〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word used of Christ in the present Article in the 11. Chap. to the Hebrewes vers 17. And yet we know that Abraham had another son a son whom he had circumcised by Gods own command of whom twelve Princes were to come and whom God promised to make a puissant Nation And therefore Isaac must be called his only son because preferred before the other in the love of his Father Filius tuus unigenitus i e. filius quem diligis Isaac thine only son that is to say the son whom thou only lovest as there the text without the help of commentator doth expound it self And if the name of unigenitus or Gods only Son may warrantably be applyed to Christ in his humane nature there is not much question to be made but that in the very same capacity he may be called filius proprius or Gods own Son He spared not his own Son by which name he occurreth in St. Paul to the Romans Lesse question is there to be made or indeed no question but that according to the same humane nature and in relation to his being begotten in the fulness of time he is entituled in the Scriptures the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things though there be something in those titles which doth require a further consideration For first his being called the first born of every Creature gives no incouragement at all to the Arian factions to make the Son of God a created essence no more then Kings may be called creatures of the peoples making because called an ordinance of man humana creatura in the Vulgar latine in the holy Scripture The reason why our Saviour is there called by the Apostle Primogenitus omnis Creaturae or the first born of every Creature is neither to give him the precedency of all Creatures else or to rank his whole Person in the list of created substances but either to entitle him to the rights of Primogeniture which were great amongst the sons of men or to denote that he supplyed the place of the first begotten and was the general ransome or redemption for them Concerning which we may take notice that by the Law of Moses the first that opened the matrix of all living Creatures were holy and cousecrated to the Lord if of clean beasts then to be offered up in kind to the Lord their God but if of men or unclean Creatures then either to be redeemed for a piece of money or some clean beast was to be brought unto the Lord in exchange for it as in the case of the first male child a pair of Turtle doves or two small Pigeons The reason was because the Lord having slain the first born of Egypt both of man and beast had spared all the first born of the house of Israel and therefore he required the first male of every Creature to be offered to him in sacrifice that so the whole off-spring might be sanctifyed and made useful to them But being the offering of a dumb Creature was really and of it self no sufficient price for the redemption of the first male child which opened the Matrix nor able to sanctifie both male and female in every family to the Lord their God for he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctifyed must be all of one as the Apostle doth infer therefore did CHRIST take upon himself the place of stead of the first born that being offered unto God the clean for the unclean he might sanctifie all things unto God and make them acceptable in the sight of their Lord and maker which were of a nature capable of such sanctification and acceptance as the Lord requireth in his creature Now as the ransome of the first born was discharged by him so was it just that all the rites of Primogeniture should belong unto him which were the Principality the Priest-hood and the double portion Those Reuben having forfeited by his great offence were so distributed amongst his Brethren that the Priesthood was bestowed on Levi the Principality on Iudah the double portion upon Ioseph who thereupon was branched into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasses But they were all again united in the person of CHRIST that being thus made the first born of every Creature he might in all things have the preheminence The Principality he had for the Lord gave unto him the throne of his Father David the Priesthood for he was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech the double portion for all power was given unto him both in heaven and earth In all respects the first borne of every Creature but how the first born from the dead which is another of the titles given by the Apostle considering we finde many examples of men that had been raised from the dead before his resurrection both in the old Testament and in the new The answer to this doubt is easie For though those mentioned in both Testaments were for a time raised from death to life yet were they raised to die again as in fine they did But to be primogenitus ex mortuis the first born or first begotten from the powers of death includes an everlasting freedome from the jaws thereof in which regard the Scripture saith of Christ and of Christ alone that being risen from the dead he now dyeth not death hath no more power or dominion over him But of this Priviledge we shall speak more at large hereafter in its proper place That which remaines is that he was heir of all things Heb. 1.2 to the intent that he might prove himself for the Son of Abraham the promised seed in whom all the nations of the world are blessed The promise which was made to Abraham that he should be heir of the world was never verifyed in his person nor in any of his posterity neither till the coming of CHRIST Who being begotten by the power of Almighty God on a daughter of the seed of Abraham and having the nations given him for his inheritance as had been prophecied before by his Father David might properly be entituled the heire of all things according to the rights of his humane nature which nature he derived from David the son of Abraham Thus have we shewn how CHRIST is properly and truly the Son of God his natural and only begotten Son according to his generation in the fulnesse of time without relating to his generation before all time was But yet we must not give off here For by this generation in the fulnesse of time he was not only the Son of God but so the Son of God after such a manner as that he was also the son of man But by his generation before all times he was not only the Son of God but so the Son of God after such a manner that he was also God himself God for ever blessed
other on his left when he came to his Kingdome Sedere ad dextram alicujus est proximam ab eo dignitatem sedere autem ad sinistram secundum dignitatis locum obtinere as Estius states it very rightly So that by sitting at the right hand in the holy Scriptures we are to understand the next place of power and dignity to him upon whose right hand they are said to sit and intimates the same or the like authority as Pharaoh gave to Ioseph in the Book of Genesis when he made him ride in the second Chariot that he had constituted him the Ruler of al the land of Egypt But then this sitting at the right hand is to be understood as before I said of sitting at the right hand of great Princes only for it is otherwise with men of inferiour quality and that according to the custome of several Countries For antiently amongst the Romans when two only meâ— or sate together the more unworthy person sate or stood on the right hand of the other as Antonius Nebrissensis very well observeth The reason as I take it was because that in the rites of Augurie the flying or appearing of the birds of divination on the left hand did signifie good luck and prosperous success in their intendments Hence that of Tully A sinistra cornice ratum firmum Augurium fieri and that of the twelve Tables to the same effect Ave sinistra populi Magister estâ— And 't is the custome at this day in some parts of Italy for the more worthy person to go on the left hand of the other because thereby he is made master of the other mans sword But if there were more then two in company the best man always used to place himself in the midst that he might seeme to be protected on all sides from the hands of his enemies And this Minutius witnesseth in his elegant Dialogue where seating himself in the midst betwixt Octavius and Cecilius he said he did it to this end as the use then was ut me ex tribus medium ambitione lateris protegerent So Salust telleth us of Hiempsal that he placed himself on the right hand of Adherbal Ne medius ex tribus quod apud Numidas honori ducitur Jugurtha foret because he would not leave Jugurth in the middle place which in that Country was esteemed for the highest honour But leaving other Countries and inferior persons to their own customes and conditions certain it is that it was otherwise with great Princes and amongst the Iews in whose esteem the right hand was the better and more worthy place the sitting at the right hand of a Prince or Potentate accounted for the greatest favour How much an higher honour and a greater favour must it then be thought to sit on the right hand of God the Father Almighty the King of Kings and Lord of Lords from whom all Princes of the earth had received their Scepters Which honour that we may the better estimate and put no less a value then it ought to have we will consider in the next place what is meant by the Right hand of God and then proceed unto the honour done to our Lord and Saviour in his advancement to a place so great and glorious And first I take it for a thing granted by all Orthodox Christians that the word is not to be taken literally that God hath any hands either right or left That were to fall into the Heresie of the Anthropomorphites who because they found it written in the book of Genesis that God made man after his own Image would needs make God to be after the image of man and gave him hands and mouth and eyes and all other members But therein of the two the Heathen was the better Christian who told us ad divinam imaginem propius accedere humanam virtutem quam figuram that men resembled the Divine Image of God more then in their vertues then their making more in the endowments of the minde then in the structure of their bodies So that as often as we meet with such expressions in the Book of God we must conceive that God doth frame his speech unto our capacities and speaketh unto us after the manner of men that so we may the easier apprehend his meaning Which being premised once for all the right hand of God will be found to signifie either his power and dignity or his love and goodness That the right hand is the hand of strength will I think be granted And that it is the hand of love besides the ordinary form of salutation by taking and giving the right hand with those whom we affect most cordially is evident in holy Scripture For in the Old Testament the Patriarch Iacob called that son whom he loved most tenderly by the name of Benjamin that is the son of his right hand And the same Iacob when he intended to bestow the more excellent blessing on Ephraim Ioseph youngest son he laid his right hand upon his head and his left hand on the head of Manasseh which was the elder And this he did wittingly saith the Text to signifie that though Manasseh should become a great people yet that his younger brother should be greater then he Thus also in the New Testament we meet with dextra societatis the right hand of fellowship which the three chief Apostles gave to Paul and Barnabas Which whether it was to testifie by that outward sign the mutual correspondency and good consent which was between them or to establish the agreement then at that time made that Paul and Barnabas should preach the Gospel to the Heathen and the others unto those of the Circumcision is not much material though possibly it might be in both respects for the right hand was antiently aswell the pledge of truth and fidelity as of love and friendship the joyning of the right hands in the making of Leagues Iungamus foedera dextra as one Poet data dextera quondam as another hath it being of ordinary use amongst most Nations To bring this home unto our purpose the right hand being of it self and of common usage the hand of power and love the hand of friendship and fidelity it followeth that by the right hand of Almighty God we must mean some or all of these either his mighty power or his eminent goodness or his fidelity in performing of his word and promises That the right hand of God is used to denote his power is evident by many several passages in the Royal Psalmist The right hand of the Loud saith he hath the preheminence the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass And in another of the Psalms With his own right hand and with his holy arm hath he gotten to himself the victory Assuredly those victories and great acts he speaks of were all of them acheived by the power of God the right hand of the
created till iniquity was found in thee Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty thou hast corrupted thy wisdome by reason of thy brightness I will cast thee to the ground I will lay thee before Kings that they may behold thee S. Hierom hereupon gives this note or descant Quo sermone demonstrat nequaquam hominem esse de quo scribitur sed contrariam fortitudinem quae quondam in Paradiso Dei commorata sit By which saith he the Prophet doth demonstrate plainly that he means not this of any man but of that opposite power the Devil which had heretofore his abode in Paradise And as for the iniquity which was found in him it was that saith he quae per superbiam abusionem potestatis quam acceperat which lying hidden in his heart had at the last discovered it self by pride and the abuse of that power which he had received These texts not only Cassianus and others of the Antient writers sed aliorum fere omnium Commentarii de Principe Daemonum exponunt but generally all Commentators as Estius telleth us expound it of Lucifer or Beelzebub the Prince of Devils I know indeed that in the literal sense of Scripture those Prophecies were intended of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and the then King of Tyre whosoever he was But then I do observe withall that many things are spoken in the course of those Prophesies especially the words which I have selected that cannot possibly be applyed in a literal sense to either of the Princes before remembred And it is a good rule which St. Augustine and others of the Fathers give us in expounding Scrippture that those places which cannot piously and congruously be understood in the literal or historical sense ea ad sublimiorem intelligentiam referantur are to be understood in a mystical meaning and so the places must be here But that it was an ambitious pride which first brought sin into the world besides these two Prophetical Scriptures and the general consent of Writers which do so expound them there are other reasons to evince For first the Devil being still tainted with this plague of pride went the same way to work in seducing Adam To tempt him with the beauty of a glorious Apple had been a bait too much below those most rare endowments wherewith God had invested him at his first Creation But to inflame him with an hope of being like unto God to tell him Eritis sicut Dii that there should be no difference between God and him that was the way most like to take and that way he went By that sin which occasioned his own just damnation was he resolved to draw all mankinde into the same perdition with him And next it is a good rule in Physick Contraria contrariis expelluntur that one contrary doth expel and remove another And this I take to be one chief reason why our most blessed Lord and Saviour being God of God and the very brightness of his Father did take upon himself the form of a servant and conversed here with man in so great humility that he might make amends for the sin of pride by which the Angels who by nature were created Servants for what else is a Minister or a Ministring Spirit aspired unto the greatness of Almighty God And unto these I adde by way of surplusage the saying of the son of Syrach initium peccati omnis superbiam esse that pride was the beginning of all sin And this S. Augustine cals perversam Celsitudinem a perverse ambition by which forsaking God whom they ought to have loved above all things they would needs be their own Creators as it were out of a self-self-love to themselves If it be asked how Lucifer and the rest of the Apostate Angels being of such cleer and excellent understandings could possibly affect a matter which they knew impossible Aquinas makes this ready and Scholastical answer Hujusmodi peccatum non praeexigere ignorantiam c. That pride for of that sin he speaketh doth not so much presuppose ignorance as inconsideration Et hoc modo peccavit Angelus convertendo sâ— ad proprium bonum c. And in this wise saith he did the Angels sin turning themselves by the abuse of their free will to their own proper good without consideration of the will of Almighty God And here I should conclude this point of the sin of the Angels but that there cometh into my minde the Poetical fiction of the aspiring of the Giants to the Kingdom of God which certainly was raised on those grounds of Scripture or the tradition of the Iews which was built upon it wherein these Angels stand accused of the like ambition Of which Gigantine folly thus we read in Ovid Neveâ— foret terris securior arduus Aether Affectasse ferunt Regnum coeleste Gigantes Altaque congestos struxisse ad sydera montes Which may be Englished in these words And that the Gods their safety might suspect The Giants did the Heavenly Throne affect Who to attain the height of their designe Heap hils on hils and so to Heaven they clime Next for the punishment of these Angels though fully denounced against them on the first offence and in part inflicted at the present yet the full execution of it was by God deferred until the general day of judgement that CHRIST might have the honour of their condemnation and his humility triumph over their ambition That which was presently inflicted besides the grief terror and torment of that inward confusion which they shall always bear about them it consisteth first in the diminution of those excellent abilities with which they were by God endowed in the day of their Creation the clearness of their understanding being dulled with such clowds of darkness that though they still exceed in knowledge all the sons of men yet they fall very short of that which before they had the Devils not knowing any thing of Christs incarnation untill it was proclaimed by a voyce from Heaven whereas the good Angels knew him at the very time of his birth and did not only know him but adore him also And as their understanding hath lost its brightness so for their wils they have not only lost that primitive integrity which at first they had but are so obstinated in mischief so setled in their hatred against God and his CHRIST that they neither can nor will repent and are therefore called perverse spirits in the holy Scriptures And for the other part of their punishment which is poena sensus they are under an arrest already reserved in chains like prisoners to the day of judgement and in some part of Hell as their Iayl or Prison though many times by the patience and wisdome of God they are permitted to wander in the ayr and compass the earth that they might tempt the wicked and try the godly express their power upon the creatures and exercise their malice
praeterpluperfect tense of the passive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to be perswaded to be taught to be induced to give assent unto such propositions as are made unto us Thus is the word used by the great Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For I am perswaded that neither life nor death c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Being confident of this very thing Persuasum habens hoc ipsum as Beza very properly doth translate the word That he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Iesus Christ. So that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render faith being hence derived may not unfitly be construed a perswasion or a firm assent persuasionem seu firmam assensionem as the learned Valla hath observed and then the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being brought from thence will signifie in the true and proper notion of it I am perswaded verily of the truth of that which so many godly and religious men have related to me and give as full and firm an assent unto it as if I had been present when the deed was done Thus also for the Latine word Fides the Etymologie thereof is drawn from fio from the doing or performance of those things which are said or promised Fides enim dicitur saith Cicero eo quod fiat quod dictum est And therefore faith or fides call it which you will as it relates unto the promises of God is defined by Zanchius to be firma certa persuasio de promissionibus dei a strong and confident perswasion that God will graciously fulfil those promises which he hath pleased to make unto us And therefore I shall fix upon that definition of the thing it self which I finde amongst the Antient Schoolmen affirming it to be a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed Which definition lest it should fare the worse for the Authors sake is backed and seconded by so many learned men both of the Protestant and Reformed Churches as may well serve to set it free from all further cavils For thus Melanchthon for the Protestant or Lutheran Churches Fides est assensus omni verbo Dei nobis tradito Faith saith he is an assent to the veracity or â—ruth of the whole Word of God delivered to us And so saith Vrsin for the Doctors of the French or Calvinian party defining it almost in the self same words to be Vera persuasio qua assentimur omni verbo Dei nobis traditâ—o With these agree Chemnitius in Evan. Concil Trident. cap. de Iustificatione Pet. Martyr ad Rom. 3. v. 12. Polanus Partit Theolog. lib. 2. pag. 368. besides divers others Which being the true and proper definition of belief or faith according to the natural meaning of the word both in Greek and Latine I may conclude from hence without further trouble that to believe according as the word here stands in the front of the Creed is only to be verily perswaded of the truth of all those points and articles which are delivered in the same and to give a firm assent unto them agreeable unto the measure of our understanding Faith thus defined differeth not only from experience knowledge and opinion all which do come within the compass of Assents in general but from all other things whatsoever which come within the compass of our belief When we assent unto the truth of such things or matters as are discernible by sense we may call it perception or experience as when a man assents to this proposition that ice is cold or that fire is hot because he feels it to be so by his outward senses If our assent be weak unsetled or grounded only upon probabilities we then call it opinion in matters of which nature men are for the most part left at liberty their understandings being neither convinced by the power of a superior truth nor setled and confirmed by demonstrative proofs This though it be an assent is no firm assent and therefore nothing less then Faith If our assent be grounded on demonstrative proofs and built upon the knowledge of natural causes it is then tearmed Science or knowledge properly so called for Scire est per causas scire said the great Philosopher But he that gives assent unto any truth only because of the authority of the man that speaks it neither examining his proofs nor searching into the probabilty or possibility of the thing related that man in true propriety of speech is said to believe and to believe we know is the act of faith Thus it is said of the Samaritans that many of them believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified thus of him viz. He told me all that ever I did but more believed because of his own words when they had heard him speak and observed his doctrine And yet not every truth believed on the speakers credit is the proper object of belief or faith according as we use the word in the Schools of Christ but only supernatural truths such truths as our depraved nature could not reach unto without revelation from above by consequence not the authority of every speaker but only of such holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost is the foundation of this faith which we here define I give belief unto the Histories of Xenophon Thucydides Polybius and Corn. Tacitus because I hold a good opinion of the men that writ them And I believe that Edward the Black Prince wonne the battel of Crecie being then but 18 years of age and that King Henry the fifth subdued the greatest part of France within five or six years because I finde it so related without contradiction both by our English Chroniclers and the French Historians But I rely on no humane authority how great soever it be for a rule of Faith which as it hath truths only supernatural for the object of it so have those truths or the revelation rather of those truths no other Author then the Spirit of God So then faith is a firm assent which makes it differ from opinion which may be called an assent also but weak and wavering It is a firm assent to truths for to believe in lyes is not faith but folly A brand or character set on those by Almighty God who seeing they would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved have been and are given over unto strong delusions and to believe in lyes that they should be damned 'T is an assent to truths revealed not grounded on demonstrative proofs or the disquisition of natural causes or the experiment of sense but only on the authority of him who reveals it to us which differenceth it most clearly both from experience and from knowledge which have surer grounds
Roman Emperours who though they ruled the people by the advice of the Senate yet ruled the Senate as they pleased and made the intimation of their own will and pleasure to pass as currant as Law Quod Principi placuerit Legis habet valorem saith the book of Institutes And such almost is the conclusion of those Royal Edicts which daily is set out by the French Kings which generally ends with these formal words Car tel est nostre plaisir for such is our pleasure But this in these and other Princes of the like authority is rather a character of power then a Rule of justice the Rule of justice being to be straight and even and always constant to it self not alterable on occasions or turned aside by passions and humane affections The will of God is subject to no such vicissitudes to such turns and changes as the wils of men but an unalterable and most constant rule without variation such as the rule of equal and impartial justice is of right to be And by this rule it is that the Lord proceedeth in executing justice over all the World Which justice either doth consist in the performance of his promises for even a just and righteous man is as good as his word and then it may be called veracitas and is a species or kinde of Commutative justice or else in punishing or rewarding the sons of men according to the exigence of their several works and then it hath the name of distributiva or distributive justice That part thereof which doth consist in the performance of his promises and is called Veracitas may be defined to be a constant and unalterable purpose in Almighty God of bringing every thing to pass which he hath either promised to the sons of men or spoke concerning them by his holy Prophets which have been since the World began In the first sense it is said so often of him in the holy Scipture that he remembred the Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob performing to their seed and their children after them whatsoever he was pleased to promise more generally by the Royal Psalmist Custodit veritatem in seculum that he keepeth his promise for ever Psal. 146.6 And in the other sense it was said unto the Virgin Mary by her Cousin Elizabeth that there should be a performance of all those things which had been told her by the Lord Luk. 1.45 by the Apostle that all the Promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 by CHRIST himself that Heaven and earth should pass away but that there was not one Iod or title in the Word of God which in due time should not be accomplished If it consist in punishing the impenitent sinner or chastising his own dear children for their wilful follies we then call it punitive and so it comes within the compass of Gods heavenly anger which as St. Augustine doth define it non aliud est quam voluntas puniendi is nothing but the will of God to punish such as do offend against his Commandements If in rewarding those who conform themselves as far as humane frailty will permit to his laws and precepts it is called Remunerative and hath a great admixture in it both of love and mercy in passing by our faults to reward our faith that saying of St. Bernard being always true Semper invenies Deum benigniorem quam te culpabilem Nay even his anger or his punitive justice is so mixt with goodness that in the midst of judgement he remembreth mercy and dealeth not so extremely with us as we have deserved it being as true which I finde noted by Nicephorus Deum vindictae gladium oleo misericordiae semper acuere that God doth always scour the sword of his vengeance with the oyl of his mercy The World had been reduced by this time to its former nothing had not he sweetned the severity of his judgements by the balm of his mercies and grown into a Wilderness or vast confusion had he not held in by his Iustice the exorbitant power of those who make their lusts and their wils a Law And certainly if we consult the Monuments and Records of former times we shall finde no Age nor State of men or Nations which do not give us evident and plain examples of Gods proccedings in this kinde when the necessities of his Church or the sins of men do require it of him The subtle tyrannie of the Egyptians had not only taught them to oppress Gods people for the present but to extinguish the whole race of them for the time to come and therefore a command was given to the Midwives of Egypt to murder all the Male Children which were born to Israel Did not God scourge them with their own rod and pay them in their own coin as we use to say when he slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt And possibly the piety compassion of the Midwives of Egypt in sparing many of the Male children whom they might have murdered occasioned God to lay the fury of his vengeance on the first-born Male not on any of the Females throughout the Countrey When David surfeiting on plenty and the sweets of power not only had defiled the wife but destroyed the husband how fitly did God square the punishment unto the offence For presently a violent mixture of rape and incest is committed by one of his own sons on his daughter Tamar that rape revenged not long after in the death of the Ravisher the Murderer getting in short time such a potent party as to drive his Father out of Hierusalem and to defile his Wives and Concubines in the fight of the people When David was restored to his Crown again and growing vain in conceit of his own great power must needs command a general muster to be made of all his subjects that all the World might see of what strength he was and stand in fear of his displeasure how justly did God punish him and take down his pride in cutting off so many thousands of his people in whose strength he trusted and bringing him to this confession that all his strength and power was from God alone The loss of so many of his subjects was a loss to David the glory of a King consisting in the multitude of his subjects as the Wise-man tels us And though David interceded for them and took all the fault upon himself saying in the affliction of a troubled soul At oves istae quid fecerunt what had those sheep done yet was there none at all of that seventy thousand who had not many ways offended against Gods Commandements and therefore had deserved death as the wages of sin How patiently did God bear with the house of Iudah in their Idolatries and apostasie from his Laws and Precepts how frequently did he command them to rely on him in all times of danger By consequence how justly did
distinct natures in the Person of CHRIST and yet a communication of Properties or Idioms as they call them of the one nature to the other that CHRIST in one Person should have two distinct wils all who opined the contrary being branded and condemned by the name of Monothelites Not to say any thing in this place of those dark expressions in which the eternal generation of the Son of God and the nature of the Hypostatical Vnion have been delivered by some Writers of whom a man may say with a sober confidence that they hardly understood what they said themselves Assuredly that antient diverb Ingeniosa res est esse Christianum was not made for nought The best way therefore is to contain our selves within those bounds which are prescribed us in the Word of God in which though all things are not written which concern our Saviour yet those things which are written are sufficient doubtless to make us wise unto salvation that so we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his Name And now as far as I can go by the light of Scripture I should proceed unto the incarnation of the Son of God but that we must first behold him as he is our LORD which is the last of those two relations in which he is presented to us in this present Article Of this as it belongeth to God the Father we have already spoken in the first Article under the title of Iehovah the proper and peculiar name of the Lord our God a name so proper and peculiar to the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that it is thought by very learned men not to be understood of the Son of God or of God the Son in the whole Old Testament who is most usually expressed by the name of Adonai Thus in that celebrated place of the Psalms of David whereas we read in English thus the Lord said unto my Lord it is in the Original thus Iehovah said to Adonai or the Lord Jehovah said unto my Lord Adonai Where clearly the name of Iehovah doth denote the Father as that of Adonai the Son though both be generally Englished by the name of Lord. Now the name Adonai is derived as before was noted from the Hebrew word Eden which signifieth the basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly doth express his nature by whom as all things were created in the first beginning as St. Iohn telleth us in his Gospel so doth he still support the Earth and the pillars of it as it is told us in the Psalms But for the name or style of Lord both in Greek and Latine it seemed to be a title of such power and soveraignty that great Augustus though the Master of the Roman Empire did forbear to use it Nay which is more gravissimo corripuit edicto as Suetonius hath it he interdicted the applying of it to himself by a publick Edict The like by Dion is reported of Tiberius also a Prince who cherished flattery more then any vertue and in whose Court no men were more esteemed of then the basest sycophants This by the Statists of those times imputed to policy or Kings-craâ—t ne speciem Principatus in Regni formam converterent for fear they should be thought in that conjuncture of time when their affairs were yet unsetled to affect the title of Kings as they had the power which was most odious to the Romans But in my minde Orosius gives a better reason who thinks that this was rather done by Gods special Providence then on any foresight of those Princes His reason is because that Christ during the reign of those two Emperours had took our flesh upon him and did live amongst us Nor was it fit saith he that any man should take upon himself the name of LORD ex eo tempore quo verus totius geneâ—is humani Dominus inter nos homines natus esset whilest the undoubted Lord of all mankinde was conversant amongst us here upon the Earth And this we may the rather credit to have been done by Gods special providence because Caligula who next succeeded in the Empire our Saviour Christ having then withdrawn his bodily presence was not alone content to admit this Title but did command it to be given him by all the people Et primus Dominum se jussit appellari as it is in Victor But whether this observation of Orosius will hold good or not certain it is that from the time and instant of the Resurrection the style of LORD did properly belong unto CHRIST our Saviour Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesâ—s whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Not made that is to say not declared LORD by his heavenly Father before that time when he had overcome the sharpness of death and trampled on the grave in his Resurrection though called so sometimes before in the way of Anticipation or of civil complement Then only called now made and publickly declared the Lord of all things And certainly it might seem to stand with reason that seeing all power was given to the man Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth for now we look upon him only in that capacity that with the power he also should partake of the highest title by which that power was usually expressed and signified From that time forwards unto this there is not any thing more ordinary in the Book of God or in the Liturgies of the Church or in the common speech of good Christian people then to entitle our Redeemer by the name of the LORD and to entitle him thereby in so clear a manner as to make it more peculiar to him then to God the Father So that in all the antient Liturgies both Greek and Latine when the name of God the Father and of God the Son occur in the same Prayer or Hymne as they often do the name of Lord is constantly appropriated unto God the Son And so we also finde it in our English Liturgie According to thy promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesu our Lord as in the general Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST in the Absolution through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost as in some of the Collects And this the Church did learn no doubt from the like expression of St. Paul who thus gives the blessing The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and not of the Lord God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost and not of the Lord holy Ghost be with you all Amen And thus it also stands in the present Creed in which the title of Lord is appropriated only to the Son and neither added to the Father nor the holy Ghost Nor is he called LORD only in general tearms
reconciled to man as Peace had desired And so that was fulfilled which the Psalmist speaks of Mercy and truth are met together righteousness or justice and peace have kissed each other Arminius followeth this conceit a little further and addes that when the different parties had pursued their interesses Wisdome was called on to advise what was best to be done to give satisfaction to them all whose advise was that the punishment due to the sin of man should be changed into an Expiatory sacrifice by the voluntary oblation of the which justice might be appeased and place made for mercy But then began a new debate where they should finde a Priest fit for such a sacrifice Angel it could not be because it was not reasonable that an Angel should suffer for the sin of Man And Man it could not be because being terrifyed with the guilt of his own transgressions he had not confidence enough to draw near to God nor had he any thing of his own which was held worthy to be offered to so high a Deity Wisdome was therefore called again by whom it was finally resolved that there must be some man begotten who being made in all things like unto his Brethren might be the more sensible of their infirmities but so that he should be free from sin and not obnoxious to the power and criminations of Satan Holy he was to be or rather holiness and therefore to be conceived only by the holy Ghost by whose great power the ordinary course of nature was to be supplyed and in this flesh the Word it self to be incarnate who offering up that flesh in sacrifice for the sins of the world might so performe the work of poor mans redemption But leaving these conceits though indeed very ingenious there is no question to be made but God had other means to save us then by the incarnating the word and humbling his only begotten Son unto the death even the death of the Crosse if he had so pleased But a better and more convenient way to demonstrate his love and mercy towards us to manifest his Power and wisdome and yet withall to shew his justice against sin and Satan the Scriptures have not laid before us The Fathers have resolved it thus Et â—ine hoc holocausto poterat Deus tantum condonasse peccatum sed facilitas veniae peccatis laxaret habenas effraenatis quae etiam Christi vix cohibent passiones God saith St. Cyprian was able to have pardoned this great sin without this sacrifice but the sacrifice of the pardon would have loosned the reines to unbridled sins which even the sufferings of Christ are scarce able to represse The like saith Nazianzen It was possible for God saith he to save man by his only will without taking of our flesh upon him as he did and doth work all things without help of a body Damascene to the same effect He was not otherwise unable that can do all things by his Almighty power and strength to take man from the tyrant that possessed him The like occurreth in St. Ambrose St. Augustine and Pope Gregory also In the darke ages of the Chrurch the same truth was held For thus St. Bernard in those times Was not the Creator able to restore his work without this difficulty Able he was but he chose rather to wrong himself then the most lewd and hateful vice of unthankfulnesse should finde any colourable place in man And it holds also since the times of the reformation Calvin affirmes it in plain terms Poterat nos Dominus verbo aut nutu redimere nisi aliter nostra causa visual esset the Lord saith he might have redeemed us with a word or beck but that for our sakes he thought good to do otherwise Zanchius comes very close to Calvin What saith he could not mankind be delivered by any other means then the death of Christ No doubt but that he might have done it solo nutu et jussu et voluntate divina by the only beck commandement and will of God Conforme to which expression of the antient and modern writers the Church of England hath declared in the book of Homilies that it was the surest pledge of Gods love to man to give us his own Son from Heaven For otherwise he might have given us if he would an Angel or some other Creature and yet in that his love had been far above our deserts They who conceive that God was not able otherwise to effect this work or had no other meanes to bring it to passe then that which he made choise of to effect the same do wilfully intrench upon his Omnipotence which is larger then either his will or his works For though his works be alwayes measured by his will yet must his Power be limited unto neither of them because God is able to do many things which he never did nor will do as hath been shewn before in the first Article And in his works to bind him unto any necessity to do as he did and not to leave him at his own liberty to do what he pleaseth and in a way which seemeth most agreeable to his heavenly wisdome were to revive the accursed errour of the Manichees Against whom St. Augustine thus resolveth it Nullam ergo necessitatem patitur Deus neque necessitate facit quae facit sed summa et ineffabili voluntate ao potestate God saith the Father is not bound by any necessity nor is he necessitated to do those things which he doth but doth them by his supreme and unspeakable power As then there was not any necessity on the part of God the Father Almighty to send his only begotten Son into the world to take our humane nature on him and suffer an accursed death for the sins of the world so neither was there any necessity on the part of the word by which he was enjoyned or compelled to take upon him the office of a Mediator and be incarnate in our flesh That it was agreeable to the work in hand that the word should be made flesh and in that flesh accomplish the whole mystery of our redemption there are many reasons to perswade For who was fitter to be cast out into the Sea to stay the tempest of Gods anger against sinful man then the Ionas for whose sake it rose Almighty God was first displeased for the wrong offered to the word in that man desired to be like unto God and to know all things in such sort as is proper to the only begotten Son of the Father The sin was caro verbum then vile flesh aspired to be made like unto the word therefore the remedy now must be verbum caro the word so farforth humbling it self as to be made flesh Verbum caro factum Who fitter to become the son of man then he that was by nature the Son of God Patrem habuit in coelis Matrem quaesivit in
terris as St. Bernard hath it Who could be fitter to make us the Sons of God by adoption and grace then the word by which we were to be begotten unto life eternal or to repair the image of God decayed in us then he that was the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the expresse image of his Person Finally who more fit to settle the minds of men in a certain and undoubted perswasion of the truth of such things as are necessary to be believed and thereby bring us into the way of life everlasting then he that was the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us of himself in St. Iohns Gospell Vt homo fidentius ambularet ad veritatem ipsa veritas Dei filius homine assumpto constituit et fundavit fidem as St. Augustine hath it That man saith he might with more confidence travell in the wayes of truth the truth it self even the Son of God taking the nature of man upon him did plant and found that faith which we are to beleive By which it is apparent that it was most agreeable both to our condition and the nature of the word it self that he should take upon himself the office of a Mediator between God and Man but so that he was bound thereto by no necessity but only out of his meer love and goodness to that wretched Creature The Scriptures and the Fathers are expresse in this Walke in love saith the Apostle as Christ hath also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet smelling savour And anon after Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it And in pursuance of this love he took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. So that first out of his love and goodness towards us he offered himself to serve and suffer in our places and after out of the same love submitted himself unto the punishment which our sins deserved God not imposing this upon him by necessity of any inevitable decree but mercifully accepting his compassionate offer which did so powerfully conduce unto mans salvation and the most inexpressible honour of his only Son The sufferings of CHRIST in regard of man do take their value from his Person the excellency of which did prevail so far as to make the passion of one available for the sins of all But the merit of those sufferings in regard of himself is to be valued by that cheerful freedom with which he pleased to undergo them and had not been so acceptable nor effectual neither if they had not been voluntary For Fathers which affirm the same we need take no thought having both Reason and the Scriptures so expresly for it though this be universally the Doctrine of all Catholick wrirers some of whose words I shall recite and for the rest refer the Reader to their Books For the Greek Church thus saith Athanasius CHRIST seeing the goodness of his Father and his own sufficiency and power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was moved with compassion towards man and pitying our infirmities cloathed himself with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and willingly took up his cross and went uncompelled unto his death And thus St. Augustine for the Latâ—ne The Word saith he was made flesh by his own power and was born suffered died and rose again nulla necessitate sed voluntate potestate by no necessity laid upon him but meerly of his own good will and that authority which he had to dispose of himself See to this purpose the same Augustine in Psal. 8. de Trinit l. 4. c. 10. Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. 55. in Ioh. Hom. 82. Amb. in Psal. 118. Serm. 6. De Fide l. 2. c. 1. Hieron in Isai. cap. 3. in Psal. 68. Not to descend to those of the later Ages The passages being thus laid open we now proceed to the great work of the incarnation wherein the holy Ghost was to have his part that so none of the Heavenly powers might be wanting to the restauration of collapsed man That our Redeemers Incarnation in the Virgins womb was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost is positively affirmed in St. Matthews Gospel first in the way of an historical Narration Before they came together as man and wise she was found with childe of the holy Ghost ch l. 1. 18. and afterwards by way of declaration from an Angel of Heaven saying Ioseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the holy Ghost vers 20. Nor wanted there especial reason if at least any reasons may be given in matters of so high a nature why this miraculous Conception was committed rather to the holy Ghost then either acted by the sole power of God the Father or by the sole vertue of the Word who was aboundantly able to have wrought his own Incarnation For as the Word was pleased to offer himself to take humane flesh the better to accomplish the great work of the Worlds redemption and as God the Father knowing how unable poor man must be to work out his own salvation otherwise then by such a Saviour was graciously pleased to accept the offer so it seemed requisite that God the holy Ghost should prepare that flesh in which the Word of God was to be incarnate Besides the power of quickning and conferring fruitfulness is generally ascribed to the Spirit in the Book of God who therefore in the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitane Creed is called the Lord and giver of life For thus saith David for the Old Testament Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thus the son of David for the New Testament Spiritus est qui vivificat i. e. It is the Spirit that quickneth The holy Ghost then was the proper Agent in the Incarnation So St. Matthew tels us But for the manner and the means by which so wonderful a conception was brought to pass that we finde only in St. Luke The blessed Virgin as it seemed made a question of it how she should possibly conceive and bring forth a son considering that as yet she had not had the company of her husband Ioseph Quandoquidem virum non cognosco that is to say since as yet I do not know my husband for so I rather choose to read it then to translate it as it stands in our English Bibles seeing I know not a man For that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and Vir in Latine do sometimes signifie an Husband every Schoolboy knows and so the words are rendred in our English Bibles Ioh. 4.16 17 18. and in other places And
But such was his unspeakable love to the sons of men that he disdained not to submit himself for their sakes to those low conditions as to be made man and to have a Mother a Mother which beyond example did bring forth her God and became the Parent of her Saviour Et mater sine exemplo genuit autorem suum as Lactantius hath it Born then our Saviour was of a mortall womb But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the present Article tels us more then so and telleth us that he was not only born of the Virgin Mary but so born of her as to be made of her also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word was made flesh Ioh. 1.14 God sent his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made of a woman saith St. Paul Gal. 4.4 where the same word is used as here Made then he was as well as born of the Virgin Mary And made not convertendo not by converting the Word into flesh as Cerinthus nor converting flesh into the WORD as Velentinus was of opinion for the deity cannot be changed into any thing nor any thing into it Nor was it made conciliando as friends are made one or reconciled so as they continue two persons still and while the flesh suffered the WORD stood still and looked on only as Nestorius taught for that were not to be made flesh but made with the flesh not caro sed cum carne saith my reverend Author Nor finally was he made componendo by compounding two persons together and so a third thing produced of both as Eutyches for so he should be neither of both neither the word nor flesh neither God nor man But made he was as St. Paul tels us assumendo by taking the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 His generation before time as verbum Deus is as the enditing the word within the heart His generation in time as verbum caro is as the uttering it forth with the voice The inward motion of the minde taketh unto it a naturall body of Aire and so becometh vocal It is not changed into it the word remaineth still as it was yet they two became one voice Take a similitude from our selves Our soul is not turned into nor compounded with the body yet they two though distinct in natures grow into one man So Athanasius in his Creed For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ. So into the Godhead was the manhood taken the natures preserved without confusion the person entire without division The fourth General Councell so determineth also Sic factum est caro ut maneret verbum non immutando quod erat sed suscipiendo quod not erat Nostra auxit sua non minuit nec Sacramentum pietatis detrimentum est Deitatis i. e. He was so made flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing what he was but taking that he was not We were the better he was never the worse The mysterie of Godlinesse was was no detriment to the Godhead nor the honour of the creature wrong to the Creator No wrong indeed it was no detriment to the divine nature of the Word to be made flesh and take upon him the infirmities of our humane nature but much to the advancement of our humane nature which he took upon him as many Kings and soveraign Princes have been made free of some particular Corporations under their commands without diminution or impeachment of their Royal Power and highly to the honour of those Companies or Corporations Mortalis factus est non infirmata verbi divinitate sed carnis suscepta infirmitate as divinely Angustine in his De Civit. dei l. 9. c. 15. And herein miserable man hath a great advantage of the Angels though made lower then they in his creation in that the WORD God for ever blessed vouchsafed to be made in such manner of our rank and order as he is not of theirs From the manner passe we to the time when this work was wrought which St. Paul cals plenitudinem temporis or the fulnesse of time that is to say when the time was come and fully accomplished which God in his eternall wisdome had fore-determined which he had also signifyed to the house of Israel by the mouth of his Prophets In reference to the civil Account it was at the time when Herod a stranger to the bloud-royal of David was King of Iewry and Augustus Caesar the sole Monarch of the Roman Empire The first having translated the Scepter from Judah and the Law-giver from between his feet made an apparent way for the coming of Shiloh to whom the gathering of the people was now to be The latter having the third time closed the Temple of Ianus and setled an universal peace over all the Empire made it the most agreeable time for the birth of him who being called the Prince of peace by the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed peace unto all the earth at the hour of his birth and left it to his Disciples as his last Legacie at the time of his death And it was also in the time of a general taxing as our English or rather of a general enrolment cum universus orbis describeretur saith the vulgar very answerably to the Greek Originals as the Rhemists read it A time when every subject of the Roman Empire was to repaire to the head City of his family there to list his name and to professe ut profiterentur saith the Vulgar or make acknowledgment of his fealty and true allegeance to the Prince in being A thing not done at random or by humane providence that by this means the Emperour might come to know quot civium sociorumque in Armis the strength and number of his Subjects as the Statists tell us but by the speciall dispensation and appointment of Almighty God Though Christ had been conceived in Nazareth a City of Galilee yet was he to be born in Bethlehem the City of David And thither was Ioseph to repair to be taxed or enrolled rather with Mary his wife that she being there delivered of her blessed burden the word of God fore-signifyed by the Prophet Micah might be fulfilled viz. that out of Bethlehem-Judah there should come a Governour which should rule over the house of Israel The shutting of the Temple of Ianus and this general taxing or enrolment under the President-ship of Cyrenius point us directly to the 35. year of Augustus his Empire in which CHRIST was born And if it were esteemed as it seems to be so great an honour unto Cicero that this Augustus was born when he was Consul Consulatui Ciceronis non mediocre adjecit decus natus eo anno D. Augustus saith the Court Historian how great an honour may we count it unto this Augustus that CHRIST the Son of God the very brightnesse of his Father was born when he was Emperour And as the year so is the
how to comfort them with the joyfull news of his recovery Sorrow and grief and anguish and disconsolation our Saviour did begin to feel there 's no doubt of that though not in such a high degree as to make him fall into those extremities of passion as neither to know what he did nor for what he prayed He that could come to his Disciples in the middest of his anguish and reprove them for their sloth and sleepiness had neither lost the use of his speech nor senses And if his prayers were full of faith as no doubt they were for the Scriptures say that he was heard in that he prayed for which could not be without a perfect measure of faith assuredly however he was heavily oppressed under the burden of afflictions he knew full well both what he prayed for and to whom But this was only the beginning of his sorrowes as before was said It followeth in the text both in Matthew and Marke My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto the death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my soul is compassed round with sorrowes such as doe seem to threaten me with no lesse then death and yet no way to scape them as in both Evangelists And certainly it stood with reason that it should be so For as an eminent Prelate of our own doth observe right well The whole work and weight of our Redemption was now before Christs eyes and apprehension in a more exact and lively manner he now appearing before the judgment seat of God then we in this body can discern For as all things needfull shall be present and patent to us when we are brought to Gods tribunall so Christ presenting himself before the judgement of God to the end that man might be redeemed by the ransome which he was to pay for him and Satan ejected from prevailing against his members by his mediation did fully and perfectly behold the detestation which God had conceived against our sins and the power of his wrath provoked by our defection and rebellion as also the dreadfull vengeance prepared and ordained for sin and our dull and carelesse contempt of our own misery together with the watchfulnesse and eagernesse of the common adversary the brunt and burden of all which he was to bear and to avert them from us by by that satis â—action which the justice of God should then require at his hands as a just price and full recompence for the sins of men The due consideration and intuition whereof being in Christ more clear then we can conceive might worthily make the manhood of Christ both to fear and tremble and in his prayers to God to stir and inflame all the powers and parts both of soul and body as far as mans nature and spirit were able with all submission and deprecation possible to powre forth themselves before his God Here was full cause undoubtedly to make him sorrowful and sorrowful unto the death How could it otherwise be conceived when the just and full reward of our iniquities was thus presented to his sight when he beheld the greatnesse and the justnesse of Gods wrath against it and therewithall considered within himself how dear the price must be and how sharpe the pain which should free us of it And on the other side considered how precious his own person was how infinite his obedience how pure his life and yet how that most precious life must be taken from him that by one death and that death only of the body he might deliver us from the death both of body and soul. So then his soul was â—ull of sorrow there was good cause for it but not oppressed with any pains much lesse tormented and inflanted with the pains of hell as some would fain gather from the text for neither tristitia in Latine nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek either amongst divine or humane writers signifie any such impression of pain and torment but an affection only which afflicts the minde rising upon the apprehension of some evill either past or instant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek amongst the choycest humanitians is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Cicero translates opinio recens mali praesentis a fresh opinion of present or impendent evill And Austin telleth us for the Latines that grief and anguish when it is in the soul is called tristitia that is sorrow but when 't is in the body then 't is molestia pain or trouble Thus is the word taken also in the holy Scripture where St. Paul saith I would not come again unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sorrow or heaviness for fear he should have sorrow of them of whom he did expect to be received with joy and where it is affirmed of the rest of the servants when they perceived how cruelly their fellow-servant which was pardoned so great a sum dealt with one of his debters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were very sorry And certainly they might be very sorry on so sad an accident out of a fellow-feeling of their Brothers miserie we have no reason to conceive them to be full of pain Hitherto we have met with such griefs and sorrows in our Saviour as never man endured before but yet they prove not to be such as either did confound all the powers of his soul or astonish all the senses of his body or brought him into such amazement that he considered neither what he said or did Some have endevoured to infer this as before was noted out of the texts and words foregoing but with ill successe and therefore they are fallen at last on an other Scripture which they think makes for them How is my soul troubled saith our Saviour and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this houre Here they observe a contrariety or contradiction in our Saviours words which could not possibly proceed but from a soul distracted and a minde confounded and what could work so strange and sensible a confusion in him but the pains of hell which were within him But whatsoever they observe the most eminent men for parts and learning in the times before them could see no such matter Erasmus in his Paraphrases gives this glosse upon them which Bullinger a learned Protestant writer doth extol most highly and calleth an excellent explication I finde my soul troubled for the day of my death approaching and what shall I say For the love of mine own life shall I neglect the life of the world By no means I will apply my self to the will of my Father Mans weaknesse troubled with the fear of death may say unto him Father if it be possible save me from this hour from this danger of death which is now so near me But love desirous of mans salvation shall presently add Nay rather if it be expedient let death which is desired come for as much as wittingly and willingly by the
resurrection of our Lord and Saviour there came a signall benefit unto all the world which else had been fast bound for ever in the bonds of death without any hope of rising to a better life For being risen in our nature then our nature is riâ—en and if our nature be then our persons may be especially considering that he and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul hath told us so graffed into one another that he is part of us and we part of him And therefore very well said Bernard Resurrexit solus sed non totus Though he be only risen by his own proper power yet as yet he is not risen wholly nor will be untill we be raised together with him He is but risen in part by this resurrection and that he may rise all of him he must raise t is also In this respect our Saviour is entituled Primogenitus omnis Creaturae the first born or first begotten of every creature viz. first in the order of time he being the first that was ever raised from death unto life immortall and first also in the order of causality all others which have been or shall be raised or begotten to immortall life being so raised and begotten by vertue of his resurrection And in the same respect he is called Primitiae dormientium or the first fruits of them that sleep because his rising is not only the pledge and earnest of our rising also but that we shall be raised to the same state of happinesse and eternall glory which he hath attained since his rising The offering of the first fruits drew a blessing upon all the rest For if the first fruits be holy the lumpe saith the Apostle is also holy If then the first fruits of the dead be offered to Almighty God in Christ our Saviour no question but the after-fruits or the whole increase will be very acceptable and laid up in the barn of that heavenly husbandman according to the scope of our Saviours Parable And yet perhaps St. Paul might have a further aime in calling our Saviour the first-fruits of them that sleep then hath yet been spoke of it hapning so by the sweet disposition of Gods special providence that the day of his glorious resurrection did fall that year upon the second day of the feast of unleavened bread or the morrow after the Sabbath of that great solemnity upon which day the first-fruits were to be offered unto God by his own appointment Of which see Levit. 23.10 11. Here then we have the principall effect and fruit of Christs resurrection the resurrection of our own bodies from the power of death the resurrection both of soul and body to eternall life And yet there are some other intermediate benefits which redound to us some other motives and inducements which relate to him For his part first had he not risen from the dead he had still lain under the guilt of that imposture wherewith the Priests and Elders charged him when he was interred And who would then have preached his Gospel or embraced his doctrine or yeelded belief to any thing he had said before For if Christ be not risen from the dead again as St. Paul reasoneth very strongly then were our faith in vain and their preaching vain Had he not risen from the dead and manifested it by such signes and wonders he never had attained to the reputation of being generally accounted and believed in for the Son of God or such a God at best who doth die like men and fall like others of the Princes some earthly Magistrate at the most and no great one neither Nor was it necessary to his glory only but to our justification For how could we assure our selves of salvation by him or of redemption in his bloud had he been swallowed up in death and not appeared alive again for our consolation Manens in morte peccata non expiasset mortem non vicisset as the Father hath it and then how could we hope to be saved by him qui se ipsum servare non potuit who was not of ability to save himself How could we Christians of all men most miserable be possibly assured of this saving truth that Christ was delivered for our sins if he had not risen again for our justification that is to say if by his rising from the dead he had not setled and confirmed us in that assurance The reason is because the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour was as it were his actual absolution from those sins of ours for the which he dyed and his deliverance from that death which as the wages of sin we had all deserved Calvin hath very Orthodoxly resolved it so Resuscitatio Christi a mortuis ejus est actualis absolutio a peccatis nostris pro quibus mortuus est as he there determineth And he determineth it according unto that of the great Apostle saying if Christ be not risen your faith is vain yee are yet in your sins that is to say still under the command and the guilt of sin from which you have no other assurance to be absolved and quitted in the day of judgment then only by the vertue of his resurrection How wretched then is the condition of the Iews and those other Hereticks who either utterly denie the resurrection as did Simon Magus and the Maniches or post it off as not yet past till some further time which was one of the heresies of Cerinthus or make it but an allegory no true reall action as do the Family of love Assuredly the least we can affirme of them and the like vile miscreans is that they have no inheritance in the house of Iesse nor any portion at all in the son of David that they who wilfully deny his resurrection shall never finde other resurrection but to shame and torment But on the contrary the Orthodox Professors in the Chrrstian Church not only have believed this Article and stood up in defence thereof to the last drop of their bloud as often as the Princes of the earth have conspired together against the Lord and his anointed but for the better imprinting of it in the souls of simple and unlearned people and for perpetuall commemoration of so great a mercy did institute the feast of Easter A festival of all others the most antient in the Christian Church ordained and celebrated in the purest ages of the same while some of the Apostles were yet living A feast received with so unanimous affection throughout the world that though some difference happened about the time when it should be celebrated yet there was never any question made of the feast it self All of them kept an Easter though not all at a time some of the Eastern Churches in compliance with the Iews amongst whom they lived keeping it on the 14. day of the Moon as the Iews did the Passeover â—ll other
power of God as our Saviour calleth it Luke 22.69 And as the right hand is applyed to God as the hand of power by which he ruleth all things both in heaven and earth so is it sometimes also ascribed unto him and not to him alone but to Christ nor Saviour as the hand of love by which he cherisheth and protecteth his faithful servants For what else is the reason why the sheep in the day of Judgement shall be placed at the right hand of the King of Heaven but to shew that they are his beloved ones his Benjamins the children of his right hand as that name doth signifie And for what reason is it said that he doth imbrace the Church his Spouse with his right hand but to shew that ardour and sincerity of affection wherewith he doth cherish and protect her Cant. 2.6 8.3 Be it the power of God or his fidelity and love it 's the right hand stâ—ll There is another word to be looked on yet before we shall finde out the full meaning of this branch of the Article which is the word Sâ—det which we render sitting In which we must not understand as I think some Protestant Writers do any constant posture of the Body of Christ at the right hand of God For he who in the Creed and in divers places of the Old and New Testament is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is by St. Stephen who saw him with a glorified eye affirmed to stand Behold saith he I see heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand Sitting and standing then for both words are used denote not to us any certain posture of our Saviours body but serve to signifie that rest and quiet which he hath found in Heaven after all his labours For what was our most blessed Saviour in the whole course and passages of his life and death but a man of troubles transported from one Countrey to another in his very infancy and from one City to another when he preached the Gospel compelled to convey himself away from the sight of men to save his life exposed to scoffs and scorns at the hour of his death Noahs Dove and he were both alike No rest for either to be found on the face of the earth no ease till they were taken into the Ark again out of which they were sent And this St. Paul doth intimate where he tels us of him that for the joy which was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And unto this construction of the word Sedere St. Ambrose very well agrees saying Secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui aliquo opere perfecto victor adveniens honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat It is saith he our usual custome to offer a chair or seat to him who having perfected the work which he had in hand doth deserve to sit And on this ground the man CHRIST IESVS having by his death and passion overcome the Devil and by his Resurrection broken open the gates of Hell having accomplished his work and returning unto Heaven a Conquerour was placed by God the Father at his own right hand Thus far and to this purpose he The like may be affirmed of standing or of standing still which doubtless is a great refreshment to a wearied Traveller a breathing bait as commonly we use to call it and many times is used in Scripture for a posture of ease as Quid statis toto die otiosi Why stand you here all the day idle But to proceed a little further in this disquisition there may be more found in the words then so For standing is the posture of a General or man of action ready to fall on upon the Enemy Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori said the Roman Emperour And it is also the posture which the Iews used in prayer as appears Matth. 6.5 Luk. 18.10.13 From whence they took that usual saying Sine stationibus non subsisteret mundus that were it not for such standings the world would not stand And sitting is we know the posture of a Judge or Magistrate in the act of Iudicature of Princes keeping state in the Throne Imperial And this appears as plainly by our Saviours words to his Apostles saying that they which followed him in the Regeneration should when the Son of man did sit in the Throne of his glory sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And so the word is also used in Heathen Authors as Consedere duces consâ—ssique ora tenebant in the Poet Ovid when the great cause was to be tryed for Achilles armour When therefore St. Stephen beheld our Saviour Christ and saw him standing at the right hand of God the Father he found him either ready as a Chief or General to lead on against the enemies of his persecuted and afflicted Church or as an Advocate Habemus enim Advocatum for we have an Advocate with the Father IESVS CHRIST the righteous pleading before Gods Throne in behalf thereof or offering up his prayers for the sins of his people And when St. Paul and other texts of holy Scripture do describe him sitting they look upon him in the nature of a Iudge or Magistrate the Supreme Governour of the Church and then sedere is as much as regnare as St. Hierome hath it to reign or rule And to this last St. Paul doth seem to give some countenance if we compare his words with those of the Royal Pâ—almist Sit thou at my right hand saith the Psalmist till I have made thy enemies thy footstool Psal. 110.1 Oportet eum regnare saith the Apostle For he must reign or it behoveth him to reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.25 Of this minde also was Sedulius an old Christian Poet Aethereas evectus abit sublimis in auras Et dextram subit ipse Patris mundumque gubernat Ascending into Heaven at Gods right hand He sits and all the World doth there command This said we will descend to those Expositions which have been made by several men on this branch of the Article and after pitch on that which we think most likely Some think this sitting at the right hand of God to signifie the fame with that which was said before of his ascending into Heaven which opinion Vrsin doth both recite and reject And he rejects it as I conceive upon very good reason it being very absurd as lie truly noteth in tam brevi Symbolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 committi that a tautologie should be used in so short a summary It had been very absurd indeed and yet more absurd if they should intimate the same thing in a figurative and metaphorical form of speech which they had formerly expressed in so plain a way as was familiar
and then subjoyns Glorifie God therefore in your body And doth not the same Father infer from thence the Deitie or Godhead of the Holy Ghost Ne quisquam Spiritum Sanctum negaret Deum continuo sequutus ait Glorificate portate Deum in corpore vestro Lest any man saith he should possibly deny the Holy Ghost to be God he addes immediately Glorifie and bear God in your bodies To seek for Testimonies from more of the Fathers to confirm this point were to run into an endless Ocean of Allegations there being few who lived after the rising of the Arian and Macedonian Heresies who have not written whole Tracts in defence hereof and none at all who give not very pregnant evidence to the cause in hand But where the Scripture is so clear what need they come in And so exceeding clear is Scripture as is shewn already that I marvel with what confidence it could be said by Doctor Harding in his Reply to Bishop Iewel That though the Doctrine of the Church of England were true and Catholick in this point yet we had neither express Scripture for it nor any of the four first General Councils and thereon tacitely inferreth That the Deity of the Holy Ghost depended for the proof thereof not on holy Scripture but on the Tradition of the Church and the Authority of some subsequent Councils of the Popes confirming To which that learned Prelate wittily replieth That if God cannot be God unless he be allowed of by the Pope and Church of Râ—me then we are come again to that which Tertullian wrote merrily of the Heathens saying Nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit i.e. Unless God humor man he shall not be God Some further Arguments may be used to confirm this Truth and they no less concludent than those before As namely from the Form of Baptism ordained by Christ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost From the Form of Benediction used by St. Paul The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost From the Doxologie or Form of giving glory used in the Church and used as St. Basil confidently averreth from the first beginning Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And finally from the place it holds in the present Creed composed by the joynt concurrence of the Blessed Apostles But that which I shall specially insist upon is that passage in three of the Evangelists touching the sinâ—t â—t blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God which is there said to be of that heinous nature that it shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.32 That is to say It shall never have forgiveness as S. Mark expounds it Mark 3.29 St. Ambrose gathereth from this Text a concluding Argument against the Macedonian and Eunomian Hereticks who held the Holy Ghost to be onely a created power Quomodo inter Creaturas aâ—det quisquam Spiritum Sanctum computare c. How dareth any man saith he compute the Holy Ghost amongst the rest of the Creatures considering that it is affirmed by the Lord himself That whosoever speaketh against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And to this inference of his we may well subscribe though the sin or blasphemy spoken of by our Lord and Saviour was not against the Person of the Holy Ghost but against his Power For that no sin or heresie against his person was so irremissible as to exclude the offending party from all hope of pardon is evident by the constant practise of the Primitive Church which as St. Chrysostom observeth used daily to receive again to the Word and Sacraments the Eunomian Hereticks on the recanting of their Error That therefore being not the siâ— which is here intended it would be worth the while and very pertinent to our present business to enquire into it though as St. Augustine notes right well In omnibus Scripturis sanctis nulla major quaestio nulla difficilior That there is not a greater nor more difficult question in all the Scripture And well might he say so of all men who in delivering his own judgement upon the point doth so much vary from himself that it is impossible to finde what he doth resolve on For sometimes he makes it to be final impenitency as Lib. de fide ad Pet. c. 3. Sometimes to be despair of Gods mercy as in his Comment on the Romans Sometimes to be a denying of the Churches power to forgive sins as in his Eucheirid c. 83. Sometimes to be sins of malice as De Ser. Domini in monte l. 1. And sometimes neerer to the truth to be an ascribing of the works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil as in his Tract De Quâ—st ex utroque Testam quaest 102. Nor do the Writers of the former or later times agree better in this point with one another than that Learned Father with himself Some holding it to be a renouncing of the Faith of Christ as the Novatians others the denying of the Divinity of Christ as Hilary Philastrius extending it unto every Heresie and Origen whom some of the Novatians also followed to every sin committed after Baptism For later Writers the Schoolmen generally make it to be sins of malice affirming sins of infirmity to be committed against the Father whose proper attribute is Power and sins of ignorance against the Son whose proper attribute is Wisdom and therefore sins against the Holy Ghost must be sins of malice because his attribute is Love And on the other side the Protestants as generally do make it to be final Apostasie or a wilful and malicious resisting of the Truth to the very last And so it is defined by Calvin who makes them to be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost Qui divinae veritati cujus fulgore sic per stringuntur ut ignorantiam causari nequeant tamen destinata malicia resistâ—nt in hoc tantum ut resistant that is to say Who out of determined malice resist the known Truth of God with the Beams whereof they are so dazled that they cannot pretend ignorance to the end onely to resist But God forbid that most if at all any of the sins before enumerated should come within the compass of that grievous sentence which is denounced against blaspheming of the Holy Ghost For if either every sin committed after Baptism or every sin of malice or despair of mercy or falling into heresie especially in that large sense as Philastrius takes it should be uncapable of pardon it were almost impossible for any man to be sayed And for the rest final Impenitency is not so properly a particular and distinct species
Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the
Spirit beateth let us next take it by the hand or rather by his handy works For some there be who do confess Christ with their mouths but yet deny him in their works The Spirit of God is very active and wheresoever it is it will soon be working if it do not work it is no Spirit For usque adeo proprium est spiritui operari ut nisi operetur non sit as the Father hath it So natural it is for the Spirit to bring forth good works that if it do not so then it is no Spirit These Works St. Paul calls plainly The fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace gentleness goodness and the rest that follow Which as they are planted in the Soul may be called the Graces but as they are manifested in our actions the Fruits of the Spirit to shew us that it is a dead spirit which brings forth no fruits even as it is a dead faith in St. Iames his judgement which brings forth no works In a word as it was in the generation of our Saviour Christ so it is also in the regeneration of a Christian man both wrought by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost But these being chiefly matters practical are beyond my purpose Proceed we then to such as are more Doctrinal which is the proper subject of my undertaking from this acception of the word in which the Holy Ghost is taken for those gifts and graces which out of his great bounty he bestoweth upon us to that wherein it signifieth The Power and Calling which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people That in this sense the word is taken we have shewn before and are now come to shew how it is performed by what authority and what gifts discharged and executed The office of teaching in the Church doth properly belong to Christ the Prophet of the New Testament of whom Moses prophecied Deut. 13.15 As both St. Peter and St. Stephen do affirm expresly A Prophet whom all the people were to hear in every thing which he was pleased to say unto them and that commanded under such a terrible commination that every Soul which would not hear the voice of that Prophet was to be destroyed from amongst the people Yet though it were an office proper to our Lord and Saviour so proper that he seemed to affect it more than either the Priesthood or the Kingdom He entred not upon the same until he had received some visible designation from the Holy Ghost That he took not on him to discharge his Prophetical Function till after he was baptized by Iohn in Iordan is evident by course and order of the Evangelical story Not that his Baptism could confer any power upon him or give him an authority which before he had not for without doubt the lesser is blessed of the greater as St. Paul affirmeth and Iohn confessed himself so much less than Christ as that he was not worthy to untie his shooe but that as man he did receive this power from the Holy Ghost descending on him at that time in a bodily shape and withal giving him that Sacred Vnction whereby he was inaugurated to so high an office And to this Unction of the Spirit doth he himself refer the power he had to Preach the Gospel and to discharge all other parts of that weighty Function and that too in the very first Sermon which he ever preached to give the people notice that he preached not without lawful calling or exercised a power which belonged not to him For entering into the Synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath day he took the Book and fell upon that place of the Prophet Isaiah where it is said The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering sight unto the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable yeer of the Lord Which having read he closed the Book and said unto them This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears That he did preach by vertue of some unction from the holy Spirit is evident by his own Application of the Text by which he gave his Auditors to understand That he did not undertake the office of his own head onely but by the motion and impulsion of the Holy Ghost by whom he was abundantly furnished with all requisite gifts which might prepare him thereunto Non meo proprio privatoque sed divino spiritu missus sum eo actus eo impulsus eo plenus ad praedicandum Evangelium venio as the learned Iesuite glosseth on it But if you ask where or at what time he received this unction we must send you for an Answer to St. Ieroms Commentary on those words of the Prophet where we shall finde Expletum esse hanc unctionem illo tempore quando baptizatus est in Jordane Spiritus sanctus in specie Columbae descendit super eum maenfit in illo That is to say This unction or anointing was performed or fulfilled at that time when he was baptized by Iohn in Iordan and the Holy Ghost descended on him in the shape of a Dove and remained with him Nor doth St. Ierom stand alone in this Exposition Irenaeus Athanasius â—uffinus Augustine and Prosper all of them Antient Writers and of great renown concurring with him in the same And to this unction or anointing at the time of his Baptism St. Peter questionless alludeth where preaching to Cornelius and his Family he lets them know how God anointed IESUS of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who from that time forwards not before went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil In which place by the anointing with the Holy Ghost I understand the furnishing of the Man CHRIST JESUS Iuxta dispensationem carnis assumptae as St. Ierom hath it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which were requisite and fit to qualifie him for the undertaking By power the Calling and Authority which that Unction gave him to preach the Gospel and do the rest of those good works which properly did pertain to his Ministration But that both gifts and power were conferred upon him by the descension of the Spirit at the time of his Baptism to which St. Peter doth allude I have Maldonate concurring in opinion with me saying Loquitur Petrus de Baptismo Johannis quem Christus susceperat postquam à Spiritu sancto unctum fuisse significat This Office as our Saviour was pleased to execute in his own Person as long as he sojourned with us here upon the Earth so being to withdraw himself from the sight of man he thought it requisit to make choice of some to be about him who might
were called Eulogia Hunc panem tu Eulogiam esse facies dignatione sumendi i. e. This Loaf you by your favorable acceptation of it will make to be an Eulogia or the Bread of blessing or panis benedictus in the Latin Idiom So witnesseth Durantes a late Popish writer when as this laudable custom had been much perverted and that this consecrated Bread not consecrated for but after the communion ended as it is plainly said by Honorius Augustodunensis was given to such as had not on the Sunday received the Sacrament Et pro Communione quae singulis diebus dominicis fieri solebat statutum est ut daretur in dominicis diebus Panis Benedictus sanctae Communionis Vicarius qui Eulogia dicebatur A custom still retained in the Church of France in which the Bread so blessed is called Pain Beni but whether in any other Churches of the Romish Communion that I cannot say But to proceed The second head to which the Communion of Saints is to be reduced is that conjunction of Affections which is and ought to be between them expressed in all the outward signs of love and fellowship even to the communication of their lives and fortunes A thing most visibly discerned in the Primitive times when the affections of the faithful were most pure and prevalent especially in their salutations their feasts of love and other acts of Christian bounty and finally in that pity and compassion which they shewed each other when the extremity of their affairs did require it of them And first Their Salutations were not onely verbal but accompanied with an holy Kiss mention whereof is frequent in St. Pauls Epistles where he requireth the people unto whom he wrote to salute one another with an holy kiss as Rom. 16.16 1 Cor. 16.20 1 Thes. 5.26 With a kiss that being an especial way to inflame affections Et animarum quoque mixturam facere and mingle as it were the souls of them that love With an holy kiss that is as Chrysostom expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not with a treacherous and deceitful kiss as was that of Iudas nor with a lustful and lascivious kiss as was that of Amnon Which salutation so enjoyned we finde to have continued unto after ages The Christians of Iustin Martys time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concluding their devotions with an holy kiss And Athenagoras reports that it was punishable in his time by the Churches Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any man gave a second kiss in their salutations because the second kiss might be imputed unto sensuality which shews that the salutation of the kiss was still in force Afterwards on some scandal which did thence arise it pleased the Church to take away the outward Ceremony of this salutation but to retain the substance and intent thereof in the continuance of that harmony and accord of souls which ought to be between Professors of the same Religion For Calvin very well observeth that St. Pauls purpose was not to oblige us to the very Ceremony but to excite us onely Ad fovendum fraternum amorem To the cherishing of brotherly love and concord whereof the holy kiss was nothing but a badge or emblem And to this head or manner of expression we may reduce those lovely names of Fathers Mothers Brethren Sisters wherewith they used to salute and call each other This last objected by Cecilius against the Christians of the times in which he lived as if thereby he could have proved them guilty of incestuous mixtures Et se promiscuè fratres appellant sorores said their witty Adversary But this as they first learnt from the holy Apostles so did still retain it upon very good Reasons as being all adopted Children of the same one Father Professors of the same one Faith and Coheirs of the same hopes of Eternal life Unius Dei parentis omnes fidei consortes spei cohaeredes as it was well replied by the Christian Advocate And for that reverend name of Father and Mother the yonger people used it as an honorable title due to age upon the warrant of St. Paul who adviseth Timothy to entreat the Elder Men as Fathers and the Elder Women as Mothers though otherwise all Brothers and Sisters in regard of God their Father Almighty Such in a word were the affections of the Primitive Saints that it was one of the principal Queries which Diognetus made unto Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know what kinde of natural friendship and affection the Christians bare to one another And vide ut se invicem diligunt in and before Tertullians time was one of the expressions which the Gentiles used to express their wonder at that integrity and perfection of so rare a piety as they observed to be in Christians towards one another Not to say more in this particular we close this point with that which is affirmed by Cyprian on the like occasion Et vix invenio quid prius praedicare debeamus eorumne stabilem sidem an individuam charitatem that is to say It is not easie to determine whether the firmness of their Faith or the inseparableness of their Affections were of the two the more praise-worthy Next let us look on their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or their Feasts of Charity as St. Iude hath called them and called them by a name most proper to express their nature Coena nostra de nomine rationem suam ostendit vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Tertullian These as they were intended to the increase of love amongst the wealthier and the relief and comfort of the poorer sort so were they celebrated and performed with an equal piety Begun with Prayer concluded with Thanksgiving continued with frequent readings of the Scripture and many pious Hymns being intermingled to the praise of God In setting out which Love Feasts as they spared no costs because thereby their poorer Brethren were relieved and cherished so did they think all gain which was so expended for Lucrum est pietatis nomine sumptum facere as the same Author hath it because thereby they kept themselves in a stock of piety And yet not thinking this enough they had their monethly Contributions for relief of the poor Which as it was chearfully brought in so was it carefully expended in educating fatherless Children sustaining old men unfit for labor in the repairing of their fortunes whom the Seas had ruined the ransoming of such particular persons as were confined unto the Ilands banished unto the Mines or locked up in the Common Prisons No respect had to Countreys and to Kinred less This made the man a competent object of their bounty of the Communion of their Goods that he was a Christian. And yet they had an ampler field for this Christian Piety than the necessities of private and particular persons which was the sending of relief to those National or Provincial
Monuments of the Catholick Church to signifie the death and not the birth-day of the Saints departed And more particularly we are thus informed by St. Augustine Solius Domini Beati Iohannis dies nativitatis in universo mundo celebratur i. e. That onely the day of the nativity of our Lord and Saviour and of St. Iohn Baptist were celebrated in his time in the Church of Christ Of Christ because there is no doubt but that he was conceived and born without sin original and of the Baptist because sanctified in his Mothers womb as St. Luke saith of him And for particular men it is said by Origen Nemo ex sanctis invenitur hunc diem festum celebrasse c. That never any of the Saints did celebrate the day of their own nativity or of any of their sons and daughters with a Solemn Feast The reason was the same for both because they knew that even the best of them were conceived in sin and brought forth in wickedness and therefore with no comfort could observe that day which the sense of their original corruptions had made so unpleasing But on the other side those men who either knew not or regarded not their own natural sinfulness esteemed that day above all others in their lives as that which gave them their first-being to enjoy their pleasures and they as Pharaoh in the Old Testament and Herod in the New failed not to keep the same as a Publick Festival Soli peccatores super hujusmodi diem laetantur as it is in Origen And hereupon we may infer without doubt or scruple that having the authority of the Scripture and the Churches practise and that practise countenanced by Authors of unquestioned credit not to say any thing further in so clear a case from the concurrent Testimonies of the Antient Fathers That there is such a sin as Birth-sin or Original sin a Natural corruption radicated in the Seed of Adam which makes us subject to the wrath and indignation of God Thus have we seen the Introduction of sin the first act of the Tragedy let us next look upon the second on the Propagation the manner how it is derived from Adam unto our Fore-fathers and from them to us And this we finde to be a matter of greater difficulty St. Augustine in whose time these controversies were first raised by the Pelagians did very abundantly satisfie them in the quod sit of it but when they pressed him with the quo modo how it was propagated from Adam and from one man to another he was then fain to have recourse to Gods secret justice and his unsearchable dispensation Et hoc quidem libentius disco quam doceo ne audeam docere quod nescio as with great modesty and caution he declined the business For whereas sin is the contagion of the soul and the soul oweth its being unto God alone and is not begotten by our parents the Pelagians either would not or could not be answered in their Quere How Children should receive corruption from their Parents not could the good Father give them satisfaction unto their demand But as a Dwarf standing on the shoulders of a Giant may see many things far off not visible to the Giant himself so those of the ensuing times building on the foundations which were laid by Augustine have added to him the solution of such doubts and difficulties as in his time were not discovered Of these some have delivered That the soul contracts contagion from the flesh even in the very act of its first infusion the union of the soul and body nor is it any thing improbable that it should so be We see that the most excellent Wines retain their natural sweetness both of taste and colour as long as they are kept in some curious Vessel but if you put them into foul and musty bottles they lose forthwith their former sweetness participating of the uncleanness of the Vessel in which they are Besides it is a Maxim amongst Philosophers Quod mores animae sequuntur temperamentum corporis That the soul is much byassed and inclined in the actions of it unto the temper of the body and if the equal or unequal temper of the body of man can as it seems incline the minde unto the actual embracing of good or evil then may it also be believed that the corruptions of the flesh may dispose the soul even in the first infusion of it to some habitual inclinations unto sin and wickedness Than which though there may be a more solid there cannot be a more conceiveable Answer But others walking in a more Philosophical way conceive that the accomplishment of the great work of Generation consists not in the introduction of the form onely or in preparing of the matter but in the constituting the whole compositum the whole man as he doth consist both of soul and body And that a man is and may properly be said to beget a man notwithstanding the Creation of his soul by God because that the materials of the Birth do proceed from man and those materials so disposed and actuated by the emplastick vertue of the Seed that they are fitted for the soul and as it were produced unto Animation Which resolution though it be more obscure unto vulgar wits is more insisted on by the learned than the former is and possibly may have more countenance from holy Scripture When God made man it is said of him That he was created after Gods own Image that is to say Invested with an habit of Original Righteousness his understanding clear and his will naturally disposed to the love of God But Adam having by his fall lost all those excellent endowments both of grace and nature begot a Son like to himself And therefore it is said in the fifth of Genesis That he begot a son in his own likeness after his own image and he called his name Seth Though Adam was created after the Image of God and might have still preserved that Image in his whole posterity had he continued in that state wherein God created him yet being faln he could imprint no other Image in the fruit of his Body than that which now remained in him his own Image onely the understanding darkned and the will corrupted and the affections of the soul depraved and vitiated Qualis post lapsum Adam fuit tales etiam filios genuit such as himself was after his Apostasie such and no other were the Children which descended of him â—s Paraeus very well observeth And if it fall out commonly as we see it doth that a crooked Father doth beget a crook-backed Son that if the Father look a squint the Children seldom are right-sighted and that the childe doth not onely inherit the natural deformities but even the bodily diseases of his Parents too It is the less to be admired that they should be the heirs also of those sinful lusts with which their
we must despair of no body no not of the wickedest as long as he lives and that we may safely pray for him of whom we do not despair So that for ought we see by these Texts of Scripture there is no sin which properly may be said to be irremissible And therefore I resolve with Maldnonate though he were a Iesuite Tenendam esse regulam fidei quae nullum peccatum esse docet quod à Deo remitti non possit That it is to be imbraced as a rule of Faith that there is no sin so great whatsoever it be which God cannot pardon for which if heartily bewailed and repented of there is no mercy and forgiveness to be found from God I shut up all with that of the Christian Poet Spem capio sore quicquid ago veniabile apud te Quamlibet indignum venia faciamve loquarve In English thus My words O Christ and deeds I hope with thee Though they deserve no pardon venial be CHAP. VI. Of the Remission of sins by the Blood of Christ and of the Abolition of the body of sin by Baptism and Repentance Of confession made unto the Priest and the Authority Sacerdotal THus have we in the former Chapter discoursed at large of the Introduction and Propagation of Sin and of the several species or kindes thereof and also proved by way of ground-work and foundation that albeit sin in its own nature be so odious in the sight of God as to draw upon the sinner everlasting damnation yet that there is no sin so mortal so deserving death which is not capable of pardon or forgiveness by the mercy of God We next descend unto those means whereby the pardon and remission of our sins is conveyed unto us the means by which so great a benefit is estated on us The principal agent in this work is Almighty God of whom the Scripture saith expresly That it is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith that it is God which justifieth the Elect and that the Scriptures did foresee That God would justifie the Heathen In all which Texts to justifie the Elect the Iews the Gentiles doth import no more than freely to forgive them all the sins which they had committed against the Law and to acquit them absolutely from all blame and punishment due by the Law to such offences Which appears plainly by that passage of the same Apostle where speaking of Almighty God as of him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 he sheweth immediately by way of gloss or exposition in what that justifying doth consist saying out of David Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin And this God doth not out of any superadded or acquired principle which is not naturally in him but out of that authority and supream power which is natural and essential to him In which respect no Creature can be said to forgive sins no not our Saviour Christ himself in his meer humane nature but must refer that work unto God alone For who can so forgive sins but God onely said the Pharisees truly And as God is the onely natural and efficient cause of this justification the principal Agent in this great work of the remission of sins so is the onely moral and internal impulsive cause which inclines him to it to be found onely in himself that is to say his infinite mercy love and graciousness toward his poor creature Man whom he looks on as the miserable object of grace and pitty languishing under the guilt and condemnation of sin Upon which Motives and no other he gave his onely begotten Son to die for our sins to be a ransom and propitiation for the sins of the world That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but through forgiveness in his Blood have life everlasting But for the external impulsive efficient cause of this act of Gods the meritorious cause thereof that indeed is no other than our Lord JESUS CHRIST the death and sufferings of our most blessed Lord and Saviour For God beholding Christ as such and so great a sufferer for the sins of men is thereby moved and induced to deliver those that believe in him both from the burden of their sins and that condemnation which legally and justly is due unto them This testified most clearly by that holy Scripture Be ye kinde saith the Apostle unto one another forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Where plainly the impulsive cause inclining God to pardon us our sins and trespasses is the respect he hath unto the sufferings of our Saviour Christ. Thus the Apostle tells us in another place That we are freely justified by the grace of God through the Redemption which is in CHRIST IESUS Justified freely by Gods grace as by the internal impulsive cause of our Iustification by which he is first moved to forgive us our sins through the Redemption procured for us by the death and sufferings of CHRIST IESUS as the external moving or impulsive cause of so great a mercy In this respect the pardon and forgiveness of the sins of men is frequently ascribed in Scripture to the Blood of Christ as in the Institution of the Sacrament by the Lord himself This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Thus the Apostle to the Romans Whom JESUS CHRIST did God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God And thus to the Ephesians also In whom we have redemption through his Blood the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace To this effect St. Peter also For ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And so St. Iohn The Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and he hath washed us from our sins in his own Blood in another place Infinite other places might be here produced in which the forgiveness of our sins is positively and expresly ascribed to the Blood of Christ or to his death and sufferings for us which comes all to one But these will serve sufficiently to confirm this truth that the main end for which Christ suffered such a shameful ignominious death accompanied with so many scorns and torments was thereby to attone or reconcile us to his Heavenly Father to make us capable of the remission of our sins through the mercy of God and to assure us by that means of the favor of God and our adoption to the glories of eternal life By that one offering of himself hath he for ever perfected