Churches which either were in want or in any misery Such the Collection made at Antioch for the poor Brethren of Iudea of the Corinthians for the Saints which dwelt in Ierusalem and to the honor of the Romans it is recorded by Dionysius the then Bishop of Corinth That they did carefully relieve the wants and several necessities of all other Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he in an Epistle unto Soter the then Pope of Rome so fully were their souls united so excellent was the union or communion which was then amongst them that they all suffered in the miseries of the poorest members and did accordingly endeavor to relieve and comfort them Witness their carriage in that great and dreadful Plague which hapned at Alexandria in the reign of the Emperor Galienus in which the love and piety of the Christian people extended more unto their Brethren than unto themselves visiting those whom God had visited administring to their necessities when they were yet living embalming them with tears when they were departed and following them with all due ceremony to the Funeral pile Insomuch that even their very enemies could not but praise that noble act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and magnifie that God whom the Christians worshipped A needless thing it were to tell how willingly the faithful of those happy times used to accompany each other on the stage of death how frequently they would make offer of their own lives to reprieve their Brethren from the slaughter A thing not rarely known in those blessed days in which it pleased the Lord to set forth unto us the excellency of that communion which ought to be between the Saints of the most high Ghost in which he pleased to let us see for our imitation how much the love of God and the Saints of God could work upon a soul which was truly Christian And therefore it was rightly noted by Tertullian that as the Gentiles used to say in the way of envy Vide ut se invicem diligunt Look how these Christians love one another so in the way of admiration they did use to say Vide ut pro alterutro mori sunt parati See how they are prepared to die for one another also And now we have brought this part of the Communion of the Saints of God which did consist in the Communication of Affections unto the highest pitch which it can attain to For greater love than this hath no man saith our blessed Saviour than that a man lay down his life for his friend Nor had I said so much of a Theme so common but that I would fain give my self a little hope that by presenting to the sight of this present age the piety and eminent affections of the Primitive Christians it may be possibly revived and reduced to practise in these decaying times of true Christian Charity But here I would not be mistaken or thought to be the Author of such wretched counsels as under colour of Communion to introduce a community or to perswade that by communicating of our goods to the use of others we should make them common Such a Communion as is meant in the present Article doth aim at nothing less than so sad a ruine as the devesting of the faithful in the propriety and interess of their estates must needs bring upon them We leave this frenzy to the Fratricellians who first hatched this Cockatrice and taught amongst many other impious and absurd opinions Nihil proprii habendum esse that men were to have nothing in propriety not so much as wives But this not getting any ground at the first appearing was afterwards advanced and propagated by the Anabaptist Non posse aliquem salvum fieri nisi facultates omnes in commune deferat nihilque proprium possideâ—t That no man could be saved who brought not all his wealth to the common treasury or kept any thing several to himself though it were his wife was then if never else esteemed good Christian doctrine when frenzy and King Iohn of Leyden reigned in the City of Munster And yet as frantick as this doctrine may be thought to be it hath found Advocates to plead for it in these later times and to bring proofs in maintenance in defence thereof both from the Scripture and the practise of the Primitive times as also from the usage in the state of nature and the rules of reason From Scripture they allege that place of the Acts where it is said That the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common A Text much urged and stood upon by some antient Hereticks who under colour of these words maintained a community of all mens estates admitting none to their Communion who had either Wives or Goods in several to their proper use and would needs be called Apostolici as the revivers of the true Christian and Apostolick piety And they might have some further ground for it from the best and purest times of the Christian Church of which Tertullian saith expressly Indiscreta apud nos omnia praeter uxores That they had all things common except their wives in which they differed from the Gentiles who held their wives in common and their goods in several Nor was this the continual and general practise of the Gentiles neither the Commonwealth of Sparta being a right Commonwealth indeed wherein community of all things was established by Original Laws one of the Fundamentals of that Government And till this Iron-age came in as the Poets tell us there was no such matter as propriety as Land or Houses Communisque prius ceu lumina solis Aer The Earth being no less common in the state of nature before the natural liberty and rights of mankinde were limited and restrained by the Bonds of Law as was the Air they breathed in or the light of the Sun that shined upon them Nor was this natural liberty so wholly abrogated but that there did remain some Vestigia of it amongst the more amicable and intelligent men whose reason could not choose but tell them that where they setled their affections in a friendly way they were to interess the party whom they did affect in a joynt participation of their goods and fortunes For that all things ought to be common amongst friends such as all mankinde ought to be by the common principles of nature and the rules of Reason was one of the dictates of Pythagoras seconded by Tully not denied by Seneca besides that golden saying of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That wheresoever there was friendship there must be community But these although they seem in shew to be several Arguments may all be satisfied with one answer those specially which are borrowed from the practise of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and the
deceit and villanie and mischievous imaginations and invincible malice But of all miracles of Omnipotence mentioned in the Scripture there is not in my judgement any one more eminent then that which he wrought upon the children of Ammon and Moab and those of Mount Seir when they joined all their Forces together against Iehosaphat the good King of Iudah For by a strange misprision which God sent amongst them the children of Ammon and Moab fell upon the inhabitants of Mount Seir and slew them and destroyed them utterly and when they had made an end of the Inhabitants of Seir every one to destroy another Never so great a slaughter made never so signal a deliverance given to the people of God by the swords of their Enemies even by the swords of those who had joined together to root out their memorial from the face of the earth If now we should dâ—scend from Scriptures to Ecclesiastical History shall we not finde the great power of God exemplified as visibly in the protection and defence of the Christian Church and that not only in the miraculous propagation and increase thereof and bringing to calamitous ends her greatest enemies but working on the hearts of the sharpest Persecutors to intermit their rage and lay down their fury Witness the Edict of Trajan the Author of the third Persecution De Christianis non inquirendis that no such Inquisition should be made against them as in former times that of the Emperour Adrian Ne Christianus indicta causa puniatur that no Christian should from thenceforth be punished without some crime laid to his charge in which he had offended against the Laws Antonine adding unto this ut delator poenae subjaceat that the Promoter should be lyable to punishment if he proved it not The like of Marcus as great a Persecuter at the first as any which had been before him who did not onely stay the fury of the Executioners but mortem iis minabatur qui Christianos accusabant but threatned death to the accusers Nor staid God here but for the further manifestation of his mighty power in ruling and over-ruling the hearts of men he wrought so wonderfully and Omnipotently on the hearts of some of their greatest enemies that from their bitter and most violent Persecutors they became their Patrons Witness the Mandate or edict of the Emperor Galienus not only for the intermitting of the persecution which Valerianus his Father had raised against them but authorizing the Prelates and other Ministers Vt cuncta munia pro consuetudine obirent to perform all the sacred Offices which belonged unto them Finally witness the like Edict of Maximinus one of the chief Instruments of Diocletians butcheries and a great slaughterman himself when he came to the Empire commanding that the Christians should be left to their own Religion and not compelled as formerly under pain of death to offer sacrifice to Idols but wonne if possibly it might be blanditiis adhortationibus by the fairest means and the best perswasions that the wit of man could lay before them These things as they were marvellous in the eyes of all men so marvellous that they could not choose but see and say A Domino haec facta that they were all of them of the Lords own doing so was it as easie to be seen that they were the effects of his Omnipotence proceeding from the love and power of a Father Almighty ARTICLE II. Of the Second ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed unto St. IOHN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Creatorem Coeli et Terrae i. e. Maker of Heaven and Earth CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods mighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence WITH very great fitness doth the Article of the Worlds Creation come next the Attribute of Almighty as being that act which might alone entitle GOD unto Omnipotence were there none besides For what but an Omnipotent power could out of no praeexistent matter create that goodly edifice of Heaven and Earth and all things in the same contained which every naturall man beholdeth with such admiration that possibly he cannot choose but say with the royall Psalmist The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Earth sheweth his handy work A work so full of wonder to the antient Gentiles that some of them made the world a God Vis illum i. e. Deum mundum vocare non falleris as it is in Seneca others more rationally conceiving GOD to be the soul of the World as giving animation or being to it And though they erred as well in making the World a God as making GOD to be the Soul of the World yet they might very well have said as one since hath done that the World is nothing else but God unfolded and manifested in the Creature Nil aliud Mundus universus quam Deus explicatus as Cusanus hath it And certainly the speciall motions which did induce GOD unto this great work were a desire and purpose to expresse his power to exercise his providence and declare his goodness For though GOD needed not to have made the World in regard of himself for the World we know was made in the beginning of time but GOD is infinite and eternal before all beginnings yet it seemed good to him to create it at last as a thing most conducible to his praise and glory Some measuring the God of Heaven by their own affections and finding nothing so agreeable to their own dispositions as to be in company conceive that God being at last weary of his own solitude did create the World that he might have the company of the Angels in Heaven and make a start into the Earth when he saw occasion to recreate himself with the sons of Men. Quae beata esse solitudo queat What happiness said Hortensius can be in solitude To which Lactantius not being furnished with a better doth return this answer that GOD cannot be said to be alone Habet enim Ministros quos vocamus nuncios as having the society of the holy Angels But then Lactantius must suppose that the Angels have been coeternal with GOD himself which were to make all Gods and no God at all or else his Answer is no answer as to that Objection How much more rightly might we have thus replyed unto them that the supreme contentment possible to Almighty God is by reflecting on himself and in himself contemplating his own infinite glories which being co-aevall with himself even from all eternity he needed no no more company before the World was made then he hath done since Lactantius being a man of a very geat reading though indeed a better Humanitian then Divine could not but know those sweet delights which a man habited in learning takes in contemplation and the society which he hath of his own dear thoughts though never so much removed
prayers and offerings which are made unto them by that miserable and infatuated people whom they have captivated in the chains of sin and ignorance but they look for it at their hands and threaten most severe punishments if it be neglected The Devil is still sick of his old disease of being like to God both in power and greatness And being still possessed of his old ambition no marvel if he stand on Temples Altars Sacrifices both upon Invocation and on Adoration and whatsoever else is requisite to the Worship of God It was the pride and vanity of this glorious humor which made them uncapable of long stay in Heaven and hath since plunged them in the depths of disconsolation They were at first created by Almighty God in the state of perfection as were the blessed spirits who still stand in Grace endued with a most excellent understanding and a conformity of will to the Will of God Good they were made as all the rest of Gods creatures were but not good unchangeably That was the priviledge and Prerogative of the Lord most high But made so good that they were also capable of doing evil if they would themselves and put into a power or liberty of condition either of placing their whole comforts in the service of God or by falling off from that felicity to make themselves the authors and the servants of sin Which power or liberty of their will call it how you please some of them did abuse so far unto Gods dishonour that they were presently removed from that glorions dwelling banished for ever from the presence of Almighty God and kept in chains of darkness to the day of Judgement So witnesseth the holy Scripture both old and new Behold he put no trust in his servants and his angels he hath charged with folly or rather in his Angels he found wickedness In Angelis invenit pravitatem saith the Vulgar Latine Which though they were the words of Eliphaz the Temanite a man not altogether Orthodox in points of Divinity yet that which he intends thereby is countenanced by other passages of Canonical Scriptures For if by finding wickedness or folly in the Angels themselves be meant no more then this as indeed there is not quod illi a Deo propria voluntate discesserunt that by the impulsion of their own will they fell off from God as the learned Estius well obsereth then doth this Temanite say no more in the Book of Iob then what St. Peter and Iude have also said in their two Epistles God spared not the Angels which sinned as St. Peter hath it but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement St. Iude affirms the very same The Angels saith he which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day By both it is as clear as day that the Angels sinned and that the punishment due unto their transgression was inflicted on them but what the particular sin was which they did commit and in what state they stand in regard of the punishment we shall crave leave to look into with some further search as being necessary to be known in reference to the fall of man the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour and his last coming unto Iudgement For being fallen themselves from the love of God they have practised ever since on Adam and his whole posterity to make them also liable to the same damnation In solatium calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi jam perdere saith Minutius Felix And this calamity of man induced the ever gracious and most merciful God to send his onely begotten Son into the World to redeem such as were under the law of sin that so they might receive the adoption of sons First for their sin the general opinion of the Church hath been that it was an ambitious pride to be equal with God For being made by God of so pure a substance of such an excellent comprehension and so rare abilities they thought themselves too glorious and sublime an essence to obey a superiour and that it was sufficient honour to the Lord their God if they admitted him for an equal and let him be half sharer with them in the Supreme power Just like some proud ambitious favorite in the Courts of Princes who being raised from nothing to be next in dignity to their Soveraign Lord are not content with those preheminences which their King hath given them but are resolved to strike at all and either get the Regal Diadem or perish in the glory of their undertaking But being this could not be the hope of all those Angels who forsook their God it is supposed to be the aim of some chief amongst them of him who in the Scripture is called sometimes Satan and sometimes Lucâ—fer and sometimes Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The rest of the apostate Angels were drawn into the plot either upon a hope of having a supreme Lord of their own nature which should bear rule over them or fancying to themselves a more moderate reign by living under a Prince of their own Election Now that it was ambition which caused Lucifers fall it is expresly said by the Prophet Esay How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning How art thou cast down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend above the height of the Clowds I will be like the most High Yet shall thou be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit Upon which words S. Hierom giveth us this short Gloss Qui per superbiam dixerat In Coelum ascendam ero similis altissimo non solum ad infernum sed ad Inferorum ultimum detrahitur He that said through the pride of his heart I will ascend above the height of the Heavens and be like the most High is not only brought down to Hell but to the lowest pit of that dreadful Lake And to this fall of Lucifer as I conceive our Saviour doth allude in St. Lukes Gospel saying I saw Satan as lightning fall from Heaven 10.18 Upon which passage take this short note from the pen of Theophylact Marvel not that the Devils are made subject to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their Prince is long since fallen from Heaven and hath no power left which although mortal men beheld not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet was it visible to me who see things invisible The like Ezekiel saith as of Lucifers fall under the name and notion of the King of Tyre Thus saith the Lord God Thou hast been in Eden or Paradise as the Vulgar reads it the Garden of God thou art the anointed Cherub that coverest thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God and perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wert
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
this present life And Lyra also saith the same though of later date Dixit Christus se derelictum a Deo Patre quia dimittebat eum in manibus occidentium i. e. Christ saith he was forsaken of God his Father because he was left in the hands of them that slew him And so Theodoret for the Greeks CHRIST saith he calleth that a dereliction or forsaking of God which was a permission of the Godhead that the humanity might suffer With these agree some Doctors of the Protestant Churches of great name and credit as Bucer and Bullinger in their Comments on the 27. of S. Matthew and Munster in his observations on the 21. Psalm Other forsaking other dereliction more then the leaving of him in the hands of his enemies they acknowledg none sure I am no withdrawing from him of the divine presence and assistance of God For so Tertullian doth affirm that God was said to have forsaken him in a sort dum hominem ejus tradidit in mortem whilest he delivered him in his humane nature to the hands of death but that he did not leave him altogether in that it was into the hands of his Father that he commended his Spirit Fulgentius saith as much or more saying that though in the death of Christ his soul was to forsake his dying body Divinitas tamen Christi nec ab anima nec a earne potest separari suscepta yet the Divinity could not be separated from his soul nor from the body neither which it had assumed And how far Christ was then from thinking that he had either lost the favour of Almighty God or his own interest in disposing of the heavenly glories doth evidently appear by that of Hilariâ— derelinqui se ad mortem questus est sed tunc Confessorem suum secum in regno Paradisi suscepit CHRIST saith he doth complain of his being forsaken or left unto the powers of death and yet even then he received the Theef that did confess him into the assured hopes of Paradise Where by the way all the forsaking which this Father doth take notice of was derelictio ad mortem a leaving of our Saviour to the hands of death The Schoolmen also say the same who make six kindes of dereliction or forsaking according as I finde them in our Reverend Field 1. By disunion of person 2. by loss of grace 3. by diminution or weakness of grace 4. by want of the assurance of future deliverance and present support 5. by denial of protection and 6. by withdrawing all solace and destituting the forsaken of all present comfort Then they declare that it is an impious thing to think that Christ was forsaken any of the four first ways in that the unity of his Person was never dissolved his graces neither taken away nor diminished no possibility that he should want assurance either of present support or future deliverance But for the two last ways he may be rightly said say they to have been forsaken in that his Father had denyed to protect and keep him out of the hands of his cruel bloudy and merciless enemies no way restraining them but suffering them to do the uttermost of that which their wicked malice could invent and that nothing might be wanting to make his sorrows beyond measure sorrowful had withdrawn from him also that accustomed solace which he was wont to find in God and removed from him all those things which might any way asswage the extremity of his pain and misery The Master of the Sentences gives it thus more briefly Separavit se divinitas quia substraxit protectionem separavit se foris ut non esset ad defensionem sed non intus defuit ad unionem All the forsaking then that the Lord complained of on the Cross was that he had been left to the hands of his enemies and that his heavenly Father had forborn all this while to shew any open sign of love or favour towards him in the sight of the Iews by whom he had been so afflicted and reproached and indeed blasphemed This is the most that can be said of this bitter and compassionte cemplaint which our Saviour made whether in reference to himself or to all mankinde or perhaps to both unless it may be further added that he desired in these words as some think he did that God would please to manifest by some publick sign what an esteem he had of that sacred Person whom both the Iews and Gentiles had so much oppressed and despised and of whom he had seemed all this while to make little reckoning And this is that which Athanasius hath observed in his fourth Oration or Discourse against the Arians who stood much upon it Loe saith he upon Christs speech why hast thou forsaken me the Father shewed himself to be even then in Christ as ever before For the earth knowing her Lord to speak did straightway tremble and the vail rent in twain and the Sun did hide himself and the rocks clave in sunder and the graves were opened and the dead men rose And that which was no less marvellous indeed the standers by which before denyed him confessed him to be the Son of God To proceed then this exclamation being made and gaining no more from the standers by but addition of scorn to misery and contempt to scorn the people mocking him as if he had called upon Elias to come and help him he cryed out I thirst and even the matter of that cry gives them another opportunity to put a scorn upon him and increase his griefs One of them saith the Scripture ran and took a spunge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it him to drink Matth. 27.48 Where mark the malice of the man if he may so be called which had no humanity Our Saviour called for drink to asswage his thirst the wicked fellow gives him vinegar not to accelerate his death or send him out of hand to the other world for fear Elias indeed should come to help him as Theophylact thinks but rather to continue him the longer in those terrible pains It is the quality of vinegar as we read in Pliny that it stancheth the effusion of bloud Sanguinis profluvium sistunt ex aceto as that Author hath it And therefore I concurre with them who think this vinegar was given him to no other end but out of a most barbarous purpose to prolong his torments for fear least otherwise he might bleed to death and put too speedy an end to their sports and triumphs But contrary to the expectation of this wicked man no sooner had our Saviour took a tast thereof but the work was finished He cryed out with a loud voice Matth. 27.50 It is finished Joh. 19.30 and presently he bowed his head and said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and having thus said he gave up the ghost In which it
not then be cheated by this new distinction that Kings are Gods Vice-roys but not Iesus Christs though the distinction be much hugged by our great Novators Who intend nothing else thereby but to throw down Crowns and lay them at the foot of their Presbyteries and to set up instead of the Regal power their own dear Tribunal a Soveraignty in all causes Ecclesiastical to over-rule it first and extirpe it afterwards as the right learned Bishop of Kell-Alla very well observeth In these ways and by these several means and subordinate Ministers doth Christ administer the Kingdome committed to him And this he doth continually sitting at the right hand of God the Father and there to sit untill his enemies be made his footstool This David did fore-see by the spirit of Prophecy The Lord saith he said unto my Lord i. e. the Lord God almighty said to my Lord CHRIST IESVS Sit thou on my right hand untill thy enemies be made thy footstool This the Apostle also verifieth and affirms of Christ. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins is set down for ever on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool And this he also telleth us in another place saying of Christ that he must reign till he shall have put all his enemies under his feet Till then his Kingdome is to last and till that time he is to sit at the right hand of God in all power and Majesty If it be asked when that will be that all his enemies shall be subdued and subject to him we answer at the end of this present world when there is no enemie left to be destroyed Now the last enemie which is to be destroyed is death saith the same Apostle And thereupon we may inferre that while death reigneth in opposition to the Lord of life and sin in a defiance to the Lord of righteousness that hitherto we have not seen all things put under him and therefore must expect yet a little longer before he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father But then indeed when Death is utterly destroyed and all the Saints admitted to the glories of eternal life when all things are subdued unto him then also shall the Son himself be made subject to him that did put all things under him that is God the Father Then when he hath put down all rule and all authority and power then cometh the end and then he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father that God may be all in all This is the summe of St. Pauls argument in that point In which there being many things not easie to be understood I shall not think my time ill spent to make a short Paraphrase and discourse upon it that so we may perceive more fully the Apostles meaning And first he saith that CHRIST must reign till he hath put all things under his feet that being one of the especial parts of the Kingly function as before was shewn to save and defend his Church from the hands of her enemies and for the enemies themselves to crush them with a Scepter of iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel When this is done when he hath trodden under foot all his mortal enemies the persecutors of his Church false Prophets false Apostles and the great Antichrist himself which labour to seduce even the very Elect when he hath subjugated the powers of Hell and that sin hath no more dominion over us yet we shall still lie under the power of death untill the last and general Resurrection Death therefore is the last enemie to be destroyed that being delivered from his thraldome raised from the grave which is his prison and all those bonds and fetters broken by which we were held captive under his command we may be made partakers of eternal life and reign with Christ for ever in his heavenly glories When that time cometh when there are neither enemies from which to protect his Church nor any Church to be instructed in the wayes of godliness according to the Nomothetical part of the Regal Office then cometh the end the end of all things in this world which shall be no more the end of Christs Kingdome as the Mediator between God and man man having by the power of his mediation attained the end of his desires the guerdon and reward of his faith and piety This being done the rule of Satan and the authority of sin and the power of death being all broken and subdued he shall first raise our mortal bodies in despight of death pronounce the joyful sentence of absolution on them in despight of sin and finally advance them to that height of glory from which Satan fell to the confusion of the Devil and all his Angels And having so discharged the Office of a Mediator for executing which he sate at the right hand of God he shall deliver up unto God the Father the right and interest which he had in the Kingdome of Grace consisting in the building up of his Elect in faith hope and charity that they with him and he with them may reign forevermore in the Kingdome of glory Where there shall be no use of Faith for they shall see God face to face and faith is the existence of things not seen and less of hope for hope is the expectancy of things desired which being once obtained puts an end to hope Charity onely shall remain for that never ceaseth and therefore said to be the greatest of the three Theological vertues of which the Apostle there discourseth 1 Cor. 13.13 And so Primasius hath resolved it In this present life saith he there are three in the life to come onely the love of God and his Augels and of all the Saints That therefore is the greater which is alwayes necessary then that which once shall have an end The like St. Austin before him The greatest of all is charity because when every one shall come to eternal life the other two failing charity shall continue with increase and with greater certainty And finally before both thus St. Chrysostome and these three witnesses enough The greatest of these is Charity because they passe away but that continueth I must confess there is hardly a more difficult Text in all the Scripture then this of Christs delivering up the Kingdome unto God the Father nor which requires more care in the Exposition for fear of doing injurie unto God or Christ conceive me still of Christ in his humane nature For neither must we so understand the place as if God reigned not now at the present time nor was to reign at all untill this surrendry of the Kingdome by Christ our Saviour That were injurious to the power and Majesty of Almighty God by whom all things were made and by whom all made subject unto Christs command for he it is who did put all things
of Christs disciples shall goe to an invisible place appointed them by God and there shall remain unto the resurrection and after receiving their bodies and rising perfectly that is corporally as Christ did rise shall so come to the Vision or sight of God Tertullian next It is saith he apparent to any wise man that there is a place determined which is Abrahams bosome for the receiving of the souls of his sons which region I mean Abrahams bosome though it be not heavenly but Tertullian was out in that sublimior tamen inferis yet being higher then the inferi or places below shall give comfort to the souls of the righteous untill the resurrection and the end of all things bring the full reward So Hilarie B. of Poyctiers The day of judgment is the day of everlasting happinesse or punishment till which time death hath every one under his dominion whilest either Abrahams bosome or the house of torments reserveth every man to judgement St. Ambrose to the same effect till the fullnesse of time come the souls expect their due reward for some of which pain for others glory is provided Next him St. Augustine his convert After this short life thou shalt not as yet be where the Saints shall be to whom it shall be said in the day of judgement Come ye blessed of my father c. Thou shalt not be there as yet who knoweth not that but there thou shalt be where poor Lazarus was seen a far off by the proud richman In that rest shalt thou securely expect the day of judgment in which thou shalt receive thy body and be changed and be made equall with the Angels St. Bernard thus you perceive that there be three states of the soul the first in this corruptible body the second without the body the third in perfect blessednesse The first in the Tabernacles the second in the Courts the third in the house of God into which most blessed house of God the souls of the Saints shall not enter without us nor without their own bodies I had not named St. Bernard amongst those Antients but only to the end that it might be seen that this was generally the doctrine of the Western Church as to this particular untill the invocation of the Saints departed became first to be put in practise and afterwards to be defended and imposed as good Catholick Doctrine For they saw well that unlesse it were received for an Orthodox truth that the Saints departed were admitted presently into the beatificall vision of Almighty God and in him see as in a Mirrour what things soever could be done or said on the earth beneath it were in vain to make unto them either prayers or vows not being yet estated in their own full glories and consequently not admitted to the presence of God And on the very same reasons for which the Church of Rome doth admit the Saints to enjoy the blessed vision of Almighty God in the heaven of glories did Calvin labour to decrie the received opinion in that point though by long tract of time engendering prejudice and prepossession in the hearts of men against any contrary position it was become the generall tenet of the Protestant Schools For well he knew that if that doctrine could be rooted out of the minds of men by which the Saints were brought though before their time into an habitation in the highest heavens that of the invocation of the Saints departed which depends upon it must of necessity perish with it But whatsoever moved him to opine so of it for I am confident it was not any love to the antient Fathers certain it is that he hath freely declared his opinion in it in several places of his writings In that entituled Psychopannychia he doth thus expresse it The souls of the Saints after death be in peace saith he because they are escaped from the power of the enemie but shall not raign with Christ their King untill the heavenly Hierusalem shall be advanced to her glory and the true Solomon the King of peace shall sit on high on his tribunal And this he doth not only say and leave the proof thereof to his ipse dixit as if that were enough to carry it over all the world but cites Tertullian Chrysostome Augustine Bernard some of whose words we saw before to confirme the point But seeing that tract of his hath been called in question as if it did incline too much towards the Anabaptists we will next look upon his book of Institutions where we finde him saying That since the Scripture every where biddeth us to depend upon the expectation of Christs coming and deferreth the Crown of glory till that time we are to be content with the bounds that God hath appointed us viz. that the souls of the godly having ended their warfare depart unto an happy rest where with a blessed joy they look for the fruition of the promised glory and that so all things shall stand suspended untill Christ appeare The same he also intimateth in another place where he resolveth That not only the Fathers under the Law but even the holy men of God since the death of Christ are but in profectu in progresse as it were to that perfect happinesse which is to be conferred upon them in the day of doom that in the mean time they abide in atriis in the out-courts of Heaven and there expect the consummation of their beatitude And finally none but our Saviour Christ saith he hath entred into the heavenly Sanctuary where to the end of all the world Solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad deum defert he alone represents to God the desires of his people sitting a far off in the outward Courts I know that Bellarmine doth quarrell at these passages of Calvins and I cannot blame him He and the common interesse of the Church of Rome were so ingaged in the defence of the other opinion without which that of the invocation of Saints must needs fall to the ground that it concerned them all to calumniate Calvin as the broacher of new Doctrines in the Church of Christ though in this point they finde him countenanced by most antient writers Neither doth Calvin stand alone in this opinion being seconded though not in so expresse terms as himself delivereth it by Bucer Bullinger Martyr Musculus and some others also And wonder t is not that he was followed by so many but by so few prime men of the reformation to whom his name and authority were exceeding dear And if the case stand so with the Saints above no question but it standeth so too with the souls below For contrariorum par est ratio as the old rule is And to the truth we have not only the testimonie of the holy Scriptures saying expressely that God reserveth the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2. but of so many of the
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
be Saints in the Church Triumphant But whether it be there or here a mutual communion there is always to be held between us between the Saints upon the Earth though Saints by outward calling onely united in the joynt participation of the Word and Sacraments and the external Profession of the Faith and Gospel but more conspicuously between those which are Saints indeed not onely nominally but really and truly such in that harmony of affections and reciprocal offices of love which makes them truly one Body of Christ though different Members And a communion there is too of this later kinde between the Saints upon the Earth and those which have their consummation in the Heaven of Glories who though they have in some part received the promise yet being fellow-members of the same one Body they pray for and await our ransom from this prison of flesh without which God hath so disposed it they should not be made perfect Which said we may now clearly see in what particulars the Communion of Saints intended in this Article doth consist especially which may be easily reduced unto three heads 1. A Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation by which they are made members of one another and of Christ their Head 2. A Communion of Affections expressed in all the acts of love and charity even to the very communicating of their lives and fortunes And 3. A communion of entercourse between the Saints in Heaven and those here on Earth according to the different states in which God hath placed them All other kindes of Christian Communion are either contained in and under these or may be very easily reduced unto them And first for the Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation and the benefits which redound thereby to the Church of Christ St. Paul hath told us That the Cup of blessing which is blessed in the holy Eucharist and the Bread there broken is the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and that being made partakers of that one Bread we are thereby made though many to be one Bread also and one Body even the Body of Christ one Bread though made of many grains and one Body though composed of many members A better Paraphrase upon which place of the Apostle we can hardly finde in all the writings of the Fathers than that of Cyril Ut igitur inter nos Deum singulos uniret quamvis corpore simul anima distemus modum tamen adinvenit consilio patris sapientiae suae convenientem Suo enim corpore credentes per Communionem mysticam benedicens secum inter nos unum nos corpus efficit c That Christ might unite every one of us both with our selves and with God though we be distant from each other both in body and soul he hath devised a way agreeable to his own Wisdom and the Counsel of his Heavenly Father For in that he blesseth them that believe with his own Body by means of that Mystical Communion of it he maketh us one body with himself and with one another For who will think them not to be of this Natural union which be united in one Christ by the Union or Communion of that one holy Body For if we eat all of one Bread we are all made one Body in regard Christ may not be dis-joyned nor divided In which full passage of the Father we finde an union of the faithful with Christ their Head as well as a conjunction with one another effected by the Mystical communion of his Body and Blood A double union first with Christ and with each others next as the members of Christ. The union which we have with Christ is often times expressed in Scripture under the figure and resemblance of the Head and Members which as they make but one Natural Body so neither do they make but one Body Mystical Know you not saith the Apostle that your bodies are the members of Christ 1 Cor. 6.15 That ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12.27 That we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones Ephes. 5.30 And doth not the same Apostle tell us That God hath given Christ to be head over all things unto his Church Eph. 1.22 That Christ is the head of the Church Vers. 23. And that from this head all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 Occumenius hereupon inferreth That neither Christ without the Church much less the Church without her Christ but both together so united make a perfect body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Others of more antiquity do affirm the same For thus St. Chrysostom Quidnaem significat panis Corpus Christi quid fiunt qui accipiunt Corpus Christi What signifieth the Bread The Body of Christ What are they made that do receive it The Body of Christ. St. Augustine thus Hunc cibum potum societatem vult intelligi corporis membrorum suorum i. e. He would have us understand that this meat and drink is the fellowship of his body and of his members What of the members onely with one another Not onely so but of the fellowship or communion which they have with him that is their head who though he be above in the heavenly places and is not fastned to his body with any corporal connexion yet he is joyned unto it by the bonds of love as the same Father hath it in another place Habet ecclesia caput positum in coelestibus quod gubernat corpus suum separatum quidem visione sed charitate annexum St. Cyprian speaks more home than either both to the matter and the manner of the union which we have with Christ. Nos ipsi corpus Christi effecti Sacramento re Sacramenti capiti nostro conjungineur unimur We are then made the Body of Christ both by the Sacrament and the grace represented by it when we are joyned or united unto Christ our Head Not that we are not made the members of Christs Mystical Body but onely by a participation of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood but that this Mystical union and communion which we have with Christ is most fitly represented by it For otherwise St. Paul hath told us That by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body and consequently made the members of Christ. According unto that of Divine St. Augustine Ad hoc baptisma valet ut baptizati Christo incorporentur membra ejus efficiantur To this saith he availeth Baptism that men being baptized may be incorporated unto Christ and made his Members But this supposeth a relation to the other Sacrament of which although they may not actually participate before they die yet they have either a desire to it if they be of age and a right or interess in it
if they die in their Baptism in which respect they may be said to communicate with the rest of the faithful Concerning which the same St. Augustine hath most excellently resolved it thus No man in any wise may doubt but that every faithful man is then made partaker of Christs Body and Blood when in Baptism he is made a member of Christ And that he is not deprived of the Communion of that Bread and that Cup although before he either eat of that Bread or drink of that Cup he depart this world being in the unity of Christs Body For he is not deprived from partaking of the benefit of that Sacrament so long as he findeth in himself the things or the res Sacramenti as St. Cyprian calls it which the Sacrament signifieth As for the Union or Communion which the faithful have with one another though that arise upon their first incorporation in Iesus Christ by holy Baptism yet is more compleatly signified and more fully effected by that communion which they have in his Body and Blood And so St. Cyprian and St. Augustine and the rest of the Fathers do declare most plainly St. Cyprian as more antient shall begin the evidence and be the foreman of the Inquest That Christian men are joyned together with the inseparable bonds of charity the Lords Supper doth saith he declare St. Augustine generally first of all outward Sacraments In nullum nomen Religionis seu verum seu falsum coagulari possunt homines nisi aliquo signaculorum vel sacramentorum visibilium consortio colligantur Men saith he cannot be united into any Religion be it true or false unless they be joyned together in the bond of some visible Sacraments What he affirmeth of this particularly we shall see anon first taking with us that of Dionysius an Antient Writer doubtless whosoever he was Sancta illa unius ejusdem panis poculi communis pacifica distributio unitatem illis divinam tanquam unà enutritis praescribit that is to say That holy and peaceable distribution of the same one Bread and that common Cup prescribeth to them which are so fed and nourished together a most heavenly union More elegantly in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Pachymeres the Greek Paraphrast doth thus reason for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because that common feeding together with such joynt consent bringeth to our remembrance the Lords Supper Nor doth the participation of this blessed Sacrament produce an union or communion between them alone who do receive the same together at one time and place but it doth joyn and knit together all the Saints of God how far soever they are distant and scattered far and near upon the face of the Earth For therein we profess that we are all servants in one House and resort all to one Table and feed all of one Spiritual Meat which is the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of God The Prayers which are used in that holy action being so fitted and contrived in all Antient Liturgies that they extend not unto those onely which do then communicate but that they and the whole Church with them may by the death and merits of Iesus Christ and through Faith in his Blood obtain remission of their sins and all other the benefits of his passion as it is piously expressed in the Liturgy of the Church of England To this St. Ierom gives a clear and most ample testimony who being pressed by Iohn the then Bishop of Ierusalem with whom he had some personal quarrels to go to Rome and witness his integrity by communicating in the face of that Church A qua videmur communione separari from whose communion he had seemed to separate returns this Answer Non necesse esse ire tam longè that it was not needful for him to go so far How so Et hic in Palestina eodem modo ei jungimur In viculo enim Bethlehem Presbyteris ejus quantum in nobis est communion◠sociamur For here saith he in Palestine do we hold communion with that Church and I residing in this Village of Bethlehem am joyned in the communion with the Priests of Rome By which we see that whosoever doth worthily eat the Body of Christ and drink his Blood according to the Institution of our Lord and Saviour communicates thereby with all Christian men of all Countreys and Nations whatsoever and that by vertue and effect of the said Communion they be all knit and joyned together as members of the same one Body in the bonds of love And this is that which is affirmed by St. Augustine Non mirum si absentes adsumus nobis ignoti no smet novimus cum unius corporis membra simus unum habeamus caput una perfundamur gratia uno pane vivamus una incedamus via eadem habitemus is domo It is no wonder saith the Father that being absent we be present together and being not acquainted do know each other considering that we be the Members of one Body have the same one Head an endowment of the self-same Spirit and that we live by one bread go the same way and dwell together in one House To testifie this Communion which they had with each other by vertue of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper it was a custom of the Primitive and Purest times to send some part of the consecrated Elements unto them which were absent and joyned not with them in that action And sometimes for one Bishop to send to another a Loaf of Bread as a token of consent in the point of Faith and in all brotherly love and concord which he that did receive it if he thought it fitting might consecrate and use at the Ministration Touching the first of these it was well observed by Irenaeus that when any of the Eastern Bishops came to Rome the Popes thereof which preceded Victor did use to send them some of the blessed Sacrament although they differed in the observation of the Feast of Easter whereby a mutual concord and communion was preserved between them Of which he writeth thus to the said Pope Victor Qui fuerunt ante te Presbyteri etiam cum non ita observarent Presbyteris Ecclesiarum of the East he meaneth cum Romam acciderent Eucharistiam mittebant And of the other it is said in those Epistles which Paulinus wrote unto St. Augustine Panem unum quem unanimitatis indicio misimus charitati tuae rogamus ut accipiendo benedicas i. e. The Loaf of Bread which I have sent unto you as a token of unity I beseech you to receive and consecrate See also to what purpose he sent those five Loaves which were designed for the said St. Augustine and Licinius of which he speaketh in the Six and thirtieth Epistle of that Fathers works and that other single Loaf in the Five and thirtieth where it appeareth That the Loaves so sent and consecrated