TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, AND hopefull young Lords, Robert De∣uoreux, Earle of Essex, sonne in Lawe to the most Honourable, Thomas, Earle of Suffolke, and to Sir William Cecill, Knight of the Bathe, Lord of Cranborne, sonne and heyre to the most worthy Lord, Robert Earle of Salisbury: grace, and Peace.
WHAT IS THE MAINE AND MOST principall point in sacred Diuinitie?
The seuen and fortieth common place. Of Baptisme.
If the Baptisme of Iohn, of the Apostles, and of the ensuing ministers be all one, why doth Paul. Act. 19.3.4.5. baptise the 12. Disciples which before had beene baptised by Iohn, who being demanded whether they had receiued the holy Ghost after they had beleeued, answered, that they neuer heard, If there were a holy Ghost; and being again asked, Into what they were baptised, then they said, In the baptisme of Iohn.
Whether besides the Symbol of water, is it lawfull to vse in Baptisme any other visible signe and Element, as Salt, which is put into the mouth of the baptized; Spittle, wherewith the eares and nose are touched, together with the pronouncing of the word, Ephata, that is bee opened: Milk and honie, whereby is signified a right or title to eternall life, a figure whereof was the land of Canaan, flowing with milke and hony; Chrisme, or holy oyle, wherewith the brest, shoul∣ders, and forehead are annointed, to shewe that hee is annointed or Christened and armed with the oyle of the spirit like a Champion; an hallowed burning wax candle, Wherby is meant that he is tran∣slated out of the Kingdome of darknesse into the Kingdome of light; Exsufflation, or breathing on the face of the body to be baptized; a white garment? &c.
When Paule saith. 1. Cor. 15.19. What shall they doe which are baptised for the dead, if the dead are not raised: Doth he either meane that the dead are to be baptised (which custome dured a long time, as appeereth by the Carthaginian Councill) or that they are to be sprinckled with running water hallowed, (as the Papists col∣lect from hence) or that baptisme doth profit the dead (as the pa∣pists say Masse for the dead, and sprinckle holy water vpon their graues) or to baptise any man liuing for one man that died vnbap∣tised (as the Marcionites did, whose peruerse course Tertullian noteth, as also they say, the Iewes had a custome, that if any man died before he enioyed the legall washing, whereof mention is made Num. 19.12. That then his next kinred should be besprinkled by the priests in their steed) or that baptisme was purposely deferred till the houre of death: or that being readie to die, and now lying on their death-beds (for which custome thy were called Clinickes) they were then baptised, or lastly, must they watch, lye vpon the earth, fast, pray, voluntarily whip themselues for the soules of the dead that are in Purgatorie, and to satisfie for their sinnes, as the Papists say?
The eight and fortieth common place. Of the Supper of the Lord.
VVhat need is there now of those two signes, that is to say, of bread and wine, seeing that, the whole humanitie of Christ consisting of his parts, of bodie and bloud, doth liue glorious in the heauens: and by reason of concomitancie, that is to say, a naturall ioyning together of the liuing bodie and the bloud: the whole may be signified and gi∣uen in seuerall kindes: and where the quicke bodie is present, there also must the bloud and soule be present: and by reason of the hypo∣staticall vnion, the diuinitie also may be there: and so there may be no controuersie moued concerning those things that be equiualent, but one may suffice in steed of two. From whence is that Rime of Thomas, Caro cibus, sanguis potus, manet tamen Christus totus sub vtraque specie, that is to say, The flesh is meate, the bloud is drinke, yet Christ remayneth whole, vnder both kindes?
Is there that vertue, and that sense of the words of Christ, wherewith he instituted this Sacrament, that as often as vpon the bread and wine, they are recited by the Priest who hath a purpose to conse∣crate, then the substance of bread and wine, eyther by Analysis is resolued into the first matter, or euen into nothing: so that in steed thereof doe succeed the bodie and bloud of Christ: or by a simple mutation is turned into the substance of the true bodie, and of the true bloud of Christ, so that the substance of bread is formed into the flesh of of Christ, the bare accidents of breas and wine remay∣ning, hanging without a subiect?
Is the contradiction taken away in the diuersitie of respects, and of these names, if it be said, that the bodie of Christ in truth and verie deed is in heauen according to the naturall properties of a true bo∣die, circumscriptiuely, locally, visibly, and after a naturall manner: and that it is by the power of God, also in truth and in verie deed in many places, or euerie where, or in the supper, but sacramentally, inuisibly, supernaturally illocally, after a cele∣stiall and miraculous manner: and if it be said that the nature of Christ in the propertie of his nature is circumscribed, and visible, but in regard of the vnion vncircumscribed and inuisible?
Whether doe the Orthodoxall Fathers when they write that the bread which the Lord did reach to the Disciples, not changed in forme but in nature, by the almightie power of his word, was made flesh. Cy∣prian. That Christ bare himselfe in his hands. Augustine. That the bodie of the Lord, doth enter into our mouth, That the tongue is made bloudie with the bloud of Christ, and that Christ himselfe is seene, touched, broken, and that teeth are fastned to his flesh, whither doe they I say speake properly and without trope?
VVhether in the Supper of the Lord, for the thing it selfe of the Sa∣crament, doe wee partake of his merits alone, or the liuely ope∣ration, gifts, or benefits of Christ, without Christ himself, that is, without participation of the body and bloud of Christ, or doe we partake of Christ himselfe, with his benefits?
How is this vnion made, whether by a reall, actuall, and corporall, in∣uisible falling downe of Christs flesh into vs, and by a naturall touch∣ing with ours, or by a connexion, contiguitie, locall indistance, orall perception, or by an essentiall commixtion of the flesh of Christ and ours, or by an ingresse of his bodie and soule, or by a corporall coniunction.
The nine and fortieth common place. Concerning Magistrates, or Politicke go∣uernment.
Seeing that 1. Sam. 8.11. Samuel saith. This shalbe the maner of the king that shall reigne ouer you, 1. He will take your sons and daugh∣ters, & make them his seruants. 2. He will take your fields, & your vineyards, and your best Oliue trees, and giue them to his seruants, 3 He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, & giue it to his seruants. 4. He will take your men seruants, and your maid seruants, and your choise young men, and will put them to his work. 5. He will take the tenth of your sheepe. 6. And lastly you shall be his seruants: Doth Samuell in this place arme kings with an infi∣nite, or absolute power, circumscribed within no lawes, ouer the bo∣dies and substance of his subiects?
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