A09339:1809
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.
Thus much for the five appearances of Christ the same day he rose again: Now follow the rest of his appearances which were in the forty days following, which are in number six. The first is mentioned by Saint John in these words,1 Eight days after when the disciples were within, and Thomas with them, came Jesus when the doors were shut, and stood in the middest of them, & said, Peace be unto you. In it we must consider two things: I. the occasion thereof. II. the dealing of Christ. The occasion was this: after Christ had appeared unto the other disciples in Thomas his absence, they told him that they had seen the Lord: but he made answer, Except I see in his body the print of his nails, and put mine hand into his side I will not believe. Now eight days after, our Saviour Christ appeared again unto all the disciples, especially for the curing of Thomas his unbelief, which was no small sin, considering it contains in it three great sins. The first is blindness of mind, for he had been a hearer of our Saviour Christ a long time, and had been instructed touching the resurrection divers times: he was also with Christ and saw him when he raised Lazarus, and had seen, or at least wise had heard the miracles which he did: and ⟨p. 388⟩also he had heard all the disciples say that had seen the Lord, and yet will it not sink into his head. The second is deadness of heart. When our Saviour Christ went to raise Lazarus that was dead, Thomas spake very confidently to him and said,2 Let us go, that we may die with him, yet when Christ was crucified he fled away, and is the longest from Christ after his resurrection, and when he is certainly told thereof he will not acknowledge it or yield unto it. The third is wilfulness: for when the disciples told him that they had seen the Lord, he said flatly, that unless he saw in his hands the print of the nails, he would not believe, and that which is worse then all this, he continued eight days in this wilful mind. Now in this exceeding measure of unbelief in Thomas; any man, even he that hath the most grace, may see what a mass of unbelief is in himself, and what wilfulness and untowardness to any good thing, in so much that we may truly say with David,3