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A07316
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A nevv eight-fold probation of the Church of Englands divine constitution prooved by many pregnant arguments, to be much more complete then any Geneuian in the world against the contrary assertion of the fifty three petitioner-preachers of Scotland in their petition presented in the later Parliament to the Kings most excellent Maiesty. With a ten-folde probation of the same churches doctrine touching one of the most important points of our creede, which is of our sauiours descending into Hell. By Iames Maxvvell. Master of Artes, &c.
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Maxwell, James, b. 1581.
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1617
(1617)
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STC 17704; ESTC S103373
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82,870
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119
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descension and ascension are inferred necessarily of the Geneuian doctrine And as the word died in the Creede doth imply our Sauiours descending in soule to the house of death though not to dye for Christs soule could not dye but to ouercome death and to destroy the author of death the diuell as the Apostle speaketh so doth the word of suffering the like 1. Cor. 15.55 Heb. 2.14 For Christ suffered the greatest humiliation and deiection that could be for mans cause and therefore it behooued his soule to be humbled vnto hell and without this hee had not beene subiected to the highest degree of humiliation in his soule as hee was to bee answerably to the humiliation of his body which was in the highest degree euen vnto the death of the crosse like as for that cause God exalted him both in body and soule in the highest degree Philip. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. as the Apostle teacheth So that we see that Christs locall descending into hell is denied in no Creede but expressed in some and implied in all VII Seauenthly the locall descent of Christs soule into hell is confirmed by the common consent and constant profession of the Doctors of the primitiue Church in their Sermons Homilies Commentaries Expositions and Glosses vpon the places of Scripture aboue alleadged about twenty in number and vpon the Creede especially this article thereof as shall bee shewed more particularly in our Latine worke by the expresse testimonies of these three and forty Fathers Doctours and writers Hebrewes Greekes and Latines Thaddaeus Ignatius Iustinus Martyr Irenaeus Tertullianus Origines Cyprianus Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Hilarius Socrates Basilius Gregorius Nazianzenus Ambrosius Hieronimus Ruffinus Epiphanius Chrysostomus Augustinus Cassianus Caesarius Philippus Presbyter Cyrillus Primasius Euthymius Theodoretus Leo Vigilius Fulgentius Cassiodorus Beda Titus Bostrensis Didimus Ioannes Damascenus Theophylactus Oecumenius Bernardus Prudentius Petrus Chrysologus Rabbi Hoccadosh Rab. Simeon whereunto shal be added some sixe or seauen Councels as of Ephesus Chalcedon Alexandria Constantinople Toledo Arles and others So that if the Fathers of the Church haue any weight or authority amongst the Geneuians they shall soone see themselues in a manifest errour which God grant they may as soone amend VIII Eightly Christs locall descent into hell after death is confirmed by the ingenuous reception and subscription of the most part of learned protestant writers as we shall show in our Latine worke by the testimonies of some thirty to wit Luther Calum Peter Martyr Bullmger Pomeran Pellican Chytraeus Aepinus Bucer Illyricus Selneccer Lossius Hemingius Aretius Rulandus Marlerat Vrbanus Rhegius Lauater Vitus Theodorus Mylius Musculus Mollerus Westhemerus Heresbachius Felinus our countrimen Alexander Alesius or Aeleis Bishop Latimer and Robert Samuel Martyrs Deane Nowell Master Foxe with the reuerend Bishops and learned Doctors of Fngland in the time of King Edward the sixt and afterwards to this present day of the happy raigne of King Iames the sixt together with the whole Lutheran Protestants in Denmarke Norway Sweden Poland Boheme Hungary and other parts of Germany with some of those whome they call Caluinians as namely that most learned and iudicious Italian diuine Hieronymus Zanchius IX Ninethly the doctrine of Christs locall descending into hell is prooued by irrefragable reasons for first the doctrine of the Church of England doth illustrate commend and magnifie the loue of God towards mankinde where as the doctrine of Geneua obscureth ecclypseth and diminisheth it exceeding much For it is an argument of great loue that the Sonne of God would daigne to descend from his throne and seate of maiestie into this earth of vilitie and misery which is his foote-stoole but it is an argument of farre greater loue that for our sakes he would yet descēd lower euen so low as to take upon him the shape of a seruant and in that shape to suffer so shamefull a death as that vpon the crosse but it argueth the highest degree of loue that could bee in that for our sakes hee would descend so low as into the lowest hell the vile and loathsome dungeon of the damned to the end that we should not descend thither nor be damned Secondly the very Ground whereupon the Geneuians doe found their doctrine of Christs suffering the pangs of hell doth prooue pregnantly this very point which they denie of Christs descending into hell in his soule The ground is this It behooued the Mediatour of sinfull mankinde to suffer what was due to sinfull mankinde whereupon it followeth necessarily that he suffered the highest degree of humiliation to wit to be humbled vnto hell in his soule as his Bodie was humbled vnto the shame of the crosse the graue for sinfull mankinde had deserued this deiection and should haue beene humbled so farre for his sinfull and proud rebelling against God if our Redeemer had not humbled himselfe in our stead and for our sakes to exempt and deliuer vs from this ignominie Yea their very doctrine is contradictory to it selfe for they hold that Christ was to suffer the torments of hell in his soule and yet they will not haue him goe to hell which two assertions cannot well stand together for though that the soule may feele the horror or apprehend the feare terror of hell out of hel Psal 18.4 5 Mat. 26.37.38 39 42 46 Mar. 14.33 34 35 36 15 34 that our Sauiours soule did so in the garden and vpon the crosse according as the Prophet Dauid had prophesied of him saying the sorrowes of death and of hell haue compassed me about and as our Sauiour said of himselfe My soule is very heauy euen vnto the death and as the Euangelists doe testifie of him that hee began to waxe sorrowfull and grieuously troubled to bee afraid and in great beauinesse and euen in such an agonie vpon the apprehension of the fearefull cup of Gods wrath that he sweat drops of blood and afterwards cried out that he felt himselfe in a manner forsaken of his Father for our sakes for a while all which soule-suffering the Apostle Peter calleth by the name of the sorrowes of death and Dauid the sorrowes of hell though I say that our Sauiour suffered in his soule for our sakes these horrours and terrors of hell in the very garden and on the crosse yet he could not suffer the pangs paines or torments of hell without being in hell no more then one can enioy the ioyes of heauen out of heauen But the truth is that Christs soule was no more capable of those torments of hell then it was of desperation or damnation And though he descended into hell yet it was not to suffer torment but only the highest degree of humiliation and debasement and with all to begin his highest exaltation in the same very place where his lowest humiliation did end Thirdly the doctrine of the Church of England doth magnifie and set out the Maiestie of Christs victorie and conquest where as the doctrine
if we haue as yet attained to this perfection as to giue vnto God all that we haue if he should require it at our hands for the man that will grudge to giue a part vnto Gods Image and chiefe Minister for his sake will neuer be willing to forsake all for Gods sake no hee would neuer bee willing to bestow his whole goods vpon God himselfe that will refuse or repine to giue a part vnto his cheife Minister And cōtrariwise the man that doth cheerefully bestow vpon the Prince in regard that hee is Gods Image Deputie and Minister For he is the Minister of God for thy wealth saith the Apostle and for this cause ye pay also tribute Rom 13.1 2 3 4 5 6. for they are Gods Ministers doth in so doing euidently show that hee loueth God better then his golde and goodnesse better then his goods and that he would make no difficultie to bestow most willingly 6all that he hath vpon God yea to forsake his whole goods for Gods sake But of this matter of the Princes maintenance I haue entreated elsewhere in another worke published some two or three yeares agoe called the Golden art or the right way of enriching dedicated to the two Royal cities of these two kingdomes but much more copiously in another worke of Kingly Controuersies not as yet finished where I doe discourse of the particular manner of the maintenance of Princes amongst Gods people both according to Scripture the Iudgement of diuines and Politicians and according to the seuerall customes of kingdomes And there I show 1. that the soueraigne Prince is not Lord of the whole goods of his subiects and that his right doth not extend ouer their whole faculties as some flatterers of Princes doe falsely and dangerously hold them in hand Secondly that the soueraigne Prince hath a right only to a certaine proportionable portion of the subiects goods Thirdly that as God and not man is the institutor author and ordainer of Kings so is he the appointer of their portion and the prescriber of their manner of maintenance for if God hath ordained and instituted Kings to bee his Ministers and Seruants for the gouernment of his people as we haue already showed that he hath then must it needs be true that the same God hath taken order for their maintenance And truly seeing that all wise and good masters doe prouide for their seruants and allow them meanes for their sustenance and maintenance it were a thing most vnbeseeming the wisedome and goodnes of God who is the Master of masters both for wisedome and goodnesse to thinke that he hath not as great care and taken at least as good order for the maintenance of his seruants namely of Kings as other men being masters haue taken and doe take for theirs God doth alwaies that which is most fitting and therefore hee hath designed and ordained the particular manner of the Princes maintenance for it is most fitting that the master should prescribe and appoint the quantitie of his owne seruants wages And it was so fit that God should do it that it was not fit nor expedient to referre the doing thereof vnto the will or discretion of man It was not fit that it should be remitted to the will of the Prince himselfe for he might perhaps require more then inough as for example the halfe third fourth or fifth part of the subiects goods neither was it fit that it should be referred to the discretion of the people for they lightly might allow the Prince lesse then inough and therefore God hath taken order for this thing himselfe and not left it for man to doe Rom. 14.4 For as the Apostle saith Who art thou that iudgest another mans seruant so may it bee well said in this matter who art thou that takest vpon thee to share out a portion or allowance for another mans seruant yea for Gods owne chiefe seruant doth not such an office properly belong vnto God Fourthly that God hath set downe the manner of the Princes maintenance and hath specified the quantitie of his portion in some place of his word and that hee hath done it in the fittest place that could bee for that purpose for except it were so it should not appeare when it is that a Prince playeth the Exactor for seeing that he hath a right vnto a certaine portion of his subiects goods as all doe grant how shall they know when it is that he craueth more then hee ought except there bee some law to determine his portion and to inhibite him to leuy any more then the quantitie thereof doth permit In one word Exaction in a Prince is the transgressing of Gods law and not the breaking of some humane statute or decree and therefore there must be a certaine speciall law in Gods word touching the quantitie of the Princes portion aswell as there is of the Priests the one beeing as important as the other and Princes beeing Gods Ministers and Seruants aswell as Priests and so consequently to bee maintained aswell as they Yea it behoued so much the more because that Soueraigne Princes or Kings are Gods Ministers in a higher more eminent and honourable degree and kinde then Priests are as hath beene before abundantly shewed So that it is not likely that the Spirit of God would haue omitted so important a point as this is being such as that without the certaine knowledge thereof neither can Soueraignes nor Subiects doe their dutie to one another For neither can they know when it is that the Soueraigne keepes himselfe within the bounds of equitie and moderation or contrariwise that he debordeth into oppression extortion or exaction neither yet when it is that the subiect offendeth by detention or diminution of his Soueraignes due Seeing then it was so necessarie for the quiet iust and vpright constitution of a kingdome amongst Gods people that the Kings portion should be specified aswell as the Priests we need not doubt but that the Spirit of God hath proposed the same some where in holy Scripture and euen in that place which was of all other the most conuenient for such a purpose and what place of Scripture so conuenient as that wherin the first institution of Kings amongst amongst Gods people is propounded and expounded The which place because some Geneuians and moderne diuine haue monstrously misconstered I shal refute their errour God-willing other where by 13 vnanswerable argumēts And amongst other probations we shal show it by the Hebrew Text the Chaldaick Thargums or Paraphrases the Greeke translation of the Septuagints the Latine translations of Hieronymus Pagninus Vatablus Munsterus Leo Montanus with the old English and namely that the word MISHPAT which is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke and in Latine Ius or Lex is alwaies taken in the Scripture and in no fewer then 210. places for the vpright iudgement of God and of the Kings and Iudges of the earth and no where for vniust and tyrannicall