time to enquire any further after the beginnings of things who made them and did first extract them out of the common masse or Chaos where before they lay Quid quaeâ—am saith he quae sint initia universorum quis rerum formator qui omnia in uno mersa et materia inerti convoluta disâ—reverit Macrobius speaks more plainly yet although he somewhat failed in his computation affirming that the World must be lately made Cujus cognitio bis mille annos non excedat considering that there was no monument or record thereof which could entitle it to the age of two thousand years The like may be affirmed of the Poets who do ascribe the glory of the Worlds Creation unto God alone Ovid in plain significant termes Sine ulla nominis dissimulatione as Lactantius hath it without boggling or scrupling at the name of God Virgil more covertly under the names of Mens and Spiritus under the which names the old Philosopers used to mask him For Ovid having before described the general Chaos then addes Hanc Deus et melior litem natura diremit Nam Coelo terras et terris abscidit undas That is to say But God the better nature this decides Who Earth from Heaven the Sea from Earth divides And shortly after speaking of the Creation of Man he gives God these most honourable titles the Maker of all things the Authour of a better World or Ille opifex rerum mundi melioris origo in his proper language Virgil although he speaks more covertly as before was said yet he ascribeth that to his Mens or Spiritus which Ovid in more plain terms doth assigne to God and so coâ—es somewhat near the truth Non longe fuit a veritate as Lactantius noteth For in his Aeneads thus he tels us Principio Coelum et Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque Astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem et magno se â—orpore miscet Which may be Englished thus in brief Heaven Earth and Seas the Sun and Moons bright sphere In the beginning by some Spirit were Divinely cherish'd which diffus'd through all Did like the Soul quicken this massie Ball. In which we have not only intimated the powerfull influence of the Spirit but the words In principio which are used by Moses But to returne again to the Word of God we finde not only there that God made the World and that he made it in such time as himself best pleased but also the course and method which he used in so great a work A work which took up six whole dayes as before was said God taking a delight as it were in his own productions and giving them the commendation of good as they were created or pretermitting that commendation as sometimes he did when any thing was wanting unto that perfection which was after added For in the work of the second day wherein God did divide the waters above the firmament from those which were disposed beneath it we do not finde this approbation et vidit Deus quod esset bonum because that did not bring the waters to that use and perfection which after they received when they were separated from the Earth and gathered together into one body which he called the Sea And this consideration is alone sufficient to consute a strange conceipt of some late Divines Who on pretence of some authority out of Augustines works have told us that all things were created at once by the power of God and that not only in one day sed in eodem momento or eodem nunc as Vallesius phraseth it the distinction of six days being made by Moses the better to complie with our incapacities For questionlesse there cannot be a better reason why God should passe no approbation on the second days work and double it upon the third but that the separation of the Waters not being fully perfected till the said third day required one special approbation from the mouth of God as the production of the earth and the fruits thereof which was the work of that day also did require another But here a question may be made concerning those waters which are said to be above the firmament or rather of the firmament which is said to divide them I know the general opinion of most writers is that by the Firmament in that place we are to understand the Air as being interposed inter aquosam et humidam superioris Regionis molem etâ— aquas marium fluminumque between the waters of the upper Regions and that which is dispersed in the Seas and Rivers So Iunius for the Protestant Doctors and Estius for those of the Church of Rome do expound that Text and for my part I have not been unwilling to conforme to that in which both parties are agreed But I have met of late with the Observations of a right learned man upon some passages of Scripture in which I finde some strong presumptions that an Abysse of Waters must needs be granted to be above the highest Orbe whose Arguments I shall lay down as I finde them there and so refer the matter wholly to the Readers judgment For first he saith and I think very truly that the Waters above the Heavens called upon by David and the three Children in their Song to praise the Lord cannot be taken for the watery Region of the Air because in the same Canticle by an expresse enumeration of all the Meteors this Region is invited to the like celebration O every showres and dew blesse ye the Lord and magnifie his name for ever saith the Benedicite Fire and hail snow and vapour winde and storm fulfilling his word saith the book of Psalmes Psal. 148. He telleth us secondly that in the separation of the waters spoken of by Moses the waters below the firmament were gathered together into that Receptacle which he called the Sea and that in the space above the firmament he laid up the rest of the deep as in a store-house Psal. 33.7 From whence when he uttered his voice as at the flood there was a multitude or noise of waters in the Heavens Ier. 10.13 Which lest it might be gratis dictum he proves it by the story of the generall Deluge in which the waters being said to prevail at least 15. cubits above the top of the highest mountains must needs have more time then 40. days and 40. nights for their falling down according to the course of nature unlesse there had been some supply from this great Abysse and that God by an high hand had forced down those waters which he had laid up there as in a store-house And that there was such a supplie from this infinite and inexhaustible store-house he shewes out of those words of the 7. of Genesis where it is said that the fountains of the great deep or as the Angell calleth them in the Book of
Manent cuncta non quia aeterna sunt sed quia defenduntur cura Regentis Immortalia tutore non egent Haec autem conservat Artifex fragilitatem materiae vi sua vincens All things saith he continue in beeing as at first they were not because they are eternal in their own nature but because they be defended by the Providence of their Governour Things in themselves Immortal have no need of a guardian But those things are preserved by the power of their Maker which over-ruleth the weakness of the matter out of which they are made So that it seems by the Philosophie of this learned man that the creature is preserved from perishing not by any power which it hath in it self but by the power and providence of its Heavenly Maker And this no less true in the Divinity of the holy Scriptures How long before this present time had the unbridled Ocean overwhelmed the land had not God set bounds unto it which it shall not pass nor turn again to cover the earth What a combustion had the World been brought into long before this time by the perpetual jarring of contrary Elements had not GOD so disposed it by his heavenly Providence as to interpose this vast airy Firmament betwixt the Elements of fire and water and so to temper drought with moisture that neither should be able to consume the other How long before this time had those many millions of men which possess the World perished for want of food and devoured one another had not he opened his hand and filled all things living with plenteousness did not he give the former and the latter rain making the Valleys fruitful and so full of corn that they do seem to laugh and sing in the Psalmists language How long before this time had the race of mankinde been utterly exterminated out of all the world by those violent and consuming Wars which have raged in every part thereof since the times of Nimrod since men began to hunt after one another and made the sword the instrument of their lusts and cruelties did not he keep unto himself the Soveraign power of making wars to cease whensoever he pleaseth and sending Peace into our borders when we look not for it Finally not to instance in more particulars how long before this time had the World been emptied of Inhabitants and no place peopled but the Graves by the continual prevalencie of Plagues and Leprosies and other pestilent diseases which the intemperance of diet or the malignant influences of the heavenly bodies have so oft produced had not he given a Medicinal vertue unto hearbs and plants for cure of ordinary but contagious sicknesses and say to his destroying Angel that it is enough when the devouring Plagues do most fiercely rage That Pestilence which cut off seventy thousand men in less space then a day must needs have utterly destroyed all mankinde in less space then a year had not the Lord restrained the fury of it by his grace and goodness Look where we will cast we our eyes on every side upon all the creatures and we shall finde as much of Gods wonderful Providence in their preservation as of his mighty Power in the first Creation That he spake the word and they were made that he commanded only and they were created is the most notable effect of his mighty Power But that he made them fast even for ever and ever and gave them such a law for their rule and governance as shall not be broken is a more admirable effect of his singular Providence When therefore it is said in the holy Scriptures that God rested on the seventh day from all the works which he had made we are to understand it thus that he desisted then from adding any thing unto the work of his hands which he had finished and made perfect the six days before but not from ordering and disposing of it as he sees occasion which is a work as highly to be prized as the first Creation and from the which God never resteth no not on the Sabbath Sempër videmus Deum operari Sabbatum nullum est in quo non operetur in quo non producat solem suum super bonos malos Sabbaths and all days are alike in regard of Providence in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature Nor is there any day saith Origen whereon God doth rest from the Administration of the World by him created on which he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad and makes his rain to fall on the just and wicked Pater meus usque modo operatur saith CHRIST our Saviour I work saith he and my Father also worketh to this very time By which our Saviour meaneth as S. Augustine notes that God rested not from ordering the things which he had created Nec ullam sibi cessationis statuisse diem and that there was no day whatsoever it was in which he tended not the preservation of the creature and therefore for his own part that he would not cease from doing the will of him that sent him Ne Sabbatis quidem no not so much as on the Sabbath It was the folly or the frenzy of the Epicureans that they robbed God of his Providence and made him nothing but a dull Spectator an idle and unnecessary looker on letting all worldly matters go as they would themselves Et Deos aut otiosos finxit aut nullos said the Christian Advocate The Stoicks saw this Error and took care to avoid it but then they fell upon as bad appointing that which they called Fate in the place of Providence and by that Fate so tying up the hands of GOD that he could do nothing but what was formerly decreed and resolved upon Which were it so Cur non illae potius regnare dicantur as wittily Lactantius scoffeth it why was not Fate and Destiny put in the place of God which even the Gods themselves are compelled to obey The Peripateticks therefore thought it to be better Divinity to grant to GOD the over-sight and super-inspection of all but yet ascribed so much unto second causes that they left little more to be done by GOD then to set the first wheel as it were on going and leave the rest to move in their course and order Which though it came more neer the truth yet it comes not home the Providence of God being so particular that the very hairs of our head are said to be numbred and that a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without his knowledge and permission But leaving this discourse of Gods general Providence we will consider it at the present in these principal parts his goodness towards all his creatures his Iustice in the governance of humane affairs concluding this with that of Alexander Aphrodiseus a great Aristotelean who pleads thus in behalf of this general Providence Quod
this objection she might make not out of any disbelief of the Angels words for being then as faulty as old Zachary was she had been as punishable since God is no respecter of persons nor that she had vowed chastity as the Papists say and Gregory Nyssen doth report from an unknown Author whose history he doth confess to be Apocryphal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are for then she had done very ill to betroth herself unto an husband the vow of Chastity being inconsistent with the state of Matrimony But this she did because the Angel seemed to speak of her Conception as a thing instantly to be done and then in fieri at the least as Logicians phrase it and she though then betrothed to Ioseph was a Virgin still for the Text saith it was before they came together and more then so there was perhaps some part of the time remaining which usually intervened amongst the Iews betwixt the first Espousals and the consummation of the marriage But this bar was easily removed For it followeth that the Angel answered and said The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee The holy Ghost shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it that is to say the holy Ghost shall fall upon thee like rain into a fleece of wooll or like the dew of heaven upon a barren and thirstie land where no moisture is and make thee no less fruitful without help of man then was the Virgin Earth in its first integrity when no outward or extrinsecal moysture had yet fallen upon it but that there went up a mist only out of the very bowels thereof and watered the whole face of the ground And the power of the most High shall overshadow thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek and cover thee with the wings of his quickning virtue as the Hen doth Egges when she brings forth young To make this matter plainer yet we shall illustrate it by two Texts of holy Scripture equal to this both in the wonder and the agent In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And in the second of the same Book we read that God created man out of the dust of the earth vers 7. In each of these there is a subject some matter such as it was to be wrought upon that confused mixture of Earth and waters to be disposed into a world the dust and Atoms of that world to be contrived into a man The fashioning and accomplishment of which great works both of them seeming as impossible to sense and reason as the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb is in the Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost The Spirit of God saith Moses moved upon the face of the waters Hence the digestion of that matter fashioned into that goodly fabrick of Heaven and Earth which we so visibly behold with such admiration God breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae from whence the Animation and soul of man This action then ascribed unto the holy Ghost which St. Luke calleth a supervenience or a coming upon and an obumbration or over-shadowing is likely to have been much of the same nature with that of moving in the first and that of breathing in the 2. of Genesis Gods Spirit as it breatheth where it listeth so can it quicken where it pleaseth Some there have been if Maldonate do report them rightly Qui turpe aliquid hoc loco somniant who have made some impure construction of this holy Text most impudently affirming Spiritum sanctum ad modum viri cum Maria concubuisse I abhor to English it but who they were he either was afraid or ashamed to tell us No doubt but they were some of the Romish party For had such a blasphemous and ungodly saying dropped from the mouth or pen of a Protestant all Christendome had been told of his name and Nation And therefore certainly this quidam whom he spares to name must be some such good fellow of the Catholick faction as Fryer Albert of the frock as they use to call him Of whom I remember I have read in some of their Authors that being a great Votary of the blessed Virgins she appeared nightly to him in her bodily shape espoused her self to him by a ring and suffered himself to converse with her in familiar manner Insomuch as he might say in the Poets language Contrectatque sinus forsitan oseula jungit He dallied with her Paps And kissed her too perhaps But I do ill to mingle these impurities with this sacred argument if the unmasking of the obscoenities of those great Professors of vowed chastity do not plead my pardon And yet I cannot choose but adde that these lazy lives of some of the Monks and Fryers have carryed them so far into spiritual fornications or rather into contemplative lusts that many of them have fancied to themselves such unclean commixtures as that of Fryer Albert with the blessed Virgin To what end else served those large Faculties which were given unto Tekelius a Dominican Fryer when he was sent to publish the pardons or Indulgences of Pope Leo the tenth in the upper Germany Who spared not to affirm even in common Alehouses that by his Buls he had authority to absolve any man whatsoever Etiamsi Virginem matrem vitiaverit though he had vitiated or deflowred the Virgin Mother as Sleidan tels the storie in his book of Commentaries I know that in the later Editions of this Author as in that of Colen printed An. .... the words are changed to Virginem aut matrein a maid or a mother and so to mend the matter they have marred the sense For what need such large faculties as Tekelius bragged of for pardoning fornication or Adultery for the deflowring of a Virgin or lying with another mans wife which every ordinary Priest can absolve of course Besides in the first Edition of that Author printed at ..... An. .... it is plainly Virginem Matrem the Virgin Mother And so 't is in an old English Translation of him printed at London and la Veirge Mere as plainly in a French Translation printed at Geneva An. 1574. Marvail it is that Maldonate hath not undergone the like castigation whose Quidam whatsoever he was offended more against the Majesty of the holy Ghost then Tekel did save that the Popes authority was concerned in it against the modesty and piety of the Virgin Mary To return therefore where I left as I abominate the impieties of these Romish Votaries so neither can I approve the conceit of Estius though otherwise a very learned and sound Expositor of holy Scripture where the interest of the Church of Rome
causa etiam ad hodiernum diem Purgatorium non est à Graecis creditum In which besides a plain acknowledgement that the Greek Fathers knew not of it there is a very shreud intimation that there is little mention in the antien◠Latines Some other ground there must be for the fire of Purgatory than prayers and offerings for the dead but what that is is not so easily agreed upon amongst themselves Some relie wholly on Tradition and others as they build on that for the main foundation so they bring Texts of Scripture as a second help for their collateral security onely and no more than so But Frier Iohn Bacon hath declared That there be others who think that Purgatory cannot be proved by authority of Scripture that the Books of Maccabees which commonly are alleged for proof thereof are not Canonical that the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. speaks of that fire that shall purge the elements of the world in the last day and that touching those words of Christ it shall never be remitted in this world nor in that to come they prove not that there is a remission of sins in the other world Nor is Iohn Bacon onely of this opinion For they who carefully consult the writings of our Romish Adversaries will easily perceive how little confidence they have in those Texts of Scripture which commonly are alleged in defence hereof there being not so much as one Text hitherto produced and insisted on by some of that party but what by others is denied to be meant of Purgatory And to say truth their differences are so many and irreeoncilable in all the points and circumstances which concern this doctrine that the disagreements which they have amongst themselves may serve sufficiently instead of all other Arguments to confute the Tenet First for the place which Eckius will have to be in the bottom of the Sea some in Mount Aetna others in the Centre of the Earth and Bernard de Busses in an Hill of Ireland next for the Torments which Sir Thomas Moor will have to be onely by fire Fisher his fellow-sufferer by Fire and Water Lorichius neither by Fire nor Water but by the violent convulsions of Hope and Fear then for the Executioners which Bishop Fisher will have to be holy Angels Sir Thomas Moor to be very Devils So for the sins that are to be expiated in those flames which some will have to be onely venial others to be the venial ones and the mortal too And for the time of their continuing in that state which Dennis the Carthusian extends to the end of the world Dominicus à Soto limits but to ten years onely others have shortned that time too if either their friends will hire some Priest to say Mass for their souls or the Pope do but speak the word And last of all for the extremity of the pain which Aquinas makes as violent as those of Hell and yet the Rhemists say that they which are in Purgatory are in a more happy and blessed condition than any man living Durandus betwixt these extreams gives them some intermission from these terrible pains upon Sundays and Holidays By which uncertainty or contrariety rather of opinions we may clearly see upon what weak foundations they have raised this building which probably had faln to the ground long since if the profit which ariseth by it to their Monks and Friers had not kept it up But I forbear to meddle further in this point of Purgatory which for my part I do conceive to be rather a Platonical and Poetical fiction than to have any ground in Scripture or true Antiquity The Fathers for the first 600 years after Christs Nativity making no resolution in it either publick or private save that St. Augustine to avoide a worse inconvenience may seem to some to patronize it And yet he doth it with such doubtingness and so much uncertainty that any man not blinded with his own opinion may see he knew not what to determine of it For sometimes it is no more then quantum arbitror for as much as he thinks and other whiles incredibile non est that it is not incredible But then he leaves it off with a quaeri potest as a matter disputable At other times he goes as far as a forsitan verum that peradventure it is true and yet at last utterly rejects it with an ignoramus Heaven we do know saith he and we know Hell also Tertium locum ignoramus a third place between both we can tell of none He that can ground a point of faith upon such uncertainties must have more skill in Architecture than I dare pretend to But this is onely on the by to shew how little the Communion of the Saints hath to do with Purgatory which neither is a consequent nor concomitant of it The Saints may pray for one another we for their consummation in the state of glory and they for our wel-doing in our passage thither and no such thing as Purgatory be inferred from either It is now time that I proceed to such other benefits as do redound unto the Church from her Head CHRIST IESUS Articuli X. Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Remissionem Peccatorum i. e. The forgiveness of Sins CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No Actual sin so great but it in capable of forgiveness In what respect some sins may be counted Venial and others Mortal IT is a saying of St. Augustines in no point so uncertain as in that of Purgatory that possibly God could not have bestowed a greater blessing on his Church than making his onely begotten Son Christ Iesus to be head thereof By means whereof it cometh to pass that one and the same person Et orat pro nobis orat in nobis oratur à nobis doth both pray for us and pray with us and yet is also prayed to by us How so That he resolves immediately in the words next following Orat pro nobis ut sacerdos noster orat in nobis ut caput nostrum oratur à nobis ut deu◠noster that is to say He prayeth for us as our Priest he prayeth with us as our Head and is prayed to by us as our God Himself is both the Suter and the Mediator yea and the party sued unto and therefore doubt we not when we call upon him but he will grant us those Petitions which himself makes for us As Priest he represents continually to Almighty God the benefit and effect of that perfect Sacrifice which he once offered on the Cross for the sins of the world As Head unto the Church he recommends our prayers to the Throne of Grace and joyneth with his Members in their sutes to God for the more speedy and effectual obtaining of them As God he hath his eye still over
to the water but the institution nor to the Sacramental water of it self alone but to the holy Spirit which is active in it Et ipsi soli hujus efficienciae privilegium manet to which belongeth the prerogative in this great effect For as the Spirit of God moving upon the waters of the great Abyss did out of that imperfect matter produce the world so the same Spirit moving on the waters of Baptism doth by its mighty power produce a regenerate Creature From hence it is that in the setting forth of so great a work the water and the Spirit are oft joyned together as in St. Iohn Except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in St. Paul accrrding to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And in St. Iohns Epistle also There be three that bear witness on the earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood And if the Spirit go along with the Waters of Baptism as we see them joyned together in the holy Scripture no question but it will be made effectual to the work intended which is the washing away of sins whether smal or great whether Original or Actual of what sort soever For proof whereof besides what hath been said of this Point already let us behold the practise of the Primitive times when the Discipline of the Church was grown so severe that some were hardly admitted at all unto publick Penance others removed from the communion of the Church for three four or seven years together and sometimes as the quality of the sin appeared for the whole time of their lives A Discipline which the Church used onely towards those which had given up their names in baptism to be visible members of that body whereof Christ was Head and that made more unpleasing to most sort of men upon the growth and spreading of the Novatian Heresie who mistaking the Apostles meaning declared all those to be uncapable of mercy who sinned after Baptism and therefore neither would admit them unto publick penance nor otherwise restore them to the Churches peace of whom St. Cyprian thus complaineth Sic obstinatos esse quosdam ut dandam non putent lapsis poenitentiam And though the Orthodox party did abominate these Novatian rigors yet were they too strait-laced towards those who fell into any publick or notorious sin after they had received the Sacrament of Regeneration it being conceived that after Baptism major in sordibus delictorum reatus as it is in Augustine the smalest sins seemed greater than indeed they were Upon this ground and an assurance which they had that all their sins whatever were expunged in Baptism it was the custom of too many to defer their Baptism till the hour of their death or till they lay so far past hope on the bed of sickness that nothing but the stroke of death was to be expected Thus doth the Story tell us of the Emperor Constantine that in extremo vitae die when he was even brought to the point of death he was baptized in Nicomedia by the hands of Eusebius the like of Theodosius a most pious Prince upon these grounds St. Austine did defer his baptism a long time together that so he might more freely enjoy those pleasures to which he was addicted in his younger years On the like fear of such relapses as were censured so severely in those rigid times he put off the baptizing of Adeodatus his own natural Son till he came to thirteen years of age at what time the severity of the Church began to slaken or rather the good Fathers judgement was then changed to the better on the right understanding of the use and nature of that holy Sacrament A custom as ill taken up so as much condemned and subject to the Churches censures when occasion served those which were so baptized and escaped from death whom they called Clinici because they were baptized on the bed of sickness being disabled by the Canons from the holy Ministery But whether censured or not censured it comes all to one as to the point I have in hand which was to shew that in the practise and opinion of those elder times the Sacrament of Baptism was held to be the general plaster for all manner of sins and though sometimes deferred till the hour of death on the occasion and mistakes before remembred yet then most earnestly desired ad delenda erratu illa quae quoniam mortales erant admiserant as the Historian saith of the Emperor Constantine for expiating of those sins which they had committed But on the other side as some did purposely defer it till the time of their death out of too great a fear of the Church's censures and a desire to injoy the pleasures of sin yet a little longer so others and those the generality of the people of God out of a greater care of their childrens safety procured it to be administred unto them in their â—endrest infancy almost as soon as they were born And this they did on very pious and prudential considerations though there be no express command nor positive precept for it in the holy Scripture for when we read that we were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal. 51.5 that all men are by nature the children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 and that except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.5 What Parent can so far put off all natural affections as not to bring his child to baptism especially if there be any danger of death as soon as all things fitting can be had in readiness for that ministration And though there be no positive precept nor express command for Infant-baptism in the holy Scripture it is sufficient ground for the Church to go on if it be proved to be an Apostolical practise and that it is at least an Apostolical practise there will appear sufficient evidence to any man not prepossessed with prejudice and mis-perswasions For when we finde particular mention of the baptizing of whole housholds as of that of Lydia Act. 16.15 of the Gaoler vers 33. of the same Chapter and of Stephanus 2 Cor. 1.16 Either we must exclude children from being part of the houshold which were very absurd or else admit them with the rest to this holy Sacrament But because many exceptions have been made against these instances some thinking it possible enough that those housholds had no children in them as we see many families in great Towns and Cities where no Infants are others restraining the administration of Baptism unto such of the houshold as by giving testimony of their Faith and Repentance were made capable of it we must for further proof make use of a Rule in Law and back that Rule of Law by a practical Maxim delivered by the
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
affirms this of them that all they did conduce to no other end quam ut nullus omnino aut rogetur aut colatur Deus And in this state the business stood when the first Advocates which pleaded in the behalf of the Christian faith did undertake the vindicating of Gods power and providence and laboured to possess the world with a right opinion both of the Beeing and divine Nature of GOD and also of his soveraign power in ordering the course of nature and governing all sublunary affairs of what kinde soever Whose arguments being drawn especially from the light of reason and therefore fittest to convince the gainsaying Gentiles are elegantly summed up by Minutius Felix out of whose excellent Dialogue I shall here present them according as they lay before me and then confirm the truth of that which he there delivereth out of the works and writings of the old Philosophers and other learned men amongst those Gentiles whom prejudice and prepossession had not formerly blinded The difference saith he betwixt us men and beasts doth consist in this that they whose faces are inclined to look down to the earth seem to be chiefly made to look after their provender But we whose countenances are raised up towards the Firmament to whom is given both speech and reason by which we may know feel and imitate the works of God must needs be counted inexcusable should we be ignorant of that divine light which doth even thrust it self on our eyes and senses It is an high degree of Sacriledge to seek for that upon the Earth which is not to be found but in Heaven on high Which makes them seem to me to lâ—â—ve neither understanding sense nor so much as eyes who would not have this World accomplished by the Divine wisdome of God but compacted only of several parcels joyned together by chance For what can be so obvious so confessed so manifest whether we lift up our Eyes to Heaven or behold those things which are beneath and round about us then that there is some Divine power of most exquisite judgement by which the whole frame of Nature is inspired moved maintained and ordered Behold the Heaven it self of what a vast circumference and how swiftly moved bespangled in the night with stars illustrated in the day time with the beams of the Sun and thou mayst know by that the wonderful and divine disposure of its Supreme Governour Observe the year how it ends the circular motion of the Sun the moneth distinguished by the increase and wane of the Moon the mutual succession of light and darkness that rest and labour may by turns succeed one another Let us relinquish to Astronomers a more exact discourse of the Stars and Planets whether they serve to direct the course of Navigation or usher in the seasons of seed and harvest which as they were not made created nor disposed of without a Supreme Workman of most perfect wisdome so could they not be comprehended and made intelligible but by great art and understanding When the orderly method of the season distinguisheth it self by the constant variety of several fruits doth it not openly avouch who is the Author and the Parent thereof that is to say the Spring bedecked with flowers and the Summer with corn the Fall made acceptable by its fruits and the Winter necessary by its Olives Besides how great an argument is it of an heavenly Providence to interpose the temperament of the Spring and Autumn lest if it were all Winter it should freeze us with cold or if it were all Summer it should scorch us with heat that so one part of the year might fall into the other without producing any sensible or dangerous alteration in the state of things Behold the Sea how it is bounded with the shore which it may not pass the Earth how it is fructified with trees which it self produceth the Ocean how it is divided between ebbs and flouds the Fountains how they flow with continual streams the Rivers how they pass away with perpetual waters What need I speak of the perpendicular height of Mountains or the declivities of the hils or the extension of the fields What need we speak of that variety of weapons wherewith brute beasts are armed for their own defence some fortified with horns others palisadoed with teeth some furnished with hoofs some provided of stings and others having means to preserve themselves either by the nimbleness of their feet or the help of their wings Especially consider the comeliness and beauty of our own bodies made of an upright structure an erected countenance the eyes advanced as Sentinels in the Keep or Watch-tower and all the rest of the senses placed in the Fort or Capital and will not that acknowledge GOD for its sole Artificer An endless work it were to run over all particular members take this once for all that there is not one part in all the body which serveth not both for necessary use and ornament also And which is yet more wonderful then all the rest though there be the same structure of all yet hath every man his several and proper lineaments by which though we are all alike yet are we also so unlike as to be easily discerned from one another The manner of our birth and the desire of procreation is it not given by GOD alone That the dugs spring with milk when the Babe doth ripen and that the Infant groweth up by that milky dew proceeds it not from the same Author Nor doth GOD take care only of the whole but of every part The Isle of Britain which is defective in the heat of the Sun is notwithstanding refreshed with the warmth of the Sea which doth incompass it Nilus doth satisfie for the want of rain that is in Egypt Euphrates fatneth Mesopotamia and Indus is reported both to sow and water the Eastern Regions If then as often as thou entrest into any house and seest in what an excellent order all things therein are both disposed of and set â—ut at the best advantage thou canst not choose but think there is some Lord or Master of it which hath so disposed it and one that is much better then the things themselves so in this great house the World when thou observest the Heaven and Earth the order law and providence by which they are guided how canst thou choose but think that there is some Lord of this Vniverse the Author of those Stars and Constellations of far more beauty then the loveliest of those several parts But possibly thou mayst not so much call in question whether there be a Divine Providence which ruleth all things as whether it be subject to the power of one or of many Gods which will be no great difficulty to determine neither if we observe the Arts of Empire used in Earthly Kingdoms which have their pattern from above For when did ever any partnership in Empire either begin upon good tearms or not end in bloud
of mankinde and a necessity was laid upon them to obey his pleasure Nec quicquam est in Angelis nisi parendi necessitas said Lactantius truly And so far we have all things clear from the holy Scriptures But if we will beleeve the learned as I think we may there is no signal punishment of ungodly people ascribed to God in the old Testament but what was executed by the ministry of these blessed spirits except some other means and ministers be expresly named That great and universal deluge in the time of Noah was questionless the work of Almighty God I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth Gen. 6.17 But this was done by the ministery and service of the holy Angels Ministerio Angelorum saith Torniellus whom he employed in breaking up the fountaines of the great deep and opening the cataracts of Heaven for the destruction of that wicked unrepenting people Thus when it is affirmed in the 14. of Exodus that the Lord looked into the hoste of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and overthrew them in the midst of the Sea v. 24.27 Non intelligendum est de Deo sed de Angelo qui erat in nube we must not understand it of the Lord himself as Tostatus hath it but only of the Angel or ministring spirit of whose being in the cloud we had heard before And when we read that in the battail of the five Kings against the Israelites the Lord cast down great stones upon them from Heaven Iosh. 10. it is not to be thought saith he Quod Deus mitteret sed Angelus jubente Deo that this was done by Gods own hand but by the holy Angels at the Lords appointment The like may be affirmed of those other acts of power and punishment whereof we finde such frequent mention in the book of God which though they be ascribed to God as the principall Agent yet were they generally effected by his holy Angels as the means and instruments But the most proper office of the holy Angels is not for punishment but preservation not for correction of the wicked but for protection of the just and righteous person That 's the chief part of their imployment the office which they most delight in and God accordingly both hath and doeth employ them so from time to time For by the ministery of his Angels did he deliver Ismael from the extremity of thirst Daniel from the fury of hunger Lot from the fire and trembling Isaac from the sword our infant Saviour from one Herod his chief Apostle from another all of them from that common prison into the which they had been cast by the Priests and Pharisees But these were only personal and particular graces Look we on such as were more publick on such as did concern his whole people generally and we shall finde an Angel of he Lord incamping between the hoste of Egypt and the house of Israel to make good the passage at their backs till they were gotten on the other side of the Sea another Angel marching in the front of their Armies as soon as they had entred the land of Canaan and he the Captain of the Lords hostes Princeps exercituum Dei as the vulgar readeth it but whether Michael Gabriel or who else it was the Rabbins may dispute at leasure and to them I leave it Moreover that wall of waters which they had upon each side of them when they passed thorow the Sea as upon dry ground facta est a Deo per Angelos exequentes that was the work of Angels also directed and imployed by Almighty God as the learned Abulensis notets it Which also is affirmed by the Iewish Doctors of the dividing of the waters of Iordan to make the like safe passage for them into the promised land the land of Canaan The like saith Peter Martyr a learned Protestant touching the raysing of the Syrians from before Samaria when the Lord made them hear the noise of Cariots and the noise of horse-men that it was ministerio Angelorum effected by the ministery of the holy Angels whom God imployed in saving that distressed people from the hands of their enemies And by an Angel or at least an angelical vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a dream or Oracle delivered to them in their sleep as Eusebius telleth us did he forwarne the Christians dwelling in the land of Palestine to remove thence to Pella a small town of Syria and so preserved them from the spoyle and fury of the Roman Armies This was Gods way of preservation in the times before us and it is his way of preservation in all ages since GOD is the same God now as then his holy Angels no lesse diligent in their attendance on us then they have been formerly Let us but make our selves by our faith and piety worthy to be accounted the Sons of God and the heires of salvation and doubt we not of the assistance of these ministring spirits in all essaies of personall or publick dangers T is true the apparitions of the Angels in these late times have been very rare not many instances to be found in our choycest Histories But then it is as true withall one of the most eternall truths of holy Scripture that the Angel of the Lord encampeth about all them that fear him and delivereth them Whether we see or see them not it comes all to one and so resolved by Clemens of Alexandria an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord saith he doth still preserve us by the ministery of his holy Angels though we behold them not in any visible shape as the antients did And to say truth this general protection of the Angels is a point so clear so undeniable in true Divinity that he must needs renounce the Scripture which makes question of it Some difference indeed hath been about Angel-gardians and the particular protection which we have from them to whom God hath committed the tuition of our severall persons And yet even this if we make Scripture to be judge according to the exposition of the antient Writers will prove a point as clear and as undeniable as that of the protection which we have in general For Origen who lived in the third century from our Saviours birth reckoneth it for a tenet of undoubted truth and generally imbraced in the Christian Church long before his time that all Gods children from their birth or at least their Baptisme had their angel-keepers Lactantius speaks more generally as of all mankind Ad tutelam generis humani misit Angelos though possibly he might mean no otherwise then did the other Catholick writers of the times he lived in and those who followed close in the age succeeding St. Basil in Psal. 33. and Psal. 58. St. Chrysost. on the 18. of Matthew The Authour of the Imperfect work Hom. 40. Theodoret in l. 5. divinorum Decretorum do
the soule and by a metaphor the motions of the minde whether good or evill are called spirits also as the spirit of giddiness Isa. 19.14 the spirit of error 1 Tim. 4.1 the spirit of envie Iam. 4.5 which come all from the unclean spirit mentioned Luk. 11.24 And thus in general the pious motions in the mind are called Spirits too Quench not the spirit saith St. Paul i. e. those godly motions to the works of Faith and Piety which the Holy Spirit of God doth secretly kindle in thee For the word Ghost it is originally Saxon and signifieth properly the soul of a man as when we read of Christ that he gave up the Ghost Mark 15.37 and in the rest of the Evangelists also the meaning is that his soule departed from his body he yeelded up his soule to the hands of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original Expiravit as the Latine reads it that is to say he breathed out his soul or he breathed his last Nor doth it signifie the soule onely though that most properly but generally also any spiritual substance as doth the word spiritus in the Latine a touch whereof we have still remaining in the Adjective Ghostly by which we mean that which is spiritual as our Ghostly Father Ghostly Counsel i. e. our Father in the spiritual matters counsel that savoreth of the spirit So then the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit are the same Person here though in different words and the word Holy which is added doth clearly difference him from all other spirits Not that God being a spirit is not holy also or that the Angelical spirits are not replenished with as much holinesse as a created nature can be capable of but because it is his Office to sanctifie or make holy all the elect Children of God therefore hath he the title or attribute of holy annexed unto him And yet the title of holy is not always added to denote this person though when we find mention of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit it is meant and spoken of him onely For sometimes he is called the Spirit without any adjunct the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminency but still with reference to those gifts which he doth bestow The manifestation of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Article demonstrative is given to every man to profit withall For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit Sometimes he is called the Spirit of the Father as Matth. 10.20 It is not yee that speak but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you sometimes the Spirit of the Son as Gal. 4.6 where it is said that God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father Most generally he is called the Spirit of God as Gen 1.2 and Matth. 3.16 and infinite other places of the holy Scripture and more particularly the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 in which place he is also called the Spirit of God Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if that the Spirit of God dwel in you there the Spirit of God if any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit both of God and Christ and in one verse both So far we are onwards on our way for discoverie of the nature of this blessâ—d Spirit as to have found him out to be the Spirit of God the Father from whom he doth proceed by an unspeakable way of emanation and unknown to man for he proceedeth from the Father as our Saviour telleth us and to be also the Spirit of Christ the Son of God by whom he was breathed on the Apostles and so proceeding from the Son doth proceed from both Sent from the Father at the desire and prayer of the Son I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Iohn 14.16 Sent by the Son with the consent and approbation of the Father whom I will send unto you from the Father Iohn 15.26 and so sent of both And yet not therefore the less God because sent by either than IESUS CHRIST is God God for ever blessed as St. Paul calls him Rom. 9.5 because he was sent by God the Father He sent his Son made of a woman Gal. 4.4 saith the same Apostle If any doubt hereof as I know some do he may be sent for resolution of his doubt to the beginning of Genesis where he shall finde the Spirit of God moving on the waters Gen. 1.2 And to the Law where he shall read how the same Spirit came down on the Seventy Elders Numb 11.26 And to the Psalms Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created Psal. 104.30 And to the Prophets The Spirit of God is upon me saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 61.1 which was Christs first Text And I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh saith the Prophet Ioel Chap. 1.28 which was Peters first Text The Spirit of God is God no question for in Deo non est nisi Deus say the Schoolmen rightly Not a created Spirit as the Angels were For in the beginning when God created the Heaven and the Earth and all things visible and invisible then the Spirit was and was not onely actually in a way of existence but was of such a powerful influence in the Creation of the World that on the moving of this Spirit on the face of the Waters the darkness was removed from the face of the deep and the Chaos of undigested matter made capable of Form and Beauty In the New Testament the evidence is far more clear than that of the Old by how much the Sun of Light did shine more brightly in the times of the Gospel than in those of the Law Saith not St. Peter in the Acts Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost and then addes presently Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God What saith St. Austin on this Text The Holy Ghost saith he is God Unde Petrus cum dixisset ausus eâ— mentiri Spiritui Sancto continuo secutus adjunxit quid esset Spiritus Sanctus ait non mentitus es hominibus sed Deo i. e. Therefore when Peter said unto Ananias thou hast dared to lie to the Holy Ghost he added presently to shew what was the Holy Ghost Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God Saith not St. Paul Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God How so Because the Spirit of God dwelleth in you What saith the Father unto this Ostendit Paulus deum esse Spiritum Sanctum ideo non esse Creaturam that is to say St. Paul by this sheweth That the Holy Ghost is God and so no Creature Doth not the same Apostle say in another place Know ye not that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost
Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the
meaning of the holy Evangelist it is like he would have rather called it The purification of the Pharisees than the Purifying of the Iews We also have the testimony of St. Paul himself affirming That the service of God under the first Tabernacle consisted onely in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances where we see divers washings put for part of the Legal Ceremonies Not to run over more particulars that washing of the hands was used as a sign of innocency a sign of freedom from such guilt as men stood accused of is not apparent onely by those words of the Royal Psalmist I will wash my hands in innocency Psal. 26. But by that memorable passage in the Book of Deuteronomy where the Elders and Iudges of the people in the case of an accidental undiscovered murder are commanded to wash their hands and say Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it In imitation of which custom for the Romans had no such for ought I have read Pilate forsooth must wash his hands at the death of Christ as if it had been an accidental chance-medley as we use to call it not a studied murder Next to proceed unto the Gentiles these Legal washings of the Iews in case of pollution were quickly taken up by the Neighbor-nations near whom they lived and amongst whom their ordinary business and affairs gave them correspondence insomuch that they had not onely frequent washings to cleanse them from ordinary offences but used them also as purgations for their greater crimes and as preparatories to their Sacrifices and Divine solemnities Of sprinkling the common people with this holy water we finde this of the Poet Spargere rore levi ramo foelicis Olivae lustravitque viros that is to say That the Priest sprinkled the by-standers with an Olive-bough and thereby hallowed them as it were for the present service Of the opinion which they had of doing away their greater crimes by the washing of water we have the example of Orestes who having killed his Mother and so lost his wits is said by Homer to have recovered his understanding again by this kinde of washing The like did Theseus on the murder of the sons of Pallas the like Apollo and Diana on the slaughter of Pytho as we read in Pausanias a learned writer of the Greeks Tertullian hath delivered it for a general rule Penes veteres quisquis se homicidio infecerat purgatrice aqua se expiabat That antiently they which were guilty of homicide or wilful murder did use to expiate the crime with a purging water and that they also did the like in the case of Perjury Nay he that was returned from war and was no otherwise involved in the blood of mankinde than according to the ordinary course of battels did either in piety or modesty think himself unfit to deal in any civil much less sacred matters Donec me flumine vivo abluero as the Poet hath it till he had washed himself in the running waters Of which and of the Expiations which were conceived to be attained by means thereof we finde this in Ovid O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Fluminea tolli posse putatis aqua In English thus Too facile souls who think such heinous matters May expiated be with river-River-waters Wherein although he hit it right as to the humor of the people in those expiations yet he was somewhat out in the word fluminea the waters onely of the Sea serving for expiation of the greater crimes Propter vim igneam magnopere purgationibus consentaneam as my Author hath it For which cause questionless the Papists in the composition of their holy water make use of Salt as one of the chief ingredients that it may come more near in nature unto the water of the Sea of which there is enough to be seen in the Roman Rituals Last of all in their Sacrifices and solemn service of the Gods it is observed by Alexander ab Alexandro In omnibus sacris sacerdotem cum diis immolat rem divinam facit corporis ablutione purgari That the Priest used to wash himself all over in the way of Purgation The reason was because that by such washings they did not onely think themselves to be cleansed from sin Sed castimoniam praestari putant but that chastity and purity of minde was conferred withal And to come nearer to our business Tertullian tels us Sacris quibusdam per lavachrun initiari that unto some of their sacred offices as to those of Isis Mithras and the Games of Apollo they were consecrated or initiated by a kind of Baptism So that our Savior finding such a general consent both of Iewes and Gentles in ascribing unto water such an expiating and cleansing power retained it as the fittest element for the initiating of his followers in his holy Church and the cleansing of their souls from that filth of sin which nature and corrupt education had contracted in them No otherwise than in the institution of the other Sacrament he made not onely use of the bread and Wine but almost also of the accustomed formal words which were in use amongst the Iews at their Paschal Supper his heavenly wisdom so disposing of these former Rites that he seemed rather to direct and sanctifie them to his own great end than any way to innovate in the institution Having thus spoke a little of these Baptismal washings used amongst the Iews for by that name they do occur both in St. Marks Gospel and in Pauls Epistle and of the efficacy falsly and erroneously ascribed unto them by the ancient Gentiles We must next look upon them as an Institution of our Lord and Saviours and of the true effect of that institution in cleansing of our selves from the filth of sin Not that we give this power to water as it is an Element but do ascribe the same to Baptism as it is a Sacrament ordained by Christ himself to that end and purpose And so far it is pleaded by Tertullian strongly that if the Gentiles did ascribe so great power to water in all their Expiations and Initiations Quanto id verius aquae praestabunt per Dei authoritatem How much more truly may it be made effectual to those very purposes by the authority and appointment of Almighty God All waters in themselves were alike effectual as to the curing of Naamans Leprosie Abanah and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus as proper to that cure as the river of Iordan had not God in the way of a present remedy conferred that blessing upon Iordan which was not to be found in those other Rivers It was Gods blessing not the water which produced that Miracle to which all other waters might have been as serviceable if God had said the word and disposed so of them And so it is also in the work of regeneration which we ascribe not