aqua cuncta formaverit and that God was that infinite minde or understanding which out of that created all things In which he comes so neer the next laid down by Moses that Minutius reckoneth him to have affirmed the same thing though in different words Vides Philosophi principalis opinionem nobiscum penitus consonare Plato doth seem to speak so doubâ—ingly in this point that many did conceive that he inclined to the opinion of the Worlds eternity But besides that this is one of the great controversies betwixt him and Aristotle Plutarch who was well versed in his works and writings doth absolutely free him from that imputation not only saying of those who did so conclude that they did torquere verba ejus extend his words upon the Rack to make them speak that which he never meant but positively affirming that in his Book inscribed Timaeus he treated of the Worlds Creation as the chief scope and subject of that discourse For Aristotle next though in his books of Physicks or natural Philosophy he labour to maintain the Worlds Eternity upon the grounds before delivered yet in his Metaphysicks where he speaks of abstracted notions and travailed in the search of materials he doth expresse himself in another manner Qui Deum seu mentem causam autorem dixit c. He saith that excellent Philosopher who doth affirme that God is the cause and Author not only of all living creatures but even of nature it self and of the universall World and the course thereof speakes like a sober-minded man they which say otherwise being rash unadvised persons And this he doth expresse more clearly in his tract inscribed De Mirabilibus if at the least that tract be his where he declareth that naturally the Sea both did and would overwhelm the whole face of the Earth because higher then it in situation but that it is restrained by the power and command of GOD to the intent the Earth might serve the better for the use of men and other living creatures which inhabit on it What he hath said of God in his book De Mundo where he calleth him the Father both of Gods and Men hath been shewn before Theophrastus a great follower of Aristotle not only doth maintain that the World was created by God but that he was ex nihilo without any pre-existing or precedent matter And Galen that great Doctor in Physick who had no more religion in him then what might serve for a Physitian and an Heathen too having surveyed and as it were dissected all the parts of the World concludes at last that it was very fit both for him and all men Canticum compâ—nere in Creatoris nostri laudem to make an Hymne in honour of their great Creator and therein to express his wisdome his great power and goodness The Latines as they borrowed their Philosophy from the learned Greeks so did they take up such opinions as they found most prevalent amongst them though otherwise divided into several Sects as the Grecians were Varro as the most antient so the most learned of the Romans as St. Augustine out of Cicero doth affirme he was reckoneth the first Period or Aera at which he doth begin all his computations from the creation of the World and makes it the opinion both of Zeno and the Stoicks generally that the World had a beginning and should have an end Cicero though an Academick and consequently a Sceptick in all points of controversie doth yet conclude Deum condidisse et ornasse hominem mundum etiam mare terram divino nutui parere that GOD made man and â—urnished him with those endowments which he still enjoyeth and that the World the Sea and Earth are obedient unto his command Remember what was said before of the Rats and Mice and then no question need be made what he thought herein For Seneca as he was a Stoick so there is little doubt but that he held those Tenets which Varro doth ascribe to the Stoicks generally But yet to take him in our way we shall hear him saying that God created all the World yea and Man himself And of this truth he was so certain that he thought it losse of
prayers and offerings which are made unto them by that miserable and infatuated people whom they have captivated in the chains of sin and ignorance but they look for it at their hands and threaten most severe punishments if it be neglected The Devil is still sick of his old disease of being like to God both in power and greatness And being still possessed of his old ambition no marvel if he stand on Temples Altars Sacrifices both upon Invocation and on Adoration and whatsoever else is requisite to the Worship of God It was the pride and vanity of this glorious humor which made them uncapable of long stay in Heaven and hath since plunged them in the depths of disconsolation They were at first created by Almighty God in the state of perfection as were the blessed spirits who still stand in Grace endued with a most excellent understanding and a conformity of will to the Will of God Good they were made as all the rest of Gods creatures were but not good unchangeably That was the priviledge and Prerogative of the Lord most high But made so good that they were also capable of doing evil if they would themselves and put into a power or liberty of condition either of placing their whole comforts in the service of God or by falling off from that felicity to make themselves the authors and the servants of sin Which power or liberty of their will call it how you please some of them did abuse so far unto Gods dishonour that they were presently removed from that glorions dwelling banished for ever from the presence of Almighty God and kept in chains of darkness to the day of Judgement So witnesseth the holy Scripture both old and new Behold he put no trust in his servants and his angels he hath charged with folly or rather in his Angels he found wickedness In Angelis invenit pravitatem saith the Vulgar Latine Which though they were the words of Eliphaz the Temanite a man not altogether Orthodox in points of Divinity yet that which he intends thereby is countenanced by other passages of Canonical Scriptures For if by finding wickedness or folly in the Angels themselves be meant no more then this as indeed there is not quod illi a Deo propria voluntate discesserunt that by the impulsion of their own will they fell off from God as the learned Estius well obsereth then doth this Temanite say no more in the Book of Iob then what St. Peter and Iude have also said in their two Epistles God spared not the Angels which sinned as St. Peter hath it but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement St. Iude affirms the very same The Angels saith he which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day By both it is as clear as day that the Angels sinned and that the punishment due unto their transgression was inflicted on them but what the particular sin was which they did commit and in what state they stand in regard of the punishment we shall crave leave to look into with some further search as being necessary to be known in reference to the fall of man the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour and his last coming unto Iudgement For being fallen themselves from the love of God they have practised ever since on Adam and his whole posterity to make them also liable to the same damnation In solatium calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi jam perdere saith Minutius Felix And this calamity of man induced the ever gracious and most merciful God to send his onely begotten Son into the World to redeem such as were under the law of sin that so they might receive the adoption of sons First for their sin the general opinion of the Church hath been that it was an ambitious pride to be equal with God For being made by God of so pure a substance of such an excellent comprehension and so rare abilities they thought themselves too glorious and sublime an essence to obey a superiour and that it was sufficient honour to the Lord their God if they admitted him for an equal and let him be half sharer with them in the Supreme power Just like some proud ambitious favorite in the Courts of Princes who being raised from nothing to be next in dignity to their Soveraign Lord are not content with those preheminences which their King hath given them but are resolved to strike at all and either get the Regal Diadem or perish in the glory of their undertaking But being this could not be the hope of all those Angels who forsook their God it is supposed to be the aim of some chief amongst them of him who in the Scripture is called sometimes Satan and sometimes Lucâ—fer and sometimes Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The rest of the apostate Angels were drawn into the plot either upon a hope of having a supreme Lord of their own nature which should bear rule over them or fancying to themselves a more moderate reign by living under a Prince of their own Election Now that it was ambition which caused Lucifers fall it is expresly said by the Prophet Esay How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning How art thou cast down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend above the height of the Clowds I will be like the most High Yet shall thou be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit Upon which words S. Hierom giveth us this short Gloss Qui per superbiam dixerat In Coelum ascendam ero similis altissimo non solum ad infernum sed ad Inferorum ultimum detrahitur He that said through the pride of his heart I will ascend above the height of the Heavens and be like the most High is not only brought down to Hell but to the lowest pit of that dreadful Lake And to this fall of Lucifer as I conceive our Saviour doth allude in St. Lukes Gospel saying I saw Satan as lightning fall from Heaven 10.18 Upon which passage take this short note from the pen of Theophylact Marvel not that the Devils are made subject to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their Prince is long since fallen from Heaven and hath no power left which although mortal men beheld not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet was it visible to me who see things invisible The like Ezekiel saith as of Lucifers fall under the name and notion of the King of Tyre Thus saith the Lord God Thou hast been in Eden or Paradise as the Vulgar reads it the Garden of God thou art the anointed Cherub that coverest thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God and perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wert
did begin so he hath continued there being almost no sin committed which he tempts not to For though it be possible enough that men may sin without the temptation of the Devil by reason of the infirmity of the flesh and the concupiscences of several lusts which they bear about them yet commonly the Devil hath a part in all temptations and either findeth matter in us to work upon or stirreth up the dead seeds of sin which do lie raked up in our hearts like embers or fire in ashes For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications theâ—is and the like foul acts as Christ himself hath told us in S. Matthews Gospel And every one is tempted as St. Iames affirmeth when he is inticed and drawn aside of his own concupiscence So that the matter of sin lieth within our selves the Devil doth but actuate and inform that matter and reduce the powers thereof into overt act co-operating to the sin but causing directly the temptation Between the temptation of the Devil and the act of sin there must go a consent of heart and an inclining of the will to the sin presented and this is mans own act who is free to evil and is not necessitatâ—d to consent to the evil motion the over-ruling of mans will being Gods Prerogative though possibly he have not present grace enough to foil the temptation The Devil may present to us such a pleasant object though under other notions then that of sin which he knows like enough to work on our humane frailty and work upon us as he doth by all subtile suggestions to consent unto it And though he cannot force us unto such consent yet in regard he seldom faileth by his cunning practises of gaining that consent which he cannot force not only the temptation but the sin it self is often times ascribed unto him in the holy Scripture Thus it is said that Satan provoked David to number Israel 1 Chron. 21.1 that the Devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master Ioh. 13.2 that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie against the holy Ghost Act. 5.3 And in the same respects it is that he is so often called the Tempter as Matth. 4.3 1 Thes. 3.5 And the Apostle speaking unto married people adviseth them not to be long asunder but to come together again that Satan tempt them not for their incontinency 1 Cor. 7.5 Upon this diligence of Satan to tempt men to sin and his well husbanding of all advantages which are presented to him to promote that work it was not only the opinion of some learned Gentiles but of some of the antient Christians also that every man had his evil Angel which did continually attend upon him to tempt him to the works of sin and the deeds of darkness For the Christians Cassianus telleth us quod unicuique nostrum duo cohaereant Angeli i. e. bonus malus that is to say that unto every one of us there adheres two Angels a good and an evil For the good Angel he brings proof indeed from the holy Scripture but for the adhaesion of the evil Angel he relyeth principally on the Book called Pastor which always counted an Apocryphal book in the judgement of the Catholick Church makes me suspect the Tenet for Apocryphal also And yet some think that St. Paul doth allude unto this opinion where he telleth us of an Angelus Satanae that lay heavy on him a messenger of Satan as our English reads it which was given to buffet him But for the Gentiles it is clear that they so opined Lactantius reporting it as their opinion quod singulis hominibus adhaereant that every one had his Daemon or his evil Angel attending on him whom they worshipped by the name of their proper Genii And for his general affirmation I consent unto him In his particular proof I must needs dissent For amongst others of his proofs he hath that of Socrates qui circa se assiduum Daemona Ioquebatur qui sibi puero adhaesisset cujus arbitrio nutu vitae 〈◊〉 regereâ—ur who used to speak of a certain Daemon who was always about him and had accompanyed him from his childhood by whose direction and appointment his whole life was ordered The same Tertullian telleth us of him Apologet. c. 37. and Minutius Felix in his Dialogue But notwithstanding the authority of these learned men I rather think that this Angel whom they call Daemonium was his Angel-Guardian then any of the damned and malignant crew such as were properly called Daemons the life of Socrates being too full of moral vertue to be directed by the counsels of an evil Angel For though I cannot grant as before I said that every man how wicked and unjust soever whether he be Iew or Gentile Turk or Infidel hath his Angel-Guardian which is the now received opinion of the Roman Schools yet that few selected ones among the Gentiles such as Socrates was who led their lives according to the Rules of Vertue and died as he did in defence of the only God against those many Idols which the Heathen worshipped might by Gods special grace have their Angel-Guardians I am not willing to deny And now I am fallen upon these Daemons I must take notice of another of the Devils practises which did as much promote his Kingdom of darkness as any temptation unto sin of what kinde soever I mean the raising of these Daemons into the rank and reputation of Celestial Deities and speaking by them in the mouths of the Heathen Oracles For by this means they gained on earth what they lost in Heaven and though they could not make themselves equal to God in power and greatness while they continued in the Heavens yet they found ways to be adored as God by poor ignorant people whose souls they had seduced to that wretched blindeness Of these Lactantius telleth us that they were called Daemones i. e peritos rerum scios from their general knowledge which the word Daemon doth import in the Greek Original that they had a Soveraign Prince amongst them whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Prince of Devils that counterfeiting first the persons of deceased Kings they aim to be worshipped in their Statua's and became so impudent at last Vt Dei nomen sibi deorum cultum vendicabant that they challenged to themselves the name of God and the divine worship which of right did belong unto it And to train up the people in this blinde Idolatry having first taught them to adore the images of some famous men whom they had caused to be entituled by the name of Deities sub statuis imaginibus consecratis delitescunt they shrouded themselves within their consecrated shrines and Images and from thence gave out Oracles touching things to come and sometimes so possessed the breasts of their Priests and Votaries that they did seem to be inspired with
and some of them perhaps reduced to their primitive dust is more then probable for the text speaks of them as of men which had long been dead Now why a glorifyed soul should be re-united to a corrupt and putrefyed although new raised body unlesse it were to raise that body also to a share of glory I plainly must confesse I can see no reason Some of the Saints then as his Souldiers did attend this Pomp I take that for granted And I conceive it probable for I goe no further that every Saint or Souldier had his Crown or Coronet bestowed upon them by their Generall in testimony that they had fought a good fight against sinne and Satan For though in common course the Saints and servants of the Lord shall not have their Crowns untill the generall day of judgment yet here in this particular case it might be otherwise by speciall priviledge and extraordinary dispensation Next to the Saints and Souldiers look we on the Captives of whom the Psalmist and St. Paul both do expressely speak Duxit captivam captivitatem He led captivity captive saith the holy Scripture But who these captives were and what this captivity will aske a little more paines to declare aright though somewhat hath been said in this point before We shewed you in our Commentaries on the former Articles that by the unanimous consent of all the Fathers our Saviour spoyled the Principalities and powers of hell when he went down thither and there took captive both the Devill and his evill Angels The shewing of them openly and triumphing over them the leading of them captive when they were so taken that doubtlesse was the work of another day that was the work of the Ascension When he ascended up on high then not before he led them captive and when he led them captive then he triumphed over them The victory he obtained before now he made his triumph The great Battel which Paulus Aemilius won of Perseus the Macedonian did shrewdly shake the main foundations of his power and Empire the victory was not perfected nor the Realme subdued and made a Tributary Province of the state of Rome untill the King himself was taken in the Isle of Samothrace to which he had retired as his strongest hold immediately on his defeat near the City of Pidna The triumph followed not till after when he made his entrie into Rome the imperiall City the miserable King and all the flower of his Nobility being led like Captives in their chaines and doomed unto perpetuall prison And this saith the Historian was interpulcherrimos the happiest and most stately triumph that the Roman people ever saw the victory having also been of the greatest consequence So in this case The first main Battell after some previous skirmishes and velitations which our Redeemer sought with Satan was upon the Crosse in which he seemed for a time to have had the worse But it was only for a time For by his death saith the Apostle he overcame him which had power of death which was the Devill That was the first great blow which the Devill had But the victory was not perfected nor the Empire of the Prince of darknesse broke in pieces and brought under the command of the Son of man till he mastred hell it self and forced the Devill and his Angels in their strongest hold Then came he to demand his triumph at the hands of God who received him into heaven with the greatest glory that ever had been seen by the heavenly Citizens the Devill and rest of the powers of hell being led bound in chaines in triumphant wise whom he flung off as soon as he approached near the gates of Heaven and hath ever since reserved in chains under darknesse to the judgment of the great and terrible day If you will see this triumph set down more at large we have it in the 13. of the Prophet Hosea and out of him in St. Pauls first to the Corinthians death led captive without his sting Hell broken and defaced like the picture of a conquered City the strength of sinne the Law rent and fastned to his Crosse ensigne-wise the Serpents head broken and so born before him as was Goliahs head by David when he came from the victory Never so great a victory such a glorious triumph as that of Christ in his Ascension when having spoyled the Principalities and powers of hell he led this captivity captive in his march to Heaven making a shew of them openly unto men and Angels and triumphing over them in semet ipso in his own person saith the vulgar Reddunt inferna victorem superna suscipiunt triumphantem Hell restored him back a Conquerour and Heaven received him a Triumpher as faith St. Angustine happily if the work be his But there were other Captives which adorned this triumph besides the Devill and his Angels even the sons of men The Devill first began the war with our Father Adam foyled him in Paradise and made him of a Prince to become a Prisoner a slave to his own lusts and and loose affections And he prevailed so far upon his posterity that he brought all mankinde in a manner under his dominion their sins and wickednesses being grown unto such an height that God repented him at last of mans creation It angred him saith the text at the very heart David complained in his time that there was none that did good no not one and when the son of David came upon the Theatre he found the seed of Abraham so degenerated that they were become the slaves of Satan at best the children of the Devill as himself affirmed In this estate we were the whole race of man when with a mighty hand and an outstretched arme our Saviour Christ encountred with the powers of darknesse and subdued them all By this great victory of Christ over sin and Satan the Devill was not only taken and made a Captive but all mankinde even that captivity which was captive under him became his Prisoners jure belli even by the common law of war as being before part of the Devils goods of his train and vassalage So true is that of Aristotle in his book of Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those which are taken in the warres are in the power and at the pleasure of the Conquerour The Fathers many of them look this way directly but none more plainly to this purpose then Dorotheus an old Orthodox writer and he states it thus What means saith he the leading of captivitie captive And then he answereth It meaneth that by Adams transgression the enemie had made us all captives and held us in subjection and that Christ took us again out of the enemies hands and conquered him who kept us captive So that the case of mankinde in this double captivitie was like that of Lot whom the five Kings when they took Sodom carried Prisoner with them Lot was then Captive to those Kings
for an Historical truth it might as well be made appliable to Pauls negative Character according to the former interpretation as that Melchisedech should be Sem whose Ancestors and posterity both are upon record in the old Testament and the new though not delivered us as his by the name of Melchisedech But leaving this unto the credit of the Authors we must next look upon Melchisedech whosoever he was as the Priest of God And Melchisedech King of Salem saith the text brought forth bread and wine And he was the Priest of the most high God And he blessed him Abram and said Blessed be Abram c. And Abram gave him tithes of all In this we finde Melchisedech invested with the two great offices of a King and a Priest the King of Salem and the Priest of the most high God Nor was it strange or extraordinary in those times that it should be so the Principality and the Priesthood in those early dayes yea and a long time after in the Roman Empire being commonly united in the self same person Look on him as a King one that did share in the successe of Abrams victory and then we finde him entertaining this triumphant Conquerour with a royal feast And Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine That he did only as a King as a Princely friend willing to set forth some refreshment to the wearied Souldiers Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine It was the Kings act as a King and for such recorded before we finde any thing spoken of him as the Priest of God And when we finde him spoken of as the Priest of God we finde no mention of his entertainment of his bread and wine That belonged to him as a King but only that he blessed Abram and received tithes of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the text that is to say he tithed him or took tithes of him not as the gift of Abram but his own just dues By these two acts of blessing and receiving tithes the Priesthood of Melchisedech is described by Moses and by the same only doth St. Paul describe it not obiter or on the by but where he speaks of him in a set discourse and from his Priesthood doth proceed unto that of Christ whom God ordained a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Nothing in the Apostle of the bread and wine for that concerned him not as he was a Priest in which capacity only St. Paul looks upon him and looking on him only in that capacity he findeth him only as a Priest to blesse and to tithe He met Abraham saith St. Paul returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him To whom also Abraham gave the tithes of all Nothing here spoken of the bread and wine as an entertainment given by a Royall and magnificent Prince to a friend and neighbour nor as a Sacrifice neither to the most high God as he was a Priest which thing the Papists mainly stand for and marvail that S. Paul took no notice of it Miror in hoc capite inter tot Similitudines quibus Melchisedech Christum repraesentat nihil dixisse de Sacrificio panis vini c. I wonder saith Mariana that in this Chapter Heb. 7. amongst so many resemblances wherein Christ is made like unto Melchisedech there is no mention made of the Sacrifice of bread and wine which Melchisedech offered Gen. 14.18 being a type or Symbol of the sacrifice of the holy Eucharist But the best is St. Paul knew better what Melchisedech did and knew much better how impertinent it would be for his present purpose which was to parallel Christs priesthood with Melchisedechs then any the best learned man in the Church of Rome And therefore here is nothing to be wondred at if speaking of him as the Priest of the most high God he takes no notice of his actions as he was a King And for the Sacrifice which they dream of and would force from thence the better to advance the pedegree of the Romish Masse it is a thing so inconsistent with the meaning of Moses that neither the letter of the text nor any circumstance of the History nor the generall consent of Fathers nor any Orthodox Rule of interpretation doth give any countenance at all â—nto it As for the parallel made by the Apostle betwixt Christ and him which is the third thing to be considered it consists most especially in these two points first in the identity of their titles and then in the performance of their severall Offices First for their titles St. Paul telleth us that Melchisedech by interpretation is the King of righteousnesse and that King of Salem signifyeth a King of Peace Such also is our blessed Saviour not only called in Scripture the Prince of peace but our peace it self Ephes. 2.14 not only acknowledged by his enemies for a man of righteousnesse but righteousnesse it self in the very abstract and therefore said by the Apostle to be made our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 Melchisedech was the only King that ever by divine providence or an heavenly calling was a Priest also of the most high God and therein a fit parallel for Christ our Saviour whom God having raised him from the dead made both Lord and CHRIST that is to say both King and Priest Lord over all the Kings of the earth and clothed in a garment down to the feet girded about the pappes with a golden girdle such as the high Priest used to wear as St. Iohn describes him Melchisedech was King of Salem which afterwards being called Hierusalem became the royall seat of David and the Kings of Iudah our Saviour Christ was publickly acknowledged to be King of the Iews and crowned though with a Crown of thornes within Hierusalem it self the imperiall City and doth now reigne and shall for ever in the new Hierusalem whereof more hereafter The greatest difficulty lieth in the Negative Character that he was without Father without Mother without descent or Genealogie having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life and how he may be likened unto Christ in this or Christ to him in all these particulars hath very much perplexed the brains of some learned men For admitting Melchisedech to have neither father nor mother nor genealogie nor descent according to the former construction of it yet this can no ways be applyed unto Christ our Saviour whose genealogie is recorded by two Evangelists who had a Mother on the earth and a Father in Heaven Therefore the best solution is for ought I can see to say that those particulars of this negative Character without father without mother without descent do all but serve to usher in that which followeth next viz. that he was without beginning of dayes or end of life no mention being made of his predecessors or of any one that did succeed him in that sacred office Or else because it followeth
after this description without father c. that he was likened unto the Son of God and continueth a high Priest for ever it may be said that he did purposely devest himself of all natural relations putting off all references unto Father and Mother wife and children which necessarily do represent both a beginning and end of days that being thus transformed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle and turned out of his own proper and natural shape he might be made more like to the Son of God who being told that his Father and Mother sought him weeping seemed not to note their tears or regard their sorrows but put them off with this short answer Wist ye not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse But take it in the former sense because most received and then Melchisedech is a perfect type or embleme of our Saviour Christ who as he had no beginning of dayes â—or in the beginning was the word before time it self So shall he have no end of life the man CHRIST IESVS being freed from the powers of death and made by God a Priest for ever till time be no more after the order of Melchisedech In the performance of the office which is the next part of the parallel our Saviour did all that Melchisedech did and consequently may pretend to all which Melchisedech claimed Melchisedech blessed Abraham so the text informes us and questionlesse that blessing was accompanied with prayers to God that he would ratifie the blessing then pronounced upon him Blessed saith he be Abram of the most high God possessour of heaven and earth And blessed be the most high God which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand In which we finde Melchisedech the high Priest of God not only blessing Abraham in the name of God but offering prayers and praises unto God for so great a victory in behalf of Abram which are two principall parts of the Priestly function And these our Saviour did performe as soone as he was consecrated and established in his holy and eternall Priesthood For after his glorious resurrection from whence his Priesthood doth commence as before was proved and before he did withdraw his bodily presence from his Disciples it is said that he lift up his hands and blessed them And questionlesse his blessing was accompanied with prayers to God that he would furnish them abundantly with all gifts and graces which were necessary for the Ministery he had called them to he having told them formerly and it proved accordingly that he would pray unto his Father to send down the Comforter by whom they should be guided in the wayes of truth Nor did he so accumulate his blessings upon them alone that he hath none left in store for us St. Peter hath resolved it otherwise saying to the Iewes that God had raised up his Son Jesus and had sent him to blesse them in turning away every one of them from his iniquities And yet this blessing came not to the Iewes alone but upon the Gentiles and for that we have St. Paul to witnesse CHRIST saith he hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come unto the Gentiles The difference only is in this that Christ is more authentick and authoritative in his blessings then Melchisedech was Melchisedech indeed blessed Abraham but he blessed him only in the name of the most high God and not as having power to confer the blessing But Christ doth blesse us of himself by his own authority and hath withall a power to make good the blessing All power saith he is given me both in heaven and earth and therefore power to give the blessings of the earth and the blessings of Heaven the blessings of this life and the life to come Nor are we only blessed by him in the sense aforesaid but we are also blessed for him we are blessed through him and all unto this end and purpose to be everlastingly blessed in him For him it is that we are blessed and therefore dare not aske any good thing at the hands of God but it is propter merita Iesu Christi for the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ which either explicitly or implicitely is in all those prayers which we do or ought to make to the Lord our God Through him it is that we are blessed he being as it were the Conduit or Channell through which the blessings of the Lord are conveied unto us in which regard the Church concludeth most of her formes of prayer with this solemne clause per Dominum nostrum I. C. through Jesus Christ our Lord. And finally we shall at last be blessed in him when we are made partakers of that endless happiness which formerly consisteth in our union with him when we are so united to him that we seem to be incorporated in him and all make up together but one glorious body whereof CHRIST IESVS is the head The next part of the Priestly function consisted in offering up the peoples prayers to Almighty God or offering up his own prayers for the weal of the people Melchisedech did both in the case of Abraham for first he prayed unto God for a blessing on him and then he praised God in his Name for his blessings to him And so doth Christ our Saviour also St. Iohn who had presented him unto our view in the first Chapter of the Revelation clothed in Priestly garments as before was said doth in the eight present him in the execution of his Priestly Office For there he telleth us of an Angel standing before the Altar having in his hands a golden Censer to whom much Incense was given that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints those upon the earth upon the golden Altar which was upon the Throne vers 3. This Angel was our Lord Christ Iesus as St. Augustine telleth us the Mediator of the New Covenant as the Scriptures call him who offereth up the prayers of his faithful servants to the Throne of God and addes much also of his own incense which was given unto him to offer it together with the prayers of the Saints that so they might be made more acceptable in the sight of God This that he doth and doth it by the vertue of the Priestly function is more cleerly evidenced by St. Paul This man saith he discoursing of our blessed Saviour because he continueth for ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood and therefore he is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them And for performance of this Office his sitting at the right hand of God doth so fitly serve as if he were advanced to it for this purpose only We touched upon this string before and now to make the Harmony more compleat and perfect I shall adde that also of St. Paul in another
it a greater condemnation to our selves than men were aware of So could I wish the like Caution in all others also lest unawares they utterly exclude themselves out of Christianity For as Pope Gregory the first said unto some of the Bishops of his time concerning the Patriarch of Constantinople who had then took unto himself the title of Oecumenical or Vniversal Bishop viz. Si ille universalis or which is the same Catholicus est restat ut vos non sitis Episcopi so may we also say in the present case if we once grant them to be Catholickâ— we thereby do conclude our selves to be no Christians or at best but Hereticks Christian perhaps they have no fancy to be called the name of Christian in most parts of Italy being grown so despicable that Fool and Christian in a manner are become Synonyma Italico Idiomate per Christianum hominem stupidum stolidum solent intelligere as Hospinian tells us from the mouth of one Christian Franken who had lived amongst them Since then they have no minde to be called Christians nor reason to be called Catholicks let us call them as they are by the name of Papists considering their dependance on the Popes decision for all points of Faith And possibly we may gratifie them as much in this as if we did permit them the name of Catholicks For Bellarmine seems very much delighted with the Appellation flattering himself that he can bring in Christ our most blessed Saviour within the Catalogue of Popes and that he hath found a Prophecy in St. Chrysostom to this effect Quandoque nos Papistas vocandos esse That Papist in the times then following should be the stile and title of a true Professor Great pity it is but he and his should have the honor of their own discovery and Papists let them be since the same so pleaseth Now as the Papists make ill use of the name of Catholick so do their opposite faction in the Church of Christ conclude as falsly and erroneously from the title of Holy The Church is called Holy and is called so justly because it trains men up in the ways of godliness because it is so in its most eminent and more noble parts whom God hath sanctified by the Graces of his holy Spirit and finally because redeemed by the blood of Christ to the intent that all the faithful Members of it being by him delivered from the hands of their enemies might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives Not holy in the sense of Corah and his factious complices who made all the Congregation holy and all holy alike nor holy in the sense of some Antient and Modern Sectary who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or wrinkle a Church wherein there are no vessels of wrath but election onely and where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly for fear they should partake of the sins and wickednesses which they observe to be in some Members of it Our Saviour Christ who better knew the temper of his Church than so compares the same in holy Scripture to a threshing floor in which there is both Wheat and chaff and to a fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kinde of Fishes both good and bad and to an house in which there are not onely vessels of honor as Gold and Silver but also of dishonor and for unclean uses and to a field in which besides the good Seed which the Lord had sown Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his Tares In all and every one of which heavenly Parables our Saviour represented unto his Disciples and in them to us the true condition of his Church to the end of the world in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here In which erroneous doctrines are so mixt with truth that it can never be so perfectly reserved and purified but errors and corruptions will break out upon it Perplexae sunt istae duae civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae saith the great St. Augustine The City of the Lord and the City of Satan are so intermingled in this world that there is little hope to see them separated till the day of judgement Though the foundation of the Church be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in her superstructures and those so interwoven and built up together that nothing but a fatal fire is of power to part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray to God for the good estate of the Church Militant here on Earth but glory as in the Triumphant as they do in Heaven And yet the Church is counted Holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour Christ is professed and propagated Holy secundùm nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent for grace and piety And it is called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be Militant here upon the Earth and part Triumphant in the Heavens The same one Church in this World and in that â—o come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely Accordingly it is determined by St. Augustine Eandem ipsam unam Sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Ierom Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites False Teachers and Licentious livers will shroud themselves under the shelter of the Church and pass for Members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further than the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui The Lord knows onely who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandments and carefully possess their Souls in Truth and Godliness And yet some men there are as there have been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church in this present world without spot or wrinkle and dream of such a Field as contains no Tares of such an House as hath no Vessels but of honor sanctified and prepared for the Masters use The Cathari in
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
a full discourse which he entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Discourse of Promises and finding that he grounded his erroneous Tenets on the Revelation he wrote another on that Book which he inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The confutation and reproof of the Allegorists Nor did he labour by his pen onely but by conference too making a journey or Episcopal Visitation into Arsenois a Province of Egypt where this opinion was most cherished of purpose to dispute down this erroneous Doctrin◠In which he sped so answerably unto his desires that many of the chief Sticklers in it did recant their error et veritatem una nobiscum confite bantur and chearfully imbrace that truth which he brought unto them This Doctrine being set on foot though by such vile Hereticks and seeming to have ground and countenance from the Revelation was by the Fathers and other Writers of the first times of the Church thought fitter to be rectified and reformed than abandoned wholly And thereupon a new conceit was taken up and dispersed abroad unto this effect That after the Resurrection Christ should have an Earthly Kingdom the principal Seat whereof should be Hierusalem Hierusalem new built of gold and most precious stones Hierusalem aurea gemmata as St. Hierom calleth it in which the Saints should reign with him for a Thousand years in all manner of happiness and after that accompany him to the Heaven of Heavens and there live for ever This was the sum of the Opinion thus refined and rectified But for the Readers satisfaction and my own together I shall describe it more at large that we may see the better what we are to think of it and therein I shall follow Lactantius chiefly who hath more copionsly presented the true state thereof than any other of the Antients By him we are informed that after the destruction of the Roman Empire which must be utterly subverted before any of these things shall come to pass there shall follow great plagues unseasonable weather a general mortality of all living Creatures many strange Prodigies in the Air the Stars fall down from Heaven and the whole course of nature shall be out of order Things being in this dreadful state the Lord shall send into the world the great Prophet Elias who shall convert many unto God with great signs and wonders but in the midle of his work Antichrist shall arise out of Syria encounter with that great Prophet kill him in the Fight leaving him for three daies unburied after which time he shall revive and be taken up into Heaven After this shall presently ensue a terrible persecution of those righteous persons who will not worship this proud Tyrant calling himself the Son of God and practicing to seduce the people after the working of Satan by power and signs and lying wonders insomuch that all the Saints shall be compelled to retire themselves into the Wilderness and there abide in great distress calling continually for help to the Lord their God For their relief Christ shall descend at last with the Hosts of Heaven fight with this dreadful Tyrant overthrow him often and finally take him and his Confederates Prisoners whom he shall presently condemn to their merited torments Then shall the graves be opened and the bodies of the Saints shall arise and stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ the Conqueror and being united to their souls shall be incorporated with those righteous persons which are found alive and both together constitute an earthly Kingdom to our Lord and Saviour who shall reign over them or with them rather for a Thousand years triumphing over the remainder of their mortal Enemies who shall not be extinguished but preserved to perpetual slavery During this time the Devil shall be bound in chains that he do not hurt the Saints inhabiting the holy City in all peace and happiness the Sun shall shew more glorious than ever formerly the Earth become more fruitful than it was before producing most delicious fruits of its own accord the Rocks shall yeeld the sweetest hony and all the Rivers flow with Milk and Wine After which Thousand years expired the Devil that old Murderer shall get loose again stir up the Nations of the Earth to destroy the Saints and not onely lay siege unto the holy City But fire and hail and tempests from the Heavens above shall make so general and terrible a destruction of them that for Seven years there shall no other wood be burat but their Spears and Targets Then shall the Saints be brought into the presence of Almighty God whom they shall serve for evermore and at the same time shall be the Second and most general Resurrection in which the wicked shall be raised to eternal torments and damned for ever to the lake of fire and brimstone This is the substance of the Story as Lactantius telleth it which whether it have more of the Iew or of the Poet in it it is hard to say That of the great defeat of Antichrist and the burning of the Spears and Shields for Seven years together is branded by St. Hierom for a peece of an old Talmudical Tale the Iewish Rabbins making the like endless fables interminabiles fabulas as the Father calleth them of Gog and Magog who for a while shall tyrannize so cruelly over those of Israel but be at last subdued and slain with as great an overthrow as he affirmeth of Antichrist and his Confederates That of the flourishing estate of Christs earthly Kingdom was reckoned in those times when it was most countenanced to be but a Poetical fiction Figmenta haec esse Poetarum quidam putant as Lactantius doth himself acknowledge And more than so he seemeth to refer his Reader for a further description of this Kingdom to the works of the Poets affirming positively that all those characters shall be verified of this Kingdom of Christ I mean this Millenarian Kingdom Quae Poetae aureis temporibus facta esse dixerunt which by the Poets are affabulated of the golden age for proof whereof for fear we should not take his word he puts down a description of it out of Virgils works But in my minde his own description of it comes more near to Ovids who thus concludes his Map or Character of that blessed time Mox etiam fruges Tellus inarata ferebat Nec renovatus Ager gravidis canebat aristis Flumina tum Lactis tum flumina Nectaris ibant Flavaque de viridi stillabant Ilice Mella Which is thus Englished by Geo. Sandys The fruitful Earth Corn un-manured bears And every year renews her golden Ears With Milk and Nectar were the Rivers fill'd And yellow Honey from green Elmes distill'd But whether it were Iewish or Poetical or compounded of both the fancy being once taken up proved very acceptable as it seems in those elder times to most sorts of people both in the East and Western Churches who did
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
everlasting and after preached by the Apostles both to Iew and Gentile was finally committed unto writing to this end and purpose that by reading it or hearing it read and declared by others we may believe that IESVS is the CHRIST the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his name as St. Iohn assures us And though this be affirmed by him of his Gospel only I mean that written by himself yet we may safely say the same of all the rest of the Apostolical and Evangelical writings as being dictated by the same Spirit writ by men equally inspired and all conducing to this end to teach us to know IESVS CHRIST and him crucifyed and to enable us to give a reason to all that aske of the faith that is in us But being the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were of too great a bulk to be committed unto memory and that there were some things in them so obscure and difficult that many ignorant and unstable but well meaning men both might and did wrest them to their own destruction other things which related rather unto moral duties then to points faith it was thought fit by the Apostles to draw the points of saving faith such as were necessarily to be believed of all Christian people into a briefe and narrower compasse It was not for the ordinary sort of men to trouble themselves with doubtful disputations as St. Paul calleth them whereof many do occurre in his Epistles disputes of too great difficulty and sublime a nature for every man especially the weak in faith either to understand or conceive aright Nor was it possible that men of mean parts and laborious callings of which the Church consisted for the most part in the first beginning should either have so much leasure as to read over their writings or so much judgment as to gather and collect from thence what of necessity was to be believed that they might be saved what not or so much memory as to treasure up and repeat by heart the infinite treasures of divine knowledge which are comprehended in the same And if it were so as no doubt it was when the Apostles and Evangelists had left those excellent Monuments of themselves in writing which the Church hath ever since enjoyed to which men might resort as occasion was for their information and instruction how necessary then must we think it was for some such Summarie and Abstract of the Christian faith to be resolved upon amongst them which men of weak memories might repeat by heart and men of shallow comprehensions righly understand Those blessed souls knew well none better how to apply themselves to the capacities of the weakest men that there were many Babes in Christ who were to be fed with milk and not with meats and that if they became not all things unto all men they must resolve amongst themselves to save but few Upon this ground then which what juster could there be to induce them to it it is conceived they drew up that brief abstract of the Christian faith which we call the CREED and couched therein whatever point was necessary for all sorts of men in all times and all places of the world both to believe in their hearts as also to professe and confesse upon all occasions though to the apparent hazard of their lives and fortunes And why this might not be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that form of sound words whereof St. Paul saith to Timothy Hold fast that form of sound words thou hast heard of me I must confesse that I could never yet see a convincing reason Certain I am that Irenaeus who lived very near the Apostles times hath said of this confession of the faith this Creed which hath so generally and unanimously been received over all the world Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad fines terrae c. The Church saith he throughout the world even to the ends of the earth received from the Apostles and their Disciples that faith which believeth in one God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth c. and in IESVS CHRIST the Son of God incarnate for our salvation and in the holy Spirit which preached by the Prophets the dispensation and coming of God and the birth of CHRIST our Lord by the Virgin his passion resurrection and ascension with his flesh into heaven and his coming from heaven in the glory of his Father to raise up all flesh and to give just judgement unto all Which words lest possibly we might interpret of the doctrine of faith which questionlesse was alwayes one and the same over all the world and not of any summary or abstract which they had digested for the use and benefit of Gods people or think that they relate rather to the substance of faith then to any set and determinate form of words in which that substance was delivered let us behold what the same Father hath delivered in another place This faith saith he which the Church though dispersed through the world received from the Apostles and their Disciples yet notwithstanding doth it keep it as safe as if it dwelt within the wals of one house and as uniformly hold N. B. as if it had but one only heart and soul and this as consonantly it preacheth teacheth and delivereth as if but one tongue did speak for all He addes which makes the point more plain that though there be different languages in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the effect and summe of the tradition i. e. the faith delivered in that forme is one and the same and I presume he means not by tradition those doctrines of faith which are delivered in the books and writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Finally he concludes with this expression and it is worthily worth our marking in the present case that he amongst the Governours of the Church who is best able to speak saith no more then this and no lesse then this the simplest and the most ignorant person which certainly he had not said but that there was one uniforme and determinate order of words which every one was bound to learn and adhere unto Tertullian he speaks plainer yet and affirmes expresly regulam fidei unam omnino esse solam immobilem et irreformabilem that there is but one rule of faith at all and that unmoveable and unalterable How could he say that there was but one rule of faith in the Church if every several Church had a several rule or that it was unmoveable and unalterable as he saith it was if there were no certain form of words prescribed which men were to keep to but every one might change and alter as he saw occasion So that I take it for a truth unquestionable that in the first ages nay the first beginnings of the Church of CHRIST there was a certain form of words prescribed for the ease and benefit of the Church a summarie or abstract of the Articles
thing in property they could call their own but were indeed a people of so extreme a poverty that they no more needed the helps of God or man then the Beasts of the field Fennis mira feritas foeda paupertas non arma non equi non penates as he tels us there And more then so they had attained saith he to the hardest point Vt ne voto quidem opus sit that they had no need nor use of prayers to the gods on high For what need they make supplication to the gods and goddesses for blessings on their Corn and their Wine or Oyl who neither sowed nor planted nor used any husbandry What should they do with houshold gods who had no houses but the Earth only for their bed and the Heavens for the Canopy And yet perhaps these Fenni were not altogether without the knowledge of GOD or to be counted absolute Atheists more then the barbarous people of other new discovered Countries but that they had this Character bestowed upon them because they shewed less signs of any Religion then those Nations did with whom the Romanes had had longer acquaintance and so were more experienced in their rites and customes And of all men that flourished before Tullies time there were none stigmatized with the brand of Atheism but only Diagoras Melius and Protagoras the Cyrenaean to whom some added Enhemerus the Tegaean also Of the two first indeed it is said by Lactantius Protagoras deos in dubium vocavit Diagoras exclusit that Protagoras first called the beeing of the gods in question and that Diagoras was the first who denyed it absolutely who therefore was surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Atheist as Minutius hath it And yet perhaps it will be found upon further search that neither of the three did doubt or deny this truth that there was a God but that they got this ill repute amongst the Gentiles for scoffing and deriding those Idol-gods whom their neighbors worshipped For of Diagoras it is said that when he cast the Statua of Hercules into the fire he did it with this scoffe or jeere In hoc decimo tertio agone mihi inservias that he should serve him now in that thirteenth labor as he had done Eurystheus in the other twelve And as well known is that of Protagoras also who is said to have thus mocked at the Idolatries of the old Egyptians Si dii sunt cur plangitis si mortui cur adoratis i. e. If they be gods why do you lament them for in the rites and sacrifices of the goddess Isis they used to make great lamentations if dead why do you then adore them As for the third man Euhemerus for these were all of note who stand thus accused he was accounted guilty of Atheism for no other reason but because he had composed an history of the birth lives and actions of the Heathen gods proving that they had been no other then some famous men whose Statua's had been turned to Idols and themselves worshipped by the people in tract of time for some powers Divine Which book of his Lactantius and some others of the Primitive Writers do make very good use of in their discourses with and against the Gentiles 'T is true that on those grounds and on those occasions which are spoken of by Enhemerus the greatest part of the old Heroes as Saturn Iupiter Apollo Neptune Mars Hercules and the rest of that infinite rabble became by degrees to have divine honours conferred upon them And 't is as true that the Egyptians worshipped Apis in the form of an Oxe or the Oxe rather under the name of Apis as being of greatest use to them in the course of their tillage and so they did also Leekes and Onions and divers other of the fruits of the Earth also by which they lived and some strange creatures also which they dreaded most quis nescit qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colat as the Poet hath it As true it is that other Nations worshipped the Sun and Moon and all the rest on the heavenly bodies unto whose glorious light and influences they thought themselves so much heholding Which may be used as a further and most invincible argument to prove that the knowledge of this truth that there was a God was naturally ingraffed in the souls of all men and that this natural inclination was so powerful in them that they rather would have any gods then none at all and therefore made themselves such gods as came next to hand worshipping STOCKS and Stones and Leekes and Onyons and whatsoever else their blinde fancies dictated And this I take it gave the hint to Democritus first and after him to Epicurus and the whole Sect of the Stoicks to set up FATE and Fortune in the place of the Gods or otherwise to invest dame Nature with the powers of a Deity For finding that the biass of all sorts of people inclined them strongly to believe that there was a God they were content to let the gods hold their place in Heaven but then they robbed them of their power or supreme providence in governing the World and ordering the affairs thereof And this was the disease of Davids fool in the Book of Psalms who used to say in his heart that there was no God Not that he was so very a fool as to think there was no God at all but that he thought the God of Heaven was so far above him and so imployed in matters of an higher nature as neither to take care or notice of the things beneath Which therefore he◠as Democritus and the Epicureans after did ascribed to Chance and Fortune or to Fate and Nature And as it seems this errour in the time of the Poet Iuvenal found such a general entertainment amongst the Romanes that he thought fit to tax it in his Satyres thus Sunt qui Fortunae jam casibus omnia ponunt Et Mundum nullo credunt Rectore moveri Natura volvente vices lucis anni Atque ideo intrepide quaecunque Altaria jurant That is to say Some think the World by slippery chance doth slide That days and years run round without more guide Then Natures Rule From whence without all fear Of Gods or men they by all Altars swear But howsoever this opinion carrying a less shew of impiety then that of Diagoras and Protagoras had done before became more generally to be received among the Gentiles yet in effect in rather changed then bettered the state of the question And though it did not strike down all the gods at a blow yet by degrees it lessened their authority amongst the people and brought them to depend wholly upon chance and fortune or on fate and destiny that in the end there might be no other God thought of none of the Heavenly Powers be sued to or adored at all Which plainly was their aim as St. Austin telleth us where notwithstanding their pretences he
affirms this of them that all they did conduce to no other end quam ut nullus omnino aut rogetur aut colatur Deus And in this state the business stood when the first Advocates which pleaded in the behalf of the Christian faith did undertake the vindicating of Gods power and providence and laboured to possess the world with a right opinion both of the Beeing and divine Nature of GOD and also of his soveraign power in ordering the course of nature and governing all sublunary affairs of what kinde soever Whose arguments being drawn especially from the light of reason and therefore fittest to convince the gainsaying Gentiles are elegantly summed up by Minutius Felix out of whose excellent Dialogue I shall here present them according as they lay before me and then confirm the truth of that which he there delivereth out of the works and writings of the old Philosophers and other learned men amongst those Gentiles whom prejudice and prepossession had not formerly blinded The difference saith he betwixt us men and beasts doth consist in this that they whose faces are inclined to look down to the earth seem to be chiefly made to look after their provender But we whose countenances are raised up towards the Firmament to whom is given both speech and reason by which we may know feel and imitate the works of God must needs be counted inexcusable should we be ignorant of that divine light which doth even thrust it self on our eyes and senses It is an high degree of Sacriledge to seek for that upon the Earth which is not to be found but in Heaven on high Which makes them seem to me to lâ—â—ve neither understanding sense nor so much as eyes who would not have this World accomplished by the Divine wisdome of God but compacted only of several parcels joyned together by chance For what can be so obvious so confessed so manifest whether we lift up our Eyes to Heaven or behold those things which are beneath and round about us then that there is some Divine power of most exquisite judgement by which the whole frame of Nature is inspired moved maintained and ordered Behold the Heaven it self of what a vast circumference and how swiftly moved bespangled in the night with stars illustrated in the day time with the beams of the Sun and thou mayst know by that the wonderful and divine disposure of its Supreme Governour Observe the year how it ends the circular motion of the Sun the moneth distinguished by the increase and wane of the Moon the mutual succession of light and darkness that rest and labour may by turns succeed one another Let us relinquish to Astronomers a more exact discourse of the Stars and Planets whether they serve to direct the course of Navigation or usher in the seasons of seed and harvest which as they were not made created nor disposed of without a Supreme Workman of most perfect wisdome so could they not be comprehended and made intelligible but by great art and understanding When the orderly method of the season distinguisheth it self by the constant variety of several fruits doth it not openly avouch who is the Author and the Parent thereof that is to say the Spring bedecked with flowers and the Summer with corn the Fall made acceptable by its fruits and the Winter necessary by its Olives Besides how great an argument is it of an heavenly Providence to interpose the temperament of the Spring and Autumn lest if it were all Winter it should freeze us with cold or if it were all Summer it should scorch us with heat that so one part of the year might fall into the other without producing any sensible or dangerous alteration in the state of things Behold the Sea how it is bounded with the shore which it may not pass the Earth how it is fructified with trees which it self produceth the Ocean how it is divided between ebbs and flouds the Fountains how they flow with continual streams the Rivers how they pass away with perpetual waters What need I speak of the perpendicular height of Mountains or the declivities of the hils or the extension of the fields What need we speak of that variety of weapons wherewith brute beasts are armed for their own defence some fortified with horns others palisadoed with teeth some furnished with hoofs some provided of stings and others having means to preserve themselves either by the nimbleness of their feet or the help of their wings Especially consider the comeliness and beauty of our own bodies made of an upright structure an erected countenance the eyes advanced as Sentinels in the Keep or Watch-tower and all the rest of the senses placed in the Fort or Capital and will not that acknowledge GOD for its sole Artificer An endless work it were to run over all particular members take this once for all that there is not one part in all the body which serveth not both for necessary use and ornament also And which is yet more wonderful then all the rest though there be the same structure of all yet hath every man his several and proper lineaments by which though we are all alike yet are we also so unlike as to be easily discerned from one another The manner of our birth and the desire of procreation is it not given by GOD alone That the dugs spring with milk when the Babe doth ripen and that the Infant groweth up by that milky dew proceeds it not from the same Author Nor doth GOD take care only of the whole but of every part The Isle of Britain which is defective in the heat of the Sun is notwithstanding refreshed with the warmth of the Sea which doth incompass it Nilus doth satisfie for the want of rain that is in Egypt Euphrates fatneth Mesopotamia and Indus is reported both to sow and water the Eastern Regions If then as often as thou entrest into any house and seest in what an excellent order all things therein are both disposed of and set â—ut at the best advantage thou canst not choose but think there is some Lord or Master of it which hath so disposed it and one that is much better then the things themselves so in this great house the World when thou observest the Heaven and Earth the order law and providence by which they are guided how canst thou choose but think that there is some Lord of this Vniverse the Author of those Stars and Constellations of far more beauty then the loveliest of those several parts But possibly thou mayst not so much call in question whether there be a Divine Providence which ruleth all things as whether it be subject to the power of one or of many Gods which will be no great difficulty to determine neither if we observe the Arts of Empire used in Earthly Kingdoms which have their pattern from above For when did ever any partnership in Empire either begin upon good tearms or not end in bloud
whom with thee and the holy Ghost be praise for ever But leaving these more intricate speculations to more subtill heads The name of Father in this sense is ascribed to God by two severall titles First Iure Creationis by the right of Creation by which he is the Father of all mankinde And secondly Iure Adoptionis by the right and title of Adoption by which he hath anew begotten us in St. Peters language to an inheritance immortall undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens First GOD is said to be our Father in the right of Creation by which as all the World and all things in the same contained may be called the workmanship of his hands so may all mankinde be called his children not only those which trust and believe in him but also those which know him not nor ever read so much of him as the Book of nature those which yet live as out-lawes from the rule of reason and barbarous and savage people of both the Indies Thus Malachi the last Prophet of the Iewes Have we not all one Father hath not God created us Thus the Apostle of the Gentiles doth affirme of GOD that out of one bloud he hath made all kindreds of men And CHRIST himself who brake down the partition wall between Iew and Gentile Call no man Father on Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Not that the Lord would have us disobedient to our naturall Parents or ashamed to own them for this is plainly contrary both to Law and Gospeâ—t but that we should refer our being unto him alone which is the fountain of all beeing Solus vocandus est Pater qui creavit said Lactantius truly Now God is said to be our Father by the right of Creation for these following reasons as first because he was the Father of the first man Adam out of whose loyns we are descended or of whose likeness since the fall we are all begotten Therefore St. Luke when he had made the Genealogie of our Saviour CHRIST in the way of ascent doth conclude it thus which was the son of Seth which was the son of Adam which was the Son of God the son of God but not by generation for so our Saviour only was the Son of God and therefore it must be by Creation only Secondly GOD is called our Father because he hath implanted in our Parents the vertue Generative moulded and fashioned us in the secret closets of the Womb. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect and in thy book were all my members written saith the Royal Psalmist The bodies of us men are too brave a building for man and Nature to erect And therefore said Lactantius truly Hominem non patrem esse sed generandi ministrum Man only is the instrument which the Lord doth use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that godly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children Last of all for our souls which are the better part of us by which we live and move and have our beeing they are infused by GOD alone man hath no hand in it God breathes into our nosthrils the breath of life and by his mighty power doth animate and inform that matter which of it self is meerly passive in so great a wonder In each of these respects and in all together we may conclude with that of Aratus an old Greek Poet as he is cited by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we are all his off-spring all of us his children The second Interest which GOD hath in us as a Father in the way of adoption by which we are regenerate or anew begotten to a lively hope of being heirs unto the promises and in the end partakers of eternal glories by which we are transplanted from our Fathers house and out of the Wilderness and unprofitable Thickets of this present world and graffed or inoculated on the Tree of life Adoptare enim est juxta delectum sibi quos quisque velit in filios eligere Adoption is the taking of a childe from another family to plant and cherish in our own say the Civil Lawyers and he that so adopteth may be called our Father by approbation of the laws though not by nature Examples of this case have been very ordinary from Moses who was adopted for her son by the daughter of Pharaoh though he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter as St. Paul said of him down through all the stories both of Greece and Rome And if it may be lawful to make such resemblances the motives which induced GOD to proceed this way and other the particulars of most moment in it do seem to carry a fair proportion or correspondency with such inducements and particulars as hath been used by men on the same occasions For in the Laws adoption was to be allowed but in these four cases First Quod quidam Matrimonii onera detrectarent because some men could not away with the cares of Wedlock Secondly Quod conjugium esset sterile because God had not blessed the marriage with a fruitful issue Thirdly Quod liberi ipsorum morerentur because their own children by untimely death or the unluckie chance of War had been taken from them in which last case adoption by especial dispensation was allowed to women Fourthy Quod liberi ipsorum improbi essent degeneres because their own children were debauched and shameless likely to ruine that estate and disgrace that family into which they were born And upon such grounds as these is GOD in Scripture said to adopt the Gentiles to make them who by nature were the sons of wrath and seemed to be excluded from the Covenant which he made with Abraham to be the heirs of God and Coheirs with Christ. God looked upon the Iews as his natural children And at the first one might have known them easily for the sons of God by the exemplarie piety of their lives and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as men know commonly their neighbour children by a resemblance to their Fathers St. Paul hath made a muster of some chiefs amongst them in the 11. chap. to the Heb. But they being took away by the hand of death there next succeeded in their room a gâ—neration little like them in the course of their lives and therefore little to the comfort of their heavenly Father For his part he was never wanting unto his Vineyard nor could there any thing be done to it which he did not do yet when he looked for grapes in their proper season it brought forth nothing but wilde grapes sit only for the wine-press of his indignation So that the Lord was either childless or else the Father of a stubborn and perverse generation of whose reclaim there was no hopes or but small if any
In which estate he cast his eyes opon the Gentiles who either knew him not at all or knew no more of him then they could discern through the false lights as it were of depraved nature or the dull spectacles of Philosophie Thus witnesseth St. Paul in the 4. to the Galatians saying that when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem those which were under the law that they might receive the Adoption of sons vers 5. And in the 8. unto the Romans We have saith he received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry unto him Abba Father the Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are the heirs of God and coheirs with CHRIST vers 15. Other particulars there are wherein the Adoption of us sinners to the Kingdome of Heaven holds good proportion with Adoptions made upon the earth some of which I shall briefly touch at to make the mysterie of our Adoption the more clear and signal First then Adoption by the Civil or Imperial Laws which is jus Gentium or the Law of Nations as they use to call it however privately agreed upon between the parties was never counted valid of good authority till it was verified by the Magistrates before all the people in the Town-Hall or Common Forum and under such a form of words which either law or custome had prescribed unto them Which form of words too long to be repeated here are extant still in Gellius and Barnabas Brissonius a late French Writer So our adoption unto life is ratified and confirmed unto us by the publick Minister openly in the Church in the Congregation if it may conveniently and under such a Form of words which we may not alter We have not only custom for it but a strict command that we baptize all those which are presented to the Church as the children of God In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost We finde it also in the practise though the law required it not that they who were adopted into any family used presently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take unto themselves the name of that house o◠family into the which they were assumed Examples of this truth are infinite almost and obvious in the Roman stories So we being adopted into the kingdom and inheritance of our Saviour CHRIST have took unto our selves Christs name or the name of Christians And the Disciples were first called Christians at Antiochia Act. 11. Suppose we now that our adoption is confirmed ratified by the Magistrate and good in law are we hereby exempted from the power of our Natural Parents Not so the Law is otherwise and resolves it clearly Quod jura Patris naturalis minime solvuntur that the authority of our Natural Parents is the same as formerly Too many of us think not so but being once possessed with a conceit of our adoption to the kingdome of God we cast off all obedience and regard of man Neither our Natural nor our Civil Parents are to be obeyed if once the Son of God hath but made us free Thus did the Anabaptists preach in some parts of Germanie and we have had too many followers of their Doctrines here And last of all it is a Rule or Maxime in the Laws Imperial that children once adopted are to be used and disposed of in all respects ac si justis nuptiis quaesiti as if they were our own by the law of Nature And it doth follow thereupon Haeredes vel instituendi vel exhaeredandi that as we think it fit and as they deserve we may assign them portions out of our estates or exclude them utterly Whether it be thus also in adoptions unto life eternal whether it may not be revoked at the pleasure of GOD if we behave our selves unworthily need not be made a question amongst rational men Or if it be I have no list nor leisure to dispute it here Only I cannot choose but note it as an error in Monsieur de Moulin to ground the irreversible Decree of our Adoption to the Kingdom of Heaven on the like irreversibleness of adoptions here upon the Earth Ex eo quod absoluta sit inter homines adoptio as his own words are But Absque hoc The law we see is otherwise and resolves the contrary And for the error of du Moulin being it is ignorantia juris an error in point of law and not of fact whether and if at all it may be excused I leave to be resolved upon grave advice by some such learned Casuist as his friend Amesius GOD is a Father then by all ways and means by which a name of Father may be gained by any And if a Father as he is no doubt but we shall finde in him the same affections which are in Parents towards their children the same but not with all or any of those imperfections which we observe to be too often intermingled in humane affections Do Parents naturally love their children We finde the love of GOD to his not only to be equal unto that of an earthly father but to surpass the love of women Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb yes saith the Lord they may forget but I will not forget my people Do Parents out of the affection which they bear their children provide them of all necessaries for this present life Do any of them if their children ask for bread give them a stone or if they ask for a fish present him a Serpent Our Saviour thereupon inferreth that if they being evil know how to give good gifts unto their children how much more should our Father which is in Heaven give good things unto them that ask him Assuredly the love of GOD to all his children especially to those which walk after his commandements is infinitely greater then the love of our natural parents to those which are the children after the flesh Out of this love of GOD it is that he giveth us both the former and the latter rain that he makes his Sun to shine on the good and bad that their Oxen are alike strong to labour that their sheep bring forth thousands yea and ten thousands in their streets and finally that their fields do laugh and their medows sing with fruitful plenty Are parents naturally compassionate towards their children when they fall into misery and distress and pity them at least if they cannot help them Behold saith God like as a Father pitieth his own children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him for he knoweth whereof we are made he remembreth that we are but dust Are parents patient and long-suffering towards their children when they do amiss Alas what is this patience of theirs compared to that of GOD towards sinful man The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long-suffering and
Some time then God thought fit to take for perfecting the great work of the Worlds creation six dayes in all of which the first did lay the foundation the rest raised the building The foundation of it I conceive to be that unformed matter out of which all things were extracted in the other five dayes which Moses first calleth the Heaven and the Earth because they were so in potentia but after telleth us more explicitely that that which he called Earth was inanis et vacua without forme and void and that which he called Heaven was but an overcast of darkness or tenebrae super faciem Abyssi as the Vulgar reads it Of which Chaos or confused Masse we thus read in Ovid who questionless had herein consulted with the works of Moses before his time communicated to the learned Gentiles Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia Coelum Vnus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe Quem dixere Chaos rudis indigestaque moles Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum c. Which I shall English from Geo. Sandys with some little change Before the Earth the Sea or Heaven were fram'd One face had nature which they Chaos nam'd An undigested lump a barren load Where jarring seeds of things ill-joyn'd abode No Sun as yet with light the World adorns Nor new Moon had repair'd her waning horns Nor hung the self-pois'd Earth in thin Air plac'd Nor had the Ocean the vast shores imbrac'd Earth Sea and Air all mixt the Earth unstable The Air was dark the Sea un-navigable No certain form to any one assign'd This that resist's For in one body join'd The cold and hot the dry and humid fight The soft and hard the heavy with the light Out of this Chaos or first matter did GOD raise the World according to those several parts and lineaments which we see it in not as out of any pre-existent matter which was made before and had not GOD for the Authour or Maker of it but as the first preparatory matter which himself had made including in the same potentially both the form and matter of the whole Creation except the soul of man only which he breathed into him after he had moulded up his body out of the dust of the earth And therefore it is truly said that GOD made all things out of nothing not out of nothing as the matter out of which it was made for then that nothing must be something but as the terminus a quo in giving them a reall and corporeal being which before they had not and did then first begin to have by the meer efficacy and vertue of his powerful world And though it be a maxime in the Schooles of Philosophy Ex nihilâ— nil fit that nothing can be made of nothing that every thing which hath a being doth require some matter which must be pre-existent to it yet this must either be condemned for erroneous doctrine in the chaire of Divinity or else be limited and restrained as indeed it may conâ—idering from whence it came to visible and natural agents which cannot goe beyond the sphere of their own activity Invisible and supernatural agents are not tyed to rules no not in the production of the works of nature though nature constituted and established in a certain course work every thing by time and measure in a certain rule Now as the World was made of nothing that is to say without any uncreated or precedent matter which may be possibly conceived to have been coexistent with the God-head it self and thereby gained a being or existence which before it had not so had it a beginning too that is to say a time in which it first did begin to be what before it was not This Moses calleth principium a beginning simple In principio creavit Deus Coelum et Terram In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth which is all one as if he had said the Heaven and the Earth had a beginning and that this unformed Masse of Chaos was the beginning or first draught of them the first in order of time because made before them not in the way of causality as the cause thereof Coelum et Terra in principio i. e. ante omnia facta sunt as Simon Pottius hath observed in his notes or Scholies on St. Iohns Gospell So that whether we do expound those words that the Heaven and Earth had a beginning or that Moses by those words did mean that out of that which he calleth the Heaven and the Earth as out of the beginning or first matter all things were created it comes all to one because it is acknowledged that that first matter was created by God and therefore of necessity was to have a beginning Nor doth the Scripture only tell us that the World had a beginning but by the help of Scripture and the works of some Learned men we are able to point out the time when it did begin or to compute how many years it is precisely from the first beginning without any notable difference in the Calculation For though it be most truly said Citius inter Horologia quam Chronologia that clocks may sooner be agreed then Chronologers yet most Chronologers in this point come so near one another that the difference is scarce observable From the beginning of the World to the birth of Christ in the account of Beroaldus are 3928. years 3945. in the computation of the Genevians 3960. in the esteem of Luther and 3963. in the calculation of Melanchthon between whom and Beroaldus being the least and the greatest there is but 35. years difference which in so long a tract of time can be no great matter Now if unto the calculation made by Beroaldus which I conceive to be the truest we add 1646. since the birth of CHRIST the totall of the time since the Worlds Creation will be 5576. years neither more nor lesse And to this truth that the World had a beginning whensoever it was and was not of eternal being or a self-existency most of the old Philosophers did consent unanimously guided thereto by this impossibility in nature that any visible work either natural or artificial should either give it self a being or have that being which it hath from no cause precedent For from that principle Tully argueth very rightly that as a man coming into a goodly house in which he found nothing but rats and mice could not conceive that either the house had built it self or had no other maker but those rats and mice which were nested in it so neither can it be imagined that either this World should be eternal of a self-existency or was composed by any natural agent of what power soever And this is that which is more briefly and expressely said by St. Paul to the Hebrews viz. That every house is built by some man but he
time to enquire any further after the beginnings of things who made them and did first extract them out of the common masse or Chaos where before they lay Quid quaeâ—am saith he quae sint initia universorum quis rerum formator qui omnia in uno mersa et materia inerti convoluta disâ—reverit Macrobius speaks more plainly yet although he somewhat failed in his computation affirming that the World must be lately made Cujus cognitio bis mille annos non excedat considering that there was no monument or record thereof which could entitle it to the age of two thousand years The like may be affirmed of the Poets who do ascribe the glory of the Worlds Creation unto God alone Ovid in plain significant termes Sine ulla nominis dissimulatione as Lactantius hath it without boggling or scrupling at the name of God Virgil more covertly under the names of Mens and Spiritus under the which names the old Philosopers used to mask him For Ovid having before described the general Chaos then addes Hanc Deus et melior litem natura diremit Nam Coelo terras et terris abscidit undas That is to say But God the better nature this decides Who Earth from Heaven the Sea from Earth divides And shortly after speaking of the Creation of Man he gives God these most honourable titles the Maker of all things the Authour of a better World or Ille opifex rerum mundi melioris origo in his proper language Virgil although he speaks more covertly as before was said yet he ascribeth that to his Mens or Spiritus which Ovid in more plain terms doth assigne to God and so coâ—es somewhat near the truth Non longe fuit a veritate as Lactantius noteth For in his Aeneads thus he tels us Principio Coelum et Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque Astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem et magno se â—orpore miscet Which may be Englished thus in brief Heaven Earth and Seas the Sun and Moons bright sphere In the beginning by some Spirit were Divinely cherish'd which diffus'd through all Did like the Soul quicken this massie Ball. In which we have not only intimated the powerfull influence of the Spirit but the words In principio which are used by Moses But to returne again to the Word of God we finde not only there that God made the World and that he made it in such time as himself best pleased but also the course and method which he used in so great a work A work which took up six whole dayes as before was said God taking a delight as it were in his own productions and giving them the commendation of good as they were created or pretermitting that commendation as sometimes he did when any thing was wanting unto that perfection which was after added For in the work of the second day wherein God did divide the waters above the firmament from those which were disposed beneath it we do not finde this approbation et vidit Deus quod esset bonum because that did not bring the waters to that use and perfection which after they received when they were separated from the Earth and gathered together into one body which he called the Sea And this consideration is alone sufficient to consute a strange conceipt of some late Divines Who on pretence of some authority out of Augustines works have told us that all things were created at once by the power of God and that not only in one day sed in eodem momento or eodem nunc as Vallesius phraseth it the distinction of six days being made by Moses the better to complie with our incapacities For questionlesse there cannot be a better reason why God should passe no approbation on the second days work and double it upon the third but that the separation of the Waters not being fully perfected till the said third day required one special approbation from the mouth of God as the production of the earth and the fruits thereof which was the work of that day also did require another But here a question may be made concerning those waters which are said to be above the firmament or rather of the firmament which is said to divide them I know the general opinion of most writers is that by the Firmament in that place we are to understand the Air as being interposed inter aquosam et humidam superioris Regionis molem etâ— aquas marium fluminumque between the waters of the upper Regions and that which is dispersed in the Seas and Rivers So Iunius for the Protestant Doctors and Estius for those of the Church of Rome do expound that Text and for my part I have not been unwilling to conforme to that in which both parties are agreed But I have met of late with the Observations of a right learned man upon some passages of Scripture in which I finde some strong presumptions that an Abysse of Waters must needs be granted to be above the highest Orbe whose Arguments I shall lay down as I finde them there and so refer the matter wholly to the Readers judgment For first he saith and I think very truly that the Waters above the Heavens called upon by David and the three Children in their Song to praise the Lord cannot be taken for the watery Region of the Air because in the same Canticle by an expresse enumeration of all the Meteors this Region is invited to the like celebration O every showres and dew blesse ye the Lord and magnifie his name for ever saith the Benedicite Fire and hail snow and vapour winde and storm fulfilling his word saith the book of Psalmes Psal. 148. He telleth us secondly that in the separation of the waters spoken of by Moses the waters below the firmament were gathered together into that Receptacle which he called the Sea and that in the space above the firmament he laid up the rest of the deep as in a store-house Psal. 33.7 From whence when he uttered his voice as at the flood there was a multitude or noise of waters in the Heavens Ier. 10.13 Which lest it might be gratis dictum he proves it by the story of the generall Deluge in which the waters being said to prevail at least 15. cubits above the top of the highest mountains must needs have more time then 40. days and 40. nights for their falling down according to the course of nature unlesse there had been some supply from this great Abysse and that God by an high hand had forced down those waters which he had laid up there as in a store-house And that there was such a supplie from this infinite and inexhaustible store-house he shewes out of those words of the 7. of Genesis where it is said that the fountains of the great deep or as the Angell calleth them in the Book of
he plague them by the hands of Idolatrous Nations and give them over as a prey to the Babylonians whose favour they had courted in undecent ways and such as argued a distrust of Gods power or favour And when those Babylonian Princes whom God used as scourges to punish the transgressions of the house of Iudah began so far to forget God and to contemn that power which raised them to that height of Empire as to profane the Vessels of his holy Temple in their drunken Feasts did not God throw them in the fire so tender Mothers do their rods as no longer serviceable and give over to the hands of the Medes and Persians And when the Medes and Persians of a frugal People began to drench themselves in wine and prohibited pleasures growing as sordid and effeminate as Sardanapalus as drunken and gluttonous as Belshazzar how soon did God subvert their Empire and eclipse their glories by the hands of an impuissant though a valiant Prince whom also when he fell into the Persian riots he cut off in the very midst of his youth and conquests The many moral vertues in the people of Rome their Temperance Iustice Valour and Magnanimity it pleased God to reward with a temporal Monarchy the greatest that ever the Sun had shined on in the times before But when together with the conquest of Asia they had brought home the Asian vices and effeminacy making their lusts their law and their wils the rule by which their actions must be squared and the whole World governed God plagued them first with Civil and unnatural wars after subjected them unto the lust and arbitrary rule of their fellow Citizen And finally when the Christian faith was so far from reclaiming them that they became a scandal and dishonour to it he gave them over as a prey to those barbarous Nations who either knew not Christ at all or else were as erroneous in points of Doctrine as the Romans were grown scandalous in matter of practice Infinitum esset ire per singula It were an infinite attempt to follow Gods justice by the track over all the World although the foot-steps of it be so plain and evident that he would hardly lose his way that should undertake it there being no National History either old or modern in which we finde not many notable instances to evince this truth that God is just in all his ways and righteous in all his works and that he meteth such measure to the sons of men wherewith they meted unto others Some more examples of the which he that lusts to see may finde them summed up in the Preface of Sir Walter Raleigh before his History of the World though to say truth we need not look far before us For certainly if all the instances of Gods justice had been lost in the world and there were no monument of writing left to the former times the very times and Countries in which we live would give us such and so many sad remembrances as are sufficient in themselves to set forth Gods justice and make it more remarkable then all antient stories The Instances whereof I had rather the Ingenuous and discerning Reader should make unto himself then expect from me Let no man therefore in the pride of his worldly wisdome â—est in the success of a prosperous mischief or flatter and deceive his poor soul with this that God doth not see it For though God seems to wink yet his eyes are open and doth not only see but will bring to light the practices of wicked and malicious men though never so secretly contrived or so cunningly plotted And his Divine justice though slow paced at first will overtake us at long running how much soever we may seem to have got the start God dealing still with wicked and bloud-thirsty men as heretofore with Haman Absalom Achitophel and such other Instruments When they have served his turn then he hangs them up And so I close this point of the Divine Iustice of the true God with that which a false God truly said in behalf thereof for thus the Oracle of Apollo as Porphyrius citeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which with some little alteration may be Englished thus Let no man think to blinde the Eye of Heaven With jugling plots or colours smooth and even God fils all places and sees round about He that made all things shall not he finde out And yet I would not have it gathered out of this discourse that because GODS justice in these cares hath been quick and sudden and followed close on the offence it must be always so on the like occasions or else that question may be made whether he hath forgotten to be just and gracious or that the Divine Providence be asleep and regards us not The Providence of God in ordering humane affairs is no less eminent in suffering wicked men to prosper and sin to scape unpunished in the present world then if the Divine vengeanee of Almighty God followed them close upon the heels God useth the exorbitant lusts and passions of the wicked man as the wise Physitians do poysons in the course of Physick thereby to purge some hurtful and predominant humor out of the bodies of his Saints which otherwise might grow too corrupt and rank and draw them into such diseases as were irrecoverable For though God hath no need of the wicked man for the manifestation of his glory who can by other means effect what himself best pleaseth yet since men will be wicked and given up to sin God may and will effect by them what he hath a minde to Aut nescientibus iis aut nolentibus either against their wils or besides their purposes God neither doth incline them nor excite them to those works of wickedness whatsoever some are pleased to say unto the contrary no nor so much as to permit them but in this sense only as he affordeth them not such a measure of grace by which they must have been restrained from the acts of sin Only he makes this use of their lewd affections their cruelty ambition or such other lusts as he findes most predominant in them that they become fit instruments to set forth his glory and execute his vengeance when he seeth occasion Non operando in malis quod ei displicet sed operando per malos quod ei placet as Fulgentius hath it Thus used he the envy which the sons of Iacob did carry most unworthily towards their brother Ioseph as a great means of saving them and all their families in the following Famine with which he did intend to afflict those parts And so much Ioseph doth acknowledge when he said unto them that they should not be afraid nor troubled because they sold him into Egypt when he was a child Pro salute enim vestra misit me Deus ante vos in Aegyptum
for God had sent him into Egypt before hand for their preservation So also in the case of our blessed Saviour of whom Ioseph was a Type or figure the Lord determined out of his counsel and fore-knowledge as St. Peter telleth us that he should be the Propitiation for the sins of the world and in due time he made the avarice of Iudas and the malice of the Scribes and Pharisees his means and instruments that by their wicked hands and obdurate hearts he might be crucified and slain So used he the ambition of the Kings of Babylon to punish and chastise his people of the house of Iudah and the desire of glory which he found in Titus for the subversion of that wicked and perverse generation who had not only made themselves drunk with the bloud of the Prophets but against all rules of Law and Iustice had filled themselves with the bloud of the Son of God Thus when he had a minde to assay Iobs patience he used the Chaldees and wilde Arabs who did trade in theevery to fall upon the heards of his Kine and Camels and was content the Devil should try some experiments on his body also to leave the fairer pattern of unconquered patience for the times to come And though in these and other occasions of this nature he make use of the wicked to effect his purposes yet he rewardeth them answerably to their deservings proportioning their Wages to their own intentions and not according unto that effect which he works out of them Recipient vero non pro eo quod Deus bene usus est eorum operibus malis sed quod ipsi male usi sunt Dei operibus bonis said Fulgentius truly And though some of them have the hap or the seeming happiness to go down into the grave in peace and carry the reputation with them of successeful wickedness yet God will finde them out at last and meet with these sowre grapes in his general Vintage and tread them in the Wine-press of his indignation And to say truth there are as great and weighty reasons why some mens punishments should follow after them as that the rest should have a triall and essay of their future miseries by those which they endure in this present life For as St. Augustine well observeth if all mens sins were punished in this present world Nihil ultimo judicio reservari putaretur it would occasion some to think that there were no necessity nor use of the general judgement and on the other side if none Nulla esse divina providentia crederetur others would be too apt to think that there were no Providence and say with him in Davids Psalms Tush God doth not see it God therefore doth so order the affairs of this present life as may be most subservient unto that to come not giving such success to the prayers of his servants as they think most conducible unto their estates but as he thinks most expedient for them in reference to a better life then what here they have And if he do not always give the victory to the justest cause but that the good man may complain as once Cato did Victrix causa placet superis sed victa Catoni that the worst cause sped best in the chance of war that also is a special testimony of his heavenly Providence For either they which seem to have the justest cause may manage it by wicked and ungodly instruments or else relye too much on the Arm of flesh or God may possibly foresee that they will use the Victory unto his dishonour or grow secure and negligent of all pious duties upon the strength of that success In all which cases if God give them over to the hands of their enemies they have no reason to complain of Almighty God as if he either were not just in his distributions or that his Providence were asleep or too highly busied to look upon such passages as are here beneath God doth that which is most agreeable to his heavenly justice in punishing the sins of those whom he loves most tenderly with some temporal punishments that they may scape the wrath of the day to come and lets the wicked man go on with success and glory until he hath made up the measure of his sins and wickednesses and so is fitted and prepared for the day of slaughter But of this Argument it is enough to have said a little the Providence of God in governing the affaires of the present world being a point so generally granted by the sober Heathens that Aristotle being asked what answer should be given to those who made question of it is said to have replyed The whip His meaning was that they who ware so irreligious as to make any doubt of Gods heavenly providence were rather to be answered with stripes then with demonstrations And with this resolution I conclude this Chapter and the point together CHAP. V. Of the Creation of Angels the ministry and office of the good the fall and punishment of the evill Angels And also of the Creation and fall of Man OF the Creation of the World we have spoken before and are now come to speak of the creation of Angels and Men as the more noble parts thereof These though included in those words of Heaven and Earth according as they stand in the Creed are more significantly expressed by the Nicene Fathers who to those words of Heaven and Earth have added as by way of Glosse or Commentary and of all things visible and invisible That under the notion of things visible they intended Man as well as any other visible work of the whole Creation is a thing past question And that by things invisible they did mean the Angels will prove to be as clear as that and testifyed by St. Paul expressely saying that By him all things were created whether in Heaven or Earth visible or invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him In which we have not only the Apostles testimony that by the things invisible are meant the Angels but an enumeration of the severall rankes and degrees of Angels which were created by the power of the Lord our God Of these degrees and ranks we shall speak anon having prepared our way unto that discourse by taking first a short survey of the angelical nature For the quid nominis to begin first with that it is meerly Greek and English word Angel and the Latine Angelus being the same in sound and sense with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuntio which is to carry a message or to go of an errand Angelus then is no more then nuncius an Angel but a messenger in our English language And so it it expressed by Lactantius saying Habe◠enim Ministros quos vocamus nuncios This as it notifyeth their name and the reason of
of which we shall speak more anon the Prophet doth enforme us of the heavenly hostes that thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him Not that he doth intend by this to define their number as if they were not more in number then are there set down but to put down such a vast number Quo majorem multitudinem humanus sermo explicare nequeat saith St. Hierome rightly greater then which could not be cast up by mans Arithmetick The several ministries which they undergoe that numberlesse number of persons whom they do attend on were proof enough of this were there no proof else But because commonly such vast and infinite multitudes are apt to run into confusions except they be restrained by some rule and order it pleased God to divide his Angels into several ranks to make them differing in degree that so there being a subordination in the Heavenly hierarchy the danger of confusion might be best avoided Nine different orders there are reckoned of these ministring spirits the one superiour to another that is to say Angels Archangels Vertues Powers Dominations Principalities Thrones Cherubim and Seraphim which different names are not only or originally in the works of Dionysius the Areopagite as it is most generally supposed but in the book of God Of Angels we read often in the holy Scripture of Archangels 1 Thess. 4 16. of the Churubims Gen. 3.24 and of the Seraphims Isa. 6.2 The rest we finde thus mustred in St. Pauls Epistles first where he telleth us that God hath set our Saviour Christ at his own right hand far above all Principality and Power and Might the Latine reades virtutes Vertues and Dominions and every name that is named not only in this world but in that to come Ephes. 1.21 And after where he reckoneth up the orders of the blessed Angels amongst the works of the Creation saying that by him CHRIST all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1.16 Out of which places I collect First that these several words are not used by the Apostle to signifie the same one thing but are the several names of some different things why else should it follow after this recital Et super omne nomen quod nominatur and above every name that is named And secondly that these several names do serve to signifie and distinguish those several orders into which God hath ranked those Celestial spirits Of this saith Cassianus briefly Apostolus per ordinem numerans that the Apostle marshalled them in their proper order But Hierom reckoning up the particular orders doth resolve more fully Sine causa diversitatem nominum esse ubi non est diversitas meritorum i. e. that there is no reason why there should be such diversities of names if there were not some diversity also of estates and qualities And thereupon he doeth infer Archangelum aliorum minorum c. that an Archangel must be chief over other Angels and that the Powers and Dominions must needs have some subordinate unto their command on whom to exercise that power and dominion which is vested in them Nay he compareth them to an Army and are they not in plain terms called the Heavenly hoste Lu. 2.13 in which are Generals Collonels Captaines reliquus militiae ordos and other officers and Souldiers of inferior note If any aske how St. Paul came to know the names of these different orders and it seems some had asked the question in St. Hieroms time he answereth De traditionibus Hebraeorum that he had it by tradition from the Hebrew Doctors and possibly it might be so considering he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel one of the most learned of the Rabbies But in my minde it might be better answered thus That St. Paul being rapt up into the third heaven which never any of the holy pen-men was but he had opportunity to see more and to commit more to writing touching this particular then any Prophet or Apostle had before or since More might be said in maintenance of this division of the Angels into severall orders had I or list or leasure to insist upon it or purposed to make that the principall which was intended for an Accessary unto this discourse That which I mainly do intend is to set forth the ministry of these blessed spirits in reference unto the will of God and the weal of Man His Ministers they are Psal. 104. and therefore called ministring spirits Heb. 1.14 but commonly sent out by Almighty God to minister unto the necessities of poor mortall man to those especially who shall be heires of salvation as St. Paul hath told us His Ministers they are and therefore to be used by him as he sees occasion in his affaires of greatest moment in none more frequently then such as do relate to the sons of men either in point of punishment or of preservation whether it be in reference to their temporal or eternal being In both respects the Angels are the Ministers of the Court of Heaven the ordinary officers or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Almighty Iudge and bound to execute the mandates which are issued thence whether mens sins be ripe for vengeance or that affliction and repentance make them fit for mercy First in the way of temporal punishment it is most clear and evident in the book of God that he sent down his Angels with a full commission to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah two rich populous Cities after they had so long abused his patience and their own prosperities and that he sent his evill Angels amongst the Egyptians when neither signes nor wonders would prevail upon them by whom he gave their life over unto the pestilence slew the first born in all their dwellings and finally overwhelmed them in the red Sea or Sea of Edom Where note they are called mali Angeli or evill Angels not that they were so in themselves but ab effectit from the evils which they brought on that perishing people as Bellarmine and Lorinus two very learned Iesuites have right well observed Thus do we also read of a destroying Angel by whom according to the will and command of God no fewer then 70000. Israelites were consumed in an instant when once they boasted in their numbers and did presume too much on the Arme of flesh and of another which went out and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians no lesse then 185000. persons after they had blasphemed the Lord and put a scorne upon the holy one of Israel Not to say any thing of Herod who when he had beheaded Iames imprisoned Peter and troubled certain of the Church was miserably smitten by an Angel and consumed by wormes It pleased GOD to employ them in those acts of vengeance though well affected in themselves to the good
of mankinde and a necessity was laid upon them to obey his pleasure Nec quicquam est in Angelis nisi parendi necessitas said Lactantius truly And so far we have all things clear from the holy Scriptures But if we will beleeve the learned as I think we may there is no signal punishment of ungodly people ascribed to God in the old Testament but what was executed by the ministry of these blessed spirits except some other means and ministers be expresly named That great and universal deluge in the time of Noah was questionless the work of Almighty God I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth Gen. 6.17 But this was done by the ministery and service of the holy Angels Ministerio Angelorum saith Torniellus whom he employed in breaking up the fountaines of the great deep and opening the cataracts of Heaven for the destruction of that wicked unrepenting people Thus when it is affirmed in the 14. of Exodus that the Lord looked into the hoste of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and overthrew them in the midst of the Sea v. 24.27 Non intelligendum est de Deo sed de Angelo qui erat in nube we must not understand it of the Lord himself as Tostatus hath it but only of the Angel or ministring spirit of whose being in the cloud we had heard before And when we read that in the battail of the five Kings against the Israelites the Lord cast down great stones upon them from Heaven Iosh. 10. it is not to be thought saith he Quod Deus mitteret sed Angelus jubente Deo that this was done by Gods own hand but by the holy Angels at the Lords appointment The like may be affirmed of those other acts of power and punishment whereof we finde such frequent mention in the book of God which though they be ascribed to God as the principall Agent yet were they generally effected by his holy Angels as the means and instruments But the most proper office of the holy Angels is not for punishment but preservation not for correction of the wicked but for protection of the just and righteous person That 's the chief part of their imployment the office which they most delight in and God accordingly both hath and doeth employ them so from time to time For by the ministery of his Angels did he deliver Ismael from the extremity of thirst Daniel from the fury of hunger Lot from the fire and trembling Isaac from the sword our infant Saviour from one Herod his chief Apostle from another all of them from that common prison into the which they had been cast by the Priests and Pharisees But these were only personal and particular graces Look we on such as were more publick on such as did concern his whole people generally and we shall finde an Angel of he Lord incamping between the hoste of Egypt and the house of Israel to make good the passage at their backs till they were gotten on the other side of the Sea another Angel marching in the front of their Armies as soon as they had entred the land of Canaan and he the Captain of the Lords hostes Princeps exercituum Dei as the vulgar readeth it but whether Michael Gabriel or who else it was the Rabbins may dispute at leasure and to them I leave it Moreover that wall of waters which they had upon each side of them when they passed thorow the Sea as upon dry ground facta est a Deo per Angelos exequentes that was the work of Angels also directed and imployed by Almighty God as the learned Abulensis notets it Which also is affirmed by the Iewish Doctors of the dividing of the waters of Iordan to make the like safe passage for them into the promised land the land of Canaan The like saith Peter Martyr a learned Protestant touching the raysing of the Syrians from before Samaria when the Lord made them hear the noise of Cariots and the noise of horse-men that it was ministerio Angelorum effected by the ministery of the holy Angels whom God imployed in saving that distressed people from the hands of their enemies And by an Angel or at least an angelical vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a dream or Oracle delivered to them in their sleep as Eusebius telleth us did he forwarne the Christians dwelling in the land of Palestine to remove thence to Pella a small town of Syria and so preserved them from the spoyle and fury of the Roman Armies This was Gods way of preservation in the times before us and it is his way of preservation in all ages since GOD is the same God now as then his holy Angels no lesse diligent in their attendance on us then they have been formerly Let us but make our selves by our faith and piety worthy to be accounted the Sons of God and the heires of salvation and doubt we not of the assistance of these ministring spirits in all essaies of personall or publick dangers T is true the apparitions of the Angels in these late times have been very rare not many instances to be found in our choycest Histories But then it is as true withall one of the most eternall truths of holy Scripture that the Angel of the Lord encampeth about all them that fear him and delivereth them Whether we see or see them not it comes all to one and so resolved by Clemens of Alexandria an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord saith he doth still preserve us by the ministery of his holy Angels though we behold them not in any visible shape as the antients did And to say truth this general protection of the Angels is a point so clear so undeniable in true Divinity that he must needs renounce the Scripture which makes question of it Some difference indeed hath been about Angel-gardians and the particular protection which we have from them to whom God hath committed the tuition of our severall persons And yet even this if we make Scripture to be judge according to the exposition of the antient Writers will prove a point as clear and as undeniable as that of the protection which we have in general For Origen who lived in the third century from our Saviours birth reckoneth it for a tenet of undoubted truth and generally imbraced in the Christian Church long before his time that all Gods children from their birth or at least their Baptisme had their angel-keepers Lactantius speaks more generally as of all mankind Ad tutelam generis humani misit Angelos though possibly he might mean no otherwise then did the other Catholick writers of the times he lived in and those who followed close in the age succeeding St. Basil in Psal. 33. and Psal. 58. St. Chrysost. on the 18. of Matthew The Authour of the Imperfect work Hom. 40. Theodoret in l. 5. divinorum Decretorum do
the Spirit of prophesie as Minutius Felix well observeth Nay being spirits as they are of an excellent knowledge and either by a foresight which they have of some things in future or by conjecturing at events out of natural causes or coming by some other means to be made acquainted with the will of God they took upon them to effect what they knew would follow and to be the Authors of those publick blessings which were hard at hand so that indeed it was no wonder Si sibi Templa si honores si sacrificia tribuuntur if thereupon the people would erect them Temples and offer sacrifice unto them and yeild them other Divine honours fit for none but Gods By means whereof they did not only raise themselves into the Throne and Majesty of Almighty God and captivated almost all the world in a blinde obedience to their will and commands Sed veri ac singularis Dei notitiam apud omnes gentes inveteraverunt as the same Lactantius rightly noteth but in a manner had defaced the knowledge of the true one and only God over all the earth And in this blindeness and Idolatry did the world continue till the birth of CHRIST the Idols of Egypt falling down flat before him when he was carryed into that countrey in his Mothers arms as Palladius telleth us and all the Oracles of the Gentiles failing at the time of his death as is collected out of that work of Plutarchs inscribed De defectu Oraculorum Which preparation notwithstanding these Devils or Daemons call them which you will had gotten such possession of the mindes of men that the Apostles and Evangelists found it a far easier matter to cast the Devils out of their bodies then out of their souls and long it was before the rising of the Sun of righteousness was able to dispel those thick clowds of darkness wherewith they had thus overspread the whole face of the Earth Which with their power and influence in the acts of sin occasioned the Apostle to make this expression that he wrestled not against flesh and bloud but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers not of this world but of the darknesse of this world and against spiritual wickednesses in high places By which words as he means the Devils and infernal spirits against which the man of God is to combate daily so by those words he gives me a just ground to think that the Angels which did fall from the primitive purity and have since laboured noithing more then the ruine of man were chiefly of those Orders of Aâ—gels which are called Principalities and Powers in the holy Scriptures And this I am the rather induced to think because I finde them called by those names in another place where the Apostle speaking of Christs victory over Hell and Satan describes it thus that having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them But of this argument enough It is now time that we proceed to the Creation and fall of man as that which more immediately conduceth to the following Articles of the Incarnation death and passion of our Lord and Saviour And first for mans Creation it was last in order though first in Gods intention of the six days work it being thought unfit in Gods heavenly wisdome to create man into the world before he was provided of a decent house and whatsoever else was necessary both for life and comfort For it we look unto the end for which God made many of the inferiour creatures reperâ—â—mus eum non necessitati modo sed oblectamento voluisse consulere as Calvin rightly hath observed we shall finde that he not only intended them for the necessities of mans life but also for the convenience and delight in living And whereas all the rest of the six days work were the acts only of his power the creating of man doth seem to be an act both of power and wisdome In all the rest there was nothing but a Dixit Deus he spake the word and they were made saith the Royal Psalmist But in the making of man there was somewhat more a Faciamus hominem a consultation called about it each Person of the Trinity did deliberate on it and every one contributed somewhat to his composition For God the Father as the chief workman or the principal agent gave him form and feature in which he did imprint his own heavenly Image The Son who is the living and eternal Word gave him voyce or speech that so he might be able to set forth Gods praises and the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as the Nicene Fathers truly call him did breath into his nosthrils the breath of life Or if we look upon it as one act of all we shall finde man agreeing with many of the creatures in the matter out of which he was made but very different from them all both in form and figure For though God pleased to make him of the dust of Earth to humble him and keep him from aspiring thoughts as oft as he reflected on his first Original yet did he make him of a straight and erected structure advanced his head up towards the Firmament and therein gave him the preheminence over all creatures else which had been made before of the same materials And this is that which Ovid the Poet thus expresseth Pronaque cum spectant animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Iussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus That is to say And where all Creatures else with down cast eye Look towards th' Earth he rais'd mans Head on high And with a lofty look did him indue That so he might with ease Heavens glories view A thing of principal moment if considered rightly not only to the beeing but well being of man who is hereby instructed by the Lord his God that in the setling of his desires and affections he should take counsell of his making so to advance his meditations as God doth his head and not by fastning both his looks and thoughts on the things below him to disgrace as much as in him is the dignity of his creation and consequently merit to have had the countenance even of those very beasts whose minde he carryeth For I am verily perswaded that if the worldly minded man and such as are not well instructed in the things of God did but consider of the figure of his body only that very contemplation would promote him in the way of godliness and rectifie such errours and misperswasion wherewith his soul hath been misguided in the way of truth Certain I am that Lactantius whom I have so often cited in this present work examining the Original and growth of Atheism with which the world had been infected in the former times makes this amongst some other causes to be one of the principal that men had formerly neglected to look up
first of these respects the blessed Angels have the title of the sons of God Where wast thou saith the Lord in the book of Iob when I laid the foundation of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy The sons of God that is to say the holy Angels Per filios Dei Angeli intelliguntur saith the learned Estius on the place And so St. Augustine doth determine who hereupon inferreth that the Angels were created before the stars and not after the six days were finished as some it seems had taught in the times before him Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta sunt autem sydera die quarto as he most rationally concludes from this very text In this respect also the Saints in glory are called the sons or children of God and said to be equall to the Angels in St. Lukes Gospell not that they have all the prerogatives and properties which the Angels have sed quod mori non possunt saith the text but because they are become immortall and no longer subject as before to the stroke of death In the last meaning of the word though all the Saints and holy men of God may be called his children because they are adopted to the right of sons and made co-heires with CHRIST their most blessed Saviour yet is the title more appliable to the Prophets of God at least appliable unto them after a more peculiar manner then unto any others of the children of men I have said saith David ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most High Of whom here speaks the Psalmist of Gods people generally or only of some chosen and select vessels Not of Gods people generally there 's no doubt of that though both St. Augustine and St. Cyril seem to look that way but of some few particulars only as Euthymius and some others with more reason thinke And those particulars must either be the Princes and Judges of the earth who are called Gods by way of participation because they do participate of his power in government or else the Prophets of the Lord who are called Gods and the sons or children of the most High by way of communication because God doth communicate and impart to them his more secret purposes that they might make them known to the sons of men Them he called Gods as Christ our Saviour doth expound it then whom none better understood the meaning of the royal Psalmist ad quos sermo dei factus est i. e. to whom the word of the Lord came as our English reads it And what more common in the Scripture then this forme of speech factum est verbum Domini c. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah Isa. 38.4 The word of the Lord came to Ieremiah Ier. 1.2 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.3 et sie de caeteris If then such men to whom the word of the Lord came might justly be entituled by the name of Gods and called the sons of the most High assuredly there was not any of the children of men which could with greater reason look to be so called then the holy Prophets And yet in none of these respects abstracted from an higher consideration is CHRIST our Saviour here called by the name of the Son of God or so intended in this Creed For Angel he was none in the proper signification of the word though called the Angel of the Covenant in the way of Metaphore Nor did he take the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham as St. Paul tels us to the Hebrews We may not think so meanly of him as to ranke him only in the list of the Saints departed it being through the merits of his death and passion that the Saints are made partakers of the glories of heaven and put into an estate of immortality T is true indeed he was a Prophet the Prophet promised to succeed in the place of Moses that Prophet in the way of excellence in the first of Iohn v. 21 25. But then withall as himself telleth us of Iohn the Baptist he was more then a Prophet that word which came unto the Prophets in the times of old and to whom all the Prophets did bear witness for the times to come A King indeed he is even the King of Kings though not considered in that notion here upon the earth nor looked on in that title in the present Article Or if we could reduce him unto any of these yet take him as an Angel or a Saint departed or a King or Prophet every of which have the name of Sons in the book of God he could not be his only Son the only begotten Son of God the Father Almighty who hath so many Saints and Angels so many Kings and Prophets which are called his Sons It must needs follow hereupon that IESVS CHRIST our Lord is the Son of God by a more divine and near relation then hath been hitherto delivered And hereunto both God and Man the Angels and internal spirits give sufficient testimony The Lord from heaven procliamed him at his Baptisme and Transfiguration to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And Peter on the earth having made this acknowledgement and confession saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God received this confirmation from our Saviours mouth that flesh and bloud had not revealed it unto him but that it came from God the Father which is in Heaven The Angel Gabriel when he brought the newes of his incarnation foretold his mother that he should be called the Son of God the Son of the most High in a former verse And a whole Legion of unclean Spirits in the man possessed joynes both of these together in this compellation IESVS thou Son of God most high A thing not worthy so much noise and ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner then any of the sons of men who either lived with him or had gone before him had there not been something in it extraordinary which might entitle him unto so sublime and divine a priviledge Though Iohn the Baptist were a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yet we do not finde that the Devils stood in awe of him for Iohn the Baptist did no miracles or looked upon him in the wilderness as the Son of God To which of all the holy Angels as St. Paul disputes it did the Lord say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And who can shew us any King but him that was the Son of God as well as of David whom God the Lord advanced to so high an honour as to cause him to sit down at his own right hand till his enemies were made his footstoole Though Angels Kings and Prophets were the sons
of God by a communication of more speciall Grace then had been granted generally to the sons of men yet none but CHRIST our Lord is honoured with those high prerogatives of being called his own Son his only Son his only begotten Son the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things that so in all things he might have the preheminence Which glorious attributes and titles being laid together do put a very signall and materiall difference between the sons of God by adoption and grace and IESVS CHRIST our Lord and most blessed Saviour who is his son by nature his begotten Son begotten by his Father before all times generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an unspeakable manner of generation without help of woman and yet made of a woman in the fulness of time generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a supernatural kind of generation without help of man In terris sine Patre in coelis sine Matre as it is in Origen Without a Father on the earth without a Mother in heaven the very true Melchisedech which hath no descent who neither had beginning of days as the Son of God the Father alone nor shall have any end of life as he is the Son of God and the Virgin Mary Now of this twofold generation of the Son of God we will first speak of that which is last in Order his generation in the womb of the Virgin Mary in which he was incarnate by the holy Ghost and was made flesh and dwelt amongst us for a season that we might live with him for ever For being begotten and conceived in the Virgins womb after such a supernatural and wonderful manner by the Almighty power of God he is in that regard if there were no other Gods own Son or his son by nature his only and his only begotten Son take which phrase we will The Angel Gabriel doth affirme this twice for failing Behold thou shall conceive and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest And then unto the Virgins Quaere he returns this answer The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God What called the Son of God only and not be so really Not so but that being really and truly the Son of God he shall declare the same by such several means ut sic merito ab omnibus vocetur that so he shall be called and counted over all the world For that he was really and truely the Son of God by this his generation in the fulness of time the miraculous manner of his conception without any other Father then the power of God doth most assuredly evince A son begotten in that manner may very well be called natura filius non tantum beneficio filius a son by nature not by grace and indulgence only saith the learned Maldonate Quia non ex viro sed ex solo Deo concipiendus because begotten not by man but by God alone Nay so peculiarly doth this miraculous manner of his generation entitle him to be the true and proper Son of Almighty God that so he might be justly called and accompted of had he not been the Son of the living God by a preceding generation even before all times And so doth Maldonate resolve it in his Commentaries on St. Lukes Gospel though otherwise a great assertor of the eternal generation of the Son of God whose words I shal put down at large for the greater certainty Etiamsi Christus Deus non fuisset illo tamen modo genitus quo genitus fuit merito Dei Filius vocatus fuisset non solum ut caeteri viri sancti sed singulari quadam ratione quod non alium quam Deum haberet patrem neo ab alio quam ab eo generatus So he I think exceeding rightly to the point in hand His instance or exemplification in the case of Adam who is called the Son of God by the same St. Luke quia non a viro sed a Deo genitus erat because he was begotten by God and not by Man I cannot by any means approve of the production of our Father Adam not being to be reckoned as a generation but to be esteemed of as a work of Creation only But to proceed as Christ is properly and truly the Son of God by this his generation in the womb of his Virgin-mother so in the same respect is he called in Scripture the only and the only begotten Son of God the Father I know that generally the style or attribute of the only begotten Son of God is used for an argument or convincing reason to prove that Christ our Saviour is the Son of God by an eternall generation long before all worlds But by their favours I conceive that he is called Gods only begotten Son either in reference to this his generation in the womb of the Virgin because the only Son of God which was so begotten or else because he was most dearly loved of his heavenly Father as commonly an only Son is best and most affectionately beloved of an earthly Parent To the first sense I have the testimony of Vrsinus a Divine of the reformed Churches who though he hold that CHRIST is principally called the only begotten Son of God secundum divinitatem suam according to his Divine nature yet he concludes that aliquatenus after a sort he may be called so in his humane nature His reason is Quia etiam secundum hane tali modo est genitus quali nunquam quisquam alius ex Virgine nimirum incorrupta vi Spiritus sancti that is to say because according to that nature he was begotten in such a manner as never any had been before or since as being conceived of a pure Virgin by the holy Ghost And to the second sense I have that of Maldonate who on these words Hic est filius meus dilectus in the 3. of Matthew observes that filius dilectus and filius unigenitus are termes reciprocal that not alone in Homer but in holy Scripture the best beloved Son is called the only begotten and on the other side that by only begotten in St. Iohn he means best beloved God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that is to say his best beloved Son For unigenitum posuit pro charissimo as his words there are But what need Maldonate be produced in so clear a case which hath so plain an evidence from the word of God For read we not that God commanded Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as our English reades it unigenitum filium tuum the only begotten Son as the Vulgar hath it So the Greek reads it also
Saviour going to his Passion gave her the print of his face in a linnen cloth for the death of Christ but the Greek Legends do ascribe this prosecution unto Mary Magdalen as being of more credit in those parts and both true alike Certain it is that in his hasty proceedings against CHRIST our Saviour he had most wilfully broke an Edict of Tiberius the then Roman Emperour by whom it was decreed Vt supplicia damnatorum in decimum usque diem differrentur as Suetonius hath it that the execution of the sentence upon men condemned should be deferred till the tenth day But I finde not this laid unto his charge He had guilt enough besides of more publick nature then the murder of one innocent person Iosephus telling of a great slaughter which he made of the Samaritans a little before his calling home and Philo accusing him to Caius of rapine bribery oppression many cruel murders of men uncondemned which were the things most likely to procure his banishment Nor could he live long quiet at Vienna neither the vengeance of the Lord still following after him his guilty conscience still condemning and Caius Caligula the Roman Emperour putting so many indignities upon him that he thought best to rid himself at once out of all his troubles and so slew himself as both Eusebius and Orosius do report the story For Caiaphas next Iosephus telleth us that he was deprived of the high Priesthood by the same Vitellius who removed Pilate from his Government the infamy and disgrace of which deprivation did so work upon him that he grew weary of his life and at last laid violent hands on himself also to save the Executioner a labour as we read in Clemens The like foul ends befell Annas together with the rest of the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees who had an hand in the conspiracy against our Saviour of whom Nicephorus tels us but in generall only Quod ipsi dignas variasque dederunt poenas that they all came to just but miserable deaths as the wickedness of the fact deserved As for the whole Nation of the Iews who were so bent upon the death of their Messiah that they cryed aloud his bloud be upon us and our children what a miserable destruction fell upon them very shortly after and how they have been hunted since from one place to another is a thing so well known that I need not tell it All I shall note is this particular passage of the Divine justice that they who bought their Saviour for thirty peeces of silver were themselves sold at thirty for one peece of silver in the open Market A true but a most wonderful character of the finger of God And so I leave them to Gods mercy and proceed unto the following Article ARTICLE VI. Of the Sixt ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. THOMAS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Descendit ad inferos tertia die resurrexit a mortuis i. e. He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead CHAP. VIII Of the locall descent of Christ into hell Hades and inferi what they signifie in the best Greek and Latine Authors and in the text of holy Scripture An examination and confutation of the contrary opinions WE made an end of the Humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the former Chapter for to a lower condition then that of the ignominie of the grave we could not possibly expect that he should be brought We must next look upon his exaltation the first degree or step to which was his descent into hell But this perhaps may seem to some to be a very strange kind of preferment a point so far from being any part of his exaltation that it may worthily be accounted his very lowest degree of humiliation a fall farre lower then the Grave And so it had been out of doubt had he descended down to hell to have felt the paines of it or to have been tormented though but for a moment in the flames thereof T is not the place but the intent not the descending but the businesse which he went about which makes the difference in this case and the intent and purpose of his going thither was to begin his triumph over Satan and all his Angels to beat the Devill in his own strongest hold and fortresse and take possession of that part of his kingdome whereof God had given the keyes unto him And to descend on such a businesse is I presume no matter of humiliation Doth not the Scripture tell us in another place that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the trumpet of God when he comes to judge the quick and the dead yet that descent of his upon that occasion will be the highest step of his exaltation there 's no doubt of that To descend then is no humiliation of and in it self but in relation to the businesse we descend about And the intent or purpose of his descent was to spoyle principalities and powers that is to say the Prince of the world and the powers of darknesse and having spoyled them to make a shew of them openly and triumph over them to shew himself unto the Devils and infernall spirits and to receive the homage of the knee from them as his slaves and vassals that being reckoned as a part of his exaltation that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow as well of things under the earth as either of things upon the earth or the things in heaven To this the Fathers do attest and some Councels also some of which shall be here produced Our Saviour Christ had power saith Athanasius to shew incorruption in the grave and in his descent to hell to dissolve death and proclaime resurrection unto all St. Cyprian thus When by the presence of Christ hell was broken open and the captivity made captive his conquering soul being presented to the sight of his Father returned again unto his body without delay St. Augustine more plainly yet Reddunt inferna victorem c. Hell returned back again her Conquerour and whiles his body lay in the grave his soul triumphed over hell And finally thus the fourth Councell of Toledo CHRIST say the Fathers there assembled descended to hell devicto mortis imperio and having subdued the kingdome of death rose again the third day More testimonies to this purpose might be here produced but that they are reserved to another place when we shall come to speak of those particular motives which did induce our Saviour to make this descent and of the benefits redounding to the Church thereby These are enough to let us see that his descending into hell is to be reckoned as a part of his exaltation which was the matter to be proved To which we shall make â—old to add this one reason more that is
of them in their severall Commentaries on the text saying the same thing though in divers words And finally it is so interpreted by St. Augustine also Nec frustra fortasse non satis fuit ut diceret mors aut infernus sed utrumque dictum est c. that is to say Nor happily without cause did he not think it enough to say that death or hell divisively had cast up their dead but he nameth both death for the just who might only suffer death and not also hell hell for the wicked and unrighteous who were there to be punished Thus have we looked over all those places where the word Hades doth occurre in the new Testament except that one which is in question whereof more anon and finde it constantly both englished and interpreted by that of hell according as we commonly understand the word for the place of torments T is true the word admits of other notions amongst some Greek Authors But that makes nothing to us Christians who are to use it in that sense in which it is presented to us in the book of God interpreted and expounded by the Antient Fathers and the tradition of the Church For though the sacred Penmen of the new Testament writing in Greek were of necessity to use such words as they found ready to their hands yet they restrained them many times to some certain and particular meaning which they retain unto this day as words of Ecclesiastical use and signification Of this kinde are Ecclesia Evangelium Episcopus Presbyter Diaconus Martyr and the like which being words of a more general signification in their first original are now restrained to such particular notions as the first Preachers of the Gospel thought most fit to reserve them for Of this kind also is Diabolus which properly and originally did signifie no more then an Accuser but is now used by all writers both in Greek and Latine to denote the Devil And of this kind is Hades also which whatsoever it might signifie in some old Greek writers more then the Place or Region of hell or the Prince thereof is now restrained in general speech to signifie only hell it self or the house of torments the habitation of the Devill and his Angels But this we shall the better see by taking a short view of the use and signification of the word amongst the best and most approved of the old Greek Ecclesiastical writers And first Iosephus though no Christian yet one that very well understood the difference between heaven and hell telleth us of those whose souls were cleansed and favoured of God that they inhabit in the holiest places of heaven but that they whose hands wax mad against themselves or who laid hands upon themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their soules were to be received in the dark vaults of hell or Hades Theophilus the sixt B. of Antioch about 170. years after Christ citeth this verse out of the works of the Sibyls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they sacrificed to the Devils in hell or Hades In the same times lived Iustin Martyr who doth thus informe us After the soul saith he is departed from the body straightwayes there is a separation of the unjust from the just both being carryed by the Angels into places meet for them that is to say the souls of the just into Paradise where is the fellowship and sight of Angels and Arch-angels with a kind of beholding of Christ our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the souls of the unjust to places in hell or Hades of which it was said in Scripture unto Nebuchadnezzar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Hades below was stirred to meet him Isa. 14. And to this purpose he both citeth and alloweth those words of Plato where he affirmes that when death draweth near to any man then tales are told 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the things in Hades how he that here doth deal unjustly shall there be punished c. Next him Eusebius speaks thus in the person of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I see my descent to hell or Hades approach and the rebellion against me of the contrary powers which are enemies to God And that we may be sure to know what he means by Hades he tels us out of Plato in another place that the souls of wicked men departing hence immediately after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endured the punishments of hell or Hades of their doings here After man was fallen saith Athanasius and by his fall death had prevailed from Adam to Christ the earth was accursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hell or Hades opened Paradise shut up and heaven offended but after all things were delivered by Christ the earth received a blessing Paradise was opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades or hell did shrink for fear and heaven set open to all believers And in another place he speaketh of two severall mansions provided by Almighty God for the wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grave and Hades whereof one is to receive his body and the other his soul. St. Basil thus Death is not altogether evill except you speak of the death of a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because that their departure hence is the beginning of their punishments in hell or Hades and besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evils which are in hell or Hades have not God for their cause but our selves c. And after shewing that Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up of the earth he addes that they were never a whit the better for this kind of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for how could they be so that went down to Hades or hell but they made the rest wiser by their example Infinite more might be alleaged from the Fathers of the Eastern Church to shew that when they spake of Hades they meant nothing but hell and should be here produced were not these sufficient Only I shall make bold to add the evidence of two or three of the most eminent of the latter writers to shew that in all times and ages the word retained that notion only which had been given it in the Scriptures and the old Greek Fathers Thus then Cydonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that there is in Hades hell vengeance for all sinnes committed not only the consent of all wise men but the equity of the divine justice doth most fully prove Aeneas Gazaeus he comes next and he tels us this that he who in a private life committeth smal sins and laments them escapeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishments that are in Hades And finally Gregentius thus Christ took a rod out of the earth viz. his precious Crosse and stretching forth his hand struck all his enemies therewith and conquered them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is to say Hades or hell death sin and that subtile serpent So
the meaning of this text will be briefly this that according to the Christian faith these actions which to men seemed so impossible those namely ascending up into heaven and descending down into the deeps of hell were performed for us in the person of Christ and therefore now to doubt of either were nothing else but to enervate and weaken the power of Christ who most perfectly hath accomplished both to save us from the one and bring us to the other Besides the Reader may take notice that that which our Translatours have rendred by these words the deep is called in the Greek Original by the name of Abyssus which signifieth a bottomlesse pit and is so taken and translated in the Revelation Chap. 9.2 11.7 where it can probably meant of no place but hell In the next place we meet with that of the Ephesians where it is said When he ascended up on high he led captivitie captive and gave gifts unto men Now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lowest parts of the earth He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fil all things Now in these words we may observe First that before Christs ascending by way of relation the Apostle putteth Christs descending Secondly that because descending and ascending must have contrary extremes from which and to which the motion is made therefore St. Paul opposeth the lowest parts of the earth to which Christ first descended unto the highest heavens of all above which he ascended Thirdly that these lowest parts of the earth could not be the grave as some men would have it which is seldome two yards deep in the ground and so not opposite in that respect to the height of the heavens according to the words and inference of the Apostle And Fourthly that the end of his descending was to lead captivity captive to beat them from the place of their chiefest strength even as the end of his ascending after he had led captivitie captive was to give gifts to men For what place fitter for the scene of so great an action as the full conquest of death sin and Satan the final dissolution of the kingdome of darknesse then the chief seat and fortresse of their whole empire which is hell it self situate in the lowest parts of the earth as before was shewn And hereunto agreeth the exposition of the antient Fathers St. Irenaeus citing these very words of the Apostle that Christ descended into the lower parts of the Earth makes them equivalent with those words of David concerning Christ viz. thou shalt not leave my soul in the neathermost Hell saying Hoc David in eum prophetans dixit and so much David said of him by way of prophesie Tertullian alleadging the same words of the Apostle concludeth thence Habes ergo Regionem Inâ—erum subterraneam i. e. by this thou mayst perceive that the place of Hell is under the earth Chrysostom thus Christ descended to the lower parts of the earth beneath which there are none other and he ascended above all higher then which there is nothing St. Ambrose on these words of Paul gives us this short gloss After death Christ descended to Hell whence rising the third day he ascended above all the heavens St. Hierome on the same saith thus Qui descendit in anima ad infernum ipse cum anima corpore ascendit in Coelum that is to say he that descended to Hell in his soul only ascended into Heaven both with soul and body Primasius doth not only concur with Hierom in his Exposition of the place but repeats also his very words Oecumenius out of Photius thus To the lower parts of the earth he meaneth Hell beneath which place there is no lower Next Haymo Christ descended first into the lower parts of the earth that is into hell and after ascended into heaven Which said he gives this reason of his Exposition as Hierom and Primasius had done before that by the lower parts of the earth he must needs mean hell which is called infernus in the Latine because it is lower then the earth or rather under it And finally Theophylact thus asks the question Quem in locum descendit into what place did Christ descend And presently returns this answer in infernum c. into hell which St. Paul calleth the lowest parts of the earth after the common opinion of men There is another part of this Text of Scripture touching the leading of Captivity Captive of which we have said nothing from the antient Writers because I purposed to consider it with another Text neer of kin unto it where it is said that having spoyled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them In both which texts we must distinguish between the taking of Captivity captive and the leading of them as in triumph being once so taken between the spoyling of those principalities and powers the Apostle speaketh of and the open shew or triumph which was made upon it The first was only the great work of Christs descent into Hell the other the chief pomp and glory of his Resurrection and Ascension For clearing of which point we may please to know that the Devil since the fall of man laid a claim to mankinde and held him like a captive in the bonds of sin by means whereof as he drew many after him into the pit of torments so he presumed to have the like advantages over all the rest And though Christs over-mastering Satan began here on the earth when he cast him out of such as he had possessed yet his full and final conquest could not be accomplished till he had followed and pursued him over all the world driven him at last into the very heart and seat of his Dominion which was Hell it self and there in the presence of his Angels and other instruments of mischief destroyed his power dissolved his Empire and put a period to his tyranny over the sons of men And this is that to which the Fathers doe attest both with heart and hand but none more clearly to this purpose then St. Athanasius The Devil saith he was fallen from Heaven he was cast from the earth pursued through the ayr every where conquered and every where straightned in which distress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he determined to keep Hell safe which was all that was left him But the Lord a true Saviour would not leave his work unfinished nor leave those which were in Hades as yeilded to the enemie so that the Devil thinking to kill one lost all and hoping to carry one to Hell or Hades was himself cast out By means whereof Hades or Hell is abrogated death no more prevailing but all being raised unto life neither can the Devil stand any more against us but is fallen and indeed creepeth on his brest and belly Which
said he addes this of the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thus in fine they saw Hell spoyled Epiphanius in this order marshalleth the acts of Christ He was crucified buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he descended to places under the earth he took captivity captive and rose again the third day By which we see that the taking of captivity captive was one of the effects of his descent into Hell and that both his descent and victory over Hell and Satan are placed between his burial and Resurrection In the Homiliâ—s which Leo the Emperour made for the exercise of his style and the Confession of his Faith wherein no doubt he had the judgement and advice of the ablest men that were about him he doth thus deliver it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Christ is risen saith he bringing Hades or the Devil prisoner with him and proclaiming liberty to the Captives He that held others bound is now bound himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is now come from Hell or Hades with his ensign of triumph as appeareth by the sowre and heavy looks of those which were overthrown that is to say of Hades meaning there as first the old Satan himself together with Death also and the hateful Devils Dorotheus in his Book de Paschate very plainly thus What means this that he led captivity captive It means saith he that by Adams transgression the Enemy had made us all captives and had us in subjection and that Christ took us again out of the Enemies hand and conquered him who made us captive And then concludes Erepti igitur sumus ab Inferis ob Christi humanitatem that we were then delivered from the power of Hell by the manhood or humanity of Christ our Saviour St. Cyprian though more antient and not so clear as he in this particular doth yet touch it thus Descendens ad inferos captivam ab antiquo duxit captivitatem that Christ descended into Hell brought back those captives which had before been captivated And in another place which we saw before When in the presence of Christ Hell was broken open and thereby captivity made captive his conquering soul being first presented to his Father returned unto his body without delay But to look back again to the old Greek Fathers who are far more positive and express in this then the Latines are we are thus told by Athanasius in another place that the Lord rose the third day from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having spoyled hell trodden the enemy under foot dissolved death broken the chains of sin with which we were tyed and freed us which were bound from the chains thereof St. Cyril of Alexandria thus Our Lord saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. having spoyled death and loosed the number of souls which were detained in the dens of the earth rose again the third day from the dead Which words of Cyril are repeated and approved in the Councel of Ephesus and afterwards confirmed in the fifth General Councel holden at Constantinople St. Hierom finally on the parable of the strong man which was bound and spoiled Mat. 12. gives this observation which I had almost pretermitted viz. that this strong man was tyed and bound in Hell and trodden under the Lords feet and the Tyrants house being spoyled captivity also was led captive In which quotations from the Fathers we must take this with us that when they speaking of spoyling Hell and vanquishing the powers thereof they do allude as evidently to the spoyling of principalities and powers mentioned in that to the Colossians as they insist upon the taking of captivity captive expressed in that to the Ephesians In a word take the sum of all which by the Antients is delivered upon those two Texts in these words of Zanchius a very learned Writer of the Reformed Churches The Fathers saith he for the most part are of this opinion that Christ in his soul came to the place of the damned to signifie not in words but with his presence that the justice of God was satisfied by his death and bloudshed and that Satan had no longer power over his Elect whom he held captive c. As also that he might carry all the Devils with him in a triumph as it is Coloss. 2. He spoyled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them leading them as captives in a triumph by the vertue of his Cross by which he had purged away sins and appeased the justice of God So Zanchius But the most clear and pregnant place of holy Scripture for proof of Christâ— descent into Hell is that of the 2. of the Acts where the Apostle citing those words of David Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine holy One to see corruption applyeth it thus unto our Saviour that David seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hell neither did his flesh see corruption In which particular words those before recited it is clear and manifest that the soul and body of Christ were by God appointed to be superiour to all contrary powers that is the soul to Hell and the flesh to the grave and that from both Christ was to rise an absolute conquerour that he might sit on his heavenly Throne as Lord over all not by promise only as before but in fact and proof But for the whole Sermon of St. Peter made on this occasion it may be summed up briefly to this effect that is to say that the Prophesie of David neither was nor could be fulfilled in any no not in David himself but only in the promised Messiah for that his soul should not be left in Hell or Hades nor his flesh see corruption but was fulfilled in that Christ whom ye cruelly crucified He it is that is risen Lord of all in his own person the sorrows of death being loosed before him he is ascended up to Heaven as David likewise foretold of him and there sitteth on the right hand of God untill all that be his enemies in the rest of his Members be made his foot-stool and thence hath he shed forth this which you now see and hear even the promise of the holy Ghost received of the Father for all his And therefore know ye for a surety that God hath made him both Lord and Christ i. e. Lord over all in Heaven Earth Hell and Christ even the Anointed Saviour of all his Elect. And to this purpose saith St. Augustine Quamobrem teneamus firmissime c. Wherefore let us most firmly hold that which is comprehended in our Faith or the heads thereof confirmed by most sound authority namely that Christ dyed according to the Scriptures and was buried and according to the Scriptures also rose again the third day with the rest of those things which are most clearly testified of him in the written Word
after Easter which is the Anniversary feast of the Resurrection are those of the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour and the coming of the holy Ghost or the Feast of Whitsuntide Which method of the Church in these great solemnities seemes to be borrowed from the method of the Creed which we have before us wherein unto the Article of the Resurrection is presently subjoyned that he ascended into Heaven there sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and there shall tarry and abide untill he come to judge both the quick and the dead and after that the Article of the holy Ghost And there was good reason for this too For therefore did our blessed Saviour raise himself from the shame and obloquie of the grave that he might ascend in glory to the Heaven of Heavens that being gone from thence and ascended thither he might send them as he had foresignified another Comforter that should abide with them for ever And as it seems the Royal Psalmist the sweet singer of Israel fore-saw the neer conjunction of those two great Festivals the necessary dependance which the coming of the holy Ghost had on Christs Ascension Thou art gone up on high saith he thou hast led Captivity Captive and received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them So that the Text beginneth with the ascending of CHRIST and ends with the descending of the holy Ghost For if a man should ask as the Eunuch did of whom doth the Prophet speak this of himself or of some other man we must needs answer with St. Philip and say that it relateth unto Jesus Christ. That so it is we have St. Paul to be our warrant who thus cites the Text with reference unto Christ the Lord When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men He received gifts for men saith the Psalmist he gave gifts to men saith the Apostle He did reâ—eive them of his Father that he might give them unto us Well then what gifts are they that he tels us after And he gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers to the gathering together of the Saints to the work of the Ministration and to the edifying of the Body of Christ. These were the gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the holy Ghost first by his first descent or coming upon Whitsunday when he gave Apostles and Evangelists falling upon their heads in likeness of cloven tongues and ever since by furnishing the Pastors and Teachers of it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are expedient for their Calling And this is evident enough from the Psalmists words where it is said that He received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Which cannot be applyed unto Christ himself for then it must not have been said that he had ascended up on high and was parted from us but that he tarried here below to be always with us Therefore God here must needs he God the holy Ghost who came not down till after Christ was gone up and then came down noâ— only to remain among us but to be in us saith our Saviour and to abide with us for ever So that this Text containing as you see it doth the substance and occasion of these two great Festivals we will begin first with the holy Thursday part thereof which is Christs Ascension according as the method of the Creed doth lead me Where by the way the Feast of holy Thursday of the Lords Ascension is of as great Antiquity as eminencie in the Christian Church it being reckoned by St. Augustine amongst those feasts and there were but four of them in all which had been generally received in all ages past and thought to be of Apostolical Institution Now for this great act of the Ascension St. Mark delivereth it in brief that When he had spoken unto them he was received into heaven and sate him down on the right hand of God St. Luke a little more fully in his Gospel thus that he led them out into Bethany and blessed them and it came to pass that as he blessed them he departed from them and was carryed up into Heaven But in the Acts the story is laid down at large and with more particulars There we are told that from the time of his Resurrection he continued forty days upon the earth appearing many times in that space or Interim unto his Apostles and speaking to them of the Kingdome of God that on the fortieth day he led them to a Mount which is called Olivet being from Hierusalem a Sabbath days journey which some conceive to be a mile or but two at most that being there and speaking unto his Apostles about the Kingdome of Israel while they beheld he was taken up on high and a Cloud received him out of their sight And finally that as they followed him with their eyes towards Heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same IESVS which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come even as ye see him go into Heaven This is the substance of the story in which we have some passages to be further looked on and others to be reconciled with the Creed from which they seem in words to differ For first whereas it is said that he appeared unto them forty days which is not to be so interpreted as if he shewed himself unto them every one of those days but that in the said forty days from his Resurrection frequenter se eis viÌ„dâ—â—dum exhibuerat he had offered himself to them oftentimes to be by them and to discourse with them of the things of the Kingdom of God In the next place St. Luke who tels us in the Acts that our Saviour made his ascent from the Mount of Olives informs us in the Gospel that it was at Bethany Which difference is easie to be reconciled would there were no worse For Bethanie was a village neer unto Hierusalem about fifteen furlongs from it as the Text instructs us and seated at the foot of the Mount called Oâ—ivet In which respect it is called Bethanie at the Mount of Olives Mark 1.1 So that whether Mount Olivet was esteemed to be within the limits and precincts of the Village of Bethanie or Bethanie was reckoned for the lower part of the Mount of Olives it comes all to one But the main point to be considered is the seeming difference which is between the words of the Creed and the words of the Gospel Ascendit ad Coelum saith the Creed he ascended into Heaven 't is his own act here Assumptus est in Coelum saith St. Mark ferebatur in Coelum saith St. Lukes Gospels elevatus est saith the Book of the Acts he was carryed up into
But presently comes Abraham fals upon the Victors takes the five Kings and with them Lot also Prisoner by means whereof both Lot and they became Abrahams captives to be disposed of as he pleased who had got the mastery So was it with the sons of men till they were rescued from the Devill by this son of Abraham We were the miserable children of this captivitie They to whom we were captives were taken captive themselves and we with them So both came into Christs hands were both made his Prisoners and both accordingly led in triumph on this glorious day Both indeed led in triumph but with this great difference Their being led in triumph was to their confusion they were condemned also as we saw before to perpetuall prisons there to expect the torments of the day of judgment We by this new captivity were released of our old restored unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God And this was felix captivitas capi in bonum a fortunate Captivity that fell out so happily And yet it did not end so neither as if the giving of us our lost liberty had been all intended though we perhaps had been contented well enough had it been no more One part of this great triumph doth remaine behind the dona dedit of the Psalmist the scattering of his gifts and Largesse amongst his people Missilia the old Romans called them to make his conquest the more acceptable to all sorts of men And this he could not do untill his Ascension till he had took possession of the heavenly palaces Every good and perfect gift coming from above as St. Iames hath told us I speak not of those gifts here which concern the Church the body collective of the Saints the whole Congregation The giving of those gifts was the work of Whitsuntide when the Apostles received gifts for the publick Ministery and for the benefit of the Church in all times succeeding I speak of such gifts only now as concerne particulars which he conferreth upon us with a liberal hand according to our wants and his own good pleasure Are we in danger of our enemies By being ascended into heaven he is the better able to deliver us from them for standing on the higher ground he hath got the vantage from whence he can rain down fire and brimstone on them if he thinke it necessary Ascensor Coeli auxiliatur He that rid upon the Cloudes to Heaven is our helpe and refuge saith Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy Are we in want of necessaries to sustain our lives He shall send down a gracious rain upon his inheritance the former and the latter rain as the Prophet cals it Are we unfurnished of such graces as are fit for our Christian calling Out of the fulnesse of his treasure shall we all receive and that too grace for grace saith the great Evangelist that is to say not all of us one and the same grace but diversi diversam to every man his severall and particular grace as Maldonate and I thinke very happily doth expound the Text. For unto one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome and to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit To another working of miracles to another prophecie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues To one a supereminâ—nt faith to another an abundant charity to every man some gift or other the better to prepare him for his way to Heaven and make him the more welcome at his coming thither And this indeed is the main gift we are to look for the greatest benefit we can receive by Christs ascensun All other gifts are but in order unto this to provide heaven for us In that he is ascended into heaven in our humane nature he lets us know that heaven is to be ascended and that our nature is made capable of the like ascension if we have ascensiones in corde first and ascend up to him in our hearts by saith and piety Nay therefore did our Saviour ascend into heaven that he might shew us the way thither bespeak our entertainment for us and prepare our lodging I go saith he to prepare a place for you Ioh. 14.3 And so perhaps he might doe and we never the better he might prepare the place and we not come at it He tels them therefore in plain termes If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This is indeed the greatest fruit and benefit which redounds to us by Christs Ascendit in altum by his ascending up on high He overcame the sharpnesse of death by his resurrection by his ascension he set open the Kingdome of heaven unto all believers that where he is we may be also Such other of the fruits and effects hereof as be in ordine to this will fall more fitly under the consideration of the next branch of this Article his sitting at the right hand of God the Father and till then we leave them In the mean time it will be fitting for us to take up that Psalme of David and sing Non nobis Domine non nobis that this great work was not wrought for our sakes alone There is a Nomini tuo da gloriam to be looked on too somewhat which Christ acquired thereby unto himselfe that must be considered He was made lower then the Angels in his humane nature not to be crowned with immortality and glory till in his humane nature he ascended into heaven All power had formerly been given him both in heaven and earth He had a jus ad rem then when he sojourned here The exercise of this authority or the jus in re at least the perfect manifestation of it in the eyes of men was not till he had took possession of the heavens themselves the Palace royal of his kingdome Iesus he was a Saviour from his very birth acknowledged by St. Peter for the Christ of God and in his mouth by all the rest of the Apostles Yet finde we not that they looked otherwise on him then as some great Prophet or at the most a Prince in posse if all things went well with him They never took him for their God and Lord though many times they did for their Lord and master nor did they worship and adore him untill his ascension Then the text saith indeed they did it but before that never And it came to passe saith St. Luke that while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to Hierusalem with great joy The Papists make a great dispute about this question An Christus sibi aliquid meruerit i. e. Whether Christ merited any thing for himself or for mankinde only In the true meaning of the word and not as they mean merited it is plain he did For properly
mereri is no more then consequi to obtain or procure and in that sense the word is generally used in antient writers of which we may see more hereafter in a place more proper Take this of Tacitus once for all where speaking of Agricola he gives this Item Illis virtutibus iram C. Caesaris meritus est that by those vertues he procured the displeasure of Caius Caesar. That Christ did merit for himself in this sense of the word I take to be a matter beyond all controversie For first he merited or procured to be adored by his Apostles with religious worship the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Original which he never could procure at their hands before Maldonates note upon this Text and the reasons of it are in my minde exceeding apposite but then his inference thereupon is like mors in olla an herbe that poysoneth the whole pottage His note is this Non legimus nisi hoc loco Christum a discipulis suis adoâ—atum we do not read saith he but in this place only that Christ was worshipped or adored by his Disciples His reason of it is this because whilest he conversed amongst them they looked upon him only in his humane nature as one made of the same mould that themselves were of Nunc demum adorant cum in calum eum ferri vident c. But when they saw him taken up into heaven they could not but acknowledge that he was a God also and therefore was to be adored which they did accordingly So far the Iesuite hath done well none could do it better His inference is if I rightly understand his meaning that the Eucharist is to be adored though they of Rome are for so doing quarrelled by the modern Hereticks Assuredly were Transubstantiation an Article of the Christian faith as that of Christs ascension is well known to be or could I see Christ in the the Eucharist with my bodily eyes as the Apostles saw him when he went up into heaven none should be forwarder then my selfe to adore the Eucharist But our great Masters in that Church do affirme unanimously that there is nothing to be seen but the outward elements the accidents of bread and wine as they please to phrase it And Suares one of the greatest of their Clerks doth affirme in Terminis Hoe tantum pendet ex principiis Metaphysicis Philosophicis ad fidei doctrinam non pertinet that Transubstantiation doth depend only on Metaphysical and Philosophical principles and is not de fide or a matter of faith Nay in the Church of Rome it self neither the Pastors nor the people were bound to believe it till Innocent the third defined it in the Lateran Councell about 400 years agoe upon whose definition it doth wholly rest as many of their Schoolmen cannot chuse but grant it being free till that time saith the learned Tunstal once Ld. B. of Durram to follow their own conjecture concerning the manner of the presence How all this doctrine doth agree with the Lords ascension and how one overthrowes and destroyeth the other we shall more fully see in the close of this Chapter Now therefore leaving these disputes let us follow Christ in his Ascension and see what he did further merit or procure for himself thereby That he obtained to be adored by his Disciples we have seen already the next point that he gained was this to be acknowledged by his followers for their Lord and King So witnesseth St. Peter in his first Sermon saying Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both LORD AND CHRIST Made him both Lord and Christ but when After his ascension after he had exalted him and placed him at his own right hand as the foregoing verses ballanced and compared together do most clearly evidence What then was he not Lord and Christ before No not in fact but only in the way of designation as first begotten Son of God and his heir apparent Him he made heir of all things from the first beginnings but being as he was in the forme of a servant he was to do his Fathers businesse and attend his leasure Who having raised him from the dead exalted him but not before with his own right hand to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgivenesse of sins Shall we have more then to the Apostle of the Iews add we him of the Gentiles and he will tell us more at large how first God raised him from the dead then set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come lastly that having so exalted him he did put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body Now as he gained this power and Empire from the hands of God so he obtained or merited obedience at the hands of men the reverence of the knee in their adoration the tribute of the tongue in their acclamations Christ saith the same Apostle humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Which being suffered and subdued God also highly hath exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And that every tongue should confesse that IESVS CHRIST is the Lord to the glory of God the Father But here I must be understood of speaking all this while of the man CHRIST IESVS as he appeared in our likenesse and was found in the fashion of us men in which nature as he only suffered and humbled himself unto the death even the death of the Crosse for the remission of our sins so in that nature only was he capable of an Exaltation of being raised from the dead and caried up into heaven and placed there at the right hand of the Father almighty Which sitting at the right hand of the Father Almighty though it be another of those high preheminences which Christ did merit for himself in his humane nature yet being he was not actually possessed of it untill his ascension shall be considered by it self in the following Chapter which is designed particularly to that branch of the Article In the mean time to shew that all the steps of Christs exaltation are spoken and intended of his humane nature whereof we shall speak more anon on the like occasion take this of Ruffine as a taste of what others say as well concerning this point of the Lords ascension into heaven as that of sitting there at the right hand of God both which he understandeth as the antients did of the manhood only Neque enim ulli
yet take him in perfecta gloriae suae exhibitione in the full and perfect manifestation of of his glorious Majesty and then he may be said most truly to have his habitation in the Heaven of Heavens For thus the Prophet Moses in the Book of Deuteronomie Looke down from Heaven thy holy habitation 26.15 Thus David in the Psalms The Lords seat is on high from the place of his dwelling he beholdeth all things Psal. 112. Thus Solomon the Son of David Hear thou from Heaven thy dwelling place 1 King chap. 8. Finally thus the Prophet Isaiah Look down from Heaven the habitation of thine happiness and of thy glory Chap. 63. He is no Christian I dare say who will stick at this And this bâ—ing granted I consider that in a place of such immensitie as the Heaven of Heavens in a large house wherein there are so many Mansions as our Saviour telleth us the Lord hath chosen one place above all the rest in which to fix his Throne and advance his Scepter and shew himself in all the Majesty of his Glory to the Saints and Angels For as the Lord was present in all parts of the Temple but most effectually in the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Ark was kept and into which none entred but the High Priest only was thought fit to enter so though his dwelling be in Heaven in all parts thereof all which may properly be called his Court or Imperial Palace yet hath he placed his Throne in that part of Heaven which the Apostle by allusion calleth the Holy of Holies where the Ark of his incomprehensible Majesty is most conspicuous to be seen and into which none but our High Priest IESVS CHRIST was permitted to enter Of all the Apostles only two were so highly favoured as to be carried in the Spirit into Heaven above where they not only heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are impossible for a man to utter though he could speak with all the tongues both of men and Angels but saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the invisible things of God which never mortal man had beheld before and both of them describe God sitting on a Throne St. Iohn most copiously thus Immediately saith he I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne Ver. 2. About the Throne were four and twenty seats for the four and twenty Elders vers 4. and out of it proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voyces vers 5. And when the time came and the Q. was given the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the Throne and worshipped and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive glory and honour and power because thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure sake they are and were created vers 10 11. more to this purpose doth occur in the following Chapter And last of all I do consider that though the Throne Imperial of Almighty God hath neither a right side or a left as indeed it hath not yet seeing that our Saviour is ascended in his natural body and hath his left hand and his right hand like to other bodies it will be logically inferred that our Redeemer sitting by the Throne of God with his left hand next unto the Throne in true propriety of speech without Trope or figure may be said to sit at the right hand of God or on the right hand of the Throne of God which comes all to one St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heaven and had a glimpse at least if not a full and perfect sight of the heavenly glories hath it so expressely where he affirms that our Redeemer the Author and finisher of our faith having endured the Cross and despised the shame is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn intimates as much when he tels us as it were from the mouth of Christ in these very words To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and have sitten with my Father in his Throne Where plainly Christ our Saviour sitting in the same Throne wiâ—h Almighty God as St. Iohn expressely saith he doth may properly be said to sit at the right hand of God in regard that the left hand of his natural body was in site nearest to the splendour of his heavenly Majesty for otherwise God must be said to sit on the right hand of Christ. The like may be affirmed of St. Stephen also where it is said that being full of the holy Ghost that is to say transported from himself by the holy Spirit he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God In which we have the glory of God conspicuoâ—sly manifested in his Royal Throne and Iesus standing at the right hand of the Throne or at the right hand of God take which phrase you will and standing either as an Advocate to plead for his afflicted servants or as a suiter in behalf of the Proto-martyr or as General in chief ready to march against the enemies of his best beloved So far we may consider of the literal sense of this branch of the Article without any derogation â—rom the Majesty of God the Father and much unto the honour of our Lord and Saviour and without any prejudice unto faith and piety And in such Cases as I take it the best way is to stand to this good old Rule that where the literal sense of holy Scripture doth hold an analogy and correspondence with the Rule of Faith it is to be preferred before any other But whether this be so or not for I propose it only as a consideration I have delivered freely my opinion in it and have delivered it no otherwise then as my opinion to which I never was so wedded but that a clearer judgement might at any time divorce me from it My opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As mine I have no reason to impose them upon other men or seek to captivate their understanding and make it subject to my sense And as opinions I am not bound to adhere to them my self but lawfully may change and vary according to that light and evidence of holy truth which either shall or may be given unto me In matters doctrinal concluded and delivered by the Church my Mother I willingly submit my self unto her Decisions Where I am left at large to my own election I shall as willingly take leave to dissent from others as others I am sure will take and on Gods name let them to dissent from me This was the amicable temper of the Fathers in the Primitive times which more preserved the Church both in peace and unity then all the Canons of Councils and Edicts of Princes to that purpose were of
under him saith the Apostle Nor must we understand it so as it Christ delivering up the Kingdome had no more to doe but was reduced to the condition of a private Saint that were injurious to the dignity of our Lord CHRIST IESVS Nec sic arbitremur eum traâ—iturum Deo Patri ut adimat sibi as St. Austin hath it we must not think saith he that he will so deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father as to devest himself of all Power Majesty Not so His meaning is but this at most taking the word Kingdome in the usual and accustomed sense that the form of governing this Kingdome shall then be altered Sâ—n Hell and Death being all subdued as in himself before so in all his Members and Heaven replenished with those Saints for whose sakes principally he received the Kingdome And though this Exposition be both safe and general yet I conceive it may admit another sense and such as do most happily avoid those difficulties which otherwise it may seem to be subject to What then if we should say that by Regnum here we are so understand only filios Regni if by the word Kingdome in this place St. Paul meaneth those who are called the Children of the Kingdome in another place and that by the delivering up of the Kingdome unto God the Father we are to understand no more then the presenting of his children Behold I and the children whom thou hast given me to the fight of God to be received into his glories and crowned by him with immortality Assuredly if I should both say it and stand to it too I should not think the Exposition either forced nor new Not forced for Metonymies of this kinde in the Book of God and in all Classick Authors too are exceeding obvious For Classick Authors first to name two or three we have in Tacitus Matrimonium Principale pessimum principalis Matrimonii instrumentum for the Princes wife And in the Poet Coelum Heaven for Coelites the heavenly Citizens as Coelo gratissimus amnis a River very acceptable unto those in heaven O Coelo dilecta domus an house beloved of the Gods in another Poet. Thus also in the holy Scripture Regale Presbyterium a Royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. vers 8. is put for a society of Royal Priests Regnum which is the word here used is in our English rendred Kings Fecit nos Regnum sacerdotes saith the Vulgar Latine He hath made us Kings and Priests saith our Translation Apoc. 1. vers 6. And more then so in the 13. of St. Matthewes Gospel the word Regnum is directly used by Christ our Saviour pro filiis Regni the Kingdome for the sons of the Kingdome The Kingdome of Heaven saith he is like a Merchant man i. e. the children of the Kingdome of Heaven are like to Merchant men seeking godly pearls vers 24. Use but the word so here as in that of St. Matthew and the delivery of the Kingdome unto God the Father will signifie no more then the presenting of the Saints as before I said or tendring Gods adopted Sonnes which are the children of the great King and the Kingdome too to their heavenly Father This shews the Exposition is not forced we are sure of that And we have hopes to prove that it is not new being I think as old as St. Augustines time For asking this question of himself What is the meaning of this Text Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father He makes this answer Quia justos omnes in quibus nunc regnat c. The meaning is that he shall bring the righteous persons in whom he reigns as Mediator between God and man unto the blessed Vision of Almighty God that they may see him face to face And in another place to the same effect It is as much as if he should have said in other words Cum perduxerit credentes ad contemplationem Dei Patris Then shall he bring the faithfull to behold the face of God the Father Which Faithfull or the body of his holy ones he cals plainly in another place by the name of Regnum the word here used by the Apostle affirming of the Saints of God eos ita esse in Regno ejus ut ipsi etiam sint Regnum ejus They are saith he estated in the Kingdome of God but so as to be his Kingdome also But this discourse is out of season though not out of the way For though our Saviour shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father in what sense soever we understand it yet shall not this be done till after the day of general Judgement till he hath judged the quick and dead and given to every one according to his works Which is the last act of his Regal Office and the subject of the following Article ARTICLE VIII Of the Eighth ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed unto St. MATTHEW 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Inde venturus judicare vivos mortous i. e. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to Iudgement both of quick and dead The souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgment and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action WE are now come unto the last and greatest act of the Regal Office the supreme power of Iudicature and to the best part also of the Royall power potestas vitae mortis the power of life and death as the Lawyers call it All other acts of the Kingly function he executeth sitting at the right hand of God in the Heavenly places But when he cometh to judge both the quick and the dead his Judgement-seat shall be erected in some visible place though still at the right hand of Almighty God where both the wicked shall behold him to their finall confusion and his obedient Servants finde accesse unto him to their endlesse comforts And this is also the last and highest degree of his exaltation the last in order but the highest in esteem and honour The first step or degree of his exaltation was his descent into hell to beat the Devill at his own home in his strongest fortresse and take possession of that part of his Kingdome Devils as well as Men and Angels things under the earth as well as on the earth and above the heavens being to bow the knee before him and be subject to him This was done only in the fight of the Devils and the infernal fiends of hell but in the next which was his resurrection he had both men and Angels to bear witnesse to it and some raised purposely from the dead to attend him in it The third degree or step for he still went higher was his ascending into heaven performed openly in the sight of the people and so performed that it excelled all the triumphs which were gone
for ostentation of our Savious power in regard that every man receives his judgement either life or death as soon as he is freed from his earthly tabernacle For which there is sufficient proof in the book of God This day said Christ our Saviour to the penitent theef shalt thou be with me in paradise As plain is that of the Apostle It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgement The same we finde exemplifyed in the rich man and Lazarus the soul of the one as soon as dead being carried into Abrahams bosome the other being plunged in unquenchable flames If so as so it is most certain what use can be conceived of a general judgement when all particular persons have already received their sentence what further punishments or glory can be added to them then Paradise to Gods Saints and servants and the unquenchable flames of hell for impenitent sinners Which difficulty though removed in some part before as to the vindicating of the justice of Almighty God and the participation of the body in that blisse or misery which the soul presently is adjudged to on the separation and finally the manifesting of Christs power and glory in the sight of his enemies shall now be also cleared as to that part thereof which seems to place the soul in the height of happinesse as soon as separate from the body or in the depth of anguish and disconsolation And first that the souls of just and righteous persons are in the hands of God in Paradise in Abrahams bosome yea in the very heavens themselves I shall easily grant But that they are in the same place or in the same estate and degree of glory to which they shall be preferred by Christ in the day of judgement I neither have seen text nor reason which could yet perswade me Certain I am the Scripture seems to me to be quite against it the current of antiquity and not a few Moderns of good note and eminencie to incline very strongly to the other side For Scriptures first St. Paul doth speak indeed of a Crown of righteousnesse to be given to him and to all those that love the appearing of Christ but not to be given them till that day i. e. the day of his appearing St. Peter next informeth of an incorruptible inheritance reserved for us in the heavens and more then so prepared already but not to be shewed till the last time In the last place we have St. Iohn acquainting us with the condition of the Saints as in matter of fact where he telleth us that the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar where they were willed to rest themselves till the number of their fellow servants was accomplished And though we grant the souls of righteous men departed are in heaven it self yet doth it not follow by any good consequence that therefore they are in the highest Heaven where God himselfe refideth in most perfect majesty The name of Heaven is variously used in holy Scriptures First for the Aire as where we finde mention of the birds of heaven Mat. 26. and the cloudes of heaven Mark 14. Next for the Firmament above in which the Lord hath placed those most glorious lights which frequently are called the Stars of heaven as Gen. 20. Then for that place which St. Paul calleth in one text by the name of the third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 and in another place shortly after by the name of Paradise vers 4. which is conceived to be the habitations of the Angels their proper habitation as St. Iude calleth it vers 6. Into this place the soul of Lazarus was carried as to Abrahams bosom to this our Saviour promised to bring the soul of the penitent theef Hitherto Enoch and Eliah were translated by God and St. Paul taken up in an heavenly rapture And to this place or to some one or many of those heavenly mansion for in my Fathers house there are many mansions said our Lord and Saviour the souls of righteous men are carryed on the wings of Angels there to abide till they are called upon to meet their bodies in day of day of judgement And last of all it â—ignifyeth the highest heaven to which Christ our Saviour is ascended and sitteth at the right hand of God in most perfect glory Of which St. Paul telleth us that he was made higher then the heavens Heb. 7. and that he did ascend above all the heavens Ephes. 4. This is the seate or Palace of Almighty God called as by way of excellency the heaven of heavens where his divine glory and majesty is most plainly manifested and therefore called by the Prophet the habitation of his holinesse and of his glory So then the souls of righteous men deceased may be in Paradise in the third heaven in Abrahams bosome and yet not be admitted to the highest heaven wherein God reigns in perfect glory till Christ shall come again to judgment and take them for ever to himself into possession and participation of his heavenly Kingdome That in this sense the Fathers understand the Scriptures which mention the estate of the Saints departed will best be seen by looking over their own words according as they lived in the severall Churches First for the Eastern Cherches Iustin Marter telleth us that the the souls of the righteous are carryed to Paradise where they enjoy the company of Angels Archangels and the vision of Christ our Saviour and are kept in places fit for them till the day of the resurrection and compensation Next Origen The Saints saith he departing hence do not presently obtain the full reward of their labours but they expect us though staying and slacking For they have not perfect joy so long as they grieve at our Errours and lament our sins Then Chrysostome more then once or twice Though the soul were a thousand times immortall as it is yet shall she not enjoy those admirable good things without the body And if the body rise not again the soul remaineth uncrowned without heavenly blisse Theodoret lived in the same times and was of the same opinion also saying The Saints have not yet received their Crowns for the God of all expecteth the conflict of others that the race being ended he may at once pronounce all that overcome to be Conquerers and reward them together Finally not to look so low as Oecumenius and Theophylact who say almost as much as Theoderet did we have at once the judgement of many of the Fathers delivered by Andreas Caesariensis in a very few words It is saith he the judgement of many godly Fathers that every good man after this life hath a place fit for him by which he may conjecture at the glory which is prepared Look we now on the Western Churches and first we have Irenaeus B. of Lyons in France affirming positively thus Manifestum est c. It is manifest that the souls
like this of Camerarius we finde in Espencaeus also in his Comment on the 3. Chap. of the 2. of Tim. touching the Hutites a by-branch of the sect of Anabaptists Of the next sort Alstedius a late famous writer and Professor of Herborn in high Germanie hath presumed so far as to define the year of Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead which after his accompt shall be in the year of CHRIST 3694. The best is he takes time enough not to be disproved For being of opinion as t is plain he is that there shall be a corporall resurrection of the Saints and Martyrs at least a thousand years before the generall resurrection of all flesh during which time they shall enjoy all possible felicity that the world can give and fixing the beginning of those thousand years in Ann. 2694. it must needs follow thereupon that the day of the generall resurrection and of Christs coming to judgement must be in the year 3694. as before was said But before him Napeir a Scot one of the Ancestors of the now right noble Lord of Marchiston adventured on the like attempt although he differed very much in his computation For publishing a Commentary on the Revelation Ann. 159â— he will defer the end of the world no longer then to ninety two years after that publication which fals into the year 1685. Which though it comes two thousand years before that of Alsted yet was it put off long enough to save his credit the good man being like to die long before that time Whereupon one of our own Countrymen wrote this following Epigram Nonaginta duos durabit mundus in Annos Mundus ad arbitrium si stat obitque tuum Cur mundi finem propiorem non facis ut ne Ante obitum mendax arguerere Sapis Which I finde thus Englished to my hand Ninety two years the World as yet shall stand If it do stand or fall by your command But say why plac'd you not the worlds end nigher Lest ere you dyed you might be found a lyer Add unto this a pleasant jest which King Iames put upon the Author of the book aforesaid for such adventurers cannot be too much exposed to the publick scorne and in brief is this The Gentleman holding lands of the Crown of Scotland petitioned the King to have a longer terme granted in his estate The King demanded of him how long time he desired to have added to it To which when he had answered five hundred years God a my soul replyed the King that is four hundred years more then the world shall last and I conceive you do not mean to hold my Land in the world to come And so dismissed him for that time although he after gratifyed him in his request having thus made him sensible of his own absurdities But leaving these Knights errant to seek new adventures we will next look unto the place appointed for this general Sessions in which we have some light of Scripture and probabilities of reason to direct our search This by some very learned men is supposed to be in the Aire over the valley of Iehosaphat which is near mount Olivet and both of them Eastward of Hierusalem And this they do upon these grounds For first they say the holy Scriptures seem to say it in as plain words as may be For thus saith God the Lord Jehovah I will gather all nations into the valley of Jehosaphat and plead with them there Cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord Let the heathen be wakened and come upon the valley of Jehosaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about Besides the name of Iehosaphat doth signifie as much as The Lord will judge And in this valley did God give Iehosaphat a signall victory over the Ammonites Moabites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir which was a type or figure of that finall victory which Christ the supreme Iudge shall give his Elect overall their enemies in the last day and in that very place as the Iewish Doctors do expound it That of the Prophet Zechariah And his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives which is before Hierusalem to the East c. though formerly applyed by us unto Christs Ascension may be accommodated also to his coming to judge the world The rather in regard it was said by the holy Angel unto his Disciples This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven being then upon the mount of Olives shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go hence Which possibly may as wel be meant of the place as of other the circumstances of his coming and therefore by Aquinas and all the rest of the old Schoolmen except Lombard and Alexander of Hales is made to be the second reason which they build upon for nominating this valley or rather some place over it in the Ayr to be the place appointed for the future judgement The third reason they take from a passage in the Prophet Ezekiel compared with Christs own words in his holy Gospel The Prophet tels us of Hierusalem that it is placed in medio Gentium in the very midst of the world and so accordingly it is seated by some Cosmographers And Christ hath told us of the Angels that they shall gather together the Elect from the four windes from one end of Heaven unto the other If then the Termini a quibus be the four parts of the world and Hierusalem be seated in the midst of the earth as they say it is the terminus ad quem must be Hierusalem or some place neer it and such is this Valley of Iehosophat or else some Angels must be thought to be of a more quick dispatch then others which were ridiculous to imagine But that which is of greatest moment is that our Lord and Saviour for ever blessed was crucified and put to open shame very neer that place Mount Calvary and the Valley of Iehosaphat being not far asunder if not close together and conterminous And what can be more probable for they propose not these proofs for Demonstrations then that where Christ was put unto publick shame he should again receive a more publick honour and that where he himself was condemned and punished with so much malice and injustice he should appear to judge the world with such truth and equity These are the reasons brought to make good this Tenet which as I cannot easily grant to be convincing so I am far from saying any thing in reproof of that which hath such handsome probabilities to gain credit to it And now I am fallen upon these points I will adventure on another though more nice then necessary At least it may be so accounted and I pass not for it Quilibet abundet in suo sensu Let every man injoy that liberty I mean in matters of this nature which I take my self We said
that Hierusalem was seated in the midst of the earth and thereupon is called by some Geographers Vmbilicus terrae and that aswell Mount Olivet as the Valley of Iehosaphat did both stand Eastward of that City From hence it is by some inferred and their illation backed by no mean authority that Christ our Saviour did ascend up into the East part of Heaven I mean that part of Heaven which answereth to the Equinoctial East upon the Earth that in that part of Heaven he sitteth at the right hand of the Throne of Almighty God and from the same shall also come in the day of Judgement The use that may be made out of this illation shall be interwoven in the file of this discourse and altogether left unto the judgement of the Christian Reader That he ascended up into the Eastern part of Heaven hath been a thing affirmed by many of the Antients and by several Churches not without some fair hints from the Scripture also Sing unto God ye Kingdomes of the earth c. saith the Royal Psalmist To him that rideth on the Heavens as it were upon an horse said our old Translation to him that rideth on the Heaven of Heavens from the beginning as our new would have it But in the Arabick it runs thus Sing unto the Lord that rideth on the Heaven of Heavens in the Eastern part And so the Septuagint that rideth on the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards the East This Origen who very well understood the Eastern languages applyeth to CHRIST utpote a mortuis post passionem resurgens in Coelum post Resurrectionem ad orientem ascendens i. e. who rose from the dead after his passion and ascended up into Heaven towards the East after his Resurrection And so the Aethiopick reads it also viz. Who ascended up into the Heaven of Heavens in the East Thus Damascen affirms expressely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when he was received into Heaven he was carryed up Eastward And unto this that of the Prophet Ezekiel may seem to allude where he saith that the glory of the God of Israel Remember who it is which is called in Scripture the Glory of his people Israel Luk. 2. passâ—d through the Eastern gate Therefore that gate was shut up and might not be opened but to the Prince That being thus ascended into Heaven above he sitteth in that part thereof at the right hand of God must needs be granted if God be most conspicuously seated in that part himself And to prove this we finde this in the Apostolical constitutions ascribed to Clemens take notice by the way of the Antiquity of the custom of turning towards the East in our publick prayers so generally received amongst us who describing the Order of Divine service then used in the Church concludes it thus Then rising up and turning towards the East Let them pray to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sitteth upon the Heaven of Heavens in the Eastern part To this agreeth that of the Prophet Baruch saying Look about thee O Hierusalem towards the East and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God Towards the East that is to say saith Olympiodorus an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards IESVS CHRIST our Lord the Sun of righteousness And this way also looketh that part of the old Tradition derived as Irenaeus telleth us who lived neer those times ab Apostolorum Discipulis from those which heard it of the Apostles that is to say that the receptacle of the just and perfect men is a certain Paradise in the Eastern part of the third Heaven An argument that the glory of God is most conspicuous in that part also of the Heaven of Heavens the proper mansion of the Highest as before was shewn Finally that from the Eastern part of Heaven he shall make his last and greatest appearance at this day of judgement although it followeth upon that which is said already hath much stronger evidence An Arabick Author writing on the duties of Christian Religion and particularly of that Prayer directeth us to turn our faces when we pray to the Eastern Coast because that is the Coast concerning which Christ said unto whom be glory that he would appear from thence at his second coming To the same purpose the Arabick Code hath a Canon saying When ye pray turn your selves towards the East For so the words of our Lord import who foretold that his return from Heaven at the later day should be like the Lightning which glittering from the East flasheth into the West His meaning is that we should expect his coming from the East Iohn Damascen to the same effect thus For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also shall be the coming of the Son of man in which regard we worship him towards the East as expecting him from thence And this saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an unwritten tradition delivered to us from the very Apostles Take for a close this of an old Confession of the Eastern Church viz. We pray towards the East for that our Lord Christ when he ascended into heaven went up that way and there sitteth in the heaven of Heavens above the East And in very deed we make no doubt but that our Lord the Christ as respecting his humane nature hath his seat in the Eastern part of the Heaven of Heavens and sitteth with his face turned towards this world To pray therefore or worship towards the East is to pray and worship towards our Saviour Nor is this only the Tradition of the Eastern and Southern Churches as by the fore-cited Authors it may seem to be We had it also in the West For Paulus de Palacios a Spanish writer makes it the general Tenet of all Christian people quod in Oriente humanitas Christi-sedeat that Christ in reference to his humane nature sitteth in the Eastern part of Heaven and that he is to come from thence where now he sitteth And in an old Festival in this Church of England the Priest used thus upon the Wake days or Feasts of Dedication to exhort the people viz. Let us think that Christ dyed in the Este and therefore let us pray besely into the Este that we may be of the number that he died for Also let us think that he shall come out of the Este unto the Doom Wherefore let us pray heartily to him and besely that we may have grace of contrition in our hearts of our misdeeds with shrift and satisfaction that we may stand that day on the right hand of our Lord IESV CHRIST And so much for this Eastern passage for which I am principally beholding to that learned peece of Mr. Gregory late of Christs Church in Oxon whom as I much esteemed when he was alive so have I made this free acknowledgement to the honour of his memory now
Of the Authority or Power of remitting sins we shall speak more appositely hereafter in the following Article At this time I shall onely speak of the Form of words which some of the pretenders unto Reformation in Queen Elizabeths time did very much except against affirming That to use the words of our Redeemer and not to give the gifts withal was nothing but a meer mockery of the Spirit of God and a ridiculous imitation of our Saviours actions But unto this it is replied by Judicious Hooker that not onely the ability of doing miracles speaking with tongues curing diseases and the like but the authority and power of ministering holy things in the Church of God is contained in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is the Author And therefore he which gives this power may say without folly or absurdity Receive the Holy Ghost meaning thereby such power as the Spirit of Christ hath pleased to endue his Church withal And herein he is seconded by that living Magazin of Learning Bishop Andrews who reckoneth the Apostleship or the very office to be a Grace one of the graces doubtless of the Holy Ghost such as St. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace we English it the gift of ministring unto the Saints 2 Cor. 8.4 For that the very Office it self is a grace St. Paul saith he avoweth in more places than one and in particular Mihi data est haec gratia according to the gift of the grace of God which is given unto me Ephes. 3.7 Where he speaks of his Office and of nothing else And such as this saith he was the grace here given of Spiritum called a Spiritual and of Sanctum an holy Calling from them derived unto us by us to be derived on others to the end of the World and that in the same form of words which our Saviour used For being the especial power which Christ at that time gave unto his Apostles consisted in remitting and retaining of sins and seeing that the same power is given by the Church of Christ why should not the same words be used as were used at first why may not the same words be used in conferring this grace of an holy calling whereby their persons are made publick and their acts authentical and they inabled to do somewhat about remitting of sins which is not of the like avail if done by others though perhaps more learned than they and more vertuous too but have not the like warrant nor the same accipite as is conferred in holy Orders Nor do I utterly deny but that together with the power the Holy Ghost doth give some fitness to perform the same though not in any answerable measure to the first times of the Church when extraordinary gifts were more necessary than in any time since For as the ointment which was poured upon Aarons head did first fall down upon his Beard and after on the skirts of his garments also So we may reasonably believe That the holy Spirit which descended on the head of Christ and afterwards on his Apostles as upon his beard hath kept some sprinklings also to bestow on us which are the lowest skirts of his sacred garments So far we may assuredly perswade our selves That the Spirit which calleth men to that holy Function doth go along with him that is called unto it for his assistance and support in whatsoever he shall faithfully do in discharge thereof and that our acts are so far his as that Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn or give Absolution or in a word whatsoever we do as the Despensers of Gods Mysteries our Words Acts Judgements are not ours but the Holy Ghosts For this I have the testimony of Pope Leo the first a Learned and Religious Prelate of the Primitive times Qui mihi oneris est Autor ipse administrationis est adjutor Ne magnitudine gratiae there gratiae is used for the office or calling as before St. Paul succumbat infirmus dabit virtutem qui contulit dignitatem Which is in brief He that hath laid the burden on us will give strength to bear it But behold a greater than Pope Leo is here Behold saith Christ to his Apostles I am with you always to the end of the world that is to say Cum vobis successoribus vestris as Denys the Carthusian rightly with you and your Successors in the Work of the Ministry to guide them and assist them by his holy Spirit And when he said unto them upon other occasions He that heareth you heareth me and whatsoever ye binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven Did he not thereby promise so to own their actions that whatsoever they should say or do in order to the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church should be esteemed as his act his act by whose authority and power it is said or done But the assisting of the Church and Ministers thereof with his Power and Spirit is not the onely publick benefit though it be the greatest which it receiveth immediately from the Holy Ghost Without some certain standing Rule by which the Ministers of the Gospel were to frame their doctrine and the rest of the people guide their paths in the way of godliness both Priest and People would be apt to pretend new Lights and following such ignes fatui as they saw before them be drawn into destruction both of body and soul. And on the other side Tradition hath been always found to be so untrusty in the conveyance of Gods will and pleasure to the ears of his people that in small tract of time the Law of God became obliterated in the hearts of men the righteous Seed degenerating after carnal lusts and Abraham himself serving other gods for want of a more certain rule to direct their actions Therefore to take away all excuse from back-sliding men it pleased God first to commit his Law to writing the Two Tables onely and afterwards to inspire many holy Men with the Spirit of Wisdom Power and Knowledge to serve as Commentators on that sacred Text whose Prophecies Reproofs and Admonitions being put into their mouths by the Holy Ghost for Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as St. Peter hath it So by direction of the same Spirit were they put into writing Propter vivendi exemplum libros ad nostram etiam memoriam transmiserunt in the words of Ierom The Lord himself did on Mount Sinai give the Law the very Letter The Prophets and other holy Men of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially inspired to that end and purpose did compose the Comment By the same Spirit were the Evangelists and Apostles guided when they committed unto writing the most glorious Gospel and other the Records and Monuments of the Christian Faith The
Ecclesia malignantium as the Psalmist calls it Or if you will we may by these behold the Church in her chief ingredients which are the sanctimony of life and conversation it is an holy Church and the integrity of her doctrine free from all Heresie and Error in the title Catholick For the word Catholick is not onely used to signifie Universality of extent but purity of doctrine also The first in the natural the second in the borrowed sense of the word In the first sense the Church is called Catholick in respect of place Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and nation To which accordeth that of an Antient writer saying Ab ortu solis ad occasum lex Christiana suscepta est That the Gospel of Christ had been admitted from the rising of the Sun to the setting of it that is to say In all parts of the world And it is called Catholick too in respect of persons who are promiscuously and indefinitely called to the knowledge of Christ In whom there is neither Iew nor Gentile bond nor free male nor female but all called alike And so Lactantius telleth us also Universos homines sine discrimine sexus vel aetatis Minutius addes Aut dignitatis ad coeleste pabulum convocamus Lastly it hath the name of Catholick in respect of times as comprehending all the faithful since our Saviours days unto the age in which we live and to continue from henceforth to the end of the world Of which duration or extent of the Church of Christ the Angel Gabriel did fore-signifie to his Virgin-mother that he should reign in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there should be no end And in this sense it doth not onely include that part of the Church which is now Militant on the Earth but also that which is Triumphant in the Heaven of Glories Both they with us and we with them make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head and all together together with the Antient Patriarcks and other holy men of God which lived under the Law shall make up that one glorious Church which is entituled in the Scriptures The general Assembly the Church of the first-born whose names are written in the Heavens For the better clearing of which Vnion or Concorporation which is between these different Members of the Body Mystical the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Council added the word One unto the Article reading it thus And I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Catholick then the Church may be rightly called in regard to extent whether it do refer to time place or persons and it is called Catholick too in respect of Doctrine with reference to the same extensions that being the true Catholick Doctrine of the Church of Christ Quae semper quae ubique quae ab omnibus credita est which hath always and in every place been received as Orthodox and that too by all manner of men according to the Golden Rule of Lerinensis Catholick in this sense is the same with Orthodox a Catholick Christian just the same with a true Professor by which the Doctrine is distinguished from Heretical and the men from Hereticks Iustinian in the Code doth apply it so Omnes hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti That for the persons the Professors it followeth after for the Doctrine Is autem Nicenae adsertor fidei Catholicae Religionis verus cultor accipiendus est c. A National or Topical Church may be called Catholick in this sense and are often times entituled so in Ecclesiastical Authors For Constantine the Emperor writing to the Alexandrians superscribed his Letters in this form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. To the Catholick Church of Alexandria And Gregory Nazianzen being then Bishop of Constantinople calls himself in his last Will and Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Bishop of the Catholick Church in the City of Constantine Of this word Catholick in this sense there hath been different use made as the times have varied The Fathers of the purest times made use of it to distinguish themselves from Hereticks according to that so celebrated saying of Pacianus Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen Christian saith he is my name and Catholick my sirname by the one I am known from Infidels by the other from Hereticks And so long as the main body of Christianity retained the form of wholesome words and kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace it served exceeding fitly for a mark distinctive to known an Orthodox Professor from those who followed after Heretical and Schismatical Factions But when the main Body of the Church was once torn in peeces and every leading faction would be thought the true Church of Christ they took unto themselves the names of Catholicks also as if the truth was not more Orthodoxly held by the soundest Christians than it was by them And this hath been a device so stale and common that the Nestorians in the East though antiently condemned for Hereticks in the Third General Council do call their Patriark by the name of Catholick that is to say The Catholick or Orthodox Bishop as Leunclavius telleth us very rightly not Iacelich as the Copies of Brochardus and Paulus Venetus do corruptly read it In the same Error are our great Masters in the Church of Rome who having appropriated to themselves the name of Catholicks and counting all men Hereticks but themselves alone First cast all others out of the Church by the name of Hereticks who do not hold communion with them in their sins and errors and then defend themselves by the name of Catholicks from having dealt unjustly with their Fellow-Christians men every way more Orthodox than they be themselves Just so the Collier justified himself for a true Believer because he believed as the Church believed though he knew not the doctrine of the Church and the Church believed as he believed though the Church troubled not it self about his opinions I know the great Cardinal presumes very much on the name of Catholick making it to be one of the signs of the true Church now because an adjunct of the true Church in the Primitive times And wonder it is that we are grown so prodigal of late as to give it to them A courtesie which they receive with a great deal of joy and turn the bare acknowledgement to their great advantage there being no Argument more convincing than that which is drawn from the confession of an adversary Upon this ground doth Barclay build his Triumph for the cause of Rome Adeo probanda est ecclesia nostra à nomine Catholicae quod extorquet etiam ab invitis hareticis as he brags it there For my part as I never gave it them in writing nor in common speech as thinking
Nullum Schisma non sibi aliquam confingit haeresin ut rectè ab Ecclesia recessisse videatur as St. Ierom notes it we have no reason to exclude him absolutely from the Church of Christ For so long as he falleth not into dangerous error but holds by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles which the Church is built on He is and may be still a member of the Church of God though not of this or that particular Church or Congregation from which he hath disjoyned himself by his wilful folly nor yet so absolutely and fully of the Church of God as they who do communicate entirely in all things necessary As long as the Schismatick retaineth the profession of the Christian Faith in all the Fundamental Points and Articles of it gives ear unto the Word and receives the Sacraments according to the institution of our Lord and Saviour and performs other acts of Religious Worship though in a separate Church or Congregation of his own assembling I dare not shut him out from the hopes of Heaven or rashly say He is no subject of the Kingdom of Grace He may be still a member of the Militant Church and one day have his part in the Church Triumphant notwithstanding his offence in separating from his Fellow-Christians in case he do it not out of pride and against the clear light of his own Conscience But the Church from which he makes his separation may lawfully proceed against him as a great offender for breaking the bond of peace and unity which ought so carefully to be preserved in a Church well constituted With Hereticks the case is worse though not quite desperate for they not onely violate the Churches peace but wilfully defend some pernicious Error which tends to the destruction of the Faith it self So Haeresis aliquod dogma perversum habe◠saith the same St. Ierom. But here we must distinguish first of Heresies before we venture to resolve of the point in Question it being so That neither every erroneous opinion may be called an Heresie nor every Heresie of it self is so great and capital as to exclude the man that holds it from the Church of Christ. Many in all ages have been branded and condemned for Hereticks because they were not wholly of the same opinions with those of greatest reputation in their several Churches though oftentimes in matters of inferior nature in which diversity of opinions might have been admitted whom it were both uncharitable and unchristian too to bar from all their right and interess in the Christian Church Nay granting that the Heresie be in Fundamentals not taken up upon mistake but wilfully and maliciously invented for some private ends yet in regard they still retain amongst them the profession of other Divine verities which they hold and believe in common with the rest of the faithful for should they erre in all points of the Christian Faith they were no longer to be called Hereticks but Apostate Infidels they pertain still unto the Church and were so counted and esteemed of in the strictest times An Argument whereof may be that when an Heretick recanted of his sin and heresie and sought to be again admitted to the Churches Ordinances he was not entred as at first by the door of Baptism nor any of his acts made void if a Priest or Minister which he had done by vertue of his holy orders And so far were the Antients from this new opinion of making Hereticks no members of the Church at all That the Rebaptization of an Heretick or of such as had been formerly baptized by Hereticks was counted an error in St. Cyprian and afterwards condemned for Heresie in those that wilfully maintained it upon his Authority The stories of those times make this plain enough especially St. Augustine's works against the Donatists where this point is very fully handled and with his resolution in it I conclude this controversie Isti in quibusdam rebus nobiscum sunt in quibusdam à nobis exierunt c In some things saith the Father they are with us still in others they are departed from us In those things wherein they agree with us they are a part of that great building whereof the chief Corner-stone is Christ our Saviour In those wherein they disagree they are parted from it And if they draw any more unto them even they are fastned in those joynts to the rest of that Body c. In qua nec illi separati sunt in which their Teachers are not separated from that Sacred Body But yet although the Romanists are extreamly out in excluding all whom they call Schismaticks or condemn for Hereticks from having any place in the Church of Christ to make the more Elbow-room for themselves The Donatist and his followers are more out than they in making none but the Elect to be members of it and so monopolizing the whole Kingdom of Heaven to their faction onely In which it is most strange to see with what precipitancy and inadvertency many in the Reformed Churches of great name and credit not looking into the design and ill consequents of it have labored to promote this Tenet as most true and Orthodox especially after Iohn Wicliff and Hus his follower had set the same on foot again in these latter ages That Wicliff was of this opinion is evidently to be seen in Thomas Waldensis who doth not onely so report him but doth his best endeavor to confute him in it And that Hus also taught the same is no less evident by the proceedings had against him in the Council of Constance in which amongst others of his doctrines they condemned this one viz. Unicam esse sanctam universalem ecclesiam eamque Praedestinatorum Vniversitatem that is to say That there is one onely holy Universal Church which is the general body of Gods Elect. Thus they nor did there want some reason which might move them to it For noting many Errors and Corruptions in the Church of Rome which made them think it very unsafe to communicate any longer with it and being withal unwilling to be so esteemed of as men out of the Church They fell upon this new way to bear off that blow by making the true Church of God to be always invisible because consisting onely of Elect and praedestinate persons which were known onely unto God But on what grounds soever it was first excogitated the fame and piety of the men have so indeered it to the Doctors of the Calvinian Churches and others which profess most enmity to the Church of Rome that generally they make no other definition of the Catholick Church than that it is the Body Collective of Gods Elect. Ecclesia est coetus hominum ab aeterno electus à Deo ad vitam eternam as Vrsine in his Comment on the Palatine Catechism Ecclesia est coetus hominum sanctorum qui ex gratuita Dei electione vocati sunt in unionem cum Christo 〈◊〉
the world is that blessed company of holy ones that houshold of faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the living God which is the pillar and ground of truth that so we may imbrace her communion follow her directions and rest in her judgment Very good counsel I confess and such as is to be pursued by all sober Christians But being this counsel doth suppose as a matter granted that the true Church is very easie to be found if it be carefully sought after which doth imply the constant and perpetual visibility of it however controverted and denied by some later Writers I shall first labor to make good that which he supposeth and prove that which he takes for granted that so we may proceed the better on our following search and rest the surer on the judgment of the Church being once found out And here I shall not need to look back on those who making none to be of the Church but the elect children of God do thereby make it altogether invisible to a mortal eye We have spoke enough of that in the former Chapter and therefore shall adde nothing now but that it may seem strange unto men of reason that when Paul and Barnabas came to Ierusalem they were received of the Church as is said Acts 15.4 and yet could not see the Church which did receive them or that Paul went unto Caesarea and saluted the Church as is said of him Acts 18.22 in case he had not seen the Church which he did salute We grant indeed the Church to be invisible in its more noble parts that is to say the Saints triumphant in the Heavens the Elect on Earth and that it is invisible in the whole latitude and extent thereof for who can see so great a body diffused in all places of the world at one time or in all the times of his life supposing him to be the greatest traveller that was ever known And yet this doth not make the Church to be more invisible than any particular man may be said to be invisible also because we do not see his Brain his Heart and his Liver the three principal parts which convey Life and Blood and motion to the rest of the Body nor because we cannot see at once both his back and his belly and every other member in his full proportion The visibility of the Church is proved sufficiently by the visibility of those several and respective Congregations or Assemblies of men which are convened together under lawful Ministers for the Administration of the Word and Sacraments to which men may repair as they see occasion for their spiritual comfort and instruction in the things of God with whom they may joyn themselves in his publick worship with reference to that soul and power of Government which animates and directs the whole And such a Visibility of the Church there hath always been from Adam down to Noah from Noah to Abraham from him to Moses and the Prophets from thence to Christ and from Christs time unto the present It is true the light hereof hath been sometimes dangerously ecclipsed but never extinguished no more than is the Sun when got under a Cloud Desicere videtur Sol non defiâ—it as the Father hath it Since God first had a Church it hath still been visible though more or less according unto times and seasons more in some places than in others although not always in such whole and sound condition as it ought to be They who are otherwise perswaded conceive that they have found some intervals or space of time in which there was no Visible Church on the face of the Earth of which times there are two remarkable under the Law and two as notable as those since the birth of the Gospel Under the Law they instance in the reign of Ahab of which Elijah makes complaint That they had laid waste the Church and slain the Prophets and that he onely was left to serve the Lord and in the persecution raised by Antiâ—chus King of Syrius of which it is reported in the Book of Maccabees that the Sanctuary was defiled the publick Sacrifices interdicted Circumcision and the Sabbath abrogated and more than so the Idols of the Syrians publickly advanced for the people to fall down and worship insomuch as all those who sought after righteousness and justice were fain to flie unto the wilderness there to save themselves But the answer unto this is easie For though those instances do prove that the Church at those times was in ill-condition in regard to her external peace yet prove they not that there was such a general defection from the worship of God as to make the Church to be invisible For first The complaint of Elijah was not universal in reference to the whole Church of God but in relation onely unto that of Israel where King Ahab reigned a Schismatical Church that when it was at the best and sometimes an Idolatrous one also The Church of Iudah stood entire in the service of God according to the prescript of his holy Law under the Rule and Government of the good King Iehosaphat a Prince who with a perfect heart served the God of his Fathers and who preserved the people under his command in the true Religion The Sun shined comfortably on Iudah though an Egyptian darkness had over-spread the whole Realm of Israel And if Elijah fled for safety to the woods and deserts and did not flie for succor to the Land of Iudah it was not out of an opinion that the two Tribes had Apostated from their God as well as the ten but out of a wise and seasonable fear of being delivered by those of Iudah into the hands of his enemies Iehosaphat being at that time in good terms with Ahab by whom Elijah stood accused for troubling of the State of Israel As for the other instance under King Antiochus the Text indeed describes it for a great persecution greater than which that Nation never suffered under but it declares withal expresly that there was no such general defection from the Law of God as was projected by the Tyrant For the common people stood couragiously to their old Religion and neither would obey the Kings Commandment in offering to the Syrian Idols or eating meats which were prohibited by the Law of Moses And as for those which fled unto the Woods and Wilderness they fled not thither onely for their personal safety in hope to finde an hiding place in those impenetrable desarts but as unto a place of strength or a fortified City from whence they might sally as they did against their enemies and in the which they might enjoy that freedom in the exercise of their own Religion which could not be hoped for in Ierusalem and other places under the command of Antiochus A persecuted Church we finde both before and here but the persecution neither held so long nor was so general as to make the Church to
be Saints in the Church Triumphant But whether it be there or here a mutual communion there is always to be held between us between the Saints upon the Earth though Saints by outward calling onely united in the joynt participation of the Word and Sacraments and the external Profession of the Faith and Gospel but more conspicuously between those which are Saints indeed not onely nominally but really and truly such in that harmony of affections and reciprocal offices of love which makes them truly one Body of Christ though different Members And a communion there is too of this later kinde between the Saints upon the Earth and those which have their consummation in the Heaven of Glories who though they have in some part received the promise yet being fellow-members of the same one Body they pray for and await our ransom from this prison of flesh without which God hath so disposed it they should not be made perfect Which said we may now clearly see in what particulars the Communion of Saints intended in this Article doth consist especially which may be easily reduced unto three heads 1. A Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation by which they are made members of one another and of Christ their Head 2. A Communion of Affections expressed in all the acts of love and charity even to the very communicating of their lives and fortunes And 3. A communion of entercourse between the Saints in Heaven and those here on Earth according to the different states in which God hath placed them All other kindes of Christian Communion are either contained in and under these or may be very easily reduced unto them And first for the Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation and the benefits which redound thereby to the Church of Christ St. Paul hath told us That the Cup of blessing which is blessed in the holy Eucharist and the Bread there broken is the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and that being made partakers of that one Bread we are thereby made though many to be one Bread also and one Body even the Body of Christ one Bread though made of many grains and one Body though composed of many members A better Paraphrase upon which place of the Apostle we can hardly finde in all the writings of the Fathers than that of Cyril Ut igitur inter nos Deum singulos uniret quamvis corpore simul anima distemus modum tamen adinvenit consilio patris sapientiae suae convenientem Suo enim corpore credentes per Communionem mysticam benedicens secum inter nos unum nos corpus efficit c That Christ might unite every one of us both with our selves and with God though we be distant from each other both in body and soul he hath devised a way agreeable to his own Wisdom and the Counsel of his Heavenly Father For in that he blesseth them that believe with his own Body by means of that Mystical Communion of it he maketh us one body with himself and with one another For who will think them not to be of this Natural union which be united in one Christ by the Union or Communion of that one holy Body For if we eat all of one Bread we are all made one Body in regard Christ may not be dis-joyned nor divided In which full passage of the Father we finde an union of the faithful with Christ their Head as well as a conjunction with one another effected by the Mystical communion of his Body and Blood A double union first with Christ and with each others next as the members of Christ. The union which we have with Christ is often times expressed in Scripture under the figure and resemblance of the Head and Members which as they make but one Natural Body so neither do they make but one Body Mystical Know you not saith the Apostle that your bodies are the members of Christ 1 Cor. 6.15 That ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12.27 That we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones Ephes. 5.30 And doth not the same Apostle tell us That God hath given Christ to be head over all things unto his Church Eph. 1.22 That Christ is the head of the Church Vers. 23. And that from this head all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 Occumenius hereupon inferreth That neither Christ without the Church much less the Church without her Christ but both together so united make a perfect body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Others of more antiquity do affirm the same For thus St. Chrysostom Quidnaem significat panis Corpus Christi quid fiunt qui accipiunt Corpus Christi What signifieth the Bread The Body of Christ What are they made that do receive it The Body of Christ. St. Augustine thus Hunc cibum potum societatem vult intelligi corporis membrorum suorum i. e. He would have us understand that this meat and drink is the fellowship of his body and of his members What of the members onely with one another Not onely so but of the fellowship or communion which they have with him that is their head who though he be above in the heavenly places and is not fastned to his body with any corporal connexion yet he is joyned unto it by the bonds of love as the same Father hath it in another place Habet ecclesia caput positum in coelestibus quod gubernat corpus suum separatum quidem visione sed charitate annexum St. Cyprian speaks more home than either both to the matter and the manner of the union which we have with Christ. Nos ipsi corpus Christi effecti Sacramento re Sacramenti capiti nostro conjungineur unimur We are then made the Body of Christ both by the Sacrament and the grace represented by it when we are joyned or united unto Christ our Head Not that we are not made the members of Christs Mystical Body but onely by a participation of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood but that this Mystical union and communion which we have with Christ is most fitly represented by it For otherwise St. Paul hath told us That by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body and consequently made the members of Christ. According unto that of Divine St. Augustine Ad hoc baptisma valet ut baptizati Christo incorporentur membra ejus efficiantur To this saith he availeth Baptism that men being baptized may be incorporated unto Christ and made his Members But this supposeth a relation to the other Sacrament of which although they may not actually participate before they die yet they have either a desire to it if they be of age and a right or interess in it
misunderstood dictates of those old Philosophers For where the Scripture saith They had all things common we are to understand it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use and communication and not in referenee to the right and original title The goods of Christians were in several as to the right title and possession of them but common in the merciful inclination of the owner to the works of mercy And this appears exceeding plainly by the Text and Story of the Acts. For the Text saith That no man said of any thing that it was his own no not of the things which he possessed which plainly shews That the possession still remained to the proper owner though he was mercifully pleased to communicate his goods to the good of others But this the story shews more plainly For what need any of the Possessors of Lands or Houses have sold them and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet to be by them distributed to the poorer Brethren If the poor Brethren might have carved themselves out of such estates and entred on them as their own or with what colour could St. Paul have concealed this truth and changed this natural community to a communication Charge them which be rich in this world saith he that they be willing to communicate a communication meerly voluntary and such as necessarily preserves that interess which the Communicators have in their temporal fortunes And so Tertullian also must be understood For though it be omnia indiscreta in regard of the use or a communion if you will with the Saints maintained with one another in their temporal fortunes yet was it no community but a communication in reference to that legal interess which was still preserved and therefore called no more than rei communicatio in the words foregoing The like may be replied to the other Argument drawn from the quality of friendship and the authority of Aristotle and the rest there named That which I have is properly and truly mine because descended on me in due course of Law or otherwise acquired by my pains and industry and being mine is by my voluntary act made common for the relief and comfort of the man I love and have made choice of for my friend yet still no otherwise my friends but that the right and property doth remain in me Quicquid habet amicus noster commune est nobis illius tamen proprium est qui tenet as most truly Seneca As for the practise of the Spartans and that natural liberty which is pretended to be for mankinde in the use of the Creatures It is a thing condemned in all the Schools of the Politicks and doth besides directly overthrow the principles of the Anabaptist and the Familist and their Confederates who are content to rob all mankinde of the use of the Creatures so they may monopolize and ingross them all to the use of the Saints that is themselves But the truth is that these pretences for the Saints are as inconsistent with the Word and Will of God as those which are insisted on for mankinde in general For how can this Community of the Saints or mankinde agree with any of those Texts of holy Scripture which either do condemn the unlawful getting keeping or desiring of riches by covetousness extortion theevery and the like wicked means to attain the same or else commend frugality honest trades of life and specially liberality to the poor and needy Assuredly where there is neither meum nor tuum as there can be no stealing so there needs no giving For how can a man be said to steal that which is his own or what need hath he to receive that in the way of a gift to which he hath as good a Title as the man that giveth it I shut up all with this determination of the Church of England which wisely as in all things else doth so exclude community of mens goods and substance as to require a Christian Communication of and communion in them The riches and goods of Christians saith the Article are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast therefore no community Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the poor according to his ability and there a Communion of the Saints in the things of this world a communication of their riches to the wants of others But the main point in this Communion of the Saints in reference to one another concerns that intercourse and mutual correspondency which is between the Saints in the Church here Militant and those which are above in the Church Triumphant The Church is of a larger latitude than the present world The Body whereof Christ is Head not being wholly to be found on the Earth beneath but a good part thereof in the Heavens above Both we with them and they with us make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head but one Spiritual Corporation whereof he is Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Chrysostom And if he be the Head of both as no doubt he is then must both they and we be members of that Body of his and consequently that correspondence and communion must be held between us which is agreeable to either in his several place So far I think it is agreed on of all sides without any dispute The point in question will concern not the quod sit of it that there is and ought to be a communion between them and us but quo modo how it is maintained and in what particulars And even in this I think it will be granted on all hands also that those above do pray unto the Lord their God for his Church in general that he would please to have mercy on Ierusalem and to build up the breaches in the walls of Sion and to behold her in the day of her visitation when she is harassed and oppressed by her merciless enemies How long say they in the Apocalypse O Lord holy and true how long dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth And as they pray unto the Lord to be gracious to us so do they also praise his name for those acts of mercy which he vouchsafes to shew to his Church in general or any of his servants in particular The joy that was in Heaven at the fall of Babylon which had so long made her self drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martys and that which is amongst the Angels of Heaven over every sinners that repenteth are proof enough for this were there no proof else We on the other side do magnifie Gods name for them in that he hath vouchsafed to deliver them out of the bondage of the flesh to take their souls unto his mercy and free
autem quem nihil latet omnium enim merita novit promerendum suffragatore non est opus sed mente devota Vbicunque enim talis ei loquutus fuerit respondebit illi that is to say We therefore have recourse to Kings by Lords and Courtiers because the King is but a man and knows not whom to trust with the Publick Government But to obtain the favor of God from whom nothing is hid for he knoweth what every man deserveth we need no other spokesman than a pious soul with which whosoever comes unto him shall graciously be both heard and answered by him In the next place We grant that in some cases as before is said some of the Saints do pray for some of us in particular but yet we do not think as the Papists do that there is any ordinary way to give them notice of our wants or make them privy unto our necessities If so then it is in vain for us to make our Prayers to them who can neither hear us nor know in any Ordinary way what we pray for to them And so far it is granted by the greatest Champions of the adverse party Si non cognoscant nostr◠orationes videtur otiosum supervacaneum ad ipsos orare saith their great Schoolman Fr. Suares Now that the Saints departed have no knowledge of our wants or wills conceive me still of any ordinary way of communication is evident by that passage in the Prophet Isaiah Abraham saith he is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledge us If so if Abraham himself to whom the promises were made and Israel the father of all the Tribes were ignorant of the affairs of that very people which descended from them what knowledge then should we conceive in the Saints departed after so many ages as have intervened since the death of most of them concerning us and our affairs who are so very strangers to their Blood and Families But lest perhaps it may be thought that the Communion of the Saints supplieth that defect or that the Saints of the New Testament are invested with a greater privilege than were the Patriarcks of the old It is assured us by St. Augustine that they know nothing of our actions or of our occasions Spiritus defunctorum non videre quaecunque eveniunt aut aguntur in ista vita hominum as that Father hath it More positive and particular is St. Ierome in it who speaking of Nepotianus hath this notable passage viz. Quicquid dixero quia ille non audit mutum videtur cum quo loqui non possumus de eo loquinon desinamus i. e. Whatsoever I shall speak doth but seem as dumb because Nepotian doth not hear me and therefore since I can no more speak with him I will be the longer in speaking of him And though the Fathers in their Funeral and Anniversary Orations which they made in honor of the Saints and at the Tombs of the Martyrs make many Rhetorical compellations of them and Apostrophes to them to which the Popish Invocation of Saints owes much of its Original as the learned Primate of Armagh very well observeth yet was it but with ifs and ands as in that of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear saith he O thou soul of renowned Constantine if thou have any sense or notion of these affairs And now at last the point is brought unto an issue By them of Rome it is supposed that there is knowledge in the Saints departed of all things hapning in the Earth that they take notice of our prayers are privy unto our necessities and therefore that it were a Solecism in the way of piety not to address unto them our Petitions We stand on the defensive part and so reply upon them with an Absque hoc Sans ceo no such matter verily Let them prove this and if they prove not this sufficiently then they prove just nothing and we will either be non-suted and acknowledge judgment or yeeld so far at lest unto them that though this praying unto Saints be the furthest way about yet we may think it possibly the next way home And first out of the Old Testament they produce Iacob and Moses to give in evidence on their side Reverend men against whom we shall not take exception Of Iacob it is said That in his Benediction of the sons of Ioseph he used these words And let my name be named on them or called on by them as the Margin of our last translation and the name of my Father Abraham and Isaac And Moses saith the Text besought the Lord his God and said Remember Abraham and Isaac and Jacob thy servants unto whom thou swarest by thine own self To both which Texts the one being but an Exemplification of the other onely this Answer is returned by Calvin Iudaeos patres suos ad ferendas sibi suppetias non implorasse c. That Moses and the sons of Ioseph and the other Iews did not in these and other places of this nature make any prayers to Abraham Isaac or Iacob but onely did desire of God to call to minde the Covenant he had made with them and in them to and with their whole posterity which though it satisfie very fully as to the objection yet we will go to work in another manner and against this and all the other Testimonies which they either have produced already or shall produce hereafter to the point in hand out of the Books of the Old Testament shall save unto our selves the benefit of exception exception not against their persons but against their evidence For in the opinion of the Papists the Patriarcks all of them were in Limbo Patrum before the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour in the retired and secret Caverns of the Earth debarred from all access to Almighty God from all commerce and traffick with us mortal men in as much want of Heavenly comforts as those by them supposed to be in Purgatory though in far less pain The truth or probability of this opinion I dispute not here having declared my self in that point already All that I shall from hence infer be it true or false is That according to their own Divinity the Fathers before Christs Resurrection could very ill sollicite the affairs of the Iews their children as being not till then admitted to the Court and presence of the Lord Almighty nor yet possessed though sure enough at last of their own felicities Bellarmine that great master of Controversies hath resolved it so Because saith he the Saints and other holy men who died before Christ came in the flesh did not enter into Heaven did not see God nor could by any Ordinary means understand the prayers of those who sued unto them therefore it was not used in the Old Testament to say Holy Abraham pray for me but men prayed by themselves for themselves to God and alleged the merits of the Saints
expresly by St. Peter to the sorrowful and afflicted Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins By Ananias unto Saul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord By Paul himself who had experimentally found the efficacy and fruit thereof in his own person That God according to his mercy hath saved us not by works of righteousness which we have done but by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and finally by St. Peter also That Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ This also was the judgment of the Antient Writers and that too long before the starting of the Pelagian Heresies to which much is ascribed by some as to the advancing of the efficacy and fruit of Baptism by succeeding Fathers For thus Tertullian Quotidiè nunc aquae populos conservant deleta morte per ablationem delictorum Exempto scilicet reatu eximitur poena Ita restituetur homo Deo ad similitudinem ejus qui retro ad imaginem Dei conditus fuerat Now saith he do the Waters daily preserve the people of God death being destroyed and overthrown by the washing away of sins for where the guilt is taken away there is the punishment remitted also St. Cyprian thus Remissio peccatorum sive per Baptismum sive per alia Sacramenta donetur propriè Spiritus Sancti est that is to say that the remission of sins whether given in Baptism or by any other of the Sacraments is properly to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost The African Fathers in full Council do affirm the same and so doth Origen also for the Alexandrians of both which we shall speak anon in the point of Paedo-baptism Thus Nyssen for the Eastern Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saith he is the expiation of our sins the remission of our offences the cause of our new-birth and regeneration Thus do the Fathers in the Constantinopolitan Council profess their Faith in one Baptism or being onely once baptized for the remission of sins And finally That this was the doctrine of the Church in general before Augustines time who is conceived to be first that did advance the power and efficacy of Baptism to so great an height in opposition to the Pelagian Heresies appears by a by-word grown before his time into frequent use the people being used to say when they observed a man to be too much addicted to his lusts and pleasures Sine illum faciat quod vult nondum enim baptizatus est i. e. Let him alone to take his pleasure for as yet the man is not baptised More of this we shall see anon in that which follows Nor is this onely Primitive but good Protestant Doctrine as is most clear and evident by that of Zanchius whom onely I shall instance in of the later Writers Cum Minister Baptizat c. When the Minister baptizeth I believe that Christ with his own hand reached as it were from Heaven Filium meum sanguine suo in remissionem peccatorum aspergere besprinkleth the Infant with his Blood to the remission of sins by the hand of that man whom I see besprinkling him with the Waters of Baptism So that I cannot choose but marvel how it comes to pass that it must now be reckoned for a point of Popery that the Sacraments are instrumental causes of our justification or of the remission of our sins or that it is a point of learning of which neither the Scriptures nor the Reformed Religion have taught us any thing So easie a thing it is to blast that with Popery which any way doth contradict our own private fancies But here before I do proceed further in this present Argument I shall make bold to divert a little upon the antient use of Baptismal-washings before our Saviour Christ ordained it for an holy Sacrament that we may see what hint our Saviour took in this Institution who thought it no impiety to fit the antient usages of the Iews and Gentiles to the advancement of the Gospel though now to hold conformity with the Church of Rome in matters very pertinent to the same effect is reckoned for the greatest Error in our Reformation First for the Iews that they used very frequent washings is most clear in Scripture For not onely the Pharisees particularly who were a superstitious supercilious Sect but the Iews in general have this Character given them by St. Mark That they eat not except they wash their hands oft that they washed as often as they came from market or any publick place of meeting and that they did observe upon old Tradition the washing of Cups and Pots of brazen Vessels and of Tables And this they did not onely in the way of cleanliness or in point of manners to wash away the filth of their bodies when they went to eat or to make clean their Vessels and other Vtensiles which they ate or drank in But rather out of an opinion that by those frequent washings they preserved themselves from the filth and corruption of the world especially in their return from the streets and market places where possibly they might meet with some that were uncircumcised or otherwise obnoxious to an ill report by which they thought themselves defiled And this I take to be an antient custom of the Iews because I finde it much in use amongst the Samaritans who were in many if not most of their common Ceremonies but the Apes onely of the Iews Who on the same opinion of their own dear sanctity which had so perfectly possessed their neighbors of Iudah did use when they had visited any of the Nations to sprinkle themselves with urine upon their return and if by negligence or necessity of business they had touched any not of their own Sect to drench themselves over-head and ears in the next Fountain The reason of which is thus delivered by Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because they held it for an abomination to come near a man that was of a different Religion or perswasion from them But this appears more plainly by that passage of St. Iohns Gospel where there is mention of six water pots of stone at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the purifying of the Iews Where by no means I can consent to Maldonâ—tes interpretation who will not have these water-pots to be used at all for any Legal or Mosaical purification Qua qui secundum legem polluti erant mundabantur in which they used to wash themselves who had incurred some legal pollution but onely for those Pharisaical washings which the Pharisees used often in the midst of a feast Which had it been the
Ancient Fathers The Rule is this That Custom is the best interpreter of a doubtful Law and we are lessoned thereupon to cast our eyes in all such questionable matters unto the practise of the State in the self-same case Si de Interpretione legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendum est quo â—ure Civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio Legis est Where we have both the Rule and the Reason too Which Rule as it holds good in all Legal Controvesies so there is a practical Maxim of as much validitie in matters of Ecclesiastical nature delivered by the ancient Writers This Maxim we will take from St. Augustines mouth and after shew how consonant it is unto the mind of the rest of the Fathers Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec in Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolica autoritate traditum rectissimè creditur i. e. Whatsoever the whole Church maintaineth which hath not been ordained by authority of Councils but been alwaies holden most rightly may be thought to have been delivered by Apostolical authority To this agreeth St. Hierom also saying Etiamsi Scripturae autoritas non subesset totius Orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret That were there no authority of the Scripture for it yet the unanimous consent of all the world were as good as a precept So doth St. Irenaeus also who telleth us that in doubtful cases Oportet in antiquissimas recâ—rrere Ecclesias in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab iis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est we are to have recourse to the Eldest Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and learn of them what is to be determined in the present question And to this Maxim thus confirmed not onely the Romanists do submit but even Calvin too who telleth us he would make no scruple to admit Traditions Si modo Ecclesiae traditionem ex certo perpetuo sanctorum Orthodoxorum consensu confirmaret If Pighius could demonstrate to him that such Traditions were derived from the certain and continual consent of Orthodox and godly men If then according to this Maxim it be made apparent that Infant-baptism hath been generally used in the Church of Christ not being ordained in any Council but practised in those elder Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and since continued in the constant and perpetual usage of all godly men we may conclude that certainly it is of Apostolical Institution though there occur no positive Precept for it in the Book of God Which ground so laid we will proceed unto our proofs for this general practise taking our rise from Augustines time without looking lower because his Authority is conceived to have carryed the Baptism of Infants almost without controul in the following ages First then for Augustine he is positive and express herein Infantes reos esse Originalis peccati ideo baptizandos esse That Infants being guilty of Original sin are to be Baptised and this he cals antiquam fidei regulam the old Rule of Faith and saith expresly Hoc Ecclesia semper habuit semper tenuit à majorum fide recepit That the Church alwaies held and used it deriving in from the authority and credit of their Predecessors St. Chrysostom a Presbyter of the church of Antioch where St. Peter sometimes sate as Bishop somewhat before S. Augustins time speaks of Infant-Baptism as a thing generally received in the Christian Church Hoc praedicat Ecclesia Catholica ubique diffusa The Catholick Church saith he over all the world doth approve of this Some what before him lived St. Hierom a Presbyter of the Church of Rome which questionless was one of the Apostolick Sees founded both by St. Peter and St. Paul the two great Apostles of Iew and Gentile as the Antients say And he is clear for Infant-Baptism Qui parvulus est Parentis in Baptismo vinculo solvitur c. Children saith he are freed in Baptism from the sin of Adam in the guilt whereof they were involved but men of riper years from their own and his And in conclusion he resolves Infantes etiam in peccatorum remissionem baptizandos c. That Infants are to be baptized for the remission of sins and not as the Pelagians taught into hopes of Heaven as if they had been guilty of no sin at all A little before him flourished St. Ambrose successor to Barnabas the Apostle in the See of Millain who speaking of the Pelagian Heresies who published amongst other things that the hurt which Adam did unto his posterity was exemplo non transitu rather by giving them such a bad example of disobedience than by driving on them any natural sinfulness doth thereupon infer that if this were true Evacuatio Baptismatis parvulorum The Baptism of Infants were no longer necessary And in the same age but before flourished Gregory Nazianzen who calling Baptism Signaculum vitae cursum ineuntibus a Seal imprinted upon those who begin to live requires That children should be brought unto holy Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest they should wart the common grace of the Church And though he afterwards advise that the Baptism of Children should be deferred till they be three years old that so they might be able to make answer to some Catechetical questions yet in a case of danger he doth press it home it being better as he grants that they be sanctified insensibly they not perceiving it by reason of their tender years than that they should depart hence without that signature Ascend we from the fourth to the third age of the Church and there we finde St. Cyprian the Great Bishop of Carthage as great a stickler for the Baptism of Infants as any one whosoever in the times succeeding He in an Epistle to one Fidus doth thus plead the case Porro si etiam gravissimis delictoribus c If saith he remission of sins be given to the greatest offenders none of which if they afterwards believe in God are excluded from the grace of Baptism Quanto magis prohiberi non debet infans qui recens natus nihil peccavit c. How much rather should an Infant be admitted to it who being new-born have not sinned at all save that they have contracted from Adam that original guilt which followeth every man by nature and therefore are more capable of the forgiveness of sins than others are Quod illis remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata Because it is not their own but anothers sin Nor was this the opinion of St. Cyprian onely but the unanimous consent of Sixty and six African Bishops convened in Council by whom it was declared as he there relateth That Baptism was to be ministred as well to Infants as unto men of riper yeers Before him flourished
judicii pronouncing them with his own mouth to be forgiven in Heaven According to the promise made unto St. Peter or the Church in him when he delivered him the Keys that whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven And so we are to understand St. Chrysostomes words Iudex sedet in terris dominus sequitur servum The Judge remains upon the Earth the Lord followeth the servant His meaning is That what the servant doth here upon the Earth according to his Masters will the same the Lord himself will confirm and ratifie To which effect it is affirmed by others of the Antient Writers but in clearer words That the judgment of man goeth before the judgment of God The Priest is then a Iudge to pronounce the sentence and not a Cryer onely as some say to proclaim what the Judge pronounceth and as a Judge doth actually absolve or condemn the sinner by the same power of pardoning or retaining sins which he had from Christ or which Christ executes by him as his lawful deputy For as Kings are said to minister Justice to their Subjects though they do it not in their own persons but by a power devolved on subordinate Officers and as Christ himself may properly be said to have fed the multitudes though he gave the loaves onely unto his Disciples and his Disciples to the multitudes So he may also be affirmed to absolve the penitent although he do it by the mouth of the Priests or Ministers it being his act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and theirs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally his and ministerially theirs the same power in both And this may further be made good by that form of Speech used by our Saviour in the delegation of this power unto his Apostles and by them to his Ministers in all ages since being the very same with that which he himself hath given us in the Pater noster In his Commission it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose sins soever ye remit Iohn 20.23 And in the Lords Prayer it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forgive us our sins Luke 11.4 The same word used in the original for the one and the other And if it be a Solecism to say as no doubt it is That we desire no more of God in that clause of the Prayer than that he would signifie or declare that our sins are pardoned The Solecism must be as great for ought I can see to say That they are onely signified or declared to be pardoned by the mouth of the Minister Now that this is the meaning and intent of the Church of England some of our Romish adversaries do not stick to grant though others to calumniate this most Orthodox Church have given out the contrary For one of their great Controversors hath declared in print that it is the doctrine of some of the Protestants That Priests have power not onely to pronounce the remission of sins but to give it also And that this seemeth to be the doctrine of the Communion Book in the Visitation of the sick where the Priest saith And by his authority committed unto me I absolve thee from all thy sins c. And therefore when a foul-mouthed Iesuite had been pleased to charge us with denying power unto the Priests of forgiving sins Bishop Usher telleth him to his face That he doth us wrong and proves it by the very formal words in our Ordination Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained But no man can say more to this than hath been said already by Bishop Morton now Lord Bishop of Durham The power of absolution saith that learned Prelate whether it be general or particular whether in publick or in private is professed in our Church where both in our Publick Service is proclamed Pardon and Absolution upon all Penitents and a particular applying of particular Absolution unto Penitents by the Office of the Ministery And greater power than this hath no man received from God And this hath also been acknowledged by the Leaders of the Puritan faction who in their Petition to King Iames at his first coming to this Crown excepted against the very name of Absolution as being a Forinsecal and Iuridical word importing more surely than a Declaration which they desired to have corrected And thereupon it was propounded in the Conference at Hampton Court That to the word Absolution in the Rubrick following the general Confession these words Remission of sins might be added for Explanations sake And though Dr. Raynolds one of the Four Proctors for the said Petitioners in the foresaid Conference may be conceived to have been of the same opinion with these of the agrieved sort whom he did appear for yet he was so well satisfied in the power and nature of Sacerdotal Absolution that he did earnestly desire it at the time of his death humbly received it at the hands of Dr. Holland the Kings Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of Oxon for the time then being and when he was not able to express his joy and thankfulness in the way of speech did most affectionately kiss the hand that gave it But what need more be said for manifesting this judicial power in the remitting of sins than what is exercised and determined by the Church in the other branch of this Authority in retaining sins By which impenitent sinners are solemnly and judicially cut off from the sacred Body of the Church and utterly excluded from the company and Communion of the rest of the faithful Of which the Church hath thus resolved in her publick Articles viz. That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicate ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican until be be openly reconciled by penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereunto Where clearly we have found a Iudicial power and a Iudge to exercise the same and that not onely in the point of retaining sins in case of excommunication but also in reconciling of the penitent in remitting sins in the way of ordinary absolution Which whether it be given in Foro poenitentiae or in Foro Conscientiae either in private on the confession of the party or publickly for satisfaction of the Congregation doth make no difference in this point which onely doth consist in the proof of this That the Priests or Ministers of the Gospel lawfully ordained have under Christ a power of forgiving sins Which comfortable doctrine of the remission of sins by Gods great mercy at all times and the Churches Ministery at some times as occasion is is the whole subject of this branch of the present Article Proceed we next to those great benefits which we reap thereby The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting ARTICLE XI
of those imperfections it may be said that then they are not raised in the self-same bodies To this we have the resolution of St. Augustine also affirming That in that glorious day the substance of their bodies shall continue as before it was but the deformities and imperfections shall be taken away Corporibus ergo istis naturae servabitur vitia autem detrahentur as the Father hath it A resolution which St. Paul doth seem to favor saying That the body shall be raised in glory though it be sown in dishonor as do his following words the former viz. Though it be sown in weakness in the weakness of old age or infancy shall be raised in power For neither is it likely that infancy being imperfection and old age corruption can stand with the estate of a glorified body or that our Lord which made the blinde to see and the lame to go which came to seek his grace on Earth will not much rather heal them of their imperfections whom he vouchsafeth to admit to the glories of Heaven A glorious place is fit for none but glorified bodies And so far glorified shall the bodies of Gods servants be as to be raised in power whereby they shall be freed from all wants and weaknesses in incorruption which shall make them free both from death and sickness in glory which shall make them shine with a greater splendor than any of the Stars of Heaven as did the face of Moses in the Book of Exodus and that of Stephen the Proto-martyr in the Book of the Acts and lastly in agility by which they shall be like the Angels mounting as on the wings of an Eagle to meet the Lord JESUS at his coming In reference unto these spiritual qualities St. Paul affirms That it was sown a natural body but shall be raised a spiritual body Natural for the substance still spiritual for the qualities and endowments of it Spiritualia post Resurrectionem erunt corpora non quia corpora esse desistunt sed quia spiritu vivificante subsistunt as St. Augustine hath it Another Quere yet remaineth which had been moved it seems in St. Augustines time by some whose curiosity did exceed their judgments The Question was Whether the woman should be raised to eternal glory in her own sex or the more noble sex of man Alas poor Souls what monstrous crime had they committed that they should be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven Of what strange errors and mistakes must guilty-nature be accused when she framed that sex or rather God when he created it at first out of Adams side by which it is supposed uncapable of immortality Yes certainly say they for it seemeth to us that Christ hath so adjudged it saying That in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage And if no marriage then no woman the woman being therefore made that she might be married Vain men why do they talk so idly in the things of God! Nuptias negavit dominus in resurrectione futuras non foeminas as St. Augustine noteth The Lord hath not excluded women from the Resurrection onely in answer to a captious Question which the Saduces made he returned them this That in that day there should be neither care nor notice taken of those worldly matters This is the sum and substance of our Saviours Answer and this is nothing to the prejudice of the Sex or Persons Nor need we doubt but as that Sex have done most acceptable service to the Lord their God either in keeping constantly the faith of wedlock or in preserving carefully an unspotted chastity or suffering resolutely for the testimony of the Faith and Gospel so shall they also in those bodies receive the crown reserved for so great obedience But what need more be said of this needless Quere which Christ our Saviour hath prevented and resolved already Who therefore first appeared to those of the Female Sex that making them the publishers of his Resurrection he might assure them of their own Qui ergo utrumque sexum instituit utrumque restituet God saith St. Augustine as he made both Sexes will restore both Sexes and raise up both in their own proper and original being unto Life eternal Other particulars of the manner of this Resurrection as the dreadful terror of the day the sounding of the Trump the conflagration of the world and the like to these have either been already handled or else will fall within the compass of the following Article That which remains to be considered at the present will be matters practical first in relation to our friends and then in reference to our selves and our own affairs First in relation to our Friends That we bemoan not their departure with too great extremity or sorrow for them without hope as if lost for ever Were it indeed so irrecoverable a losâ— that either their bodies were for ever banished from their souls or that their souls did die and perish with their bodies it were a misery to which no sorrow could be equal But being so assured of a Resurrection it is not to be supposed of them which die in the Lord that they are either lost to themselves or us They onely have withdrawn themselves for a certain season from the vanity and troubles of this present world and shall return at last unto life again both to our comfort and their glory In this respect it was the antient custom of the Church of Greece and is not yet worn out of use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To set boyled Corn before the Singers of the holy Hymns which are accustomed to be sung at the commemoration of the dead who sleep in Christ. And this they do to manifest their hopes in the Resurrection of which the Corn is so significant an embleme as before was shewn And to say truth Death if considered rightly is the gate of life and of a life not to be shaken with adversities or subject unto change of fortune Hanc Deus fidei praestat gratiam ut mors quam vitae constat esse contrariam instrumentum foret per quod in vitam transiretur it is St. Augustines note But what need Augustine be alleged when we may hear the same of the antient Druides of whom the Poet tells us that they held this Paradox Longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est That death was but the middle way to a longer life If then our Ancestors in those dark times of ignorance when they knew not Christ conceived no otherwise of death and the terrors of it than as the way unto a life of more excellent nature then certainly a nobler and moâ—e chearful constancy must â—eeds be looked for at our hands who are not onely more assured of the immortality of the soul which they blindly guessed at but of the Resurrection of the Body also which they never heard of The next consideration doth concern
our selves and lessoneth us not to set so high a price upon our lives but that we may be willing to lay them down as often as the preservation of Religion the safety of our Country or the necessary service of the State do require it of us A duty which we should not doubt to discharge most gladly did we consider as we ought that loss of life on such occasions is but like the putting off of our garments over night to be worn again upon the morrow For certainly those men acquit themselves with the bravest spirit who least regard the terrible approach of death Nor can there be a stronger Motive to induce us to it than that the Bodies so abandoned to the Sword of the Enemies or to the Persecutors of the Church of God shall be revived and reunited to the Soul again It is reported of the Druides whom before I spoke of that they taught amongst these Northern Nations not onely an immortality of the Soul but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmigration of it into other bodies And it was thought an happy error to be so perswaded for being throughly possessed with this opinion they never feared to run upon the greatest dangers to brave them with undanted courage and to encounter with the violentest and most terrible engigns which were then invented So poor a matter was it thought to be coy and sparing of those lives which they were sure to finde again in another body Felices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae Which may thus be Englished Thrice happy they whom the extreamest fear Of death afflicts not who upon the spear Dare boldly run and in their hearts disdain To spare that life which shall return again How brave a courage then ought we to carry with us in our Christian Warfare who have such excellent advantages above those Antients To us it is ascertained by the Word of God not that our souls shall be transmitted into other bodies but be conveyed immediately to a place of rest there to expect a Resurrection of those bodies which before they lived in To us it is ascertained by the Word of God that each several Atom of the body shall be recollected and married to the soul for ever that the bones which were broken may rejoyce and that the body and soul being thus united shall pass immediately into the glories of eternal life prepared for them before the beginnings of the world A brave encouragement to gallant and heroical resolutions Preciumque causa laboris in the Poets language The cause and recompence of all our labors But some I know have otherwise provided for themselves than so and found out a Terrestrial Paradise wherein they shall enjoy for a thousand years all the pleasures of Earth before they be admitted to the joys of Heaven A fancy if I may so call it of no mean antiquity defended by some principal men of the first times of the Church who took it upon trust without more enquiry and having made it better than at first they found it commended it unto the Church for good Catholick doctrine For some there were even in the infancy of the Gospel who being too much in love with this present world conceited to themselves such a sensual and voluptuous kinde of life after the Resurrection from the dust of the Earth wherein they should have use of women and wallow in all carnal and libidinous pleasures which the most Epicurean soul could affect or covet A fancy meerly Iewish in its first original afterwards entertained by some Heretical Iudaizing Christians and finally rather rectified than refelled by many of the Fathers in the Primitive times And first beginning with the Iews we shewed in our discourse of the Kingdom of Christ how much they were besotted with the expectation of a Temporal Monarchy looking for such a Messiah as should come with power restore again the Crown of Iudah to the house of David and make that Commonwealth more formidable to the Neighboring Princes than ever it had been in the times before And to befool themselves the more in this fond conceit there was no promise nor no prophecy in the Old Testament intended to the building up of the Spiritual Temple or to the raising of Christs Kingdom in the souls of men which they applied not to the founding of a Temporal Monarchy the repairing of Ierusalem the new erecting of the Temple and to the re-establishment of Circumcision and other of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law of Moses Concerning which consult St. Ierom in his Comment on Isai. 31. and on Ezek. 36. and on Micah 4. Tertullian in his third Book against Marcion cap. ult and divers others of the Antients not to say any thing in this place of the Iewish Rabbins who run all that way In which it will appear that they both did and do expect a restitution of their temporal power and all the pleasures of a rich and flourishing Empire which are most correspondent to a carnal minde Which fancy being taken up and so strongly fixed that there was no removing of it out the hearts of the Iews was forthwith entertained by some nominal Christians who out of a compliance with that obstinate people embraced not onely many of their Rites and Ceremonies but of their dreams and fancies also Whom therefore Ierom calleth Christianos Iudaizantes Iudaizing Christians in many places of his works in which Iudaei Christiani Iudaizantes or Iudaei eorum erroris haeredes the Iews and those that do inherit their Superstitions march along together Of these the first was that Arch-heretick Cerinthus who did not onely set on foot in the Church of Christ the Festivals and Sacrifices of the Law of Moses but also taught Regnum Christi post Resurrectionem terrenum fuisse carnem nostram Hierosolymis cupiscentiis voluptatibus carni servituram That after the Resurrection Christ should have an Earthly Kingdom in which his followers should enjoy in their New Ierusalem all the delights and pleasures of the flesh of what kinde soever And this not onely to endure for a little while the ordinary life a man or so but for a thousand years compleat as Nicephorus addeth Marcus another leading Heretick was of this opinion and so was Nepos also an Egyptian Bishop who teaching first That all the promises made by God in holy Scripture Iudaico more reddendas esse were to be understood according to the Iewish Glosses did thereon build this following Tenet That the Saints should for a thousand years injoy all manner of corporal delights and pleasures in the Kingdom of Christ which after the resurrection should be founded here upon this earth Against this Nepos and his doctrine in this particular Dionysius that great and learned Bishop of Alexandria wrote
in the Pharisees For Christ who knew their hearts found their cunning also And therefore did so shape his answer as by declaring the true nature of the Resurrection against the Pharisees to justifie the Immortality of the Soul against the Sadduces 1. Then he tells them how much they were mistaken in the nature of the Resurrection for want of a right understanding of the holy Scriptures Erratis nescientes Scripturas as the Vulgar reads it The Scriptures which do speak of a Resurrection not being to be understood in such an Animal and Carnal sense as the Pharisees did understand them Those bodies which were sown in corruption were to be raised again incorruptible and therefore not to live by the food which perisheth Those bodies which were sown in their mortality by reuniting with the Soul should become immortal and therefore not to stand in need of any Seminal or Carnal way of Propagation For in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more but are as the Angels of God in Heaven in the condition of their being as to those particulars This said and so much of their doubt resolved as concerned the error of the Pharisees he lets them see the weakness of their own opinion touching the annihilation or extinguishment of the Immortal soul of man And that too from the works of Moses which themselves embraced without consulting any other of the holy Pen-men For when God said to Moses in the present tence I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob it must needs be that Abraham Isaac and Iacob must be accounted of as living at that present time and living otherwise they were not at that present time but as their blessed Souls did live in the sight of God their Bodies being long before consumed and perished though even those bodies by the infinity of comprehension which is in God might be looked upon as living also in reference to that eternal life which was prepared for them in the day of the Resurrection And this I take to be the meaning of St. Luke who doth not onely say in the present tence That the dead are raised but addes these following words to the other Evangelist viz. For all live in him that is to say All men though buried in their dust are living in the sight of Almighty God who sees at once all things that have been are and shall be unto all eternity as if present with him and consequently beholds the Souls of his righteous servants Abraham and Isaac and the rest in the bliss of Paradise as if apparrelled with those bodies which before they had So then the Immortality of the Soul being so fully proved by our Saviours Argument The Resurrection of the dead being the thing which seemed to be scrupled by the Sadduces was concluded also and yet not such a Resurrection the Pharisees dreamed of in which there should be marrying and giving in marriage that is to say In which things should be ordered by the rules of this present life but such a one wherein the Saints of God should be like the Angels discharged from all relations incident to flesh and blood exempt from all humane affections of what sort soever For certainly had not the Argument concluded strongly and convincingly to the point proposed neither the Scribes men better studied in the Scriptures than any of the rest of the Iewish Nation had given this testimony to it Magister dixisti benè as we see they did nor had the mouths of such curious and captious Sophisters been muzzled as we see they were from asking him the like Questions for the time to come both which the story tells us in the close of all But I have staid too long on this Text of Scripture it is now time I should proceed to the rest that follows ARTICLE XII Of the Twelfth Article OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. MATTHIAS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Et Vitam Aeternam Amen i. e. And the Life Everlasting Amen CHAP. VIII Of the Immortality of the Soul and the glories of Eternal Life prepared for it As also of the place and torment of Hell Hell-fire not metaphorical but real The conclusion of all MOrs non extinguit hominem sed ad praemium virtutis admittit Death saith Lactantius doth not put an end to the life of man but rather openeth him a way to receive the recompence of his wel deservings For though the body be returned unto the earth out of which it was taken and that there were no Resurrection to be looked for for it yet in the better part the soul he is incorruptible and immortal not subject to the stroke of death nor to be made a prey unto worms and rotâ—enness In this respect it is to be disposed of in some suitable place and to be punished or rewarded in a suitable manner none but an Everlasting Life or eternal punishments being the doom thereof in the world to come according to the good or evil which in this world it hath projected or accomplished Now that the Soul of man is not onely a spiritual essence which actuates the body in the which it is but an immortal essence too which shall over-live it we have good proof in holy Scripture and that both from the Old Testament and from the New The souls of the righteous saith the wise man are in the hands of the Lord And though the Body go down into the Earth yet the Soul returneth unto him that gave it saith a wiser than he But behold a greater than Solomon or the wisdom of Solomon even CHRIST the wisdom of the Father hath affirmed the same not onely commending his own Soul to Almighty God but teaching St. Stephen and all the rest of the Saints in him how to do the like This day saith he to the good Theef thou shalt be with me in Paradise And more than so he doth convincingly conclude the immortality of the Soul from those words in Exod. I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob which sufficiently doth prove that point This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Not in their bodies either of them for the body of the one was on the cross and the other in the Grave till the resurrection It must be therefore in their Souls which neither the Cross could crucifie nor the Grave bury St. Iohn affirmeth the same as a matter of fact which in the former Texts except that of Exodus we finde but in hope or promise For speaking of the estate of the Saints departed which he beheld as clearly in an heavenly Rapture as if it had been a thing done before his eyes he telleth us that he saw under the Altar the soules of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they had And they cryed with
a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true delayest thou to judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell on the earth And of this nature is that passage in St. Lukes Gospel though perhaps it be but Parabolical in which the Soul of Lazarus is carryed into Abrahams bosome as soon as it had left his body So that the wonder is the greater if the tale be true that Paul the third a Christian and a Christian Prelate one of the Popes of Rome in these later Ages should make doubt hereof as they say he did Of whom it is reported that lying on his death-bed he should say to the standers by That he should shortly be assured of three particulars of which he had not been resolved all the time of his life that is to say Whether there were a God Such a place as Hell or That the souls of men were immortal or not A speech which hath so much of the Atheist in it that Christian charity forbids me to give credit to it though possibly his course of life as to say truth he was a man that sought his own ends more than the glory of God might give occasion to the world to report so of him And yet I must confesse my charity is not so perfect as not to beleeve the like report of Pope Iohn the three and twentieth who lived in safer times than this Paul the third and might take liberty to speak whatsoever he thought without fear of giving any advantage to an opposite party For he indeed as it is charged against him in the Council of Constance was of opinion that the Soul of man did die with his body like that of beasts And did not onely hold it as his own opinion but pertinaciously maintained it Quin imo dixit pertinaciter credidit Animam hominis cum corpore humano mori extingui ad instar animalium brutorum as the Council hath it Some who were called Arabici in the former times held the self same error as Eusebius telleth us for which they were accounted for no better than Hereticks and put into the Catalogue of Hereticks of St. Augustines making And yet upon a Disputation which they had with Origen they did desert their error and recant it too the story of which Nicephorus reports at large A Pope may hold the same opinion and pertinaciously maintain it against all Opponents and yet we must not say that he is an Heretick no take heed of that That were to trench too deep upon the privileges of St. Peters Chair But what need any proof be brought from the Word of God to prove the immortality of the Soul of man which was a truth confessed by the very Gentiles who saw no more than what was represented to them by the light of Nature and the dull spectacles of Philosophy By Plato one of the sagest of them it was affirmed expresly and in positive terms who useth also many Arguments in defence thereof Which Arguments though they seem too short to some Christian writers to come up close unto the point yet they approve his judgment in it confessing that De immortalitate animae verum sentiret he held the very truth in that particular But before him Pythagoras and Pherecides did affirm the same although Pythagoras for his part went a way by himself touching the passing of the Soul into other Bodies Transire animas in nova corpora as mine Author hath it It is true that Aristotle seemed to be doubtful of it and problematically sometimes to dispute against it though other-whiles the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal and immortal do escape his pen. Nor was it positively denied by any in the Heroick times of learning save onely by Dicearchus Democritus and the Sect of Epicures who placing the chief happiness or summum bonum in corporal pleasures were as it were ingaged to cry down the Soul And yet Lucretius an old Poet and a principal stickler of that Sect doth now and then let fall some unluckly passages which utterly overthrow his cause As this for one Cedit item â—etro de terra quod fuit ante In terras quod missum est ex aetheris oris Id rursum Coeli fulgentia templa receptant Which may be briefly Englished in these two lines To Earth that goes which from the Earth was given And to Joves house that part which came from Heaven In this Lucretius did agree with that of Hermes or Mercurius sirnamed Trismegistus who makes man to consist of two principal parts as indeed he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one mortal which is the body and the other immortal which is the soul And of the same opinion was Apollo Milesius and the Sibylline Oracles both which are cited by Lactantius l. 7. c. 13. and Cap. 18.20 But what need more be said in so clear a case when Tacitus reporteth it for the general opinion of all knowing men Cum corpore non extingui magnas animas That the Souls of great and gallant persons were not extinguished with their Bodies Were it not so the Body were in better case than the Soul by far and of more continuance which doth not onely remain a Body for a while as before it was entire and uncorrupted after the Soul is taken from it but by embowelling imbalming and such helps of Art may be preserved from putrifaction many ages together Which Reasons and Authorities of so many Writers and the general consent of all learned men in the times before him prevailed so far at last on one Aristoxemus that finding no way to decry the Souls immortality he fell into a grosser error Negando ullam omnino esse animam denying that there was any Soul at all Quo nihil dici delirius potest than which a greater dotage could not be imagined as it is very justly censured by Lactantius And yet as great a dotage as it seemed to him though coming from the mouth or pen of an Heathen-man hath been revived again in these times of Liberty and a Book printed with the title of Mans Mortality wherein the Author whosoever he was doth endeavor to prove That the whole man as a rational Creature is wholly mortal contrary to that common distinction of Soul and Body Which if it be not the dotage of that Aristoxemus is questionless the Heresie of the old Arabici This Author teaching that our immortality beginneth at the Resurrection at the general judgment and they that the Soul of man dying with the Body de coetero ad immortalitatem transituram was from thenceforth to pass into immortality Such is the infelicity of the times we live in that the more gross the heresie and the more condemned by those great lights of learning in the former times the better entertainment it is sure to finde with unknowing men I purpose not to make an exact discourse
of the Souls immortality but onely to assert it in such a manner as to prepare my way to the present Article which doth in part depend upon it For if there were no Soul at all or if the Soul did perish as do those of Beasts it were in vain to think of a Resurrection or flatter our selves with expectation of eternal life The immortality of the Soul is to be premised before we speak of Heaven and the life to come and that premised or granted as I hope it will be we must next fit it with an Ubi with a constant place of as great perpetuity as a soul it self and with a life as permanent as the place can be Which place or life being we cannot finde it in this present world we must look for it in another and therefore that which in this Creed is called Life everlasting is called in the Nicene Creed The life of the world to come And if it be a Life of the world to come this world and all the beauties of it must first pass away before we can possess our estates in that even as St. Paul hath told us of our Saviour Christ That he took away the first Covenant to establish the second Now that the world shall have an end is a thing so clear in Christianity that never any Heretick in all ages past did call the truth hereof in question And so it was conceived in Philosophy also till Aristotle and the Peripateticks which followed him began to hammer a conceit De aeternitate mundi of the worlds eternity Certain I am that all the old Philosophers before his time and namely Heraclitus Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus and divers others as also the Stoicks and the whole Sect of the Epicures though in other things they did agree like fire and water were all agreed upon this point That as the world had a beginning so it should have an end The judgment in this case of those old Philosophers Diogenes Laertius will afford us on an easie search And for the said two Sects to take one of each Seneca telleth us for the Stoicks Unus hominum genus condet dies That one day shall bury all mankinde and not all mankinde onely but the whole frame of the Creation totum hunc rerum omnium contextum as he elswhere hath it dies aliquis dejiciet shall in one day be cast down and brought to end The like Lucretius saith for the Epicureans of which Sect he was Una dies dabit exitio multosque per Annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi In English thus The goodly frame and engine of this All So many years upheld shall one day fall Nor did they thus agree as by joynt consent touching the Quod sit of this truth That the world should end but they descended to the Quomodo or the manner of it affirming That it shall be consumed with fire St. Ierom doth affirm it of the Gentiles generally that they so conceived it I mean still the Philosophers or the learned Gentiles Quae quidem Philosophorum mundi opinio est omnia quae cernimus igne peritura The Stoiks and the Epicureans also did agree in this Quod mundus hic omnis ignescat That the whole world should be burnt with fire as Octavius telleth us in the Dialogue Eusebius not content to deal in such general terms gives us the names of Zeno Cleanthes and Chrysippus antient Stoicks all who have so declared The like saith Cicero of Panaetius whose fear it was Ne ad extremum mundus ignesceret lest the world should be consumed with fire See to this purpose also Seneca in his Book De Consolatione ad Mart. c. 26. Pliny in his Natural History l. 7. c. 16. The Sibylline Prophecies lib. 2. Oracul Lucans Pharsal and Ovids Metamorph. l. 1. who doth thus express it Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptaque Regia Coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret Which may be Englished as followeth Besides he call'd to minde that by the doom Of certain Fate a certain time should come When Sea and Land the Court of Heaven the frame Of this great work the world should burn in flame Who can peruse these passages of those Antient Gentiles and not conceive they had consulted with the writings of the Prophet Isaiah where it is said That the Heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth wax old as doth a garment and also in another place That the Heavens shall be rolled together like a peece of parchment that is to say Like a Peece of Parchment shrivelled and shrunk up together by a scorching fire Who can peruse those passages of the antient Gentiles but must conceive that they were partly enlightned by the self-same Spirit with which St. Peter was enspired when he told us in his second Epistle saying The day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be utterly burnt Cap. 4.10 And in the next save one as followeth Looking for and hastning to the coming of the day of God in which the Heavens shall perish with fire and the Elements melt with fervent heat Were it a thing to be admitted in Chronology I could not but believe that these antient Gentiles had ploughed with St. Peters Heifer and from him borrowed their discourses of the worlds conflagration And now I am faln into the writings of those antient Gentiles and found what they conceived of the Souls immortality and the consumption of this world by a burning fire I will not leave them till they have delivered their opinions also concerning the estate of the soul departed and the glories of eternal life in the world to come In which they have expressed themselves in so clear a manner that we may justly say as Octavius did Aut nunc Christianos Philosophos esse aut Philosophos fuisse jam tunc Christianos That either the Christians are Philosophers or the old Philosophers were Christians For that there was a Paradise or some place of delight and pleasure for the reception of the souls of vertuous persons appeareth by that sacred speech of Zoroaster the antientest of the Sages amongst the Gentiles and one not much short of the time of Abraham with whom he is supposed to have been contemporary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seek Paradise saith he that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all enlightned recess of souls as Pletho the Scholiast doth expound it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Quire of the divine powers encircling the Father as Psellus glosseth on that Text but Psellus on occasion of the words aforesaid goes a little further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It concerneth us saith he to make haste unto the light
brought to light then much more shall the workers of those iniquities be made known to the Saints their Judges for if the persons be not known where would be that confusion of the face which the Scriptures speak of which shall befall the wicked and impenitent sinner upon the manifestation of his deeds of darkness Many a malefactor hath been hanged more chearfully in places where we was not known where he could be no shame to his friends and kinred than if he had been executed in the sight of those who knew him and the parentage whence he came And to this purpose are the words of our blessed Saviour unto his Apostles when he informeth them That they should sit upon twelve seats judging the twelve Tribes of Israel By which it is apparent that they shall be known by the Tribes of Israel to be the poor despised Apostles of a more despised and persecuted Saviour It followeth consequently upon good deduction not onely that the twelve Apostles shall know those of the Tribes of Israel whom they are to judge but that they shall be also known of one another and of all the Saints who shall rejoyce in that preferment of their Chiefs and Leaders though raised unto an higher pitch and degree of glory than others of their Brethren are advanced unto For that in Heaven there shall be different degrees and estates of glory I take to be a point so clearly evidenced in holy Scripture that little disputation needs be raised about it Though some too much affected to a parity in this present life expect to finde it also in the life to come The Fathers I am sure did all look this way And so much Peter Martyr doth confess ingenuously although himself no friend unto their opinion De Patribus fatemur ingenuè quod praemiorum discrimina statuerunt which is plain enough And as he doth affirm this of the Fathers generally so he affirms particularly of St. Ierom that he was istarum differentiarum acer propugnator a great assertor of those different degrees and estates of glory as indeed he was And certainly they had good warrant to resolve so in it Daniel a Prophet of the Lord and one in more than ordinary favor with him hath assured us this That they which be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and they which turn many unto righteousness like the Stars for ever In which we see two different duties recommended to us to learn the rules of wisdom first to be wise our selves and then to teach them unto others to turn them to righteousness accordingly the rewards proportioned to shine like the brightness of the firmament like the stars of Heaven And who seeth not how much the splendor of the Stars exceeds the brightness of the Sky of the clearest Firmament The like St. Paul hath told us of the Resurrection That there shall be a difference in it that there is one glory of the Sun another glory of the Moon another glory of the Stars and of the Stars that one Star differeth from another Star in glory Now our Astronomy doth teach us upon very good inferences that the Sun is One hundred sixty and six times bigger than the Earthly Globe whereas the Moon hardly amounts unto a fortieth part thereof and that the fixed Stars of the first magnitude are found to be One hundred and seven times bigger than the Body of the Earth those of the least coming but to the sixth part of that proportion Which sheweth the difference in glory to be very great though possibly the Rules of that Art may fail us in the proportioning of that difference But whatsoever be the error in those Rules of Art assuredly there can be no etror in the words of Christ in whom the Prophets and Apostles do concenter and meet together And he hath told us in plain terms That in his Fathers house there are many mansions that is to say as Denys the Carthusian states it conform unto the minde and meaning of the antient Fathers Multi praemiorum gradus variae distinctiones many degrees of happiness and estates of glory though all most glorious in themselves According to which Rule of our Lord and Saviour we finde a difference made in his holy Gospel between those men which had been faithful over much and those which had been faithful over a little onely the one being made the Ruler of Ten Cities the other but of Five alone between the recompense and reward of a righteous person and that which is laid up by God for the reward of a Prophet He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteoas mans reward And he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward saith our Lord and Saviour And to say truth besides the warrant and authority of the holy Scriptures that so it should be it stands with very good Reason that so it should be and is most consonant to the Rules of distributive Iustice that so it must be For if that faith in Christ and a conformity to the words of his holy Gospel be in the merciful construction of the Lord our God thought worthy of a crown of glory then certainly a greater and more lively faith and a more conscionable walking in the sight of God must be rewarded with a richer and more excellent Crown And so it also followeth by the rule of contraries For if he that knoweth the will of his Master and doth it not shall be beaten with more stripes than the ignorant man as the truth it self hath said he shall it must needs follow by that Rule that they which know Gods will exactly and conscionably apply themselves to observe the same shall be rewarded with more blessings at their Masters hands And so the old Carthusian whom before I spake of doth resolve the question Many saith he are raised above their brethren in the house of God Secundum quod aliqui ferventius Deum dilexerint as being far more zealous in their love to God more constant in pursute of their way to Heaven than others of their Brethren are which yet by Gods great mercy shall come thither also As therefore the Apostle advised those of Corinth so must I also counsel those which shall read these papers that they do covet earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best gifts and graces that so they may possess the most eminent places Or if they dare not look so high to be sure of this that they do so conform their lives unto Gods commandements that when their earthly Tabernacles are dissolved into dust and ashes their soules may be disposed of in the place of rest there to expect the Resurrection of their Bodys to Eternal life and lodged for ever in some one of those heavenly Mansions reserved for them in the Heavens And this indeed is that which we
whole Text is expounded of Christs descent into Hell as hath been proved at large in the foresaid Article This finally is the very place to which the Devils who exclaimed against Christ our Saviour for coming to torment them before their time desired him that they might not go And they besought him saith St. Luke ne imperaret illis ut in Abyssum irent i. e. That he would not command them to go into the deep or rather into the Abysse or the bottomless pit as the word is rendred thrice in the Revelation Abyssus therefore must be Hell or the house of torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels against the judgment of that great and terrible day which they were so afraid to enter that they besought the Lord not to send them thither The third word used for Hell in the holy Scripture is Tartarus used onely by St. Peter and that but once God spared not saith he the Angels that sinned but having bound them with chains of darkness detrusos in Tartaro tradidit cruciandos cast them down into Hell to be kept there to the day of judgment Where Tartarus though Englished Hell is not that very place of torment to which they shall be doomed in the judgment day but the out-skirts or suburbs of it the prison in the which they lie bound in the chains of darkness But whether it be Hell it self or the dungeon to it the antient Gentiles who best knew the true meaning of it have made it a dark place in the deeps of the Earth and therefore called by Ovid Tenebrosa Tartara Thus Hesiod also telleth us of it that the dungeon of Tartarus is as much under the Earth as Heaven is above it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are And so did Virgil understand it when he told us this Tartarus ipse bis patet in praeceps tantum That Tartarus is twice as deep as the Heaven is high And in a prophecy of one of the Sibyls which I finde often cited by the antient Fathers it is described to be a place in the lower parts of the Earth For speaking of the day of judgment it is there affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That then the gaping Earth shall discover the Tartarean dungeon That they did also use the word for the place of torments is evident by that of Anacreon an old drunken Poet who giveth this reason why he was so loath to die and forsake this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he feared to go to Tartarus And so St. Augustine understood it when he said of Christ That he descended unto Tartarus but felt there no torments The fourth and last word was Gehenna or Ge-Hinnom a word not known amongst the Gentiles and onely used by Christ when he spake to the Iews whose it was originally and by St. Iames in his Epistle to that scattered Nation who very well understood the true meaning of it For Ge-Hinnom or the Valley of Hinnom was a Dell or Valley near Ierusalem in which there was a fire continually burning partly to consume the dead Carkasses and filth of the City and partly for the sacrificing of those wretched Children which were offered to the Idol Moloch Which making it a place both of stink and terror it came to be a type of Hell-fire it self and for the fire of Hell or for Hell it self was used by Christ and his Apostle as before was said the Hebrew word being mollified and made Gehenna Hell is called many times Gehinnon saith Peter Martyr because a Vale being a low and deep place doth resemble Hell Quod infra terram esse creditur which generally is believed to be under the Earth A place of fiery torments saith Martin Bucer and therefore called Gehenna ignis or the Hell of fire in St. Matthews Gospel These are the several words used by the sacred Pen-men of the New Testament when they speak of Hell And all being laid together will amount to this That it is a dark and dismal place in the deeps of the Earth prepared by God originally for the devil and his angels and secondarily for impenitent sinners where they shall fry for ever in unquenchable flames and see no other light but the fire that burns them And this being properly the punishment reserved in Hell for those who are condemned to that bottomless pit I shall insist the more upon it Not looking here upon the separation of the wicked from the love of God or the despair which they grone under or the guilt of conscience which either are but poena damni the loss of that which Gods beloved do enjoy in the Heavenly glories or are in part inflicted on the wicked man in this present life For unto this relates those Parables in St. Matthews Gospel where it is said by Christ That the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity and shall cast them in caminum ignis into the furnace of fire And in the Parable of the Net we have it in the same words in caminum ignis Thus the rich glutton in St. Luke is said to be tormented in those fiery flames And in the twentieth of the Revelation it is called expresly Stagnum ignis sulphuris A lake of fire and brimstone as was said before A truth communicated to and by the Prophets of the former times who give us this description of Tophet or the Valley of Hinnom That the pile thereof is fire and much wood that the breath of the Lord is like a stream of brimstone to kindle it and that the stream thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust into brimstone And Malachi speaking of the day of judgment telleth us That it shall burn like an Oven and that all which do wickedly shall be as the stubble Quos inflammabit dies veniens whom that day when it cometh shall burn up A truth so known among the Gentiles whether by tradition of their Ancestors or conversation with the Iews we dispute not here that by the verses of the Poets and the works of their most grave Philosophers as Minutius telleth us Illius ignei fluminis admonenâ—ur homines Men were admonished to beware of that burning lake To which it were impertinent to adde the testimonies of the Antient Fathers by one of which it is called Divinus ignis Poenale incendium by a second Ardor poenarum by a third Aeternus ignis by a fourth sic de coeteris And though a Question hath been made as all things have been questioned in these captious times whether this fire be true and real or onely metaphorically called so in the Book of God yet by all sound Interpreters it is thus agreed on as hath been very well observed by a learned Iesuite Metaphoram esse non posse quae sit tam perpetua That such a constancy of expression
Cajetan was a publick Confession and in generals onely sed non confessio Sacramentalis Not such a private and particular one as is now required not such a Sacramental one as is now defended But we might well have saved this particular search it being ingenuously confessed by Michael de Palacios a Spanish Writer That notwithstanding all their pains to found it on some Text of Scripture they are so far from being agreed amongst themselves that it is much to be admired Quanta sit de hac re concertatio What contention there is raised about it and how badly they agree with one another And if they have no better ground for the main foundation how little hopes may we conceive of finding any good in their superstructures And yet upon no better grounds do they exact a most unreasonable particularity of all mens affairs to be delivered to them in confession requiring of all persons being of age a private and distinct confession of all and every known mortal sin open and secret of outward deed and inward consent together with all circumstances thereof though obscene and odrous not fit to be communicated to a modest ear and that too once a year at least if they do not oftner For this we need not go much further than the Council of Trent where we shall finde Oportere à poenitentibus omnia peccata mortalia quorum post diligentem sui discussionem conscientiam habent in confessione recenseri etiamsi occultissima sunt tantum adversus duo ultima Decalogi mandata remember that they divide the last Commandment into two commissa c Which how impossible it is to do should one go about it what an intanglement it may prove unto the conscience of a penitent sinner and what a temptation also to the Priest himself to be acquainted with particulars so unchast and lustful I leave to any sober Christian to determine of who shall finde more hereof in Alvares Pelagius de Planctu Ecclesiae L. 2. Art 2 3 27 73 83. and Agrippa de Vanitate Scientiarum cap. 64. Writers of their own than I think fitting at this time they should hear from me who do not love to rake in such filthy puddles So then the business of Confession doth stand thus between us That we conceive it to be free whereas those of Rome will have it obligatory we that it is Iuris positivi onely but they Iuris divini we that it is a matter of conveniency and they of absolute necessity And then for the performance of it they do exact a punctual enumeration of all sins both of commission and omission together with all the accidents and circumstances thereunto belonging which we conceive in all cases to be impossible in some not expedient and in no case at all required by the Word of God Now as we disagree with those of the Church of Rome about the nature and necessity of private confession so have we no less differences with the Grandees of the Puritan faction about the efficacy and power of Sacerdotal Absolution which they which speak most largely of it make declarative onely others not so much whereas the Church hath taught us that it is authoritative and judicial too Authoritative not by a proper natural and original power for so the absolving of a sinner appertains unto God alone but by a delegated and derived power communicated to the Priest in that clause of their Commission Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained Iohn 20.23 Which proves the Priest to have a power of remitting sins and that in as express and ample manner as he can receive it But though it be a delegated Ministerial power yet doth not the descent thereof from Almighty God prove it to be the less judicial Then Judges and other Ministers of Justice sitting on the Bench may be said to exercise a judicial power on the lives and fortunes of the Subjects because they do it by vertue of the Kings Commission not out of any Soveraign power which they can chalenge to themselves in their several circuits Now that the Priests or Ministers of the Church of England are vested with as much power in forgiving sins as Christ committed to his Church and the Church to them the formal words Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted c. which are still used in Ordinations do expresly signifie Which though some of the Grandees of the Puritan faction have pleased to call Papisticum ritum an old Popish ceremony foolishly taken up by them continued with small judgment by our first Reformers minore adhuc in ecclesia nostra retentus and with far less retained by the present Church yet we shall rather play the fools with the Primitive Christians than learn wit of them And for the exercise of this power we have this form thereof laid down in the Publick Liturgy where on the hearing of the sick mans confession the Priest is to absolve him with these formal words viz. Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left power unto his Church to absolve all sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences And by his authority committed unto me I absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen In which we finde that the Sacerdotal power of forgiving sins is a derived or delegated Ministerial power a power committed to his Ministers by our Lord and Saviour but that it is Iudicial also not Declarative onely It is not said That I do signifie or declare that thou art absolved which any man may do as well as the Priest himself but I do actually absolve thee of all thy sins which no mortal man can but he In this the Priest hath the preheminence of the greatest Potentate And in this sense it is that St. Chrysostome saith Deus ipse subjecit caput Imperatoris manui Sacerdotis i.e. That God himself hath put the head of the Prince under the hand of the Priest For as no man whatsoever although he use the same words which the Minister doth can consecrate the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ because he wants the power of Order which should inable him unto it so no man not in Priestly order can absolve from sin though he may comfort with good words an afflicted Conscience or though he use the same words which are pronounced by the Minister in absolution The reason is because he wants the power of order to which the promise is annexed by our Saviour Christ which makes the sentence of the Priest to be so judicial which when the penitent doth hear from the mouth of the Minister he need not doubt in foro conscientiae but that his sins be as verily forgiven on Earth as if he had heard Christ himself in foro