say an apple cometh from the root by the branch yet the root and branch are not two principles The pool ariseth from the river and the river from the fountain but the water of the fountain river and pool are all one and the same The Father as the fountain begetteth the Son as the river The Father and the Son as the fountain with the river breathe forth the Holy Ghost as it were a pool yet their essence is one and the same The late Grecians are accused because they think that the Holy Ghost did not proceed from the Son neither will I contend very much to excuse them but if their doctrine were with moderation explained perhaps the difference between them and us may seem to be in words and not in the thing it self And if any urge us more morosely that it is no where said that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son we will not contend about the word if he be granted to be the Spirit of the Son no less then of the Father and to be sent from the Son as from the Father which is all one in sense as to proceed Neither do I beleeve that the Grecians will deny this Certainly this procession is done in an unspeakable manner and how it may be done is not for us to search over-curiously The Spirit is said to be Holy because he is essentially holy when as the Angels are so by the grace of creation beleevers by the grace of adoption And again he is said to be Holy because he is the Author of true or perfect holiness he is a quickening Spirit because he is the efficient cause of spiritual life in our souls The body is dead without the soul and the soul is dead without the Spirit Let us say with David O Lord renew a right spirit within us Psal 51.10 and so the short third part of the Creed is briefly explained The fourth follows I beleeve the holy Catholick Church I beleeve the Church was is shall be and that I am a lively member thereof I beleeve not in the Church the affiance of the heart is to be directed onely to God This Church is a company of men that are called who do embrace the word of God and that rightly use the Sacrament The Church is called Ecclesia from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to call forth The convention or meeting of Citizens amongst the Athenians who were called forth by the Cryer from the rest of the company to hear the judgement of the Senate had that name given them answerable to which there are a company of the faithful amongst Christians who by the preaching of the word are called out of the kingdom of the devil to hear Gods will and pleasure The Church is called holy because it is sanctified by the most precious bloud of Jesus because by his merits it is purified through the word sacrament and faith and because it is taken up in the holy exercises of Divine worship and Christian charity They are not true members of the Church who abroad in the world shine in sanctity and at home abound in iniquity nor those who are like to the lascivious Monks whose body is in the Quire and their minde in their chamber of whom Innocentius said of old In the night they embrace venery and in the morning they adore the Virgin From outward sanctity we cannot necessarily conclude the inward holiness of the Church But beloved be you holy within and without To be Saints and seem so is good to seem and not to be such is worst of all Feigned sanctity is double iniquity saith S. Austin To proceed The Church is called Catholick that is Universal This word is not written in the Scriptures but after the times of the Apostles it began to be used The Church is so called because it is gathered out of all kinds of men throughout the whole world and because it doth profess and approve of the Catholick doctrine of the Prophets of Christ and of the Apostles by an unanimous consent So Catholick is the same with Orthodox and it is opposite to heretical as it was first of all opposed to the Arrian heresie and to others not judging aright of the Trinity And they were called Catholicks who did follow the true doctrine of the Divinity of Christ as it was expounded by the Nicene Council This signification of Catholick is the most principal one Where there is not an universality of the faith there the universality of time and place is of no avail If any one should say that the Church of Rome is Catholick in respect of place Object It is a contradiction in the adject Answ because all and one do not agree The Universal and Individual the whole and the part Neither is the Romish Church Catholick in respect of the doctrine of it because it is foully fallen from the faith and fosters most grievous errours Neither doth that make for it that it is called Catholick For it is not enough to be so called but to be such We are not to look what is done but what ought to be done The Pontificians are called Catholicks by us but either according to their own opinion or ironically even as they call us the Reformed But ours is the true Catholick Church because the doctrine thereof was declared by the Apostles throughout the whole world and because it is entertained and received by men of all sorts because it was proposed in all ages although not in a like degree and for that it is consonant and agreeable to Holy Writ Let others please themselves in the beautiful shell of a name we had rather obtain the kernel of the thing Hitherto concerning the Church now let us treat something of the Communion of Saints in the Church Communion is a relation between two or more having something common Saints are the members of the Church which are said to be holy either for the imputation of Christs righteousness or their begun conformity to the law or for their separation from the world The communion of Saints is the common possession and interest which the members of the Church have amongst themselves in Christ their Head and all his benefits and gifts This communion therefore consists First in the union of the members of the Church with their Head Christ which is not the subsistence of the body of Christ within our bodies but the inhabitation of the same Spirit And truly they are three yea four times blessed whose fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ concerning which Saint John speaketh in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. Good God what a noble association is this What is more desireable in this life then to have perfect amity with God the Father and Christ by faith by hope by reciprocal love by mutual colloquies obsequiousness joy by the communication of good things as it is between a father and an adopted son between the bridegroom and the
the life and in all the other Articles of the belief being briefly handled thou wilt finde many excellent observations much comprized in few words And to conclude I wish that these precious truths were imprinted in our minds as well as in this book the which God grant Courteous Reader Farewell in the Lord Jesus W. F. The Key of Faith EVen as the river that watered Paradise was divided into four heads so in like manner is the doctrine of the Church to wit The Apostles Creed the Decalogue or ten Commandments the Lords Prayer and the Sacraments First we are to live in the Church by faith Secondly to come unto the rule of life by precepts Thirdly lest we faint we are to take heed by prayer and when notwithstanding all these we are yet weak we are to have recourse to the seals of grace which are the Sacraments First faith is necessary Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 For the sum of faith is contained in the Apostles Creed or Symbol It is called a Symbol because it is a token or mark by which Christian Souldiers are discerned from others or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from contributing as if it were compiled and composed by the Apostles However it is said to be the Apostles because it comprehends the sum of the faith which the Apostles preach'd We are to search the Scriptures and to beleeve those things which are contained in them but above all the special and fundamental places which are simply necessary Lib. 6. confess cap. 6. S. Austin writes they are to be blamed not to be listened to if perhaps there be any such that should say How knowest thou that those books which are ministred to us by men are the minde of the onely true and unerring God for that for it self it is chiefly to be beleeved Notwithstanding there are enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evidences which evince and clear it that the Scripture is inspired from God whereof these are the most choice The authority of the writers who were in an extraordinary manner called and sent forth The majesty of the doctrine The amplitude and clearness of the miracles The truth of the prophesies The sanctity of the Bible nothing is here to be found dissonant to piety and truth nothing of contradiction And to add to this the sublimity of the mean style and the sublime humility To conclude the harmonious truth of either Testament that which lieth hid in the Old is manifest in the New But the Symbol or Creed it self which is taken out of the Scriptures containeth in it twelve Articles and is as it were the a A circle in heaven wherein the twelve Signs are zodiack of a Christian But these may be reduced to four parts The first concerning God the Father who hath made all things The second concerning God the Son who hath redeemed mankinde The third concerning the H. Ghost who hath sanctified the faithful The fourth concerning the Church and its priviledges which the Lord hath communicated to it But some one may say Object The works of the Trinity which have a reference to the creatures are undivided common to all the three Persons how cometh it then to pass that creation is attributed to the Father redemption to the Son sanctification to the H. Ghost This cometh to pass Answ not to exclude but to distinguish between the Persons and the order of their acting Omitting these let us come to the Articles themselves The first is I beleeve in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth It is said I beleeve not we beleeve because every one ought to have a special faith of his own explicit not implicit or taken upon trust We cannot see well with other mens eyes neither is it sufficient to have an opinion in divine matters The disputation of Gregory de Valentia is of no force Lib. 6. Analys fidei cap. 13. in which he thus asserts concerning a man that is not Theologically learned That if he prefer the Romish Church for its outward authority before the Reformed then God shall have nothing to object against this illiterate man in that most dreadful Tribunal for God doth not require of him this that he should come to the knowledge of the truth by searching into the doctrine since that he understands not Theological controversies These things saith he But let him say what he will every one certainly ought to hold the substance and saving sense of the Articles although not all the most difficult circumstances of questions from thence arising But now to beleeve is not onely to know and give assent to those things which are propounded in the Gospel but also to acquiesce and rest satisfied in them It is not all one to beleeve a God and to beleeve God and to beleeve in God In the two first senses sinners and devils do agree the third sense none attain to unless they be such who have faith formed in them in this manner to beleeve is to go into God by good works 3 Sent. Dist 23. saith the Master of the Sentences To beleeve a God is to know there is such a God To beleeve God is to confess that he is true but to beleeve in God requires application that he is my God There is a faith found that is not right There is a faith that is feigned and it is of the hypocrites the Apostle saith that the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 There is a kinde of dead faith and it is that of sinners or of those that are still in their sins Faith without works is dead Jam. 2.26 There is a kinde of weak faith and it is of the luke-warm Receive you him that is weak in the faith Rom. 14.1 There is likewise a little faith and it is of the fearful therefore Christ said O thou of little faith why doubtest thou Matth. 14.31 Hitherto we have treated concerning faith it self now concerning the objects of faith of which God is the principal whom not to know is death and whom to know is life And first it is to be demonstrated that God is This may be proved out of the book of Nature inasmuch as he is the Creator and out of the book of Scripture in that he is Creator Conserver and Redeemer Sum part 1 quaest 12. Art 7 God may be known although not comprehended as Aquinas saith These arguments that are drawn from nature do prove that there is a God which notwithstanding are common to Scripture also to wit the most beautiful order of the creatures as the heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19.1 the understanding of man the knowledges of principles and the knowledge of this principle That God is Rom. 1.19 the tremblings of consciences in sinners the rewards of good men the punishments of the wicked the political order the heroick vertues the invention of arts the prediction of
conception will cover our impurity if that hereafter we endeavour to be pure So was his conception his nativity succeeds Christ was born that he might signifie to us the truth of his humane nature Born of Mary to shew that he was of the fathers to wit David and Abraham of whom Mary came Born of the Virgin Mary lest he should be defiled with original sin and that the Scripture should be fulfilled this the Prophet foretold Isai 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son Neither were the Sybils silent in this matter if those things be true which are written of them And truly Boetius in his Tractate of Scholastical discipline reports a wonderful thing to wit that there was found in Plato's tomb a plate of gold in which was written I beleeve in the Son of God that is to be born of the Virgin And such a like story Nicephorus tells of a certain man that in the time of Constantine and of his mother Irene there was a stone chest found under the earth with this inscription The Messias shall be born of a Virgin and I beleeve in him Out of all these ariseth the confirmation of our faith and firm consolation that a Saviour is born and born to us Isai 9.6 When he was rich he became poor for us For our sakes he was disgraced of men and contemned of the vulgar he was humble because he would not have us to be proud he was born of a poor Virgin that he might shew to us that we ought not to boast in riches and honour and that he might teach us to be contented with the meanest condition The Virgin brought forth her Son she wrapped him in swadling clothes having taken him first in her Virgin arms into the which he being new born the Angels had laid him as Suarez conjectures The Pastor of Israel manifested himself to be a good Shepherd to the shepherds The Angels brought news of great joy that should be to all people for that a Saviour was born Christ the Lord in the city of David and suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God Jesus the bread of life was born in Bethlehem the house of bread He was born in a stable that we should not so much care for sumptuous Palaces in which place afterwards there was built by S. Beda de locis sanctis alii Helen a most sumptuous Church to the honour of the Virgin the Mother of God Concerning the manner of his birth it was wonderfully singular and singularly wonderful Of this thing Saint Austin doth very admirably discourse saying thus Let the incredulous Jew tell me how or in what manner the dry rod to wit Aarons budded and blossomed and brought forth almonds then I will tell him how the Virgin conceived and brought forth But truly neither can the Jew explain the one nor I the other Divine mysteries are not to be discussed or searched out by the understanding but to be adored by faith saith S. Gregory I beleeve therefore that it is enough for us simply to beleeve that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary And certainly we ought piously to hold and maintain it that the blessed Mother of our Redeemer always remained a Virgin She was a Virgin before in and after her bearing or bringing forth The which S. Jerom at large proves against Helvidius And that place Mat. 1.25 He knew her not till she brought forth her first-born Son notes that he knew her not at all The like you have 2 Sam. 6. and the last verse where it is said Michal the daughter of Saul had no childe until the day of her death that is she never had any But how is Christ said to be the first-born if he had no brethren We answer that Christ is so called not because there was not any son after him but because there was none before him And where in the Scripture there is mention made of the brethren of Christ there cousin-germans and kinsmen are understood so Abraham said unto Lot We are brethren Gen. 13.8 Hitherto of the nativity of Christ his passion followeth He suffered under Pontius Pilate The whole life of Jesus was a passion he suffered in his circumcision in his flight into Egypt in fasting fourty days and in his temptation by the Devil he suffered in the want of the chiefest felicity he suffered all kinde of evils all humane infirmities sin excepted he endured poverty injury and the sense of the wrath of God but without despair and to conclude he suffered death it self according to his humane nature To teach that Christ felt no pain in his flesh nor true sorrow in his soul at the time of his passion is contrary to truth and heretical as if it should be said he took not upon him to be true and real man but onely his similitude So truly saith the Master of the Sentences The Divine nature did rest 3 Sent. dist 14. that the humane might suffer but it upheld the humane in its agonies that it might overcome The cause moving God to subject his Son to sufferings was either inward or outward The inward was the love of his good pleasure The outward threefold the misery of sin from whence was mercy sin it self from whence justice and the tyranny of the Devil from whence revenge the end and fruit of Christs passion are the same in a diverse respect the end in respect of Christ the fruit or benefit in respect of us and they are two the glory of God and our salvation The Judge under whom he suffered was Pontius Pilate the Governour of all Judea for Tiberius the Emperour that it might be evident that Jesus was the true Messias who was not to come till the sceptre was wholly taken away from Judah Gen. 49.10 which came now to pass Judea being overcome of the Romans Then it is also said that he suffered under Pilate that the truth of that which Christ spake concerning his being delivered up to the Gentiles might be manifest Matth. 20.19 Besides because his sufferings under Pilate were most heavy and grievous For Pilate scourged Christ and with thongs not by his own but by the hands of the executioners saith S. Jerom. Soon after when his body throughout was torn with scourges being crowned with thorns adorned with a purple robe and a sceptre of reed by a new kinde of mockery as it were to act in a theatre Pilate brings him in a King of misery to be beheld of the people and saith Behold the man By which words he would have moved the Jews to pity But they O hard-hearted men as they were used Christ very unmercifully made choice of Barabbas one notorious for lewd pranks to be released from punishment and were very instant requiring that the most innocent Jesus might be crucified Pilate could have denied them but he would not and against his conscience he delivered Jesus into the hands