the joyes also of the blessed are increased by the superexcellent beauty and pleasures of that place of their abode And because our Lord is blessed and holy above all that are blessed and holy therefore it is necessary that He should ascend into heaven 6. If Christ after His resurrection had not ascended into heaven then could no other creature bee blessed in heaven by His merit So the place of perfect blisse should be without inhabitants and therefore created in vaine So God should want that praise which were due to Him for His mercy and goodnesse shewed to the creature But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Angels and Saints are blessed in heaven and Christ our Lord their King among them See Iohn 14.2 3. and Ephes 2.6 7. If Christ our Lord had not ascended into heaven yea so that His ascension might be witnessed both by men and Angels Actes 1.10 11. then could not we which beleeve in Him have full assurance of those heavenly joyes that are laid up in store for us 1. So the Christian faith were all in vaine and we still subject to the punishment of our sinnes 2. So His Conception Birth Miracles Sufferings Death and Resurrection heretofore prooved should have beene in vaine So His owne preaching and of His messengers 4. So the prophecies of the Scriptures which were before concerning Him even since the world began should bee without their trueth 5. So the faith and hope of them which confesse the most glorious things of God concerning His goodnesse and mercy toward His creature which faith they have in Him being taught by Him out of his word and by the successe of all things that have come to passe accordingly should be frustrate But all these things are impossible And therefore God is gone up on high in triumph and our Lord with the sound of the trumpet all the holy Angels and the spirits and soules of the faithfull joying therein all the troopes of the heavens and the heavens of heavens attending His comming and submitting themselues to Him their Lord and King Open your heads ô yee gates and be yee set ope yee everlasting doores that the King of glory may come in Who is this King of glory The LORD of hostes mighty in battell euen our Lord IESVS who by the warres of His suffering and death on the Crosse and by the conquest of His resurrection hath overcome the powers of Hell He is the King of Glory Amen Notes a THerefore He ascended into Heaven This Article hath beene gainesayed by the heretickes diversly Cerinthus said That because Iesus was man onely conceived and borne as other men Hee was not yet risen but should rise at last Aug. de haer cap. 8. And thus by consequence he denied that our Lord ascended into heaven But this Iew both by nation and opinion is refuted before in all by the proofe of those Articles which he denied And because he brought nothing for the proofe of his opinions but onely opinion let them all vanish at the authority of the holy Scripture as mist before the Sunne Carpocrates as he had beene taught by Saturnilus said that the soule was onely saved Epiph haeres 23. So that the soule of Christ onely after it was freed from the body ascended to the Father Epiph heres 27. Against this heresie you may set the reasons and authorities of the Chapter before and them that follow in the Article of the resurrection of the body Chap. 38. The errour of Apelles you read before Note a on Chap. 26. § 1. N. 3. his reasons and their refutation you have Note a on Chapter 27. N. 3. The Seleucians confesse that Christ when He ascended tooke with Him His manly body and carryed it as high as the Sunne but there He put it off and left it there But Saint Paul affirmes that He ascended farre aboue all heavens that is all the visible heavens either of planets or starres yet they brought their reason out of the 19. Psalm vers 4. He hath set His tabernacle in the Sun So the vulgar translation of the Latines hath it from the Greeke and so all the Greeke copies reade it except that of Aquila who according to the Hebrew hath it thus In them the heavens He set a tabernacle for the Sunne and this helpes the Seleucians nothing But the errour which hath swayed most against this Article and which with their sacriledge if they could see it hath now defaced their Church is that of the Vbiquitaries who because they beleeve that very substance of the body and blood of Christ is received with the Bread and Wine they are compell'd to say That His naturall body may be in many and consequently in all places at once as His God-head is And therefore that this ascensin of Christ must be nothing else but a disappearance out of the earth or a vanishing from the sight of men For the ground of their opinion they urge the word of our Lord This is my body This is my blood but they deny not the Bread and Wine to continue still which if it be true then the sence of the words must bee In this or with this Bread and Wine is my body and blood But the words beare no such meaning but prove much rather that transubstantiation or change of the Bread and Wine into the body and blood of Christ which the Papists would But this opinion of the Papists were to denie Christ to have taken flesh of the Virgin Mary and so to have beene made of the seed of David at least in part of His bodily being when His body and blood should be made of bread and wine I but it is said Matth. 28.20 I am with you unto the end of the world Answere Not by His bodily being but by His continuall providence and the graces of His Holy Spirit as Saint Augustine saith Corpus suum intulit Coelo majestatem non abstulit mundo Tract 50. in Ioh. But the Centurists cite also the auctorities of the Fathers for their consubstantiation as of Iust Martyr in Tryph. of Tertullian against Marcion but corruptly and falsly and of Origen but a forged one Cent. 3. cap. 10. They bring also reason for say they If the Divine and humane natures in Christ be united personally then it is necessary that where the one nature is there must also be the other But the two nature are so united Ergo. Answere The consequence of the proposition is not good where one of the natures is finite the other Infinite as Saint Augustine saith God and man are one Person and both together are one Christ every where as He is God but as He is man in heaven Ep'la ad Dardanum But this question is by many handled at large and if you desire further satisfaction See the Catechisme of Vrsinus a Booke I thinke common and the question is there briefly handled See Doctor Willet Synopsis Pap. Contr. 13. Part. 1. See also Bucan Inst
safety with sinne and to leave us in that corruption to be guided by him whom we chuse to serve having forsaken our true Lord and owner But because this corruption is from our birth and that we made not our selves such but that by the fault of Adam sinne and death reigne over all the summe of the question is knit up in that one sinne of our first father concerning whose fall wee are brought to this point If God so foresaw the fall of Adam that he will'd it it was impossible but that he should fall it he will'd it not it was impossible that he should To which doubt Thomas Aquinas in lib 1. Sen. Dist 46. q. 4. answeres wittily and modestly that although the proposition be true and necessary yet it is not necessary that the will should be carried to either side of the contradiction His reason as I thinke is because truth is not the object of the will but of the understanding onely and therefore he saith that God doth permit ill onely not because it is ill but because of the annexes or dependances thereon either precedent as because it is good that the creature should have the power whereby it may be enabled to doe ill or not to doe ill or consequent which is that good that is occasioned by the ill I reverence the judgement but yet Doctor the question is here concerning good and ill the proper object of the will and as the understanding cannot avoid it but must consent to a truth which it knowes so neither can the will in that which it takes to be good or ill but that it must chuse one and refuse the other For as the outward sences cannot refuse to be moved by their proper objects as the eare to heare a sound within a meet distance no more can the inward faculties of the minde Besides the question is here of the will of God an infinite will and convertible with an infinite understanding for in God there is not one being of his will and another being of his understanding as will appeare more large hereafter in the 8. and 9. Chap. Neither is the will of God as mans will which may sit still while his understanding workes but what he understands he wills it also to be or not to be as his promises are not yea and nay but in him all is yea and Amen Therefore to let passe those questions which are moved hereabout concerning the freedome of Adams will why God should forbid that to Adam wherein he saw that Adam would transgresse and so make his eating to be sinne for where no law is there is no fiune and such unnecessary questions I answer directly that it is utterly impossible but that God did foresee the fall of Adam the taint of all mankinde thereby all the sins and all the punishments wherunto any one particular person is lyable all the wandrings backslidings and wants which can be in the creature Neither will I blush to affirme with the Apostle Rom. 11.32 That God hath shut up all under sinne that hee might have mercy upon all But it followeth not hereupon that hee decreed our misery in Adam because he foresaw it yet such was his mercy that out of this great evill he wrought a greater good so that it may seeme by consequence we are rather gainers by Adams fall for though we lost by the sinne of Adam an inheritance of holinesse c. Yet that holinesse was like the morning dew that vanished at the heat of the first tentation it was a created holinesse it was in a low degree fit to his being in whom it was Is not the present inheritance of our holinesse more sure more excellent who are made partakers of his holinesse who is holinesse it selfe his knowledge was but of worldly things ours of eternall and though our naturall knowledge bee by Adams sinne corrupted or lost yet shall it at last be restored againe with endlesse advantage for the gift is not as the sinne Rom. 5.15 His life but a naturall life so that if Adam had not sinned he might have lived a naturall life till now and afterward free from ficknesse and want abounding in all the knowledge of nature and naturall blessings but that should have beene the end of his hope as farre as I can see though some there be that give us hopes of the same degrees of happinesse and glory which now we have although Adam bad not sinned Yet because they see that that could not be brought to passe except God should take our nature that thereby we might be lifted up to that estate of glory they thinke that Christ our Lord should have come in the place of Henoch the seventh from Adam and that therfore Henoch was taken away in stead of Christ See Pastellus de Nativitate Mediatoris pag. 116. But wee are bound both by reason and authoritie of holy Writ to know and confesse that the first Adam was of the earth earthly and such should our happinesse have beene if we had continued in our created innocencie the second Adam is the Lord from heaven heavenly into whose image being renewed we are made partakers of his superexcellent and heavenly glorie The meanes whereby we come to this state of glory is also our assurance that it shall be fully accomplished God dwells in our flesh O unspeakeable mysterie he hath taken upon himselfe our sinnes O unspeakeable love he calls them his owne sinnes Psal 40.12 2. Cor. 5.21 He hath healed us with his stripes and is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse holinesse redemption life with an over-abounding waight of glory Is not the exchange well made with this advantage who would not lose himselfe that he might winne Christ with all his demerits who would not forfeit the life and happinesse of Adam in his innocencie that he might gaine the life and glorie of Christ in his eternitie And thus much briefly for the advantage Is it nothing to see the infinitie of the wisdome and goodnesse of God which out of the greatest ill could bring the greatest good The greatest ill on Adams part was his sinne which from him spread it selfe over all mankind to make it liable to eternall death on the devils part his malice and murder yea such a murder as could not be in the world beside in one man to murder the whole world of men Is it nothing I say that out of this great ill God could bring the greatest good that is our assured and everlasting righteousnesse and glorie is it nothing that he hath caught the wylie in his owne craftinesse for whereas the devill envying that happy estate wherin man was created sought his overthrow by making him subject to sinne and so to death He our Creator to shew to the principalities and powers the riches of his wisdome and goodnesse in man did not onely redeeme him from that thraldome of sinne and death but also exalted him unto an estate of glorie and happinesse farre above
which have from time to time maintained this truth against all heresies And although it cannot bee denied but that even among the Heathens some of their wisest both Poets and Philosophers knew this mysterie by heare-say as they had received it from the Hebrewes as you may reade in Thom. Aquin. in lib. 1. dist 3. q. 2. and more at large in Struchus de peren Philos lib. 1. 2. and from them in Philip Mornay of the truenesse of Christian Religion Chap. 6. yet among the Hebrewes themselves except the Prophets and schooles of the Prophets this secret was not knowne or taught and that as it may seem lest the misunderstanding multitude might fall into the Idolatrie of many Gods therefore is this thing so taught in the holy text of the Old Testament that the wise onely might understand it for although the Prophets knew well enough that in the dayes of the king Messiah this mysterie should be knowne even to the Gentiles for of him it is written in the 40. Psalme vers 9.10 I will not refraine my lips O Lord thou knowest but I have declared thy truth and thy salvation I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great Congregation Yet because they knew they ministred those things of which they spake not to themselves nor to the people of their owne times but for us unto whom the treasuries of the riches of God in Christ were more fullie to bee opened therefore they taught according to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost who hath so from time to time opened the fountaines of knowledge unto his Church and hereafter will as the holy Church shall be able to receive it This glorious truth then being plainely discovered to us in the New Testament let us see with what diligence and faithfulnesse reason that servant of God doth wait on the authoritie of his Lord and how thereby a wee are summoned to hearken unto this truth for although reason could never have found it out yet being taught what the truth of God is herein it joyes to see the necessitie of that truth which it is bound to beleeve But because I have written somewhat to this Argument already which that you misse not I have caused to bee printed at the end of this booke I may be somewhat more briefe herein Onely the reasons I take up here together and adde such other supplies as seeme to be wanting in that treatise § 2. The word Father is taken either personally as it signifies the first Person of the blessed Trinitie with the relation to the Eternall Sonne or else it is spoken essentially of all the three Persons in the Godhead with respect of the creature which is created susteined and governed thereby Of this through his helpe we shall speake hereafter Chap. 13. but first of the first person of the holie Trinitie The Greeke Churches by the authoritie of the Apostle Heb. 1.3 for the severall distinctions of the Persons in the Godhead hold the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hypostasis which wee from the Latin call a Subsistence or severall substantiall being by it selfe But the Latin Church turned it Persona from an old word Persola because it meanes one onely being intire of it selfe for Solus is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is whole in it selfe and entire with all the parts but yet is Persona a title of honour given unto men alone for they define it to be Rationalis naturae individua substantia that is an individeable substance of a reasonable nature and from thence it is translated to God and Angels A Person then of the holy Trinitie is an incommunicable subsistence in the Divine nature These words have their ground in the holy Scripture to which in this great Article of our faith wee must ever have recourse by reason of the many and strong heresies that have beene thereabout Trinitie Triunitie or a threefold being in one hath ground in that Text which is in Matthew 28.19 Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost But certaine it is that in our Baptisme wee bind our faith and allegiance unto God alone So 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing or one being By subsistence understand a substantiall or essentiall being not comming to or being in the Deitie by chance It answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is different from substance nature being or the like termes that signifie any common or universall being for an Hypostasis meanes a peculiar being wherein the common nature is wholly and entyre as I said before and will say untill you understand mee For example the whole nature or being of man is understood in that word Man and so the Angelicall nature in that word Angell but Peter or Gabriel meane that particular person in which the common being is whole and entyre I meane so as that there is nothing essentiall in the being a man or Angell whereof Peter and Gabriel are not partakers essentially so wee understand the difference The being or essence of the Godhead is one individuall most simplie absolutelie and substantiallie one which infinite and undivideable being of the Godhead is yet neverthelesse in everie Person entyre and wholly so that nothing of the essentiall being of the Godhead is in one which is not in the other And therefore Iustin the Martyr and from him Damascen Dialect Cap. 66. and after them our sound Doctors of all sides agree that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a subsistence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that manner of being proprietie or reall relation which belongs to every one Person in the Holy Trinitie You may here not unfitly note the difference of these words Being Substance and Subsistence Being is that which is common to all things that are The word Substance properlie doth not so much import the verie inward being as that respect which it hath to the accidents that are therein Subsistence signifies that speciall manner of being which belongs to substances that are actually being If you will enquire further you may see what Thom. Aquin. hath writ hereto in Sent. lib. 1. Dist 23. qu. 4. or if you will the Introduct to log Sect. 4. Incommunicable that is peculiar proper or belonging to one alone so that one cannot be another The divine Nature is used 2. Pet. 1.4 and here meanes that being or substance wherein all the three Persons are essentially one and the same One God One I say not compounded or made of the three Persons but One most simple and perfect being in all the three Persons of the Godhead Now the name of a Father is most poperly given unto God the first Person of the Trinitie for of him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all fatherhood of the families both in heaven and earth Ephes 3.15 because
and goodnesse are one being doth bring forth eternally an infinite good that is the Sonne betwixt whom and himselfe results an infinite Communion of goodnesse viz. the holy Ghost If there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the actions of the Godhead then there must needs bee a difference of Persons otherwise the difference of the termes were idle and vaine if the being understood thereby were not answerable But there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the working of the Godhead For an infinite working already proved must needs be from an infinite worker about an infinite worke Therefore there is a difference of Persons in the unity of the deity 6. If there were not an infinite and eternall production in the Persons of the Godhead then the being of a beginning could not cleerely and evidently bee therein because though the beginner were yet the working of the beginner and the being begun were yet wanting and so these two comming after should bee inferiour or lesse both in continuance and infinitie And so the first and highest cause should bee an infinite beginner without any effect or thing begun by him which must bring on that the first and chiefest cause of all should be infinitely defective and ceasing to worke and of lesse force than other causes subordinate which all worke incessantlie to the bringing forth of their effects unlesse they bee hindered by lets more powerfull Therefore there bee moe Persons than one in the unitie of the Godhead 7. Being and the power of Being working and the power of working are all one in God as was shewed chap. 8. 9. n. 6. But God by his infinite and eternall power can bring forth an infinite and eternall being like Himselfe by the infinite and eternall working of his power Therefore He doth bring forth or if he can and will not that power were in vaine and so his power and will were not equall and infinite So there should bee divers beings in God finite and infinite But all these things are impossible Therefore God doth bring forth an infinite being his Sonne by his infinite working the holy Ghost 8. If the inward working of the deity bee infinite with all the conditions of Infinitie then the understanding of God for example must bee infinite both in the act or perfection of it selfe and in the object which it doth understand and in the worke or action of the understanding about that object So that God understanding his owne being must needs behold himselfe by an infinite action of understanding But the working of God is infinite with all the conditions of infinitie as hath beene proved for otherwise there should bee a greaternesse in being and a lessenesse in working and so the being of God should not bee simple and one Therefore in the unity of the infinite deity there is an infinite understanding which we call the Father an infinite object or image of that understanding in the sight of which that infinite understanding is most delighted because nothing can be more excellent than it and this is God understood that glorious Sonne and an infinite working of the understanding and that is the Holy Ghost which you see cannot be conceived to be if either the infinite understanding or the object were supposed not to be and therefore he is said to proceed from them both And thus is it in all the other dignities of God his goodnesse his infinitie his eternity power will truth glory c. 9. Now the texts whereby this doctrine is taught more darkely in the old Testament lest the true Church with the Heathen might have fallen into the opinion of many Gods are these among many other Gen. 1. v. 26. Let us make man in our owne image Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us Gen. 11.7 Let us goe downe and let us confound their language Gen. 11.7 which manner of speech is not borrowed for manners sake from the custome of Princes and great men who for modestie speake not in their owne name alone Wee but as having determined with their great men and counsellors men like themselves But God doth not so consult nor determine by advice of his Creature Neither yet doth that language admit such forme of speech but as the Easterne languages even to this day speake to one particular person in the number of one as you may reade 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man and 2 Sam. 18 3. Thou shalt not goe forth Thou art worth ten thousand of us Esth 7.3 If I have found favour in thy sight O King But to returne to the holy Trinity You have a like proofe in Numb 6.24.5.6 where the word Iehovah is three times repeated in the blessing and every time with a severall accent So that although his name be one Zach. 14.9 and his being one Deut. 6.4 yet in that one being is a Trinitie of Persons which you shall better understand if you consider the blessings in the new Testament all taken from hence as that 2 Cor. 13.14 Rev. 1.4.5 c. So likewise in Iob. 35.10 Where is God my makers and Psal 149. Let Israel rejoyce in his makers Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creators and againe Psal 11.7 His faces or their faces will view the righteous In which places though for some reason translated singularly Maker Creator Face yet according to the precisenesse of the Hebrew it is as I have told you And yet a more evident proofe is that in Gen. 20.13 where the word Elohim God is ioyned with a verbe of the plurall number And in Ioshuah 24.19 The Trinity of Persons in unity of the being is most cleare For with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim is ioyned an adiective of the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kadoshim and a personall of the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu as if you would say God He the holy ones or as Esay explaneth it Ch. 6.3 Holy Holy Holy art thou O Lord. And againe in the same Chapter ver 8. whom shall I send there is the unity of the Godhead and who shall goe for us there is the Trinity of the Persons And againe in Esay chap. 48.16 Christ speaketh thus There am 1. I. and now the. 2. Lord God and 3. His Spirit hath sent me So you read in Psal 33.6 By the 1. Word of 2. Ichovah were the heavens made and all the host of them by the 3. Spirit of his mouth And in Hag. 2.5.6 From the beginning I was and now I am with you saith the 1. Lord of hostes the 2. word which covenanted with you when you came out of Aegypt my 3. Spirit shall dwell among you And if you desire moe proofes out of the old Testament you may reade Ficinus de Christ Relig. Cap. 31. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ichovah that great and fearefull name of God Deut. 28.58 one name of his owne being containes the mysterie of the Trinity For in the forming
but because opinions have beene about the time of his fall wherein they have differed from the first day of his Creation to three yeers and an halfe betweene which others have thought a weeke some tenne dayes or seventeene at most others halfe a yeare Lidg de Emend temp Omitting conjectures it will not be unfit to examine it by reason and Scripture which hath not left us without a guide and instruction in any doubt that may be moved therein The Hebrewes compare Adam to an oxe that had horns and no hoofs by which they meant he had no strength at all to walk in the commandements of God but assoone as he was created he pushed rebelliously against his ordinance The ordinances of God over and aboue the preheminences which He gave him in hiscreation were three Marriage for the due propagation of mans naturall life Gen. 2.24 the law of the tree of knowledge the figure of the life of grace ch 2.17 and the Sabbath the assurance of the life of glory For it were a witlesse thing to think that God sanctified that day for his owne use but for man to meditate in the workes of God and for remembrance of his hopes to come Adams transgression was against the second but it will appeare by the circumstances of the other two when that transgression was committed Adam was created a perfect man in the prime and chiefe of his strength and accordingly received that blessing to bring forth fruit and multiply Now if Adam according to that blessing had in his innocency endeavoured the propagation of mankind it cannot be supposed that God who had immediately before given him that blessing to multiply would immediately have taken it away againe And that act of Adam not being in vaine that first sonne of Adam must have bin holy and without the taint of originall sinne although the parents had sinned afterward before it was borne For that staine of originall sinne comes from the conception Psal 51.5 not by the birth But no such holy seed of Adam is mentioned nor none such could bee For the Lord looked downe from heaven upon the sonnes of Adam and they were altogether become filthy Psal 14.3 Now if Adam were created such as hee was aske any lusty young man how many nights hee would allow to his beloved and most beautifull Bride in her virginity and give so many to Adam before hee sinned So then it may seeme that wee may take that Storie of the Scripture concerning Adam thus Adam being made in the morning that God might give him experience of the excellencie of that estate wherein he was created brought the Beastes and Birds before him and gave him the Lordship over them all which that hee might exercise as he ought hee gave him perfect understanding of their nature and power of words whereby to expresse their nature and to command them For as Adam named every thing so was the name thereof But that man might know that hee was for a more noble end than to live among beasts Hee tooke him and put him in the Garden of delight furnished with fruits for every season and gave him power to eate of all excepting the forbidden tree At noone that heavie sleepe fell on him in which the woman was made out of his side Hee awaking the marriage was solemnized and the woman by her husband diligently warned to forbeare to eate or to touch the forbidden fruit But while she wandred from her Husband to chuse fruit to her liking for it is manifest that her Husband was not with her when shee was deceived 1 Tim. 2.14 shee was encountred by the devill possessing the Serpent and drawn into sinne and this about the ninth hower or three of the clocke in the afternoone as all the sacrifices of the Law and that sacrifice for sinne whereby the workes of the devill were destroyed doe sufficiently witnes Matth. 27.46 50. Thus man being in honor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bal yalin could not continue a night but by his sinne became subiect to death as the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 The heresie of Pelagius was like a Serpent with many heads of which this was one that Adam was created mortall and though hee had not sinned yet should he have died not for the merit or punishment of his sinne but for the condition or state of his creation for being made of the elements which in everie elementall body may be separated and in their simple being are changed one into another it cannot be thought said hee that Adams state could be more continuall than that from whence hee had his beginning Besides having in his innocencie need of meate to restore the decay of his body his body cannot be supposed immortall but the answer is easie For that immortality depended on the soule which should not have parted from the body but should have ever been able to uphold the body without corruption sicknes or death And although any particular change had beene in the body yet should it not have beene in the whole no more than that corruption or change which is in the simple elements therefore Adam in his innocencie was immortall absolutely inasmuch as his immortall soule should never have forsaken his body but he was mortall onely on condition if he did sinne So mortalitie was the punishment of his sinne but that which is put upon a man as a punishment can no way belong unto him in the state of his innocencie But it is plaine that death was inflicted on him for his sinne for why should it be said to him In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Gen. 2.17 if by the necessitie of his creation hee should have dyed though he had not eaten CHAP. XVII That by the sinne of Adam the whole race of mankinde is corrupted and made liable to everlasting death both of bodie and soule ANother error of Pelagius was that Adam by his sin did hurt himselfe alone but that his posteritie were no way tainted thereby with any originall sinne nor brought in danger of eternall death which as it is contrary to the autority of the holy Scripture so do they thereby put an absolute necessitie on the justice of God to admit those infants that never commited any actuall sin into eternall happines whereby as the mercie of God so also the death of Christ as far as he should be a Saviour to them is utterly in vaine for what need they mercie or Mediatour who for their owne worthinesse must enter into everlasting life yet this poyson the Socinians of late have lick't up as a restorative which heresie with other of theirs you may reade in Wentsel a Budowecs pag. 232. 233. But as Adam had received originall righteousnesse so by his sinne did he lose what he had received and that not for himselfe alone but also for his posteritie for hee being that common person in whom the whole race of mankinde was whatsoever gifts or
Saviour that was to come into the world yea so approved by the rule of the Law Deut. 18.22 and their owne expositors Moimony in Iesude hatorah cap. 10. that even because they beleeve not therefore is our Lord Iesus that true Prophet that was to come Because hee foretold both their unbeleefe and the punishment thereof Therefore beside other circumstances and proofes in this abundance not necessary to bee remembred take for another argument the unbeleefe of the Iewes and the destruction of their citty and scattering of that nation as the punishment of that unbeleefe Their hardnes of heart and incredulity was prophesied Ps 118.22 Es 6.9.10 c. 8.14.15 c. 52.1.2.3 The scattering of the whole nation is prophesied Lev. 26. vers 27. to 40. Deut. 28.64 Hos 3.4 9.17 The destruction of the cittie and Temple was foretold Dan. 9.26 and by our Lord himselfe Luk. 19.43.44 ch 21.20 with the continuance of that desolation Luk. 21.24 And of this their unbeleefe and scattering of the Nation and desolation of Ierusalem the Iewes themselves and all the world with them are witnesses unto this day If you desire further conferring of the Texts of the old Testament with the new you may reade Tertul. lib. 3. et 4. adversus Marcionem 11. To the death and sufferings of our Lord whereby wee are redeemed unto God the Father Rev. 5.9 wee may also adde the death and sufferings of his Saints as it is written Psal 44. vers 11. to 23. compared with Rom. 8.36 For even from Abel to Isaacke and so forward they that have beene borne after the flesh have persecuted them that have beene borne according to the Spirit Gal. 4.29 And although these persecutions have beene more common and grievous at some time than other as it may appeare by the bookes of the Maccabees and the ten persecutions of the primitive Church foretold Reu. 2.10 yet that rule holds and still shall till that King doe come that shall reigne in Iustice that all that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 For whether it bee that God by afflictions and persecutions doth try the constancie and patience of his servants and exercise their faith in his promises or whether by trouble and persecution hee will teach them not to looke for their portion in this life or to make them more conformable to the death of his Sonne that they may also bee partakers of his resurrection or that the reward of their afflictions may bee with an exceeding waight of glory or that in the life to come they may by comparison inioy the fullnesse of their happinesse in more thankefullnesse and the perfection of love to the author thereof or that the devil may in Iustice punish such as forsake his obedience for by the taint of originall sinne wee all became his vassalls and God is not uniust no not to the devill himselfe and therefore suffers him to afflict them whom he himselfe will comfort Iob 1. Reu. 2.10 or whether the devil to keepe his owne vassals in firme obedience doth more eagerly persecute the truth this is a sure conclusion that from Abel to this day the truth of the Religion of Christ and the obedient and faithfull professours thereof have ever beene persecuted whereas all Idolatry and superstition of how different kinds soever hath beene and is freely exercised From whence the reason will follow thus If the Religion of Christ and the faith in him have onely beene persecuted by the devill and his Instruments even from the beginning of the world untill now then the faith in Christ is onely the true faith and Hee the onely Saviour of the world But the first is true by the testimony of the holy Scripture and all those histories both ecclesiasticall and prophane that write any thing concerning this matter and the practice of the Turkes at this day doth approve it Therefore the Faith in Christ is onely the true faith and He the onely Saviour of the world 12. To this argument of the sufferings for the faith of Christ you may take another from the heresies that have beene there about For as a malitious enemy besieging a Castle impregnable poisons the fountaine of which the defenders must needs drinke so the faith of Christ being that onely fountaine of life by which we are sustained in our spirituall warfare hath by the malice of the devill beene troubled g with all kindes of heresies which the devill could possibly forge by the wits of his Instruments whereas in all the false worships that have beene in the world no questions nor dissentions have beene but every man wandred as hee was led in the darkenesse of his foolish heart And yet in all these heresies through the gratious direction of the Spirit of Christ and the light of his word the true faith hath prevailed according to his promise Math. 16.18 That all the devils that passe in and out at the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it From whence you may reason thus That faith which onely hath beene attempted by all manner of heresies to bee corrupted thereby and yet hath stood uncorrupted and unreproveable in the True Faith But the Christian Faith onely is such Therefore the Christian Faith onely is the true Faith and consequently our Lord Iesus is the Saviour of the world seeing in Him onely wee looke for redemption 13. And this is that pole of the Loadstone whereto we may bee directed by every point within the compasse of the holy Scripture And these pointers that follow are sufficient to shew it Act. 2.36 Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Act. 4. v. 10.11.12 There is no salvation in any other for there is no name under heaven given among men whereby wee must be saved save onely the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth whom God hath raised from the dead Act. 16.31 Beleeve on the Lord Iesus Christ and thoushalt be saved and thy whole house Act. 17.3 Paul opened and proved that Christ must needes have suffered and risen againe from the dead and this Iesus whom I preach unto you is the Christ Act. 18.28 He mightily convinced the Iewes and that publikely shewing by the Scriptures that Iesus was the Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ Gal. 1.8.9 Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you than that you have received let him be accursed Notes a HE to whom all the Prophesies This argument is the effect of that book which Lud. Crocius entitled Apodixis de Messia which with some alterations and additions hee might in part take out of Iust Mart. his defence of the Christians to Antoninus Pius out of Athanasius orat de incarnat verbi and other of the Fathers but most of all out of Hieronymus de Sancta Fide printed at Francofurt
another starre in glory So is the resurrection and so are the degrees in the blessednesse of the Saints And if every man that considers the disposition of God toward himselfe in this life doe looke thereon with a thankefull eye he may confesse with Saint Augustine That it hath been such as if God had neglected His other creatures to thinke in mercy on him alone Beside to say nothing of the merit of our Saviour confessed to be infinite and all-sufficient for us I say That the force of this reason stands on two false foundations One of the proposition for if the same faith must have the same effects in every quality and degree Why are not we that have the same faith translated hence as Henoch was The other of the supposition That in the kingdom of glory which we on both sides account to begin actually immediately after this life there is not a progresse from one degree of happinesse unto another which as it is contrary to reason so is it to the holy Scripture For is it not meet that as there hath beene a going forward in vertue and godlinesse in this life so there should be of the reward thereof in the next Shall not the ioy of the soule be increased when both body and soule doe joy together which cannot be till the resurrection till when we must endure that penalty of losse as you are pleased to call it Beside the holy Text is plaine 2 Cor. 3.18 That we beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory And how farre or how long shall this be Euen till God be all in all 1 Corin. 15.28 You may read to this purpose Revel 6.10 4. Objection Enoch was taken unto God Object 4 and Elias was carried up to heaven in a whirle-wind 2. Reg. 12. Therefore the faithfull before Christ were in heaven Answere Elias was taken up into heaven that is the Ayre and translated into Paradise whither Enoch had beene translated that he should not see death but into the highest heavens they came not yet as it will appeare by Iohn 3.13 5. Objection But wee are come to the Citie of God Object 5 the heavenly Ierusalem to an innumerable companie of Angels to the spirits of Iust men c. Heb. 12.22 23 24. And the Angels are the Inhabitants of heaven not of any terrestriall or infernall Paradise Ergo. Answere Wherever the favourable acceptance of God and His holy comforts are there is heaven where not hell But to the place alleaged I say 1. Wee are come in faith and hope to heaven not to the actuall possession thereof 2. It is one thing to speake of the state of the soule since Christ For from His ascension it is not denied but that the soules of the faithfull goe immediately to heaven as Cyprian Ambrose and some few other of the Fathers doe thinke whom you shall find cited by Ioh. Vossius pag. 104.105 But the question is of them that died before who if they were in heaven already then the prayer of our Lord Iohn 17.24 had beene in vaine which were wicked blasphemy for any one to say or thinke 3. It is denied that heaven is so the proper place of the Angels but that they are every where whither they are sent And doe they not in every place pitch their tents about them that feare God to deliver them Psal 34.7 and 91.11 Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth for their sakes that shall bee heires of salvation Heb. 1.14 And this is and shall bee their imployment till God by their ministery have gathered all His children into one So this text of Hebr. 12. prooves not either that the Angels are perpetuall inhabitants of Heaven or that the faithfull soules went thither before Christ Obiect 6. Obiect 6 Christ dying commended His spirit into the hands of God Therefore that went into Heaven and therefore the soules of the faithfull were in Heaven Answ This is worse and worse The faithfull were in Heaven ergo Christ Christ ergo the faithfull ô Circle But to the text The hand of God shall find out them that hate Him Psal 21.8 Are they therefore in Heaven In His hands are all the corners of the earth Psalm 95.4 What is your conclusion But if the hand of God in this place must signifie that fulnesse of joy which is at His right hand for ever that doth alwayes accompany the faithfull soule and is not tyed either to time or place or whether it signifie the protection of God which might seeme to be most needfull in the horrours of death and passage unto that place which as man He knew not it doeth not follow thereupon that the soule of Christ ascended into Heaven much lesse that the soules of the faithfull were in Heaven before And that the trueth of this position may more plainely appeare that the soules of the faithfull before Christ had not ascended into Heaven and consequently that the soule of Christ who was free among the dead Psalm 88.5 Who was made in all things like to His brethren except their sinne did not ascend from the Crosse into Heaven you may if you please examine these Reasons 1. Sect. 6 The Lord is righteous and His Iudgements are upright Psalm 119. verse 137. And all His workes are done in trueth and equity Psalm 111.8 But it might seeme a breach of an infinite justice to give the full accomplishment of happinesse in Heaven to the soules for whose sinnes the satisfaction was not yet made And therefore although the Elect which were dead were justified from their sinnes By the blood of the everlasting Covenant Rom. 6.7 were freed from the punishment thereof and set in assured hope and expectation of those benefits whereof they should be made further partakers by the death of Christ and so rejoyced under the hope of the glory of God that should be revealed in them and in the meane time were filled with all the comforts of a present joy yet they received not the fulnesse of the promised joyes in Heaven God providing better for us that without us they should not bee perfected Hebr. 11.39 40. Neither doth this any way abate from the all-sufficiency of Christs merit no more then that we assoone as wee have received the full assurednesse of faith are not carried up to heavenly glory or that the Saints that are dead in Christ are not yet raised up to immortality For seeing the word is to be fulfilled betweene us and the reprobate Angels that the first shall bee last and the last shall be first that no creature may glory in it selfe it is necessary that wee passe by all the degrees of perfection from this low estate of mortality wherein wee are till such time as wee come to bee equall with the Angels Luke 20.36 For the law of Grace doth not take away the law of Nature That from one extremity to another there is no passage but by all
the meanes 2. Doth reason onely dictate this Doth not the Scripture say also the same For if Christ bee therefore the first-borne from the dead 1. Cor. 15.20 that Hee may bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firsting or having the first place or preheminence in all things Col. 1.18 Is not the argument also good Christ is ascended that Hee in all things may have the preheminence And if the dead bee therefore raised againe by the vertue of Christs resurrection who was therefore raised up by the glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 Iohn 5.21 doe they not also ascend by the vertue of His ascension So that before the Ascension of Christ our head there was no ascension for any of the members It was the word of our Lord Himselfe Iohn 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven But I heare one whisper against this that the soule is not said to ascend without the body and therefore the soules might bee in heaven though they ascend not So the cavill is onely about the word Ascend But the reason For it is said Actes 2.34 David is not ascended up into heaven And this was spoken by Peter after Christs ascension So that although Davids soule was not in heaven before but went with Christ at his ascension yet David is then said not to have ascended Al. Hume Rej. to Doctor Hil. But had this man well considered the circumstances of this text in the 25. verse David speaketh concerning Christ and so as it followeth in the 29.30.31 he would have taken this text from David as S. Luke doth when he saith David is not ascended that is this Scripture doth not at all belong to David concerning any ascending or descending of his but to Him alone of whom David speaketh Psal 100. The Lord said unto my Lord sit at my right hand The like speech to this is that of our Lord Luke 22.42 Not my will but thy will be done And yet it is said of Him Psal 40.8 I delight to doe thy will O my God Thy law is written in my heart So the will of God was done as the first moving cause of our salvation the wil of Christ was done as subordinate not as the first cause See Heb. 10.9 So 1. Cor. 15.10 Not I laboured but the grace of God which was within mee And yet who knowes not the labours of Paul to have beene above all the rest of the Apostles 2. Cor. 11.23 ad finem yet he of his owne motion laboured not for the Church but persecuted it So David ascended not as the first fruits of them that slept but Christ ascended so by vertue of whose ascension David and all the rest of the faithfull shall ascend But not to fight with the shadow I take the word at the manifest meaning that David is not ascended and from thence conclude against themselues That if David had not ascended before Christ nor yet ascended with Him much lesse were the faithfull soules in heaven before Christ but that the soule of David dwells and must still dwell in Paradise with Daniel and the rest of the faithfull till the end bee Dan. 12.13 But if they will needes have the soule of David in heaven not formaliter as all the faithfull soules are in respect of the heavenly joyes which they have in Paradise but locally then I say it must needes have ascended For if the soule being in one place is not in another and if heaven be upward in respect of the earth then when Dauids soule went into heauen it must needes be said to ascend or goe upward as Luke 2.15 speakes of the Angels and Solomon Eccles 3.21 speaketh of the spirit or soule There ore this is but a poore shift such as they must needes bee driven unto that oppose the trueth Yet thus he holds it sufficient to mocke at the direct word of our Lord which is Iohn 20.17 I have not yet ascended to my Father For if He had then must there be two ascensions as they beleeve one of the soule alone and another of the body and soule together 3. Yet it is said Iohn 14.2 I goe to prepare a place for you And if I goe to prepare a place I will come againe and receive you to my selfe By which it is plaine that none could goe to heaven before Christ our Lord had gone and prepared a place for them which was not done before His death and ascension 4. Moreover it is said Heb. 9.8 the way into the holyest of all was not yet open while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Whereto if you take that which is verse 24. Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are figures of the true but into heaven it selfe it will bee manifest that there was no entrance as not into the holy of holies so much lesse into heaven before that Christ by His death had opened it as our Church confesseth in the hymne of Ambrose When thou haddest overcome the sharpenesse of death thou didst open the Kingdome of Heaven to all beleevers Whereupon it must necessarily follow that the soules of the faithfull were not in heaven properly so called before the death and resurrection of Christ 5. To this purpose you may also bring that which is Ephe. 4.8 When Hee ascended up on high He led Captivitie captive Now what was this captivitie or multitude of captives Were they reprobate You will not say it If the Elect then it followes necessarily that they were not in heaven before the ascension of Christ except you will bring them downe from thence to fetch up Christ in triumph but then had they not beene captives if already triumphing in heaven then had not the conquest of Christ over death and him that had the power of death beene so glorious if hee had had no captives to lead in triumph And therefore Esay 53.12 after the suffering of Christ describes His conquest thus I will divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoyle with the strong The faithfull soules therefore being held under the power of death though free from His tyranny and torment as it is said Sap. 3.1 The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torments shall touch them whereby Christ having bought them of God and payd their ransome brought out of all power of their strong enemie out of the shadow of death into the everlasting light of Paradise in all the libertie and ioy of the understanding to view the Wisedome of God in His most glorious workes as you may read further a little below Sect. 8. Numb 3. Sect. 7. Sect. 7 Now having shewed the different interpretations of this Article and as I thinke fully proved that the soule of Christ went not to heaven properly so called before His resurrection but that it was glorious and blessed among His Saints in happinesse and so in heaven formaliter as they speake It is fit that wee draw toward a conclusion which
Mary Mat. 28.9 3. To Simon Peter Luke 24.34 1. Cor. 15.5 4. To Cleopas and his friend Luke 24.15.35 5. To all the Apostles except Thomas Iohn 20.24 to which if you put that time when He ascended on the 40. day from mount Olivet the five appearances remaining for I speake not of those extraordinary manifestations of Himselfe after His ascension to Steven Actes 7.56 and to Paul Actes 9.17 and 1. Cor. 15.8 will bee most likely to have beene on those five Sundayes as wee call them which were betweene as it may well be gathered from Iohn 20.26 because the Lord would fully finish the ceremoniall use of the Iewish Sabbath and sanctifie the day of His resurrection for the remembrance of those benefits which wee receive thereby This use the Primitive Church made of it Iust. Mart. Apol. ad Anton. and further against our Traskits because they would prevent their errours who under the profession of Christianity did still retaine their Iudaisme whose folly to avoid in stead of the Iewish Sabbath they celebrated the day of Christs resurrection Ign ep ad Mag These times of shewing himselfe were 1. To the Disciples and Thomas with them Iohn 20.26 2. At the Sea of Tiberias Iohn 21.1.3 3. On a mountaine of Galilee appointed to them Mat. 28.16 4. To above 500. brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 5. To Iames. ver 7. And for the times of His absence from them because it is said in the text to the Ephesians cited above That He did therefore descend into the lower parts of the earth and ascend farre above all heavens that He might fill or fulfill all things which were written of Him not onely those which were necessary for our saluation as His Suffering Resurrection Ascension c. but also whatsoever belonged unto man to doe in that state betweene His resurrection and ascension as you may in part understand by that which hath been said Chapter 28. N. I thinke that in those 33. dayes He in His manly being did view this earth and the fulnesse thereof and especially visit and blesse those places where He did purpose that His Church and trueth should most of all flourish and continue Sect. 2. Thus much for the questions by the way Now turne to that which is the maine To every degree of the abasement of our Redeemer there is a degree of exaltation and glory opposed So this of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven is set against that of His descent into hell and that by the authority of Saint Paul He that descended is even the same that ascended And although it may very well be thought that after His Passion finished on the Crosse by His death His going to hell was the beginning of His victory to take to Himselfe that power whereby He as the Sonne of man is to reigne over all the powers of death and hell Yet because His body during those three dayes is by most supposed to have been held under the power of death and that all the parts of His victory are to belong unto Him as Hee is Lord both of the quicke and dead that is in His intire humanity soule and body together therefore that descent is rather held by many as the lowest estate of His humiliation as you might read a little before Chap. 28. § 2. N. 3. But that our Lord after that He had by many and infallible signes and arguments by the space of fourty dayes given abundant proofe of His resurrection did ascend into heaven these reasons doe make it manifest 1. Vnto every body is a place due according to the qualities and properties of that body as in all natures here below it appeares that the place is both conseruative and also generative of those things which are peculiar thereto as the lower parts of the earth of the mineralls the surface of the vegetables the water of fishes c. And againe it is manifest that all things under the Moone are subject to corruption and change no beauty strength or excellency is such as is not fading no pleasure such but that in the very using it growes loath some no bravery so costly but in three dayes wearing it waxes stale so that by the voice and consent of all men the Angels and blessed soules and all such beings as are free from corruption and in the state of glory are sent into heaven But it is manifest that our Lord by His resurrection and conquest of death purchased first to Himselfe and then to us a state of glory and immortality Romanes 6.9 Ephes 2.6 Therefore also that Hee ascended into heaven 2. The blessednesse of the creature is onely in this That it may behold the glory of God in whom alone is the excellency of all perfection And this glory is seene onely in the face of Iesus Christ the Mediator as was shewed Chapter 24. § 10. N. 5. unto which blessednesse onely the pure and blessed inhabitants of heaven as the holy Angels and soules of men are dignified And from hence it must follow that our Lord is ascended into heaven the place of Angels and happy soules For no man dwelling in his ruinous house of clay is able to behold that glory Exod. 30.20 3. Hell is the place of torments the earth of troubles changes and calamities therefore heaven is the place of happinesse or else no happinesse at all is to be found But that is impossible For so all things should be created to wretchednesse and misery onely which cannot stand with the loue of God to His creature and His infinite goodnesse And if any such place of happinesse be and He our Saviour not brought thereto then the greatest obedience performed to the Father for the manifestation of His glory should be without reward But this were unjust with God and therefore impossible And therefore it was necessary that our Lord after His resurrection should ascend into heaven 4. By the consent of Christians taught of God and of Heathens taught by nature heaven is the place of the greatest glory and happines as hell of sorrow and wretchednes For although the Heathen allotted a degree of eternall blisse to the soules which they sent to Elysium as you may read of Anchises and others Aeneid 6. yet they supposed that their false gods and such as were by them canonized went up to heaven as Hercules Castor and Pollux Romulus and he that was one of the chiefe masters of the devills slaughter-men Iulius Caesar From whence you may reason thus The place of the greatest glory is most due to Him that is both the Creator and Restorer of all things But such was our Lord Iesus as it hath appeared before Therefore He ascended into heaven 5. It is necessary that the blessed and damned doe differ by all those meanes whereby the paines of the one and the blessednesse of the other may be increased The paines of the damned are increased by the horrour of that place wherein they are tormented therefore
Therefore He is a creature Answere 1. He is no where in the Scripture called a creature or mentioned among the creatures in Psal 148. or else-where Therefore He is God Answer 2. The proposition is false as it appeared by the texts cited out of Actes 5.3 4. and Matth. 28.19 where He is equalled with the Father and the Sonne and 2. Cor. 13.14 And Iohn 5.7 Moreover no sinne doth make a man lyable to an infinite punishment but that which is against an infinite being But the sinne against the Holy-Ghost shall not bee pardoned neither in this world nor yet in that which is to come Matth. 12.32 Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto Actes 28. verso 25. and 27. with Rom. 11.8 and 1. Cor. 3.16 And as these texts of Scripture are sufficient to shew the falshood of this last objection So doe they manifest the vanitie of all the rest and confirme abundantly the trueth of this Article that the Holy-Ghost is God To bring the consent of Fathers and Councelis to these Scriptures were as to encrease the light of the Sun by a burning candle yet because it was so plainely declared in the first generall Councell held at Nice by 318. Fathers in the yeere of Christ 325. you may remember it if you will In that Councell this Article was thus declared in that forme of confession which was framed by Hosius Bishop of Corduba As the Father and the Sonne so also the Holy-Ghost subsisteth with them of the same being of the same power of which they are And a little after Wee ought to confesse one God-head one being of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost not teaching any confusion or division of the Persons of the unspeakeable and blessed Trinitie But according to the integritie of that faith and doctrine which was heretofore delivered by the Lord Himselfe to His Apostles and hath beene sincerely taught to us by our holy Fathers who kept it pure and intire as they received it from the Apostles wee beleeve and confesse the undivideable Trinitie which cannot sufficiently either be conceived in the understanding or expressed in wordes that is the Father eternally and truely subsisting a true Father of a true Sonne and the Sonne eternally and truely subsisting a true Sonne of a true Father and the Holy-Ghost verily and eternally subsisting with them And wee are ever ready by the power of the Holy-Ghost to proove that this is the trueth by the manifold testimony of the holy Scripture Histor Gelasij Cyzie Act. Conc. Nic. lib. 2. cap. 12. This faith was approved of all but because the present businesse with Arius was especially about the Sonne For he held that the Son was not of the subsistence of the Father nor yet very God That they might meet fully with that errour they agreed to that forme wherein it is confessed that the Sonne is light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father c. Thus having ended the controversie about the God-head of the Sonne they come to the question of the Holy-Ghost against whom Phaedon a Philosopher and patron of Arius his cause objected thus It is no where written in the Scripture that the Holy-Ghost is a Creater and therefore Hee is not God To which the Councell opposed that which is in Iob 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made mee and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life And that in Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the Spirit of His mouth To which they added that of Saint Paul 1. Cor. 12. verse 4 5 6. where the Holy-Ghost is called both Lord and God And so concluded that all the three Persons that is the Father the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall or of the same substance Lib. Cit. Cap. 25. Likewise when this heresie of Arius concerning the Holy-Ghost was againe revived by Macedonius the second generall Councell held at Constantinople in the yeere 381. condemned the heresies of all Arians Apollinarists and Macedenians confirmed the faith professed in the Nicene Creed and for further explanation of the trueth in this point to that clause Wee believe in the Holy-Ghost they added the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified c. And this is sufficient for the declaration of the trueth in this point by the authority of generall Councells All the orthodox Fathers consent hereunto Among whom if you desire to bee further acquainted with the arguments and objections on both sides you may reade the writings of that most noble Champion of the trueth of the holy Trinitie Athanasius and in speciall that sermon of the humane nature taken by the Word the oration against the ging of Sabellius and the first and second Epistle to Serapion and his first dialogue against Macedonius with him Macedonianus See also Greg. Nyss vol. 2. pag. 439. edit Paris 1615. you may also if you will take these objections and their answeres brought by Epiphanius to this question Haer. 74. and with them those in Thomas Aquinas Contra gentes Liber 4. Cap. 16. and their answeres Cap. 23. Another errour against the being of the Holy-Ghost is that which they call of the later Greekes and yet is not onely of the Grecians themselves but of all those Nations and Peoples that are of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople which if you leave out the Countreys of the poore Painims in the East and West Indies is far greater than the pretended universality of the Bishop of Rome both in Europe and in Asia See Brerew Enq. Chap. 15. and besides them the Melchites or Christians of Syria the Armenians and Maronites hold the same heresie All these though they confesse that the Holy-Ghost is God the third Person in the Trinitie yet they say that He proceedeth onely from the Father not from the Sonne But although they account this but a later errour among the Greekes perhaps because the stirres thereabout after the Councell of Florence in the yeere 1439. grew more hot than they had beene before and that because the Greekes then present in that Councell in hope to draw them of the West into their helpe against the Turks did seemingly yeeld to that trueth which these Churches in the West doe holde in that point yet it appeares that in the time of Damascen about the yeere 750. it was their received opinion For thus he writes Orthod fidet lib. 1. Cap. 13. He is the Spirit of the Sonne not proceeding from Him but from the Father by Him For the Father onely is the cause Nay if you looke yet higher in that explanation which the Councell of Constantinople spoken of even now made of that Article of the Holy-Ghost in the Nicene Creed that clause and from the Sonne is left out so that this errour
nought runneth wast Or yet imperfect as though it were made in haste But that every thing according to that order of being which it hath hath all the perfections that belong thereto Neither can the learned Mornay be excused that having seen and citing Zoroaster would beleeve Plutarch in that wherein he knew the Oracle of Zoroaster was quite contrary He cites his consent to the Christian positions concerning originall sin Cap. 7. for the immortalitie of the soule and resurrection of the body Cap. 15. yea and for this very point of the Trinitie of Persons in the Vnity of the Deitie de ver Christ Rel. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father having made all things to th' Second wisedome gave Whom all mankind account the first all honour due to have But how could Plutarch so grave a Writer be so mistaken Hee flourished in the Reigne of Trajan before which time Simon Magus had taught that God did not make the world but certaine Angels which opinion his Scholler Menander upheld and over and above the filthinesse with women and things offered to Idols the Nicholaitans also Cernthus yet added that the God which made the world was but a lower power who did not so much as know the true God Iren. lib. 1. Ca. 25. From these and especially from Menander and the Nicholaitans proceeded the Gnosticks though not under that name til afterward These vaunted of all knowledge held Plato as one that knew little or nothing of Philosophie And this their high knowledge they boasted to have out of the Oracles of Zoroaster which they pretended to have thence falsly gave out what they list to bring the holy Scripture into contempt By the falshood and impudency of these it seems that Plutarch was deceived which yet is further manifest in this that in the same place de Is os hee mentions the opinion of the Chialists as the doctrine of Zoroaster wherein by his glosse Cerinthus had corrupted the holy Text Apoc. 20. as the Turks at this day understand their Paradise Now this doctrine of heaven upon earth for ought that ever I read was never mentioned in any prophane Writer before the time of S. Iohn but it was no new matier for Plutarch to be deceived in matiers of Religion as well that of the Chaldees further from his knowledge as in the Swine and Asse of the Iewes which he might have knowne better if by the Iewes themselves he would have beene informed See I.S. de Diis Syris synt 2. Ca. 16. But to returne to our Hereticks for all these follies and contrary opinions afore mentioned if you compare with the reasons and authorities aforesaid will vanish into nothing Of all the heresies about this point there is none so wicked as that which Augustine writes somewhere to Basilides Contr. Adver leg supra who first durst affirme that the God which the Nation of the Iewes honoured was not the true God Then he writes that Carpocrates denyed that God gave the Law to Moses elswhere that Cerdon affirmed that ther God of the Law and the Prophets was not the Father of Christ de haer Cap. 21. this last the Iewes like well of but to us all these are one heresie who hold according to that which is Heb. 1. That God which at sundry times and after sundry manners had spoken of old to the Fathers spake to us in these last dayes by his sonne For evidence of which because it is the ground of all our hopes you shall have a reason or two and if you desire more read the bookes of Tertullian against Marcion especially the third fourth and fift 1. § 4. If that God which was honoured by the Nation of the Iewes whom the Christians acknowledge the Father of Christ be not the true God then it will follow either that the true God hath hitherto beene utterly unknowne to the world or else that some of those false gods as we terme them whom the heathens worshipped as Jupiter Iuno Neptune c. must be the true God But both these things are false Therefore the God which the nation of the Iewes adored was the true God Now that none of the gods of the heathens could be the true God is manifest by this that although they were lyars yet durst never any of them take this to himselfe that he was God as may appeare by the answer of that Apollo of Claros where after a long description of God by which yet hee would uphold devill-worship he concludes with a lye of him and his fellowes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is God but wee Angels are a little portion of God where you see to save his credit and uphold his sacrifices he gave himselfe out as a part of God s if the being of God were divisible into parts Moreover whereas the true God in regard of his Lordship and power over the creature might challenge the service and obedience thereof and give rules how he would be worshipped thereby as he did to Abraham Moses c. yet none of these devills ever taught their worshippers any other service to themselves but as enemies of mankinde to * Reade further to this purpose the second booke of S. August de Civit. Dei and see what Religion they taught their worshippers murder one another as is manifest by the sacrifices of Molech and other Idoles of the Canaanites Psal 106.37.38 And in prophane writers who knowes not the altar of the she-devill among the Tauri which had no sacrifices but of mands blood strangers and enemies overcome in warre Such was the altar of Saturne among the Cretians and Carthaginians and such a Priest for Iupiter Chamon was Busiris in Aegypt And Marius upon a dream which the devill shewed him became the butcher of his owne daughter Calphurnia Beside this if any of these gods of the heathens had beene the true God as their will so their wisdome goodnesse and justice should have beene knowne unto men Their will you see was murder their wisdome such that their chiefe fortune-teller Apollo of Delphi was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his crooked and doubtfull answers which hee made concerning such things to come as he did not know or knowing would yet deceive therein as a devill Compare herewith the answers of God to Gedeon to David c. As their wisdome such was their goodnesse for what can bee remembred wherein any of these devils did ever any good to any nation countrie citie or private man wherein the providence and wisdome of man was not chiefe as you may account the safetie of the Athenians in their wooden wals at Salantis to the wisdome of Themistocles And although Castor and Pollux saved Simonides for his song yet they slew his hoste and all his friends And for their power it easilie appeares how weake it was in that they could not defend their owne right in man which doubtlesse they had if any among them
booke beside Neh. 9.6 confesses to God Thou art Lord alone thou hast made heaven and the heaven of heavens with all their hoste the earth and all things that are therein the Seas and all that are in them and thou preservest them all and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee Psal 95.5 The Sea is His and He made it and his hands prepared the dryland Psal 96.5 All the gods of the people are Idols But the Lord made the heavens whose armies in Psal 136. are more particularly reckoned up And therefore doth God by his owne right challenge the heavens for his seat and the earth for his footstoole because his hand hath made all these things Esay 66.1.2 To this purpose you may road other Texts cited by S. Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. cap. 5. The continuall preservation also of the Creature as it is manifest in reason by the arguments afore going So it is taught Psal 36.6.7 Psal 147.8.9 Psal 145.15 And Psal 104. is wholly in this Argument And that all this frame shall come to nought at last you may read Psal 102.25.26 which is also cited by S. Paul Heb. 1. v. 10.11.12 Read moreover to this purpose 2 Pet. 3.10 Reu. 20.11 And that because it was made of nought Heb. 11.3 Sap. 11.14 § 4. These things then being thus manifest we are now by the way 1. First to consider what necessary conclusions follow hereupon 2. And then to see whether the creation of the world doe belong to every Person of the Trinity alike or to any one more particularly than another First it is certaine that not being cannot be the beginning of Being And therefore it is necessarie that Being bee eternall And that which is the first of beings must needs be the cause of al therest So that all other beings must acknowledge their originall from thence And because all things that are were in time created by that first of Beings not according to any necessity of naturall working as the fire according to the necessitie thereof doth burne any matier that is fit to be burnt but only according to the pleasure of his owne will therefore first of all it must necessarily ensue hereof that the continuance of all things must have the same cause which was also of their Being So that for his holy wills sake alone they also continue If he then withdraw his supportance either from all or from any particular creature it must of necessity come to nought in an instant Secondly because every agent workes for some end and the greatest and best of work-masters must needs work for the greatest and chiefest good and seeing there neither is nor can be any thing greater or better than God himselfe Therefore it is necessary that this world was created for Him But because Hee infinitely blessed in Himselfe needed not the world nor any thing of the world as though he could be better thereby Psal 16.2 Act. 17.25 it must follow that the creature was for this end that as by his Being it was made partaker of being so by his infinite goodnesse it might also bee partaker of glory and happinesse For because his goodnesse and life and happinesse and all his glories are answerable to his owne being therefore are they infinitely sufficient for every thing that in any sort can possibly be partaker of being So then the goodnesse of God was not encreased in the creation but manifested onely that the creature according to the measure thereof might bee blessed in him Thus then is God the end of all the creature Because hee is that supersupreme perfection of goodnesse and happinesse whereof the whole creature desires to be partaker but that not out of any choice or purpose of the creature but of him alone that hath created it to be partaker of that image of his goodnesse From the first conclusion we are taught with what reverence and feare we ought to live before him to whose onely pleasure we owe our being and continuance Next with what great respect and care we ought to behave our selves toward the creature not onely men which have the same pretious hopes of immortality which wee have but likewise toward every other creature even the least of Beings For although we know that all the more bodily creature was made for the use of that which hath understanding and that not onely for the exercise of the minde in his wisdome and power that created it but for thankefullnesse also to that goodnesse which hath subjected it to our use in food in clothing and other such services for our ease or conveniences that being destitute of no good thing wee might give ourselves to his service and praise him alone And lastly that the whole creature might bee blessed in man in whom it is to possesse an eternall being yet when wee remember that there is nothing so meane or seeming so base in the Creature but that it was eternally foreseene to that infinite wisdome even as we that it was created by the same power appointed by the same foreknowledge to this or that very use with what reverence and feare should we carry ourselves lest we abuse it and so offer dishonour unto the Lord and owner both of it and us alike especially seeing that when we were not hee had determined so to blesse us From the second conclusion wee may learne with what patience wee ought to endure all the troubles and afflictions of this life because wee know those pretious promises whereto wee are created if we acknowledge Him faithfull and hold our hopes unto the end see Tit. 1.2 The question moved to which Person the Creation belongs is full of perplexity and of any other most hard and darke if it bee well thought on And therefore in the solution thereof it is most safe for us to hearken to the oracles of God alone It is commonly and truely said that the workes of the Holy Trinitie which are without are undivided yet so as that they receive a certaine determination or order from that manner of Being which is in the Persons And therefore because the Father is the fountaine of Being they commonly ascribe the creation or bringing of things into being unto Him So because all perfection of Sonship is in the second Person and that there can be no moe Sonnes than one therefore the redemption of mankinde by the in-dwelling of God in Man is given unto the Sonne and so the sanctifying of the church to the Holy Ghost But if wee looke diligently unto the text of the Holy Scripture we shall finde how necessary it was that the Mediator should satisfie for the sinne of the creature because the whole creature was made by Him For so wee may reade Ioh. 1.2.3 All things were made by that word which in the beginning was with God And without it was nothing made which was made And vers 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him And vers 14. And
that word was made flesh that is tooke on him the whole nature of man body and soule and dwelt among us and we saw on the holy mount Mat. 17.2 c. 2 Pet. 1.18 the glory thereof that is of that flesh or man as the glory of the only begotten Sonne of the Father And againe Col. 1.16 By him that is the Sonne were all things created which are in heaven and which are in earth things visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him and in him all things consist 1 Cor. 8.6 There is one God the Father of whom were all things and we by him Eph. 3.9 God hath created all things by Iesus Christ And Heb. 1. v. 1.2 God hath spoken unto us in these last dayes by his Sonne whom He hath made heire of all things by whom also he made the worlds By all which texts it is cleere which S. Paul hath Rom. 11.36 of him through him and for Him are all things That is that God the deliverer which should come out of Sion vers 26. And thus have these Apostles explained that which is written Gen. 1.1 In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth which word in the whole body of the old Testament as wisemen have observed is almost never spoken but of the Person of the Mediator onely I suppose then that it is plaine enough which is spoken by our Lord Iohn 5. v. 19. The Sonne can doe nothing of Himselfe save what he seeth the Father doe for whatsoever things He doth the same things doth the Sonne in like manner That is whatsoever the eternall Godhead ordeined in his everlasting Counsell and decree to bee done that same doth the Sonne execute and performe in the creature answerably and brings forth every thing in time according to the possibilities and opportunities of the creature For as the wiseman saith Ecclus. 18.1 He that liveth for ever made all things together or at once So the Psalmist as also the other Scriptures tels us by whom and in whom Psal 104.24 In wisdome hast thou made them all that is in our Creator and Saviour So then it being cleered by the text of the holy Scripture that the creation of the world was of God the Father in Christ by Christ and for Christ it will easily follow how necessary it was that He our creator by His eternall Spirit should offer himselfe to God for the sin of his creature as it will further appeare when I come to that article Notes a EVery tenne thousand yeares You may reade the position in Aug. de Haer. cap. 43. and the refutation thereof in his 20.21.22 bookes de civit Dei But the Cabalists for the renewing of this lower world put seven thousand yeares and no more for the restoring of the whole creature both heavenly and earthly they put fifty thousand yeares You may read the opinion and partly see their reasons in Leo Hebr. de Amore. pag. 500. c. b The world is not eternall The most famoused opinions that have beene concerning the worlds eternity are these One that which the Christian faith doth hold according to the truth of the holy oracles of God and the voice of Reason as you have heard and to this truth the Stoicks are said to haue consented The second opinion is that of Plato and his followers who held that the world had a beginning in time but of an eternall matier and that the continuance thereof should bee eternall For seeing generation and corruption is onely by the change of formes the matier still remaining one therefore they thought that as that forme which is purely without matier was incorruptible and eternall So likewise must matier bee which of it owne nature is utterly without forme And because matier is greedy of all formes how differing or contrary soever Therefore it is ever subject to change Neither is the heaven it selfe utterly freed from all power of Change because of that matier whereof it is in which the power of Change is ever hidde Therefore the world is not eternall in respect of any power in it selfe either to the production of formes or the continuance of it selfe under the same formes but first in respect of the vnformed matier and most of all in respect of that Spirit or life whereby it is guided and ordered as by the internall causes and in respect of the divine will and goodnesse as the outward principle and the end which will as it cannot repent to have done good in giving being unto the world and the things therein contained so can it not will contrary to it selfe and cease to doe good in the continuance of the creature in that being which it hath You may reade more to his purpose in Plot. Ennead 2. lib. 1. and his commentator Marsilius Ficinus The third opinion is that of Aristotle that the world was eternall and from God as an eternall effect of an eternall cause For because it seemed to him impossible and if you looke no higher than nature alone it is indeed impossible that any thing being can come out of nothing therefore matier must needs be eternall and therewith generation and corruption without which nothing is brought forth And because these two could not be thought to be without the moving of the heavens as the cause thereof therefore both the heavenly bodies and motion especially circular must be also eternall and herewith time which is measured by the motion of the heavens But what this eternall matier should bee the Philosophers went into divers opinions Heraclitus thought it to be fire Archelaus ayre Empedocles all the elements and among the rest one one thing and another another as you may reade in Aristotle where hee refutes them in Tull. Acad. q. lib. 4. and especially in Plutarch de placitis Philosophorum and from him in many other Aristotle himselfe from Hesiod and they that had beene before him cals it Chaos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In theogonia First was the Chaos then the earth which word if they borrowed not of Moses his Tohu which signifies empty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sometimes meanes to bring to nought nor of that which seemes to come from thence Chohus whereby as Festus saith the old Latines called the world yet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they meant by it confusion and no way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a countrie or an appointed place Sometime this matier is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mud For so the conclusion of earth and water is best understood and fittest for generation of earthly things as Ovid delivers the opinon and cleeres it by comparison of the overflowing Nilus Metam lib. 1. All other Creatures tooke their different birth And figures from the voluntary Earth When her cold moisture with the Sunne did sweat And Slimy Marishes grew big with heat So when seven-mouthed Nyle forsakes the plaine Anantient channel doth his streames containe And late
lost and perish being tainted with the sinne of Adam or the infinite justice against which the sinne was done must for ever stand violated and broken or else a Mediator must bee found who was able to satisfie the infinite justice that was offended The first is against the wisdome goodnesse and love of God to his creature either to make mankinde in vaine that is to destroy it againe or to make it unto eternall punishment The second is impossible that an infinite justice infinitely able to avenge it selfe should endure it selfe for ever to to remaine violate and offended for so should it prize a thing finite and wicked before it selfe infinite in justice therefore there behoves to be a Mediatour who should fully satisfie the justice offended and utterly blot out the guilt of sinne Now an infinite justice offended must be satisfied by a punishment answerable that is infinite but no finite creature could any way be or be accounted infinite Therefore when none was found worthy either in heaven or in earth or under the earth the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world tooke upon him our flesh to satisfie for the sinne of his creature and so by his infinite obedience for by His eternall spirit Hee offered himselfe to God Heb. 9.14 and by the infinite merit of his suffering for by that spirit the manhood both soule and flesh was enabled to endure those pangs and that punishment which neither all mankinde nor any other creature could endure was the infinite justice satisfied And thus Hee became mighty to save Esay 63.1 and having Himselfe in his owne body borne our sinnes vpon the tree did utterly abolish the whole body of sinne and found for us eternall redemption 2. The divine goodnesse hath created all things exceeding good Gen. 1. so much doth it delight it selfe in that concordance or agreement which is betweene the inward and the outward good But that agreement is the greatest which is in the unity of one person Therefore it is expedient that there be an incarnation that so in one person the goodnesse may bee most eminent and the concord most lovely 3. Otherwise you may propose it thus The excellency of the effect appeares by that conformity or agreement which it hath with the cause so then the inward worke of the infinite Goodnesse and the outward being accorded in the unity of one person the multiplication of the agreement is so great that it cannot possibly bee greater Therefore it followes that the Godhead bee incarnate for otherwise the concord in the inward and outward worke of the deity might bee greater than it is but that is impossible 4. The divine will concerning his workes without doth will and love that especially wherein the excellency of all his inward dignities doth most appeare But the excellency of all his dignities appeares most in this that God bee manifest in the flesh For thereby we are made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 of his glory vertue everlasting life and happinesse So that now there is but one end of God and his creature that is the glory of God of which and unto which God rejoyces over his dreature to bring it and make it partaker And the Creature likewise reioyces to be made partaker And thus the end or perfection of the creature hath rest or accomplishment in the inward perfections of God and his inward perfections are manifest in his outword workes Therefore God would bee incarnate 5. And seeing that God infinitely blessed and happy in himselfe needed not the Creature but made it therefore that it might be blessed in him and that of his fullnesse the creature might receive that fulnesse of happinesse which it can possibly injoy therefore it is requisite that that fulnesse of his bee imparted unto that creature wherein all the rest of the creature hath interest which we have already proved to bee man chap. 17. § 4. ob 5. Therefore God would dwell in man that by man the whole creature might be blessed in Him 6. If God were not incarnate then the divine dignities should be lesse Infinite one than another For the infinite goodnesse by the infinite wisdome seeing that uttermost and perfect happinesse that might come unto man by the incarnation if his power his will and love of the creature did not answer thereto so that he would bee pleased to dwell in his creature then should they be defective and of lesse extent than his infinite wisdome But that is impossible Therefore it followes that God would be incarnate See the answer to the objection that may be made from hence § 1. on the 39 chapter n. 4. 7. If there were not an incarnation then the infinite wisdome should not have the view of that highest excellencie which is possible to be in the creature neither should the infinite power magnifie it selfe by the multiplication of it selfe in an outward subject so these dignities should not be glorious by all those meanes whereby it is possible that they might glorifie themselves But all these things are inconvenient Therefore it is reasonable to beleeve the incarnation lest ignorance weakenesse and defect of glory should bee found in the first principle which must of necessity take away His infinity proved chapter 3. understand the reason well For your more ease I will propose it affirmatively thus 8. If there bee an Incarnation then the divine understanding may have an outward object wherein it may be infinite both in the inward and outward working For whereas all created obiects are absolutely finite yet if the Divine being understood which heretofore we called the Sonne chap. 11. take on him our being our nature by that assumption is deified and so made infinite with that uttermost infinitie whereof the Creature can any way bee capable seeing the deity is neither without the humanity nor the humanity without the deity And so the divine understanding may be an outward obiect infinite as much as it is possible that a creature can be infinite And so the wisdome also may bee infinite in all possibility of infinity both in the inward and outward working And what I have said of the infinite wisdome of God must also be understood of all his other perfections of goodnesse of power of eternity of life of glory c. But if there bee no incarnation this infinite outward obiect is taken away and so the understanding and all the other dignities of God as concerning their outward working must be in littlenesse and lower than that possibility whereto they may come But this is not to be affirmed Therefore the incarnation followeth reasonably 9. Every efficient the more noble and excellent it is the greater and more excellent are the effects which it doth bring forth But the greatest effects are not brought to passe but by the greatest meanes Now there is no efficient more noble or excellent than God no effect better or greater to the Creature nor more honourable to the
By which texts it is plaine that the Saviour of mankind must bee both man and God dwelling in man and the second person of the holy Trinitie which we call the Sonne Notes a THe subject no other than the termes For the understanding of this see my second part of Logonomia Introduct Sect. 4. numb 11. b Hee tooke on him the humanitie If it bee most true which is said Col. 1.19 that all fulnesse should dwell in him yea all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodilie how can it bee but that if Christ dwell in our flesh all the persons likewise must bee incarnate For all the Persons together make but one infinite fulnesse of the Deitie And therefore 1. Tim. 3.16 it is spoken without any distinction of Persons that God was manifest in the flesh Answer To become man was a personall proprietie of the Sonne of God for the incarnation was not of the Godhead wherein the Persons are one but of that subsistence according to which the three Persons are distinguished So that as in the Trinitie there be three persons in one nature so in the mysterie of the incarnation there is one person in two natures Now why the person of the Sonne and none other could become man the reasons before doe make it plaine And although it bee most true that all the Persons together are but one God in the infinitie or fulnesse of the Deitie yet is it as true that the infinite fulnesse of the Deitie is in all and every person alike as the fulnesse or perfection of mankinde is in every man equally Neither is that in Tim. spoken without distinction of the persons for it followes immediately He was justified in the Spirit What is that but that the Spirit of God the holy Ghost did justifie his doctrine and Gospell as most true in causing the hearts of all the faithfull to beleeve it But it is most manifest that the witnesse is neither the thing witnessed nor the person in whose behalfe the witnesse is given Neither was this witnesse of the Holy Ghost onely but also of the Father from heaven 2. Peter 4.17 1. Iohn 5.9 10 11. Compare herewith if you please the note g on Chap. 24. § 9. Object 1. In the end of which Chapter you may see other objections fully answered Our Lord. CHAP. XXIIII That this Jesus the Sonne of the Virgin Mary whom the Christian faith confesseth is the Saviour of the world THat reverend and fearfull name of God is a name of glory but the word Lord importeth the title of that right which he hath in his creature And how justly this belongs to our Lord Christ may appeare by that interest which he hath in us both by the right of our creation and of our redemption and of all the benefits which we hope thereby What right he hath in us for our creation it hath appeared in that wee are his workemanship Chap. 13. § 9. Now it remaineth that we make it manifest that he alone is our Mediatour and that besides him there is no other for if the Saviour of the world must of necessitie be man that hee might satisfie the justice of God for the sinne of man as we have proved Chap. 20. and likewise that he must be God that hee may be able to heare and to save all them that come unto him as was manifest Chap. 21. and that the Sonne of God tooke on him our flesh that by him the love of God might be manifest to the creature as it was proved Chap. 23. If there can be but one Sonne of God as it was shewed Chap. 12. and the note thereto it must follow of necessity that there can be but one onely Saviour of mankinde which Saviour is our Lord Iesus the Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary as it is further manifest by these reasons following 1. It is necessary that all the dignities of God bee magnified in the creature according to the uttermost greatnesse which they can have therein But if this Iesus whom we confesse be the Saviour of the world then all the dignities of God are magnified according to the uttermost extent of greatnesse which it is possible they should have in the creature and that without any abatement or lesning in any one of them for his mercy is magnified to the uttermost in pardoning the sins of many for the merit of one his justice and love in this that he spared not his only Son but gave him to death for a satisfaction for the sin of mankinde his glory in that the creature once sinfull and mortall is made partaker of glorie and immortality his wisdome that out of the greatest ill the destruction of the creature by the malice of the devill he hath brought the greatest good that is the exaltation of the creature beyond that state of happinesse wherein it was created Chap. 18. § 2. and so in the rest But if this Iesus bee not the Saviour of the world as the Iewes affirme if when that other Bar-Coziba of theirs shall come he preach the same doctrine and doe the same glorious miracles which our Lord hath done though it be impossible that God should suffer the world to be so mocked then the same most high and glorious truth should bee both preached and confirmed by a most false and lying Prophet who should professe himselfe the Saviour of the world and was not yet neverthelesse seeing our Lord was the authour and manifester of that truth he shall have the honour to be beleeved and the falshood shall dwell with that other to come But if he shall preach any other doctrine than this which wee have received then neither can the dignities of God bee magnified in his greatest and most excellent worke in the creature that is in the salvation of mankinde as was shewed before neither can his Scriptures bee of absolute authority when another manner of Saviour shall come than they have described unto us but both these things are utterly impossible and therefore this Iesus whom the Christian faith confesseth to be our Lord is the Saviour of the world and beside him there is no other 2. If this Iesus whom wee acknowledge bee the Saviour of the world then the expectation of the most excellent and virtuous men is quieted and at rest in the assurance of his heavenly promise But if this bee not hee but that the Saviour is yet to come for wee have already proved that man having sinned should be restored by a Saviour that should bee both God and man then since that time that Christ the Sonne of God and the virgin Mary came wee that have beleeved in him are in the greatest errour that may bee and all our hope in God through the satisfaction of Christ must bee ashamed all our beleefe in his word is vaine and all the virtues the constancie love and patience of the Martyrs is perished so that when that pretended Messiah shall come he shall not be beleeved or if
authority or else it signifies a tribe and in this sence the tribe or distinction of a tribe never departed from Inda till our Lord came whereas the ten tribes carried away by Salmanasar in the dayes of Hezekiah were ever after utterly left out of all remembrance in the holy records see further in the 27. chap. R. 2. But concerning the cunning Scribe or lawyer for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies brought up betweene his feet as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel it is most certaine that such a Prince never failed from Iuda till the time of Herod the great who not being able to win the Iewes either by his most sumptuous building of the Temple or by his Largis in their famine or by all the favours that he could doe them to acknowledge his right to the kingdome by the gift of the Romans because they daily expected him that was to come of David murdered their Sanbedrim and all the males that hee could finde of the house of David so that he spared not his owne Sonne that was descended thence by his mother burnt also the bookes of the genealogy of their Kings and afflicted them with other calamities till they after thirty yeeres reigne of his were compelled to acknowledge him their lawfull king and then according to the promise was our Lord incarnate that true Shiloh her only Sonne But you say Shiloh may be interpreted his Son I answer The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiloh by the consonants or substantiall letters signifies her Sonne but by the vowell or spirit above it may signifie his Sonne but because the vaâ—â— is wanting it shall signifie his sonne that is invisible and therefore our Saviour is both God and man So there is no letter present no letter wanting in the holy word without a deepe mystery higher than heaven c Dan. 9. v. 24. Seventy weekes are determined upon thy people vpon thy holy Citty to restraine transgression to seale up sinne to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse to seale the vision and Prophesie and to annoint the Holie of holies c. to the end of the chapter The more evident and plaine any text of Scripture is for the clearing of the truth of Christ the more hath the devil laboured to darken it and to pervert the truth thereof And though by other texts of Scripture it be plaine enough to us that this Iesus is the Christ yet seeing no Scripture is so direct and punctuall as this for the certaine designement of the time the devill hath the more earnestly laboured to bewitch mens understanding so that they have taken more paines to make the time uncertaine nay some make it nothing at all belonging to Christ our Lord. The errours of the Iewes you may read in Pet. Galatinus lib. 4. cap. 14. to the 19. the contradictions of the Christians against the truth and against one another you may finde in D. Willet his most diligent com on Dan. Among the Iewes one Porphyry because he saw the text was so plaine for the truth of Christ suffering at the time appointed by this prophecie said that there was no reckoning to be made of this text of Daniel because he was no propher contrary to the consent of all other Iewes and the manifest authority of the Scriptures as you may reade Eze. 14.14.20 28.3 Math. 24.15 wher his innocency wisdome gift of prophecie are testified others among them doe wrest the time concerning the end thereof For the true Messiah not comming as they lookt for Him in pompe and worldly glory they stil looking for him that should come according to their fancy have made these weeks to mean some 700 yeers some 7. Iubilees others 7. tens And because many in Scripture are stiled by the title of Messiah as you may reade Psal 105.19 Esay 41.1 and elsewhere therefore some of them will have Cyrus to be meant hereby some Zorobabel others Iehoshua some Nehemiah but because neither the time nor circumstances accord others will needs refer it to Agrippa who was King when the Citty and Temple were destroyed by Titus And I would the faithlesse Iewes had wandred thus alone and that no Christian by his lifelesse interpretation had sided with them But the circumstances of the text doe easily overthrow them For this Messiah must bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah Naghid the Prince or chiefe Messiah or of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah that was to be manifested that Messiah that was to be annointed with the oyle of gladnesse above all his partners Psal 45.7 because He received not the Spirit by measure Ioh. 3.34 Moreover who is he that can be that Holy of Holies but onely Christ our Lord both God and man who is hee that can restraine men from transgression that can seale up sin that can cover iniquity that can bring in eternall righteousnesses but Christ our Lord in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed Therefore the text by these circumstances is tyed onely to the promised seed Gen. 3.15 which should utterly destroy the workes of the devil But the errors and disagreements of the Christians have beene a great cause to withhold the Iewes from the acknowledgment of the truth For they have been more different in their opinions hereabout than the Iewes who held constantly that the beginning of the time was according to the word of the Angel in the first yeere of Cyrus when they had liberty to returne and to build the Citty and Temple But the Christians make questions whether from the going forth of the word from God to the Angel or from the Angel to Daniel or from the king who gave the commission to the Iewes Gordonii Chronol cap. 15. pag. 237. And here againe out of Ezra because it is said chap. 6.14 that the house was sininished by the commandement of Cyrus and Darius and Arteshaste king of Persia question arises whether these seventy weekes begin in the first yeere of Cyrus or of Darius Hystaspis or of Artaxerxes Longhand and whether in his seventh or in his twentieth yeere And here while every man is rich in his owne opinion and prizes at an high rate his owne reading and praises his Authors and despises as deceived or counterfeit such as make against him men have so puzled themselves by prophane stories and the reckoning by the olympiads that they cannot finde as not where to begin so not where to end the account whether at Pompeies taking of Ierusalem or at the birth of our Lord or at his death or with the destruction of Ierusalem or in the daies of Adrian when the Iewes were banished out of Palestina And whether these sevens of yeares for on that the Christians agree be moone-yeeres or Sun-yeeres for such fine subtilties they are driven unto who apply their wits and studies to make good their profane authorities How much more necessary were it to hold constantly the limits
not what it was For hee that made that addition of the Timothean Nestorian and Eutychian heresie unto Saint Augustine makes the heresie of Nestorius nothing else but a mingle-mangle of the Photinian and Timothean heresie That Christ was man onely not conceived of the Holy Ghost but that afterward God was mixt with that man Againe Socrates Hist Eccles lib. 7. cap. 32. writes that many supposed that Nestorius sought to bring in the Heresie of Photinus whereas saith hee it is plaine by the writings of Nestorius that he onely avoided this that the virgin should be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God But Tho. Aquin. contragent lib. 4. cap. 38. cites Damascen to this purpose We affirme that there is a perfect union of the two natures not according to the Person as the enemy of God Nesterius affirmed but also according to the Hypostasis From whence Tho. concludes that this was the position of Nestorius to confesse one person in Christ and two Hypostases If by Hypostases he meant the Divine and humane natures united in the one Person of our Mediator neither Damascen nor Thomas can blame him for it But if by the manly Hypostasis consisting of body and soule he must meane a humane person as Thomas in the same place out of Boetius determines you may see how they made a quarrell more than needed For though Nestorius had beene madd yet would he never have held one Person of both natures and also two persons But it is cleare by the later Historians of the Church that this among other was the heresie of Nestorius that as in Christ there were two natures so there were also two persons which opinion might easily take the originall from Gerinthus Photinus and such as stunk of that Pumpe For if God the Word came to dwell in Jesus the sonne of Mary being a perfect humane person of body and soule whether at his Baptisme as Cerinthus taught or from the very instant of his conception as the Nestorians of this time affirme the position of Nestorius must follow of necessitie that there be in him as two natures so two persons For the God head destroyed nothing of the humane perfection which it found So that if it came not to the humane nature but in the subsistence of a manly person then that humane nature must remaine in the perfection of a person as it was before Whence that followes also not unfitly which hee further affirmed that the things of infirmity which were in Christ as to eate to drinke to sleepe to grow in wisedome c. belonged to the sonne of Mary without the Sonne of God and all the glorious miracles which Christ did worke were done by the Sonne of God without the sonne of Mary But the supposition of Nestorius that the deitie came into the humanity when the humanitie had perfect subsistence in soule and body that is in the perfection of a personall beeing is most false For the Word taking flesh of the Virgin caused it to become one person with himselfe so that the body assumed was the proper and peculiar body of God and the humane soule the soule of God not of any other Person but the body and soule of the Sonne of God and this not onely while the soule dwelt in the body according to the naturall life but also while he was yet under the burden of our sinnes his body in the grave his soule in Hell as the Apostle cites the Scripture Act. 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell neither wilt thou give thy Holy one to see corruption So then the body in the grave was the Holy One of God for nothing else of him was subject to corruption and though it were for a time forsaken of the soule yet not of the Godhead which thing the words of the Angel doe confirme Matth. 28.6 Come see the place where the Lord lay So that our Saviour on the Crosse yea even in the bands of death as concerning his body was still the Lord and God of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 And if it be most true that God is more inward and more neare unto every thing than can be expressed by any words of beeing of effence of nature substance moties forme proprietie or the like because he is the foundation unto all these and in him all things consist How much more shall hee bee inward and fundamentall unto that body soule and Spirit of Iesus which hee was pleased to make his own that by that body and blood of his he might redeeme his Church as it is said Acts 20.28 That God purchased his Church with his owne blood that is with the life and blood of that body which was proper and peculiar unto himselfe Thus then the word was made flesh not by any transmutation or change of the one or the other from their true and naturall being but because that by a secret and unspeakable conjunction the Word was made one with the flesh and the flesh with the Word So then the Sonne of GOD tooke the humanitie not that it might be another person beside himselfe but being in himselfe perfect God he would also in himselfe be perfect man taking flesh of the Virgin The differences of union you may see if you will in the principles of N. Byfield Chap. 16. This union of the Godhead and Manhood is manifest by divers Texts of the holy Scripture For evidence of which we will first put this infallible axiome That of two different persons one cannot possibly bee affirmed of the other as to say that Peter is Iohn or Iohn is Peter neither yet that the proprieties of the one can belong to the other as to say that the Gospell of Saint Iohn is the Epistle of Saint Peter Now it is said Ioh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world which belongs to Him as to the Sonne of God as Iohn expounds it 1 Epist 4.9 and then it followes Againe I leave the world and goe to the Father which is peculiar to him as man as it is said Act. 3.21 Therefore Iesus the Sonne of God and the Sonne of the virgin is one and the same person so Col. 1.16 that same He by whom all things were made v. 18. is the head of the Church and the first borne from the dead and Rom. 9.5 Hee who is of the Fathers concerning the flesh is God blessed above all This our Lord affirmed of himselfe Math. 26.63.64 to be the Sonne of God and the Son of man and againe Ioh. 3.13 Hee that came downe from heaven is the Sonne of man and againe Ioh. 3.13 He that came downe from heaven is the Sonne of man which is in heaven For hee that ascended is even Hee that descended Eph. 4.9 Moreover it is said Heb. 9.14 That Christ by his eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot unto God But if the humanity of Christ be another person beside the deity then he offered not
the same purpose a Wisdome increated and a Wisedome created and although Arius affirmed as Postellus That Christ was a creature but not as one of the creatures made but not as one of other things that were made c. and therefore concluded that he held the same faith with the Church and detracted nothing from the glory of Christ when hee called him the first and chiefe creature Epiph. haeres 69. yet Postellus whether he were indeed ignorant of it or whether he dissembled his knowledge makes no mention thereof lest the name Arius might discredit the position although the difference betweene Arius and Postellus be as much as from the East to the West For though Arius held the increated Wisdome or Word to be in the Trinity yet he could not yeeld to this that that Wisdome tooke flesh and became that Saviour to whom we confesse And this was the businesse betweene him and the right meaning Fathers But Postellus held that the created Wisdome that first borne of every creature which in the fulnesse of time tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and in that flesh made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world was hee in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead did dwell Now by the rule of our faith both the extremities are yeelded unto that Christ is God blessed above all and that he is man as hath beene proved But this is now to be examined whether it be necessary to the beeing of our mediatour that hee be that first creature of God created before all times and ages of the world by whom all other things were afterwards made in their due times and are governed as Postellus affirmed The Authorities which Postellus brings are either forraine or else out of the holy Scripture you shall first see them of the first kind with their exceptions then his reasons with their answers and lastly those enforcements which are by him and may beside bee brought from the Word of truth 1. First he saith he is urged to the declaration of this truth by the Spirit of Christ pag. 1 3 7 c. but I say these enthusiasmes and revelations are a common claime not onely to them that speake the truth from God as the holy Prophets say Thus saith the Lord but also to them that vent their owne fantasies and heresies in stead of the truth The second authority is that of the Abisine Church which commonly they call of Presbyter Iohn out of whose Creed he cites for his purpose thus much Pag. 24. 25. We beleeve in the name of the holy Trimty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost who is one Lord three names one Deity three Faces one Similitude the conjunction of the three persons is equall in their Godhead one Kingdome one Throne one Iudge one Love one Word one Spirit But there is a Word of the Father a Word of the Soune and a Word of the Holy Ghost and the Son is the same Word And the Word was with God and with the Holy Ghost and with himselfe without any defect or division the Sonne of the Father the Sonne of himselfe and the beginning of himselfe Where in the first Article you see that Church acknowledges the Trinitie of Persons in the unitie of the Deity according to that faith which wee beleeve The second Article But there is a Word of the Father c. is altogether a declaration of this created Word of Sonne of God by whom all the holy Scriptures were given and inspired as Postel speakes But concerning that Church though Postel to make the authority thereof without exception say it was never troubled with any heresie yet it is not unlikely to have nursed that arch-heretick Arius whom all writers account to be a Lybian Besides it is manifest that they are all Monothelites and so farre forth Iacobites or Eutychians that they condemne the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon for determining two natures to be in Christ Moreover what their learning is like to be you may judge by this that their inferiour Church Ministers and Monkes must live by their labor having no other maintenance nor being suffered to crave almes see Mr Brerewoods Enquiry Chap. 23. 21. a state of the Ministery whereto our sacrilegious patrons and detainers of those livings rightly called Impropriations because they belong most improperly to them that unjustly withhold them from the Church would bring our Church unto But see whereto this want of maintenance hath brought that Church which in the time of the Nicene Councell was of so great regard that their Patriarch had the seventh place in all generall Councels yet now as I have read have they of late yeares beene compelled to send to Rome to beg a religion and teachers from them And this is the Authority of that Church But you will say their Creed is ancient and of authority I say though it be as ancient as Arius yet what wit or judgement was in this to put such a point into their Creed which they themselves by Postels owne confession doe not understand If it were necessary to beleeve it other Churches would not have omitted it if not necessary why was it brought into their Creed But the ancient Paraphrasts Anchelus and Ionathan are without exception and where the Text is And the Lord spake unto Moses they explaine it thus And the Lord spake unto Moses by his word which all the old Interpreters and especially Rambam understand to be spoken of the created Word of God that Word of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost or the Divinitie which is appliable to the created beeings Pag. 24. The Cabalists also concurre with this interpretation and therefore call him the inferiour VVisdome the Throne of Glory the house of the Sanctuary the heaven of heavens united to eternity the superiour habitation in which God dwels for ever as his body is the inferiour habitation after he was incarnate the great Steward of the house of God who according to the eternall decree brings forth every thing in due time And these as I remember are all the authorities which Postellus cites except you will add this that whereas he writes to the Councell of Trent they of the Councell being called for other purposes did not at all passe any censure of the booke or this position which is the maine point therein You may add to these authorities many other and first out of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach Chap. 1. vers 4 5. Wisdome hath beene created before all things and the understanding of Prudence from everlasting The VVord of God most high is the fountaine of wisdome c. which agrees with that in the Creed before that hee is the VVord of the Sonne and the beginning of himselfe And againe verse 9. The Lord created her and saw her and numbred her And Chap. 24.8 9. He that made me caused me to rest he created me from the beginning before the world and I shall never faile And this authority
Mediator to every effect as Postellus holds it necessary For the whole creature by the power of that blessing which it received at the creation is able to worke according to the end appointed And if it were necessary to put any common agent in the Creature by which every inferiour Agent were to bee moved which wee cannot doe except we hold that Gods decree the law of nature is too weake or may be broken yet I thinke that the dominion of the heavens set in the earth Iob. 38.33 or that same anima mundi here below mentioned may better stand with the Scripture than the perpetuall imployment of this supposed mediator That I say nothing of those particular intelligences which some Philosophers Postel himselfe pag. 63. have appropriated to every thing beside the specificall vertue of the seed Neither is it cleare that this spirit which moved upon the waters Gen. 1.2 was any such being as Postellus supposes a created divinity or the mediator betweene God and his creature but rather that vigor life or heat concreated with the Chaos that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nephesh anima mundi or spirit whereby every thing is enlivened or made able to worke to the destinate end which ever dwels in the watry part of the compound as the soule in the bloud or if this interpretation be not admitted yet that of Saint Ambrose may stand Hexam lib. 2. that Moses in these words In the beginning God created heaven and earth having made mention of the Father and the Sonne doth rightly adde that clause And the spirit of God moved upon the waters that he might shew that the creation of the world was the worke of the whole Trinity yet may you not hereby suppose that that Spirit of God which fils the whole world sap 1. was carried upon the waters by any locall position but rather as an artificer whose will and understanding is busied in his worke so the holy Spirit disposed the whole creature to naturall action according to his will and power Rab. Maur. Enar. in Gen. If you love to conferre opinions you may read Ioh. Pici Heptaplum D. Willet and other expositors 4. To these reasons of Postellus you may adde a fourth every action is limited by the object so the eternall and infinite action of God the Father understanding himselfe doth thereby produce the eternal Sonne as hath beene further said chap. 11. But because the Father doth also view all the possibilities of being in the creature and that the creature must needes stand in cleare distinction from the Creator therefore as the eternall Sonne is the image of the Father so that idea or image of the creature must needes bee a different being from that image of the Father which wee call the eternall Sonne and so of necessity must come into the reckoning of the creature For the true image of every thing must be like to that whose image it is Answer If the image of the things created were represented to the divine understanding from any thing which is without himselfe the reason were of force But seeing that God knowes all things only in and by his owne being by which being of his only as the cause of all things all things have their possibilitie of being so that his being is the foundation of all beings it followes that the representation of the divine being which wee call the Sonne is also the similitude or representation of all those possibilities of being which are in him so that the creature is in God the Father as the first cause of all equivalently sith his being is equivalent to all being and the possibilities thereof In the Sonne the idea of all being it is as represented or characterized eminently or visibly to the divine understanding and by Him all naturall causes and possibilities are ordered to the bringing of all things into their actuall being And therefore as Christ our Lord Heb. 1.3 is called the expresse image of the Person of the Father so likewise Col. 1.15 is hee the first begotten of every creature For seeing the understanding of God is not by discourse nor habituall as gotten by experience but that it is His owne very being unto the perfection whereof all the termes of Action must of necessity concurre that is both of Him that understands and of the obiect understood and of the action of understanding as was shewed chapter 11. Rea. 8. it is not possible but that seeing they are all infinite they must also bee coessentiall and one and if one then the action of understanding whereby God vieweth himselfe must also bee that whereby hee vieweth the creature for otherwise it were not infinite if it comprehended not all beings at once So then in this action of Gods understanding there cannot bee a prioritie of an infinite being understood that is God the Sonne and a posterioritie of a finite that is the creature By this meanes you say I make the Creature to be coessentiall with God in which inconvenience the strength of the former objection doth stand Answ If you meane the Creature according to the actuall being I put it naturally in the precedent causes and possibilities of nature but as concerning the first and prime cause it is so farre from any inconvenience that it is most necessarie that God and the first cause of all being beside Himselfe be termes convertible essentially And thus the Creature is in God as in the cause But seeing nothing can be in another but according to the manner of that being wherein it is and seeing the being of God is his most Pure understanding the Creature is no otherwise in him but as understood or foreseene and willed eternally And if you will stay to see you may in the Persons of the holy Trinity view a wonderfull presentation of the perfections of the Creature The Father is the foundation that sustaines all The Sonne or Mediator that power or efficacie which perfecteth all The Holy Ghost that infinite activity in the strength of which every thing doth worke The number three supposes two and because neither to worke outwardly nor to will within can bee where there is not a power thereto therefore our Lord saith Iohn 15.5 Without mee yee can doe nothing And secondly supposes first so that power cannot bee without a being wherein it dwels And thus you see the Father the foundation of all being is more inward to every thing than the matier thereof the Sonne more essentiall than the forme and the holy Ghost more proper than any working for of his activitie it is that we will or doe Philip. 2.13 and thus is that Scripture verefied which is in Acts 17. In him first we are secondly live thirdly move 5. A fifth reason of Postellus which I set over of purpose is pag. 74. and this it is Seeing that God in his infinitie is utterly incomprehensible of the creature if such a created Mediator were not in whom the infinite Majestie dwelling might
the just indignation of God against sinne and to manifest the trueth of that word Cursed is the earth for thy sake Yet to the soule being separate and so without the helpe of the sences and imagination by the light which God hath given to it able by it selfe to see what the possibilities of the whole creature are every place is a Paradse while it considers the infinite goodnesse and power of God in the creature as well in that which is deprived of the effects thereof as in that wherein His goodnesse is still effectuall For as there be three estates of mans being This of the Warriour in this life That after death of the Conquerour And the third after the resurrection of the Triumpher So likewise are there three meanes and degrees of His knowledge One in this life wherein wee know nothing but by our sences from whence the imagination or fantasie that Hevah the mother of all living carries unto reason her Adam all the species or formes of things which shee gathers from the sences For nothing lives in the understanding but by the power of the fantasie which because it is false fickle and will of it selfe without reason be working upon every object as the appetite is mooved thereby therefore the reason following the fantasie is deceived and not constant and so it comes to passe that wee know few things according to the trueth which is in them But in that second estate of man when the body returnes to the earth and his sences and consequently his fantasie doth utterly perish Psalm 146.4 Then the soule looking on the creature with its owne eyes sees the wonderfull blessing and goodnesse whereof man had beene made partaker in the right use of the creature if he had not lost the knowledge thereof by his sinne and returnes to the Author thereof that praise that is due to Him therefore and acknowledges that state wherein hee lives out of the proper habitation to bee the reward of sinne yet because it doth evermore enjoy the comforts of God in a certaine knowledge and some present feeling of those joyes whereof it shall be fully partaker hereafter in the perfection of the whole man and sees that this separation is but a preparation for a further perfection in that immortall being which is to come it hath thereby as it were a seisure and delivery of those heavenly joyes which it had here onely in assurance of hope though till the third state it hath not the full possession And although the soule of the wicked man views indeed the creature and knowes now the losse of that blessing which it might have had in the right use thereof yet because it hath no hope in the life to come all that knowledge which it hath is but to see further the wretchednesse of it selfe and for a foretaste of that bitter cup of wrath which it must drinke even to the dregs And this foretaste is able to make all the creature hell unto the miserable soule as the joyes and assurance of heaven make all places Paradise to the faithfull For the devill was not therefore happy because hee was in heaven Iob 1.6 and 1 Kings 22.22 nor therefore miserable because hee was thrust out Reuel 12.9 for not the place but the holy Spirit of comfort onely which never leaves the faithfull soule Iohn 14.16 gives heauenly happinesse as that soule which is destitute thereof hath hell in it selfe and must needs be in hell wheresoever it is Now as it is most certaine that there is such a meane state betweene this of mortality and that of glory so is it most reasonable to thinke that this is the imployment of the soule at least for a time before it bee raised up with the body in glory For seeing man was therefore set in the creature and therefore indued with a reasonable soule that he might in the creature behold the Wisedome and goodnesse of God and to His praise bee happy in the right use thereof It was necessary that He should know the creature and the possibilities thereof which knowledge having by his sinne debarred himselfe of he could not use the creature aright and so became mortall Yet seeing it is impossible that the sinne of man should frustrate theend of God but that He should be glorified by man whom He hath purposed so exceedingly to glorifie therefore in that second estate wherein the soule is better fitted to know as the Angels by intuition or view of the creature onely shall that be effected Moreover seeing our Lord ascended not to heaven before His soule was joyned againe to the body and that it may not reasonably bee thought that the seruant in his greatest basenesse and lowest estate should have preeminence before his Lord nor yet that the soule that most active part of man should be idle what can the soule and understanding bee busied about but onely in the enquirie of that trueth and wisedome which God hath manifested in the creature But whether this inquest shall be immediately after the soules departure from the body or at the time of restitution of which Saint Peter speakes Act. 3.20 I cannot define But although for the trueth and quietnesse sake with them that would instantly be in heaven I denied not an immediate passage into heaven for the faithfull since Christ yet seeing most of the sonnes of Adam must come into this middle state I see not why any man should withdraw himselfe from that taske whereby he ought to give honour unto his Creator Objection 1. Obiect 1 But by this you put a possibilitie of those illusisions of the devill appearing as the ghosts of the dead and justifie that poeticall fiction of Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. that they of the golden-age became all Angels and in ayrie bodies lived every where on the earth seeing all the good and ill deedes of men I answere All things are not therefore false because A Poet affirms them but that which he speakes out of the light of nature is certainely true and this what waight soever it hath swayes on my side But for the upholding of those old-wives fables of the walking of the spirits of the dead there is no feare For being dead they must keep the law of the dead and not live to us that are dead to them for when they are gone from hence they are no more seene Psal 39.13 Thus much it was necessary to speake concerning the meanes of the soules knowledge while it is in the state of separation from the body The third manner and degree of the soules knowledge by comprehension in the morning vision is when the whole man glorified shall see the true being of all things in Him that is the cause of all For then shall it know as it is knowne as you may see 1. Cor. 13.12 But this kind of knowledge belongs nothing to the question that is in hand 4. The other kind of descent which is in state or
is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought firmly to be observed and beleeved For they may bee prooved by most certaine warrant of Holy Scripture And because it may not bee supposed that our Church cites the authority of Athanasius but according to his owne meaning as he himselfe hath explained it if it were the meaning of Athanasius that Christ after His suffering descended locally into the hell of the damned it must needes bee that our Church accorded to his meaning And what the meaning of this Article in the Creed of Athanasius is we need not to doubt who have Athanasius himselfe to declare it in his Epistle of the incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ against Apollinarius where hee prooves against his Heresie that there bee onely two parts of the humane nature in Christ a body which the grave received and a soule which went downe into hell the grave received that which was bodily hell that which was not bodily And by his reason you may yet understand his meaning better When the Creator saith he call'd man into question for his disobedience Hee decreed against him a double punishment For to the body He said Thou art earth and unto earth thou shalt returne But to the soule He said Thou shalt die the death And for this cause man being dead is condemned to depart to two places And therefore it was also necessary that the Iudge Himselfe that made this decree should also undergoe it that in the estate of man condemned shewing Himselfe free from sin uncondemned He might reconcile man unto God and restore him to perfect libertie In the same Epistle hee had said a little before that in hell He condemned death that Hee might every way perfect the salvation of man in our image which He had put on and in his fourth oration against the Arians hee saith that the powers of hell withdrew themselues being afraid at the sight of Christ. So the meaning of Athanasius is plaine that the soule of Christ did locally goe downe to hell and withall the meaning of our Church Now among these texts of Scripture by which this doctrine of Athanasius may bee warranted that text of the 1. Pet. 3.18.19 is most plaine especially as it stands in the Greeke Christ suffered for our sinnes that He might bring us unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put to death in the flesh but quickened in the Spirit by which He went and preached to the Spirits in prison Which Scripture must be applied onely to the manly being of Christ who Himselfe had set an example to His followers to suffer ill patiently which could be onely in His manly being For as God He could not suffer ill Beside His God-head mooves not by any locall motion as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doeth signifie And moreover His divine spirit was no way quickned nor could be but He went and preached in that Spirit in which He was quickned which could bee onely in His humane spirit or soule in which having once suffered death He manifested His power to the disobedient spirits by taking to Himselfe the keyes or power over hell and death to shut in and keepe out whom Hee will Reuel 1.18 And although I deny not that the sence is true and good He was quickned by the Spirit that holy Spirit which Hee received not by measure yet I hold that this is not the native meaning of this place and the best printed copies of Stephan Plantin and others are with me Neither will the words naturally beare that change of In and By Neither did the reverend Noel Deane of Pauls and other like Him accord with them Neither is this the onely place of Scripture that prooves the locall descent of Christs soule into hell For that argument of Saint Peter Act. 2.31 whereby hee prooves the resurrection of Christ out of Psalm 16. because His soule was not left in Hell strangles these interpreters harder then Achelous was strangled in the hand of Hercules So that which Ionah the figure said of himselfe being by Christ the substance applied to Himselfe To be three dayes in the heart of the earth must bee as true in the substance as it was figuratively true in Ionah This is the confession of him that was holy as no man was Psalm 68.2 Thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell vers 13. as the Apostle speakes Ephes 4.9 10. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that Hee might fill all things So then the Scriptures not being of any private interpretation that is to set out the stories of private men 2. Peter 1.20 must have their highest and uttermost interpretation in Christ Now that this is the native interpretation of this Article and consequently the right meaning of the Composer or Composers of the Creed beside the texts of Scripture on which the Article is grounded it will bee further manifest by the Reasons 1. In a Catechisme the use of Tropes or borrowed speeches are not fit for the use of children and novices and such is the Creed or forme of the confession of our Faith as it is manifest Hebr. 6.1 And the suffering of Christ His Death Buriall c. is taken properly therefore His going downe also into hell Object If Christ went to the faithfull that were dead Object whose soules were in Paradise why doe you say to hell whereby is specially meant the place of the damned Answer Hee first went to the dead in Paradise as His promise was That the Thiefe should there bee with Him in Paradise Then to hell to take to Himselfe all rule all authority and power For God had put all things in subjection under His feet 2. If this Article He went downe to hell be not to bee referred to the soule of Christ after His death then have we no direction by the Creed to know what became of His soule neither are wee taught hereby whether He had a humane and immortall soule or no. So we are still left in doubt whether this Christ be the Saviour of the world But if this Article be referred to the state of Christs soule after His death then are we truely taught and informed against these doubts But that adulterate interpretation of His sufferings is excluded 3. And seeing our Lord Christ is appointed of God to bee the Iudge of the world and that as He is the Sonne of man it was necessary that our Lord should goe downe to hell both in regard of the justice and of the mercy which ought to appeare in His judgement of His justice that the enemies of mankind the devills may not torment them according to their cruelty and hatred of man but onely in justice afflict them according to the sentence passed on them according to the measure of their sinne and not beyond as it is said Luk. 12.47 and 48. The servant which knew his masters will and prepared not himselfe shall be beaten with
therein O times Into what corruption of manners are wee fallen So when all charity is put only in the maintenance of idlenesse and begging Gangrels being otherwise dead and cold when the apostasie is fully revealed and the man of sinne detected which exalteth Himselfe above all that is called God Moreover when by the working of the false apostles of that apostasie there is a daylie falling from the faith 2. Thes chap. 2. When that ill servant hath said in his heart My Lord delayes his comming and hath begun and so continues to smite his fellow-servants Matth. 24.28 29. what wants but onely that the Tribes of Israel should be gathered to the Church that all the wicked should bee put away like drosse Psal 119. verse 119. For the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous Other signes you may reade in the Holy Text and consider of them But that signe of the Son of man spoken of Matth. 24.30 is doubtfull Some thinke it shall be a crosse some a great light Lactantius Lib. 7. Cap. 19. thinkes it shall bee a sword which shall fall from heaven like the ancyle Ovid. Fast lib. 3. But Sibyl orae lib. 2. saith it shall be a glorious Starre in the likenesse of a Crowne except by an Enallage of number shee meanes a Crowne of Starres as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime doth signifie a constellation Her Verses are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A shining Starre like to a Crowne most sheen In the bright heaven of all men shal be seen For many dayes Next after the signes of our Lords comming to Iudgement you may reade the manner of His comming as it is delivered in the Scripture so farre as our understanding can conceive to bee with power and glory Mat. 24.31 euen the glory of the Father Mat. 16.27 and all the holy Angels with Him Matt. 25.31 In flaming fire rendring vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2. Thess 1.8 § 3. But that we dwell not on these things which are either beyond our understanding as the enquiry of the time which is therefore hid that it may stint our curious search or else so plaine that wee need not doubt let us goe forward to those questions which seeme to offer some doubt unto us 1. And first if Christ our Lord shall judge the world in righteousnesse Psalm 9.8 how is it said Matth. 19.28 That the Apostles shall sit upon twelue Thrones and judge the twelue tribes of Israel And againe 1 Cor. 6.2 Doe ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and vers 3. Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels To which the answere is returned That the Apostles by their faith and doctrine shall take away all excuse from the Israelites and so judge and condemne them For this is their condemnation That they beleeved not in the Name of the onely begotten Sonne of God Iohn 3.18 So the Saints in generall shall judge the wicked by their faith and repentance whose example the wicked would not follow that they might be saved Moreover seeing the faithfull are the members of that mysticall body of which Christ is the head they in Him are said to judge the world that is the unbeleevers And seeing all the enemies of Christ are to bee brought before the Throne of Christ and His Church in as much as Christ shall judge the world and the wicked Angels in trueth and righteousnesse all the faithful shal subscribe to the judgement as most holy and just and so are rightly said to judge the Angels And as the holy Angels shall then rejoyce with joy unspeakable for that glory and mercy which God shall vouchsafe unto His Saints So the Saints likewise shall give glory and thankes to God for that encrease of glory and happinesse which He shall give unto the holy angels as the reward of their continuall watch and guard which they have held about us all the time of our pilgrimage upon earth and at the houre of death helping the soule out of the prison of the body and conducting it unto the place of joy But it is said Iohn 16.11 That the Prince of this world is judged already how they shall we judge the Angels Answer The devill is judged already 1. In the decree of God 2. By the word of God he is declared to be reserued in chaines of darknesse and that hell fire is prepared for him and his angels 3. By his owne knowledge of his owne estate 4. Because his torment is in part begun But in judgement there be two things First the enquiry of the fact then the award of the reward Neither the deeds of the good or bad angels shall bee enquired into at the judgement a as some have thought but the reward shall bee assigned unto them both and acknowledged to be most just by the Church as I said before and this is our judgement of them Neither yet shall the sencelesse creatures be exempted from this judgment in as much as The elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes thereof shall burne 2. Pet. 3.10 that they may be freed from that corruption to which they are subject for the sinne of man For when man sinned the whole bodily creature which was made for man was thereby subjected to vanity not of it owne will or any inclination which was therein in respect of any weakenesse of state wherein it was created For all was exceeding good Gen. 1.31 but that the justice of God against sinne might be manifest is it subjected to the curse Gen. 3.18 19. yet under hope that when man is freed from his sinne the creature also shall be restored unto that libertie from corruption wherein it was created Rom. 8.20 c. as it is said Rev. 21.1 and 5. Behold I create all things new See 1. Pet. 3.13 2. Another doubt may bee concerning the forme of the sentence whereby it may seeme that the merit of workes is justified For so is the sentence pronounced Come yee blessed receive the King-dome prepared for you for I was hungry and ye gave Mee meat c. and on the other side Depart ye cursed for I was hungry and ye gave Me no meat c. Mat. 25.35 to 46. Ans It cannot bedenied but that the sentence of condemnation upon the reprobate is according to their workes as the deseruing causes thereof For not tobeleeve in Christ is that great sin which is the cause of condemnation Ioh. 3.18 and 16.9 Neither is a dead faith ought worth but that faith onely is accepted which worketh by love Galat. 5.6 without which it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 And if all things that are not of faith be sinne Rom. 14.23 Then the wicked works of Infidels and Hypocrites and much more their violent and wilfull rebellions
their lives given as a prey Ezechiel Daniel and they that were signified by the basket of good figges Iere. 24.5 were carryed away for their good The Christians likewise were safe at Pella in the destruction of Ierusalem Euseb Ecclesiast hist lib. 3 Cap. 5. So He delivereth from the noy some pestilence Psalm 91.3 c. and in the dayes of famine those that wait on Him shall have enough Psal 37.19 So these things are testimonies unto us both that there shall be a judgement and that the godly shall be saved and the wicked condemned 12 And as if nature if selfe had imprinted the acknowledgment of this judgement in every mans mind so there was never any man c that confessed the resurrection but did withall confesse this generall judgement And therefore though every other Article of our Creed have been impugned by some hereticke or other yet never any gainesayd this I meane since those errours were stilled in the Apostles time See 2 Thess 2.1 2 3. But whether it be that every man acknowledging the justice of God as no man can confesse him to be God whom he doth not beleeve to be just and a rewarder of them that diligently seeke Him Hebr. 11.6 or whether it be that the testimonies of the holy Scripture are so cleare in this point as that they have stopped the mouthes of all heretickes the thing it selfe is most certaine to be as it may appeare by the texts of Scripture already cited and by these also that follow Psalm 9. vers 8. The Lord hath prepared His Throne for judgment He shall judge the world in righteousnesse He shall minister judgment unto the people in uprightnesse And Psalm 50. vers 3 4 5 6. God shall come A fire shall devoure before Him Hee shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that Hee may judge His people c. Psalm 96.13 The Lord commeth to judge the earth Hee shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with His trueth As it is also Psalm 98.9 Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce ô young man in thy youth c. but know that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement And Eccles. 12.14 God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it bee ill Reade hereto 2 Pet. 3. Chap. from vers 7. to 15. and Reu. 20. Chap. from vers 11. to the end § 6. Sect. 6 Thus it being manifest that the judgement shall be it must also appeare that our Lord Iesus must bee that judge Whereto though I have said that which may be sufficient at the beginning of the Chapter yet because it is our speciall hope and comfort that He shall be our judge that was our Creator that hath so dearely bought us that hath been our Mediator that doth evermore preserue us from the power of the enemy let us both begin and end with this lest the conscience of our owne sinnes and the remembrance of that fearefull time should cause us not to long for that comming For if God be very terrible in the assembly of His Saints Psalm 89.7 how much more in that gloomy day when He comes to render vengeance with devouring fire before Him and to repay His aduersaries to their face and to passe on them that fearefull sentence that shall d never be reversed and from which there is no appeale But lift up your heads you that are little in your owne eyes and tremble at His words for that is the day of your redemption and God Himselfe will come and save you And because He is God He knowes the secrets of your hearts and sees your reverence and your feare before Him and your acknowledgment of your owne unworthinesse And because He is man and hath had experience of sorrowes and passed under the burden of unjust and cruell judgement and hath for us endured the Crosse and shame that we might be delivered from the wrath to come therefore lift up your heads and receive the reward of your faith and patience and the end of your hopes the eternall saluation of your soules and bodies 1. For if our Lord having suffered such things for us and having overcome in all His sufferings having ascended into heaven to be our continuall intercessor for us should not then give unto us that everlasting life which He hath purchased for us His sufferings and intercession should be altogether in vaine and our faith in Him which He hath wrought in us by His holy Spirit should be utterly void and those promises which Hee hath giuen us in His holy Word should faile of their trueth and performance But all these things are impossible And therefore our Lord Iesus shall come to give reward unto His seruants both small and great Revel 11.18 and to cast out the unbeleevers out of His kingdome 2. In things that are orderly disposed for an end nothing may be omitted of those things that are necessary for the attainement of that end The end of our Lords incarnation and sufferings concernes either God or man Concerning mankind euerlasting life in all happinesse and joy is that great end for which our Saviour was incarnate died and rose againe and shall raise us up at the last day And by His judgement of mercy and compassion on us shall deliver unto us the seisure and possession of that eternall happinesse Therefore our Lord Iesus shall be judge of the quicke and the dead Concerning God it is necessary that in His love to His Father and zeale to His honour Hee take vengeance on them that have offended the infinite justice and despised that mercy and pardon which hath beene offered unto them and still have continued in their sin and followed it with greedinesse Therefore in this respect also our Lord Iesus Christ shall be the Iudge of the quicke and the dead 3. And seeing our Lord Iesus hath undertaken that honourable enterprise viterly to destroy the workes of the devill it is necessary that He leave nothing unperformed which doth belong to the accomplishment thereof Therefore Hee shall judge those Angels which are reserved in chaines of darknesse unto that day and bring upon them that destruction which they sought to bring upon all man-kind And shall also reward those servants of His which have continued faithfull in His service whether they be Angels or men 4. None is so fit to judge betweene two as hee that hath interest in both parties and knowes the worthinesse of them both and that not onely in his understanding but also by his experience of them both But man-kind is to be judged for that which hee hath done contrary or according to the will of God Therefore seeing our Lord Iesus is very God and very man as it hath beene prooved Hee shall be the judge of the quicke and the dead 5. In every orderly and just judgement both the Iudge and the sentence ought to be manifest and knowne to all them that
devills also shall be saved at last But because it is not fit in this grammar of Christian Religion to trouble the vulgar eares with paradoxes you may perhaps find this question handled in that booke which is intituled Arithmetica sacra In the meane time he shall further me much therein that shall truely teach me the true and uttermost meaning of the Iubile ARTICLE VIII ⧠I beleeve in the Holy-Ghost CHAP. XXXIII § 1. THe word Ghost in English our true speech is as much as athem or breath in our new Latine language a Spirit The metaphoricall use of it as it signifies a qualitie as wee say the Spirit of meeknesse of jealousie of pride or that spirit of 7. devills which troubles and overturnes the state of the world which God doth hate above all other Psal 10.3 I meane the spirit of covetousnesse hath no place here nor yet the word spirit as it may meane any being elementall as we speake of the winde or any subtile steame raised from a moist body nor yet as it signifies those created ethereall spirits which wee call Angels but onely as our Lord speakes Iohn 4.24 God is a Spirit which as it is spoken of the God-head essentially so heere wee confesse that wee beleeve in the Holy-Ghost or Spirit that third Person in the glorious Trinity our God our Sanctifier our Comforter eternally one with the Father and the Sonne unto whose faith and service onely wee are baptized as our Saviour commanded Matth. 28.19 Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost As fast as our heavy-footed reason can follow our faith I have in the 10 11 and 12. Chapter and Notes thereon already shewed the distinct substances of the three Person in the unity of their essence so that it seemes there is nothing in this place needfull to that point but onely to bring those Scriptures which doe directly prove the God-head of the Holy-Ghost and that Hee doth proceede from the Father and the Sonne For the first you may take these Texts 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these three are one Actes 5.3.4 Why hath Satan fill'd thy heart that thou shouldest lie unto the Holy-Ghost Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Mark 3.29 He that shall blaspheme against the Holy-Ghost hath never forgivenesse but is in danger of eternall damnation Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto texts brought Chap. 11. § 3. num 9. By all which Scriptures it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost is God coessentiall with the Father and the Sonne and therefore to be worshipped and glorified with the same glory with them And that He doth proceed from the Father and the Sonne these texts doe make it plaine Iohn 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of trueth which proceedeth from the Father Hee will testifie of mee And Iohn 16.7 If I depart I will send the Comforter unto you Rom. 8.9 He is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Gal. 4.6 Because yee are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of His Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father See Rev. 5.6 and Iohn 20.22 Hee breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy-Ghost By which it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost proceedeth from Him And this is that Holy Spirit that dwelleth in us and that not onely by His graces and gifts in us nor onely as God every where present that worketh all in all but also as in those Temples which He hath sanctified for His perpetuall dwelling as it is said 1. Cor. 6.19 Know yee not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy-Ghost which is in you Neither doth the Holy-Ghost onely dwell with them whom He hath sanctified unto Himselfe but together with Him both the Father and the Son as it is said Iohn 14.16 I will pray the Father and Hee shall give you another comforter even the Spirit of trueth that Hee may abide with you for ever And againe verse 23. If a man love mee hee will keepe my wordes and my Father will love him and wee will come unto him and make our abode with him And thus is the Tabernacle of God with men and thus doth He dwell among them Therefore let us remember that precept Eph. 4.30 Not to grieve that Holy Spirit by our willfull sinnes whereby wee are sealed to the day of redemption For if any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1. Cor. 3.17 This is the seale and pledge of our eternall hope For if the spirit of Him that raised up Iesus from the dead doth dwell in us He shall also quicken our mortall bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us as I shewed more fully Chap. 17. § 4. num 2. Neither indeed were it any assurance of hope or comfort to know and beleeve that God the Father created all things by Iesus Christ and that Christ the Sonne of God died for the sinnes of men for so much the devills acknowledge except wee did also know and beleeve that the fruite and effect of that redemption did belong to every beleever in particular and that in the eternall purpose of God wee were created unto this hope And this faith and knowledge is wrought in us only by the Holy-Ghost as you may read Iohn 16.13.14 and Eph. 1. from verse 17. to the end Neither yet could wee have sure consolation in this witnesse of the Holy-Ghost unto our hearts except wee did certainely know that this Holy-Ghost which witnesseth these things unto us were God who cannot lie Whereof wee have full proofe by those graces which Hee worketh in us as first the knowledge of the trueth then faith to beleeve it then as living water doth he wash our consciences from sinne then as another Evangelist speaketh doth Hee as fire inflame our hearts with the love of God a hatred of sinne and a desire to walke in newnesse of life and although wee be daily assaulted by the world and the devill to whom wee are often betrayed by our owne wicked imagination ye doth He not forsake us for ever but when wee see our selves to have no strength of our selues to stand in the least temptation and so have learned not to trust in our selves but in the living God and to desire His helpe then doth He returne and comfort us in all the troubles of our mind and even in death it selfe makes us more than conquerors Oh what is man that thou shouldest take such tender care of Him or the sonne of sinfull flesh that thou shouldest so visit him Now it is impossible that any created Spirit at one time in all places of the world and that ever since God created man upon the earth even unto the last man that shall be borne should worke these different effects in the hearts of all Gods children
but inductive therefore I referre you to the 11. Chapter before for further proofe of the Trinity of Persons in unity of the Godhead Returne then to where you left GOD is the first of beings and therefore eternall à parte antè for otherwise something should have beene before Him which should have caused Him to be but we consented to the contrary before And if He be the first of beings then nothing made by Him can be greater then He by whose power He might be brought to nothing And therefore He is eternall à parte post to endure for ever eternally And if God be the first of all beings then it is necessary that His being be most simple and pure as having nothing therein of any dependance of another unto whom either matier forme composition accident or any possibility to be either more lesser greater or other then He is can any way belong And if God be eternall it followes necessarily that He have infinite power to continue eternally But an infinite power cannot be but in an infinite being therefore His being is infinite And because nothing can be in His most simple being but that which is essentially Himselfe therefore infinitie must be His being and His being infinitie And if God be infinite in His being then it is impossible that any perfection of being should be wanting to His being for so His being could not be infinite And therefore Wisedome Goodnesse Trueth Glory and all other excellencies of being are in Him infinitely perfectly and eternally And because no abatement want or littlenesse can be in infinitie therefore is it necessary that all those perfections which are in God be also active or working in Him for otherwise they could cause no joy or happines unto Him so should they be unto him in want and defect and not in infinity Therefore it is necessary that all those perfections that are in God be not onely active in Him but also as infinite in their action as they are in their being lest a twofold being one in the greatnesse of being and another in lessenesse of action should be in God which is utterly impossible But because no action can be where there is no object to worke upon nor no infinite action where there is not an infinite object therefore it is necessary that there be an infinite object of all that glorious action which is in God whereby He works infinitely and eternally And this infinite object is that glorious Sonne of His love the image of Himselfe wherein all His perfection is actuated and expressed and that infinite action whereby the Sonne is Characterized Hebr. 1.3 Formed See Esay 43.10 or brought foorth eternally is the Holy-Ghost And because there can be no action where either the agent or object is wanting therefore is the Holy-Ghost most truely said to proceed from the Father and the Sonne And because I speake onely of that incommunicable action which is in God Himselfe from whence the difference of the three Persons doth arise therefore you must understand that as the action so the Persons also are in the Godhead essentially and that not onely because the action is according to the purity and perfection of the Divine being but also because all the termes thereof that is the Agent the object and the Action it selfe are infinite and eternall which cannot possibly be found out of the Godhead And thus in briefe you see it manifest not onely that God is but also that His being is infinite and eternall with all the perfections both of being and working and how from the infinitie of His glorious and eternall working the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godhead is concluded and consequently that the Holy-Ghost is God eternally proceeding from the Father and the Sonne For further understanding and proofe of all which things you may if you will as cause is reade any of the 12. first Chapters at the beginning Notes a IF the procession of the Holy-Ghost The heresies which have been about this Article of our Creed have beene many and great For the more necessary any trueth is to be knowne and beleeved the more damnable heresies hath the devill raised thereabout But as the heresies that were about our Lord Christ so these here may be brought to three heads The first concerne the person of the Holy-Ghost § 1. The second His being § 2. The third His properties § 3. § 1. Concerning the person of the Holy-Ghost Simon that eldest sonne of Satan would be all in all For he said that he gave the Law to Moses in mount Sina in the person of the Father that in the dayes of Tiberius he suffered in shew under the Person of the Sonne and that after he was that Holy-Ghost that came upon the Apostles in the shew of cloven tongues Thus saith Augustine Haer 1. But Epiphanius Haer 21. saith that he called his Punke Helena the Holy-Ghost for whose deare sake he transformed himselfe that he might come to her thorow all the heavens unknowne of his angels But this fellow presuming too much on the power of his devills while he tooke upon him to ascend into heaven againe he died of the fall and so the necke of his heresie was broken Manes a Persian the father of the Manichees erred the same heresie with Simon the Witch and gave out himselfe for the holy Spirit but being slayed alive by the King of Persia he found himselfe to be a body and not a spirit Hierax an Egyptian Monke affirmed that Melchizedek of whom you reade Gen. 14. was the Holy-Ghost Some there be that write concerning Montanus the Phrygian that he tooke upon him to be the Holy-Ghost But Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 14. and Augustine Haer 86. affirme that this heresie was onely thus much that he had received that Comforter which was promised Iohn 15.26 in greater measure then the Apostles and in this his followers the Cataphryges and with them Tertullian himselfe as it appeares by some of his writings did consent to him But Epiphanius in that 48. heresie cites the words of montanus thus I came neither Angel nor Ambassador but I am the Lord God even the Father Neither have these hereticks of old time onely so madded themselves but with us of late Wrightman gave out himselfe for the Holy-Ghost as Hacket before him would needes bee Christ But the discipline of Bedlem or Bridewell is fittest to teach such sencelesse people not to set their mouthes against Heaven 1. But that which all these hereticks affirme concerning the Holy-Ghost is utterly beyond all faith and possibility of being Of faith I say because neither Iewes nor Turkes which cannot beleeve a Trinity of Persons in unity of the Deitie can never be brought to thinke that two of these Persons should bee incarnate when they will not receive Him that was approved of God by so many miracles to bee God with us Neither can the Christians bee brought to beleeve that the Holy-Ghost
purpose you may take that which you read in Shickard Prodrom in Bechinah happerushim Disp 1. cited out of the booke Sopherim Chap. 1. Halach 1.4 5. by which you may see with what a superstitious care if any care could be too much they regarded the writing of the Booke of the Law wherein nothing might bee blotted nothing scrap't out neither might they write it in any Parchment or Velam but such as was of the skinnes of cleane beasts in Parchment one the fleshie side in Velam on that side which had the haire And if this ordinance were changed they read not in it And this was the manner Because the lines being written in length according to the bredth of the skinne as in an Indenture might bee troubleous to finde they divide the skinne into certaine pages which in Iere. 30.23 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dlathoth which wee interpret leaves because they were like the leaves of a doore and may fitly bee termed pages neither was it lawfull to write it with a coale or with Inke wherein was either Gum or Coperas and all this say they by the Tradition of Moses on mount Sin ai Then with what respect they used the Booke being written you may see in Oseh Torah Chap. 3. Halach 10. and in Anthony Margaritha a converted Iew in his booke of the Iewish faith and others They touch it not but with washed hands neither doe they take the rolle by the midst but by the margent and that onely with the right hand for which they bring Deut. 33.2 At His right hand was a fiery Law No man may lay it on His knees nor leane upon it when he reads nor read it as other writings c. lest the holy Bookes grow into contempt no man may sit upon the fourme or bed on which it lyes nor lay it towards the beds feet nor lay other bookes upon it and their reason for that the whole Law is holy and that every letter therein containes infinite wisdome and that God hath more care of the Letters and Syllables of the Law then of the starres of heaven And that this care was not onely of the bookes of the Law but likewise of all the holy Scripture of the old Testament indifferently you may know by that infinite diligence of the Masôrites who to the intent that the purity of all the holy Text might be preserued intier numbred in the whole Bible the Verses the Words the Letters and of them the common and the finall and what verse what word and letter was the midst of every booke and among the Letters they noted how many times every one was found in every booke if any one were bigger or lesse then the due proportion or higher then the rest or pointed extraordinarily what holem was with vau and what without it what hirick was written with jod and what not what space was more what lesse betweene the paragraphs when two words were to be read as one when one as two when the letters in the midst of a word should be transposed and that which was in the end of one word to be put to the beginning of another with many such obseruations which you may read in Shickard cited before De Masôreth pag. 45. c. So that no corruption or alteration could come into the text of the old Testament but by these rules of the Masôreth it might be easily detected Neither is this Masôreth wonderfull onely for the infinite diligence and paines that was used in the compiling thereof but also venerable for the Authors which by the authorities of the Hebrewes were Ezra and the Prophets of his time which were called the men of the great Synagogue or more truely the great men of the Synagogue Haggai Zachary Malachy Daniel Hananiah Misheel Azariah Nehemiah Mardoche Zorobabel and of the most wise and learned among the rest to the number of 120. For this could not be the worke of one man or of one age And although the succession of the Synagogue still continued in some sort yet by reason of the many warres and troubles after their returne from Babylon even untill the last ruine of their nation by Adrian about the yeere after the death of Christ one hundred this worke was often at a stand and not fully finished till about the yeere five hundred and tenne after the Incarnation Whereupon those Masôrites are by some unduely thought to bee the first Authors of that worke 6. Also the whole Art of the Kabalists in high esteeme among the Hebrewes above all others without this purity of the holy Text were either nothing worth or rather in it selfe nothing at all But the argument from hence to proove the purity of the Scripture among the common sort for whom I write would not be easie to be understood Therefore I referre them that are desirous to know further hereof to the author forenamed pag. 60. c. to Iohn Reuchlin and others that have written of that Art For by this which I have already said I thinke it is cleare to him that is not wilfully blind how farre it was from the Church of the Iewes to offer any sacriledge to the Booke of God who with such infinite paines and care have wall'd in that holy ground lest beasts should breake into it 7. 1. And for further proofe that the Hebrewes were the faithfull Library keepers of that booke as Saint Augustine calls them you may take the testimony of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 3.15 where hee calls the Church the pillar and stay of Faith not that in an implicite and ignorant faith we should hold it sufficient to beleeve as the Church beleeves but because the Church had evermore truely and faithfully preserued and followed the trueth of God revealed in His Word as it had received it from Him at the first And if this be true of the Church in generall it must needs be most true of that most ancient and publike Church first chosen from all nations by whom the Name of the Lord should be called upon from whom the word of the Lord was to proceed to other nations Esay 2.3 whereas the Church of the Gentiles was then so lately called as that it could give no proofe of it selfe to be worthy of such honourable titles 2. Moreover in the second Epistle to Tim. 3.15 he saith That the Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto saluation through the faith which is in Christ But how shall we be assured of this if we be not first perswaded that they are free from corruption 3. And why should our Lord send us to search the Scriptures which were then onely the Old Testament there to find eternall life if in stead of the trueth of God we should there find the falshood of men See Luke 16.29 31. and Iohn 5.39 4. And that which is above all proofe is that testimony which our Lord Himselfe gave to the teachers of that people who are accused of such treason against God For
since the Apostles we find the effect of our Mediators prayer that their writings have beene that Word by which the faithfull have beleeved on Him and so hath done and still doth that worke for which it was sent thereby are we sure that it is their word their owne word as they delivered it not corrupted or sophisticate by any device of man for any purpose or intent as that false prophet doth pretend And that you may see how great the trueth is and how it prevailes take out of Ficinus in the said 36. cap. what this Mahumed confesseth of himselfe whereby you may see how betweene his arrogance and his ignorance the trueth doth shew it selfe He confesseth that he neither had done any miracle nor none could doe That he was pure man and no more That he could give no pardon for sinne That he would not be call'd upon or worshipped And although in his madnesse he pretended himselfe to be a messenger sent from God and inspir'd by Him and that he was the Holy-Ghost yet when his raving fit was off hee confest that hee was ignorant of many things and that there were somethings in his bookes of the trueth of which there might be doubt and whosoever shall worship one God and live honestly whether he be Iew Christian or Sarazen shall have mercy from God What is then the preferment of his Alchoran before the holy Scriptures or why shall wee forsake our most holy guide whom he confesseth to be the breath and word of God and to have the next place unto God in heaven that we may become circumcised and abstaine from Swines-flesh and wine and enjoy fleshly pleasure with many wives if nothing of all this give us any furtherance to eternall life 10. To end this question I will bring this only argument which for substance is indifferent to both the Testaments the circumstances only differing If the writings of the holy Scriptures be corrupted either those corruptions must come in by little and little into the copies of the Scripture while they were dispersed by writing or else all at once If they came in by little and little then the books that had beene written without those faults might bee patternes to correct the fualty by and so the text might bee still preserved pure as wee find it was done when Printing flourished under the managing of learned men in those copies of the Greeke Testament printed at Compludo and at Paris To suppose they came in all at once is against all reason and possibilitie of experience I have shewed that till the time of Christ and his Apostles the Old-Testament was pure and can it be supposed that all the Churches of the Iewes in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithinia 1. Pet. 1. nay all the twelue tribes in the Cities of the Medes in places so distant should conspire to such an act for which they were perswaded they should goe downe irrecoverably to hell Can the imputation of a base Iewe or two in a thing of so great importance to the disgrace of their owne Nation without any proofe of the thing naming of the place time or Persons against all possibilitie of trueth sticke so fast as that no nitre can be able to wash it off To say that the Christians of the Gentiles ever endeavoured to corrupt the Hebrew text hath yet more impossibilities For during the time of the gift of tongues no such crime might touch them and after that none among them no not the Fathers themselues except perhaps Origen or Hierom had so much skill in Hebrew as to be able to corrupt it Beside the whole nation of the Iewes would have opposed it and as they detest our religion and faith so had they had just cause to brand us with infamy for that endeavour and to proclaime our folly which should corrupt that in the sincerity of which alone is the assurance of our hope So the Hebrew text remaines intier And concerning the New-Testament written in Greeke it was so suddainely dispersed among the converts of the Gentiles and that while some of the Apostles were yet liuing that there could be no possibilitie of any corruption to come unto the text by any common consent And because that our Lord was to be made a light unto the Gentiles and a salvation unto the ends of the earth Actes 13.47 Therefore were the bookes of the New-Testament also Translated into many languages even in the birth and infancie of the Church of the Gentiles as you may read in Aug. de Doctr. Chr. lib. 2. Cap. 5. in Chrys hom 1. in Iohn who also translated the Scriptures for the Armenians as Hierom for the Dalmatians his countrey-men I said many languages because they name the Indian Ethiopian Persian Syrian Egyptian Sarmatian Scythian but Theodoret De Graec. affect cur lib. 5. saith into all languages which were in use And if it might be put that the Greeke copies were corrupted yet these Translations being our of them while they were intire would detect the corruption But all these Translations among the Christians though differing in some points one from another as the Nestorians Euticheans c. doe still agree in the substance of the meaning and shew the purity of that fountaine from whence they flowed And there is none of these translations or Fathers here named but were before Mahumed of a Christian became a renegado at least 200. yeeres All which things being put together it will be manifest that neither the falshood of the Iewes nor the forgery of Mahumed have any shew of trueth but that the Holy Scriptures both of the old and new Testament are still in their purity as the Church received them Of the Scriptures easinesse to bee understood § 6. THat comparison of the Prophet Psalme 36. that the judgements of God are like a great deepe was by a Father fitly and wittily applyed to the Scripture to bee as a sea in which the Elephant may swim but yet with Shallowes in which the Lambe may wade And although David prayed that God would teach him the wonderfull things of His Law yet hee honours it for this that it is perfect that it hath power to convert the soule that it is sure that it makes the simple wise Psal 19.7 And therefore are they not the messengers of Christ but rather the ministers of Satan who under any pretext of falling into heresie of hardnesse to be understood or the like with-hold the laytie from the reading of the Scriptures It is not denied but that many things therein are hard to be understood yet that one thing which is needfull Luk. 10.42 That mystery of the knowledge of Christ which was kept secret since the world began is now made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25.26 1. For seeing the instruction of God must be of all such things as are above our knowledge and yet of such things as are most
exceeding great and precious promises that God hath made unto us in Christ that by Him wee shall bee made partakers of the divine nature 2. Peter 1.4 this is that union and Communion for which our Lord prayes that it may bee made perfect in us Iohn 17.21 22 23. 1. For seeing the soule of man is a thing whose excellencie doth so farre exceed all things of this world it may not be thought that the happinesse and perfection of the soule can stand in things that are inferiour to it selfe as in riches honour worldly pleasure or the like But seeing it knowes that there is one onely infinite goodnes which because it is infinite must needs be eternall and able to satisfie all the desire of the creature that can bee partaker thereof therefore doth it aspire thereunto because in the injoying of that alone it can be made perfect And if this desire of the soule should be in vaine then the Holy Spirit of God which wrought this desire in the soule should have wrought in vaine then the infinite goodnesse which might satisfie the desire of the creature should be defective toward the creature and consequently not infinite then the promises of God made in His word should faile and the prayer of our Mediator cited even now from Iohn 17. without effect But all these things are impossible Therefore there is a Communion of the Saints with God and with one another as wee confesse in the article 2. If the merit of Christ bee infinite and that not for Himselfe but for His body which is the Church then it is necessary that an infinite reward be given thereto But the merit of Christ is infinite both actively and passively Therfore an infinite reward is due to us thereby So that by the Spirit of Christ which is in us we have communion both with the Father and the Sonne 1. Iohn 1.3 3. All the dignities of God are infinite and they are all to bee manifested in the creature so farre forth as the creature can bee made capable thereof Ergo. Now the foundation and originall of communion is in this that for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himselfe tooke part of the same that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death Hebr. 2.14 and that to this end that wee might be partakers of His immortality and from that union of the divine and humane nature whereby our Lord of the seed of Abraham became one with all man-kind ariseth that spirituall and mysticall union of us with Him that howsoever we are absent in body yet being renewed by the Spirit of our mind we live unto Him have Him evermore abiding in us as we evermore abide in him daily more more grow up with Him into one mystical body as if we were flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones Eph. 5.30 and from this mystical union we have the assurance of that glorious vnion which shall be in heaven when we shal be joyned to our head inseparably and this is that vnion or communion which all the faithfull hope for whereof we have the assurance of His promises in His Holy word the signes and pledges of the Holy supper and the witnesse of the holy Spirit of God in our hearts And thus is Christ ours with His graces and His merits and thus according to the exceeding great and precious promises are wee made partakers of the divine nature not that wee participate of the incommunicable essence of the deitie but that by the renewing of the Holy-Ghost wee put off our corrupt desires and are transformed in our minds according as His Divine power doth give us all things that belong to life and godlinesse ARTICLE XI ⧠The forgivenesse of sinnes CHAP. XXXVII BEing is of God alone whose being because it is infinite therefore must it hold in it selfe all the extreamities of being so that nothing that is can possible be but by Him therefore seeing the soule the body and the abilities thereof are from God alone the devill can claime no interest in man in respect of any of these for none of these had their originall from him But because he was a murtherer from the beginning and inspired his inbred poyson into man even from the beginning the root of man-kind being thereby poysoned the venome spreads throughout all his race to corrupt both his understanding and his will that so his actions being corrupted by the ill which he wilfully committeth his being also may become abominable But as the Physicians make a difference betweene the body and the disease so He our gracious healer discernes betweene the being His owne worke and the corruption thereof the tares I meane which the envious man sowed thereupon to save his owne worke and to cast the venome and the effects thereof on the face of the enemy to the increase of his eternall damnation and first heales the understanding that it may see the sinne then the will that he may detest and avoid it And thus by the renewing of the mind are we transformed from the image of the devill and that stampe which his sinne did set upon us So that the satisfaction being made to the infinite justice both for our originall and actuall sinne the workemanship of God even our whole being may be glorifyed with that glory for which it was created which also it had in the eternall decree before this world was And because our great weakenesse caused of our inbred infection and our many sinnes ensuing thereupon doth every moment stand up as a wall of separation betweene our God and us therefore hath God given unto us such assured hopes of His mercy that although we fall we shall not be cast away because the Lord putteth under His hand Psalm 37.21 and sustaineth us with this confidence That although our sins be as red as scarlet yet they shall be made more white then snow Esay 1.18 And because this hope and confidence ought alwayes to be before our eyes as being the sure stay and anchor of our soules therefore is nothing more fully assured unto us then this among all those things which we doe beleeve Stay thou trembling and fearefull soule and though the ugly visage of thy monstrous sinnes make thee afraid which indeed are so much the more hideous and deformed because they are not onely against the Law of God but against the law of reason rightly judging and against thine owne conscience yet stay and see what hope there is for thee and though that messenger of hell Despaire with all that wretched traine of all thy sinne which he brings with him doth hunt thee so close that thou darest not stay though thou wouldest be any thing save that thou art and most of all nothing at all yet see if a doore of hope as wide as the valley of Achor Hos 2.15 be not set open for thee onely if thou wilt be intreated to goe
that is in continuance to make it infinite then it can be in it owne proper subject that is in measure to make it unlimited so also infinitie shall bee powerfull in the contrarietie of good and ill to make them eternall and weake in the littlenesse of extension So also the world being eternall must be for this end that it may bee that which it is as God Whereby it would follow that the end of the worlds being could not bee one but contrarie to it selfe in generation and corruption in good and ill and all other contrarieties that are now therein But all these things are impossible therefore the contrary is necessary See Log. Cap. 26. n. 1. 6. Eternitie cannot admit before and after so that one eternall should be before another eternall But if the world be eternall this must follow necessarilie for every generation is with the corruption or taking away of that forme which was in the matier before and every corruption is of something that was generate before So each of these eternals must bee each before another and so neither of them eternall and yet the eternity of the world brings in these contradictions inasmuch as generation and corruption have beene ever since the world was Therefore the worlds eternity is impossible 7. If the world be eternall that eternity shall be rather ill than good because the longer the continuance of the world is the greater is the encrease of wickednesse and ill more than of that which is good at least because of the continuance of good and ill the worlds eternitie shall be both good and ill And yet because every worldly good hath a beginning and an end in time and that every privation or taking away of any good eternally must needs be an eternall ill that eternity of the world shall bee neerer to ill than to good both because of the positive ills and the deprivations of the goodnesses that are therein Moreover seeing nothing which is corrupted returnes to be the same in number which it was before generation shall bee good and availeable to the maintenance of the species onely not to the restoring of the actuall or individuall Beings But Corruption shall bee powerfull both against the individuall and therein against the species also And so the worlds eternity shall bee much nearer to ill than to good and a bringing in of all these inconveniences Therefore it is not eternall 8. If the world be eternall then neither was there any first man neither can there be any last without which lastnesse there cannot be any generall resurrection of men nor place to containe them So this eternity of the world must be the greatest ill as being that which brings in an impossibility of the greatest good that is the hope of the resurrection and everlasting life the end of all our hopes But it is impossible that this hope of man should bee frustrate as it will appeare further in the 38. chap. Therefore the world is not eternall 9. And if you looke backe on the things that have beene already spoken concerning the dignities of the Godhead in the nine first chapters you may from thence make a great supply of arguments to this purpose thus God is chap. 1. And He is being essentially with all the perfection of being infinitely eternally actually not in possibility of being any thing that hee is not and therefore God is the perfection of being and convertible the perfection of being is God Now termes convertible cannot possibly belong to forrein beings as to guide a shippe at Sea cannot belong to any but to man alone Therefore being cannot belong to any thing but to God alone primarily and of it selfe but onely Analogically as it hath received the Being from Him Therefore if the world be not God which the foole cannot say in his heart the world is not eternall 10. God is eternall chap. 2. and eternity belongs essentially to God alone chap. 8. If then the world be not God then can it not be coeternall with Him For as it is not possible that there should bee more Gods chap. 8. n. 7. so it is not possible that there should bee more eternals than one Therefore the world is not eternall So you may reason from the simplicity of His being proved chap. 9. n. 6.7 and from the other dignities of God which are proved to belong to Him in the chapter before no lesse from those things which are denyed to belong to Him as to bee matier bodily compounded c. chap. 9. But in this plenty and plainnesse of the matier I take onely that one which followeth 11. If God bee almighty and one then it is not possible that any thing can be but by his power alone But it hath beene proved that God is almighty chap. 6. and one chap. 8. n. 7. Therefore the world is by his power alone But if it be obiected that by his eternall power hee brought out the world eternally yet must it needs bee that hee created it either of nothing or of some matier that was not eternall or else that hee made it of a matier that was eternall To say that God from all eternity had created the world either of nothing or of a matier not eternall would imply a manifest contradiction To say that hee made it of a matier which was coeternall to himselfe would enforce that the world were consubstantiall with God or rather that it were God For seeing his being is most simple and one entyre being without parts and is not communicated but whole and all and that eternity as all his other attributes was proved to be God essentially it cannot bee but that the world must be God if it be eternall Or if that impossibility could be avoyded yet to say that God had eternally made the world of eternall matier would necessitate him to an action without himselfe which would take away the infinite freedome of his will his glory and perfection which hee hath in himselfe Or if it bee said that the world is eternall without or beside any action of God upon it but of it selfe alone beside the endlesse absurdities contradictions and impossibilities that would follow thereby It would directly enforce that there is no God For if the power by which the world is and workes if the wisdome manifest in the ordering causes therein if the truth goodnesse continuance and other attributes of worldly things had any other originall than God then must it of necessity follow that God is not infinite in these dignities of power wisdome truth eternity goodnesse c. when so great effects of these things are altogether without Him And to deny unto God the infinity or perfection of these dignities were utterly to deny his Being and to make him unworthy to bee that which Hee is contrary to all that hath heretofore beene proved 12. The holy Scriptures every where teach this truth Gen. 1. 2. chap. Iob. 38. and many places in that