A08483:201
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 end of once taking & never putting off again mans nature, was that God might declare his unchangeable righteousness and wrath against sin, and his mercy towards us. His justice, I say, and his wrath whilst he will not so make his covenant, that he be found unrighteous and a liar, who had truly and righteously pronounced: in what day soever you shall eat of that tree, you shall die the death. And Psal. 5. Thou art not a God that wilt iniquity. Therefore he punished sin, in the flesh of man, yea in the flesh of his only begotten Son: that his high and unchangeable righteousness, truth, and wrath against sin, might be manifest to the whole world: His mercy, whilst he punisheth not our sins in our selves, which notwithstanding he might justly do, but deriveth his wrath upon his only begotten Son, that he might in very deed declare his infinite mercy towards us. Therefore wonderfully, and with great wisdom, the righteousness and mercy of God do meet and agree together, or rather that same love towards mankind in Christ Jesus. I will speak more largely that the matter may be more evident. God going about to enter into covenant with man, or willing to reconcile man everlastingly unto ⟨p. 141⟩himself, would yet so show his mercy, that he denied not his righteousness, which is essential unto him, & which he can no more deny, than he can deny himself. Now the severe & exact righteousness of God required that forasmuch as corruption and transgression cleaved in mans nature, that is to say both in our soul and body: so also in the same, that is in the nature of man taken of the Son of God, of the same substance, and like in all things unto us (sin only except, which neither belongeth to the substance nor to the properties of man as he was created of God) there should be a satisfaction, and repair. For like as by one man sin hath entered into the world (as the Apostle saith to the Rom. cap. 5.) and by sin death, and so death hath passed upon all men, in as much as all have sinned: and as by the disobedience of one man many are made sinners: so by the obedience of one many are made righteous. Also. If by the sin of that one many are dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift through grace, which is of one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded towards many.
THe end of once taking & neuer putting off againe mans nature, was that God might declare his vnchangeable righteousnes and wrath against sinne, and his mercie towardes vs. His iustice, I say, and his wrath whilest he will not so make his couenant, that he be found vnrighteous and a lyer, who had truely and righteously pronounced: in what day soeuer you shall eate of that tree, you shall die the death. And