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pass, but in regard of the work of redemption, which is the greater, and whereto all God's signs and miracles do refer.

That God created Man in his own image, in a reasonable soul, in innocency, in free-will, and in sovereignty: That he gave him a law and commandment, which was in his power to keep, but he kept it not: That man made a total defection from God, presuming to imagine that the commandments and prohibitions of God were not the rules of Good and Evil, but that Good and Evil had their own principles and beginnings; and lusted after the knowledge of those imagined beginnings, to the end to depend no more upon God's will revealed, but upon himself and his own light, as a God; than the which there could not be a sin more opposite to the whole law of God: That yet nevertheless this great sin was not originally moved by the malice of man, but was insinuated by the suggestion and instigation of the devil, who was the first defected creature, and fell of malice and not by temptation.

That upon the fall of Man, death and vanity entered by the justice of God, and the image of God in man was defaced, and heaven and earth which were made for man's use were subdued to corruption by his fall; but then that instantly and without intermission of time, after the word of God's law became through the fall of man frustrate as to obedience, there succeeded the greater word of the promise, that the righteousness of God might be wrought by faith.

That as well the law of God as the word of his promise endure the same for ever: but that they have been revealed in several manners, according to the dis

pensation of times. For the law was first imprinted in that remnant of light of nature, which was left after the fall, being sufficient to accuse: then it was more manifestly expressed in the written law; and was yet more opened by the prophets; and lastly expounded in the true perfection by the Son of God, the great prophet and perfect interpreter of the law. That likewise the word of the promise was manifested and revealed, first by immediate revelation and inspiration; after by figures, which were of two natures: the one, the rites and ceremonies of the law; the other, the continual history of the old world, and Church of the Jews, which though it be literally true, yet is it pregnant of a perpetual allegory and shadow of the work of the Redemption to follow. The same promise or evangile was more clearly revealed and declared by the prophets, and then by the Son himself, and lastly by the Holy Ghost, which illuminateth the Church to the end of the world.

That in the fulness of time, according to the promise and oath of God,2 of a chosen linage descended the blessed seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and Saviour of the world; who was conceived by the power and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and took flesh of the Virgin Mary: that the Word did not only take flesh, or was joined to flesh, but was made flesh, though without confusion of substance or nature: so as the eternal Son of God and the ever blessed Son of Mary was one person; so one, as the blessed Virgin may be truly and catholicly called Deipara, the Mother of God; so one, as there is no

1 perfect interpreter, as also fulfiller, of the law. R.

2 R. omits of God."

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unity in universal nature, not that of the soul and body of man, so perfect; for the three heavenly unities (whereof that is the second) exceed all natural unities: that is to say, the unity of the three persons in Godhead; the unity of God and Man in Christ; and the unity of Christ and the Church: the Holy Ghost being the worker of both these latter unities ; for by the Holy Ghost was Christ incarnate and quickened in flesh, and by the Holy Ghost is man regenerate and quickened in spirit.

That Jesus the Lord became in the flesh a sacrificer and sacrifice for sin: a satisfaction and price to the justice of God; a meriter of glory and the kingdom; a pattern of all righteousness; a preacher of the word which himself was; a finisher of the ceremony; a corner-stone to remove the separation between Jew and Gentile; an intercessor for the Church; a Lord of Nature in his miracles; a conqueror of death and the power of darkness in his resurrection; and that he fulfilled the whole counsel of God, performed his whole sacred offices1 and anointing on earth, accomplished the whole work of the redemption and restitution of man to a state superior to the Angels, whereas the state of his creation2 was inferior; and reconciled or established all things according to the eternal will of the Father.

That in time, Jesus the Lord was born in the days of Herod, and suffered under the government of Pontius Pilate, being deputy of the Romans, and under the high priesthood of Caiaphas, and was betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve apostles, and was crucified at

1 all his sacred offices. R.
2 of man by creation. R.

MS. 4263. has "his holy sacred office." 8 and. R.

Jerusalem,1 and after a true and natural death, and his body laid in the sepulchre, the third day he raised himself from the bonds of death, and arose and shewed himself to many chosen witnesses, by the space of divers days; and at the end of those days, in the sight of many, ascended into heaven; where he continueth his intercession; and shall from thence at the day appointed come in greatest glory to judge the world.

That the sufferings and merits of Christ, as they are sufficient to do away the sins of the whole world, so they are only effectual to those that2 are regenerate by the Holy Ghost; who breatheth where he will of free grace; which grace, as a seed incorruptible, quickeneth the spirit of man, and conceiveth him anew the son of God and the member of Christ: so that Christ having man's flesh, and man having Christ's spirit, there is an open passage and mutual imputation; whereby sin and wrath is conveyed to Christ from man, and merit and life is conveyed to man from Christ: which seed of the Holy Ghost first figureth in us the image of Christ slain or crucified, in a lively faith; and then reneweth in us the image of God in holiness and charity; though both imperfectly, and in degrees far differing even in God's elect, as well in regard of the fire of the Spirit, as of the illumination, which is more or less in a large proportion: as namely, in the Church before Christ; which yet nevertheless was partaker of one and the same salvation" and one and the same means of salvation with us.

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That the work of the Spirit, though it be not tied to any means in heaven or earth, yet it is ordinarily dispensed by the preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, the covenant1 of the fathers upon the children, prayer, reading, the censures of the Church, the society of the godly, the cross and afflictions, God's benefits, his judgments upon others, miracles, the contemplation of his creatures, all which (though some be more principal) God useth as the means of vocation and conversion of his elect; not derogating from his power to call immediately by his grace, and at all hours and moments of the day (that is, of man's life), according to his good pleasure.

That the word of God, whereby his will is revealed, continued in revelation and tradition until Moses; and that the Scriptures were from Moses' times 2 to the times of the Apostles and Evangelists; in whose age, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, the teacher of all truth, the book of the Scriptures is shut and closed, as 3 to receive any new addition; and that the Church hath no power over the Scriptures to teach or command anything contrary to the written word, but is as the Ark, wherein the tables of the first testament were kept and preserved that is to say, the Church hath only the custody and delivery over of the Scriptures committed unto the same; together with the interpretation of them.4

That there is an universal or catholic Church of

1 covenants. R.

2 time. R. I suspect that a clause has been lost here, stating what the Scriptures were. But there is no indication of it in any of the MSS.

3 was shut and closed so as not. R. Probably a conjectural correction; but not wanted. "as to receive means "with regard to the receiving." 4 but such only as is conceived from themselves. R.

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