explicit consent or perswasion and say with S. Peter S. Joh. 6. 69. We beleeve and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God We beleeve and are sure of this all alike Superiours and Inferiours but as for the second a virtual consent is sufficient which is not in the perswasion but onely in the preparation of a good Christians soul whereby he is ready to beleeve whatsoever shall appear to him to be contained in the holy Scriptures so that we may not unfitly say that S. Pauls Profession here sets one rule for a Christian man and another rule for a Christian Divine to beleeve all things in the Law and in the Prophets For though both beleeve all things yet the Christian man beleeves many things by an Implicit which the Christian Divine who hath a greater measure of knowledge is bound to beleeve by an Explicit Faith for it is without all dispute that God requires not the same degree of Faith in all alike neither extensively nor intensively but to whom much is given of him much is required Wherefore this is the Catholick Faith essentially a Faith that delivers and contains either explicitly or implicitly all that God hath revealed to man for his salvation Again The Faith may be called the Catholick Faith accidentally not in regard of the substance but in regard of the extent and diffusion of it as when we beleeve those Truths which have been beleeved at all times in all places and of all men that professed the Faith of Christ Quae ubique semper ab omnibus credita est as saith Lirinensis And in this sense Faith is but accidentally Catholick For it is but an accident of the Christian Faith that it be thus generally received or professed and therefore we finde that in several ages of the Church the Christian Faith hath not met with this reception or profession I told you of Athanasius before another will tell you that when our Saviour Christ was put to death True Faith remained onely in the Blessed Virgin Fides in solâ Virgine remansit so Picus Mirandula and long before him Bonaventure seems to have been of the same opinion who gives this reason why the Saturday was more peculiary devoted to the honour of the Blessed Virgin because that in Her alone was the Faith of the Resurrection during that Sabbath or Saturday which Christ passed in the Grave Indubitantèr credendum est quòd Virgo Maria semper in side stetit Unde discipulis non credentibus dubitantibus ipsa fuit in quâ sides Ecclesiae remanserat solida inconcussa ideo diem sabbati solennizat in honorem ejus omnis Ecclesia Bona in 3. sent Dist. 3. 13. He saith all the Disciples had lost the Faith as loath that S. Peter should go alone and that all the Church did solemnize Saturday in honour of the Virgin Mary who onely had not lost it but he means surely his own Church which he looked upon as all for it will be hard to prove that any other Christian Church ever had this belief or this practise but onely the Latine Church and that Church hath had both a long time hath accordingly instituted and appointed the Office of the Virgin Mary to be said every week on Saturday as the Office of the Trinity on Sunday of the Angels on Munday of salus Populi on Tuesday of the Holy Ghost on Wednesday of the Venerable Sacrament on Thursday and of the Holy Cross on Friday Missae votivae sive commune in missali secundum usum sacrum And the Rubrick gives this for the reason of that Institution Quia Domino crucifixo mortuo Discipulis fugientibus de Resurrectione desperantibus in illâ solâ tota fides remansit Because while the Lord Christ lay dead and buried the Disciples being all fled and despairing of the Resurrection his Virgin Mother alone retained entirely the Christian Faith It is not my purpose to examine the truth of this relation nor the use that hath been made of it I onely ask the Question was not the Catholick Faith the same then when it had so few Professours as it was afterwards when all the Disciples professed it and by their Preaching caused the whole world to profess it If it were not the same Faith then was the Blessed Virgin saved by one Faith and we by another plainly against the Text one Lord one Faith Eph. 4. 5. We must therefore say it was the same Faith then which is now the very same Catholick Faith but essentially in the substance or perswasion of it not accidentally in the extent or profession of it the same essentially for it beleeved all things in the Law and the Prophets though not the same accidentally for there was not the same profession of that belief For it is the same spirit of Faith whereby one beleeves and whereby many beleeve as plainly S. Paul declareth We having the same spirit of faith as it is written I beleeved and therefore have I spoken We also beleeve and therefore speak 2 Cor. 4. 13. Take I in the singular or We in the plural 't is the same spirit of faith in many and in few beleevers We also beleeve and therefore speak There is no speaking no praying without this Faith and there can be no wilfull neglecting either Time or Means or house of prayer with it If we beleeve we will speak If we will not speak it is because we do not beleeve God takes it for an honour to be trusted he that trusts him most honours him most For he most beleeves both his All-sufficiency and his All-efficiency In thee O Lord do I put my trust deliver me in thy Righteousness Psal. 71. 1 2. O happy man who can pray to be delivered in Gods Righteousness when he cannot in his own for surely God will always be righteous though men seldome be so if we make him our trust he will not fail nor deceive his trust therefore he that trusteth most honoureth most because he beleeveth most and he that beleeveth most prayeth most for as he that beleeveth speaketh in his heart the assent being nothing else but the internal word of the minde so he that speaketh in his heart speaketh also with his tongue the expression of the mouth being nothing else but the external word of the heart by the internal word a man speaketh so as to hear and understand himself by the external word he speaketh so as that others may hear and understand him For with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 10. 10. Are you for the belief and why should you not also be for the confession Are you afraid to lose the righteousness of God for want of Faith and why should you not be afraid to lose the salvation of God for want of the Confession If we did look upon the profession of Religion as an act of Faith as we ought
to do and not as an act of Custom we would all labour to be as unchangeable in our profession as we desire to be thought unchangeable in our Faith then would this distinction of Faith essentially accidentally Catholick come to nothing for as the Christian Faith is at all times equally Catholick in the Veracity of its perswasion so it would also all times be equally Catholick in the extent of its profession And good reason it should be so since it is grounded upon Gods Word which is as unchangeable as himself for so saith S. Paul Beleeving all things that are written in the Law and in the Prophets which is the reason or proof that his Faith is truly Catholick because it beleeves nothing but what is written Non credimus quia non legimus was S. Hieroms rule to confute Helvidius Mariam nupsisse post partum non credimus quia non legimus Hoc quia de scripturis non habet autoritatem câdem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur We do not beleeve that the Blessed Virgin had any other childe after our Blessed Saviour because we do not reade it for what hath not its authority from the Scriptures is rejected with the same facility that it is alledged so S. Paul here urgeth the Scripture the written word as the rule of his Faith and the Law and the Prophets as the specification of that rule Out of this Rule our Saviour Christ confuteth the devil S. Mat. 4. nor doth the devil cavil with the manner of his confutation as some of late have done as if they thought it too little to be tormented by the devil unless they might also be condemned by him objecting the uncertainty of the Hebrew Points or the difference of the Greek and Latine Translations or the various readings of the Text and as various expositions of it yet it is observable that not one of those Texts there quoted by our Saviour Christ doth exactly agree with the original word for word not one Text is the same with the Original in words though every one be in sense As for example in Deut. 8. 3. no mention is made of Word yet our Saviour saith by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God so Deut. 6. 16. the Text speaks in the Plural number Ye shall not tempt Our Saviour quoteth it in the Singular Thou shalt not tempt So Deu. 6. 13. Moses saith Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him but our Saviour Christ quoteth him thus Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve altering one word and adding another O that men would be ingenuous with God and rather then not learn this good lesson would learn it from this bad Master who durst not in Gods cause refuse to be tried by Gods Word but was far from loading himself with more sin by seeking to load the Word of Truth either with Cavils or with Calumnies for if it be written in the Law in the Prophets it is not to be gainsaid it is not to be contradicted if it be not written there as it was not in S. Pauls Religion so it may not be in ours But you will say the specification of this Rule is too narrowly confined to the Law and the Prophets I answer that by these words is meant whatsoever is comprised in the Canon of the Old Testament as it was established and received in the Jewish Church For the holy Ghost plainly saith that to them i. e. to the Jews were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. now the Jews before and at the coming of Christ were of two sorts the one properly called Hebrews which lived in Jerusalem or Judea and understood the Hebrew tongue or else S. Paul would not have spoken to them in it Act. 21. 40. The other called Hellenists or Grecians either because they were dispersed among the Greeks as saith Baronius Judaeos in Graeciâ habitantes dictos Graecos in Palaestinâ Hebraeos or because they used in their Synagogues to read the Bible onely in Greek as Scaliger will have it Quia Biblia Graecè tantum legere soliti sunt We read of these two several sorts of Jews both together Act. 6. 1. There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews that is of the Jews that used the Greek Bibles against those Jews that used the Hebrew Bibles in their Synagogues And hence it came to pass that as the Jews themselves were of two sorts so they did use a twofold Text of Scripture in their Synagogues the one in Hebrew the orher in Greek whence Tertullian in his Apology cap. 18. advising even Painims to search the Old Testament whereby they might be drawn to the Christian Faith saith That it was to be seen in Ptolemies library or to be heard in Rome and other places in the Jewish Synagogues who by paying a standing tribute did purchase this liberty of openly reading the Scriptures and that not onely in Hebrew but also in Greek in the same tongue wherein they were translated in Ptolemie's library as appears by a supplication of the Jews unto the Emperour Iustinian Authenti 146. Col. 10. quod sic incipit Aequum sanè wherein they make request That it might be lawful for them to read the Greek translation of the seventy Interpreters in their Synagogues as their custome before had been for in all probability the Jews of the dispersion made this petition because they understood not the Hebrew text as did not the Jews of Palestine who did partly understand it in it self but fully as it was translated in the Chaldee Paraphrase which was therefore read with the text in their Synagogues and hence it came to pass that the Greek text was first generally received by the Christian Church because those Jews which used it were dispersed among the Gentiles and the Greek was now become the common language of the world and this Greek text or translation having been used in the Apostles times for these reasons to wit for the uniting of the Jews and Gentiles into one communion and for the common edification of both being so united did happily cause Saint Luke to continue the name of Cainan in the genealogy of Christ because he found it in the Greek though it was not in the Hebrew Bible lest if he should have altered the long received translation he should have discountenanced the newly received Religion which evangelical condescension of his did no more authorize the Greek translation to justle with the Hebrew text then the Apostles condescension before of abstaining from bloud and meats offered to idols did authorize the Gentiles to turn Jews or the Jews to continue in their Judaisme But however sure we are the Greek Translation was first generally received because it was generally understood both by Jews and Christians whereas the Hebrew text was then fully understood onely by some few Jews and scarce at all by any Christians And thus did the Jews use
questioned as a faithfull keeper of the Text which she must be if the Text hath not been faithfully kept no sober man will question her as a faithfull interpreter thereof and so the Church will have authority sufficient to confute all Heresies and to compose all schisms but to deny the Text to have been preserved inviolable and incorrupt especially in the sense and Doctrine if not in the very words and titles of it is to deny the Churches faithfulness in preserving it and the Churches veracity in deriving it and consequently to deny the Churches authority in expounding it for if she hath given us a false Text how can we think she will give us a true gloss wherefore we must abhor this tenent not onely because it fills the mouth with blasphemies but also because it fills the heart with uncertainties a thing as dreadfull in Religion as detestable in common sense for every true Christian is bound to beleeve an absolute certainty of the Christian Religion and consequently that neither the authority of the Scripture may be doubted which hath given the rule of Religion nor the authority of the Catholick Church which hath derived that rule to us and is intrusted by our blessed Saviour to continue and derive the same rule to all mankinde to the worlds end Saint Luke justifies both in the preface to his Gospel where he professeth that he therefore put the Gospel in writing that Theophilus might know the certainly of those things wherein he had been instructed S. Luke 1. 4. Whence naturally follow these two inferences First that writing is a more sure way of instruction then preaching there is the authority of the Scripture Secondly That the word being written is supposed to be preserved as it was written unless we will say that Saint Luke writ his Gospel onely to instruct Theophilus but not Christians of after ages there is the authority of the Church Saint Luke makes the Gospel thus written and thus preserved the rule of certainty and how shall our ungodly or uncharitable scruples make it the rule of uncertainty CHAP. IV. That though the substance and exercise of Religion be different in themselves yet they ought not to be accounted so now in our profession and much less made so in our practice for that whosoever is not sure of the exercise of his Religion will not much regard the certainty that is in the substance of it IT is not enough for a man to set his heart to seek the Lord that he may confirm himself in the true Religion but he must also set his face to seek the Lord that others may be confirmed by him tu conversus confirma fratres it concerns not onely every true minister but also every true member of Christ and thou being converted strengthen thy brethren S. Luke 22. 32. And how could he strengthen them but by having a profession agreeable to his faith and a practise agreeable to his profession for they could not b◠strengthened by Saint Peters faith as it was internally in his heart but as it was externally in his communication and in his conversation and indeed this was the ready way for Saint Peter and is for every Christian not onely to strengthen his brethren but also to strengthen himself For though the substance of Religion is written in Gods book yet is it not written in that mans heart who hath not a tongue to profess it and a hand to practise it wherefore it nearly concerns every good Christian to be ready to say with Saint Paul be his accusers never so importunate and his judges never so unjust Acts 24. 14. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers beleeving all things which are written in the law in the prophets A Text that joyns the substance and the exercise of Religion both together and consequently must teach us so to joyn them for as we cannot have better words for our profession so we cannot have a better example for our practise I will therefore accordingly enlarge my self upon them that our Religion may be the same with Saint Pauls not onely in substance but also in profession and in practise And I hope the Divinity will not be the worse because it is like to be propounded by way of Sermon upon a Text for ministers may now adays speak Gods truth more plainly in the apostles names then in their own and this is a truth that would be plainly spoken because it so nearly concerns the glory of Christ and the salvation of Christian souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Cyril ep ad Celestinum papam in actis concilii Ephes. pars prima If Christ be evil spoken of how shall we that are his ministers hold our peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if we hold our peace now what shall we be able to say in the day of Judgment and clearly our Saviour Christ is now evil spoken of not onely in the holy circumstances of Religion as times places and persons consecrated to his name but also in the very substance of it in his holy word and Sacraments nay in his own most holy prayer by some men that would be thought to promote Religion in its substance whiles they discountenance and baffle it in its exercise that is to say both in its profession and in its practise both in the profession of the apostolical Christian faith and in the practise of the immediate worship of Christ. Wherefore let us consider what Saint Paul if he were present would say to these men for I will say no more then his words do warrant me and by consequent shall under my unpolished writing but onely produce his sayings as that prophet did to Iehoram king of Judah who gave him a letter from Eliah after he was assumed into heaven for Eliah was taken up into heaven in the time of Iehoshaphat as appears 2 Kin. 2. 11. and Elisha had in that kings reign succeeded Eliah as appears 2 Kin. 3. 14. where for Iehoshaphats sake Elisha regardeth the request of the king of Israel to procure water for his perishing army but this writing came from Eliah to Iehoram the son of Iehoshaphat reigning in his fathers stead after he had committed that horrid massacre upon his brethren 2 Chr. 21. 4 12. and Iunius in his notes gives this reason for it sic oportuit impium regem ab absentibus reprehendi qui praesentes non fuisset passurus Thus was it fit that the wicked king should be reproved by one that was absent who would not endure the reproofs of those that were present And R. David is of the same opinion as indeed Iunius in his Notes doth frequently borrow many expositions from the Jewish D◠not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the allegorical but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the literal interpreters whereof Kimchi is judged the very best he gives us this gloss this writing from
therefore they revile reproach that as if it were impious against God fitter to infect souls then to save them seditious against the State fitter to make factions then to compose them and ignominious in it self fitter for Nazareth then for Jerusalem and rather to be called a Sect then a Religion but he knows it to be the onely way of sanctification of peace of glory and will not be discountenanced in it by their reproaches and much less driven from it by their menacies which is the resolution of every one that desires to be a man after Gods own heart and the performance of every one that is so Psal. 119. 61. the bands or the companies Hebr. the ropes the cables that are so twisted together as not to be unravelled and much less to be broken the bands of wicked men have robbed me have made a prey of me but I have not forgotten thy law If neither fear could drive Saint Paul nor shame could keep him from the profession of his Religion it is evident that he thought it necessary by a double necessity the necessity of command and the necessity of means conducing to the end necessitate praecepti necessitate sinis First the profession of our Religion is necessary in regard of the precept for we have the command of Christ for it S. Mat. 10. 32. whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven But you will say this onely concerns his person and who is such a reprobate as to deny his Saviour therefore see S. Mar. 8. 38. you will finde it doth also concern his doctrine whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels If godly and devout and efficacious forms of prayer be not Christs words shame upon his Church for obtruding them if they be Christs words shame upon schismaticks for rejecting them if the apostles Creed be not Christs word how came it to be universally received and professed in Christs Church if it be how may it be disused or despised by any Christians Lastly if Christs own most holy prayer be not his words let us leave it out of the text if it be how can we leave it out of our prayers nay how dare we multiply cavils and blasphemies in stead of arguments or objections against the use of it for all pretence of excuse is here taken away let the adulterous and sinfull generation be ashamed of it but let not the righteous and the faithfull servants of Christ be so Though the whole generation adulterate the truth in corrupting the doctrine of it yet we must keep it undefiled though the whole generation bid defiance to the truth by neglecting and reviling the practise of it yet we must continue in our uprightness though the whole generation be adulterous and sinfull going a whoring after their own inventions and turning away from Christ yet that is not ground enough for us to bear them company For it is equally necessary for every Christian to profess the true Religion when he is thereunto called and to abandon idolatry and superstition that idolatrous decree might no more be obeyed which forbad Daniel to pray to the true God then that which commanded the three children to worship a false god In this case the omission is dangerous as well as the commission for the omission denies God whom it doth not worship as the commission blasphemes God by false worshipping and therefore we ought not to be terrified from the true Religion for fear of the lions ready to devour and break us in pieces no more then we ought to be terrified into the false Religion for fear of the fiery furnace ready to burn us to ashes And this Divinity we may learn not onely from the prophet Daniel in the captivity but also from the prophet Jeremy before it who of purpose to forewarn and forearm the Jews against the temptations of their bondage did put down that verse in Syriack Jer. 10. 11. whereby they were to reprove the Babylonians for their idolatry whereas all the rest of his prophecy is in Hebrew so little were the Iews to be ashamed or afraid of owning their Religion and their God in Babylon that they were to reprehend the Babylonians for their idolatry even in their own language and in their own territories and dominions and we that look upon the Scripture as a perfect rule of Faith and Life must look upon these prophets as teaching us how to behave our selves in persecution or adversity no less then we look upon the rest as teaching us how to behave our selves in peace or prosperity For so Kimchi himself tells us upon the fore-named verse of the prophet Ieremy that it was writ in Syriack to the intent the Iews might be ready to answer the Babylonians in their own language if in their captivity they should tempt them either to serve false gods or to deny the true for saith he this saying of God did the prophet Ieremy send to the children of the captivity that they might have it ready to answer the Chaldeans Secondly the profession of our Religion is necessary in regard of the end not onely in regard of Gods command but also in regard of our own salvation for we cannot have Christ without it so saith the Apostle Heb. 4. 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens Iesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession The inference must be this if we hold not fast our profession it is because we have not yet this High Priest to make intercession for us and without his intercession we cannot come boldly to the throne of grace the same exhortation he repeats again Heb. 10. 21 22 23. and reenforceth it with the same reason not for want of variety to express himself for he was called Mercury because he was the chief speaker Act. 14. 12. but to keep us from variety or rather inconstancy in our profession wherefore thus he argueth we cannot draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith unless we hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for the words are spoken consequenter by way of consequence and from the eversion of the consequent the argument is undeniable to the eversion of the antecedent Therefore they who are not true to themselves holding fast the profession of their faith cannot easily be true to their Saviour by drawing near to him with a true heart in full assurance of faith and accordingly he saith not Let us hold fast our faith which is onely internal but Let us hold fast the profession of our faith which is external It is not enough to say that we keep the one unless we also can shew that we keep the other And what then can be