217 Ch. xlix. 5, 6. is the best Guide and Measure of our Prayers. therefore stand in need of direction after what sort our wills BOOK V. and desires may be rightly conformed to his. Which is not done by willing always the selfsame thing that God intendeth. For it may chance that his purpose is sometime the speedy death of them whose long continuance in life if we should not wish we were unnatural. [5] When the object or matter therefore of our desires is (as in this case) a thing both good of itself and not forbidden of God; when the end for which we desire it is virtuous and apparently most holy; when the root from which our affection towards it proceedeth is Charity, Piety that which we do in declaring our desire by prayer; yea over and besides all this, sith we know that to pray for all men living is but to shew the same affection which towards every of them our Lord Jesus Christ hath borne, who knowing only as God who are his 62 did as man taste death for the good of all men: surely to that will of God which ought to be and is the known rule of all our actions, we do not herein oppose ourselves, although his secret determination haply be against us, which if we did understand as we do not, yet to rest contented with that which God will have done is as much as he requireth at the hands of men. And concerning ourselves, what we earnestly crave in this case, the same, as all things else that are of like condition, we meekly submit unto his most gracious will and pleasure. [6.] Finally, as we have cause sufficient why to think the practice of our church allowable in this behalf, so neither is ours the first which hath been of that mind. For to end with the words of Prosper 63, "This law of supplication for all men," (saith he,) "the devout zeal of all priests and of all faithful men doth hold with such full agreement, that there is not "any part of all the world where Christian people do not use "to pray in the same manner. The Church every where "maketh prayers unto God not only for saints and such as 66 218 The Ancient Church prayed for all Men. BOOK V. already in Christ are regenerate, but for all infidels and Ch. xlix. 6.❝ enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ, for all idolaters, for all "that persecute Christ in his followers, for Jews to whose "blindness the light of the Gospel doth not yet shine, for here"tics and schismatics, who from the unity of faith and charity "are estranged. And for such what doth the Church ask of "God but this, that leaving their errors they may be converted "unto him, that faith and charity may be given them, and "that out of the darkness of ignorance they may come to the "knowledge of his truth? which because they cannot them"selves do in their own behalf as long as the sway of evil "custom overbeareth them, and the chains of Satan detain "them bound, neither are they able to break through those "errors wherein they are so determinately settled, that they pay unto falsity the whole sum of whatsoever love is owing "unto God's truth; our Lord merciful and just requireth to "have all men prayed for; that when we behold innumerable "multitudes drawn up from the depth of so bottomless evils, we may not doubt but" (in part) "God hath done the thing "we requested, nor despair but that being thankful for them "towards whom already he hath shewed mercy, the rest which 66 66 are not as yet enlightened, shall before they pass out of life "be made partakers of the like grace. Or if the grace of him "which saveth (for so we see it falleth out) overpass some, so "that the prayer of the Church for them be not received, this "we may leave to the hidden judgments of God's righteousness, "and acknowledge that in this secret there is a gulf, which "while we live we shall never sound 64" Sacraments: what they are, and where to be had. 219 Ch. 1. 1-3. Of the name, and the force ments; which L. Instruction and Prayer whereof we have hitherto spoken, BOOK V. are duties which serve as elements, parts, or principles, to the rest that follow, in which number the Sacraments of the the author, Church are chief. The Church is to us that very mother of of sacraour new birth 65, in whose bowels we are all bred, at whose force consistbreasts we receive nourishment. As many therefore as are that God apparently to our judgment born of God, they have the of their regeneration by the ministry of the Church useth to that end and purpose not only the Word, but the in Christ, and Sacraments, both having generative force and virtue. eth in this, hath ordain seed ed them as which [2] As oft as we mention a Sacrament properly understood, (for in the writings of the ancient Fathers all articles which are peculiar to Christian faith, all duties of religion containing that which sense or natural reason cannot of itself discern, are most commonly named Sacraments,) our restraint of the word to some few principal divine ceremonies importeth in every such ceremony two things, the substance of the ceremony itself which is visible, and besides that somewhat else more secret in reference whereunto we conceive that ceremony to be a Sacrament. For we all admire and honour the holy Sacraments, not respecting so much the service which we do unto God in receiving them, as the dignity of that sacred and secret gift which we thereby receive from God. Seeing that Sacraments therefore consist altogether in relation to some such gift or grace supernatural as only God can bestow, how should any but the Church administer those ceremonies as Sacraments which are not thought to be Sacraments by any but by the Church? [3] There is in Sacraments to be observed their force and their form of administration. Upon their force their necessity dependeth. So that how they are necessary we cannot discern till we see how effectual they are. When Sacraments are said to be visible signs of invisible grace, we thereby con means to make us par takers of him of life through Christ. 220 Sacraments are Means of Communion with God. BOOK V. ceive how grace is indeed the very end for which these Ch. li. I. heavenly mysteries were instituted, and besides sundry other That God is in Christ by incarnation of the Son who is very God 67. properties observed in them, the matter whereof they consist is such as signifieth, figureth, and representeth their end. But still their efficacy resteth obscure to our understanding, except we search somewhat more distinctly what grace in particular that is whereunto they are referred, and what manner of operation they have towards it. The use of Sacraments is but only in this life, yet so that here they concern a far better life than this, and are for that cause accompanied with "grace which worketh Salvation." Sacraments are the powerful instruments of God to eternal life. For as our natural life consisteth in the union of the body with the soul; so our life supernatural in the union of the soul with God. And forasmuch as there is no union of God with man 66 without that mean between both which is both, it seemeth requisite that we first consider how God is in Christ, then how Christ is in us, and how the Sacraments do serve to make us partakers of Christ. In other things we may be more brief, but the weight of these requireth largeness. LI." The Lord our God is but one God." In which indithe personal visible unity notwithstanding we adore the Father as being altogether of himself, we glorify that consubstantial Word which is the Son, we bless and magnify that co-essential Spirit eternally proceeding from both which is the Holy Ghost. Seeing therefore the Father is of none, the Son is of the Father and the Spirit is of both, they are by these their several properties really distinguishable each from other. For the substance of God with this property to be of none doth make the Person of the Father; the very selfsame substance in number with this property to be of the Father maketh the Person of the Son; the same substance having added unto it the property of proceeding from the other two maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost. So that in every Person there is implied both the substance of God which is one, and Communion of Saints: Incarnation of the Word only. 221 Ch. li. 2, 3. also that property which causeth the same person really and BOOK V. truly to differ from the other two. Every person hath his own subsistence which no other besides hath 68, although there be others besides that are of the same substance. As no man but Peter can be the person which Peter is, yet Paul hath the selfsame nature which Peter hath. Again, angels have every of them the nature of pure and invisible spirits, but every angel is not that angel which appeared in a dream to Joseph. [2.] Now when God became man, lest we should err in applying this to the Person of the Father, or of the Spirit, St. Peter's confession unto Christ was, "Thou art the Son of the living God 69," and St. John's exposition thereof was plain, that it is the Word 70 which was made Flesh. 6671 The "Father and the Holy Ghost (saith Damascen) have no "communion with the incarnation of the Word otherwise "than only by approbation and assent." Notwithstanding, forasmuch as the Word and Deity are one subject, we must beware we exclude not the nature of God from incarnation, and so make the Son of God incarnate not to be very God. For undoubtedly 72 even the nature of God itself in the only person of the Son is incarnate, and hath taken to itself flesh. Wherefore incarnation may neither be granted to any person but only one, nor yet denied to that nature which is common unto all three. [3] Concerning the cause of which incomprehensible mystery, forasmuch as it seemeth a thing unconsonant that the world should honour any other as the Saviour but him whom it honoureth as the Creator of the world, and in the wisdom of God it hath not been thought convenient to admit any way of 68 Πρόσωπον ήγουν ὑπόστασις ἐστι κατὰ τοὺς ἁγίους πατέρας, τὸ ἰδικὸν παρὰ τὸ κοινόν. Kowórηs γάρ ἐστιν ἡ φύσις ἑκάστου πράγματος, ἴδιαι δέ εἰσιν αἱ ὑποστάσεις. Suid. [sub voc. Υπόστασις.] Ἡ οὐσία καθ' ἑαυτὴν οὐκ ὑφίσταται, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι θεωρεῖται τὸ δὲ κοινὸν μετὰ τοῦ ἰδιάζοντος ἔχει ἡ ὑπόστασις καὶ τὸ καθ ̓ ἑαυτὴν ὑπάρξαι. Damasc. de Orthod. Fide, lib. iii. cap. 6. [p. 67. ed. Veron. 1531.] 69 Matt. xvi. 16. γάρ ἐστι λαλιᾶς ἐνάρθρου φώνημα, 7 Κατ' οὐδένα λόγον κεκοινώνηκεν 72 Aug. Epist. 57. [al. 187. §. 20. t. ii. 684.] "In illo Divinitas est Unigeniti facta particeps mortali"tatis nostræ, ut et nos participes ejus immortalitatis essemus." |