he offered up himselfe as there followes verse 27. see also the ninth Chapter of the same Booke to the same purpose vers 24 25. c. And thirdly a Prophet to teach and instruct us in the way of godlinesse and salvation for of him was it said I will raise them up a Prophet among their brethren like unto thee and I will put my words into his mouth and unto him shall they hearken Deut. 18.15 18. Yea the Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith the Prophet Esay of him because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted Esay 61.1 And therefore it is likewise said of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare yee him Matth. 17.5 And therefore seeing he is thus anointed to become all these things unto us let us faithfully beleeve and put our trust in him in this anointed one and we also in an inlarged sense shall be made with him and by him spirituall Kings Priests and Prophets our selves for he being Prince of the Kings of the earth and loving us and washing us from our sins in his bloud hath made us also Kings and Priests unto God his Father Revel 1.5 6 verses First Kings to beare rule over our owne hearts and to master our owne rebellious thoughts wils and affections that so sin may not reigne in our mortall bodies nor we obey it in the lusts thereof as Saint Paul speaketh Rom. 6.12 but as kings and conquerours may fight a good fight and overcome the corruptions of our owne hearts that without resistance will in the end destroy our soules Secondly Priests to offer up to God many spirituall sacrifices As first of Prayer for so saith David Let my prayer be directed in thy sight as incense and the lifting up of mine hands as an evening sacrifice Psal 141.2 Secondly of thanksgiving as the Apostle Let us therefore by him offer the sacrifice of praise alwayes to God that is the fruit of the lips Hebr. 13.15 Thirdly of Almes which is an acceptable sacrifice and pleasing unto God as the same Apostle affirmeth in the very next verse viz. 16. And therefore S. Paul else-where calleth an offering and contribution of the Saints an odour that smelleth sweet and a pleasant and acceptable sacrifice unto God also Phil. 4.18 Fourthly of broken and contrite hearts and soules unto the Lord which as David saith are sacrifices unto God such as he will not despise Psal 51.17 And lastly to offer up our whole soules and bodies to the service of God as S. Paul exhorteth saying I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you give up your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable serving of God Rom. 12.1 And after we have thus beene Priests in offering up all these pleasing and acceptable sacrifices unto God we shall in the last place become Prophets also in applying that knowledge wee have to the benefit and good of others as S. Peter was commanded when hee was converted himselfe to strengthen his brethren Luk. 22.32 And therefore seeing wee have all these great and speciall benefits and blessings by this anoynted one Christ Jesus let us comfort our selves and rejoyce in this name too accounting it the greatest honour unto us that could befall us to be called and stiled Christians according to it for what is that else but anoynted ones that is men set apart and consecrated to these high and honourable offices in the Church of God before expressed And therefore let us be sure to carrie our selves in our lives and conversations answerable to this name by our carefull performance of the former duties lest otherwise it be said of us as of the Church of Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead Revel 3.1 But if wee walke worthy of this name which we have taken upon us why then we have great cause to comfort our selves and rejoyce in it as Theodosius the Emperour did who thanked God more for that hee was a Christian than fâ—r that hee was an Emperour because as he said the glorie which he had by the one would vanish but the benefits he enjoyed by the other hee knew would continue for ever and this sufficeth for the two names as they are distinguished first Jesus then Christ One observation more from them as they are conjoyned and then I have done and that shall be this that Jesus is an Hebrew and Christ a Greeke name which may intimate unto vs that hee came into the world as well to be a light unto the Gentiles as to be the glorie of his people Israel as old Simeon prophesied of him in his Nunc dimittis Luk. 2.32 The Greeke name Christ belonging to the Gentiles and the Hebrew name Jesus to the Jewes so that now all nations may challenge an interest in the worlds Messias none excluded none exempted for the whole world of people were anciently divided but into these two names and nations of Jewes and Gentiles They only being termed Jewes which were of the seed of Abraham and all nations else that derived not their pedigree from this line were called and accounted by a more generall name Gentiles as might be plentifully proved out of many passages of the holy Scriptures if it were a thing to be doubted or questioned Now then I say in that the Messias being borne of Jewish parents and kindred according to the flesh had yet a Gentile name conferred and bestowed upon him it shewes plainly his verie names significantly speaking so much that hee is come to be a Saviour and Redeemer unto all nations even to the one as well as to the other to the Gentile as well as to the Jew bringing salvation with him unto all men as S. Paul speaketh Tit. 2.11 which was verie happie and welcome newes brought into the world at the incarnation and birth of Christ for before this time the golden scepter of grace was not stretched forth to all nations nor to all countries nor the Chancerie Court of mercie holden generally in all the world but in a corner as it were and in one family or kindred of the Jewes alone till the fulnesse of time came in which this Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost and borne of the Virgine Marie for from the calling of Abraham out of Urre of the Caldees it was onely in that one family increasing sometimes in Canaan sometimes in Aegypt sometimes in the wildernesse travelling and last of all in Canaan againe settled where it grew till it had filled indeed that whole land but yet still it was confined within that nation and people of the Jewes and within that little Kingdome of Canaan which was scarce an handfull in respect of the whole world whose Metropolitan Citie was Jerusalem the glorie and joy for the time of the whole earth for there it pleased the great King of heaven and earth to
COLLECTIONS OVT OF S. Augustine AND SOME FEW OTHER Latine Writers upon the first part of the Apostles Creed By John Crompe Master of Arts of C. C. C. in Cambridge and Vicar of Thornham in Kent First preached in his Parish Church and now inlarged as here followes for more publike use 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victorie that overcommeth the world even our Faith August Serm. 38. De Tempore Omnis rationalis Anima aetate congrua discat Fidem Catholicam maximè populi Praedicatores Christiani Ecclesiarum Dei Doctores ut possint veritati contradicentibus resistere Catholicam amantibus pacem prodesse LONDON Printed by John Haviland for William Lee and are to be sold at his shop neere the Miter Taverne in Fleet-street 1638. PErlegi has Collectiones in Symbolum Apostolicum in quibus nihil reperio sanae Doctrinae contrarium quominùs cum utilitate publicâ imprimantur Rmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D. Arch. Cant. Sacellanus Domesticus GUIL BRAY. Dat. Lambethae Maii ult 1638. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE KATHERINE Ladie STANHOPE Dowager The Author wisheth as well the Graces spirituall as the Blessings temporall of this life and the Glories eternall of the life to come GOod Madam I should bee very ingratefull if I should not dedicate the first fruits of any publike labour of mine how great or small soever unto some of your Noble Family from whence I have received not onely the first but all the fruits of my present maintenance in the world And amongst these that doe now survive there is none can challenge so great an interest as your Honour not onely as you are the present Patronesse of my Living but in many other personall and particular respects by which I and mine stand more obliged to your Ladiship than to any others May you therefore please to accept of this poore paper present not as a satisfaction but an acknowledgement onely of my so many great engagements And withall to let it passe under your Honourable Name and countenance unto the world it shall much more increase my debt unto you which seeing I shall have no better meanes and opportunities to pay I doe hereby promise that the failings and deficiencies thereof shall be supplied with prayers for the health and happinesse not of your selfe alone but of all your noble issue also together with the rest of your Family by him that truly honoureth and faithfully serveth your Ladiship in the Lord IOHN CROMPE THE APOSTLES CREED I beleeve in God the Father Almightie Maker of Heaven and Earth c. THis Creed or Summe of Christian Beleefe is commonly called and knowne by the name of the Apostles Creed because indeed as Antiquitie affirmeth it was made and agreed upon by the twelve Apostles themselves to continue and abide as a sure rule of faith to be derived and conveyed to all posteritie thorowout the Christian world in after ages comprehended according to their Apostolicall number in twelve articles and called the Creed or Beleefe because thereby all true Beleevers should be guided and directed how to continue and remaine in the Catholike Unitie and Veritie And withall enabled to convince and reprove all hereticall pravitie and falshood that should afterward spring up and arise in the Church of God either by the subtiltie and malice of the Devill or the weaknesse and wickednesse of man It is derived and delivered unto us by our Ancestours and Forefathers of the Church saith S. Augustine Ser. 181. De temp Praefat. that after the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ unto his Father in Heaven when as by the comming of the Holy Ghost his Disciples were so inspired and inflamed as that they spake to all nations in their owne proper and peculiar tongues and languages and so fitted and prepared were shortly to depart one from another to preach the Gospell and Word of God in all coasts and countries of the world Normam prius sibi futurae praedicationis in commune statuerunt c. They concluded first betweene themselves to set downe such an order and rule of their after-preaching that when they were locally separated and divided one from the other they might not preach a divers and different doctrine one to another to those that they should invite and call to the faith of Christ All therefore being met placed together and filled with the Holy Ghost after conference had everie one delivered his opinion of what hee thought fitting as necessarie to be the subject of their preaching to the Church and people of God And having concluded upon it this they appoint to remaine as a rule of faith and beleefe and even Summa credendorum as the summe and substance of Christian Doctrine to all Beleevers for ever after So far S. Augustine For as they were all of one heart and of one soule Acts 4.32 so they would manifest unto the universall world that they were of one faith and beleefe too Not like the Stellae erraticae the wandring Stars instable Humorists and giddie headed Novellists of our times that having one Catholike and Orthodoxall Religion established in our old England for which wee are ever bound to blesse and praise the holy name of God yet must run into a New England to erect and set up another nay twentie other For Quot homines tot sententiae Looke how many men there are especially that take themselves to be Leaders and Masters among them so many minds they are of as one a Brownist another a Familist a third an Anabaptist and all Separatists from the true Church of God But the holy Apostles though according to their charge given them by their Master our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Matth. 28.9 they went to all nations preaching and teaching the word of God â—uffinus as S. Matthew to Aethiopia S. Mark the Evangelist to Aegypt Lybia and the Africans thereabouts S. Iames to Spaine S. Andrew to Thracia and Scythia Europaea Philip to Scythia Asiatica Bartholomew to Armenia and the hither parts of India Thomas to Media Parthia Persia and as some say to the Brackmannes and the Bactrians Eusebius and the farthest parts of India Iohn the Evangelist to Asia S. Peter to Pontus Galatia Bythinia Cappadocia S. Paul to all the countries interjacent and lying betweene Jerusalem and Illyricum and lastly Ioseph of Arimathea as some but as Nicephorus Simon Zelotes to our British Ile yet they spake and preached still but unum idem one and the same veritie in unitie in how many different and how farre distant regions soever they became Thereby giving the world to understand that there is or at least ought to be but one faith but one religion not onely thoroughout all the countries but also thoroughout all the ages of the world which is therefore called Fides Catholica the Catholike Faith and Religion because of the universalitie of it in all places and at all times For Id vere Catholicum quod
ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est saith Vincentius Lirinensis That onely is truly Catholike Cap. 3. cont haereses which all places and all persons have received and beleeved with full and unanimous consent in all times And therefore the Apostle saith There is but one faith Ephes 4.5 and that one faith is the ground and foundation but of one religion For true religion was never but one Semper eadem alwayes the same from the beginning of the world till our dayes and so must and shall continue from henceforth till the end of the world againe In so much as all our fore-fathers Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac Iacob or in more generall termes all the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessours Professours and Beleevers as well under the Law as Gospell as well in former as in our times have and must all be saved by one and the selfe same faith yea in one and the selfe same religion howsoever in forme and manner some wayes and at some times in shew different yet in substance still one and the same As for example There is onely this difference betwixt the true Beleevers before Christ his comming and since Quod illi crediderunt in Christum promissum nos in Christum exhibitum They beleeved in Christ promised and as yet to come wee in Christ exhibited and come And I beleeve it will be no hard matter to prove out of the Bookes of the Old Testament that Gods children in the time of the Law did beleeve all the Articles of this our Apostles Creed as well as we with this distinction of present and to come though darkly and obscurely because Vmbram tantum futurorum habebat Lex The Law had onely the shadow of things to come saith the Apostle Heb. 10.1 The proofes which I shall fetch from the Old Testament in the prosecution of this subject for the confirmation of each severall article will manifest and declare as much In the meane time take notice first of the unitie and accord of the holy Apostles in framing this Summe and Symbole of their Christian Faith and Beleefe And let all true Christians but especially their successours in any the least Ministeriall Function learne by their example to leave all civill uncivill jarres and contentions in matters of Doctrine that so wee may be all of one mind in one house I meane the Church and house of God and to speake and preach but one thing as S. Paul exhorteth his Corinthians that so there may be no divisions amongst us but that wee may be all knit together in one mind and be of one judgement 1 Cor. 1.10 which counsell whosoever doe not readily and willingly put in practice and submit themselves unto but delight in renting and tearing asunder the seamlesse coat of Christ Quam scindere non fuit carnificibus consilium saith Alexander Bishop in Theodoret. Hist. lib. 1. cap. 4. which the verie Executioners of Christ were so farre from doing that on the contrarie Joh. 19.24 they consulted how to keepe it whole and entire through their distractions and divisions in matters and points of Doctrine from their Orthodoxall brethren and Catholike Church in which they live whatsoever they thinke to the contrarie of themselves yet indeed and truth they are rather Apostaticall than Apostolicall men For in the Apostles time the multitude of Beleevers were all of one heart and of one soule as before out of Acts 4.32 And therefore the same S. Paul to the Romans bids the Church marke them diligently which cause division and offences contrarie to the doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their owne bellies and with faire speech and flattering deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.17 18. In which words I should desire and advise the refractarie and contentious spirits of our times that are never satisfied and contented either with the doctrine or discipline of our Church if they were but capable of advice which it is to be feared most of them are not to consider and observe what esteeme and opinion the Apostle Paul had of such in his time First in that he would have them to be diligently marked that so secondly they may be avoyded his reason thirdly because they serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their owne bellies and lastly that how faire and smooth soever their voyce and outside be yet within they are no better than hypocrites their speech being onely flattering to deceive the hearts of the simple As also I could wish that their followers that is such as are led and seduced by them would but marke what opinion the same Apostle had likewise of them when he stiles and calls them simple And yet these thinke themselves the wisest people in the world But the Spirit of God knowes you better than your selves And therefore be not too highly conceited of your owne wisdome seeing God himselfe doth call you fooles and simple Et utinam rudiores essent quam qui poterant decipi It were well for you if you were so simple that you could not be deceived by the subtill and slie insinuations of those that creepe into your houses and lead captive simple women laden with sinnes and led with divers lusts which are ever learning and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth as the same Apostle still speakes of them 2 Tim. 3.6 For that I may crave leave for this onely digression let them tell me are they not women and simple ones too that they most prevaile withall in these their madnesses follies I meane simple in respect of divine knowledge spirituall understanding but not in respect of condition and qualitie in the world For according to the subtiltie of the Serpent as well themselves as all their brood and brotherhood I meane all Heretikes and Schismatikes whatsoever have ever beene so wise in their generations as not much to mind or regard the meaner sort whether they sided with them or not but for women of wealth and some fashion in the world by whom not onely credit and countenance to their cause but maintenance also to their persons though many times to the great losse and detriment if not the undoing of their husbands might be procured and obtained For these I say especially have their hookes and baits been ever laid their plots and projects still guided and directed above all others And they have in all ages prevailed so farre with this weaâ—â—r sex that some of all sorts and ranks in the world have alwayes been ready to take their parts against the truth as Townes-women and Merchants wives of the Citie Gentlemens wives nay Ladies of the Court and Noble-women have beene caught and entangled in their snares being seduced and drawne away by them To instance in one for all the rest Constantia the widow of Licinius and sister to Constantine the Emperour to whom as Ruffinus speakes
former times well observed that there be parts some revealed some secret Dr. Covell of that which yet is no more divers or many than it is possible for the essence of the Godhead to be more than one not that he is contrarie in his will but that his will as yet is not wholly revealed So farre hee 1 Sam. 6.19 Numb 4.20 Exod. 19.13 Now the first part of this will that is the secret and reserved part is shut up within the closet of Gods owne sacred bosome as the Ark that must not be pried into the mountaine that neither man nor beast may prefume to touch the brightsome Sunne that with the rayes of his glorious luster dazles the eyes of curious beholders the way of an Eagle in the aire Prov. 30.19 and the path of a ship in the waters whose track may not be espied nor enquired after but only admired and adored afarre off For of this hath God pronounced O homo in quis es Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that doest that darest ransack the bowels of my privie Councels seeing my judgements are like a great deepe as Psal 36.6 that is so deepe so bottomlesse as that they are not to be sounded or fathomed by thy shallownesse The other part of Gods will is open and revealed divulged and proclaimed in a full Court and assembly of men and Angels to all the world and that is his will revealed in his Word And this challenges and exacts both a distinct knowledge and an entire obedience yea therefore our knowledge that it may be obeyed for as affected knowledge in the former is dangerous so affected ignorance in this latter is damnable Now then if we must doe this revealed will of God then likewise know it yea and know God too in and by it as well as by his attributes or any other his works whatsoever otherwise without this latter Epist 4. it is impossible to attaine unto the former For Qui Deum nescitis vias ejus quomodo novistis saith S. Ambrose If you doe not know God how can you either know the will or walk in the wayes of God And therefore God himselfe upon his reconciliation and promise of a new covenant with his people Israel tels them first that hee will put his Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and then as a confirmation of the said covenant hee addes That they should not need to bid one another to know the Lord For they shall all know me saith hee from the least of them to the greatest of them Ierem. 31.33 34. which is as much as if hee should have said That untill men know God they cannot have his Law written in their hearts and so neither submit their understanding to the beleefe and knowledge of it for matter of doctrine nor subject their wils and affections to the obedience and practice of it in their lives conversations And therefore for these reasons before expressed let us be perswaded to use our best diligence and endevour to attaine unto the knowledge of the three former circumstances concerning God For this is life eternall that men know thee the onely true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ saith our Saviour himselfe Ioh. 17.3 From whence learned Zanchy our Protestant Schooleman inferres that if it be life to know God it must needs be no lesse than death not to know him or to be ignorant of him To conclude then as a curious searching into those secrets of God which are not revealed serveth but to breed a contempt of those things which are revealed unto us in regard whereof it is greater pietie to beleeve them than to strive to know them so on the other side to be absolutely either ignorant or carelesse of those things that concerne us and which God hath revealed unto us is a plaine evidence of our sloth and negligence of our owne salvation In the former whereof it is not so much to be lamented that wee search and cannot comprehend as that in the latter wee might comprehend if wee would but take the paines to search For Qui quaerunt invenient They that seeke shall finde Matth. 7.7 even the knowledge of the true God and of his wayes Now then God hath revealed and made himselfe knowne to his Church and children after a three-fold manner viz. Operando Loquendo Spirando that is by his works words and Spirit by his works in the creation and conservation of the world by his Word in his holy Scriptures by his holy Spirit in testifying to our spirit by his secret working and inspiration in our hearts and soules not onely that hee is God but that he is our God also in particular so that wee may and must relye and depend upon him and none but him upon all occasions whatsoever Now these heads are too large and long to be handled to the full by way of Catechisme and therefore for this time you must be satisfied with that which the words of our Creed testifie and declare concerning him that is That he is the Father Almightie Maker of Heaven Earth Vide Act. 17.24 And here you see that the first attribute or title that is given unto God is that he is called Father I beleeve in God the Father c. And that may be in this place in a two-fold respect First in respect of creation and so he is the Father of the world and all that is therein and therefore here is subjoyned Maker of Heaven and Earth Secondly in respect of naturall generation and so hee is the father of Jesus Christ alone And therefore followes that And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne Concerning the first it is said by the Prophet Have we not all one Father hath not one God created uâ— Mal. 2.10 And againe Is not hee thy Father that hath made thee Deut. 32.6 And not onely of man but of all other things he is said to be the Father by creation as in the booke of Iob Who is the father of the raine or who hath begotten the drops of dew out of whose wombe came the ice or who hath ingrendred the frâ—st of Heaven Iâ—b 38.28 29. thereby insinuating that God only is the father of these things and therefore well may wee say I beleeve in God the Father But most especially in regard of his naturall fatherhood to his Sonne and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom he did beget in the womb of eternitie before all worlds according to that of the Psalmist Ex utero ante luciferum genui te as the Vulgar Latine reads it Psal 110.3 that is I have begotten thee in my womb before the morning light or in the words of Esay Before the day was I am To which purpose S. Augustine doth here take occasion wittily to observe against the Arrians Quod cum Dei Patris nomen in confessione conjungitur That when the name of Father is in this Creed and Confession of faith joyned