the end come For the Apostles themselves did not could not preach the Gospel in all the world and unto all Nations therefore they were to ordain others to preach it after them nor may we suppose the Ministers of the Gospel to have been a Temporary calling or oppose them in their Ministry unless we will resist the fulfilling of Cbrists promise and do what we can to make Truth himself a lyar Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Apostles were commanded to baptize in this form for three reasons 1. To distinguish Christians from Jews for they worshipped God only in the unity of essence as their Creator but the Christians are to worship him in the Trinity of persons as their Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier 2. To shew that here was nothing of humane invention or power to be given or received in baptism which was in the name of God only 3. To shew that there was great vertue and efficacy in Baptism even such as did concern our re-union with God by remission of our sins and sanctification of our souls or why else should we be baptized in the name of God And also that all that vertue and efficacy did wholly depend upon God alone in whose name only we are to be baptized And this efficacy of Baptism is more fully expressed by Saint Mark saying He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16. 16. where it is plain that the Apostles are required to invite men to the Christian Faith and Baptism by the promise of salvation and consequently are forbidden to preach salvation upon any other terms then those of believing and of being baptized And those men who make so slight account of Baptism will one day find the Heathens and Infidels of Syria to rise up against them in judgement who said to their Master Naaman My Father If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith to thee Wash and be clean 2 King 5. 13. For they dare not deny but they are as unclean as Naaman was in his leprosie unless they will deny themselves to be of the same mould and make with other men for David hath spoken in the person of every man that is born of a woman Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psalm 51. 5. And they cannot deny but that God since Naamans time hath most eminently sanctified the flood Jordan and in that all other waters by the Baptism of his well beloved Son Jesus Christ to the mystical washing away of sin And yet moreover That not only the man of God but also the Son of God hath said unto them Wash and be clean unless they will divide the precept wash from the promise and be clean since the words have been in our Saviours mouth which the Infidels durst not do when they were only in Elisha's mouth For it is most certain that Baptism is necessary to salvation as commanded wash and it is most probable that it is also efficacious thereunto and be clean because it is commanded For he that hath commanded it was able to make it so nay rather hath made it so to shew that he delighteth not in unnecessary or unprofitable commands What need we then to say That Baptism is necessary only as a profession of our faith or as an outward sign or testimony of Gods grace whereas we may with much confidence and without any inconveniency acknowledge it to be moreover an instrumental cause whereby our blessed Saviour is pleased to work Grace and Salvation For who can hinder the first cause to work by what instrument he pleaseth and sure we are the word of God doth plainly ascribe unto Baptism the operation of an instrumental cause in working the effect of grace when Saint Paul calleth it The washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. which was the language he had been taught by God himself at his first conversion saying to him by Ananias Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins Acts 22. 16. Wherefore we will conclude that both Faith and Baptism may be rightly called instrumental causes of our salvation but in different respects Faith as instrumental on our parts whereby we prepare our selves for Christ Baptism as instrumental on Christs part whereby he prepareth us for himself This being granted which can scarce reasonably be denyed we shall not delay our childrens Baptism because t is instrumental to salvation on Christs part though not on their own and yet not tie God to outward means because we acknowledge Baptism to be instrumental to salvation only upon his own choice and appointment and therefore he can save without it if himself so pleaseth Nor shall we need fear a falling away from the state of salvation any more in the baptized Infants then in the believing men since our blessed Saviour in saying he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved doth suppose or rather include the same condition as alike necessary to both to wit of leading their lives according to their good beginnings For the promise of salvation upon a mans believing and being baptized is not absolute but conditional that is to say If he lead his life answerable to hâ—s faith and to the grace given him in his Baptism as if it had been said his faith and his Baptism shall save him as far forth as is possible for instrumental causes or as far forth as belongs to them that is they shall really and effectually conduce to his salvation unless he himself be in the fault and hinder their working either by forsaking his Faith or by polluting and prophaning his Baptism and not returning back again to God by his repentance This interpretation must be given of our Saviours words as appears from the foregoing part of his speech Go and preach the Gospel for t is most certain that he would not have his Apostles preach any other Gospel then what himself had preached and that was Repent ye and believe Mar. 1. 15. Wherefore Repentance must also come in as a necessary condition to salvation no less then faith and Baptism because all men do fall away from the purity which they had through their Faith and through their Baptism by their daily sins and there is no promise of salvation to any man that continueth and abideth in his sins so that they must rise again by repentance or they cannot be saved Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you After you have made them my Disciples by Baptism then keep them so by right doctrine for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then Discipulate omnes gentes baptizantes eos make all nations my Disciples baptizing them so the command is to make Disciples unto Christ and the manner is explained how they are to be made even by baptizing not by preaching according to that of John 4. 1.
us his hands to be stretched out to embrace us and his side to be pierced to send forth water and blood his two blessed Sacraments to cleanse and strengthen us by that same flesh was he made liable to suffering and in that same flesh did he actually suffer all those things which at first bought the purchase and which do still bring to us the joy of our salvation SECT III. True knowledge of and Faith in Christ is not without true knowledge of and Faith in the blessed Trinity That the Protestants Faith The great loveliness of Christ in the flesh as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God and man and the great mysteries of his two natures in one person KNowledge in the natural man exalts him above other men but knowledge in the good Christian who alwaies loves what he knows of Christ exalts him above himself By knowing natural truths I do improve my reason but by knowing supernatural truths I do also improve my Religion The improvement of my reason exalts me above other men but the improvement of my Religion exalts me above my self And what knowledge can improve my Religion but only the knowledge of Christ who is both the Author and the Finisher of my Faith Therefore let me ever say with Saint Paul I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3. 8. for indeed truly to know Christ in his person is truly to know the whole Christian Faith in the ground and substance of it For what is the ground or substance of our Christian Faith but that which Saint Paul hath set down 2 Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them which is in effect a short sum of the Apostles Creed for that treats of nothing but of God and of Christ reconciling us to God and of the benefits of that reconciliation the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Accordingly Aquinas makes it equally necessary to salvation to believe explicitly the mysterie of the blessed Trinity and to believe explicitly the mysterie of the incarnation of Christ 22 ae qu. 2. art 7. 8. There is an absolute necessity saith he of believing the Incarnation of Christ for that is the only way for a man to come to eternal blessedness because it is said Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And there is saith he as absolute a necessity of believing the blessed Trinity for the Incarnation of Christ cannot be explicitly believed without faith in the Trinity for we cannot believe that the Son of God did take our flesh upon him but we must acknowledge God the Father and God the Son and we cannot believe that he took this flesh of a Virgn by the operation of the Holy Spirit but we must acknowledge God the Holy Ghost so that truly to believe and confess the incarnation of Christ is truly to believe and confess God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Wherefore it was not an objection but a calumny in him that said of the Protestants For these good Gospellers have a faith and a justifying faith whereby they apprehend eternal life without Father Son and Holy Ghost without Christ and his Passion or any of those other matters which are rather subtile points of the Papists historical faith then of the lively justifying faith wherewith these Evangelical Brethren in all security are warranted of the certain favour of God in this life and assured glory in the next Reynolds against Whitaker p. 282. for no true Protestant doth believe and indeed no true Christian can believe that to be a true Faith in Christ which believes not the Holy and Undivided Trinity and all other Articles of the Apostles Creed For such a faith cannot justifie it self much less can it justifie the man that hath it wherefore Protestants do not dare not say That justifying Faith doth not believe the Trinity and Judgement to come as well as the Merits of Christ and the forgiveness of sins They only say the former truths are believed with the greater astonishment and admiration the latter truths with the greater affiance or affection but neither with a greater certainty or confidence then the other Fides ex ae quo assentit omnibus articulis fidei quoad certitudinem sed non quoad modum Faith doth equally assent to all the Articles of the Creed as to the certainty of assent though not as to the manner of assenting The sublim truth of the Trinity she believes with admiration the comfortable truths of Christs dying for sinners and the forgiveness of sins she believs with joy and consolation the dreadful truths of hell and judgement to come she believes with sorrow and contristation but all the truths contain'd in the Creed whether sublime or comfortable or dreadful she believeth with one and the same certainty or undoubted confidence And those who teach us that to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord is the proper act of justifying faith for to believe the forgiveness of sins is rather an effect then a cause of justification do not confine our justifying faith meerly to the belief of this one Article but do only profess that though true faith hath as many acts as objects and hath as many objects as supernatural truths revealed from God yet it justifies the sinner only by this one act of believing in Christ and relying wholly upon his merits and mediation Thus do we desire with Saint Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. But we dream not of a righteousness either by a vain or by a false faith either by a vain Faith that believes not entirely with affection or by a false faith that believes not truly without mistake or deception Wherefore Antitrinitarian and Antichristian may go for all one in the Protestants as well as in the Papists account for indeed they have alwaies gone for one in the account of the Catholike Church We have heard Aquinas speaking the sense of the Western let us now hear Damascene speaking the sense of the Eastern Churches for so he tels us in his third Book de Orthodox◠fide and fifth chapter That the two cheif heads of the Christian Faith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it treats only of God and the Doctrine of the incarnation of Christ which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it sets forth the wonderful dispensations of God about the salvation of men And these two heads he not only joins but also compares together in one chapter shewing wherein they agree and wherein they
he did rest He made the Sun Moon and Stars nor do I read there that he did rest But I read that when he had made man he did rest because â—e then had one to whom he could forgive sins God was not at rest till he had made man to whom he might forgive sins And after he had made him he was not at rest till he had forgiven him O my soul how canst thou be at rest till thou hast asked and obtained forgiveness God accounts the Perfection of Time not from his Power whereby he created the world but from his mercy whereby he redeemed it as if the creation of the whole world had been imperfect without man and the creation of man had been imperfect without his Redemption and all other Time not worth the notice save only that which Christ honoured with his coming for whose only sake Time it self deserved to be continued and not to be Untimed after men had corrupted it For as no satisfactory reason can be given why God destroyed not the whole people of the Jews in their so many Idolatries Rebellions and Apostasies but only that Christ was to come of their Nation So neither why Time it self should not have been destroyed long before Christs coming for the outragious sins and villanies which were acted by men but only that Christ was promised to come in it And so likewise for the same reason is Time still continued notwithstanding all the defections of wicked men from God and their defiances against God because Christ may not lose the end of his coming which was to save Repentant sinners so saith Saint Peter The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise but is long suffering to us-ward not willing That any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. His will is That since his Son hath been pleased to take upon him the nature of man both sinful man should come to Repentance and Repentant sinners should come to salvation Thus in Gods account That is only the Perfection of Time wherein he gives Christ and why not also in ours that wherein we receive him For in truth all the Time of our life is but an imperfect Time till we have gained Christ There may be the Perfection of the natural man before but not of the spiritual man till he come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. All the Time of our life though we live to Methuselah's Age is but imperfection of Time till with good old Simeon we come by the Spirit into the Temple and there see and embrace the Lord Christ Luke 2. 27 28. And then our life though never so short will immediately be so compleat and perfect that we may pray for a nunc dimittis and say Lord now at this very instant without any longer stay Lord new lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Saint Paul tells the Galathians plainly that though never so aged in themselves yet they were but meer children in his account till Christ was formed in them Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you Did we truly believe this and seriously reflect upon our own belief we would look much less after the man and much more after the Christian Less after our selves more after our Saviour Less after our Interests more after our Devotions Since that only is to be accounted a perfect Time which Christ by his presence did once make so in the world and still is pleased to make so in our hearts Nor is it any disparagement to those heavenly Spheres by whose revolution Philosophy hath taught us to measure the duration of earthly things to say That though Time do borrow its continuance from heaven yet it borrows its Perfection only from the God of Heaven The continuance of Time leads to death but the perfection of Time leads to everlasting life This moment in it self is not a part of fleeting Time but in its good employment it is no less then a blessed eternity The motion of the first mover is exceeding glorious in the heavens but it is much more glorious in our hearts I will admire that motion because it produceth Time but I will rejoyce and acquiesce in this motion because it produceth eternity For this is the motion which alone affords rest unto my soul whiles I consider my blessed Saviour humbling himself but exalting and raising me O thou blessed moneth of December wherein the earth gives us nothing but heaven hath given us all things having given us him who is All in All CAP. II. Containing the Reasons of Christs welcome the infinite love of God the Father and of God the Son and Holy Ghost in our Redemption SECT I. Gods first gift to man was his Love in Christ His second gift was Christ in our nature No gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best Temporal the other the best Spiritual gift WE have passed through the Porch called Beautiful Acts 3. 2. wherein all mankind lame from their mothers womb had a long time laid expecting alms of the Son of God when he should please to enter into the Temple of his body Let us now go into the Sanctuary and there contemplate and consider the infinite Love of God which caused him to send his only Son for our Redemption and we shall never want Thankful hearts to bid him welcome nor Pious Hearts to make a right and conscionable use of his coming That as he came at first for our Redemption so he may come at last for our salvation And this Part of Christian Divinity hath been taught us by Christ himself not only by his Spirit as all the rest but also with his own mouth Saint John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Where it is evident That the cause why Christ was given to man was no other but only the love of God And consequently the grand Reason of our joyfully receiving this gift must be this That it proceeded from Gods infinite and undeserved love towards us For Gods first gift to man was his love in his Son His second gift was his Son in our nature So saith Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 9. According to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Gods first gift was grace given us in Christ his second gift was Christ given us in our flesh And the Master of Scholastical subtilties makes this a rule of sound Reason as well as of sound Religion Inter omnia dona dantis primum donum quod dat quisquis dare potest est Amor ejus quem primo dat amato quia est ratio cujuscunque alterius doni nihil enim habet rationem doni nisi in quantum
habits as by its instruments and therefore these have the least reason to boast of grace who least regard the virtuous habits whereby it worketh and so cry up Faith in Christ as in effect to beat down the cheifest duties of Christianity For grace is the beginning of spiritual actions by the mediation of virtuous habits even as the soul is the beginning of vital actions by the mediation of its powers and faculties And as the soul works not immediately from it self the actions of the natural life so neither doth grace work immediately of it self the actions of the spiritual life For grace indeed hath two acts in regard of the soul as the soul hath in regard of the body Primus ad esse Secundus ad operari The first act is to give life and that is immediate from it self the second act is to give the operations of life and that is mediate by virtuous qualities and dispositions so neerly doth it concern every Christian that desires to be under grace to lead his life in all Godliness and vertue for there can be no assurance of life but from the operations of life no assurance of the spiritual being but from the evidence of the spiritual working Excellently Aquinas Potest aliquis cognoscere se habere gratiam in quantum percipit se delectari in Deo contemnit res mundanas non est conscius sibi alicujus mortalis peccati 1a 2ae 112. 5. cap. A man may know himself to be in grace if he find that he delights in God and contemns this world and is not conscious to himself of any grievous or mortal sin There are but few signs or tokens but they are infallible And we must conclude that those men who care not what sins they commit against God their brethren and their own consciences either to get or to keep the advantages of this world as they shew but little contempt of the world so they shew a great contempt of God And they that contemn God cannot be said to delight in him and they that do not delight in him cannot receive comfort from him wherefore it is an evil spirit not the spirit of God which doth witness to such men that they are the Sons of God when their own consciences cannot but witness that they are his enemies SECT IV. The great joy of Christians for being under grace or for being adopted in Christ and how that joy is to be moderated by the consideration of our own frailty and of Gods impartial Justice in the judgement to come MAny men have a cheerful countenance that have but a sorrowful heart The yong man seems to be of this temper whom Solomon so sharply reproves or rather so plainly derides Eccles 11. 9. Rejoyce O yong man in thy youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes there is cheerfulness enough as to the outward man but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement There 's sorrowfulness more then enough as to the inward man whilst walking in his own wayes makes him lift up his face the thought of judgement cannot but cast down his heart therefore they alone do truly rejoyce who have such a joy as cannot end in sorrow not a joy for being the Lords over their Brethren but a joy for being the servants of their God not a joy for overcoming others but for overcoming themselves not a joy for having gained an inheritance on earth but a joy for being assured of an inheritance in heaven Our Saviour said to his own Disciple Notwithstanding in this rejoyce not that the Spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in Heaven Luke 10. 20. If it be not the cause of a true Christians joy to have power and dominion over evil spirits which is the peculiar priviledge of Christs own Church much less can it be the cause of a true Christian joy to have dominion and power over good men which is the common priviledge of Christs enemies The joy then of a Christian is not for having his name far spread on earth but for having his name written in heaven not for overcoming his Brother but for overcoming his lusts And to him that thus overcometh will he that holdeth the seven Stars in his right hand and walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks give to eat of the hidden Manna Rev. 2. which without doubt affords a marvellous sweetness to all those that eat of it But who can eat of this heavenly Manna save only they who have their names written in heaven for it is not meet to take the childrens bread and to cast it unto the dogs Mark 7 27. Nor can the dogs eat so much as the crumbs that fall from this heavenly table We must be children before we can eat of this bread and then may we not always expect to eat our fill of it least that Scripture be fulfilled of us the second time He that eateth bread with me hath lift up his heel against me John 13. 18. For Jesurun waxed fat and kicked then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation Deut. 32. 15. Therefore do the most judicious Divines advise us that though we stedfastly believe our selves to be Gods adopted Sons yet we may not too suddenly make sure of our inheritance but must work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. And though we be indeed the called of Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 6. yet we must give diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. Saint Peter is very zealous in this point as by his own sad experience having known the mischeif of too much confidence And therefore although in Saint Pauls words there be reason enough for our fear and trembling because our salvation is to be worked out before it can be enjoyed for no man but hath cause more then enough to suspect his own works and much more the continuance of his good working yet Saint Peter gives us another reason of our fear because we must all be judged before we can be saved 1 Pet. 1. 17. And if ye call on the Father who â—…hout respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Here is supposed an adopted child for he cals on the Father but he is not supposed to be puffed up with his adoption for he is to pass his time of sojourning in fear and the reason is because his Father is to be his Judge and will judge him according to his works for which one reason are alledged three reasons by Aquinas when he saith Expedit quandoque praesentiam Dei in nobis per gratiam ignorare ut timor Divini judicii nos humiliet ne praesumpta securitas nos praecipitet ut desideranter Gratiam Dei expetamus It is expedient for us sometimes to be ignorant of Gods
boisterous men to say ye shall nor ordain nor for timerous men to say we dare not They that are enemies to the ordination to the witnesses can scare be friends to the Doctrine of the resurrection The Lords daies and the Lords Ministers will stand or fall both together and there is no opposing the one without opposing the other and no opposing either without opposing Gods command For indeed they are both alike in general commanded by the fourth Commandment though only one be named even as uncleanness and fornication are both forbidden in the seventh though only adultery be mentioned and they are both alike in special determined by the example of Christ and of his Apostles and the constant and universal practise of the Christian Church As there is an order from the Holy Ghost that concerns the time or the day proved from the first of the Corinthians 16 2. As I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye that is the same order that I gave to them concerning the first day of the week I give also to you and in you to all other Churches which order was accordingly speedily and generally obeyed because there was an irresistible reason for that obedience so also there is an order from the Holy Ghost concerning the persons proved from Acts 20. 8. The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Biships and Titus 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders or Presbyters whence it must needs follow that to disturb the persons ordained to be in the Church of God is equally sacrilegious as to disturb the day that was settled by the same order For the determination of the persons appointed to be the Lords Ministers is full as plain to speak but sparingly both in the prescript of the Text and in the practice of the Catholick Church as is the determination of the Lords day and those men are equally inexcusable who make bold to alter Gods determination in the one as those who make bold to alter it in the other for both being established by the same authority are alike unalterable An universal obligation bindeth equally all persons at all times and in all places and therefore only moral and eternal duties of the Text can immediately and from themselves have such an obligation as the duties of faith hope and charity But yet a determination of the Text though by way of example only concerning the publick exercise of those duties which is without controversie in the Gospel of Christ given to us Christians may also immediately and by vertue of the said duties have an universal obligation because to occasion the disturbance or disesteem of the true and laudable exercise of Religion whether by profaness or perversness whether by throwing aside or pulling down the time place or persons appointed for that purpose is certainly ungodly and irreligious and it is at no time lawful to do an act of ungodliness or irreligion SECT VIII That Sunday as the Lords day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most Religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths NO Christian festival whatsoever but must be wholly Christian both in its foundation Christian Verity and in its institution Christian authority and in its observation Christian service or duty For the day is holy for the duty not the duty for the day and they who teach or practise otherwise are like those Priests of Spain mentioned and reproved in the fourth Toletane Council can 9. who would not say the Lords Prayer but only on the Lords day Orationem Dominicam tantum die Dominico dicere voluerunt as if Religion were an adjunct of time and not rather time an adjunct of Religion Christian Verity Christian Authority Christian Duty no man can willfully go against either of these principles but he must profess himself either Unchristian or Antichristian And behold our weekly festival in honour of our Saviour Christ is justifiable by all these three and consequently being truly Christian in all these respects that is to say in its foundation in its institution and in its observation must needs be an universal feast for all Christians to be partakers of for that it is annexed to the Christian Religion as necessary by the necessity of Justice from the duty and thankfulness we all owe to our Saviour Christ and therefore may not be carelesly neglected much less irreverently profaned without the Imputation of injustice and unthankfulness The Casuists speak louder and say not without the imputation of Sacriledge So Cajetane in his summulae Festos dies in honorem Dei sanctificatâ—s violare peccatum est Sacrilegii quia injuria fit tempori sacro quantum ad illud ad quod sanctificatum est To profane a Holy day that is made and kept holy in honour of God is a sin of Sacriledge because the profanation of time that is sanctified is an affront and defiance of its sanctification so that in effect it is a double Sacriledge for it robs time of that holiness which belongs to it and it robs God of that time which belongs to him This great Sacriledge is yet further accompanied with one of the seven deadly sins commonly so called and that sin is spiritual slothfulness So saith Alensis Accidia opponitur praecepto de sanctificatione Sabbathi In peccato enim Accidiae Tristitia est de spirituali laborioso cum amore quietis carnalis è contra vero in illo praecepto est Amor sanctae quietis quae est cum gaudio in bono spirituali par 2 qu. 140. m. 10. The sin of slothfulness is opposed to that precept of the sanctification of the Sabbath for in the sin of slothfulness there is sorrow for spiritual labour and love of carnal rest But in the precept concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath is commanded the love of a Holy Rest or Joy in our spiritual good which as it is not obtained without great labour so it is not enjoyed without great rest even the sweet and most comfortable rest of the soul in God for his everlasting mercies in Iesus Christ so that all those Festivals which commemorate to us the mercies of God in Christ are to be accounted as our Christian sabbaths and we shall be little less then enemies to our own souls if not to be our blessed Saviour unless we seriously endeavour to make them so Surely if men did truly believe and earnestly desire the life everlasting they would be as carefull not to defraud their souls of due nourishment as they are not do defraud their bodies and would no more begrutch the time for the one then for the other but would rather be more industrious to save their souls then they are to preserve their bodies and consequently more solicitous how to lay in provision for a supply against their spiritual then for a supply against their corporal necessities alwaies remembring that Motto Ex hoc
Idcirco reprobabo therefore I will reject and reprobate what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ezra all my words we may say more all my thoughts words and work which have been against thee I will account them all as reprobate for fear they should make me so and I will repent in dust and ashes that I have so frequently so undutifully so unthankfully sinned against that great Majesty which was able to confound me in my sins and much more that I have thus sinned against that good mercy that is willing to save me from my sins and dayly inviteth me to that salvation Thirdly what we resolve to be amended sinners Thus the Prophet Jeremiah adviseth us therefore now amend your ways Jer. 26. 16. I appeal to all the consciences of all men now living whether ever any ways of men so much needed amendment as ours do who have made Saint Pauls general Doctrine of all mankind as it were a particular History of our selves They are all gone out of the way they are altogether become unprofitable that 's too mild take it as t is in the Psalmist they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues have they used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways 1. quacunque incedunt solitudinem vastitatem faciunt omnia perdendo saith Beza where ever they go they carry desolation along with them and the way of peace have they not known 1. Vitam innocentem pacisicam saith Beza they have not known what belongs to an innocent and a peaceable life and indeed how can they know what belongs to peace who will not know what belongs to innocency These words were spoken in the Old Testament of the best of men the Jews and of them in the best of their times that is when King David and King Hezekiah governed them for all the Testimonies are taken out of the Psalms and the Prophesie of Isaiah And hence it is the Apostle by an argument à majori ad minus makes them Doctrinal of all men whatsoever for though they were particular in their occasion or in their example yet they were universal in their instruction and in their document They were spoken only of some men and that occasionally but they are true of all men and that Doctrinally till God please to purifie their hearts by faith and their lives by repentance But we have again made them particular and occasional and meerly Historical of our selves who have been called to the knowledge of faith and the practice of repentance above all other Nations and yet have outstripped them all in our works of infidelity and impenitency Our infidelity whatever we vainly talk of faith hath made us guilty of all this impiety and wickedness both against God and man and our impenitency makes us still persist and continue in our guiltiness Surely Saint John Baptist if he were now alive would think himself bound to teach us though he were sure to lose his head for his Doctrine that therefore the Kingdom of Heaven the power of the Gospel is so far from us because we are so far from repentance For he that might not preach the Gospel in vain first preached repentance saying repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resipiscite repent ye so Beza and our new translation looking to the inward contrition and conversion of the heart poenitentiam agite saith the Vulgar Latine do pennance looking to the outward confession of and humiliation for the sin Amend your lives saith our old translation as it is still in the sentences before the common prayer looking to the real correction and amendment of the sinner contrition for the heart confession for the mouth correction for the life and conversation not one of these must be wanting in him that desires and resolves to be an amended sinner This for the observation of our selves The other observation must be of our Saviour and that is also threefold what he was what he is and what he will be What he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will be in his retribution First what he was in his humiliation our Surety and pledge to undertake for us surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. 4. And again the chastisement of our peace was upon him ver 5 that is what chastisement was fit to have come upon us that we might be in peace did come upon him in our stead So doth Aben Ezra gloss the words aright though he be grossly if not wilfully mistaken in the person applying this text to the Jews as bearing the chastisement of the Gentiles and not to Christ as bearing the chastisement of both Jews and Gentiles where as it is unreasonable that the Jews should be punished for us Gentiles and unpossible that their punishment should expiate our transgressions No it cost much more to redeem a soul so that only he who was worth infinitely more then the whole creation was able to pay the price of our Redemption Excellently Saint Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eternal Son of God brought the Temple of his Body for our pledge and ransom The Grecians call a pledge or surety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that stakes soul for another so was our blessed Saviour our pledge to stake body for body and soul for soul in our stead we should also be his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hesychius the birds which according to the Poets fiction sprung out of Memnons ashes were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they sacrificed their life to him from whom they had received it we are bound to sacrifice our lives to our blessed Saviour and much more to offer our selves to him as a living sacrifice Secondly what he is in his exaltation even our Mediator and Intercessor He sitteth at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. We cannot be so ready to pray for our selves as he is to pray for us and yet t is to be doubted whether he will pray for us if we will not pray for our selves Whether his offering himself to God will be available to our salvation unless we also offer our selves unto him for so the Apostle seems to intimate Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them For whom For them doubtless that came unto God by him but scarce for others who either come not to God at all or come not to God by him but by some other Mediator T is a dangerous matter not to look on Christ in his passion and as dangerous not to look immediately on
him in his intercession The first shews us what he was in his humiliation the second what he is in his exaltation and yet the eye of faith will still look further after him not only as a Saviour and as a Mediator but also as a Judge for that 's the third observation concerning Christ what he will be in his retribution Not a severe but a merciful Judge to judge us according to the Gospel which will condemn only the unrepenting and unbelieving sinners not according to the Law which will condemn even the most righteous A merciful Judge to acquit us by the Merits and righteousness of that blood which he himself hath shed for us according to that most comfortable Prayer in the heavenly Hymn of Saint Ambrose which alone was of merit enough to entitle the Ambrosian office so long to keep its station against the Gregorian We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge we therefore pray thee help thy servants when thou hast Redeemed with thy precious blood We are sure thou wilt not lose thine own blood and that makes us hope thou wilt not lose us for whom thou hast been pleased to shed it Thus to draw neer to Christ is to draw neer to him with a true heart as we are commanded Heb. 10. 23. Let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith The heart with which we must draw neer to Christ ought to be true to itself by examination contrition conversion for t is a false heart to it self that wants this repentance and it ought to be a heart true to its Saviour by a lively faith in his death and passion by a constant faith in his mediation and intercession by a conquering faith in his aquitment and absolution for the heart is false to its Saviour that wants this faith and being false to its Master cannot enter into his joy O my God make my heart true to it self by repentance that it may be true to its Saviour by faith then though I have sorrow in my self yet I shall have joy in him whose joy alone is an eternal joy SECT X. That the end of this and of all other Christian Festivals is our spiritual communion with Christ and therefore they ought to be celebrated more with spiritual then with carnal joys That though our carnal joyes are greater in their proportion yet our spiritual joyes are greater in their foundation A Carnal heart receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. and much less the joys of that Spirit wherefore we must look for a spiritual Feast that we may have a spiritual joy And accordingly the Church of Christ as it hath not a carnal but a spiritual communion with Christ so it hath not a carnal but a spiritual Feast wherein it doth communicate feeding on him in the heart by faith with thanksgiving for without that we may call the holy Eucharist a Communion but shall not find it so because we do not Communicate with our blessed Saviour and so our souls may starve whilst we are at this Feast if we do not Spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas diem festum agebant 1. Sacrificium offerebant They kept a Feast that is they offered sacrifice nor can we rightly celebrate this holy Feast unless we offer unto God our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving And what sacrifice is left for Christians but the living sacrifice of their souls and bodies spoken of Rom. 12. 1. For the soul though not named must also be in the sacrifice or else it cannot be a reasonable service 'T is not offering our Saviour but offering our selves to God that makes the accehtable sacrifice not observing the holy institution yet I could heartily wish that were better observed by them who best observe it but observing it with a holy intention that makes a spiritual Feast and therefore our Church at the celebration of the holy Eucharist doth in Gods name invite us not so much to a corporal as to a spiritual feeding on the body and blood of Christ And though some do scruple the offering up of Christs real body in that sacrifice for they had rather say it is commemoratio sacrificii then commemorativum sacrificium yet none scruples the offering up of his mystical body in it never any Christian did think he might leave himself out of the offering though many have thought they might leave their Saviour out of it as to his carnal presence for every man believes he is bound to offer the sacrifice of praise to God and therewith also his own soul so that even this our Feast must likewise be a spiritual Feast or though the outward Elements may nourish our bodies to this natural life yet the inward grace will not nourish our souls to the life eternal We conclude then that no Feast can truly honour God the God of Spirits but a spiritual Feast And that whosoever hath once kept this will endeavoor to turn all others into it or at least to extract this out of them he will feast his soul more then his body as one that cannot well relish the carnal because he hath tasted the spiritual delicacies for most undoubtedly our spiritual joyes though they come short of carnal joys in their measure and proportion yet they far exceeed them in their cause and foundation we are more zealous for our carnal joys because they are connatural to us whiles we are cloathed with our flesh but our spiritual joys which are supernatural do more deserve our zeal I will say to my soul Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry said the rich glutton Luke 12. 19. What a great preparation is here to carnal joy I will say unto my soul what a great proportion of it take thine ease eat drink and â—e merry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rest that thou maist eat and drink eat and drink that thou mayst delight thy self and be merry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Basil If thou hadst the soul of a swine what couldest thou say or do more so great a proportion is there of joy in the carnal man from carnal delights as if even the spiritual part of him were made carnal as if the soul it self were incorporated into flesh and that flesh incorporated into swine made the most brutish and sensual in the whole world even swines flesh yet so little a foundation is there of this joy that t is grounded only on the mans own fansie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 17. He made his reckoning but t was a false reckoning meerly of his own making and not agreeable with the truth of the account For the word is fit to express the condition of worldlings saith Beza quia totam vitam in subducendis rationibus consumunt because they spend all their days in making reckoning they spend all their time in casting up accounts either for their pleasure or for
exposition He that cometh to God must believe that God is his God and that he will be his rewarder if he diligently seek him for so did Enoch believe when he did forsake and by forsaking did provoke the men of that wicked age of the world foul enough for a flood to wash it though no washing could cleanse it only that he might walk with God His Faith strengthened him against his fears whiles it represented God thus speaking unto him Fear not I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. Wherefore though Moses spake not one word of Enochs faith yet Saint Paul takes it for as good a proof that Enoch had faith because he pleased God as that he pleased God because God took him And is it possible that this faith should be in any man who is yet in his sins No certainly for he cannot believe God to be his shield whom he hath made his enemy nor to be his rewarder whom he hath made his avenger Look upon your first Father Adam after he had sinned and you will see your self in him and your sin his God called unto him and said Where art thou but he said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Gen. 3. 10. A strange folly that made him think he could hide himself from Gods All-seeing eye A stranger fear that made him desire to hide himself from Gods All-saving Presence He knew that in God alone he lived and moved and had his being and yet was afraid of him when he was yet scarce fully entred into the possession of his life The reason was he had taken such an inmate into his soul as he knew God could not but hate and could not but confound and destroy Whiles he continued in his innocency nothing that God said could fright him nothing that God did could hurt him But when once he had sinned Gods voice that only called for his appearance was more terrible then his hand before that had taken away his rib a still small voice in the cool of the day makes him flie into a thicket as thinking thereby to secure himself In this miserable condition he would have lived and dyed for the same cause must have produced still the same effect had not God promised him that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head and in that promise revealed Christ unto him as a propitiation for his sins After that though he was immediately thrust out of Paradise yet he could think of comming into Gods presence with sacrifice and burnt offerings for sure t was he taught his sons those offices of Religion because he saw he had a Mediator to intercede for him whereas before that promise though he was actually in the Garden of God yet he durst not come neer him as not knowing how to intercede for himself For his sin had cast such a confusion such an amazement upon his soul that he durst not open his eyes to look on God and could not open his mouth to make supplication to him because he knew he was first to make satisfaction before he could be admitted to make intercession for that Gods offended justice was to be satisfied before his undeserved mercy might be implored And so is it with all mankind ever since being all conceived and born in sin we cannot but come into the world with a natural aversion from God that is with a fear to come neer him and with a desire to go and keep far from him if it were possible alwayes out of his sight And as we come into the world so we abide in it with a total aversion from God till he be pleased to reveal his Son to us that we may know him or rather in us that we may love him Nor would any man that is descended from the corrupt loins of Adam ever have thought much less have desired to come neer God to worship him had there not been revealed a sufficient atonement for his sin For till our sins be expiated we cannot hope that our worship should be accepted And as for the heathens and Jews who worship God without the knowledge or with the contempt of Christ we must say their worship is not good and is rather out of a good custome then out of a good conscience as too many Christians still worship God who know not Christ effectually or practically And t is better saying so then to say they can have either a good conscience or a good worship who have not faith in Christ Wherefore let my soul evermore bless God for having revealed this great mystery and greater mercy of godliness that he is reconciled to me in Christ having blotted out my sins by his precious blood And let me now be as much afraid of not coming into Gods presence to beg and gasp for his mercy as I should have feared to come to him if he had not made known to me the means and way of this reconciliation For the Son of God having expiated all my sins that by him I might come unto his Father hath in effect told me that my sin of not comming to God is now like to prove of all others the most inexpiable SECT II. That no religion adoreth God rightly which adoreth him not in Christ and of the excellencie of the Christian Religion That no other Religion teacheth such conformable truths to right reason declareth an expiation for sin promiseth so great a reward sheweth so pure a worship or so innocent a conversation REason teacheth all men to adore and worship God but t is only Religion that teacheth some few men how he is truly and rightly to be adored and worshipped and those few men were heretofore the Jews and are now the Christians for they alone rightly worship God who worship him in his Son that is in Christ So saith the beloved Disciple in honour of and in justice to his master Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father 1 John 2. 23. That is he that hath not the Son for his God hath not the Father for his God For the nature of Relatives evinceth thus much that if there be a Father there must be a Son and if there be not a Son there cannot be a Father wherefore it is a gross mistake or rather a great blasphemy to say that the Jews or Turks or other Infidels do worship the same God with us Christians for they not having the Son cannot have the Father and not having the Father have not the true God but an idol of their own making nay a lyar insteed of God as saith the same disciple He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not
the eternal Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christ glorified in his Ascention The Prooeme That our blessed Saviours Ascention is not so truly observed by our commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the History of his Ascention THere is no blessing of Christ but imposeth upon a Christian the necessity of commemorating it and withall affords him exceeding great joy in its commemoration if he so observe it with other Christians as also to imitate it with good Christians For at Saint Luke gives a full definition of Christs Gospel when he calleth it a Treatise of those things which Jesus did do and teach Acts 1. 1. as if he had said A Book that containeth Christs sayings and doings so may we give this definition of a true Gospeller or of a good Christian He is a lively representer of the sayings and doings of Christ of the sayings of Christ by his profession of the doings of Christ by his practise and imitation For that man alone hath a true faith in the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Christ who sheweth his faith by his works dying with Christ that he may live to him rising with Christ that he may live with him and ascending to Christ that he may live in him who sheweth his faith in Christs Cross by crucifying his own sinful lusts in Christs resurrection by rising to newness of life and in Christs ascention by ascending thither in heart and mind whiher his Saviour is gone before him Thus did the holy Apostles follow their Master with their eyes and with their hearts when they could not follow him with their bodies They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up Acts 1. 10. Surely the more to fix their hearts on him when he was above And so must we too we must go up with him thither that we may tarry with him there accordingly as Christs own Church hath taught us to pray Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do believe thine only begotten Son our Lord to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with him continually dwell who liveth and raigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end which is such an heavenly prayer That we are infinitely bound to bless God for putting it into our devotions but yet more bound to beseech him that he will also put it into our lives and conversations For which cause I will enlarge my considerations concerning the ascention of our blessed Saviour And as Binius in setting down that vast and voluminous Council of Ephesus digesteth his work into three Tomes in the first tome reciting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts before the Council in the second Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done in the Council in the third Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done after the Council So will I consider the history of our blessed Saviours Ascention first insisting upon those things which are recorded before it His apparitions his instructions his consolations and his benedictions Secondly insisting upon those things which are recorded concerning the manner of his ascending And lastly insisting upon that one thing which is recorded of him after he was ascended viz. his sitting at the right hand of God And I have warrant enough so to do from the two Pen-men of that very History For Saint Mark describeth the Ascention with reference to Christs Apparitions upon the very day of his resurrection though that was full fourty daies before he ascended for so we read Mar. 16. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided their unbelief and hardness of heart which apparition was clearly on the very day of his Resurrection unless we will say that unbelief and hardness of heart remained in the Apostles when it scarce remained in any of the other Disciples for he had appeared unto them no less then five several times on that very day for the confirmation of their faith And yet without any mention of more apparitions it followeth v. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven But Saint Luke describeth the Ascention with the sending down of the Holy Ghost which was not till ten daies after our Saviour Christ was actually ascended as appears Acts 1. 8 9. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you And when he had spoken these things he was taken up The Ascention is so placed in the narrations of these Evangelists as both to look backward to the Feast of Easter and forward to the Feast of Pentecost To look backward upon the Resurrection of God the Son to look forward upon the Descention of God the Holy Ghost Happily to teach all Christians That they must first arise from sin before they can ascend up to God there 's the Resurrection before the Ascention And that they must ascend up to God before they can receive the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit there 's the Ascention before the coming of the Holy Ghost However this is ground enough for me to look a little backward and a little forward in my considerations of the Ascention because the Evangelists have thus related it with its antecedent apparitions and words and with its consequent exaltation or sitting on the right hand of God CAP. I. Christ Considered before his Ascention SECT I. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions IT is much to be observed That since in the Gospel are mentioned but ten apparitions of Christ between his Resurrection and his Ascention yet no less then five of them are recorded on the very day of his Resurrection For he appeared five several times to several persons on that same day which Durand would perswade us the Latine Church did intimate in her very Church musick of that day singing that Invitatory Hymn The Lord is risen indeed in the fift musical tone Et est quinti toni propter quinque apparitiones Domini in ill◠die saith he This Anthymne Surrexit Dominus verè The Lord is risen indeed is sung in the fift Tone because the Lord appeared five times on that very day This is an elegant way of teaching mysteries by musical tones somewhat above that gross invention of turning pictures into Lay-mens books but yet whatsoever is to be said of the musick we are sure the thing it self is consonant to the Truth For our blessed Saviour did appear five several times on the very day of his resurrection that as soon as he had raised his own body from the Grave he might raise his Apostles souls from incredulity and prepare them to receive those Heavenly doctrines pertaining to the kingdom of God concerning which he resolved to speak with them
to have a share in the blessing And therefore Aben Ezra's gloss is not to be rejected who observes the same word used in the reward and in the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall receive the blessing because he did not lift up his soul to receive the vanity The Lord shall lift him up by true sanctification because he did not lift up himself by pride and presumption For no man more truly lifts up his soul to vanity nor more truly labours in vain then he that thinks to go to heaven only by the strength of his own perswasion since it is not possible for him to receive the blessing who cares not to receive the righteousness For these two are joyned together he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation not the blessing of salvation without the righteousness thereof For it must be a real not an imaginary ascension whereby we get up to heaven the soul that will be there must be lifted up by devotion not by opinion For the Righteousness of salvation is not opinionative but affective and active not in conceit but in practice Take heed of a mock-Ascension into heaven which will make that be truly spoken of thee which those mistaken novices did falsly put upon Eliah Lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley 2 King 2. 16. It was their fond fear concerning Eliah it ought to be the just fear concerning thy self For if thou lay hold of the Spirit of adoption only to cry Abba Father but not to become a dutiful Son or to confine thy dutifulness to observe only those of thy Fathers commands that suit with thine own humour and advantage which is the lame and limping godliness of this hypocritical age wherein men cry up their duty towards God meerly to beat down their duty towards their neighbour If thou thus lay hold of the spirit of adoption others may justly fear concerning thee and thou oughtest to fear concerning thy self Lest peradventure the spirit of the Lord for so thou thinkest it take thee up and cast thee down again upon some mountain or into some valley For indeed the Spirit of the Lord being thus mistaken or thus misapplied doth so take men up as to cast them down again first upon the mountain of presumption then into the valley of despair Secondly our Saviour claimed heaven by the right of his desert even as his just recompence and reward And that claim or title of his is intimated in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried or received up into heaven as having before merited to be carried or received up thither so saith Saint Paul he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him Phil. 2. 8 9. Our blessed Saviour was obedient in doing before he was obedient in suffering He first had a most perfect active and then a most perfect passive obedience He was first obedient He was first obedient unto the life and after that obedient unto the death He was zealous in doing the work of God and that made him patient in suffering the will of God yet here is no mention made of his active but only of his passive obedience and no mention made of his obedience without respect to his humility How then shall any Christian forego his humility to stand upon the merit of his obedience when our Saviour Christ himself whose obedience alone is or can be meritorious with God was exalted no less from being humble then for being obedient Surely to teach us how we may soonest have comfort from this his title to heaven nay after some sort be sharers in it claiming heaven as a reward but of our Saviours not of our own righteousness or rather as a reward of his righteousness but made ours So Saint Bernard most Divinely comforted himself against all the accusations of Satan at Gods Judgement seat Fateor non sum dignus ego nec propriis possum meritis regnum obtinere coelorum Caeterùm duplici jure illud obtinens Dominus meus haeredita te Sc. Patris merito passionis altero ipse contentus alterum mihi donat ex cujus dono jure illud mihi vendicans non confundor I confess that 〈…〉 â—t worthy nor can I hope to obtain heaven by mine own merits But my Lord having obtained the same by a double right the one by the inheritance ef his Father the other by the merit of his passion being himself contented only with one of them hath given the other unto me by whose gift I do now claim it as my right and am not to be confounded in my claim Which we might very well take for a great miracle wrought upon us men by our Saviours ascending in our flesh and so entitling that flesh to heaven were it not for those other miracles which neerly concern our Saviour Christ in his own person For we have a twofold miracle intimated in these same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went up though in his body of flesh there 's one miracle his conquest over earth in his humane body For earth was now taught to ascend upwards contrary to its own nature which of it self so descends downwards as to press to the Center nay actually to possess it Earth in it self moves furthest from heaven but in the body of Christ earth moved towards heaven nay earth went up into heaven And the reason is given by Saint Paul Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be like his glorious body The body of Christ after his resurrection was more peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious body Saint Paul gives us this distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A vile body and a glorious body Our body is a vile body dejected and debased by the sinfulness the grossness the weakness the sluggishness of the flesh our Saviours body was never thus a vile body in the state of his humiliation because he knew no sin yet was it subject to all infirmities or he could not have dyed for sinners And therefore we may truly say that his body in the state of his exaltation was made a glorious body and invested with four conditions or qualities quite contrary to these of our bodies called by the School impassibilitas claritas subtilitas agilitas and by Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. to whom we are primarily beholding for this part of School Divinity which unfoldeth the conditions of a glorified body And the same Apostle comforteth us that after the Resurrection our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body and consequently be made first impassible and incorrupt without sinfulness for where is no sin there is no corruption there can be no suffering Secondly Clear and transparent without grossness
be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit for Christ is God And it were also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity which is this That the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us to revive our souls now from the death of sin to revive our bodies hereafter from the death of the grave the Apostle plainly attributeth thr Resurrection of the soul from sin and of the body from death only to the dwelling of Christs Spirit in us Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righeeousness there 's the resurrection of the soul from sin and again ver 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you There 's the resurrection of the body from death And this is also from the Spirit that dwelleth in us as well as the other the Spirit of Christ raiseth the soul from sin the Spirit of Christ raiseth the body from death so that to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ is to deny both our Regeneration and our Resurrection Wherefore this being of so dangerous a consequence The Master of the sentences would not impute this Tenent to the Greek Church as if they denyed the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son though they would not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son but only who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified But he saith plainly that the Greek Church did agree with the Latine Church concerning that Article of Faith in sense though not in words Sensu nobis conveniunt dum aiunt Spiritum Sanctum esse Patris Filii They agree with us in the sense whilst they say that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son only we speak a little more plainly saying who proceedeth from the Father and the Son nor are we to be blamed saith he for adding to the Creed much less to be anathematized because our addition is not of a contrary assertion but of a necessary interpretation Nos enim non praedicamus contrarium sed addimus quod deerat ideoque non subjecti anathemati Lomb. 1. Sent. Dist 11. He is more careful to justifie his own Church for adding to the Creed then to condemn the Greek Church for not allowing that addition But his Scholars are not so moderate for Aquinas taxes Damascene of Nestorianism in the case and saith he was carried away with the Schism of the Greeks Damascenus sequitur errorem Nestorii Quod Sp. S. non procedit à Filio quia fuit tempore quo incepit illud Schisma Graecorum Aqu. 3. par qu. 36. art 2. ad 3. And Bonaventure is yet much mor fierce when he saith that the Greek Church denyed this article out of ignorance pride and perverseness Graecos negâsse hunc articulum ex ignorantiâ superbiâ pertinaciâ Bonav in lib. 1. sent dist 11. Three unmerciful words from a Church-mans mouth against a whole Church and surely altogether underserved For the Greek Church always acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be consubstantial with the Son as well as with the Father as appears by the Confession of Faith exhibited by Charisius in the Council of Ephesus in the sixth Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of truth the comforter being of the same essence or substance with the Father and the Son which plainly shews the Greek Church did not deny the article though they were loth to change their Creed wherein they found it was thus expressed Who proceedeth from the Father no mention at all made of the Son For this is their own profession in the Council of Florence in the 25. Session 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Creed from seven general Councils and weneither add thereto nor take therefrom And t is evident that the Latine Church it self did a long time demurr about this addition of Filioque to the Greek Creeds Nay Leo the third did strongly oppose it and that not only Papally in his Chair but also Episcopally in his Chancel for he did absolutely refuse this addition when he was thereto intreated by Charles the great and did set up the Creed over the Altar at Rome without it nor did Filioque get into the Article till the time of Benedict the seventh saith Binius in Syn. Constant which was above nine hundred and fifty years after Christ and about six hundred years after the divulging of that Creed But without doubt the Addition it self is to be justified for it was not Additio corrumpentium Symbolum sed perficientium as saith Bonaventure not an addition to corrupt the Creed but to perfect it or rather an explication not an addition as Bellarmine seems to distinguish Explicatio Doctrine non additio contrarii but the manner of maintaining it seems altogether unjustifiable For those of the Latine Church shewed little temper and as little charity in rejecting the Greek Church for hereticks which was trampled on enough by Turks and needed not Christians to help tread it more under foot for not admitting the same addition meerly because they thought themselves under the curse which the Latines are willing to put off by a distinction if they should recede but one tittle or syllable from the language of their own Creeds But this it seems was the fault of the Greek Church which hath been ever since accounted damnable Schism in all other Churches they could not swallow much less digest that crude position Ad summum Pontificem pertinet fidei Symbolum ordinare It belongs to the Pope to order and dispose of the Creeds A position so unreasonable that Aquinas himself the greatest Master of reason among all the Schoolmen is fain to fly to Gratians decree to fetch a proof for it and that proof depends altogether upon the Authority of some few Popes who were very partial Judges in their own cause This is clear that the objection about Athanasius his Creed doth so puzzle him that he is fain in effect to say his Creed is no Creed because he cannot find the Popes hand was in the making of it Athanasius non composuit manifestationem fidei per modum Symboli sed per modum cuiusdam Doctrin◠Athanasius did not set out this manifestation of the faith as a Creed but as a Doctrinal institution notwithstanding the very title of it in Greek is the same which is prefixed to the Apostles Creed and the Latine Church calleth it Symbolum Athanasii unto this day It is not suitable with my purpose and much less with my desire
That of enemies they are made servants and of servants they are made sons Secondly That being made sons they have the Spirit of his Son Thirdly That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father Having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession IT is fit that a foolish son should know his folly as well as his filiation his folly that he may return to himself to do his duty as well as his filiation that he may return unto his Father and beg for mercy Accordingly every good Christian being made the son of God and yet still abiding too much in the sins of other men should look with one eye upon himself to increase his humility and to quicken his obedience and repentance with the other eye upon his Saviour to strengthen his faith and to inflame his piety and devotion He must see his folly as well as his filiation that he may ascribe unto God the honour due unto his name and much more the honour due unto his nature in that he disinherits not a foolish Son besotted and bewitched with the vanities of the world and with his own sinful lusts and affections but first looks on him as wise in Christ his own eternal wisdom and then makes him so that he may not only accept him for a son but may also bring him to his inheritance For there is no doubt to be made but that the filiation will carry the inheritance if so be we take care that the folly do not destroy the filiation And accordingly we must still remember that we were by nature the children of wrath born enemies but made sons by the grace of adoption and take heed of returning to our own natural corruptions or of sinning against that grace whereby we have been adopted For in that we have been adopted into Gods family we have been put out of our own so the Greeks do expresly set forth the nature of adoption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adopted son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas is to be put out of our own kindred out of our own stock And the Psalmist requires no less of us when he saith Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Psal 45. 11 12. Thou canst not be an adopted son of God unless thou forget thine own people and thy fathers house that is unless thou go out of the man that thou maist go in to God leave off to be an enemy that thou maist begin to be a son forsake thy self that thou maist cleave to thy Saviour For in thy self thou art a stranger nay an enemy in him only thou art a servant or rather a Son This consideration made Saint Paul say I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As if he had said I am crucified with Christ in that I am dead unto sin for the thought that he hath nailed my sins to his Cross makes me willing to be crucified with him And yet I still truly live but not that old carnal man I was before but made a new creature so that indeed Christ liveth in me by his Spirit making me lead a new life And though I am still in this mortal body yet my life which I live is immortal for though my person be on earth yet my conversation is in heaven And the same truth which the Apostle here preached by his Example he did in another place preach also by his Doctrine saying And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. that is the outward man is mortified to the weakning and abolishing of sin but the inner man is renewed to the encreasing and establishing of righteousness And this is the proper work of the Spirit of adoption to change a man from being an enemy to be a servant and from being a servant to be a son which we may well look upon as the first priviledge of the Saints who are truly so that is Saints in Gods account though sinners in their own Saints not of their own calling but of Gods or Saints not of their own but of Gods making Their duty is to be his servants but their honour is to be his friends nay more his sons Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. They were before his enemies they are now his servants and friends They are to do whatsoever he commands them there 's their duty they are obliged as servants yet he saith unto them ye are my friends there 's their honour they are accepted as friends Great is their honour as his friends admitted to his counsels yet much greater is their honour as his sons admitted to his inheritance But this honour is meerly a priviledge not a prerogative t is such as they must thankfully receive not such as they may peremptorily demand for when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do saith our blessed Saviour Luk. 17. 10. Christ looked upon his own obedience as duty and therefore will not have us look upon ours as supererogation We are unprofitable servants in our service and should be so in our account and are we then in Gods account accepted as friends nay beloved as sons Great was their priviledge who could say We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build his house Ezra 5. 11. Sure they could not have said so much if they had pulled his house down But far greater is our priviledge who can say We are the sons of the God of heaven and earth and though we be despoiled of our inheritance in earth yet we cannot be deprived of our inheritance in heaven The prodigal son saith to his father I am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luk. 15. 19. but each of us may now invert those words and say unto our Father I am no more worthy to be a hired servant and yet thou hast made me be called thy Son A consideration which is able to kindle a holy fire in the breast of every good Christian and enflame his soul with the love of Christ by whom alone of an enemy he is made a servant of a servant a friend of a friend a Son of a son an heir even an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For though men have son that are not heirs yet God hath no son which is not also an heir and
know not a man Luke 1. 34. I answer then according to this distinction First If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from piety or admiration it is exceeding commendable we have an excellent president for it the man after Gods own heart who twice spoke these words from Gods own mouth for surely with his spirit What is man that thou hast such respect unto him or the son of man that thou so regardest him Psalm 8. 4. and 144. 3. Nor is it possible for any one that hath indeed the Spirit of God when he considers the immensity of Gods goodness and of his own unworthiness not to make this doubt of admiration unto his own soul What is man what am I a sinful man in my person that thou hast such respect unto me or What is the son of man what am I a sinful man in my nature that thou so regardest me Secondly If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infirmity it is at all times excusable because though the spirit be willing yet the flesh is weak Mat. 26. 41. and at sometimes almost commendable when either by our omissions of piety we have quenched or by our commissions of impiety we have grieved the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption In this case of spiritual leprosie Gods answer to Moses concerning Miriam may be taken as a full determination concerning us If her Father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days Let her be shut out of the camp seven days and after that let her be received in again Numb 12. 14. Si pater terrenus aliquod gravis in eam irae signum edidisset puderet eam saltem septem Dies redire in conspectum ejus saith Junius If her father on earth had shewed some great sign of anger against her she would for shame not presently rush into his sight but would forbear to come before him for one seven days The explanation is very punctual and we cannot but see that in God Almighties own Logick the argument is good from our Father on earth to our Father in heaven Hence that prayer of sorrowful David Cast me not away from thy presence He confesseth he durst not come into his sight and prays that he might not be for ever banished from it Psal 51. 11. and again redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Having grievously offended his God he could not but discover in his own soul the signs and tokens of that offence therefore he prayes God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation For had he not in his blood-guiltiness lost the joy of his salvation he might in his impenitency have lost the enjoyment of it Good Lord that we should so out-strip this holy man in our sin and come so short of him in our repentance This is certainly a ready way not to strengthen our faith but to weaken it not to lessen our doubtings but to increase them yea to turn our doubtings into distresses and our distresses into despair and our despair into damnation Thirdly and lastly if the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infidelity it is neither commendable nor excusable in any nay it is so far from being commendable in any that t is altogether inexcusable in all For such a doubt supposeth not a weakness but a want of faith and consequently sheweth the man that hath it to distrust his Saviour not himself and to remain still in the state of infidelity notwithstanding God calleth him so earnestly to the state of faith Wherefore since without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. such a doubting of infidelity must needs leave him that hath it under Gods most heavy and more just displeasure under his most heavy displeasure because he embraceth not reconciliation when it is offered under his most just displeasure because he believeth not him that offereth it This is the reason of the Apostles exceeding pathetical exhortation Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3. 12. The heart is made evil by unbelief and shews it is so by departing from the living God so that we are advised and exhorted to take heed of unbelief as we would take heed of an evil heart and of departing from the living God T is at first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart oâ—â—nfidelity t is at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart of apoâ—tacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in apostatizing from the living God But we must here take heed that we confound not together the doubtings of infirmity and of infidelity The one saith Lord I believe help thou my unbelief the other cannot say Lord I believe The one dare not trust himself but the other will not trust his Saviour a doubting of infidelity rejecteth faith but a doubting of infirmity desireth it For though doubting cannot be in faith yet it may be in him that hath faith Saint Peters faith could not doubt yet himself doubted so saith the text when he saw the wind boistrous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cryed saying Lord save me Mat. 14. 13. Though he was full of fear yet he was not empty of faith For he cryed saying Lord save me And therefore we may not say of any other in his case more then our Saviour Christ did say of him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Mat. 14. 31. O thou of little faith not O thou of no faith for he did fully believe in Christ and did only misdoubt himself And surely it would not be much amiss if every confident man would do so too and ask himself the question which Christ asks Saint Peter Lovest thou me John 21. 17. and ask it again and again and not be grieved at the often asking it dost thou indeed love thy Saviour lovest thou him who died for thee lovest thou him who loved thee with an everlasting love For the more you are assured in your own heart that you love your Saviour the more will he assure you of his everlasting love CAP. II. Of the knowledge of the state of true Christianity SECT I. The knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is from our keeping the words of Christ And that Antinomians cannot truly be and much less know they be in the state of true Christianity HE that is in the state of true Christianity cannot but desire to know it and he that knows himself to be so cannot but exceedingly rejoyce and triumph in that knowledge Accordingly after the discourse of the state of true Christianity in the next place we ought to enquire concerning our own knowledge of that state for that man can scarce be thought to believe the life everlasting who labours not
God the searcher of hearts hath reserved the knowledge of the invisible Church only to himself and requireth all Christians to join in communion with that visible Church wherein they live if so be that therein is preserved the outward sincere profession of Gods truth and worship and the right administration of his Sacraments which is a condition not to be excepted against unles we will deny men the use of reason there only where they most want it in the choice of their religion and yet allow it in the choice of their Church and think it enough for them to serve God according to the dictates of others consciences when we are sure they shall be acquitted or condemned in the last judgement according to the dictates of their own Wherefore we must allow an outward sincere profession of Gods truth and word and a right administration of his Sacraments to the constitution of that visible Church which obligeth us to her communion as a member of the true Catholick Church And if we cannot make it appear out of the written Word of God that our own Church is faulty in either of these we may not forsake her communion since by vertue of these she is to us instead of the Catholick Church and by authority of the Catholick Church bindeth us to her communion For if we acknowledge our Church to be Catholick in her profession which we are bound to do unless we can prove the contrary we must also acknowledge her to be Catholick in her obligation because where is unquestionable purity there must be unquestionable Authority unless we will say that Religion is a matter of indifferency and leaves men at their liberty either to practice or to despise it as they please This was not the opinion of the Primitive Christians of whom it is said And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Acts 2. 42. They thought themselves bound to continue stedâ—astly in that communion wherein was a sincere profession of Gods truth and worship here expressed by doctrine and Prayers and a right administration of the Sacraments here expressed by breaking of bread And so must we likewise think our selves bound to continue stedfastly in their Communion who succeed the Apostles in the publick exercise of the same religious duties or deny that this Scripture was written for our learning So that unless it be evident to us that the Church wherein we live is faulty either in doctrine or in Prayers or in administration of the Sacraments we may not recede from her communion without being guilty of schism and faction and then Saint Augustine unless you will say Fulgentius was the author of that book will tell us our doom in these words Firmissime tene nullatenus dubites non solùm omnes Paganos sed etiam omnes Judaeos Haereticos atque Schismaticos qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam praesentem finiunt vitam in ignem aeternum ituros qui paratus est diabolo angelis ejus Aug. de fide ad Patr. Daph. c. 38. You must firmly believe and in no wise doubt that not only all Pagans but also all Jews and Hereticks and Schismaticks who end this present life out of the communion of the Catholick Church shall go into that eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For he that willfully lives and dies out of the communion of his own Church being a true member of the Catholick lives and dies at least in the perverse disposition of his soul out of the communion of the Catholick Church and consequently lives and dies in the state of damnation so neerly doth it concern every Christian not to break communion with his own Church unadvisedly and undeservedly for that is in effect to break communion with the Catholick Church but to try the Spirits whether they are of God and to know there is no warrantable disobedience of that command Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace unless it be evident That the Spirit is not of God And yet even in that case men ought to be very cautelous and wary that they so forsake the communion of the Church as not to disturb the peace of it for that was all that those seven thousand did who bowed not their knee to Baal in the general defection of the Church of Israel 1 King 19. 18. And that is all we are bound to do in the like case if we will have Gods mark set upon us to preserve us from wrath in the day of wrath for so saith the Prophet Ezekiel Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof sc of Jerusalem Ezech. 9. 4. Sighing and crying for those abominations we cannot help is enough to discharge us from the guilt of them and this may be done if not without making of a noise yet sure without making of any tumult And this is according to Saint Augustines advice Misericorditer corripiat homo quod potest quod autem non potest patienter ferat dilectione gemat atque lugeat donec aut ille desuper emen det corrigat aut usque ad mâ—ssem differat eradicare zizania palâ—am ventilare ut tamen securi de salute sua bonae spei Christiani inter desperatos quos corripere non valent in unitate versentur auferant malum à seipsis id est ut in ipsis non inveniatur quod in moribus aliorum eis displicet Aug. lib. 3. contra Parmen cap. 2. Let every man correct what he can with mildness and what he cannot let him bear with patience And let him sigh and mourn in love till God from above amend what is amiss or at the harvest pluck up the tares and blow away the chaff yet that Christians who have a good hope may without danger of their own salvation live in unity among those desperate wretches whom they cannot amend let every man reform one that he may not find that in himself which he dislikes in another This is the safest way for every particular man to be sure not to be out of the communion of the Catholick Church and yet not to be in the corruptions of his own Church For he that sighs for the abominations shews he loves Gods truth and he that only sighs shews he loves his neighbours peace His love to Gods truth will keep him in the actual communion of the Catholick Church his love to his neighbours peace will not let him violate the communion of his own Church although he refuse to communicate in its corruptions It is not to be doubted but holy David all the while he lived in Sauls house or was afterwards driven from Jerusalem was under the affliction and temptation of evil company yet he saith of himself I have walked in my integrity I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go
and the beauties and excellencies of the Christian Religion making them to proclaim to all the world these three things concerning that Religion which they taught after this new manner 1. That Christian Religion is not opus naturae proceeding from the principles of nature for then they would have used the Method of nature who first planted it but opus gratiae The work of Grace and therefore they used the Method of grace 2. That Christian Religion must not be made opus artis matter of mans invention or institution for if it would not borrow so much as outward form or Method from the art of man there being no science in the world taught by such a Method as Divinity is in the Scriptures much less any inward matter or substance from it 3. That Christian Religion must be taken in the whole in credendis agendis in belief and practice both together for therefore did the Apostles teach it by praying to shew that we must learn it by practicing prayer it self being the best practice of Christianity Thus it is necessary that Christ should be the Alpha and Omega the first and the last in all our thoughts words and works for this is the end of all the Scripture and they who undervalue the Scripture seem not to know this end or not to regard it as saith Saint John But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name John 20. 31. as if he had said God gave us the Scriptures especially the New Testament for this end that we might glorifie Christ as the eternal Son of God and only Saviour of the world and that by so doing we might through him come to inherit eternal glory SECT 11. The sincerity of Christian communion is the bullwark of its authority and first to be regarded by every Christian Church as being the glory of her prosperity and comfort of her adversity such a sincere communion never to be deserted when once happily attained NO particular Christian Church advanceth our communion with Christ as such but only as Christian and therefore no particular Church can justly require another Church to communicate with it any farther then as t is truly Christian or Catholick for no further doth she her self keep communion with Christ And consequently where any Christian Church leaves Christ there other Churches may and must leave Her that is leave Her as to the communion in Her sin whereby she leaves Christ but not in Her righteousness whereby she still reteineth him for that were little less then in her to leave the communion of Christ For this profession of Saint Paul We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ 2 Cor. 2. 17. should be the profession of every Christian Church which desires to have other Churches joyn with her in her communion we do not corrupt the word of God and would not willingly pin corruptions upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non sumus mangones aut caupones Theologiae we play not the prolers or hucksters with our Divinity or with Gods word putting new dresses or false colours upon the Text or truth to make our own erroneous Doctrines the more passable and the less discernable or rather we do not mingle Gods truth with our own errors as false drawers mingle their wines for so saith Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated which corrupt is a Metaphor taken from those Vintners who corrupt and mingle their wines before they sell them A word that speaks much in little and may serve instead of a whole Sermon to the Preachers themselves For if they preach phansie they mingle water with this wine if they preach faction they mingle blood with it Lord forgive us these horrid mixtures and renew again amongst us thy miracle wrought in Cana of Galilee and once more turn our water into wine and suffer not us any more to turn that wine into blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome To corrupt wine is in effect to bastardize it which consideration should terrifie any Church that hath wittingly corrupted the word of truth seeing she hath thereby laboured as it were to bastardize the eternal Son of God Non cauponantur quia meram veritatem praedicant de Filio Dei nec ipsam quasi aqua falsitatis adulterant saith Saint Cyril of Alexandria Thes l. 12. cap. 3. They â—sc that are true and good Church-men do not corrupt the word because they speak nothing but the truth and do abhorr to adulterate Gods pure wine with their impure their puddle water No Church can be two careful about the sincerity of its Doctrine since the Apostle did not think he could be zealous enough about it And therefore he again immediately enforceth this same duty to the same effect though in other words seeing we have received this Ministry as we have received mercy we faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in crastiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 1 2. His whole intent and purpose is to make them see his sincerity in preaching the Gospel of Christ thereby obliging every Christian Church which is the grand Apostle of its own nation openly to profess and much more conscionably to discharge the same sincerity for which accordingly he alledgeth two reasons First the incomparable worth and value of the Doctrine and therefore he saith this Ministry by way of excellency for that the Gospel was as far above the Law and much more above all other things as liberty and salvation are above thraldom and condemnation Secondly the indispensible obligation of his trust which God had laied upon him and therefore he saith as we have received mercy he calls it a mercy not a trust the more to endeer it to his own soul and to ours yet in that he saith he had received it he acknowledgeth the trust himself as one accountable according to his receipts for as he had received it from God so he was bound to deliver it to them without either alteration or addition or diminution according to his own former profession I delivered unto you that which I also received 1 Cor. 15. 3. q. d. If I could not prove the receipt I could not justifie the delivery Having alledged these two reasons for his sincere preaching of the Gospel he afterwards shews what it was preserved him in this sincerity and that was his magnanimity his innocency and his integrity First the undaunted courage of his heart we faint not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non deficimus we are not defective to our selves for want of perseverance nor to our duty for want of constancy For
we may be souldiers under Christs banner I say if this trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle So likewise you except ye utter by the tongue words easie to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak into the air 1 Cor. 14. 8 9. The Argument hath as much force against the Spirit of God as against the Ministers of God if he hath no uttered significant words hath he not spoken into the air For shame let us leave off such objections least we indeed force him to speak into the air whiles he intends and desires to speak unto our stony hearts So little doth it become any Divine to set the Law of the Church in a competition with the law of God much less in a perfection above it as if that were plain and sure this were uncertain and obscure For mens consciences must first be directed before they can be obliged and therefore to suppose Gods law to be defective in its direction is to make it defective in its obligation And if Gods law be imperfect how can the Churches law be perfect either to direct or to oblige our consciences The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psalm 19. 7. If it were not for its own perfection it could not produce our conversion nor can we oppose the perfection of Gods law without opposing the conversion of our own souls Therefore we must above all things be carefull to vindicate the Rule of our Religion if we would engage mens consciences to receive it and much more to practise it for it is impossible they should be religious without their consciences and much more against them He that searcheth the heart may not be served without the heart and he that most requiquireth the Heart in his service will not be served against the the Heart Therefore every man must worship God with the knowledge of his understanding and with the consent of his will and consequently we may not deny That there is evidence of Truth in the rule of Gods worship to iustruct the understanding and certainty of goodness in it to fix and settle the will i. e. to establish the heart unless we will have men Religious either without their consciences for want of knowledge or against their consciences for want of consent For if a man doth the best act of Religion without his conscience that act is to him little less then brutish if against his conscience t is to him less then damnable and therefore we have great reason to abominate such a Tenent as may either suppose a man to be a Brute in his Religion by acting without his conscience or suppose a man to be a Devil in his Religion by acting against his conscience SECT VII The trust of each particular Church is sufficient for the peoples salvation if she take heed to her self and to the Doctrine God hath given her in his written word and in the antient Creeds of the Catholick Church OUR blessed Saviour bidding us seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Mat. 6. 33. plainly sheweth that we have no hopes of finding Gods righteousness and much less of enjoying it till we have found out Gods Kingdom and are become faithful subjects of the same And what is Gods Kingdom but his Church wherein he exerciseth dominion in the hearts of his faithful people having established his Throne upon these two pillars of Truth and Holiness by Truth enlightning their understandings by Holiness inflaming their wills and affections and sanctifying their lives and conversations so that it is no hard matter to find out the Kingdom of God and to distinguish it from all the Kingdoms of the world since it is to be discerned by its Truth and by its Holiness For it is Truth and Holiness that makes a Church though it is power and pomp that makes a state There is no coming to Gods Kingdom but by these no tarrying in it but with these no going from it but by forsaking these so that any Christian people or nation in the world may thus plead for it self Tell me not of departing from the Church of Christ unless you can shew me wherein I have departed from Truth and Holiness which two make and constitute his Church If I believe all the Articles of Faith as he hath revealed them and practise all the duties of life as he hath commanded them sure I am though you may deny me yours yet my Saviour will not deny me his Communion though you may not esteem me a member of yours yet he will esteem me a member of his Body This is all that Saint Paul requires to the constitution of a Christian Church when he saith Rom. 10. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness there 's the truth most chiefly fixed in the heart and with the mouth confession is mad unto salvation there 's the holiness most chiefly expressed by the mouth Again Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed there 's the truth received by Faith And Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved there 's the holiness exercised by prayer shall he believe and shall he call upon the name of the Lord and not belong unto the Lord here Shall he not be ashamed shall he be saved and not belong to the Lord hereafter And what else is the Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which belongeth to the Lord here whilst Militant hereafter when Triumphant And how shall any people that believeth and calleth upon the Lord be excluded from belonging to the Lord or from being his Church when it is said so generally Whosoever believeth on him and whosoever shall call upon his name Therefore in every Nation that believeth on Christ and calleth on his name for they are inseparable the faith is not without the confession the belief is not without the prayer the truth is not without the holiness Christ hath his Church and that Church hath the means of salvation Faith and prayer or truth and holiness and the promise of salvation 1. Privatively He shall not be ashamed 2. Positively He shall be saved and we cannot deny it the salvation it self without detracting from Gods mercy which hath made good the means and from Gods truth which will make good the promise And therefore Saint Paul having planted a particular Church in Ephesus saith concerning the Presbyters there The Holy Ghost had made them Overseers of that people Act. 20. 28. He could have said no more of himself and of his fellow-Apostles who had an extraordinary calling but that the Holy Ghost had made them overseers and he saith no less of those Ministers who had only an ordinary calling And what doth he intimate by saying so But that the Ephesians had still the same hopes and means of salvation as before whilst himself instructed and governed them For that the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life could and