A09339:1392
A Golden Chain
A golden chain: or The description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seen in the table annexed. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting afflicted consciences.A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seene in the table annexed. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting afflicted consciences.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1600Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1600
AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I believe in God. &c.AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I beleeue in God. &c.
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.
I. That Angels had a beginning it is no question: for Paul saith, that by God all things were created in heaven and earth,1 things visible and invisible, whether thrones, principalities, or powers. And in respect of the creation, angels are called the sons of God. 2But the time & day of their creation cannot be set down further than this, that they were created in the compass of the six days. ⟨p. 231⟩For Moses saith, Thus, namely in the compass of the first six days, the heavens and the earth were fashioned, and all the h•ast of them: that is, all variety of creatures in heaven and earth serving for the beauty and glory thereof: whereof no doubt the Angels are the principal. II. Touching the nature of Angels, some have thought that they are nothing but qualities and motions in the minds of men, as the Sadducees and the Libertines of this time: but the truth is, that they are spirits, that is, spiritual and invisible substances created by God, and really subsisting: for the Scripture ascribes unto them such kind of actions which can not be performed by the creatures, save only such as be substances: as to stand before the throne of God, to behold the face of the Father, to carry mens souls to heaven, &c. yet must we not imagine that they are bodily substances consisting of flesh and bone. And though they took upon them visible shapes and forms, and did eat and drink in the company of men, and thereupon are called Men in Scripture:3 yet they did this by divine dispensation for a time, that they might the better perform the actions and businesses among men, to which they were by God appointed. And the bodies of men which they assumed, were no parts of their natures united to them, as our bodies are to us; but rather they were as garments are to us, which they might put off and on at their pleasure. If any shall ask, whence they had these bodies, the answer is, that either they were created of nothing by the power of God, or framed of some other matter subsisting before. If again it be asked what became of these bodies when they laid them down, because they used them but for a time, the answer may be, that if they were made of nothing, they were again resolved into nothing: if made of other creatures, that then they were resolved into the same bodies of which they were first made; though indeed we can define nothing certainly in this point. III.