A08483:196
An exposition of the Symbol of the ApostlesAn exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles
An exposition of the Symbol of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chief points of the everlasting and free covenant between God and the faithful is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Trevir, and now translated out of the Latin tongue into the English for the benefit of Christ his Church. By John Field.An exposition of the Symbole of the Apostles, or rather of the articles of faith In which the chiefe points of the euerlasting and free couenant betweene God and the faithfull is briefly and plainly handled. Gathered out of the catechising sermons of Gasper Oleuvian Treuir, and now translated out of the Latine tongue into the English for the benefite of Christ his Church. By Iohn Fielde.
London: printed by H. Middleton for Thomas Man, 1581
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The drift and purpose of this article, and how necessary the true understanding thereof is.
The drifte and purpose of this article, and how necessarie ye true vnderstanding therof is.
This same article concerning the person of Christ, which consisteth of two natures, the humane & the divine, knit together by a personal union, everlastingly, & yet the proprieties of either being kept everlastingly, containeth the foundation and pillar of the kingly Priesthood of Christ, and consequently of his everlasting priesthood betwixt God and men. For it is mans happiness, to be joined with God, the fountain of all goodness, 1. Joh. 1. Contrariwise it is the greatest unhappiness to be separated from God. But man had separated himself by sin from God, and had entered into covenant with the devil. Even like as therefore there was a certain person by whom sin entered ⟨p. 137⟩into the world, and by sin death, and so became as it were the cause and foundation of falling away from God, & ending into league with the devil: so also must there be a certain person appointed of God, that might be the foundation and cause of reconciliation, and of never breaking that same conjunction with God, the fountain of all happiness. Now this person is the everlasting Son of God, with all the proprieties of the divine nature, and very man, with all the proprieties of mans nature. And even like as there must both these natures, true and sound, the proprieties of either being kept in one person of Christ to reconcile man to God, and to strike this covenant: so also to keep this covenant, that according to the promise & oath of God it may be everlasting, both natures must remain for ever sound with their proprieties, unless we will have the covenant, in the very pillar and foundation to be shaken. Therefore Satan hath always gone about, and yet doth by his instruments, either altogether to deny one of the natures, in the Mediator of the covenant, or else utterly to overthrow it. For even like as when the root of a tree is hurt, the branches also wither, and no fruit can be hoped for: even so the doctrine being corrupt, concerning the person of Christ, and the two natures in the same person, together with their distinct proprieties, the doctrine also of the Priestly, and Kingly office of Christ remaineth corrupt, which are, as it were the fruits of the doctrine concerning the person.