divers manner of existence of these three ones in the same one substance we may through their union amongst themselves conceive deity it self to be more fixed and setled in unity or one-ness then it would be otherwise From the observation of the manner of existence and working of any thing objected to humane sence where agent and patient stand circumscribed and limitted by the laws of matter it must be very heard to deduce any satisfactory conception how these things should be brought to pass It must needs be hard for us to apprehend how one God should thus be three at the same time truly one as to the Godhead and truly three as to the persons and this without division of substance or confusion of peresons that he that was begotten should be as ancient as he which did beget him and againe that that person that had procession from the other two should yet be as much without beginning as either of them And all because created bodies being to work according to those rules which nhe Creator did appoint to the intent that that end which was by him aimed at in the course of his providence might have a regular and certain effect it was necessary that they should be ascertained stated and limitted by the laws of number time place c. Forasmuch as if any one or more of them should not be numerically and separately that very one or that very number more a perpetual miscellany and confusion would follow to the defeating nature in her operations and to the depriving her of her variety for want of distinct subsistences and individuals And should not natural Agents be confined to time and place whereby that which is now done or here done was not at all times and every where done it must then fall out that things thus left at liberty must work infinitely to the degree of deity or else being impeded by the like unconfined operation of others all must perish by reluctance and disorder Whereas God that had thus by number and measure stated and bounded other things must be looked upon as unlimitted in himself by those limitations which he puts upon others That unity that moment that point from whose simpleness the numbers times proportions wherewith other things stand bordered do take their original and derivation although they were from him yet they are not at all afficient on him he cannot be confined by those confinements he puts on others but remaines in himself still so much more simple then they as not to be patible by them It would be derogatory to him to think him so numerically and determinately one as to say he is but one for that were to say or suppose there were more ones which this one did not comprehend and so he not the whole and incomprehensible one No he is one as being all his oneness is from his allness his unity from his ubiquity Not seperately and singly one as in relation to another but as comprehending all things else he is totally and universally one and that without confinement of time or place But however there be coequality and coeternity amongst those three as considered in themselves and in relation to that one divine substance whereof they are possessed and wherein they do unite yet as they stand differenced in order amongst themselves according to their relations so are they in their emanations and operations upon men and other Creatures distinguishable by their order of working also For whatever is done by God the Father is done in the Son and through the holy Ghost who as last in order is neerest unto us in the participations of deity here For that second person in the Trinity who in his natural and eternal generation as God was begotten of God the Father when he took our nature upon him and did in it perform the work of our redemption was then conceived by the holy Ghost by whom also we receive all those spiritual blessings graces and favours which by means of Christs Mediatorship and merits are from God the Father to be expected by us as the earnest of his love in his Son From whence it comes to pass that the sin against this person is set downe as unpardonable as including all the rest by being a more neer contempt against them all because none can act alone Lastly although by these divers personal subsistencies in the same substance we may conceive deity as to inward operations and respects to be so fully compleated that no farther generation or procession needed because understanding and will stand hereby alwayes satisfied with adequate objects of truth and good yet as those incomprehensible rayes of love and glory which before all time were mutually and continually communicated by these three most blessed persons as coming from omnipotent Agents could not otherwise otherwise be confined in operation then by their owne good pleasure so it being the property of glory and goodness to be extensive and as natural to do good as be good it came to pass in time that that inward contemplation which was at first the generation of him that was the Image of his Fathers glory and thereupon of that love which was from them both proceeding was for the farther manifestation of the same glory the cause of all those effects of his love which appear in the whole creation and of those several inferiour participations of divine resemblance heretofore spoken of In the former way of working the divine substance it self is wrought upon and communicated in this only the attributes thereof are imparted according to matter newly created The working of deity in the first way was natural and necessary but in this voluntary For the Father could not be said to will to beget the Son nor could the holy Ghost be thought to take voluntary procession from the other two because none could be said to will that to be done which at no time was or could be undone The cause of the operations in the first case was perfect love arising from perfect similitude in this as the similitude was more imperfect so the intercourse of affection also was more properly an expression of charity or gift upon objects of want then an ayme at fâ—uition through sence of likeness and same-ness the which we may make the definition of love and thereby somewhat difference it from charity because the one seeks to enjoy the other to bestow though usually they are taken for the same and fall into one another For that whosoever loves is alwayes ready to bestow and none was ever bountiful to any thing unloved or unlike In declaration of these sublime misteries much more might be said but when we have said all we can it is not to be conceived that the feeble brain of man can ever attain any steady degree of comprehension of that in accessible light it being more easy to lose our reason in a curious search then satisfie it in any full discovery And therefore our safest
of God That is for your good example for your patience the effect of love and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God or of these graces of God in you that makes you righteous that yee may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God both to the participation of him in his Church here and hereafter for which yee also suffer That is those tribulations which ye endure in obedience to Authority according to that righteous judgment of God who now will have righteousness and peace meet together in the good and peace of the Church is a plain argument that you your selves are true Members of that Church even by that plain demonstration given of your sense of fellow-feeling of those miseries which must attend her in case the direction of her authorized guides should be rejected For although the Law it in self were holy righteous and good and would have proved effectually so to us also if we had had sufficiency and integrity enough to have been fully comprehensive and observant of every particle thereof yet sin taking occasion by the commandment through those motions which were in the flesh unto sin made us come to lose Charity and Peace the end of the Law through a mistaken interpretation of keeping the Law according to the Letter thereof and so made it to be the Law of sin and of death And therefore are we to esteem our selves as dead unto that wherein we were held that is unto written precepts being now to serve this husband in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Meaning that through obedience made from the heart to that form of Doctrine which was delivered unto us we shall now be made free from sin and born the servants of righteousnesse That is by having our righteousness perfected after this new and living way even by obedience to that life and spirit of Christ those Precepts and directions which from the holy Ghost are received from those that represent him in Authority here amongst us By which it shall come to pass that what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flâ—sh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh and for sinn condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law or that righteousness which the Law aimed at might be fulfilled by us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for they that are after the flesh that is doe trust to their own fleshly wisdomes in the interpretation of literall precepts will from thence take occasion to minde the things of the flesh and so make it prove the law of sin and death and not of life and peace Nor is this Doctrine of the simplicity of Gospel-precepts and accomplishment of Innocence by Christian submission other then what was formerly prophesied to be the estate of the Christian Church viz. In that day shall the Lord of Hosts be for a Crown of glory and a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people and for a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgment and for strength to them that turn the battell into the Gate That is to him that shall judge them and fight their Battels which in the Jewish phrase signifies Kingly office In these words we see the spirit of judgment is plainly prophesied to reside in him that sitteth in Judgment who being also mentioned by him in the singular number and the glory and beauty of the Church being expressed under the notions of Crown and diadem it cannot but personate the Kingship of Christ and his adopted sons according to the following prophesie Behold a King shall reign in Righteousness and Princes in Judgment Then the Prophet goes on to shew whom he would teach Doctrine and Knowledge that is such as are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the breasts Meaning such as are content to obey the voice of Christs authority as little Children But the persons usually erring in this case and that think the simple food of Milk too weak for them and therefore must taste the Tree of good and evill called strong drink and wine are decyphered under the notions of Priests and Prophets the usuall leaders in disobedience For whereas the Lord said This is the rest wherewith yee shall cause the weary to rest and this is the refreshing yet they would not hear but the Word of the Lord was unto them that is to their apprehension precept upon precept precept upon precept Line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little that they may goe and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken that is refusing the simplicity of Gospell-light these conceited wise men shall be taken in their own â—raft being snared in the Law of sin and death called their Covenant with death and hell Upon which ground it is that God there threatens to speak with stammering lips and another tongue to that people meaning that dark parabolicall way of delivery used in Scripture The which should be also encreased by these mens own devised phrases and select words of interpretation used amongst themselves whereby as by a sort of Canting they should speak as with stammering lips and another tongue and so be punished with darkness because of their incredulity and disobedience to him and for having trusted to their own Morall wisdomes and because also through dark and intricate instructions of legality they thought to have made lies and falshood their refuge But it is there declared who shall be the sure foundation of the Churches safety namely the Corner stone or the seat of Judgment He that believeth shall not make haste That is Christ by his owning this Throne of Kingly Judgement will be for a spirit of Judgement to him that undertaketh to be the Line and Plummet of Iudgement and Righteousness The which shall increase in strength to the treading down and overflowing these hiding places from the time it goeth forth it shall take hold for morning by morning shall it pass over by day and by night That is it shall so grow in power that it shall be to these sorts of people A vexation only to understand the report To hear of the daily increase of Kingly Office and power notwithstanding their seditious contrivances For the bed is shorter then that a Man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower then that he can wrap himself in it There is no room for lyes nor refuge for falshood to be had in the simplicity of the Gospel precepts It is God that now calls for this respect and obedience to his Vicegerent For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim he shall be wrath as in the valley of â—ibeon That he may doe his work his strange work and bring to pass his act his
certain nobleman went into a far Country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return and he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said occupy till I come By which is set forth that trust of power which in his absence should be committed to the several Heads of Churches But his Citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying we will not have this man raign over us Where we may see Antichrianism stated and defined that is when such as are members of Christs Church or his Citizens do so far express their hatred unto him as to deny his deputed Christs to Raign or have power over them And therefore after he hath taken the accompt of his Deputies trusted talents he then comes to censure these Rebels against his Vice-gerents just as if they had been so to himself saying But these mine enemies which would not that I should raign over them bring them hither and slay them before me And that this sentence was directly intended to such as refuse this his power in his Deputies and not of his Deputies disobedience to him appears in that S. Matthew setting down the like Parable of trusted talents but without mention of the particular fact of the Citizenâ— hath no such expression in his relation thereof although he record afterwards Christs owning his Ministers as himself as elsewhere shewed So that now who is a lyar but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ he is Antichrist that denieth the father and the Son It is not said he that denieth the Holy Ghost or he that denyeth Jesus that is the belief of his Saviourship for this being wrought inwardly by the work of the Holy Ghost it maketh its denial or refusal more properly the sin against the Holy Ghost casting Christ forth from within us as an unholy thing but offending against Christs regency or power over us outwardly offends also against Charity and so by destroying Monarchy or Union hinders our wel fares here as infidelity doth our welfares hereafter And that this mysterie of Antichristianism is the denial of the Father and the Son and that in regard of power to be exercised by persons here below and from them sent and empowered may be notably gathered from these very words of Mission and Delegation which Christ always used at the empowering of any from him using stil these speeches or the like He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me In which there being always mention of delegation of power from the Father and the Son and never from the Holy Ghost it comes to pass that Antichristianism is plainly opposition in the execution of such power as is from God the Father and Christ delegated In which delegation because Christ is to them the immediate Donor it therefore takes the name of Antichristianism For these being anointed and established by God in Christ although they are not to personate Christ in having dominion over ther faith as being the object thereof yet are they to personate Christ in claiming their obedience in all things and so forgive also as in the person of Christ lest Satan should have advantage over them as seeming to be done out of original power in themselves and not as acted in Christs Name and Authority So that now the means of accomplishment of our welfare here being by Christ reckoned as his service under the notions of Love and Charity and our obedience to him therein making us participants with him of what he meritoriously did in obedience to God in performance of the Moral Law for us it follows that as we deny the Holy Ghost in denial of Jesuship so also God the Father in denial of his Christ-ship For all things being ours through Christ and as through him that was both God and man all mankind came to be capable of the benefits and favor of the Godhead so single men being members of particular Churches through obedience to particular Christs under him come to be participant of Christ also and of those benefits promised to the whole Church his body under the condition of obedience Again as by faith we lay immediate hold on him the second Adam for forgiveness of original sin so by obedience to him and his Church we attain the benefit of his obedience and remission of actual sins In the first way by our particular offerings to him of inward faith and love we are all of us through Christ made Kings and Priests to God on our own behalfs in the second way we as members of particular Churches must have for what we do warrant and direction on from other Kings and Priests having therein Authority from him Nor are Kings Supreme Deputies as Christi only that is because their oyl and unction is ever in Scripture distinguished from what is ordinary but they are also his most immediate and eminent Deputies for execution and accomplishment of his Jesu-ship I mean so much of it as concerns the Churches temporal safety which was part of that work which as King Christ was to do as appears by that his speech The son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them But because it could not be personally compleated by that the son of man himself it must be presumed entrusted to those who to that purpose are so often in Scripture eminently adorned with this title of Saviour Nay it is taken as an office so proper to Kings that God for his peoples greater assurance puts himself under that notion The Lord is our king he will save us so likewise is Christ called A Prince and Saviour as he is also called the Saviour of the body that is of his whole Church by his deputed Saviours in the several parts thereof But most remarkably clear to this purpose and also to shew the following advancement of the Church by these Saviours under the Saviour and that this Church in that glorious condition is that which is to be called Gods Kingdom is that last verse of Obadiah And Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lords For the Prophet having before set forth the Churches enemies and oppressors under the notion of Edom doth at length foretel all their deliverance and glory to arise by the means of these Saviours and that in regard of this more eminent and glorious condition of the Church at that time then before it shall be more remaâ—kably owned by God as his Kingdom And the kingdom shall be the Lords And so being his and Christs by means of these Deputies it will follow that they that oppose them oppose Christ and so are Antichrists But to know these things the better and the persons defined we will more particularly take notice of two places set down amongst many in the New Testament to this purpose The one is of the lesser and many
their measure use it by the vertue of his authority who said whose sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins ye retain they are retained Whereupon we may collect that as the power of the keyes is originally in Christ the Churches universal head and was by him given to the heads of Churches onely so it can be in the whole Church or in its subordinate members no otherwise then as received from their head according to that of Saint Paul When ye are met together and my Spirit c. And therefore to make it farther evident that the heads of Churches are to be understood in the direction of tell it to the Church we are to denote that the power of the keyes in the next verse was directed to the Apostles in the word ye when it was said Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven for unto them was most of this chapter directed the which was the reason of Saint Peters interogating him presently hereupon How oft shall my brother offend c. This power comonly called the power of the keyes and by the Romanists appropriate to the chief of that Sea only is that divine obsignation of Christian authority and precept whereby those laws and edicts of him that sitteth in the seat of judgment as the head of each Church that were but civilly or morally criminal in their own nature and obnoxious to temporal wrath onely for their breach come now to be sinful and damnable as being violations against God and the heavenly thrown it self by whom they are impowred and whose authority they do represent according to that sentence to be given at the last day inasmuch as ye have or have not done it c. Upon which grounds we may know what to conceive of that article of our Creed I believe the holy Catholike Church which some would wrest and make use of to draw mens obedience which way they pleased by proposing unto us what they pleased for Catholike doctrine But we are to conceive that this primitive form of profession of Christian faith therefore called the Apostles Creed was offered to and taken by such as were to be admitted into the Christian Church to shew and state their beliefe before their admittance and not to direct their obedience afterwards For although to believe in God in Christ in the holy Ghost do together with the acknowledgement of their deity draw on obedience by just consequence yet was this form of profession of faith therefore called the Creed made but to denote their beliefe of their true existence by which means being received into the Church their obedience was thence to be learnt For strange it had been for the Church to have proposed to men the matter of obedience to any of whom as yet they had no beliefe in And therefore when I profess to believe the holy Catholike Church the word holy will make it unconceiveable how it should directly import my profession of obedience and that not onely because the Catholike Church or Christs universal body cannot as before noted be ever comprehended under one notion and conception so as to be definitive to me concerning their determinations but also because I can never rightly say of the present or past militant Church to whom I seek for direction that they are all holy nor can men that live in a particular Church be ordinarily able to know what is and what is not Catholike doctrine besides that which is proposeth Whereupon understanding our belief in or of the holy Catholike Church to import our beliefe that Christ hath a true sanctified body which being so made by means of the holy Ghost in the article foregoing comes through their union in Christ and his Spirit to be of one communion from the rest of the world and so to be the Communion of Saints as in the article following So that then although the Creed as a Creed cannot of it self oblige to obedience yet since the beliefe of the articles thereof do by consequent bring men to Christs Church and out of desire to attain that Communion of Saints doth also farther prompt me to acts of obedience to that Church to whom I made this profession it will therefore follow that that obedience which I cannot give to the Catholick Church as such must be to this end given to that part of it under which I live since that I cannot otherwise obey the Catholike then by obeying the particular All which will be cleared by one instance of Saint Pauls who as the present head of that Church gives liberty to the Corinthians in eating of things offered to Idols notwithstanding that the then Catholike representative Church at Jerusalem and he himself amongst them had decreed otherwise Clearly evincing that the power of binding and loosing was to reside in each Churches own head and that they were to perform their obedience to the same party by whom they had learned their Creed who had been their spiritual father and begotten them in Christ. And that this power of the keyes was not given to the Apostles onely as a collective body of Church heads and so to the Catholike Church onely but was also conferred upon the particular heads of the Churches appears in that it was upon occasion particularly given to Saint Peter so that whatsoever head or chief governour should like him acknowledge Christ to be the true spiritual foundation and rock he should from Christ have power also to be herein a rock to others and to bind and loose And both places must contradistinguish the persons binding from those that shall be so bound and the persons telling and complaining to the Church from those that are to hear and have power of redress And as they were in one place spoken to Saint Peter alone to declare against consistorial parity so were they elsewhere given joyntly to all the Apostles the then visible heads of Churches to abate Popish usurpation For they were not to be commanding one another out of their Churches as they might those within them which was forbidden them in the persons of Zebedees Children But in those equalities they were in love to serve one another and in this their parity obeying the precept of submit your selves one to another he that should do it most and thereupon become a Minister and Servant to his fellows will even thereby make himselfe chief among them By which means being converted and become as little Children they shall then be greatest in the kingdome of heaven or have great and kingly power in the Church from the power of Christ that hath taken them into the arms of his acknowledgement From whence it will again follow that Who so shall receive one such little Child in my name receiveth me that is in hearing and obeying him he shal hear and obey me but Who so
one or many men had their distinct copies such a total losse could not have happened And although it may be well thought that the gift of tongues might have enabled such of the holy penmen as wanted natural learning to deliver themselves notwithstanding in Greek yet this cannot make it supposable that all of them the Epistles especially were so written originally because their address is not to the Grecians or Gentiles And that Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Saint Peter and Saint Iames c. must imply them to be written in that language which was best understood by those they were addressed unto and who were to be directed by him Else it were to suppose a miracle wrought to a wrong end even that which Saint Paul doth elswhere dislike namely the speaking in an unknown tongue by which he means no doubt a tongue unknown to the Auditors In which respect to speak or write in Greek to them that understood not the language renders the Writer a Barbarian to the Auditor as well as the Auditor one to him Upon which grounds I do believe against them that doubt that the Gospel of Saint Matthew was like the other Gospels written in Greeks and that because its general address did require it to be set forth in that language which was most generally understood but for some of the Epistles I cannot be so perswaded And if that first exercised gift of tongues be marked we shall finde those endewed therewith speaking to every Auditour in his owne language And although question be made whether those auditours of divers nations might not at the same time have been endewed with the miraculous gift of interpreting and understanding a strange tongue to avoyd a greater difficulty of supposing all of them speaking at once or any one speaking several tongues at once the which Saint Peters after-speaking alone may give countenance unto yet it will plainly appear that as that gift of tongues was then used to edification and to be understood even so afterwards no doubt the penmen of holy Scripture made use of the same upon the like useful occasions and none other And as for Authors quotation of Scripture texts in this language onely none beginning to write till these books had been by the Church all collected into one volume and so put into that one most intelligible language it proves no more their writing at first in the Greek then our Saviours and others quotations of the Greek translation of the Septuagint proves the old Testament to have been written in that language also Not that we would be understood by what hath bin spoken as forbidding the publike knowledg of the Scriptures for even the same reason that makes them chiefly to be trusted to the Church and its head namly to know the better how to govern all others under them will in that regard also make them useful to Fathers Masters and many of the Subjects themselves who by their offices and callings shall have things or persons under their power and government In both which respects if they come not occasionally to concern every one as he may have his Neighbors good or ill under his trust and power even in cases remitted by his Superiour yet will they concern every one in their general precepts to patience humility obedience c. which as the proper and necessary vertues of Subjects and which must constitute government are fit for the notice of all in general without exception of the Prince himself who as under the power of God almighty must submit in a far higher degree then his Subjects can to him The knowledge of which and other necessary duties fit to direct us in our charitable abearances whither in acting upon or suffering from one another may also afford sufficient reason why there should be many precepts of all sorts of duties and concerning all sorts of people promiscuously set down in the New Testament notwithstanding that Gods immediate rule was to be inward even for that our Saviour and his Apostles having charge and guidance of souls under them it was needful for their good deportment sake that they should leave to them and unto such as should succeed in the Christian Churches besides the fundamentals such farther precepts and directions â—s might keep them in a steady course of Charity and peace one towards another when they found their duties set forth by so good authority For want of due regard whereof and of that different respect which the Scriptures do carry in their instructions and for want of that necessary and truly Christian grace of humility instead of learning and practicing those more proper duties which concern us in our distinct callings and relations for which onely we stand accomptable before God we are through pride and partiality too often found to be studious and inquisitive after so much onely as doth concern others in theirs even such as are above us for whose faults we are not to answer that thereupon we may appear more fit to teach then be taught to govern then be governed And this is not onely practised in the more civil relation of Subjects or Servants against their Prince or Master but through this misused liberty a general usurpation is almost every where now made for interpreting Scripture against the sence and authority of the whole Church and of our more spiritual guides therein to whose charge they are most particularly entrusted from which preposterous proceeding what can be expected but what sad experience doth witness even Heresie Schisme disorder and civil broyles to the scandal of Christian religion it self But now when we finde the persons in authority to be expressed in the plural number as Those that have the guide over you those that must give an account for your souls c. or else our obedience directed to the Church in general we are to understand thereby the head of each Church to be chiefly meant In which respect as there were many distinct Churches and thereupon also many heads as before shewed so the Apostle might in his general admonitions to obedience put them in the plural number of those and them And as in this sence we are to understand that precept of tell it to the Church namely to the judiciary head thereof so also are we to interpret and apply the power of the keyes and of binding and loosing to be given to the Churches head and not the diffused body which can never in all its members meet nor can otherwise then by their head hear and determine And hereupon we shall finde this power to be expresly given to the Apostles in Saint John where Christ is saying to them As my Father sent me even so send I you thereby giving them authority over their particular Churches and trusts By which means as he had formerly answered that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins So these sons of men also may without Blasphemy in