of his seruants and none that trust in him shall perish yea He shall redeeme Israell from all his Iniquities And so God in his owne person speaketh by his Prophet I will Redeeme them from the hand of hell I will Redeeme them from death Repentance is hid from mine eyes Here is he that first vndertooke out cause and professed and promised to be our Redeemer â—…uen the Sonne of God who being the brightnesse of glorie and the Character of his Fathers substance or liuely Image of his Person supporting all things with the word of his power made the purgation of our sinnes by himselfe that is in his owne Person Now if you being a Christian haue any bands to tie God withall besides his loue and his truth you were best shew them forth we shall otherwise take you if you stand vpon it for little better then an Arian to lay subiection or seruitude on any of the Persons in the most glorious Trinitie The word is vsed in the Scripture it selfe he was made a Suretie of a better couenant Is not this sufficient to warrant the goodnesse and aptnesse of the similitude against your vndutifull reproofes of it It is not written in the Scriptures that Christ was made our Suretie to God much lesse that he was a Suretie bound to the Law to pay our debts for vs. Our debt was euerlâ—…ting damnation of Body and Soule which either Christ or we must pay or suffer if your prophane vrging of this Similitude take place The Scripture saith He was made a Suretie of a better Testament proouing expresly by the Comparison of two Testaments a former and a weaker which was the Law a later and a better which was the Gospell that Christ was not a Suretie of the Law nor to the Law as you falsely conceaue but of a better Testament then the Law that is he was Gods assurance to vs that all his promises of â—…ercie grace and glory should stand fast notwithstanding our iniquitie indignitie and Infirmitie were neuer so vnmeete and vnworthie thereof This Suretiship of Christ to establish with his bloud the new couenant which God made with vs not we with him without all respect of our merits to pardon our offences and to make vs heires of his heauenly kingdome the Scripture mentioneth which is no more like to your Suretiship then freedome is to bondage I therefore reprooued not the word which my selfe also did vse I reprooued your seruile applying the word to bring Christ from loue and libertie which led him to be our Redeemer vnto thraldome and debt to make him thereby sinfull and defiled with our vncleannesse And is it not worthie of reproofe when a word is vsed in the Scriptures to one purpose for you to take vpon you to draw it as you list to your deuices It is plainly written in the Gospell The Sonne of man came noâ—… to be serued but to serue Will you hence presume your selfe to be Christs Master and take him bound to fulfill your Commandement as seruants must their Masters He saith of himselfe I am a worme and not a man Will you trample on him as you doe on wormes God hath giuen vs his Spirit as the pledge of our inheritance Shall we claime power ouer Gods spirit as we doe ouer pledges that are in our possession What wickednesse may not be bolstered if we stretch Similitudes vsed in the Scriptures farder then they were intended and we authorized You say Christ was not as a Suretie bound to the Law but of a better couenant euen of grace Verely a Suretie to vs of both Verely if you say that Christ was bound to vs or to the Law in both that is as well to beare our sinnes as to giue vs grace you broch two apparant blasphemies If you shift with saying Christ doth assure vs he hath done both for vs you slide from your former Assertion For that both these are done by Christ we bothagree only you would haue him when he bare our sinnes to be thereto bound and in that respect worthely condemned by the iust sentence of the Law which layeth the Penaltie on the Suretie when the Debtor cannot discharge it I told you that not onely we were in our selues to wicked and hatefull as being Enemies to haue any loue or fauour due to vs from God but also the Person of the Redeemer was so full of might and maiestie that no bands could be laid on him by the Lawe because he was afore the Law and aboue the Law that vndertooke our Redemption To this what reply yon He was a Suretie to vs of both But was he bound to vs or to the Law in either Why speake you not to that which is in Question It would well become the rest of your conceits to say that Christ was bound to redeeme vs being his Enemies and that the Sonne of God was bound to beare our burdens for vs. He promised so to doe Then the Loue of God which began it the Will which published it and the Truth which performed it are the more to be magnified by vs in the Sonne of God who could owe vs no duetie nor be bound to vs nor to the Law Those are the greatest bands that God can enter If Gods Counsels purposes and Promises be bands to barre the freedome of his fauour grace and mercie and in all these to impose on him a necessitie then is there in God no freedome but onely bondage which God forbid should come within any Christians hart He is most constant in all his thoughts words and waies which we may not thinke much lesse call debts to vs or bands to him without euident and extreame impietie but as he giueth all things to all and oweth nothing to any which the Scripture calleth his Grace whereof he is a giuer and not a Debtor so he cannot repent or change as men doe which we must ascribe to the infallible stedfastnesse of his most wise and glorious will the only Rule of all his gifts and works No band then if you know what a band meaneth can be fastned on God since that hath in it a debt which must of necessitie be yeelded whereto the partie may be compelled and forced by the right of the Law which chalenges in Gods promises are most prophane and heathenish Blasphemies It is written that Christ was made Hyponomon subiect to the Law or vnder the Law which you mightely denie against expresse Scripture You are so well acquainted with corrupting and deprauing other mens words that you make no care to doe the like to mine That Christ was vnder the Law I neuer denied no more then that he was vnder death but I said he was not bound to the Law no more then he was bound to death though he willingly for our sakes subiected himselfe to the rudiments of the Law for of those the Apostle speaketh to liue vnder them for a time
for the manhood of Christ to say my God my God why hast thou so long forsaken me without any publike signe or shew that thou louest and fauourest me whom this nation had so much wronged and blasphemed or is it of late become so shamefull a thing with you that Christ should complaine he was forsaken and left in the hands of his persuers without help or ease both old and new writers euen of the best learned that haue been in Christs Church haue thought it no shame for Christ in that very respect so to speake o Hieronym in Matth ca. 27. Maruaile not saith Ierom at Christes complaint of being forsaken when thou seest the scandall of his crosse p 〈◊〉 de fide li. 2. ca. 3. He speaketh as a man saith Ambrose which was no shame for him to doe because being in danger we thinke our selues forsaken of God The same wordes q 〈◊〉 in Mar. ca. 14. Bede r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Rabanus and r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Aquinas repeat and follow Theodoret saith Christ s 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 21. calleth that a dereliction which was a permission of the diuinity that the humanity should suffer Christe would endure saieth Austen this vnto death in the sight of his enemies that they might take him as one forsaken Lyra. u 〈◊〉 Mat. ca 27. Dixit 〈◊〉 derclictum a deo 〈◊〉 quia dimittebat cum in manibus occidentium Christ saith he was forsaken of God his father because he was left in the hands of those that slew him And so our new writers August epist. 120 x 〈◊〉 in Mat. ca. 27. Hic questus est se in manibus impiorum adomnem ipsorvm libidinem a patre derelictum Christ heere complained saith Bucer that he was forsaken of his father or left in the 〈◊〉 of the wicked to endure all their rage Bullinger y Bullingerus in Matth. ca. 27. Derelinquere siue deserere in 〈◊〉 est permittere To forsake or leaue in Christes wordes on the Crosse is to permit So that this was Christs meaning why doest thou suffer me to be thus afflicted why doest thou permit these things to mine enemies when wilt thou deliuer me Munster z Munsterus in Psalm 21. haec Christi verbanon impatientiam aliquam aut diffiden̄tiam prae se ferunt c these words of Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee shew no impatience or diffidence but declare that he was a true man and that he had truely suffered And what if as some learned Fathers conceaue Christ did not grieuously complaine in those wordes that he was forsaken but thereby led his enemies to looke and search in the Psalmes Prophets for the cause why the messias should be so forsaken deliuered into the hands of sinners as they saw he was a August epist. 120. Christ doth not say saith Austen my God my God why hast thou forsaken me sed causum commonuit requirendam cum addidit vt quid dereliquisti me id est propter quid quam ob causam but he admonished the cause to be searched when he added why hast thou forsaken me that is to what end and for what cause for truely there was a cause and that no small cause why God would not deliuer Christ from the handes of the Iewes but leaue him in the power of his persecutors till he died Leo likewise b Leo de Passione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. Therefore Christ cried with a loud voice why hast thou forsaken me that he might make it knowen to all for what cause he ought not to be deliuered nor defended sed saeuientium manibus derelinqui but to be left in the hands of his pursuers which was to be made the Sauiour of the world and the Redeemer of all men non per miseriam sed per misericordiam non amissione auxilij sed definitione moriendi not by any miserable necessitie but of mercie not for lacke of helpe but of purpose to die for vs Whether then Christs meaning in those wordes if we apply them to his owne person were to hasten the time of his death which he knew was at hand and should bring him case of his excessiue How many meanings 〈◊〉 words on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue paines or to mooue his father to demonstrate by those signes which followed what fauour and affection he bare to the person of his sonne though for our sakes he suffered him thus to be vsed or to teach his persecutors that there was a cause which they knew not why himselfe being their messias should die this death on the crosse or last whether his manhood conformed it selfe to the desires and grones of his church and members whom the Prophets teach in this wise to pray when they were oppressed with any great calamity or misery none of these waies I say are the wordes of Christ on the crosse chalengeable but they stand well with the piety patience confidence and expectance that were in Christ and haue better foundation in the sacred Scriptures then your paines of the damned or your second death to be then and there suffered in the soule of Christ. c Defenc. pag. 110. li. 7. The bare names againe of Austen Ambrose Ierom doe here likewise no good this is but a weake kind of reasoning for so learned a Diuine as you are I like better this kind of weakenesse in matters of faith to haue the consent of the learned and auncient fathers for that I teach then your kind of strength which is to be so stiffe in your priuate conceits that you will delude the Scriptures with your figures and deride the fathers as seely fooles not vnderstanding the first principles of Religion rather then you will forgoe the least of your fansies If you light on any Reader of the same mind let him know that the choice wil be hard for him to make whether all the fathers in Christes Church did erre in the chiefe grounds of their faith or he himselfe be out of the trueth If Christian Religion were not since Christes time before our age this is a greater forsaking of Christ then any was on the Crosse. For then hath God forgotten all his purposes and promises so often mentioned in the Prophets and confirmed to Christ if there were neuer Church of Christ since the Apostles death till our dayes And he that is of that humour it skilleth not greatly of what side he be for certainly he can be no member of Christs Church that reiecteth all persons places and ages before his birth as none of Christs I wish no wise nor sober Reader so farre to venture his soule If then to the Primatiue Church of Christ next after the Apostles we yeeld but ordinary knowledge of the Christian faith we may not take from so many learned fathers and Pastours as God hath for so many hundred yeares adorned his Church withall the common vnderstanding of their Catechisme and
members and vitall parts is so weake that they are not able to sustaine the force which bringeth great or most sharpe paine Which Chrysostome also confiâ—…meth Name fiâ—…e if thou wilt the sword or wilde beasts and if any thing be more grieuous than these yet are these scant a shadow to the torments of hell And these when they grow vehement are easiest and soonest dispatch men the body not sufficing to suffer a sharpe paine any long while Your hell paines then are not very sharpe which the wicked may suffer so many yeres in this life and not forsake either food or sleepe Yet Christ did feele you say Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne and that only you know though you câ—…n not expresse the maner or measure of his feeling it And it was discerned and conceiâ—…ed by Christ to be such and so did wound the soule properly yea chiefly though it were outwardly executed on his bodic The wrath and vengeance of God due to sinne and generally to all mankinde for sinne is spirituall corporall and eternall death with all the seeds and fruits of death that is the losse of all earthly and heauenly blessings in this life and the next and the depth of perpetuall miâ—…ery in body and soule here and in hell This is the true wages and full payment of sinne and though God of his bountie and patience do often remit to the wicked in this life a great part of this 〈◊〉 in things tempo all yet when he inflicteth on them the miseries and calaâ—…ities of this life he giueth them their due And as for spirituall and eternall death now and hereafter it is so proper and certaine to the reprobate that not one of them shall eâ—…cape eâ—…ther Spirituall death is blindnesse and hardnesse of heart working all vncleâ—…nnesse euen with greedinesse which sheweth men to be strangers from the life of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as past all sense and feeling of God Eternall death the Scripture calleth WRATH TO COME because no man suffereth the full force and waâ—…ght thereof in this life but as it is the second death so it followeth in men after the first death which â—…euereth the soule from the bodâ—…e Yee vipers broâ—…d sayd Iohn Baptist to the Pharises and Sadduâ—…s who hath taught you thus to flâ—…e from the wrath to come Iesus sayth Paul deliuereth vs from the wrath to come In this life the wicked may haue a fearefull expectation but no present execution of this iudgement there is a day of â—…rath euen the reuelation of the â—…st iudgement of God when euery man shall be rewarded according to his works and a violent fire shall dâ—…uoure the aduersaries This wrath by the Scriptures is reserued for the vessels of wrath for euer and shall be executed on them with indignation furie and fire not onely because the wrath of God against the wicked burneth lâ—…ke fire but for that it shall be powred on them with flaming and euerlasting fire The effects whereof are reiection malediction confusion desperation and such lâ—…ke which neuer accompanie saluation To say that Christ suffered this kinde of wrath which is the true and proper wages of sinne is horrible and hellish blasphemie which I hope no Christian man will aduenture From the spirituall death of the soule which is the wrath of God reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men and bringeth with it the losse of all grace and goodnesse in this life and consequently leaueth the pollution and dominion of sinne in the soule of man our Lord and master must be as free as from damnation the one being alwayes a necessary consequent to the other Displeasure and wrath against Christes person God neuer had nor could haue any Christ being his owne and only sonne and so deerely beloued that for his sake Gods most iust and most heauie wrath against the sinnes of all his elect did calme and asswage for Gods inward loue doth not admit contrarieties or changes as mans doth all Gods counsels wayes and wo kes being absolutely perfect and constant chiefly towards his owne sonne whom he naturally infinitly and euerlastingly loueth in the same degree that he doth himselfe and therefore no more possible there should be in god any displeasure or dislike conceiued of his sonne for bearing the sinnes of the world or for what cause soeuer than of himselfe And since the humane nature of Christ was by Gods owne wisdome will and worke ioyned into the vnitie of the person of his sonne and made one and the same Christ with his Godhead no cause nor course whatsoeuer could alter or diminish the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards the very manhood of Christ but as God did inseparably knit it to the person of his sonne so did he make it fully partaker of that infinite loue wherewith he embraced his sonne To confirme this to all the world God did often from heauen pronounce with his owne voice This is my beloued sonne in whom I am well pleased as he forespake by his Prophet Beholde mâ—…e elect in whom my soule delighteth This vnspeakable loue of God towards the person of his Sonne now being God and man is the chiefe ground of our election and redemption For wee were adopted through Iesus Christ and made accepted in his beloued by whom wee haue redemption through his blood euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace So that we were neither elected nor redeemed but by the infinite loue of God towards his sonne for whose â—…ake we were adopted to be the sonnes of God and to whose loue the fierce wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes did yeeld and giue place neither may he beare the name of a Christian man that otherwise teacheth or beleeueth of our election and redemption Now iudge thou Christian Reader whether it were wrath or loue in God towards his sonne that pardoned all our sinnes for his â—…ake and accepted the voluntarie sacrifice of his bodie and blood for the redemption of the world through whoâ—…e death we are reconciled to God and cleansed by his blood from all our sinnes Then as in God there neither was nor could be any displeasure against the person of his Sonne nor against any part thereof for what cause soeuer nor any chaunge or decrease of the loue which God with his own mouth professed from heauen towards Christ incarnate so could not Christ without plaine infidelitie conceaue or beleeue that God was inwardly displeased or angrie with â—…im no not when he presented him â—…elfe to God his Father vnder the burden of all our â—…innes knowing that neither sin from which he was â—…ee being the innocent and â—…mmaculate â—…amb of God noâ—… Gods most holy dislike or iust pursuite of sinne could diminish Gods fatherly affection and most constant loue to him For though he were not ignorant that God in his holinesse did hate
and abhorre the vncleanesse of our sinne and in his iustice would pursue it to witnesse his vâ—…ter dislike and detestation thereof yeâ—… for so much as Christ himselfe was holy and vndefiled euen in his humane nature and did not thrust himselfe into this action but was called and annointed by God to this honor which God would yeelde to none but to his onely Sonne and this readines of the Sonne to lâ—…ke and obey his fathers counsell and decree and to pitie our miserie by laying our burden on his owne shoulders was in it selfe so glorious to God and gratious towards man that it could not bâ—… but most meritorious and acceptable to God the Author and accomplisher of mans Redemption by this meanes what cause could Christ haue to doubt of his fathers loue towards him or of his fathers approuing and accepting his office and seruice tending wholy to the perfourming of Gods will and aduauncing of Gods glorie But God was angrie with our sinnes though not with his sonne and that Anger Christ must beare before we could be freed from it The more Angrie God was with our sinnes the more contented he was with the person of his Sonne and euery part thereof that submitted himselfe to the purpose and pleasure of God to appease his wrath kindled against our offences And that Anger Christ did vndertake to quench by satisfiyng the iustice of God in such sort as seemed best to God himselfe and not by frustrating or declining it nor by suffering the substance of the same destruction and damnation which was due to vs. Yea this very point of Christs obedience and patience enduring and so vpholding Gods iustice according to Gods owne will respecting who he was that in this wise submitted and emptied him selfe was farre more contenting and pleasing to God then if the whole world had beene condemned for sinne to hell fire For God delighteth not in the destruction of the wicked but in the obedience of his Sonne he tooke infinite delight not reuenging him with rage as an enemie but imposing a fatherly correction on him for our sinnes which in his person could extend no farder that is to none other kinde of death and in ours would haue beene the eternall destruction of body and soule Wherefore the wisedome and goodnesse of God chose out the person of his owne Sonne purposely that neither our sinnes might be remitted as trifles skant prouoking his Anger nor his Iustice meete with such as no way deserued to be respected or spared but that the burden of our sinnes might be translated from vs who were vnworthy of all fauour and lye vpon the shoulders of his owne Sonne whom in all iustice he must and did most highly loue and tender and therefore could award no farder or other punishment against him for our sinnes then might stand with the moderation and affection of a father and try the obedience and submission of a sonne Sharpe was the chasticement of our peace on that part of our Sauiour which was capable of paine and smart least God should seeme to dally with our sinnes but not such as either exceeded his strength or any way chaunged or called in question Gods fauour towards him And so our Sauiour conceaued and resolued of all his sufferings that by Gods iustice they must haue in them griefe and anguish very painfull and offensiue to his humane nature because our sinnes were very lothsome and displeasing to Gods diuine nature yet so that nothing should be laid on him which might ouerwhelme or endanger his obedience or patience and that Gods purpose in so doing was to abolish sinne and abate his wrath his iustice being thus satisfied in the person of Christ Iesus and not to execute on his owne Sonne the fulnes of that vengeance which was prepared for sinne in men and Angels And where the Discourser prateth so much of Gods VERY wrath and PROPER vengeance for sinne to be executed on the bodie and soule of Christ if he meane the very same wrath and vengeance which is prepared for deuils and shall be executed on all the damned he openly blasphemeth For then must the Sonne of God be euerlastingly adiudged to hell fire as they are If hee flie to the substance and essence thereof he foolishly cauâ—…lleth or vainely seeketh to shift his hands of open impietie For if by substance and essence of hell fire prouided for sinne he meane only a sharpe and extreame paine then by this childish sophistrie an headach or toothach a fit of an ague or pang of the stone if the paine be sharpe are in substance and essence all one and the very same which the damned now suffer in hell since he is no way able to prooue that God is the immediate tormentor of soules in hell But thus to mocke and delude the dreadfull Iudgements of God against sinne and to play with the person of Christ in so waightie matters of our saluation is fitter for Pagans then Christians and well this Discourser may multiply the miste of his words but he shall neuer be able thence to derâ—…e any light of trueth If he meane the very same paine in soule or bodie which the damned suffer he runneth headlong into that impietie which he would seeme to shun For the bodies of the damned suffer hell fire which Christs did not and their Soules apprehend that God is their enemie and not onely hateth them but hath reiected accursed and condemned them for euer which to imagine of Christs soule is to charge him with plaine Infidelitie and Apostasie Christ therefoâ—…e rightly conceaued of his sufferings and knew God to be a gracious and louing father euen to his manhood though such was the constant course of Gods iustice to which Christ submitted himselfe that the price of our sinnes might not â—…e easie in the person of our Sauiour to make vs the more warie how to prouoke Gods iustice hereafter and to acknowledge our selues the more bound to him who with his no small smart redeemed vs and withall to ratifie the fearefull vengeance of God powred on the wicked to be most iust when as the exchange of our sinnes was so grieuous to the vndefiled and welbeloued manhood of the Sonne of God Since then God could no way be displeased with the nature office or action of Christ in offering himselfe a ransome for man which God himselfe first decreed before all worlds promised by his Prophers published by his Angels testified by signes and wonders and confirmed with his owne voyce from heauen and the sufferings of Christ were tempered with Gods loue proportioned to Christs strength supported with â—…oy accepted with fauour and rewardâ—…d with all honor in him and in vs for his sake what wound could this chastisement make in the depth of Christs soule when it was executed on his body or what could the soule of Christ conceaue more then that God was in deâ—…de angrie wâ—…th our sinnes and therefore would not accept our persons being in
former feare and freed from suffering hell paines wherein there is no comfort he prayed more earnestly or ardently and his sweate was in colour and consistence like drops or strings of blood trickling downe to the ground So that feruencie in prayer is set downe next before that sweate in the Gospell as a precedent or cause thereof Howbeit I onely barre the boldnesse of this deuiser who presumeth what pleaseth him of Christs bloodie sweate in the garden because the Scriptures doe not exactly mention the cause and thinke it no reason to let him build on a blinde coniecture a false conceit of his owne without any warrant of holy Scripture But I am repugnant to my selfe and some where I hold that Christ suffered no more but meere bodily paines that is in his soule from and by his bodie Neuerthelesse contrâ—…riwise I seeme somewhere to yeelde wholely so much as you affirme I leaue that grace to you Sir Discourser to roule to and fro and when you haue â—…aid a thing after a sense and in a sort then in another kind to vnsay it againe and laying the whole foundation of your cause vpon Christes suffering the wrath of God neither to bring any proofes or to shew any parts thereof by the word of God but to play with the termes of very proper and meere and to call that the opening of the whole question Indeed I euery where defend that Christ suffered no death expressed or mentioned in the Scriptures saue onely the death of the bodie from other passions or sufferings of the soule as feare sorrow shame and such like I doe not exempt the soule of Christ when he sustered for our sinnes though I leaue no place in him for the feare of damnation sting of conscience despaire or doubt of Gods fauour and such other shipwrackes of all faith hope patience and pietie The Crosse death and blood of Christ when I name I vse those words as the Scripture doth to declare the whole maner and order of his passion from the garden to the graue as it is described in the Euangelists not excluding either the feare or agonie which befell him before he was apprehended but comprising within his death his obedience and patience in all those asâ—…ictions which he suffered till he died And this is no wauering in mee to retaine the words of the holy Ghost in their right sense and vse but it is rather a childish dalliance in you Sir Discourser to suppose that the death of Christ doth import no more but the very act of giuing vp the ghost or els if I by that worde designe the rest of Christs sufferings endured at the time of his death by the witnesse of holy Scripture you will also hemme in your hell paines within the list of the same wordes though the Euangelists name or note no such thing in all the historie of Christs passâ—…on So likewise in speaking of Gods wrath against the wicked I wrap in no Ridles nor enuiron the Reader with a windlace of words but plainely and fairely distinguish it either by the naturall vertues and properties that are in God misâ—…iking and repreâ—…sing sinne or by the effects and punishments proceeding from God to reuenge the works and reward the workers of iniquitie In the wicked Gods holinesse hateth the euill deede and the doer that is both the sinne and the sinner and by his iustice without all loue or fauour towardes them awardeth a punishment against them according to their deserts which the power of God doth execute on them not respecting their strength but rather inabling them to continue in perpetuall torments of bodie and soule in hell fire for euer Gods purpose being onely to reuenge sinne in them and to destroy them for their sinnes which is most holy and righteous in him though it be neuer so grieuous and intollerable to them Gods iust and full iudgement against sinne where and when it pleaseth him to inflict it is the depriuing bodie and soule of all outward and inward peace and grace in this life for the time and the reiecting of both from all blisâ—…e and rest in the world to come for euer which is the losâ—…e of God and of all his blessings prouided in this life and the next for his elect These causes and parts Gods anger hath against the wicked for their sinnes and to euery of these the Scripture beareth witnesse In Christ Gods holinesse infinitely imbraced the humilitie obedience and charitie of his Sonne offering himselfe to be the ransommer of man and perfectly loued the integritie innocencie and puritie of his manhood created called and anointed of God to this intent and end that his death and bloodshedding should be the redemption of the world though God vtterly hated the sinnes of men which his sonne then assumed into the bodie of his flesh to beare the burden of them when wee could not Wherefore Gods iustice finding the loue of the Father towards his Sonne farre to exceede the hatred of the Creator against the vncleannesse of his sinfull but sedused creature did relent from the rigour of that iudgement which was prouided for sinne in Angels and with a fatherly regard and respect to the meanest part of the peâ—…son of his sonne decreed a punishment for our sinnes in the manhood of Christ which was a corporall death accompanied with the sharpest paines that Christ might endure with obedience and pacience whose voluntarie submission and sacrifice for sinne the iustice of God did accept as a most sufficient price and payment for all our sinnes which in themselues deserued euerlasting destruction of bodie and soule in hell fire with deuils This correction though very sharpe yet not ouerpressing the patience of Christs manhood Gods iustice would not release to his owne Sonne least he should seeme to make light account of our sinne if it were remitted onely for prayer and intreatie and without iust cause so terribly to punish the sinnes of the reprobate with all kinds of death I meane corporall spirituall and eternall And greater or other death then the death of the bodie God by no iustice could impose on the person of his Sonne since Christ could not be subiected to sinne which he must cleanse and abolish in vs much lesse be reiected from euerlasting â—…lisse and ioy to which hee must bring vs least of all linked and chained with deuils in perpetuall flames of hell fire for so much as hee was the true and onely Sonne of God for whose sake we all were adopted and made heires of eternall saluation And for this cause the power of God which is otherwise most dreadfull to men and Angels and so was then to the manhood of Christ restrained it selfe and tempered the smart of Christes paines to the stâ—…ength of Christes humane nature not meaning to ouerwhelme his patience but to trie his obedience to the vttermost In all which sufâ—…erings Gods counsell and purpose was most fauourable and honourable euen to the manhood
none can ransome a Prisoner condemned to death but by suffering the same death which the other should haue done How come you then to conclude of Christ because it pleased him to be our Mediatour and Redeemer that therefore he was guiltie of our sinne or liable to the same death of bodie and soule which otherwise we should haue suffered A ransome he payd for vs of farre more value than we were woorth which was his obedience vnto death and the shedding of his precious bloud for vs. But he neither owed nor payed the destruction or damnation of himselfe who neither by his person could nor by his office needed to suffer any such thing He came to giue his flesh for the life of the world and to lay downe his life for his sheepe that his death might be a ransome for vs and for our transgressions Farder or other ransome than this the Scripture mentioneth none and therefore God required none who by his will reuealed hath thorowly expressed what recompense for vs best contented both his holinesse and iustice Could not Christ stand euer blessed and beloued in his owne Nature and yet be truly accursed and hated in our condition and person In the wicked God hateth and accurseth their persons for their sinnes because their iniquities are neither ransomed nor repented and so not pardoned but in Christ and his members it was and is farre otherwise God still hateth and abhorreth the sinnes as well of the faithfull as of the wicked but because he loueth the persons of his elect whom he hath adopted in Christ his Sonne therefore he destroyeth their sinnes in them by repentance and remission thereof for Christes sake and saueth their persons whom he can not be sayd to hate though he truely hate their sinnes by reason that loue and hatred in God can not be permixed or varied as they are in men For Gods loue is perfect and constant as likewise his hatred and for that cause either in him is perpetuall without ceasing or altering If Gods loue to men for Christes sake be so setled that it can not be remoued nor transferred to the contrarie how much more then was the naturall and eternall loue of God towards the person of his Sonne so fixed and feruent iu the highest degree that for no cause and in no condition he could be truely hated or accursed of God The partaking with vs in penurie sorrow shame and death which first came in as signes and effects of Gods iust displeasure against sinne and curse vpon sinne made him the more blessed and beloued of God since the voluntarie submitting himselfe to these things in his humane nature taught vs obedience and patience vnder the mightie hand of God and how rightly to distinguish and willingly to want temporall and earthly blessings that we may be partakers of eternall and heauenly It is no consequent therefore in vs that we are truely accursed or hated of God because we are often depriued of his earthly blessings and so subiected to his temporall and externall curses for that we enioy by faith and hope greater and perfecter blessings which being in honor comfort and vse farre aboue the other make vs blessed and so remaining blessed for possessing the better we can not be accursed for wanting the smaller which indeed doe not truely make men blessed or cursed since the lacke of them doth not exclude the true and eternall blessings of God Much lesse then might the nature or person of Christ which so greatly abounded in all spirituall and heauenly blessings be counted accursed and hated of God because he was content to taste of those things which were inflicted on our condition as remembrances of Gods displeasure against our sinne For since no mans person can be truly blessed and truely accursed with God in as much as they are perfect contraries and so the preualent state doth prooue the person to be either blessed or cursed but not both much lesse then might the person of Christ be both though he did vndergo some things in this life which were the priuations of Gods outward and earthly blessings and so kinds of curses in their first entrance and ordinance And yet because those temporall and externall curses were nether permanent nor predominant in Christs person or condition whether you respect his owne or ours in him and he otherwise was a fountaine of blessing for himselfe and all vs it is euident that Christs suffering those outward and earthly curses for so the Scripture calleth the priuations of Gods blessings in the same kinds imposed on mans condition for sinne could not preuaile to make him accursed or hated with God For as Christ was made sinne for vs and yet no sinner but still continued holy harmlesse vndesiled and separate from sinners so was he made a curse for vs and yet not accursed by reason he endured the smart of our sinne and tasted of our curse in this life but he no waies receiued the guilt or endured the dominion of either much lesse was he by them depriued of any part of his inward and euerlasting blessings which being by many degrees superiour to the other must needs vphold his blessednesse and ouerwhelme the griefe and name of those curses which were temporally and tolerably laid on mans state and condition to make him the humbler in him selfe the mindfuller of his maker and the warier against the flatteries of that old and craftie Serpent the Diuell You shall doe well therefore Sir Collector to learne more reason if not more Religion and euen in naturall things to remember that the night is darkenes though it haue some light and the tree may be fruitfull though some bough wither and the â—…thiope is blacke though his teeth be white and the Bones be hard though the Marrow be soft and so in all cases and creatures the most preuaileth and nameth the subiect though there be in them some small admixture of the contrarie The next thing you vndertake is the saluing of a contradiction with which you say you are charged by me wherein the patient Reader if he be at leasure and haue the Booke at hand may take a plaine view of your idle Rouing and litle vnderstanding For I doe not charge you with saying that Christ suffered ALL he suffered in his whole manhood as you vntruely report I doe Let the Page 248. of my conclusion which you cite be perused by him that will I there expresly touch the contrary My words are This Antecedent as you vtter it doth neither good nor hurt to the Question That Christ suffered in his whole Manhood for the Redemption of our sinnes is a thing by me neuer doubted nor denied and that he suffered all that hee suffered in his whole manhood your selfe doe disclaime in the next Page Your Indefinite proposition I said prooued nothing and your selfe disclaymed the generall Where now doe I charge you with saying that Christ suffered all he suffered in
promised to deliuer vs. And our debt being eternall damnation of bodie and soule to hell fire you will tie Christ to paie our debts without dispensation or qualification except it please you with your possiâ—…ilities to releeue him And the law to which you will haue him bound was first that which inflicted penalties on vs for sinne then it was the Gospell which shewed vs our saluation in Christ and now it is the eternall decâ—…e of God whereby Christ was appointed to be our Sauiour And all this impiety and inconstancie you build neither on Scripture nor Father but vpon the similitude of a Suertie taken from Westminster Hall where men mistrusting ech others words and willes take bands with Sureties to haue their due payed them But know you good Sir that God had no distrust of his Sonnes will and loue to vs nor doubt of his abilâ—…ty to performe our redemption and therefore bound him not as you desperately drâ—…ame when he offered to be our Redeemer but accepted his loue which could not faile and his will which could not change making no decree for the maner of our redemption but what the Sonne himselfe with the rest of the persons in Trinitie liked for the preseruing of his owne diuine iustice and shewing of his owne exceeding loue towards vs. Then as it is certaine by the Christian faith the Sonne of God could not be bound to helpe or redeeme vs being his enemies nor to humble himselfe to the forme of a seruant but only was thereto led with the loue of his Fathers glorie and of our safetie so it is euident that the same person after he had assumed our nature vnto him could not be forced with any necessitie nor vrged with any commandement against his will but the humane will of Christ was so guided and directed by his diuine will and power that it readily and gladly submitted it selfe in all things to the will and pleasure of his Father which indeed was also the will of his owne diuine nature forsomuch as the three persons in Trinitie haue all one the same glorie and maiestie will and worke And therefore aswell the Scriptures as the Fathers do plainly testifie that euen Christes manhood had power enough giuen it to withstand all that was offered him by men or diuels but that for our sakes the person would submit himselfe to the seruitude infirmitie miserie and mortalitie of our condition therein to comfort vs thereby to redeeme vs and therefrom to deliuer vs which he could not do but in his humane nature since his Godhead was impassible This fredome and power not to be bound nor compelled to any of his sufferings we must reserue to the person of Christ that his obedience might be meritorious and voluntarie not only at his first consenting thereto which is this Defenders drift but in his continuall persisting therein and finall performing thereof that is in all and euery part of those things which the wisedome of God thought requisit for our redemption When you haue done all those things sayth our Sauiour which were appointed you say We are vnprofitable seruants we haue done that which was our bounden duetie to dâ—…e Will you bring Christ within the compasse of an vnprofitable seruant by doing that he was appointed and bound to do Without thy liking sayth Paul to Philemon I would do nothing that thy good should not be as it were of necessitie but willingly If God so much respect the willingnesse of the heart that he will not haue men tied with necessitie to doe good shall we thinke that he would binde his owne Sonne to the obedience of a seruant and not suffer his submission to be voluntary that it might be acceptable and thanks worthy to God And to what purpose lay you these bands on Christ If he were willing there needed no bands besides the bands of loue which is the surest hold that God requireth of vs. If he were not willing his vndertaking our cause was neither loue to vs nor obedience to God who loueth a cheerefull giuer but a compulsion or exaction which ouerthroweth the very ground-worke of Christes submission and our saluation To preuent all lewd and wicked surmises of bonds duetie or necessitie to be layd on the Sonne of God in redeeming vs the Scriptures exactly say that Christ loued his Church and gaue himselfe for her that is he was led by loue and by no compulsion noâ—… commandement to giue himselfe for her which otherwise by no meanes could be exacted of the Sonne of God And therefore he EMPTIED HIMSELFE taking the forme of a seruant and HVMBLED HIMSELFE becomming obedient vnto death euen the death of the Crosse to assure vs it was loue that caused him to giue himselfe that is at first to offer and after to yeeld himselfe for vs which otherwise could by no decree nor band be imposed on him nor required of him And this libertie to do and suffer of his owne accord euerie thing which he in his diuine wisdome together with the Father and the Holy Ghost thought meet for mans saluation the person of Christ kept vntouched euen to his death in his death and after his death himselfe most plainly professing so much of himselfe in the laying downe of his soule that none tooke it from him but he layd it downe of himselfe and would in three dayes raise vp againe the temple of his bodie by taking his soule vnto him And this was the chargâ—… and appointment that he receiued of his Father to do and suffer these things of himselfe that is without any band force or necessitie but only of his owne accord and voluntarie obedience to that which was his Fathers will because it was first his owne good will and offer and so accepted and decreed to the whole Trinitie as a most sufficient amends for mans disobedience and a most iust and full desert of mans adoption and saluation by the meanes and merits of Christ Iesus For which cause the Scripture resolueth vs that Christ loued vs and gaue himselfe for vs to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet sauour vnto God that is a most willing free and acceptable seruice and satisfaction to God for all our sinnes The Catholike Fathers were very carefull to continue this Doctrine in Christs Church Nos Dominum verum hominem suscepisse credimus in ipso visibiliter inuisibilem apparuisse in ipso inter homines conuersatum fuisse in ipso ab hominibus humana pertulisse Totum autem hoc nulla fecit necessitate We Christians saith Austen beleeue that the Lord tooke vpon him the true Nature of Man and therein did visibly appeare to men when he was before inuisible and in his Manhood conuerâ—…ed amongst men and in the same sâ—…ffered the tâ—…ings which men may offer to men All this did â—…e with no necessitie To shew what Christ suffered from men Austen addeth The word was made
day shall award heauen and hell with the warrant of this speech I was hungrie and yee gaue me meate I thirsted and yee gaue me drinke I was a stranger and ye lodged me I was naked and yee clothed me I was sicke yee visited me I was in prison and yee came vnto me and so foorth where in one Chapter Christ calleth his members by the name of himselfe 27. times All which are most false of Christs person for he then raigned in glory at the right hand of his Father endured none of those miseries but yet they are most true in his members whom he calleth by the name of himselfe because he loued them as himselfe more then himselfe since for their sakes he humbled and emptied himselfe And this reason of his words himselfe will giue before men and Angels â—… In as much as you did it vnto one of the least of my brethren you did it vnto mee The same is verie vsuall in the Scriptures Hee that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me He that receaueth you receaueth mee They haue not reiected thee said God to Samuel they haue reiected mee He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eie Where a most louing acceptation is shewed of the sufferings and seruices of men for Christes sake but no proper attributton verified of Christ. This Damascene expresseth by making two kinds of appropriation vnto Christ in the Scriptures one naturall and substantiall the other personall and habituall Naturall as when the Lord in Nature and trueth being made a man had experience of things incident to our Nature Personall and habituall as when one putteth on the person of another for pittie or loue and vseth speech in his name and for him NOTHING APPERTAINING TO the speaker HIMSELFE According to which Christ appropriated the curse and dereliction due to vs not himselfe being made those things but assuming our person and reckoning himselfe with vs. For neither as God nor as man was he euer forsaken of his Father neither was he made sinne nor a curse Assuming therefore our person and reckoning himselfe with vs as the head for the members he spake these things For weâ—… were guiltie of sinne and malediction as incredulous and disobedient and for that cause were forsaken Which are Cyprians plaine words also Quòd pro eis voluisti intelligi qui deseri à Deo propter peccata meruerant Thy complaint of forsaking thou wouldst haue vnderstood as spoken for them who had deserued to be forsaken of God in regard of their sinnes Then by Cyprians iudgement Christ spake those wordes neither for himselfe nor of himselfe but for those and of those that deserued to be forsaken of God whom he calleth by the name of himselfe as he doth oftentimes elsewhere in the Scriptures because they were members of his bodie and as deare to him as himselfe If this be all that Cyprians words imply how come you to make that false and prophane collection out of Cyprian that Christ suffered such a forsaking of God touching sense of paine and want of present seeling of comfort in his paines AS THE DAMNED DOE You would faine set your infernall imaginations to sale vnder the names of some of the auncient Fathers to inure your Reader with the name of the DAMNED lest he should detest your irreligious presumption if you should proferre these pedegrees in your owne name But a man may know the fowle by the feather and your deuices shew themselues by the verie vtterance of them For expressing two points in Christes sufferings the one is sensiblie absurd the other apparantly false and wicked The paine of Christes soule you euery where defend was inflicted by the immediate hand of God and was the selfe same which the damned doe suffer Then how could this be called a forsaking in Christ when it was rather a plaine persuing of him by Gods owne hand Doth a man depart from an other when he persueth him or forsake him whom he followeth with the stroke of his hand If therefore Christes suffering in soule came from the immediate hand of God as you dreame Christ should haue said my God my God why persuest thou me or why doth thine hand oppresse me and not why doest thou forsake me and leaue me in the hands of mine enemies without any shew that thou regardest or respectest me The second point is farre woorse For if Christ had no more comfort in his paine theâ—… the damned haue then Christ for the time of his suffering had neither faith hope grace nor loue of God nor any fauour with God nor â—…xpectation that hee himselfe should be saued much lesse that he should saue others from all which the damned are cleane cut off Indeed this was the conceit that the diuel by the mouths of the wicked did vrge against Christ to vpbraid him with his case as desperate and to persue him as forsaken of God and therefore this resolution that Christ was thus indeed forsaken or felt no more present comfort then the damned doe is plainly the diuels Diuinitie and maketh as flat a contradiction to all the Scriptures as any the damned themselues could deuise For Dauid ledde by the spirit of God sayth exactly of Christes sufferings in the person of Christ I set the Lord alwaies before me he is at my right hand that I shall noâ—… slide Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue reioiceth my flesh also doth rest in hope And the Apostle saith that Iesus for the ioy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame And he that against these expresse Scriptures auoucheth that Christ had no more feeling of any comfort in his paines then the damned haue in theirs I see no cause why the whole Church of Christ should not hold him madde or woorse But you meane no present comfort As if faith hope and grace the assured fauour and promise of God yea personall coniunction with God and his owne certaine knowledge that he should rise againe the third day Lord of the quicke and dead and Sauiour of the whole world did not yeeld him present comfort in the middest of his greatest paine insomuch that the Apostle saith Christ endured the crosse hee meaneth with patience and desâ—…ised the shame thereof So great was the ioy proposed and comfort conceaued euen in the sharpest of his sufferings By present comfort you meane present deliuerance Meane what you will your meaning is lewd and wicked to broche the doctrine of diuels vnder parables and paraphrases of abused wordes and slâ—…e comparisons with the damned For if Christ hâ—…d hope then had he comfort because hope confoundeth not If he had no hope then did he despaire and so must you admit in Christ either consolation which you denâ—…e or desperation for the time which must be ioyned with infidelitie fâ—…r that he could not want hope but by lacke of faith
his bodie on the tree and whose 〈◊〉 was shed for many sor remission of sinnes Your infliction of hell paines on the soule of Christ is no such trifle that it may be lightly taken vp for your pleasure or humorously surmised vpon your vaine coniectures you must euidently and ineuitablely prooue it before any wise or sober Christian will or should beleeue it Châ—…istes feare and agonie you thinke could haue no other cause Of all others this can neuer be concluded to haue beene the cause since there is no witnesse nor word thereof in all the Scriptures That euerlasting damnation was due to our sinnes we haue no doubt but that any such iudgement could be decreed or executed against the Sonne of God or against any part of his person we lesse doubt Wherefore it is most manifest to all that list not to mixe their desperate deuices with Gods eternall trueth that no such iudgement could be giuen against the person of Christ as we should haue 〈◊〉 or as the damned feele but the i Esa. 53. chastisement of our peace was layd vpon him and k Heb. 5. though he were the Sonne yet by the things which he suffered he learned obedience It is no iudgement you will say where nothing is condemned In the finall iudgement of God against the wicked both their sinnes and their persons shall be condemned that is their persons shal be euerlastingly reiected and adiudged to perpetuall torments of bodie and soule in hell fire for their sinnes which God iustly hateth and punisheth In the l 1. Pet. 4. iudgement which beginneth at the house of God sinne is condemned in their flesh as it was in Christes but their persons are beloued in Christ and so cleansed from sinne by him that sanctifieth himselfe for their sakes and whose bloud clenseth them from all their sinnes The paterne of which iudgement was precedent in Christ their head to whose m Rom. 8. image the whole bodie must be conformed that n 2. Tim. 2. suffering with him they may raigne with him and being o 1. Pet. 4. condemned as touching men in the flesh they may liue as touching God in the spirit There must be the same minde in vs that was in Christ euen as there is the same condemnation in our flesh that was in his For in Christ and all his members sinne was condemned in the flesh that their spirits might liue to God and their bodies be raised againe to be partakers of the same blisse with their spirits The Scriptures therefore doe not appoint the iudgement of hell or of the damned vnto Christ and his members but only the destruction of their flesh ioyned with the saluation of their spirits What need had Christ you will aske to feare this iudgement As Christ had lesse need to feare the iudgement seat of God than all his members so had he more will care and power to giue God his due than all the rest of his brethren And therefore approching to God for sinners and with sinne as he vndertooke their persons and cause that is to present them to God and to profer satisfaction for their sinnes so he taught vs all our duties which is to approch the throne of Maiestie with all reuerence and feare when we beholde his passing glorie and our exceeding infirmitie and in faith of his goodnesse and feare of his greatnesse to tremble and shake before him This Christian submission which God requireth of all men Christ did most of all performe when he presented vs and our cause to God and therefore prostrate flat on the earth he humbled himselfe with greater feare and trembling but without distrust or doubt of Gods fauour than euer man before or since did This feare and trembling with all submission and deuotion yeelded by the humane nature of Christ to the diuine Maiestie of God you no way like but in a selfe conceit will haue it to be the feare of desperate and damned persons and Christes soule to be actually tormented with the same paines that are the sharpest in hell and all this you gather vpon none other ground but for that Christ exceedingly feared and sorrowed in the Garden But if no man guided by Gods spirit may heare the words doe the works or receiue the messengers of God but with feare and trembling as a seruice and duetie belonging to the Creatour from the weakenesse of the creature how much more might the humane nature of Christ now offering vs all that were sinfull to the presence of God with infinite desire and most ardent prayer to make recompence in his owne person for our offences and so through his loue and sauour with God to reconcile vs to God how much more I say might Christ in our cause and in our names shew all possible feare and trembling to so great Maiestie so mightily displeased with vs And therefore in either respect both of his owne religious humilitie and our sinfull infirmity he might performe this seruice and submission vnto the throne of Gods heauenly presence p Defenc. pag. 93. li. 32. Your testimonies touching men sinfull make nothing to the purpose at all for these could not by reason of their sinnes endure the verie presence of Gods Maiestie being in any measure reuealed vnto them but Christ in himselfe being free from all sinne could be in no such case Your exceptions are more friuolous and no way fit your fansies for what if conscience of sinne breed an amazed feare in men when the glorious presence of God is in any measure reuealed vnto them doth that exclude the religious affection submission of feare and trembling which mans weakenesse in this life oweth to the diuine Maiesty q Esa. 66. Him will I respect saith God that is poore in spirit and trembleth at my words Not only Gods glory reuealed but his word denounced requireth submission and reuerent trembling r Phil. 2. Worke your saluation sayth the Apostle with feare and trembling not meaning men should alwayes be amazed or that God still reuealed his glorious presence but that our infirmitie remembred and his Maiestie considered we should do all things commanded by him with feare and trembling Of the Corinthians Paul testifieth that they receiued Tite s 2. Cor. 7. with feare and trembling Such reuerence the faithfull yeeld to the words and works of God that they tremble at the presence of his messengers And lest you should thinke that only conscience of sinne and the brightnesse of Gods presence impresse this affection the Apostle requireth seruants to obey their t Ephes. 6. carnall masters with feare and trembling and witnesseth of himselfe when he preached the Gospell to the Corinthians he u 1. Cor. 2. was amongst them in feare and much trembling So that not onely guilt of sinne maketh men to feare and flie the sight of God as in Adam when he first transgressed and in Peter before he was called whose words you abuse to elude
of his sufferings You would seeme skilfull after your vnlearned maner in the soules-suffering Is there any suffring more proper to the soule then feare sorow from her owne cogitations apprehensions affections from the immediate hand of God you thinke is more proper That in some cases may be possible though in Christes you can prooue no such thing but that is most proper which the soule neuer wanteth and hath of her owne nature And therefore so farre is it from being exempted from the sacrifice of sinne that in vs there is none other sacrifice for sinne but repentance which is all one with godly sorow bringing with it c 2. Cor. 7. ver 11. câ—…re fâ—…are desire zeale and such like effects of true detestation of sinne as the Apostle describeth Repentance for himselfe Christ could haue none because Inward and 〈◊〉 sorow for â—…ur 〈◊〉 must be â—…ound in Christes sacrifice for them he neuer sinned but as our transgressions displeased the holinesse and prouoked the wrath of God against vs so when our Lord and Sauiour came to make full satisfaction for our sinnes he did not onely appease the iustice of God by enduring his hand but contented the holinesse of God by inward and infinite sorow for our sakes and sinnes which we were not able to yeeld vnto God To haue accepted the punishment which Gods iustice awarded and to haue neglected the offence and displeasure which gods holinesse conceaued against sinne had beene not to pacifie but to prouoke God in not regarding the cause which mooued him to take vengeance on sinne It is therefore most agreeable to the rules of pietie that the inward sorow for our sinnes which the sonne of God impressed on his humane soule when he prepared himselfe to make purgation of them did no lesse affect and afflict him then the outward paines receaued in his body and why you should exclude this from his agonie there is no reason but that you are most in loue with that which hath least proofe or likeliehood to be the cause of this agonie This being exactly noted by Hilarie Ambrose Cyrill and other auncient and learned Fathers I did rightly to obserue it how lightly soeuer your insolent conceit esteemeth it d 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 li. 10. Igitur cum tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est non possunt non omnia propter nos gesta esse intelligi cum omnia pro nobis quibus timebatur orata sunt Since then both Christes sorow was concerning vs and his praier for vs all the rest must needes be vnderstood for our sakes for so much as all his praiers were powred forth for vs for whom he feared So Ambrose e Ambros. de fide ad Gratianum li. 2. c. 3. mihi compatitur mihi tristis est mihi dolet Ergo pro me et in 〈◊〉 doluit qui prose nihilhabuit quod doleret Doles igitur Domine Iesu non tua sed mea vulnera non tuam mortem sed meam infirmitatem Christ is affected for me he is heauie for me he soroweth for me He sorroweth then in me and for me who had nothing in himselfe to sorrow for Thou sorrowedst Lord Iesu not for thine owne woundes but for mine not for thine owne death but for my weakenesse And Cyrill f Cyril de recta fide ad Reginas li. 2. ca de Sanctâ—…fication 〈◊〉 Christi That Christ might make our praiers acceptable to God himselfe beginneth the matter euen opening his fathers eares to the nature of man and making them most readie to the praiers of such as were in any perâ—…ll for his cause Therefore in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a second root or first fruits of mankinde we were praying with strong cries and not without teares that the power of death might be abolished and the life restored or strengthened which was at first bestowed on our nature And Bede g Bedâ—… in Lucâ—… câ—… 22. If Christ were sorowfull to vs that is for our sakes it must needs be that he was comforted by the Angell for vs and to our vse For what should he aske with that agonie for himselfe who here on earth gaue heauenly things with power Then neither Christes sorow in the Garden nor his prayer with that agonie after he was comforted by the Angell were for himselfe or his owne sufferings much lesse for hell paines deuised and inflicted by you on the soule of Christ but his extreame sorrow and affectionate prayer might well be for our sinnes whose cause he vndertooke and for our sakes whose persons he then presented vnto God with most vehement contention of spirit and of all the powers of soule and body h Defenc. pag. 98. li. 12. Neither in respect of these your supposed causes could Christ say Saue me from this houre nor Let this cuppe passe from me as in respect of his infinite paines he might The houre and cuppe which Christ speaketh of are by himselfe referred not to any paines What cup Christ dranke of suffered in the Garden as you pretend much lesse to the paines of hell inflicted by Gods immediate hand on Christes soule as you would haue it but to the time and maner of his sufferings from the hands of the Iewes Of the houre after all his prayers ended in the Garden and his last returne to his Disciples he sayth i Mar. 14. v. 41 Sleepe hence forth and take your rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the houre is come beholde the Sonne of man is giuen into the hands of sinners Here is that houre that Christ so much spake of euen the time that he should be deliuered into the handes of sinners to suffer a cruell and shamefull death at their hands And so he told them that came to take him k Luc. 22. v. 53 This is your verie houre and the power of darkenesse And this he called the Cuppe which his father gaue him to drinke For when Peter drew his sword to defend his Master from the hands of the Iewes Iesus said vnto him l Ioh. 18. v. 11. put vp thy sword into thy sheath shall I not drinke of the cuppe which my Father hath giuen me Peter neither did nor coulde hinder the cuppe which you imagine Christ dranke in the garden from the immediate hand of God he ment plainly to resist the Iewes that they should not apprehend Christ. That enterprise of Peter when Christ would represse and submit himselfe to his fathers will and counsell for his death he said as we saw before shall I not drinke of the cup which my Father hath giuen me So that the Scriptures mention the houre cup of Christs suffering on the Crosse from the rage of the people malice of the rulers of your inuisible cuppe containing the death of the damned they say nothing m Defenc. pag. 98. li. 16. His holy and righteous affections were at all houres and seasons in him
from the body Take an example of this fire which we see and know If it be not possible without a miracle from the mighty hand of God for flesh to abide or life to dure in the paine of burning and flaming fire how lesse possible is it for the wicked on whom God sheweth no such wonders to liue and continue in the paines of the damned whiles they are heere fastened to the flesh b Chrysost. ad Theodorum lapsum epâ—…st 5. Hic quidem non simul contingit vehementia poenarum earum diuturnitas Altera enim cum altera pugnat propter conditionem corruptibilis huius corporis non ferentisea In this life saith Chrysostome the violence of paines and the continuance thereof cannot stand together The one fighteth with the other by reason of this corruptible body which cannot beare both And againe c Idem ad Populum Antioch homil 49. Name fire or sword or any thing that is more grieuous then these yet these are scant a shadow to those torments d Defenc. pag. 121. li. 16. And if hell paines in this world may be in any much rather may they be in Christ whom God purposely sent through paines and afflictions the extreamest that might be to be consecrated the Prince of our saluation If the true paines of hell might be in others here liuing yet in Christs soule they might not be since his soule had alwaies greater inward ioyes of the holy Ghost which you call heauen then any man here liuing on earth could haue except your learning serue you to put both the ioyes of heauen and the paines of hell at one and the same time in the soule of Christ. As for your proofe when you shew that the paines of hell are sacred and holy then bring them to consecrate the Prince of our saluation Till then refraine this apparent collusion to make Christ both obedient and astonished patient and ouerwhelmed in the paines of hell and learne that God tried the obedience and patience of his Sonne by the things which he suffered and so consecrated or consummated him to be the Prince of our saluation who must be conformed to his image to suffer with him not the pains of hell but the miseries and afflictions of this life with all obedience to the will and counsell of God if we will reigne with him e Defenc pag. 121. li. 14. 19. If you say yet thus it will follow that the extreamest paines of hell are not to be found in this world as the hiest ioyes of heauen are not likewise by my confession I answere I know not neither meane I to determine the measure and depth of sorowes which Christ in his Passion suffered Either you change mindes with the windes or he that wrote this wrote not that which went before In the 52 page of this booke li. 25. you prated apace that Christ suffered a sense of Gods wrath EQVALL to hell it selfe and ALL THE TORMENTS thereof And in the 15 page li. 16. you solemnly concluded whence it must follow that the paines of Christs suffering were the same in nature and ALTOGETHER AS SHARPE and as painfull as they are in hell it selfe Now you know no such thing nor meane to determine it It were good you tooke vpon you to know lesse of your hellish mysteries till you were more assured of them or better learned in them This floting vp downe like the waues of the sea shew that either diuers mens pens haue beene in your papers or that vnquiet buzzes are in your owne braines who sometimes can not nor will not and yet somtimes can and will determine and pronounce the paines of hell suffered by Christ to be EQVALL to hell and all the torments thereof and AS SHARPE as the sharpest in hell But your Reader if he be wise will see you more constant in your owne conceits before he giue any credit to them and lesse maruell that men fallen from the trueth thus reele to and fro f Defenc. pag. 121. li. 22. Only grant this plainly that Christ suffered in his soule the true effects of Gods proper iustice and wrath and we seeke no more Tell me first what you meane by the effects of Gods proper iustice and wrath and then from what Scripture you deriue it and you shall soone see what I grant Only say you no more than you haue expresse warrant of the holie Ghost to beleeue and I aske no more With the name of Gods proper wrath you haue plaied a long time and a number haue deceaued them selues For as it is most true that God would haue laid none of these things which Christ suffered on his owne sonne but displeased and angrie with our sinnes for which he was to satisfie the Iustice of God least our iniquitie should seeme a matter of dalliance and easily â—…uerpast so it is as true that God neither was nor could be wroth and offended with the person of his owne sonne in whom he was well pleased and for whose sake he was reconciled to vs but that the chastisement of our peace being imposed on him who for the innocencie and excellencie of his person was able to tolerate and mitigate the wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes he made the purgation of them by that kind of satisfaction which was conuenient both to the dignitie and safetie of his person and argued apparantly the loue of God towards him and his loue towards vs whiles he put him selfe in the gappe by his owne smart to auert and appease the iust wrath kindled against vs. Now what this chastisement was wee may neither of vs nor any man els seeke farder then the holie Ghost hath deliuered that g 1. Cor. 15. Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and h Philip 2. became obedient to the death euen the death of the crosse which is plainly described by the Euangelists and should not be questioned by any that is not more wedded to his conceits than to the word of God i Defenc. pag. 121. li. 31. Though Christ suffered all which he did suffer here in this world yeâ—… for any thing I can see there is cause why Christ should be an extraordinarie person in the case of suffering for sin in this life and that therefore as touching sorow and paine he might feele more than euer any els hath or could feele for the time He was an extraordinarie person indeed as being the true and only Sonne of God that is both God and man in one person bearing the burden of our sinnes in his bodie but appropriating or accounting the same to the dignitie of his person that by his death he might abolish him that had rule of death and restore vs to life by his humilitie and obedience which was so precious and glorious in the sight of God that he accepted it as a full sacrifice and satisfaction for all our sinnes and made him the authour of eternali saluation
that Christs prayer for auoiding this cup and this houre was conditionall his words in S. Iohn to the like purpose must haue the like construction though they doe not exactly specifie so much Againe your owne confession importeth no lesse where you say n Defenc. pag. 126. li. 7. who knoweth not that all good prayers and dâ—…sires for temporall things must be conditionall that is with reseruation of Gods will alwayes implied though not alwayes expressed Christ praâ—…ers then to escape this houre must haue that condition vnderstoode though it be not mentioned in the words since his prayers were not onely good but heaâ—…d of God and the ground of all our prayers in the time of trouble Thirdly the best Greeke expositours that we haue as Chrysostom Epiphanius and Theophylact haue conceaued the force and order of Christs speach to be such as if that part which you auouch to be repugnant to the rest were excluded and denied by the words antecedent and consequent and so to haue rather the power of a negation then an affirmation Lastly many new writers acknowledge the wordes though they were affirmatiue may receiue an other sense as if Christ did not desire to be free from suffering but to be kept from fainting vnder the burden of his passion So Bucer o Bucerus in Iohan. ca. 12. Patrem Christus or auit vt liberaret euÌ„ à supplicio non ne illud perferret sed vt fortiâ—…r perferret Christ besought his Father to saue him from the houre of punishment not that he might not suffer it but that he might suffer it patiently or without fainting So Aretius p Aretius in Iohan. ca. 12. There may be an other sense of this place which is that Christ doth not intreate to escape death but prayeth his Fathers aide against the horror thereof So that to be saued from this houre is to be preserued in it that it preuailed not against him The wordes then of our Sauiour in S. Iohn admitting so many limitations and constructions who but a wilfull neglecter of all learning and trueth would so peremtorily by pretence of them conclude that manifestly in plaine wordes Christ prayed contrary to Gods knowen will q Defenc. pag. 122. li. 22. If this could not be possible in Christs manhoode without sinne then I were a wretch to affirme so much of him especially still to affirme it But if it be possible by any meanes through the meere instinct of mans nature as it is Gods creature and free from all sinne thus to speake and to wish suddainly and suddainly to controle it againe as Christ did then what mind beare you and how may we iudge of this your striuing which is not to cleare Christ from all sinne in his agony A goodly clearing from sinne you make in Christ that in a maze he prayed he knew not what You suddainly take Christs memorie from him and suddainly restore it againe with the twinckling of an eye and thus you play with Christs sense and memorie as men doe with tennis balles But vnderstand you sir howsoeuer you please your selfe with amazing Christ after this manner the Scriptures allow no such thing nor any circumstances of the text where the wordes seeme most plainely repugnant as you say to Gods knowen will as in the 12. of Iohn Read that Chapter who will where are no wordes nor signes of any maze but a perpetuall course of most excellenâ—… speach in the midst whereof he confessed that his soule was then troubled with the remembrance of his death And as doubting what to desire through the dislike that mans nature in him had of death he yet resolueth to desire not his owne safetie from death but the increase of his Fathers glory by his death What signe or proofe of amazement is in this why take you this pestilent libertie to put Christ into a suddaine maze when pleaseth you and as suddainly least all the world should crie shame on you to cleare him from it though the cause of his maze if there were any still continued you say if it were not by some meanes possible you were a wretch to affirme it but you must not deuise what meanes please you to waue the Sonne of God to and fro with suddaine and often desires which needed correcting and controlling and then to warfe them with want of memorie My striuing is not against any wordes in the text or any thing that may be iustly deduced from the Scriptures but against your forgetfull and faithlesse prayers which you purposely impute to Christ because you would hemme him either within sinne or astonishment and then excuse him with losse of sense and lacke of memorie This is the maine plot that heere you vndertake not by proouing that it was so but by pronouncing that you will haue it so and therefore you still answere in steede of arguing knowing that your proofes be as weake as your proiects strong For first you r Defenc. pag. 122. li. 37. answere Christ knew his Fathers will but at this instant he thought not on it And why thought he not on it you s pa. 123. li. â—… answere againe his paines and sorrowes were so great and so infinite that it was no maruaile hee thought not on it but fall once to proouing and you shall see how much you faile of your purpose t Defenc. pag. 123. li. 9. First he was now astonished as the text saith and you acknowledge that he might be First in the twelfth of Iohn where you make Christes prayer more absolute than in any other place there is no mention nor signification of any astonishment but on the contrary the tenor of Christes speech and doctrine is not onely coherent but full of eminent power and grace Againe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you take hold on signifieth either admiration alone as I haue formerly shewed or feare mixed with some wondering Phauorinus sayth u Phauor Dictionarium in verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thambeâ—…sa properly is to feare and flie at the sight of God So that the word neither in the Scriptures nor in any Grammar signifieth your hellish astonishment for intolerable paines and torments but suddenly to stand defixed or somewhat afrayd at an vnwoonted sight Thirdly the circumstances and consequents in the text declare that Christes astonishment or feare was not such that it tooke from him either sense or memorie For where all vehement amazing for the time depriueth a man of motion sense and speech Christ felt vtterly none of these The very place of S. Marke which you quote for the word ekthamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thai proueth the rest which I affirme For Christ after he x Matth. 14. began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be afrayd presently sayd vnto his three disciples My soule is very heauy vnto death tary heere and watch So he went forward a little and fell downe on the ground and prayd that
vpon the expectation of Christs comming and differreth the crowne of glory 〈◊〉 that time let vs be content with the boundes which God hath appointed vs that the soules of the godly hauing ended their warfare of this life depart into an happy rest where with a blessed ioy they looke for the fruition of the promised glory and so all things stand suspended till Christ our redeemer appeare Then none of these writers old nor new so conceaued or so expounded Christes wordes as you doe that all his Saints doe locally accompany him and generally wheresoeuer he abideth or whithersoeuer he goeth The Fathers all with one voice I may truely affirme teach and beleeue euen that Christ after death went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were yea and there remained till his resurrection To which consent of men some where you ascribe exceeding much Your assertions all the Fathers with one consent refuse to which agreement of learned and auncient writers I confesse I yeeld very much when there is no expresse Scripture against it alleaged and vrged by some of themselues as in all the cases where I forsake them there is but what is that to your nouelties who neither in the first nor second question yeeld any thing to their iudgements and censures put them altogether That the soules of the faithfull before the comming of Christ were in Abrahams bosome our Sauiour first deliuered and no father that I know departeth from it but where Abrahams bosome was whether in earth or elsewhere and whether it were a skirt of hell or no till Christ transferred them thence to Paradise of this some fathers diuersely thinke and diuersely speake And but that Saint Austin learnedly discusseth and resolueth this point that Abrahams bosome could be no member nor part of hell since this was a secret habitation of rest and happinesse which the Scripture neuer affirmeth of hell but calleth it a place of torment it would be hard for you or any of your crue to say where Abrahams bosome was That Christ after death went to the place where the faithfull were in expectation and desire of his comming to redeeine the world the Fathers affirme but that he went no whither else or that hec went not to the place of the damned as well to discharge and release his members thence that is from all feare and daunger thereof as to destroy the power of the diuell ouer all his and to triumph ouer the force and furie of Satan in his owne person that euery knee of things vnder the earth should bow to him as well as of things in heauen and earth in this you vtterly mistake the consent of the Fathers which you so much talke of and shew that you neuer came neere the reading of them howsoeuer you presume to affirme what you list of them And least I should carie the Reader without cause to rest on my word as you would haue him doe on yours he shall heare the Fathers speake their owne mindes and so the better iudge of your abusing them Ireneus Dauid said prophesying this of Christ thou hast deliuered my soule from the nethermost hell Cyprian When in Christs presence hell was broken open captiuitie made captiue his conquering soule being presented to his fathers sight returned without delay to his bodie Lactantius or as some thinke Venantius o The darkenesse fled at the brightnesse of Christ the grosse mist of eternall night vanished Hinc tumuluÌ„ repetens post tariâ—…ra carne resumpta belliger ad coelos ampla trophea refers Then after thy being in hell thou going to thy graue resuming thy bodie as a warrier thou barâ—…st to heauen a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CONQVEST ouer hell Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who euer went to hell besides the sonne which rose from the dead at the sight of whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keepers of hell gates shrâ—…ncke for feare Yea HADES HELL or the Diuell at the sight of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was afraid and amazed saying Who is this that descendeth hither with so great power and authoritie Who is this that teareth open the brazen gates of hell breaketh the bars of Adamant Who is this that being crucisied is not conquered by me who am death Who is this that looseth their bandes whom I conquered Who is this that by his owne death destroyeth me that am death Eusebius To him only were the gates of death opened him only the keepers of hell gates seeing shranke for feare and the chiefe ruler of death the diuell knowing him alone to be his Lord rose out of his loftie throne and spake to him fearefully with supplication intreatie Eusebius called Emisenus The Lord descending darkenesse trembled at the suddaine sight of vnknowen light Aâ—… praefulgidum fidus caeloruÌ„ Tartareae caliginis profunda viderunt And the deepes of hellish darkenesse saw the most bright starre of heauen Deposito quidâ—… corpore imas atque abdit as Tartari sedes filius hominis penetrauit the Sonne of man laying aside his body pearced the lowest and secret seates of Tartarus or of the dungeon of hell Hilarie The powers of heauen doe incessantly glorifie the Sonne of God sor conquering death breaking the gates of hell In hell he killed death Gregorie Nazianzene Going to the gates of hell all couered with darknesse thou shalt pearce hell with a sharpe speare and shalt deliuer all thou alone being free and shalt besides haue the victory ouer thine enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valiantly SVBDVING HELL the SERPENT and DEATH Chryâ—…ostome Descendente in tenebrosam inferoruÌ„ caligineÌ„ Domino ettam illic tunâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dubio dies splendidissimus fuit vbi seruator illuxit tenuit in illo noctis horrore inuiolabilem Maiestatis suae splendorem The Lord descending into the darke mâ—…st of hell euen there no doubt then was a most cleere day where our Sauiour shined In that horror of night he held the brightnesse of his Maiestie inuiolable Ierom. Pro vita populi mortuus non es derelictus in Tartaro Dying for the life of thy people thou wast not left in hell And againe Christ dâ—…stroyed and brake open the closed places of hell and put the diuell that had power ouer death from his kingdome and Dominion Augustine If the holy Scripture had sayd that Christ after death came to Abrahams bosome not naming hell and the sorrowes thereof I maruaile if any man would haue durst to affirme that Christ descended into hell But because euident testimonies of the Scripture mention hell and the sorowes thereof no cause is occurrent why our Sauior should be beleeued to haue come thither but to saue from those paines And againe There is a lower hell â—…hither the dead go whence God would deliuer our soules by sending his sonne thither For therefore Christ came euen
howbeit euen their externall punishments in this life are not voide of Gods bountie and patience diuersly blessing them with earthly things often warning and sparing them by giuing them time and place to mislike and leaue their sinnes and length-fully expecting their submission and amendment which the Apostle calleth the riches of Gods bountie patience and long sufferance leading euen the obstinate and hard harted to repentance The doubt is of the godly whether their afflictions which are corrections and chasticements for sinne rise only from Gods loue or rather from his iustice mixed with loue I affirme the Scriptures doe directly and distinctly propose in the chasticements of the elect as well iudgement and wrath as mercy and loue and that not by abusing the words but by reseruing to either their naturall proprieties and seuerall consequents the one for the commendation of Gods iustice the other for the demonstration of his mercy and consolation of the afflicted For his wicked couetousnesse I was angry saith God and did smite him ‖ but ‖ I will heale him and restore comfort vnto him He must be more then absurd that will imagine God would or could say for his wicked couetousnesse I loued him that were to make God the abettour and embracer of wickednesse which is wholy repugnant to his Diuine sanctitie and glory the words therefore must stand as they doe without any euasion of improper speech and Gods anger in this place must plainely differ from his loue which cannot be added to these words without euident impietie Since then the cause was sinne which God doth perfectly hate in whomsoeuer euen in his owne and the smiting came for sinne and from anger it is not possible this chasticement should spring onely from loue but ioyntly both must worke together I meane Gods anger against sinne and his loue towards the person to make the punishment tolerable and comfortable to the bearer The like rule God giueth for all that belong to the true seed and sonne of Dauid which is Christ. If his children forsake my law and walke not in my iudgements I will visue their transgressions with the Rod and their iniquitie with sâ—…ripes but my mercy will I not take from him God threatneth no loue to sinne he threatneth anger the stripes here mentioned are not the loue of a father but mitigated by loue the mercy here promised is not adioyned as the onely cause of this correction which is ascribed to the transgressions and iniquities of the children but it serueth for a salue to heale the wound which Gods iustice prouoked by their sinnes should formerly make For he is the God that woundeth and healeth killeth and quickneth casteth downe to hell and rayseth vp againe not working contraries by one and the selfe same loue but when he hath iustly done the one for our offences he gratiously doth the other for his mercies sake in wrath remembring mercy least we should be consumed He then despouseth the Church vnto himselfe in iudgement and mercy not in iudgement forgetting mercy nor by mercy excluding iudgement for iudgement beginneth at the house of God but retaining both that the whole Church may sing mercy and iudgement vnto him as Dauid did yet with this difference that he doth not punish with the hart as the Prophet testifieth but his delight is in mercie Which plainly prooueth the Rod is not all one with loue as the Apostle noteth when he opposeth the one against the other saying Shall I come to you with a rodde or in loue but is guided by loue lest in displeasure God should shut vp his mercies These two therefore in God iust anger against the sinnes and tender loue towards the persons of his children together with their effects which are iudgement and mercy may not be confounded the one with the other but as they haue different causes and proprieties in God so haue they different effects and consequents in vs the Scriptures bearing witnesse that Gods anger riseth for our sinnes his loue for his owne names sake his anger he threatneth his loue he promiseth he hath no pleasure in punishing he delighteth in mercie he repenteth him often of the euill which he denounceth his gifts and calling are without repentance when we call vpon him he deliuereth vs out of all our troubles his mercy will he neuer take from his nor frustrate his truth Yea the godly haue a different feeling of his anger towards them from his loue they feare they faint they grieue and grone vnder the burden of affliction they waxe weary of it they pray against it they giue him thankes when they are freed from it none of which affections may with any sense of godlinesse agree to his loue But these are no effects of Gods proper wrath you thinke Christ onely hauing wholy suffered that for vs all What you meane by Gods proper wrath is knowen onely to your selfe you neuer expresse nor expound the word but with more obscure and doubtfull termes then the former At first you affirme Gods wrath towards his children was a most improper speech I haue now shewed that if you looke to the words vsed in the sacred Scriptures Gods wrath towards his enemies is as improper a speech as the other Your second wrench was that all chastisements for sinne are inflicted on Gods children properly by his loue I haue prooued that they proceede properly from Gods iustice tempered with mercie and not from his onely loue Your third shift is now they are no effects of Gods proper wrath which Christ did wholy suffer for vs all If you vnderstand by Gods proper wrath that which is only wrath and hath no admixture of his loue fauour or mercie then is your position ridiculous in your first maine point and blasphemous in the second For who euer auouched that God punished his children and his enemies with the same degrees and effects of wrath or who euer dreamed that God chastising the sinnes of his elect in wrath remembred not his mercie you doe indeede affirme of Christ that he suffered all Gods proper wrath which if you now interpret to be without all respect of loue or fauour towards him you light on a greater blasphemie then you are ware of Wherefore looke well to your new found phrases of Gods meere iustice and proper wrath with which you thinke to colour your conceits they will else proue you a weake Scholer and a worse Christian. The word proper applyed to Gods wrath may signifie either that which is not figuratiue or that which is not common to others or that which hath no mixture of loue or mercie to mitigate wrath but is wholy and onely wrath In God nothing is figuratiue he is naturally and wholy truth itselfe The words applyed to him are often improper and figuratiue because we can hardly speake or vnderstand many things that are in him but by such words as are knowen and familiar to
had God chiefly respected the execution of his iustice against sinne his owne sonne was most vnfit to be subiected to that vengeance which was prepared for deuils but God in the recompense which he required for sinne chose rather to haue his holinesse contented and his glory aduanced than to haue his iustice inflicted to the vttermost And therefore he selected the person of his owne sonne that might fully satisfie his holinesse and maruellously exalt his glorie but on whom of all others his iustice could take least holde not that his iustice should be neglected but that a moderate punishment in his person for the worthinesse thereof would weigh more euen in the balance of Gods exact iustice than the depth of Gods wrath executed on all the transgressours The chastisement of our peace layd vpon him will proue the same For where the wages of sinne is death and death due to sinne is threefold spirituall corporall and eternall as I haue formerly shewed such was the person of our Sauiour that two parts of death due to sinne could by no rule of Gods iustice fasten on Christes humane nature The gifts of Gods spirit and grace could not be quenched nor diminished in him he was full of grace and trueth he had not the spirit by measure as we haue but of his fulnesse we all haue receiued It is my father saith he that honoureth me whom ye say to be your God yet haue ye not knowen him but I know him and if I should say I know him not I should be a liar like vnto you but I know him and keepe his word and do alwayes the things that please him The cleerenesse of trueth knowing Gods will and fulnesse of grace keeping his word beeing continually present with the humane soule of Christ most apparently the death of the soule which excludeth all inward sense and motion of Gods spirit could haue no place in him by reason the death of the soule is the want of all grace and height of all sinne from which he was free much lesse could any part of Christs manhood by Gods iustice be condemned to euerlasting death or to hell fire since there could nothing befall the humanitie of Christ which was vnfit for his Diuinitie they both being inseparably ioyned together or repugnant to that loue which God so often professed and proclamed from heauen or iniurious to the innocencie and obedience which God so highly accepted and rewarded or preiudiciall to mans saluation which God so long before purposed and promised No weight of sinne no heat of wrath no rigour of iustice could preuaile against the least of these to cast Christ out of heauen and combine him with diuels in the second death which is the lake burning with fire and brimstone There is onely left the third kinde of death which is corporall to which Christ yeelded himselfe willingly for the conseruation of Gods iustice who inflicted that paine on all men as the generall punishment of sinne for the demonstration of his power who by death ouercame death together with the cause and consequents thereof and for the consolation of the godly that they should not faint vnder the crosse nor feare what sinne and Satan could do against them It was loue then in God towards vs to giue his sonne for vs So God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting but farre greater loue to his sonne than to vs though the burden of our sinnes which we could not beare were layd vpon him For since God hath adopted vs through Christ Iesus vnto himselfe and made vs accepted in his beloued of force he must be much better beloued for whose sake we all are beloued And if to make the world by his sonne were an excellent demonstration of Gods euerlasting and exceeding loue towards his sonne to send him into the world that the world through him might be saued doth as farre in honour and loue exceed the former as our Redemption by which heauen is inherited doth passe our creation whereby the earth was first inhabited Neither was it possible that God should remit the rigor of iustice against sinne for the loue of any but onely of his owne sonne whom because he loued as deerely as himselfe and had made heire of all things worthily and rightly did the wrath of God against man asswage and yeeld to the loue of God towards his owne sonne against whom no punishment could proceed but such as was fatherly and serued rather to witnesse obedience than to execute vengeance For though you Sir Discourser in the height of your vnlearned skill resolue that Christ could suffer no chastisement but all his sufferings were the true and proper punishment or iust vengeance of God for sinne yet the Prophet Esay telleth vs the chastisment of our peace was vpon him and the word Musar which the Prophet there vseth deriued from Iasar is the proper word that in the Scripture signifieth the correction of a father towards his sonne and of God likewise towards his Church Chastise thy sonne saith Salomon while there is hope As a father chasteneth his sonne ‖ so ‖ the Lord chasteneth thee sayth Moses to Israel My Sonne refuse not the chastening of the Lord. Blessed is the man whom thou Lord doest chasten The like may be seene by those that will looke Deutr. 21. vers 18. Ierem. 2. vers 30. Ierem. 31. vers 18. Psal. 118. vers 18. The Apostle concurreth with the Prophet Esay touching Christes sufferings and sayth Though he were the sonne yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered He learned obedience which is the subiection of a sonne to his fathers chastisement he tasted not vengeance which is the indignation of an enemie requiting Yea the very death which Christ suffered in the body of his flesh was so farre from being an effect of Gods proper wrath that it was an increase of Gods loue towards him and as well the price of our Redemption as the cause of all his honor following Therefore the Father loueth me sayth our Sauiour because I lay downe my soule or life to take it againe And so much the Prophet foretolde Therefore will I giue him sayth God a part in many things and he shall diuide the spoile of or with the mightie because he poured out his soule or life vnto death Which the Apostle sheweth to be thus verified in Christ. He humbled himselfe being obedient vnto the death euen the death of the Crosse. Wherefore God also highly exalted him and gaue him a name aboue euery name that in the name of Iesu euery knee should bow of things celestiall terrestrial and infernall euery tongue confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the father All power honour and iudgement in heauen earth and hell are therefore deliuered
scourgeth euerie sonne whom he receiueth and yet he vseth him not like a beast All that will liue godlie in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution not common to them with beasts Count it an exceeding ioy saith Iames when you fall into diuers tentations knowing that the triall of your faith bringeth foorth patience Now to impart any of these things to beasts were very strange Diuinity Blessed are they saith our Sauiour that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heauen Shall men be blessed and enioy Gods kingdome for suffering as the beasts doe If any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed He that putteth no difference betwixt the sufferings of beasts and Christians is vnwoorthie to be a Christian. The same afflictions saith Peter are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world If you list Sir Discourser to take beasts for your brethren you may make your sufferings like to theirs or common to them otherwise they that are men and speciallie Christian men must acknowledge that this kinde of paining the soule by the bodie is proper to men and common neither to beasts nor to diuels There hath no tentation taken you saith Paul but such as is humane What is humane but common to all men and onely to men and so common neither to beasts nor to any other creature but proper to men Take backe therefore your vaine imagination and more foolish collection that the suffering of the soule by her bodie is not properly humane because it is common to men with beasts and learne hereafter that beasts hauing no soule much lesse anie graces or promises of God in this life or the next can not communicate with men in that kinde of suffering which the soule feeleth from her bodie and whereby she is chastised prooued perfected in this life and prepared for the glorie of the life to come At least yet you thinke the soules immediate suffering from the hand of God alone is the proper and principall humane suffering If there be any such suffering of paine as you imagine from the immediate hand of God alone it is the proper and principall suffering of deuils and not of men For humane properly it can not be vnlesse it touch the whole man that is as well bodie as soule whereof man consisteth And therefore the râ—…ll punishment of mans sinne in earth and in hell conteineth the torments of both parts without either of which there is no proper nor principall humane suffering though the soule after death be affâ—…icted for a season till the bodie be raysed and punished with heâ—… which is the true humane suffering for sinne after this life because it is euerlastingly allotted to the wicked for sinne by the most righteous iudgement of God But how prooâ—…e you Sir Discourser that the soule of man suffereth sensible and absolute paine I meane not depending on her owne cogitations or actions from the immediate hand of God what Scripture what example haue you for it It is the maine morter of your new erected hell but tempered onely with the water of your owne wit nor Scriptures nor Fathers doe acknowledge any such kind of suffering in hell from the immediat hand of God as you affirme yea they expressely auouch the contrary From the hand of God without question is all power and so all punishment whether it be here or in hell he alone giueth force to each creature to pierce and punish and he alone made the soule capable of paine from her bodie from her selfe and from whatsoeuer creature should please him to vse for the punishment of the soule Of this I make no doubt the hand of God which is the power of God ordereth strengtheneth sharpeneth continueth and worketh all paine and punishment both here and elsewhere for the time and for euer but whether he doeth this by meanes likewise ordeined and appointed by the same power either within or without the soule or by his immediate hand without all meanes this is the question and reading the Scriptures for this with as good attention as I could I find no such thing affirmed in them or prooued by you in all your Discourse Touching hell I sinde the contrarie confiâ—…med and auouched by the manifest and expresse words of the holy Ghost and in the greatest plagues and punishments of this life the meanes that God vseth are likewise mentioned in the Scriptures the immediate hand of God inflicting paine on the soule no where that I read or that you prooue which in so weightie a cause euery wise man will expect at your hands before he admit your metaphoricall flames of a new found fire deuised by you for the Soule of Christ to make it subiect to the paines of hell That God is the onely giuer of all grace by the working of his holy Spirit in our hearts without the assistance of any creature to further that action may not be doubted of any Christian. A man can receiue nothing except it be giuen him from heauen euen from the Father of lights whence commeth euery good and perfect gift For which cause the Scriptures call him the God of all grace working all in all and his Spirit the Spirit of grace distributing to euery man as pleaseth him and yet this diuision and operation of grace which proceedeth most powerfully from God alone is not alwaies immediate but dependeth on the hearing of the word partaking of the Sacraments and imposing of hands which God vseth as meanes not to helpe his power but to direct and guide our weakenesse Otherwise neither man nor Angel hath or can haue any power to touch and turne the heart or to inspire it with grace but onely God who made it and can alter and change it at his pleasure As the giuing so the taking away of all good gifts pertaining either to the vse of this life as prudence courage magnanimitie and such like or to the furtherance of the liâ—…e to come as faith hope loue and other fruits of Gods Spirit depend wholely on Gods will and worke and yet that is no let but when God hath most iustly depriued men of his grace which should preserue them from euill he may and doeth leaue the neglecters and abusers of his grace to be possessed and ruled by the spirit of errour vncleannesse and giddinesse that worketh in the children of disobedience and carieth them headlong into all kind of mischiefe Not that God performeth any of these things with his immediate hand which are wicked and impious but that by his iust iudgement he giueth them ouer which despise and forsake him to be a pray to the roaring Lion that deuoureth them Neither is Satan to seeke howe to leade men destitute of grace to all villanie both against themselues and others since he can blind the mindes of vnbeleeuers distract their wits and inflame their hearts with all sorts of
ourselues vnrâ—…ghteous and odious vnto him And yet in mercy towaâ—…ds â—…s and honor â—…wards his Sonne God would make him the Redeemer and Sauiour of the world not neglecting his Iustice nor forgetting his loue but so mixing them both together that his dislike of our sinnes might appeare in the punishment of them and his relenting from the rigor of his Iustice in fauour of his onely Sonne might magnifiâ—… his mercy satisfie his wrath and enlarge his glory and declare in most ample manner the submission compassion and peâ—…fection of his Sonne as only worthy to performe that worke which procured and receaue that honor which followed mans Redemption Christ then suffered from the hand of God but mediate that is GOD DELIVERED him into the hands of sinners who were Satans instruments with all eproach and wrâ—…nge to put him to a contumelious and grieuous death God by his â—…ecret wisdome and iustice decâ—…eeing appointing and ordering what he should suffer at theiâ—… hands Our sinnes â—…e bare in his body on the tree not that his soule was free from feare sorrow 〈◊〉 derision and temptation but that the wicked and malitious â—…ewes practised all kind of shamefull violence and cruell tortuâ—…es on him by Whipping Racking pricâ—…ing and wounding the tenderest parts of his body whereby his soule â—…elt extreame and intoleâ—…able paines In all which he saw the determinate counsell of God and receaued in the garden from his father this Iudgement for our sinnes that he should be 〈◊〉 dâ—…liuered into the hands of sinners For had he not humbly submitted himselfe to obey his fatheâ—…s will no power in earth could haue preuailed against him but as he had often fortold his Disciples what the Priestes Scribes and Gentils should doe vnto him so when the hower was come which was foreappointed of God to obey his fathers will he yeelded himselfe into their hands they persuing him to death of enuie and malice but God thus perfourming euen by their wicked hands what he had â—…oreshewed by his Prophets that Christ should suffer For they not knowing him â—…or the wordâ—… of the Prophets fulfilled them in condemning him yea they fulfilled all things which were written of him So that no man shall need to runne to the immediate hand of God nor to the paines of hell for the punishment of our sinnes in the person of Christ the Iewes FVLFILLED ALL THINGS that were written of him touching his sufferings and therewith Gods anger against our sinnes was appeased and God himselfe reconciled vnto vs. Esay speaking of the violence done by the Iewes to Christ sayeth he was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed Thus the Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of all vs and he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree by those sufferings before and on the Crosse which the Scriptures expresly declare and describe And as for the immediate hand of God tormenting the soule of Christ with the selfe same paines which the damned now suffer in hell which is this deuisers maine drift when he maketh or offereth any proofe thereof out of the word of God I shall be ready to receiue it if I can not refute it till then I see no cause why euery wandring witte should imagine what monsters please him in mans redemption and obtrude them to the faithfull without any sentence or syllable of holy Scripture I haue no doubt but all the godly will be so wise as to suffer no man to raigne so much ouer their faith with fancies and figures vnwarranted by the Scriptures vnknowen to all the learned and ancient councels and Fathers vnheard of in the Church of Christ till our age wherein some men applaude more their owne inuentions then all humane or diuine instructions The feare of bodily sufferings you thinke could not be the cause that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood You straine the text of the Euangelist to draw it to your bent Saint Luke hath no such words that there strained out from Christ much sweat of clotted blood he sayth Christes sweat was like drops of blood trickling downe to the ground Theophylact a Greeke borne and no way ignorant of his mother tongue expresseth Christes sweat in the garden by these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christes body or face DISTILLED with plentifull drops of sweat And albeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifie the congealed parts of that which is otherwise liquid and compacted pieces of that which els is poudered yet often it noteth that which is thickâ—… in comparison with thinner or eminent in respect of plainer Now Christes sweat might be thicke by reason it issued from the inmost parts of his bodie and was permixed with blood or els it might breake out with great and eminent drops as comming from him violently and abundantly and being coloured with blood and congealed with colde might trickle downe like DROPS or strings of blood vpon the ground Howsoeuer the Scripture saith not his sweate was clotted blood but like to congealed or cooled blood neither that such clots were strained out from him but that his sweate being thicked and cooled on his face fell from him like strings of blood But grant there could be no reason giuen of Christs bloodie sweat in the garden no more then there can be of the issuing first of blood and then of water out of his side when he was dead which S. Iohn doth exactly note as strange but yet true will you conclude what please you because many things in Christ both liuing and dying weâ—…e miraculous I bind no mans conscience to any probabilities for the cause of this sweate but onely to the expresse wordes and necessarie consequents of holy Scripture and yet I wish all men either to be sober and leaue that to God which he hath concealed from vs or if they will needes be gessing at the reason thereof for certaine knowledge they can haue none by no meanes to relinquish the plaine words or knowen groundes of holy Scripture to embrace a fansie of their owne begetting The learned and ancient Fathers haue deliuered diuers opinions of this sweate which thou mayest see Christian Reader in my Sermons and which we shall haue occasion anon to reexamine euery one of them being as I thinke more probable and more agreeable to Christian pietie then this Discoursers dreame of hell paines or Gods immediate hand at that present tormenting of the soule of Christ. And if we looke to the order and sequence of the Gospell we shall finde that feruent zeale extreamely heating the whole bodie melting the spirits thinning the blood opening the pores and so colouring and thicking the sweate of Christ might in most likelihood be the cause of that bloodie sweate Which S. Luke seemeth to insinuate when he saith that after Christ was comforted by an Angell from heauen and so recouered from his
like persons and cause were vndertaken by the Apostle You only are found Sir Discourser that to shew neither learning nor reading but a presumptious ouerweening of your owne witte will needs make the Reader beleeue I vnderstand not the Text. But let vs heare your pure conceit how currantly it carrieth with it the words and circumstances of the Text. They vrge you to be circumcised onely least they should suffer persecution for the crosse of Christ saith Paul of those false teachers which peruerted the truth of the Gospell among the Galathians by teaching circumcision and the righteousnesse of the Law to be necessarie to saluation How expound you these words of the Apostle he may say you be vnderstood to say that he would not suffer persecution for commending the afflictions and shame of good Christians for Christs sake You should say THEY would not suffer persecution vnlesse you put Paul into the number of false teachers but that might be the scape of your Printer Come to your owne ouersights First then Christs personall sufferings are here quite excluded for Christ I trust shall haue an other title with you then the name of a good Christian among the many and so the crosse of Christ in this place by your exposition doth both exclude and include the proper sufferings of Christ. For afore you said here Paul doth ioyntly together vnderstand by Christs crosse the afflictions of the whole mysticall body of Christ both head and members Secondly where euer read you in the Scriptures that the Iewes raized persecutions against any for commending the afflictions of the godly If it be a truth name vs the place and the persons if it be a dreame of yours keepe it to your selfe the Scriptures can expound themselues without your â—…ansies That the Iewes had a furious disdaine and hatred against the person of Christ and specially against the shame and reproch of his crosse and for his sake against all that preached or beleeued him to be the Messias so long before promised and his death to be the Redemption of tâ—…e world the Euangelistes and Apostles euery where in their writings giue full testimony Paul himselfe first persecuting the Christians vnto death and afterward as sharply pursued by the Iewes for the very same cause best knew what offence the Iewes tooke at the infamous death of Christ on the crosse and how egerly they were bent against all that durst professe the name of Christ and therefore could speake in this case out of his owne experience that not the commending of the afflictions of the godly but the preaching of Christs death on the crosse to be the saluation of the world was the point that so much irritated the Iewes to lay violent hands on the Christians Thirdly did circumcision hinder the commending of the afflictions of the godly the Apostles and first spreaders of the Gospell as also Paul himselfe were circumcised and yet the chiefest fauourers and encouragers of the afflicted Christians so that circumcision was no impediment to like and allow the afl ictions of the godly But as Paul saw himselfe to be most odious to the Iewes because they held opinion of him that he taught all men euery where against the people the Law and the Temple and indeed he boldly professed that in Christ Iesus neither circumcision auayled any thing nor vncircumcision and that they were no longer vnder the Law since Christ had redeemed both Iew and Gentile from the curse and bondage of the Law so he could not but discerne the drift of those false teachers who to flatter the Iewes and to claw fauour with the enimies of Christs crosse taught circumcision and the righteousnesse of the law to be necessary vnto saluation as if the death of Christ without them could profit vs nothing You doe therefore not expound but peruert the words of Paul which I tooke for my text when as he reprouing those false teachers whom he before confuted for adding circumcision and the iustification of the law to the death of Christ thereby to mitigate the malice of the Iewes conceaued against the crosse of Christ you turne the Apostles words from doctrine to manners from preaching to not commending from the death of Christ to the afflictions of Christians and so of the highest point of our Redemption and Saluation by the crosse of Christ you haue found out a cold kind of scant allowing the troubles of the Saints But the Fathers which I brought ouerthrow not your sense they rather iustifie it Whether Augustine Chrysostome Ierome and Bede whom I cited for the sense of this place do take the word Crosse in this very sentence for the personall suffeâ—…ings of Christ on the crosse which was my assertion I referre it to the censure of the Reader vpon the sight of their sayings which he may finde in the conclusion of my Sermons I must confesse mine eyes be not matches if they speake not directly to that purpose Howbeit you haue a speciall gift to make a short returne of all the Fathers with a nihil dicit when they speake against you Indeed you are out of your element when you talke of Fathers for you neither like their credits nor allow their iudgements as in processe we shall more fully shew For the present to satisfie those that be soberly minded and to let all men see to your shame that I tooke my text right though you fondly seeke by your silly conceits to impeach it marke I pray thee Christian Reader whether both elder and later Diuines doe not concurre with me in that sense of Christes crosse which I auouched to be in Pauls words Christ was crucified vnder Pontius Pilate This sayth Augustine we beleeue and we so beleeue it that we reioyce in it Be it farre from me sayth Paul to reioyce but in the crosse of Christ. Happily some man sayth Athanasius beholding the Lord and Sauiour to be condemned of Pilate and crucified of the Iewes will cast downe his head for shame But if we learne the cause why the Lord suffered wee shall cease to blush and rather reioyce as Paul did in the Lords crosse Ignatius in his Epistle to those at Tarsus where Paul was borne sayth mindfull of Paul Holde it for most certaine that the Lord Iesus was truely crucified for Paul sayth Be it farre from me to reioyce but in the crosse of our Lord Iesus and truly suffered and died Cyril Be it farre from me to reioyce but in the crosse of the Lord Iesus Paul sayth he reioyceth in the death of Christ he knew Christ therefore to be God and to haue suffered for vs in the flesh Theodoret thus expresseth Pauls meaning Ego autem propter solam salutarem crucem me iacto mihi placeo I onely boast my selfe on that crosse of Christ which bringeth saluation and therewith I content my selfe Theophylact vpon the same words of Paul Illi inquit circumcisionem hanc
that you should professe your selfe a Method-master to this Realme When I tooke occasion from my text to lay downe first the contents then the effects of Christs crosse as the Scriptures did deliuer them that is what Christ suffered on his crosse for vs and what he performed by his crosse to vs say good Sir out of your new found art what fault you finde either with the matter or with the method Christes crosse you say signifieth here no such thing but the afflictions of Christ and his members That is the vanitie of your errour that is not the trueth of my text Christ crucified in his owne person for mans redemption is the full purport of Christs crosse in my text as in my Sermons I shortly declared in my conclusion I more amplie proued and now I trust I haue therein fully satisfied the Reader That standing good I note what Christ suffered which I call the contents of his crosse and to what end he suffered which are the effects of his crosse both these are aptly and fairely closed in my text and by other places of Scripture iustly proued to be comprised in my text This forsooth your mastership liketh not but I must make syllogismes out of euery word conteined in my text or els I make the Scriptures such an instrument as they ought not to be Silly Sir you vnderstand not what you say first learne and after teach lest you teach that you neuer learned When it is sayd Giue vnto God the things which are Gods can you out of these words without the aid of other Scriptures firmely conclude what things are Gods and how they must be giuen vnto him or must you proue that by other places of holy Scripture Euen so when I had shewed what was iustly inclosed within the words of my theme I made direct ful proofe thereof by other places of holy writ which I take to be a sound and sure way of well vsing the Scriptures to that very purpose they should be applied notwithstanding your palterie prouisoes that no man must after speake any thing that can not firmely be concluded by the sole and single words of his text which is a rule fit for such a Rouer as you are that neuer soundly proue any thing but not for him that will fully diuide and rightly deliuer as well the sense as the sound of any sentence of holy Scripture which he taketh in hand to vnfold To shew your selfe a firme and fine concluder vpon texts you exemplifie your skill and inferre that in three speciall points I my selfe by my very text ouerthrow my selfe in the first entrance as all men may see First in that I expresly grant the proper sufferings of Christes minde may rightly be in the contents of his crosse contrary to my maine opinion that Christs bodily sufferings ALONE were the full price of our redemption Secondly that Christs soule in a large sense may be sayd to be crucified if I suppose my text to signifie the whole contents of Christs crosse which I reproued in you with great contempt Thirdly in that I quite ouerthrow my second question for if it be a detestable thing to reioyce but in the crosse of Christ then Christes descent to hell after death must either be a part of the contents of his crosse and so he must suffer among the diuels and damned spirits or els he did vs no good there if we may not reioyce in his descending thither These iarres in my selfe you say I must reconcile els men will thinke I haue not handled my text indeed very rightly These iarres good Sir for so much as concerneth me are soone reconciled Your first obiection is a plaine falsitie your second an open follie your third a meere mockerie The contents of Christs crosse I extended to those griefs wrongs and paines which Christ suffered in his passage to his crosse as namely his submission in the garden his apprehension accusation illusion flagellation condemnation and such like all which he felt before he was fastened to the tree and though indeed they were precedents to his crosse yet because the griefe and smart of them continued and increased with his hanging on the tree the Scripture doth not exclude them from the crosse of Christ which often meaneth by that word the whole course and maner of Christes death and passion as well in comming to his crosse as in hanging on his crosse As for the proper sufferings of the minde those be none of my words yet if you thereby meane care and feare shame and sorrow not repugnant to the condition and perfection of Christes person let them in Gods name come within the contents of Christes crosse as antecedents or consequents to the paines which he suffered But if vnder the proper sufferings of the soule you conuey the suffering of hell paines or the death of the soule from the immediate hand of God which is your dreame keepe your errours for your owne accounts my words haue no such matter nor meaning How then can my maine opinion be true that Christs bodily sufferings ALONE were the full price of our Redemption which I would also ground on all the Fathers though very vntruely How can your obiections be waightie that speake neuer a true word By Christs bodily sufferings I no where exclude either the sense consideration or affection of the Soule discerning the paines which and the cause why the body suffered as you falsely imagine I only except the death of the Soule and paines of hell in Christs sufferings and to barre that I shew by many sufficient testimonies of the auncient Fathers which you shall neuer ouerbeare for all your bragges that Christ dyed for vs the death of the bodie onely and not the death of the soule In this case I vse the word ONLY as hath beene often told you otherwise to exclude the vnion operation or passion of the soule from Christs sufferings I neuer vse it And where I so often and instantly vrge that Christs death and blood-shedding are specified in the Scriptures as the full price of our Redemption and true meanes of our reconciliation to God You foolishly by their fulnesse would turne out all the rest of Christs sufferings as superfluous but my words throughout my sermons are expresse to the contrarie The crosse blood and death of Christ are euery where mentioned in the Scriptures as the very ground-worke and pillars of our Redemption And the things which are named in the Scriptures as they were the last so are they the chiefest parts of Christs sufferings the rest being vnderstood as antecedent to them and not eminent aboue them So that by the death and blood of Christ I neither did nor doe exclude the rest of his sufferings before he came to his crosse only I make them Antecedent to that not eminent aboue that which he suffered on the crosse For as the end of euery thing presupposeth a beginning and a middle and the
Whereupon Pilat maruailed that Christ was so soone dead And the Lord himselfe said None taketh my soule from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I haue power to lay it downe and power to take it againe To which it pertaineth that is written he bowing downe his head gaue vp his spirit for other men first dye and then their heads hang but Christ first laid downe his head and then voluntarily rendered his soule to his Father Many moe might be brought of all ages and places confessing the same but if these suffice not what may be enough I doe not know To decline the Scriptures and Fathers that make against him the Discourser hath deuised two shifts very like the rest of of his tenents that is void of all truth and iudgement I deny not saith he but Christ might shew some strange vnusuall thing apparantly to the beholders in vttering his last voice which might very much mooue the beholders and hâ—…arers Adde hereunto that experience sheweth as Phisitians say how some diseases in the body bring death presently after most strong and violent crying Namely in some excessiue torments as of the stone Things reported and expressed in the Scriptures touching the strange and wonderfull manner of Christs death you deny and dreame of things there no way mentioned to coulour your matter and cosin your Reader That Christ did render his soule into his Fathers hands when as yet neither speech sense memory nor motion began to faile is diligently obserued by the Euangelists and was greatly marueyled at by the Centurion which saw the manner of his death As also that he breathed out his soule of his owne accord when he had spoken those words without any former or other degrees or pangs of death appearing in him is likewise witnessed by the Scriptures and constantly auouched by all the Fathers Saint Luke saith and speaking these words he breat hed out his soule Saint Mathew and crying with a loud voice he dismissed his spirit Saint Marke and sending a strong voice from him he blew out his Soule This did he of his owne accord and power None taking his soule from him as in death they doe ours but declaring himselfe by laying of his soule when he would and as he would to be Lord and master of life and death This is fit for all Christians to confesse least they dishonor the death of Christ by depriuing his person of that power and glory which he openly shewed in the eyes eares of all his persecutors This you shift of and instced thereof imagine some strange and VNVSVALI accident in the manner of Christs death which neither the Scriptures report nor you can expresse wherein you shew your selfe forward to inuent what is not written and backward to beleeue what is written which is the trade of such men as meane to make a shipwracke of their faith That a man may dye crying as Christ did you haue found at length if not from Diuines at least from Phisitians for I perccaue you haue sought all sorts of helps both farre and neere to vphold your fansies Pâ—…rchaunce Phisitians may tell you when a painefull disease possesseth the parts which are no fountaines of life or sense a man may cry till sense and strength begin to faile and so hasten his death by the violent spending of his spirits but that a man may by any course of nature retaine perfect memorie sense motion and speach to the very act of breathing out his soule I assure my selfe no wise Phisitian will affirme And if any more humorous then learned will wade so farre without his Art he must vnderstand that his word may not ouersway the Rules of Diuinitie and Principles of nature For what are the powers and faculties whereby the soule is conioyned with the body but life sense and motion so long then as they last the soule by nature neither doth nor can forsake the body But when sense and motion first outward and then inward are oppressed and ouerwhelmed then life also perisheth and the soule may no longer abide in her body the vnion by which she was fastened vnto it being wholy dissolued Wherefore death which is the priuation of life by Gods ordinance for the punishment of sinne by degrees surpriseth and in the end quencheth all sense and motion and so forceth the soule to forsake her seate which by Gods appointment is violently parted from hir body whether she will or no but neuer till the effects oflife which are sense and motion be first decayed and abolished A sowne is the suddainest ouerwhelming of the powers of life which any natural experience doth teach vs and yet therewith though outward sense and motion doe faile at an instant and the inward be very weake and almost insensible the soule doth not presently depart but stayeth a time till all sense and motion without and within except the partie be recouered be vtterly extinguished Wherefore in all men by necessitie of nature the powers and parts of life decav in some sooner in some later before they die and therefore in Christ on the Crosse it was MIRACVLOVS and aboue nature that hauing full perfect outward and inward sense speech and motion he did in a moment when he would and as he would render his soule into the hands of his Father without any farder decayes or other degrees of death precedent then the very act of breathing out his soule which left his body presently and perfectly dead Thou hast gentle Reader the causes and prooses that mooued me to obserue the manâ—…r of Christes death to bee different from ours which whether they be consonant to the Scriptures and rightly conceiued by those learned and ancient Fathers which I haue named vnto thee I leaue to thy discrecte iudgement assuring thee there is nothing to hinder the maine consent of so many old and new writers in a matter of so great consequence but onely the headdinesse of this discourser who vpon a bare pretence of one peece of Scripture not well vnderstood and worse applied thinketh he may worke wonders and conclude all these graue and sound Expositours to be so ignorant of the sense of that place and so vnable to reach to the depth of those words Christ was LIKE VS IN ALL things that with one accord they would affirme a sine fable a Paradoxe in Nature and contrarie to Scripture Howbeit it is no newes with this man to defend that Christ was distempered ouerwhelmed and all confounded both in all the powers of his soule and senses of his body He boldly auoucheth it was so with Christ before his death in the Garden and on the Crosse and therefore hee presumeth it might much more befall him at his death But let him keepe these secrets to himselfe I doubt not Christian Reader but thou wilt be well aduised before thou put the Sauiour of the world and the Sonne of God out of his wits or senses to make way for
such witlesse and senselesse fansies He proceedeth to shew my disdaine to the Fathers for insolent reiecting all their opinions touching the causes of Christs Agonie in the Garden and of his complaint on the Crosse. For answere first I desire to know whether you allow of all these causes or no you seeme to refuse theÌ„ here for herein you shewed not your own opinion but the Iudgement of the Fathers Elsewhere your selfe are resolute for some of those causes and against other some And yet before all these interpretations you say are sound stand well with the rules of Christian pietie thus variable you are in that wherin you seeme most resolute When you know what it is to be constant you shall doe well to talke of inconstancie till that time your owne doctrine will most disgrace your owne doings You catch oft at contrarieties in my writings make good but one and then prate at your pleasure Otherwise men will thinke it to be the weaknesse of your witte or stifnesse of your stomacke that can not or will not rightly conceiue that which is truely spoken Touching the cause of Christs Agonie in the Garden since the Scriptures doe not expresse it I said it was curiositie to search it presumption to determine it impossible certainely to conclude it yet for that you made this your chiefe aduantage that there could be coniectured none other cause of Christes exceeding sorrow in the Garden besides the present suffering of Hâ—…ll paines in his soule I gaue the Reader to vnderstand how many there might be besides your deâ—…ce which of all others was least tollerable or probable Now you would know whether I ALLOVV of ALL these causes or no. I haue answered you that already if you had but eares to heare it I did not acknowledge any of these to be precisely or particulaâ—…ly mentioned in the Scriptures as the right cause of that Agonie but if you would needes goe to coniecturing I said there might be conceiued so many and euery one of them more LIKLIE and godly then your supposing of Hell paines at that instant in Christs soule I persist still in the same minde what change finde you in me Else where I am resolute you say for some of these causes and against other some And yet before I said all thâ—…se interpretations are sound and stand well with the rules of Christian pictie It is more then a penance to be troubled with a trifler that hath neither eyes to see nor head to apprehend what is said When I came to consider of the generall respects in Christ whence that Agonie might arise as the persons were two God with whom and Man for whom Christ delt in that worke of our redemption so I resolued the cause of Christes Agonie could not proceede but either from his submission to God to whose will and hand he must subiect himselfe if he would ransome man or from compâ—…ssion of mans miserie for whom he was willing to lay downe his life A thiâ—…d ground of Christs feare I grant I see none For that Diuels should torment Christes soule I leaue that inuention to your deuotion But doe I determine any particular cause contrarie to my first profession when I stand resolute that from one or both of these fountaines the cause of Christs feare and sorrow must be deriued If I doe not then piper-like doe you play with â—…y variablenesse when you doe not so much as attend that I am resolute in the generall dueties of pietie and charitie which I ascribe to our Sauiour though I bee not resolute in any particular cause of his feare at that present as I at first professed I neither could nor would be by reason the Scriptures do not expressely mention any Againe what dulnesse is this to say I am resolute against sâ—…me of these causes for that I make two principall heads whereon the rest depend Can not your wisedome see that Christes SVBMISSION to the Maiestie of God sitting in iudgement and his DEPRICATION of Gods wrath proceede from his religious and humble subiection to the will and hand of God As also that his sorrow for the REIECTION of the Iewes and DISPERSION of his Church and his LAMENTATION of mans sinne grow from his compassion on mans miserie And lastly that the VOLVNTARIF DEDICATION of his blood to bee shed for the sinnes of the world and the SANCTIFICATION OF HIS PERSON to offer the true and eternall sacrifice partake with both the former respects Is it a contradiction with you to see many branches on one stemme many Springs in one well many members in one bodie And so childish you are that you takeâ—…-meale for egges and interpretations for â—…ses and then you crake of my contrarieties how much I ouer shot my selfe For where I bring diuers Expositions of Christs words on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and say in the end All these interpretations are soâ—…d anâ—… stand with the rules of Christian pietie you in a dreame or drow sinesse choose which you will imagine I say ALL THESE CAVSES of Christes Agonie are sound anâ—… stand well with the rules of Christian pietie and so contradict my former resolution as if onely two were sound and not the rest where in trueth I neither auoâ—…ch the one nor the other such conflicts you make with your owne follies and get the conquest not on my Assertions but on your owne most foolish ouer-sights Yet these agree not with any circumstance of the Passion and onâ—… of them crosseth and ouerthroweth an other Take first the paines to prooue somewhat and then challenge your priuiledge to prate at your pleasure otherwise your word iâ—… no warrant for any wise man to depend on The Scriptures testifie first Christs sorow in the Garden and then his sweat like blood His sorow where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my sâ—…le is euery way grieued or afflicted with sorrow euen vnto death His sweate after he was comforted by an Angel from heauen and fell to feruent prayer So saith Saint Luke An Angel appeared to him from heauen comforting him And being in an Agonie he prayed more earnestly and his sweate fell on the earth like drops of blood Now an Agonie doth not properly or necessarily inferre either fainting feare or deadly paine as you misconceiue but noteth a contention or intention of bodie or minde whereby wee labour to performe our desire and striue against the danger which may defeate vs as in place conuenient shall more fully appeare Where also you shall see that not feare but feruencie in all likelihood was the cause of that bloodie sweate In the meane time it is plaine that Christ professed he had sundrie causes of his sorrow in the Garden for hee sayth my soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on euery side oppressed with sorow And what vrged him to that agonie or vehemencie of prayer which S. Luke speaketh of after he was comforted
by an Angell wherein his sweat ran from him lâ—…ke drops of blood is not yet agreed on nor any way confirmed by you But note any of these sixe causes which I conceiued might induce our Sauiour to this sorrow or sweat and see whether they haue not direct reference to his passion and a full coherence ech with other Howbeit you reserâ—…e that for a fitter place and so do I. Why then doe I seeme to refuse them as none of mine by saying I shewed not mine owne opinion but the iudgements of the Fathers Nay why seeme you so void of all vnderstanding that you apprehend not so much as vsuall English MY doctrine is not MINE sayth our Sauiour but his that sent me will you hence conclude a manifest contradiction in Christ because he sayth mine is not mine but his that sent me In possessions that is mine which is wholly mine and no mans els and in opinions that is properly mine whereof I am the first inuenter and author howbeit by a larger extension of the word that is mine also wherein I communicate with others though it be not properly or only mine Out of this distinction of proper common knowen to the very children in Grammar schooles our Sauiour sayth most truly My doctrine that is the doctrine which I preach and in that respect is mine is not mine is not only mine nor of my deuising but his that sent me This were enough to warrant my words and yet my speech is somewhat plainer for I added not MINE OVVNE opinion but the iudgements of the Fathers Now mine owne is that which is properly mine and wherein no man partaketh with me and although you might stumble at Mine yet MINE OVVNE would put you out of doubt So that here as elswhere you bewray the sharpnesse of your quarrelling humor but if neither you nor your friends could spie any greater faults than these absurd and ignorant cauils the Reader will scant trust you hereafter when you talke of my contrarieties and inconstancies But how doth this excuse the foulenesse of your mouth in reiecting the Fathers iudgements with irreuerent and disdainfull termes which was the thing I then reproued in you If the opinions were onely theirs and not mine would you the rather reuile them as fond and absurd because they were wholly theirs and no way mine The Fathers you say I call not so Such I meant and tooke for absurd gatherers as commonly â—…le regard the sound doctrine of the Fathers but onely admire their faults whome here I noted by the name of our Contraries Are you so set on shifting and shufling that you can not forbeare seuen lines but you must needs contradict your selfe and that so grosly that euery Carter may controle you In the seuenteenth line of your three and thirtieth page you tell me I am in the best opinion when I denie these to be mine opinions and being charged that insolently you called those iudgements of the Fathers fond and absurd you answer that these your words are purposely meant of those in these dayes that delight to vaunt of the Fathers and chiefly in their errors Your vnciuill and vnseemely liueries of fond and absurd opinions and senses must needs belong either to the Fathers that vttered them or to me that cited them To catch me in a kind of contradiction as you thought your selfe acquit me from holding them For I denie them you say and râ—…fuse them as none of mine On whom then light your fond and absurd speeches but on the Fathers that first conceiued and first deliuered those opinions and senses which you so much dâ—…ke and reproch You meant it not of the Fathers You flutter in vaine to free your selfe from that lime-twig against your plaine speech no man will admit your secret meaning cleane contrary to your words You say indeed I know our contraries do fansie other senses of this Text My God my God why hast thou forsaken me but the senses of that text alledged out of the Fathers word for word the places of the Authors named when you come after your proud and peremptorie maner to examine and censure you say to that which was produced out of Ierome and Chrysostome which sense is most absurd and this is too fond to be spoken To the sense noted out of Athanasius Austen and Leo your answer is this is no lesse absurd than the former there is no cause nor likelihood in the world for it So when the testimonies of Ambrose Austen Ierom and Bede were produced that the reiection of the Iewes might be some cause of Christes sorrow in the Garden you grosly mistake their words as if they had expounded Christes complaint on the crosse and pertly reioyne this is more fond and absurd than the other there is no sense nor reason in it How thinke you Sir speake you of the men or of the matter when you say this sense is most absurd this is too fond to be spoken Could you wrench your words from the matter to the reporter which you can not what gaine you by that If to alledge these opinions of Fathers be so fond and absurd as you say though I refuse them as you aâ—…ch I did what was it in the Fathers themselues to profesâ—…e and publish those most fond and absurd senses as you call them to all ages and Churches but meere and inexcusable madnesse But tie your tongue shorter lest men thinke you mad thus to raue at eueriething be it neuer so learned or aduised that rangeth not with your erroneous fansie They haue spoken wisely and grauely and your kicking and winâ—…ing at their religious and sober expositions with such scornfull phrases may discouer your coltish conceits it can neuer decreaâ—…e or craze their credits I cast a needlesse rebuke vpon you for confounding the causes of the agonie and the complaint together Though all your exceptions to the Fathers expositions of that text My God my God why hast thou forsaken me be most friuolous and foolish yet none is more babish than when you mistake the reiection of the Iewes which I shewed out of Ambrose Ierom Austen and Bede might be some cause of Christes sorrow after his last supper to be the meaning of his complaint on the Crosse and would needs in a flaunt affirme that ME in those words of Christ why hast thou forsaken me doth not signifie my whole Nation which of my certaine knowledge neuer came into my head nor euer out of my mouth For I tooke care to wade no further in expounding them than the Scriptures and Fathers went before me and howsoeuer his sorrow for them might happily not cease before his death yet there was no cause why hauing formerly prayed his Father to forgiue them that knew not what they did he should now call the rest of the perfidious and obstinate Iewes by the name of himselfe If you stand to vphold this ouersight you shew
whether you make the Soule of Christ mortall as your words here stand because he suffered the death of the soule as you imagine or whether this were the scape of your Printer but by such demonstrations as these are supported with figures and fansies of your owne making you may prooue what you will That the Brasen Serpent was a figure of Christs death Christ himselfe witnesseth Whence you may inferre after your manner that Christ had no true flesh nor felt death For the Brasen Serpent had neither flesh to feele nor life to loose So the Lord expresseth that Ionas was a figure of his lying in the graue and yet was Ionas aliue in the Whales belly May it therefore be concluded that Christ was neuer dead nor buried because Ionas indeede was neither Figures haue a resemblance to some things in Christ not to all as the brasen Serpent to his fastning on the Crosse and sauing all that beheld him in faith Ionas to the time that he lay in his graue and to the impossibilitie conceaued of his resurrection So the Scape-goate notwithstanding your must needs be and could not be mighâ—… signifie the impassible godhead of Christ as Theodoret and Isychius affirme since power to take away sin and to cleanse it without any suffering for it is proper to God It might likewise resemble the detestation and hatred the Iewes had of Christ when they cryed away with him away with him if the vsage of the people towards the Scape-goate were such as Tertullian describeth which was to spit at him punch him and curse him as he was caried out of the Citie And where he went away aliue for all their spites and wrongs that might declare either his resurrection into life eternall which they could not touch or else the disposition of his life here not left in the peoples hands but reserued to his owne power till he did willingly offer it as a sacrifice vnto God Ambrose saith of him Quasi arbiter exuendi suscipiendique corporis emisit spiritum non amisit As hauing power in himselfe to lay aside and to take againe his body he sent foorth his soule he lost it not And likewise Eusebius When no man had power ouer Christs soule he himselfe of his owne accord laid it downe for man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So loosed from all force and resting free him selfe of him selfe made the departure from his body This the Scape-goate I say might figure as some ancient Fathers auouch your reasons to the contrary are but rushes vnfit to conclude such a cause considering that no figure agreeth in all things with the truth for then it should be no figure but the truth and you collect some small disagreements betweene the figure and the truth Againe as you suppose for some petite difference the Scape-goat could not figure the deity nor body of Christ so I vpon stronger grounds collect it could not signifie the proper sufferings of Christs soule if your word were of any waight your selfe auouch that which I entend Those bâ—…asts sacrifices say you could not prefigure the immortall and reasonable soule of Christ. If that be true which is your owne auerment how could the Scape-goat which I troe was a beast as you say a sacrifice figure the sufferings of Christs soule which were inward and invisible as was his soule Can you so closely conuey contradictions as in your treatise to tell vs the sacrifices of beasts could not prefigure the immortall soule of Christ and in your defence to assure vs it must be ofnecessitie that the Scape-goat signified the humane soule of Christ Besides if the Scape-goat signified Christs soule sent away from his body for the other goat was first slain it must of force import Christs death for without death his soule was not separated from his body And so by your vrging that it could not signifie Christs death you plainly confirme it did signifie Christes death Thirdly the place whither the Scape-goat was sent was the Wildernes and a land vnhabitabie Now the soule of Christ seuered from his body went to heauen as you hold or to Paradise Is heauen or Paradise with you become a wildernes a land not inhabited Fourthly the Scape-goat after he was sent away did beare vpon him all the sinnes of the people Dare you say that Christs soule departed from his body did beare or suffer the punishment of the peoples sinnes Your meaning is but to shew what you thinke to be indeed most probable and likely knowing that yet some such matter as you ayme at they doe signifie without Question After it must be of necessitie come you now with probabilitie and is your doubtles so soone turned into likelihood The Reader is well holpen vp to rest on your word and to beleeue SOME SVCH MATTER AS YOV AYME AT But backe to the matter indeed and then your Reader shall finde euen by your owne confession besides my proofes that you do but ayme at these things vpon the bare surmise of your own braine and that you can shew no sacrifices of the Iewes which did figure the proper sufferings of Christs foule much lesse the death of his soule which is the matter that we differ about howsoeuer you would now loose your necke out of the coller We reade of other sacrifices consisting of sacrifices of sundry and diuers sorts The bloody sacrifice had conioyned together with it the vnbloody sacrifice of the meate offering and an other of the drinke offering Which may very likely represent vnto vs the sundry and diuers kinds of Christs meritorious sufferings in his life time and at his death You coniecture still so farre from truth that few men will regard your coniecturall likelihoods Why Salt Flower Oyle and Wine were added to the carnall sacrifices of the Iewes much may be ghessed litle can be prooued They might well serue to make the sacrifice the sweeter and the fuller and so resemble the fragrancie and sufficiencie of Christs death but what reason you haue to make Christes life to be thought his death and his merits all one with his sufferings and things without sense or life to figure the sufferings of his soule and you know not what besides I doe not see but onely that your will is your best weapon when you be put to the push of any proofe Yea in the same side where you reiect the iudgement of Cyrill Ambrose and Bede as wide coniectures and palpable mistakings you come in with your foolish supposals and offer them to all the godly as matters of good moment onely because you fansie them But mocke not your Reader with may and must as you thinke your thoughts must be wiser and neerer the truth before a meane man will regard them Who but I you say would defend these palpable mistakings of the auncients and not see the expresse text against them Nay who but you would so peremptorily
any certaine measure of Christes paines felt in his bodie or soule by which his soule might easily be afflicted as farre as his humane strength could stretch but the matching and euening of it with hell fire I take to be a presumptuous and irreligious deuice of this Dreamer for the reasons which I haue formerly shewed to wit that hell paines are not executed in this life where Christ suffered nor sufferable to the bodie which is mortall nor tolerable to the strength of men or angels Now though the gifts and graces of Gods Spirit in the soule of Christ exceeded the measure of angels as well for himselfe who is Lord and Iudge ouer all as for vs that receiue of his fulnesse yet in his crucifying the Scriptures note his infirmitie not his infinitie and auouch him by the suffering of death to be inferiour to the angels and not in strength of flesh to be superiour vnto them who are not able to endure hell paines with patience as we finde by triall in diuels Wherefore assure thy selfe Christian Reader they are more than follies which this man fableth of Christes paines equall and euen to hell fire it selfe and such is his constancie in his new Diuinitie that sometimes Christ suffered the verie paines of hell themselues and the same which the damned doe sometimes Christes paine was equall to it and as hot as hell fire and so not the verie same that the damned do suffer who feele indeed the true force of hell fire though not in that heat and heigth which they shall feele it at and after the day of iudgement It is most necessarie and most comfortable to be vnderstood of all men how the Lord assigned to his Sonne in the worke of redemption two persons as it were or countenances or conditions His owne naturally which God euer deerely loued and our countenance or person or condition which the Lord truely accursed and punished His owne Nature felt the sorrow and paine of the curse and hatred but the hatred and curse was bent against the load of our sinne wherein he stood foorth as guiltie before God and appeared as it were clothed therewith The taking of our Nature person and cause by the Sonne of God for our saluation is a key of Christian pietie that most concerneth and most profiteth vs if it be rightly vnderstood But as Waspes out of sweete flowres gather sharpe and hote liquors so out of the wholsome mysteries of true religion you labour to encrease the tartnesse of your vnholsome humour The eternall and true Sonne of God by the determinate counsell of his Father tooke our humane nature that is both the bodie and soule of man into one and the same person with his diuine glorie that by the sanctitie power and dignitie of the one the basenesse and weakenesse of the other might with more certaintie securitie and facilitie performe the worke of our redemption For by the neere and inseparable knitting of those two natures together not onely the person was able by his owne power to destroy sinne death and Satan and of his owne right to giue the spirit of trueth and grace and euerlasting righteousnesse and happinesse to all that beleeue in him but his birth life and death that is his humilitie obedience and patience were of infinite price and value with God by reason the same person that so humbled himselfe to obey the will and suffer the hand of his Father was also God though he could not suffer in his diuine but onely in his humane nature And to assure vs of his mercies towards vs by making vs partakers of his graces and merits with him he tooke all his elect into one and the same bodie with him ioyning himselfe vnto them by the power of his spirit as the head to the members that from him they might draw the strength hope and ioy of eternall life and all his meritorious passions and victorious actions be fully theirs as performed in their names and to their vses by him that for their sakes became their like and their leader I meane their head and their Sauiour And because sinne was the thing which seuered vs from Gods holinesse and prouoked his iustice against vs subiecting vs to death and damnation Christ therefore tooke vpon him the recompence of his Fathers holines by his obedience the preseruance of his Fathers iustice by his patience admitting into his humane soule and bodie not the infection or pollution of our sinne much lesse the confusion or destruction due to vs for sinne since he could neither be defiled with our sinne nor damned for our sinne but the purgation and satisfaction of our sinnes To which end by his obedience he abolished our disobedience that as by one mans disobedience which was Adam many were made sinners so by the obedience of one which is Christ manie should be made righteous and through death suffered in the bodie of his flesh for the redemption of our transgressions he reconciled vs to God and set at peace by the blood of his Crosse things in earth and things in heauen bearing our finnes in his bodie on the tree that we might be healed by his stripes We then were in our selues defiled hated accursed reiected and condemned for sinne yet Christ our Redeemer and Sauiour tooke vs into himselfe and our cause vpon himselfe not to partake with vs in our spirituall filthinesse and eternall wretchednesse but to clense vs from the one and to free vs from the other So that we did neither defile nor endanger him But his blood washed vs from all our sinnes and by his death he destroyed him that had power ouer death euen the deuill You speake then not onely without booke but without trueth when you say that Christ was euer deerely loued of God for his owne condition yet in or for our condition he was truely accursed and hated You might with as much faith and religion haue said That Christ by or with our condition was truely polluted with sinne and truely reiected confounded and damned for sinne For so were we and if his taking our cause vpon him doe truely and necessarily subiect him to our deserts and dangers then can none of these things be auoided which you so much abhorre as blasphemies All those things were due to vs in the highest degree euen when Christ tooke vs and our cause vnto him and were not released vnto vs but in Christ and for Christ and consequently if your two countenances and conditions in Christ be such as you make you may aswell affirme the last as the first that is as well pollution of sinne and damnation for sinne as malediction and hatred for sinne But who is so foolish amongst men as to thinke or call him a Theefe and a Felon that vpon repentance of the partie and recompense for the fact intreateth and obteineth pardon for one that was a Theefe and a Felon or so childish to say that
your friends and your selfe to consider But you farder inferre That which commeth out of man defileth man ergo the Body sinned not at all no not in grosse facts except as an Instrument This is figuratiue Logicke to make the consequent cleane contrarie to the Antecedent Out of our Sauiours words that which commeth out of man defileth man it rightly followeth that sinne comming from the hart defileth man to wit the whole man and so both Body and Soule For man is not this or that part of man but the person composed of both Who then besides you vpon these words of Christ that murders adulteries thefts lyes and slaunders defile a man would conclude that these defile not the Body or else though they defile the Body yet that sinneth not as if Christ spake here of any pollution but of sinne The Body you say sinneth not except as an Instrument How the Body sinneth we neede not discusse so long as it is cleere by our Sauiours voice that the sinne of the hart defileth the Body as well as the Soule that is the whole man more I doe not affirme not require And so much doe euill thoughts no lesse then euill deeds by the position of our Sauiour euen they defile the man as well as adulteries thefts murders and such like Your admitting at last the Body to be an Instrument of sinne doth rather strengthen then weaken mine Assertion For since the Body is no dead but a liuing instrument and so capable of pleasure in sinne as also of paine in punishment it iustifieth my Collection that sinne is common both to Body and Soule and the satisfaction for sinne must likewise be common to both But yet as I obserued the ancient Fathers haue in this Question comprised in the name of the Body the powers of life and sense permixed with the Body as also the sensitiue desires and affections which sometimes obey and sometimes rebell against the mind and these in man are not onely capable of sinne but the causes of sinne and in that respect the Body with his sensitiue powers and desires is more then an Instrument That which you adde of boâ—…ly infirmities letting the operation of the Soule as in Lethargies Apoplexies sleepe frensie c. Peraduenture then it thinketh and considereth more freely in it selfe and by it selfe then when the Body setteth it on worke otherwise aâ—… other times To let the simpler sort see that the Soule doth not sinne in her vnderstanding and will without coniunction with her Body and some concurrence of her Body I specified three or foure cases open to all mens eyes as sleepe frensies Lethargies Apoplexies which are often so strong that they leaue in man no vse of sense reason memorie nor will whereby he may or doth sinne To this you answere Peraduenture the Soule then considereth more freely in it selfe and by it selfe then when the Body setteth it on worke A Resolution without peraduenture agreeable to the rest of your Doctrines that men depriued of their senses wits and memories perhaps perceiue more iudge righter and remember better then when they were indued with all three Surely if madnesse with you may be sobrietie if Lethargie may be memorie if the ouerwhelming of sense reason and remembrance as in strong Apoplexies may be the encreasing of them you shall doe well to professe this new Phisicke with your new Diuinitie that it may shew the perfection of your puritie Many such Conclusions will driue vs to thinke that your considerations are wiser when you sleepe then when you wake If this conceite be true you were best perswade men to runne out of their wits or to desire and procure Lethargies and Apoplexies as much as they can that their Soules may be then more considerate What it pleaseth God sometime to reueale or shew to men in sleepes and traunces we are not to meddle with they are things to vs vnknowen the naturall and ordinarie course of vnderstanding and remembring appointed by God for men is that which we reason of and that is often so stopped and hindred by sicknesse or violence that neither reason memorie nor will can rightly performe their functions Which is so well knowne not onely to Philosophers and Phisitians acknowledging strong Lethargies and Apoplexies to be the decay and sometimes the ouerthrow of reason and memorie but vnto Diuines that with one consent they grant men oppressed with violent furie or naturall follie not alwayes to sinne in their actions no not of murder adulterie theft and blasphemie for want of iudgement and memorie to direct their willes But how commeth this sudden change in you now to confesse that the bodie setteth the soule a worke in her thoughts or considerations good or badde who not ten lâ—…nes before vtterly denied that the bodie sinned at all no not in grosse facts otherwise then as an instrument Doth the axe set the hewer on worke or the saw the drawer or the penne the writer The Agent moueth the Instrument the Instrument setteth not the Agent on worke And if the bodie setteth the soule on worke I hope it is to do euill as well as good vnlesse you will defend that from the bodie commeth nothing but that which is good Why then if the bodie set the soule on worke when we are waking and well aduiâ—…ed shal not the bodie haue communion in sinne with the soule which is the verie point you here impugne and yet here you acknowledge before you be ware It can neuer be proued that the soule in those accidents and infirmities vtterly ceaâ—…h operaâ—… and câ—…n doe nothing If it could not what is that to this purpose The operation of the soule is so hindered by them that often it doth not sinne and that is sufficient to prooue all sinne to be common to soule and bodie which is our queâ—…n Let the soule pâ—…incipally and properly sinne if in the soule you comprise all the powers of reason sense and life which proceed from the soule and the bodie be only her instrument yet so long as the soule can not actually sinne except the bodie haue lâ—…fe and sense it is euident that in sinne the bodie must concurre with the soule Now if we adioyne life and sense to the bodie which is the subiect of both though the cause of neither as the learned and ancient Fathers doe and the Scriptures likewise when they speake of the temptation and rebellion of the bodie and the members therof conteining no more in the soule of man then the will and vnderstanding which they call the minde or the inward man then apparently the bodie is not only the instrument or occasion of sinne by his desires and pleasures but the first and last sâ—…at of corruption in this life and the continuall Agent and Atturney for sinne and Satan during thâ—…s life insomuch that infecting and subiecting the soule to the lusts of the flesh it maketh the soule be called flesh which she can not be in substance but
soeuer are punishments of our first sinne inflicted on Adam and all his posteritie whiles here they liue is newes to none but to you Saint Austen saith Sunt duo tortores animae Timor Dolor There are two tormentors of the Soule sorrow and feare Now torment without sinne the Soule should neuer haue had Fnding then sorrow and feare in the Soule of Christ by the witnesse of the Gospell though the cause thereof be not expressed I resolued that Christ tasted these which were punishments of sin by their first institution as well as other our infirmities of Soule and Body What followeth hereupon That these were proper punishments inflicted on Christ by Gods very wrath Who saith so You or I They are your words in deed but no way mine It followeth you say euidently from my words As how Christ was not free from SORROVV and feare and these were punishments of our first offence ergo what Ergo the whole Question is granted in a word Ergo fooles might flee but for want of wings The Question is whether Christ died the death of the Soule or suffered the paine of the damned You heare me say Christ sorrowed and feared as also he hungred in the desert and thirsted on the Crosse which likewise came into mans nature as punishments of sinne will it hence follow that hunger and thirst are the paines of hell No more doe sorrow and feare inferre the whole Question except in a mad moode you will auouch that no man can feare or sorrow vnlesse he suffer the paines of the damned and death of the Soule But Christ suffered these as a punishment of our sinnes you will say And so did he those For though euery thing which he suffered did not yeeld satisfaction for our sinnes because death was required to make the full paiment thereof yet euery infirmitie and miserie that he felt consequent to our condition were receaâ—…ed in him as punishments for sinne fastned to our nature and state I feare you meane his holy affections as deuotion to God and compassion to men Were there any sufferings in Christ that were vnholy Would you haue him afraid that he was or should be reiected and condemned of God Or sorrow for the losse of Gods grace and sauour in him selfe That were vnholinesse in deede to be in any sort so affected and without hainous blasphemie you can not suspect that of Christ. But his paine you thinke was infinite Then was his patience and obedience the more religious and pretious in Gods sight wheresoeuer he felt the paine either in Soule or in Body or in both And when you haue said what you can and deuised what you will except you will weaken Christs faith hope and loue in God which without sinne can not be you must leaue feare and sorrow in him to be naturall and holy affections and no way defiled with our sinne The obiect or cause of Christs feare is that you would speake of if you could tell what to make of it but you dare not depart from your couert of Gods very wrath and proper punishment for sinne least you should vtter as many absurditics as syllables That feare and sorrow then were affections in Christ I thinke no man doubteth besides you and that they were in him most holy you dare not deny least to folly you should ioyne heresie and so notwithstanding your feare what I meane sorrow and feare in Christ were most holy affections whatsoeuer the occasions of his feare and sorrow were If they were affections common to Body and Soule how then were they punishments proper to the Sonle I vse not PROPER as you doe for that which is peculiar to the Soule and not imparted to the Body for so no feare nor sorow is proper to the Soule in this life and least of all Christs whose Body no doubt was afflicted with the feare of his minde which as you thinke astonished and ouerwhelmed all the powers of Christs Soule and senses of his Body but I take proper for that which first beginneth in the Soule though it after offend the Body Otherwise the Body feeleth nothing which doth not affect the Soule neither is there any feare or sorrow in the Soule which is not impressed on the Body The sorrow of this world worketh death saith the Apostle which it could not do but by changing and decaying the Body and godly sorrow for sinne though it make a deepe impression in Soule and Body yet the pardon of sinne and comfort of grace doe more reuiue the spirits then sorrow doth quench them and so that hurteth not mans life as worldly sorrow doth But why cite I the Fathers that Christ did not feare either death or hell Forsooth because you and your friends make that the cause of Christs feare and Agonie though now you hide it vnder the name of Gods proper wrath And if it be an absurd impudent and impious assertion to say that Christ trembled or doubted for feare of hell as due to him or determined for him what is it then to defend that he did and must suffer the very paines of the damned and of hell before we could be redeemed If he did not feare it how could he suffer it since he was not ignorant what should befall him A naturall feare you say he had of death and hell A disliking and declining of hell Christ might haue as well for him selfe as for vs that were ioyned in one Body with him but a doubtfull feare what should be the end of him selfe or his sufferings he could not haue The weaknesse of mans nature might also iustly tremble and shake at the might and power of God prouoked with our sinnes which were to be answered and ranfomed by his Body but other feare Christ could haue none and these I trust be religious submissions and not amazed confusions such as you put in the Soule of Christ. You come now to your fortifying of your speciall reasons not speciall for any more excellencie in them then in the rest which you may safely sweare but for that they more specially touched the question as you say though you neuer offered to come necre it To the words of Esay the Prophet by you cited that Christ bare our iniquities and sustained our sorowes themselues I answered shortly the words made nothing to your purpose the text did not expresse whether Christ sustained all or some What now replie you I meane all and euery whit so farre as possibilitie will admit Keepe your meaning to make sawsigies as I aske not after it so I little regard it How prooue you the Prophet meant so Not by his words for they are not generall what other helpe you haue to come by his meaning I would gladly heare The verie text expresseth so much WITH GREAT EMPHASIS Christ bare our sorowes themselues You shew your skill when you come to your proofs for first this is no Emphasis and were it how prooue
the Crosse for remission of our sinnes and receiued violent wrong from the diuell in putting him to death In reuenge and recompence whereof as all these fathers confesse God tooke iust cause to make not the Diuine nature which had that right before and could not loose it but mans nature which Satan had by sinne conquered and subiected to himselfe to be in the person of Christ conquerer and Lord ouer Satan and all his power to take whom hee would to make them vessels of mercie and to reserue the rest as vessels of wrath vnto the terrible iudgement of Christ. Wherein these Fathers doe not swarue from the Pophets and Apostles meaning howsoeuer they vse different words that Christ should diuide the spoyle of the mightie because hee powred out his Soule vnto death And that therefore God highly exalted and gaue him a name at which euery knee boweth in heauen earth and hell for that hee was obedient vnto the death of the Crosse. Neither doth Ambrose when he speakerh of a Price required by the diuell or yeelded to the diuell meane any more then a CAVSE SVFFICIENT why the spoyling of Satans kingdome was giuen vnto the manhood of Christ and al the power of darknesse sinne death and hell put vnder his feete For a Price doeth not alway import an honourable condition or a pleasing satisfaction as it signifieth when it is referred to God but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke which is properly a Price noteth either Reward or Reuenge so doth pretium in Latine comprise both and generally whatsoeuer is balanced one against the other to be exchanged one with the other is the price of ech other So that it is no dishonour to the bloud of Christ to be so precious that not onely the voluntarie offering therof did fully satisfie the iustice of God displeased with our sinnes but that also the wrongfull shedding thereof which was necessarily to be committed to Satan and his members as the onely fit instruments for such an impietie was a iust occasion why God in requitall of that wrong made the manhood of Christ the subduer and destroyer of Satans kingdome Not that the diuell had any right or command ouer vs against or without the will of God but that hee was so blinded by the wonderfull wisedome of God in reuenge of his subuerting the first man that he was made by shewing his malice against the manhood of Christ an Actor in our Redemption and the Author of his owne subuersion whiles without his knowledge and against his meaning hee was Gods instrument for our saluation and his owne destruction This you can not quietly brooke because you make the chiefest point of our Redemption to bee the killing of Christs Soule with Gods immediate hand and so farre are you from confessing Christ to be vniustly slaine as an innocent that you defend him to be sinfull hatefull defiled with our sinnes and hanged by the iust sentence of the Law and the diuel to be onely a minister and executioner of Gods iudgement against Christ. Yea your similitude if you stand to it of prisoners taken in warre and your ransome yeelded to God as to an enemie for his captiues setteth iarres if not warres betweene the first and second person in Trinitie by making God the Father an enemie both to the Redeemer and Prisoner For among men whose vse and custome you presse in this place the detainer is alwayes a professed enemie to the redeemer since confederates doe not vse to take or detaine ech others subiectes or seruants but open enemies The Ransomer then and the prisoner haue one and the same enemy and consequently by your resemblance God is an enemie as well to Christ as to vs. The proofe which you bring to shew God to be an enemie to his elect out of the fift of S. Matthew is impertinent to the cause and diâ—…erent from the trueth For besides that the new writers as Erasmus in his paraphrase Bucer Bullinger Musculus Caluine Gualterus in their commentaries vpon this chapter and the old as Tertullian Ierom Chrysostome Hilarie Theophylact Euthymius and others with one consent referre this admonition of Christ to men that are Aduersaries Iudges and Iaylours here in this life which is wide from your purpose your making of God to be an Aduersarie in that place acknowledgeth a superiour Iudge to God to whom the Aduersarie must by complaint not by command deliuer vs and your comparing the deuill to an obedient minister of the Law excuseth him from being a rebell to God and an accuser of men But if you would speake or thinke as the Scriptures leade which you pretend but not perfourme you should finde in them though not in this precept that the deuill is by a speciall kind of notation called our ENEMIE as indeede he is the ancient eger and continuall supplanter and impugner of man and that God to his elect is and euer was a gracious and louing father when he was most displeased with their sinnes and euen then so carefull and mindfull of their saluation that he gaue them his owne Sonne when they were his Enemies to dâ—…e for them and by that death to make satisfaction and purgation of all their sinnes which was not the part or worke of an Enemie how much soeuer his holines then did and still doth dislike their vnrighteousnesse And since the punishment of our sinnes was layd vpon Christ and we healed by his stripes if therein God professed Enmitie to his elect and executed it all on Christ the deuill being but the Iaylor and Executioner or as else where you say an Instrument onely and by that parable not to be blamed for doing no more then he is commaunded by the Iudge your wholesome doctrine commendeth the deuill as an obedient seruant and maketh God an Inferiour and yet an Enemy to the manhood of Christ. Which if you did not meane you must temper your words and proofes better and learne not so egerly to reiect euery phrase in an ancient Father that pleaseth not your palate when your selfe spake and wrote so licentiously and dangerously But I fit your similitude you say to your desire farther then your selfe did expresse because I say the Ransomer is not bound to be Prisoner for his Redeemed but may satisfie the enemie by money or otherwise You are a happie man that euery thing fitteth your desire You positiuely teach that Christ our Redeemer must suffer the selfe same paines of hell which we should haue suffered The reason you yeeld for it is a poore similitude drawen from the common vse and custome of men in redeeming their captiues taken in warres I replyed that your similitude prooueth no such thing because amongst men the Ransomers neede not nor doe not sustaine the same seruitude and imprisonment which the captiues doe and must if they be not redeemed Yet the whole price you say must be payd by
purged that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him by the remitting of all our sinnes and the restoring vs to the fauour of God and graunt these words that our sinnes were imputed to him that his righteousnesse might be imputed to vs which yet are not the Apostles words where is the proportion you so confidently speake of that as we are made his righteousnesse so he was made our sinne This comparison vnlimited it notorâ—…ously false and were it true it euerteth all your frame The full and euerlasting reward of his righteousnesse is allotted to vs. Was the wages of our sinnes so imposed on hiâ—… His righteousnesse is now imputed to vs because it shall be perfectly inherent in vs and is presently sealed vnto vs by the spirit of adoption whereby our harts are inherently sanctified Were our sinnes so imputed to him that they should afterward perfectly possesse him To vs God imputeth Christs righteousnesse without our consents and often without our knowledge as in children baptized Were out sinnes imputed to Christ without his vnderstanding or will In vs God hateth out sinnes and ioueth our persons for Christes sake To keepe this comparison will you say that God hated the righteousnesse of Christ and loued the sinne imputed to him for our sakes And were there not so many differences in the maner of Christes hauing our sinnes and our hauing his righteousnesse as there are yet are you no whit the nearer For as we no way deserue to be his righteousnesse so he no way deserued to be our sinne And though God forget all our sinnes and putteth them vtterly out of his sight when he washeth vs from them yet God did not wholly cast Christs righteousnesse out of his remembrance when he did punish him for our sinnes Christ therefore tooke our sinnes from vs and layed them on himselfe but he doth not take his righteousnesse from himselfe to giue it to vs but doth impart it to vs as hauing enough for himselfe and for vs because he is God as well as man So that all our sinnes were imputed to him to make vs iust yet all his righteousnesse is not imputed to vs to make him a finner as you would haue him but he bare the punishment of our sinnes which the Apostle calleth sinne that we might receiue the reward of his righteousnesse not in cogitation or computation only but in deed and execution For euen in this life where we aâ—…e continuall sinners we haue no righteousnesse but what is ioyned with the reall remission of our sinnes pardoned for Christes sake and with the grace of Gods spirit purifying our hearts by faith and inflaming them with the loue of Gods goodnesse and mercie towards vs. Our righteousnesse then in Christ hath more then imputation though imputation be also needfull it hath the seale of Gods spirit possessing our hearts and the inherent graces of faith and loue which God accepteth at our hands and thereby maketh vs partakers of Christes righteousnesse for that we beleeue in the name of his only Sonne Whereas you say the Fathers haue two good senses of the Apostles words Christ was made sinne for vs the one That God made Christ a sacrifice for sinne the other That God vsed him As he doth sinners what is there in both these which we acknowledge not Yea what is this later but the very same point which we vrge You admit both and yet vnderstand neither as you ought to doe If you acknowledge the death and bloud of Christ to be the true and onely sacrifice for sinne then must you acknowledge these three things in it that it was pleasing to God vndefiling the Priest and elensing the sinner If as well the oblation as the offerer were holie and acceptable to God why doe you defend that Christ was sinnefull and hatefull in his sufferings for sinne which was the sacrifice that he offered for sinne If it clensed the offender how could it deâ—…ile the sacrificer who was the Mediatour to God for abolishing sin you will haue one and the same sacrifice to be holie acceptable and auaileable for sinne and yet to be defiled hatefull and accursed with sinne you may call lighâ—… darknesse and good euill and thinke the prophet denouneeth no woe to you because your inuentions are priuiledged But to mine vnderstanding and I thinke to your Readers these plaine contrarieties of holy and defiled acceptable and hatefull righteous and sinnefull in one and the same sacrifice and sufferer at one and the same time will not stand together but you must be colted or cursed in your warbling conâ—…its It is nothing else in all this Question that we held but that God vsed Christ our Redeemer and Suertie As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth You neuer want an As to helpe you at need You heare the Fathers say for of their sense you speake that God permitted the wicked to reproch his Sonne and to put him to a shamefull and cruell death as if he had beene the vilest malefactor amongst the multitude thence you collect that God punished Christ As he doth sinners that is with the greatest and sorest torments of death and damnation that are in this life or in hell But this As doth rather plunge you into the mire then plucke you out of it and therefore you adde so farre as possibilitie admitteth Now how farre that is by whom shall we be tried by the Scriptures and Fathers or by your shallow conceits and fancies you haue beene told often enough that where the Scriptures make three kinds of death due to sinners and for sinne the death of the bodie the death of the soule and the second death which is the euerlasting torment of bodie and soule in hell fire and all the learned and Catholike Fathers hold the same confession the two last deaths spirituall and eternall are not onely impossibilities but horrible blasphemies to be ascribed to the person of Christ and to either of these you would not yet speake one word but by stealth Now you haue gotten hold of a double As saying that God vsed Christ As he doth sinners so farre As possibilitie admitteth you thinke your selfe safe and out of this As you will frame vs new deaths of the soule a new Hell and all the same which the damned doe suffer in substance not in circumstance But we haue long looked for your proofes and till they come tie vp your As to serue you for another turne For this the Fathers are not silent if I were so ambitious as you in producing multitudes of men Only Cyprian and Athanasius and Austen shall content me in this Whether my care to teach nothing touching matters of Faith but what I see confirmed by the Scriptures and confessed by the writings of the Auncient Fathers may be called Ambition I leaue it to the Reader my paines haue beene the more therein which if any condemne I referre the Cause to him
did but to giue place to the diuel to fill his hart with wicked spirituall motions as you call them which God forbid should come within any Christian mans hart And therefore if ignorance carie you to thâ—…s conceite recall it in time if Pride for my part I must needs deâ—…st â—…t as much as I doe any point in all your Defence Defenâ—… pag. 83. li. 37. Thus tâ—…en it was possiâ—…le and most likely it is also that Christ was assaulted and wrastlâ—… withall by the diuels spirituall suggestions now when in his most bitter Agonie he hanged on the Crosse. In steedâ—… of full and infallible proofes to iustifie your strange conceits you pretend possibilities and probabilities which to me are nothing else but ignorant and absurd impâ—…eties For you labour tooth and nayle to shew the holinesse of your cause by drawing the Sonne of God within the limites of our sinnes not onely aâ—…â—…earing them on the Crosse in his Body which the Scriptures affirme but as desiâ—… with thâ—…m and hatefull to God for them and guiltie of them not by Imputation alone where you first began but by the violent and inward impression thereof in Christs hart and on Christs Spirit through the working of Satan And the sinnes wherewith you would haue Christs owne hart by Satans Instigation assault him in the Wildernesse were no lesse then distrust in God presumption to tempt God and blasphemous adoring of the diuel besides a manifest and malitious dishonor to God that Satan gaue all the kingdomes of the earth to whom he would And on the Crosse you ascribe to Christ in like manner the spirituall and inward cogitations of reprobation dereliction malediction confusion desperation and damnation wherewith his owne hart tempted him as you would haue it by the diuels spirituall suggestions since this is the inward conflict which you dreame Christ had with the powers of hell not outwardly filling his eares with these reproches from the mouthes of his blaâ—…phemous Persecutors as the Scriptures witnesse but the diuell inwardly so distracting and diuiding Christs thoughts that his own cogitations by your vngodly resolutions prompted and suggested these things vnto him as thereto stirred and incensed by Satan k Defenc. pa. 84. li. 5. You say he was tempted of Satâ—…n all the time of his abode heere on earth I haue no doubt but Satan did what he could as well by flatteries as by contumelies to sift the soule of Christ all the time of his abode heere on earth but he did not this with his owne voice saue onely in the wildernesse by others he did it and sometimes by such as were neere about Christ as when Peter l Matth. 16. tooke him aside and said Master spare thy selfe this shall not be vnto thee To whom Christ replied Get thee behinde me Satan thou art an offence vnto me because thou sauourest not the things that are of God bâ—…t of mâ—…n Where Christ sharpely rebuked Peters counsell and loue as stirred by Satan vnder shew of good will to hinder him in his purpose of mans Redemption But I neuer said as you alleage my words that Christ was tempted by Satan all the time of his â—…ode on earth by which you would haue men beleeue that I confesse Satan inwardly tempted Christ all his life long My words are He m Conâ—…lus pa. 283. li. â—…4 was tempted in the desert by Satan himselfe and by Satans members all the time of his abode on earth n Defenc. pag. 84. li. 6. Then you denie not but now euen on the crosse Christ was tempted and assâ—…lted by Satan that is by Satans instruments mooued and enraged by him That men may be the diuels instrumens in perswading or persuing others both which are called temptations there is no cause why any man should doubt and if these externall temptations could haue sufficed your humorous head you needed not to haue plunged your selfe so dangerously as you haue done into the spirituall cogitations of Christs heart leading and moouing him to sinne in Satans steede Yea rather you would haue seene that as men cannot be Satans willing instruments in this case but they must be partakers of Satans wickednesâ—…e so the heart and thoughts of Christ could not be Satans meanes to suggest any sinne to Christ in Satans place because euerie part and thought of Christ was holie and vndefiled God himselfe conceaueth and considereth of all mens wickednesâ—… when he reprooueth or punisheth the sinnes of men To conceaue therefore or consider what Satan by his owne voice or by the mouthes of his members saide vnto Christ was no way vnfit for Christes humane integritie and puritie but that Christs heart or inward thoughts should suggest or perswade the same vnto him which Satan and his members did if you know what you say you cannot auoide either haynous impietie or monstrous stupiditie o Defenc. pag. 84 li. 9. This is none other indeed but that which in the entrance of this Question here I obserued which as I haue before shewed sufficeth to prooue Christs combating as it were wrastling with the powers of â—…ell on the crosse Ment you no more al this while but that in tormenting reuiling Christ on the crosse the Iewes were Satans instruments What needed then so many foolish and lewd speeches of Satans p Defenc pag. 83. li. â—… 14. 27. â—…7 inward spirituall motions and â—…mptations spiritually suggested into the heart of Christ And what proofe is this of Gods proper wrath and indignation laid on the soule of Christ that the wicked derided him as they doe God himselfe Or is this all the spoile and triumph that Christ had ouer hell and Satan that he endured whatsoeuer mockes and paines they could deuise This no doubt he did and so did frustrate all the force of hell with his patience and confidence in God his Father but he had an other manner of triumph and recompence for the wrong which he suffered at Satans hand except you list to deface his glorie as you doe his innocencie Howbeit the Reader may heere perceaue on what conceits and coniectures your new redemption by the paines of hell is founded euen on your owne dreames and deuices which you cannot expresse and daâ—…e not specifie for feare of hatefull absurdities and impieties q Defenc. pag. 8â—… li. 12. But you obiect against this that outward temptation by the mouthes and hands of the wicked is no effect of Gods wrath No is Heere you are cleane contrarie to your selfe and the trueth Were it newes to see you wander either from the trueth or from your owne positions heere a man might take a full view of your idle and forgetfull rouing and snatching at euerie thing where not taking the paines to peâ—…use the whole reason or to looke fower lines farder to the knitting of the conclusion or to weigh the wordes themselues which you bring you foolishly mistake my words grounded on your assertion as if they were mine
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing What an agonie is in doubt or feare to missâ—… of that we vndertake we are agonized Galene the chiefe of Physicians and well skilled in the perturbations and commotions of the bodie that come from the bloud or spirits noteth of what affections an agonie is compounded ' Fâ—…are sayth he doth prâ—…sently driue the bloud and spirits inward towards their fountaine c Galenus dâ—…â—…ausis comatâ—…n li. 2. and contracteth them together by cooling the vttermost parts of the bodie and anger doth as suddenly heat them diffund and send them foorth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that which in Greeke is called an agonie is compounded of them both and hath inequall motions according to the predominant affection Aristotle a great Philosopher in the knowledge of naturall things not only sheweth that there may be an agonie without feare as when we attempt things honest and commendable though diâ—…cult d Arist Rhetoricorum li. 1. cap. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which men striue and are agpmozed without feare but also that sweating in an agonie commeth rather from indignation and zeale than from feare e Idem Problemat sect 2. quest 26. An agonie sayth he is not the passing of the naturall heat from the higher parts of the bodie vnto the lower as in feare but it is rather an increase of heat as in anger and indignation And he that is in an agonie is not troubled with feare or colde but with expectation of the euent Wherein Theophrastus not much behinde him agreeth with him f Theophrastus de Sudoribus 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An agonie is not the remouing of the naturall heat but the increasing thereof as in anger And heat doth drie the outmost parts of the bodie I speake not this to bind Christes sweate in the Garden wholy to naturall causes but to shew that neither Diuinitie Philosophy nor Physicke doe permit that feare or sorow which coole the blood and quench the spirits should be the cause of this bloudie sweate but that rather as the Euangelist expresseth it came from strength and contention of zeale whiles Christ most feruently prayed for that which he was very desirous and in present expectation to obtaine An Angell appeared from heauen g Luc. 22. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strengthning him saith the Scripture no question with a message from God For Angels otherwise were not in this case to entermeddle And then Christ h vers 44. entring into an Agonie that is into a vehement contention of mind to preuaile against that which resisted or hindred him he prayed more feruently From this feruencie of zeale and contention of minde came that bloudie sweate which the Euangelist mentioneth which whether we make to be according to Nature or aboue Nature it could not proceede from feare or sorrow as some men imagine For feare doth driue the bloud inward and coole it and so can not thinne it and expell it by the outmost parts and pores of the Body The Physitian that wrote the Booke de vtilitate Respirationis amongst Galens works saith i Li. de vtilitaâ—…e Respirationiâ—… Galen attribut â—…om 7. Contingit Poros ex multo aut feruido spiritu vsque adeo dilatari vt etiam exeat sanguis per eos â—…iatque sudor sanguineus It sometimes happeneth that abundant or feruent spirits doe so dilate the pores of the bodie that bloud passeth by them and so the sweate may be bloudie If we leane not to the course of Nature for the cause of Christs bloudie sweate then Hilaries Rule is very sound k Hilarius dâ—… Trinitate li 10. It is no Infirmitie which power did aboue the custoâ—…e of Nature No man then may dare impute Christs sweate to weakenesse because it is against Nature to sweat bloud Beda followeth him in the l Beda in Luc. cap. 22. same words Rupertus in larger m Rupertus de victoria verbi Dei li. 12. ca. 21. This is vnwonted this is aboue nature the flesh whole the skinne not cut for bloude to runne out of all the body and to fall on the earth as it were sweate Lyra receaueth the same According to the Iudgement of diuers n Lyra in Luc. ca. 22. this was supernaturally done that bloud should come foorth in steede of sweate that so Christ euen then might begin to shed his bloud for our saluation Then neither in Diuine nor humane learning is there any necessitie that the feare of your hell paines should be the cause of this sweate which Augustine Prosper and Bernard ascribe vnto Christs wil and power for a mysticall signification as I haue shewed in my * Serm. pag. 38. 39. Sermons Thus see we by the words of the holy Ghost that in the Garden Christs Soule was affected with feare and afflicted with sorrow his prayer prooueth his submission and intention of minde after comfort sent him from heauen by an Angell and his bloudie sweate if we attribute it to nature must come from zeale if we referre it to Christs power aboue Nature might haue many causes to vs vnknowne in particular though we can ghesse at the generall Of all these circumstances actions and affections there can no one direct cause be designed in speciall except in large termes we will say the worke of our Redemption was the cause of them all but neither pains nor suffrings can precisely be determined to be the proper ground of them all since after comfort from heauen he fell to most feruent prayer and therein to his bloudie sweat much lesse can you conclude that hell paines were the right and true cause thereof So that I haue more reason to reiect your maior proposition as apparently false than you haue right to pronounce it firme because you can denie mine assertion by flinging off all the Fathers as vnworthy to haue their iudgements regarded outfacing the Scriptures with phrases and figures to bring them to your bent But in the kinds of paines which Christ suffered in the Garden we doubt as much as in the causes of his agonie You must therefore declare what maner of paines you meane in your proposition before we shall fully vnderstand you p Defenc. pag. 91. li. 16. You meane it seemeth that Christ suffered paines in his soule by reason of the strength and zeale of his holy affections and that those were the proper and maine causes of that his most wofull and miraculous agonie and complaint Therefore not only extraordinarie paines inflicted vpon him by way of proper punishment as my proposition intendeth You seeke nothing but by confusion to couer and colour your absurd and false doctrines and that maketh you huddle and heape things together without all distinction or exposition Christes agonie in the Garden was before any paines inflicted on his bodie or soule other than feare or sorrow which were painfull affections rising from diuers occasions and causes as we shall afterward see His complaint
of this iudgment Christ before expressed when he said and I if I were exalted to the Crosse will draw all men vnto me And after when rising from his feruent praier he said z Marke 14. Behold the sonne of man is deliuered into the hands of sinners As also to the Iewes that came to apprehend him a Luke 22. This is your verie hower and the power of darkenes as likewise to Peter when he b Iohn 18. drew his sword and smote the high Priests seruant and cutt of his right eare put vp thy sword into thy sneath b Iohn 18. shall I not drinke of the cup saith Christ which the Father hath giuen me The fruit of this Iudgment is euerie where specified in the Scriptures c 1. Pet. 2. Christ bare our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree by whose stripes ye were healed that being deliuered from sinne wee should liue to righteousnes What need you then so curiously question Against whom or in what cause sate God in iudgment now when Christ was thus astonished and agonized God sate in iudgment to receaue satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect at the hands of his owne Sonne by his humilitie and obedience vnto death d Defenc. pag. 93. li. 3. Of necessitte it must be one of these three wayes First Gods maiestie and great iustice now at this time might sit in iudgment against vs and so consequently yea chiefly against Christ himselfe as our Ransomepaier Suertie in our steed e li. 16. Secondly God might be considered now as iudging Satan the Prince of this world f Pa. 94. li. 40. Thirdly Gods matestie iustice may be considered sitting in iudgment meerely against sinfullmen You be copious where you neede not and carelesse where most cause is you should be circumspect to make an idle shew of small skill you bring here a TRIPLE iudgment of God First against vs and Christ our suertie Secondly against Satan Thirdly against sinnefull men which were either elect or reprobate as though one and the same iudgment of God for mans Redemption did not concerne all three to witt Christ as the Redeemer Gods iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Satan Satan as the accuser the Elect as the ransomed leauing the reprobate in their sinnes through their vnbeliefe vnto the dreadfull day of vengeance In that the Redeemer was by this iudgment receaued and allowed to make satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect Satan was excluded from all place and power to accuse them for sinne or to raigne ouer them by sinne and the purgation of their sinnes which should beleeue in Christ being made by the Person of the Sauiour they were reconciled to God by the death of Christ and discharged from the wrath to come the anger of god remaining on such as by faith obeied not the sonne of God Saue therfore your fruitlesse paines in the rest and shew why the beholding of Gods power and iustice now sitting in iudgment to redeeme the world and to receaue recompence from the person of Christ for the sinnes of men might not breed a religious feare and trembling in the humane nature of Christ. g Defenc. pag. 93. li. If you meane that thus Christ with submission beholding his Father in iudgement at this time was cast into this agonie it is the verie trewth and the same which we maintaine You take this for a shew to build your fansies on but as your maner is you abuse trewthes to serue your turnes Let it stand for good that Christ now beheld his Father Christ might beholde the power of his Fathers wrath against sinne and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked sitting in iudgment to require recompence for the sinnes of the faithfull what followeth that God awarded the selfe same vengeance against the person of Christ that we had deserued and should haue suffered if we had not beene redeemed This is a false hereticall and blasphemous conclusion no way coherent to the premisses and no way consonant to the Scriptures For then finall destruction desperation confusion and euerlasting damnation of soule and bodie to hell fire which without question were the wages of our sinnes as we may see by their example that are not clensed from sinne by the bloud of Christ must without reseruation or remedie haue lighted on the person of Christ. If that vengeance of sinne which was due to vs could by no iustice be inflicted on the person of the sonne of God no not if he had borne the sinnes of the whole world how then could the doubt or feare of his punishment on himselfe cast him into this agony you will release him of the circumstance but tie him to the substance of the selfe same pains which the damned endure When you sitt in iudgement on Christ shew your wicked and witles conceits as much as you list but the father to whom of right it appertained sitting in iudgment to receaue 〈◊〉 from the person of his sonne who was most willing thereto ne did ne could by iustice determine any thing against his owne sonne that should either derogate from the person of Christ or abrogate the loue which God professed and pronounced so often from heauen towards him God might haue condemned vs that most iustly deserued it but to adiudge the same condemnation to his owne Sonne was simply impossible to the Iustice holines trueth and loue of God For so the vnion of Christes person must either be dissolued which god hath faithfully sworne and mightily wrought or els the second person in Trinitie must haue tasted of the same vengeance with the damned and with the Diuells which is a blasphemie that the Diuell neuer drempt nor durst to broche h Defenc pag. 93. li. 8. This 〈◊〉 not but that Christ had recall paines inflicted from the Father as from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against vs in him who were thus acquited by him Not denying is a slender proofe of that which you should with most infallible certaintie conclude 〈◊〉 you did a 〈◊〉 If Christes manhood might and did righteously and iustly seare and tremble at the glorie power and maiestie of God sitting now in iudgement to proportion the price that should be payed for mans ransome how doth that 〈◊〉 the reall paines of the damned were inflicted on the soule of Christ at that instant except in madde mens conceits which respect more their pangs than their proofs and preferre their willes before the wisdome of Gods spirit or witnesse of mans reason All iudgement against sinne you will say tendeth vnto condemnation No iudgement against the Sonne of God could proceed vnto damnation for what or whose sinnes soeuer And therefore to me and to all that obserue the words of the Holy Ghost it is a cleerer case than the Sunne-shining at noone day that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in
of his bloudie sweate or of that part of his piaier Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Is that a reason this was not respected by Christ at that time because he had The different affections in Christes agony had different causes diuers other assaults and seas of sorow touching himselfe and others as well as touching the Iewes what hobling is this to aske one entire cause for so many different affections and actions as Christ shewed in his agonie where the Scriptures note not only feare and sorow on euery side but extreame humilitie and ardent zeale with such feruencie of spirit in praier that the sweat brake from him like droppes of bloud who that sought trueth or reade but the words of the Euangelists would thus cauill with matters of such moment Christ was in these passions and praiers by the space of an houre for so himselfe said to Peter f Matth. 26. What could ye not watch with me one houre and he praied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more intentiuely or more feruently after he was strengthned by an Angell then before Shall we thinke he said nothing all that while in his praiers but only these words O my father if it be possible let this cupe passe from me This he repeated thrise as the Scripture obserueth but his praiers were longer and extended to other things except we thinke Christ was an houre repeating three lines Besides the Scriptures note a change in his praiers For after the Angel from heauen appeared to him and strengthened him f Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then entering into an agonie he praied more earnestly than before so that his sweat trickled downe to the ground like droppes of bloud You say there must be one entire cause of all these passions So you say but which way doe you or can you goe about to prooue it saue by the liquor of your owne lips which is weaker then water to glew these things together g Defenc. pag. 95 li. 21. The worke of Christ at this time wrought by him is by a proper and peculiar name iustly called his passion not his compassion Which I would haue you to note A man may soon note the worthinesse of your arguments that when neither by truth nor reason you can preuaile you fall to collude with the names of passion and compassion As if Christes passion did not sometimes import the whole historie of his death and sufferings wherein are confessions reprehensions predictions praiers and promises of Christ as well as paines endured And did it note noe more but paines are not the passions and affections of feare and sorow as painfull many times to the soule as the stripes and wounds of the bodie Such trifles you take for triple engins when your conceits must be concluded all other mens arguments haue no shape of any reason with you so deepely you are in loue with your selfe and your owne inuentions be they neuer so ill-fauoured or mishapen h Defenc. pag. 96. li. 2. Lastly those holymen it seemeth hauing their thoughts wholly defixed on their vehement pittie towards the Iewes earnestly and constantly wished that the cuppe of Gods eternall wrath might come vpon themselues that the Iewes who deserued it might scape But Christ in his passion contrariewise desired that cuppe which he tasted to be to bitter and to violent for him might passe away from himselfe If your suppositions of Moses and Paule were graunted you which yet are no way true they make the stronger against you though you dissemble the sight thereof For if pittie towards the Iewes so farre preuailed with those two being the seruants of Christ that they yeelded their soules to eternall torments as you imagine to saue their Brethren how great reason then hath it that the Messias himselfe in whom was the fullnesse of all mercie might be mooued with such inward compassion for that whole nation that he most earnestly and frequently praied in the Garden to haue this cuppe that is this maner of death whereby the Iewes should perish to passe from him as Origen Ierom Ambrose and Bede expound those wordes and though your hellish humour be so hoat and so haughtie that you pronounce of euerie thing there is no semblance of reason in this yet the considerate Reader will find in those mens iudgments whom I haue named and produced more sap and pith then in your hell paines For seeing the affection of mercy hath beene so mightie in men that they were more then perplexed with this griefe what bring you but babling to shew that Christ might not feruently pray if so it pleased God not to make his death the meane of their vtter ouerthrowe and when he saw their pertinacie and infidelitie to be such that his praier did not preuaile for them to be troubled and agonized in mind for their wofull and willfull destruction Christ praid for himselfe not for them But these learned Fathers tell you he praied not against his owne death simply but respecting them by whose hands it should come and whose eternall ruine it should be Your cup of hell paines which you dreame Christ then tasted to be too bitter and too violent for him is a false and fond conceit of yours hauing neither trueth sense nor likelihood in it and yet forsooth both Scriptures and fathers must giue place to your deuices and semblances This I speake if your assertion of Moses and Paul were admitted howbeit indeed you are not able to prooue one word of all that you affirme in this case You take certaine verie obscure and much questioned words of Moses and Paul for your ground-worke and at your pleasure without all proofe you build thereon a whole world of falshood and confusion Out of which and the like darke and doubtfull places because the most of your hellish doctrine is drawen I thinke it needfull to let the Reader see how far and what those wordes inferre which you so much striue to abuse When the children of Israel had made them a Calfe of golde and feasted and plaied Moses prayer for the people examined before it as the God that brought them out of Egypt the Lord was wroth and said to Moses i Deuter. 9. v. 13. I haue seene this people and beholde it is a stifnecked people k 14. let me alone that I may destroy them and put out their name from vnder heauen and I will make of thee a mightie nation and greater than they be For this sinne when Moses prayed that the whole nation might not be destroyed he sayd to God l Exod. 32. v. 31. This people hath sinned a great sinne m 32. And now if thou wilt take away their sinne and if not wipe me out of the Booke which thou hast written To whom God answered n Vers 33. Whosoeuer hath sinned against me I will put him out of my booke The first thing here to be considered is what God
to mans nature yet differre they farre from the paines of the damned to which you seeke in this place to fasten the soule of Christ. f Defenc. pag. 97. li. 26. As for the Fathers which you cite if they meane as they seeme to doe that now at his passion among other causes of sorow there wanted not this euen his great pittie towards his forlorne countriemen then we ioine with them If they meane as you would haue them that this was the maine and chiefe cause of his extreame sorow and amazednesse therein Ivtterly leaue them You haue a long while in most lauish maner vntowardly pretended that g Defenc. pag. 94. li. 20. Certainly Christ would haue greatly reioiced to see the due execution of Gods most holie and deserued iustice vpon the Iewes and now with a suddaine retraite you ioine with Ambrose Ierom Augustine and Bede that this among other causes of sorow wanted not in the Garden Then as here you be more soberlie minded then before or he at least that made this collection for you so this often crossing your selfe argueth that either you haue not yet recouered your witts to vnderstand what you write or that your helpers being in diuers places and not seeing the one what the other wrote you haue vnhandsomely patched their notes together without marking wherein they contradicted each other But this we take to be the nearest the trueth since I doe not vrge this cause to exclude all others which by any due circumstance of the Scriptures might concurre to greeue him in the Garden onely I noted that those learned and auncient fathers coniecturing the causes of Christs sorrow at that instant neuer drempt of your hell paines which you haue lately coyned out of the hollownesse of your owne hart but obserued other causes that might afflict his mind which you in your Treatise reiected with great skorne howsoeuer some of your friends haue since drawen you to be otherwise minded As for your leaning them it is little to the purpose they will remaine wise and godly expositors when such a blind guide as you are will be lightly regarded withall your fantasticall Nouelties h Defenc. pag. 97. li. 31. Howbeit this here note in the that these Fathers auouch Christ feared not his bodily death or passion for thereof only they speake here questionles You contrariwise say that Christ feared bodily death for thereof also you discourse and had more cause as you thinke so to doe then any of his members First then they questionlesse gainsay your new plot of mans redemption by the paines of hell For they speak of the death which Christ died for our sins accordingto the Scriptures which if they tooke to be only bodily as you graunt they knew nothing neither of the death of the Soule nor of the second death of the damned which you auouch Christ must suffer before he could redeeme vs and so they or you are cleane besides the Christian faith Againe they doe not simply say he feared not death for then should they crosse other fathers and euen themselues affirming that Christ had a naturall feare of death but the feare thereof was not the cause of this Agonie that is he feared it not so much as to be thus afflicted at the remembrance of it Otherwise Ambrose himselfe saith i Ambros. in Luc. li. 10. de tristitia dolore Christi Debuit ergo Dolorem suscipere vt vinceret tristitiam non excluderet nos disceremus in Christo quemadmodum futurae mortis mestitiam vinceremus Christ was therefore to admit sorrow that he might conquere it not exclude it and we in Christ might learne to ouercome the feare of death approching So Cyrill k Cyril The sauri li. 10 ca. 3. Quando formidasse mortem videtur vt homo dicebat Pater transeat à me Calix iste When Christ seemed to fâ—…are death as a Man he said Father let this Cup passe from me For though as a man he abhorred death yet as a man he refused not to performe the will of his Father and of himselfe being the word or Sonne of God Morti ergo quam vt homo formidabat seipsum pro nobis vt Deus tradidit To death then which as a man he feared he deliuered himselfe for vs as God And Athanasius l Athana Ora tio 4. contra Aria As by Death Christ abolished Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all humane miseries by suffering them as a man so by vsuall feare he tooke away our feare and made Men no longer to feare death And Damascene m Damascen orthodoxae fidei li. 3. ca. 18. As a Man Christ would haue the Cup to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These wrrds proceeded from a naturall feare And Theophylact n Theophyl in 26. ca Matthaei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is incident to the nature of man to feare death for death entered besides or against Nature and therefore nature flieth death o Idem in Luc. cap. 22. The common feare of mans nature Christ cured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consuming or dispersing it in him selfe and making it obedient to the will of God This your ignorance apprehendeth as a contradiction in them but were you quietly minded or better acquainted with their positions and reasons you would soone see that these may stand together that Christ might haue a naturall feare of death incident to man and yet that feare not to be the whole cause of this agonie p Defenc. pag. 97. li. 37. Thirdly touching his regard of his Church generally the same answere serueth as it is giuen to the last point before You meane that among other causes of his sorrow this wanted not which is as much as I auouched And the more dearely he loued his The third cause concurring to Christs agonie Disciples that followed him and the whole Church that should after beleeue in him the more inwardly he might sorrow for their infirmities and earnestly pray for their safeties being no way ignorant of satans eger and watchfull malice against them Since then after his resurrection and ascension he should in glory appeare to the face of God for them what let was there but he might now in the daies of his flesh approching to his passion for their deliuerance in most humble and ardent manner mediate aswell for their redemption as preseruation and in this loue zeale towards them for whom he gaue himselfe powre out both abundant teares and bloudie sweats to shew the height of his desire and care to prouide and purchase their protection and saluation His supplications for vs were a necessarie part of our reconciliation to God as well as his sufferings for vs and the Prophet expressing the one adioyneth the other as no lesse requisite then the former in saying q Esa. 53. he bare the sinne of many and prayed for the Trespassers And no doubt he chose this place and time before his
apprehension with inflamed and vehement affection of prayer to direct the course and strengthen the force of all his sufferings that receauing comfort and courage from aboue he might wade through the worke of our redemption with greater assurance and confidence in the eyes of all his enemies to whom he would shew neither feare nor sorrow but silent and constant patience r Defenc. pag. 98. li. 1. If you vrge that these Fathers are so resolute for these causes as their words pretend then you your selfe abuse them more than euer I did or meane to doe where you say it is curiositie to examine presumption to determine impossibilitie to conclude as these doe what was the true cause of Christes agonie A wise answere forsooth and woorthy the vigor of your wit to say their words are so resolute that I condemne them more than you when they with all inoderation temper their speech and by the generalitie or diuersitie of occasions that might engender feare to Christ in the Garden shew they meane nothing lesse than to conclude any direct or particular cause of that agonie Ambroses words are s Ambros. in Luc. lib. 10. de tristitia dolore Christi Nec illud distat a vero Neither is that dissonant from the trueth And againe s Ambros. in Luc. lib. 10. de tristitia dolore Christi Et fortasse ideo tristis est And perhaps he was therefore sorowfull And so Augustine t August in Psal. 87. Non incongruè nos dicere aestimo I thinke we speake not without some reason The rest admonish in generall that Christ sorowed not for himselfe but for vs. Doth this conclude any speciall and certaine cause of that agonie But when you can not otherwise decline them you thinke it enough to shift them off with such a iest as this is Indeed they touch your free holde somewhat neerely when they say Christ sorowed not for any sufferings of his owne this you impugne for life and if their assertion in this be true they turne your hell paines cleane out of Christes passion For if Christ suffered as you dreame the death of the damned he had good cause to feare and grieue at that which he felt but with one consent Hilarie Ambrose Ierome and Bede reiect that as false that Christ did thus feare and grieue for any sufferings of his owne Whether therefore you or I most abuse these Fathers let the Reader iudge And howsoeuer your helpers haue somewhat haltered your headlong humours not long since as I haue sormerly shewed you flung off these Fathers in this very case as u Trea. pa. 67. fond absurd and voide of likelihood reason and sense which whether it be an abuse to so graue and godly writers I leaue the Reader to censure as he seeth cause x Defenc pag. 98. li. 6. Fourthly you alleage his inward sorow and zealous griefe for the sinnes of the world to be the maine and chiefe cause of this agonie Surely euen to rehearse these your arguments is refutation of them enough Your peâ—…uish peruerting of my reasons and clapping a The fourth cause concurring to Christs agonie conclusion vnto them against my expresse purpose and premonition is indeed as soone refuted as rehearsed but referre them to that for which I bring them and then your bragges are more than boyish I plainly professed in my Sermons that since the Scriptures expressed no particular cause of Christes agonie in the Garden it was impossible certainly to conclude any direct or determinate cause thereof What follie then is it in you to suppose that I goe about to inferre that which precisely I forwarned was impossible to be concluded Of the causes which I produced I professed no more but that they were consonant to the rules of pietie and might concurre in Christes agonie which you do grant after your nice maner by confessing these wanted not and when you haue yeelded as much as I vrged then you runne backe to your sillie shift and say they were not the maine or chiefe causes of that agonie your hell paines are left out which must haue a place as you thinke in that perplexitie of Christs in the Garden But sir first prooue your hell paines were then and there inflicted on Christs soule and then you shall haue leaue to couple that to the causes of Christs agonie Till you so doe in vaine you denie the rest for want of this It sufficeth me to shew religious and zealous respects of pietie and charitie which might mooue Christ to those affections and other proofe of voluntarie actions and inward affections can none be brought And yet you may remember sir Defensor though you dissemble it that when you trample so readily but yet so rudely on my reasons you wrong the ancient fathers whence I collected them more then you doe mee Hilarie and Ambrose doe peremptorily teach that Christs sorow in the Garden was not for himselfe nor his owne sufferings but for our sinnes and woundes And though you refute me with breathing out more absurdities then sentences in this your defence yet the sober Reader will not suffer you so soone to deface their iudgements and opinions whom I follow But we shall heare some doubtie dispute to mainetaine this matter y Defenc. pag. 98. li. 9. All these are proper parts of his holinesse and righteousnesse as I haue said but no proper parts or causes of his bloody and most dreadfull agonie that is of his sacrifice satisfying for sin Onely his paines were which then he fâ—…lt and feared All these were religious respects of feare and sorow which wanted not in Christs agonie as you grant now whether they were painfull or no a man would thinke should be no great doubt but with one that hath lost both witte and sense Saint Iohn saith z 1. Iohn 4. Feare hath painfullnesse a August de verâ—…is Domini secundum Iohannem Sermone 42. Sunt duo tortores animae timor et dolor There are two tormentors of the soule feare and sorow saith Austen And who that hath but his fiue witts doth not feele that feare and sorow are afflictions and vexations of the soule Wherfore your excluding them from the sacrifice for sinne because they are no paines is a learned peece of worke which neuer a Morter-maker in England would stumble at besides you Let shame if not sense teach you that feare and sorow are very painfull afflictions of the soule and rather comprised then exempted in Christs sufferings by that text of Scripture which you pretend and therefore necessarie respects and pertinences to the sacrifice for sin b Psal. 51. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit saith Dauid Why then should not the affliction of Christs spirit with feare and sorow be properly a part of his sacrifice and suffering for sin They were proper parts you say of his holinesse And might they not also when they grew vehement grieuous be parts
desert of sinne the whole masse of mankind was condemned If the Christian faith permit vs to say that we were condemned before we were redeemed since we could not be redeemed but from condemnation how much more lawfull is it for me to say that euerlasting death was deserued by vs and prepared for vs without Christ since the reward of sinne was first prouided for the diuell and his angels before man fell through his inticements and was neuer since vnprepared d Defenc. pag. 9â—… li. 〈◊〉 The truth is he could not by any meanes pray against that or decline that onely vnlesse he were for the time in some astonishment and perturbation of his senses which by the infinitenesse of that paine he well might be yea he could not but be as is afore shewed to haue hapned in Moses and Paul There is as much truth in this as in the rest of your deuices Here are errors as thicke as hops shuffled in vpon your bare word the proofe whereof you bring after at leasure about latter Lammas 1. That Christ felt infinite painâ—…s of hell which you before named all the whole paines which our sinnes deserued 2. That by the infinitenesse of that paine he could not but be in some astonishment and perturbation of his senses which though here you mitigate with some yet afterward you straine it aboue the extreamest degree of astonishment that might be Your words are e Defenc. pag. 128. li 26. Therefore no maruaile though this astonishment in Christ were farre greater then is to be seene in any man that euer was or shall be Wherein you keepe the Sauiour of the world as long and as often as pleaseth yourselfe 3. That against these paines he could not by any meanes pray onely vnlesse he were thus astonished 4. That Paul in his Epistle to the Romanes expressing his affection for the Iewes was likewise astonished and amazed as not knowing what he said f Defenc. pag. 99 li. 8. This is the very point of our Defence affirme this and you affirme with vs all that we hold and professe When I am out of my wits I may chaunce to hold these conceits with you otherwise so long as God giueth me grace to be soberly minded and well aduised I will see other manner of warrant for all these weafes and straies then you yet shew before I affirme them or professe them g Defenc pag. 99. li. 9. Otherwise if you meane that Christ praied intentiuely to haue the whole and intire cup of eternall malediction and death passe from him which both the elect deserue and the reprobate sustaine that as it is pâ—…ssing strange doctrine so is it simply impossible For he could not intentiuely pray against that nor feare that which he perfitly knew concerned him not at all and by no meanes could euer possibly come nâ—…are him I premonished the Reader that I would there repeate the diuers iudgements of diuers men and so farre admitte them as they might accord with the Christian faith To this opinion of some men that Christ was in his agonie stroken with a feare of eternall death and so might pray against it I gaue two expositions how those words might be tolerated in Christian Religion without apparent impietie The one that h Sermo pag. 23. li. 21. Christ had no neede to pray for himselfe against that cuppe of eternall death but ONLIE FOR VS who then suffered with him in him The other that if we would conioine Christs person with ours feare must there be taken for a shunning and declining of that cup which he i Ibid. pag. 24. li. 10. religiously disliked For k Ibid. pag. 23. li. 29. touching himselfe albeit the innocencie of his cause the holinesse of his life the merite of his obedience the abundance of his spirite the loue of his father and vnity of his person did most sufficiently guard him from all danger and doubt of eternall death yet to shew the perfection of his humility he would not suffer his humane nature to require it on right but prostrate on the earth besought his father that cuppe might passe from him and was heard in that he shunned or auoided I repeate the selfe same words which then I vsed to lett the Reader see that I shift not hands nor change not mindes as there is no cause I should but that this Broker neglecting my manifest limitations to other mens opinions and euident speache as also suppressing my purpose would haue the world beleeue that I graunt Christ doubted and feared eternall death to come on his owne person Which in the maze that you put him in sir defensor might well be since you auouch hee knew not what he praied or els he sinned in praying against the resolute and knowen will of God but by my positions it is impossible that any distrustfull feare of hell or eternall death should fall on the soule of Christ for the reasons there shortly but sufficiently collected by me And this is your idle course throughout your Booke to catch at a word and neuer to regard what goeth before or after be it neuer so plaine and perspicuous to recall your misconstruing my speach Omitte then your wanton rouing or malitious swaruing from my meaning and saying and refute either of these limitations if you can And first least any man thinke I limite other mens words without iust cause I ment herein the words of the Catechisme which you would faine pull into your packe as also of some other writers whose sayings so long as they might be salued with any good construction I thought not fitte to repell as intolerable in Christs Church The Catechisme saieth l Nowels Catechisme Greeke and Latine pag. 281. Christum non communi modo morte in hominum conspectu mulctatum sed et aeternae mortis horrore perfusum fuisse horribiles formidines atque acerbissimos animi dolores pro nobis perpessum et perfunctum esse Peccatoribus enim quorum hic quasi personam Christ us sustinuit non praesentis modo sed futurae etiam aeternaeque mortis dolores atque cruciatus debentur Christ not onely died our common death in the sight of men but was also perfused The Translator of the Catechisme into Greeke allowed as well as the Latin saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agonized with the horror of eternall death suffered and felt for vs horrible feares and most bitter sorowes of mind For to sinners whose person in some sort Christ here sustained were due the sorowes and torments not of this present death onely but also of future and eternall death Of the paines of the damned really inflicted in the garden on Christs soule by the immediate hand of God and of Christs extreame astonishment for the present Torments therof the writer of the Catechisme knew nothing these deuices of yours are later then the making of that Booke but he speaketh of Christes fearing the infinite wrath of God against
our sinnes which he apprehended in the Garden and in respect thereof fell into this horrible feare These wordes of the Catâ—…chisme if we referre to the feare Christ had for his members then ioined in one bodie with him whose cause he vndertooke with more desire and care then his owne since he emptied and loaded himselfe to purchase their aduancement and ease they might be receaued and approoued as sufferable in the Christian faith but if we so tooke them as if Christ had any doubt or distrustfull feare of his owne saluation they were not agreeable to the trueth Your selfe sir wrangler speake against this later senâ—…e of the wordes as much as I doe For you say m Defenc. pag. 99. li. 11. 12. It is passing strange doctrine and simply impossible that Christ should feare the cup of eternall malediction which he perfectly knew concerned him not at all and by no meanes could euer possibly come neere him But the Catechisme saith Christ was perfused or perplexed with the horror of eternall death And as our head knit with vs into one and the same body he might tremble at eternall death hanging ouer our heads and most dreadfully persuing our sinnes in vs if he made not satisfaction for vs. You would shift the word eternall out of the text and tell vs a tale of the substance thereof which you will imagine how Christ shall suffer by a new deuice of yours though the Catechisme speake nothing thereof but if you expound the Catechisme and not correct it or confute it you must shew vs how Christ might feele or feare EVERLASTING OR FVTVRE DEATH due to sinners For those are the words of the Catechisme who not content to say EVERLASTING addeth thereto FVTVRE death which of force must follow after this present death separating the soule from the bodie except you haue the skill in Grammar to make future goe before present How Christ in coniunction with vs and compassion on vs might feare euerlasting death for vs as imminent ouer vs and yet speake in his owne name I will in place conuenient more largely declare when I come to Christes complaint on the crosse till which time I pray the Reader to haue patience least I should be forced often to prooue and repeat one and the same thing Touching the other limitation that Christ might feare that is warâ—…ly and religiously shunne the cuppe of eternall malediction and intentiuely pray against it as well in respect of himselfe as of vs you blunder out a proposition which in Christes cause is not so true as you take it to be n Pa. 99. li. 13. He could not you say intentiuely pray against Christs manhood prâ—…ied for that with all 〈◊〉 which his person by rigâ—…t might haue chalenâ—…ed that which he perfectly knew could by no meanes come neere him By this rule Christ should pray for nothing touching himselfe for Christ perfectly knew all that God had most certainly decreed towards him and chiefly Gods resolute and reuealed counsels for his glory What need then was there Christ should pray for any such thing since he perfectly knew what should come to passe and by the power of his person was fully able to dispose of heauen and hell life and death both present and eternall His owne words are 〈◊〉 Whatsoeuer things the Father doth the same things 〈◊〉 Iohn 5. doth the Sonne also for likewise as the Father raiseth vp the dead and quickeneth them so the Sonne quickeneth whom he will The Father iudgeth no man but hath committed all iudgement to the Sonne that all men should honour the Sonne as they honour the Father and hath giuen him power also to execute iudgement in that he is the Sonne of man Christ perfectly knew that p Eâ—…a 42. 49 he should be giuen for a light of the Gentils Did he not therefore aske it according to Dauids prophesie q Psal 2. Aske of me and I will giue thee the Gentils for thine inheritance Christ neither had nor could haue any doubt of his glorification Did he not therefore pray r Iohn 17. Now Father glorifie me with thine owne selfe with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Was not Christ most assured that he should s Esa. 53. diuide the spoiles of the mightie and be a t Hose 13. death vnto death and a destruction vnto hell and yet Dauid applieth these prayers vnto him u Psal. 22. Deliuer my soule from the sword my desolate soule from the power of the dogge Saue me from the lions mouth and heare mee from the hornes of the vnicorne Though therefore by the right of his power he might haâ—…e sayd in all things as he did in some x Matth. 8. I will be thou cleane and againe y Iohn 17. Father I will that they which thou hast giuen me be with me euen where I am that they may behold my glory yet to demonstrate the wonderfull vertue of his obedience and humilitie he suffered his humane nature humbly to pray for that which his person could of it selfe performe and in all things referred himselfe to his Fathers will though he also sayd to his Father All thine are mine and I am glorified in them and all things that the Father hath are mine Then might Christ in the Garden pray that the cuppe of eternall malediction deserued by our sinnes might passe from him and his though he submitted himselfe and his members to drinke of the cuppe of Gods wrath so much as should please his heauenly Father which he was assured in regard of his prayer should be no more than he and his should well endure z Defenc. pag. 99 li. 16. All this is nothing else in effect then your first cause his submission to Gods maiestie sitting in iudgement wherefore you might haue lessened your number and so your answer to this might haue beene the same which is made to your foremost Your conceite is not so currant that I should pare my number for your pleasure Christ himselfe saith a Matth. 22. On these two Commandements thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soule and with all thy minde and thy neighbour as thy selfe hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets Were therefore then the tenne Commandements which God gaue to Moses superfluous because they might be reuoked to two generall contents speciall parts and duties are profitablie deliuered so long as they be any way distinguished notwithstanding they may be comprised in fewer but more generall branches The worke of our Redemption was the summe of all that Christ did said or suffered heere on earth shall we therefore reiect the rest of the Gospell because the substance thereof may be expressed in a word or twaine these you will say are not distinct in matter but in wordes Who told you so The trembling at Gods glorie when it was reuealed to mans infirmitie the honouring Feare
humour when the Scriptures and fathers precisely conclude the contrarie x Defenc. 〈◊〉 100. li. 27. Therefore I conclude he thus feared not his bodily death but it was the paines of the second death which he felt and so feared This conclusion may well be yours it rightly resembleth the Maker Christ feared somewhat and not his bodily dâ—…ath ergo he felt the second death which the Scripture sayth is the lake y Reâ—…el 21. that burneth with fire and brimstone So many gappes in one conclusion would no man make besides you For first how prooue you that feare was the cause of his bloudie sweat If it were naturall feare whiâ—…h quencheth the spirits cooleth the bloud could not procure a bloudie sweat If it were supernaturall and mysticall as Hilarie Austen Prosper Bede and Bernard obserue then can you conclude no cause thereof but must leaue it as a secret and wonderfull effect of Christes power and will knowen to God and vnknowen to man Secondly if we grant â—…eare might be the cause thereof the feare of Gods power infinitly able to punish the sinne of man on the person of Christ without the paines of the damned might iustly strike the Manhoode of Christ with any terrour that mans nature was capable of without the losse of grace and faith For feare doth not alwayes apprehend what danger is toward but onely that some danger aboue our reach or strength is imminent ouer vs. Thirdly if feare of what you will were the cause of this agonie it is no way consequent that that which Christ feared was really inflicted on him since feare is of future not of present euiâ—…l and the Apostle beareth witnesse in this case that Christ was heard or freed z Heb. 5. from that he feared Fourthly how many things Christ would or did obtaine of his Father for vs by his sufferings so many things might concurre as causes of this inflamed prayer whence 〈◊〉 by order of the Euangelists narration this bloudie sweate So that there being fourâ—… maine exceptions against your collection whereof you shall neuer auoid any one you soaring aloft and stooping to nothing but your owne dreames light iust on your hell paines not because the Scriptures make any such mention but because that best pleaseth your humour And this is the very closet of your cause and pride of your proofes touching hell paines suffered in the Soule of Christ Neword ne letter of Scripture to warrant it but as you wrested Pauls wish to foure notable vntruths so you sweep vp Christs sweate to make perfect your Pageant that from things obscure vnknowen and doubted with all men as touching the precise and particular cause thereof you may resolue what you list and tiâ—… your Conclusions with cart-ropes of vanitie and falsitie a Defenâ—… pag. 100. 〈◊〉 28. But you say pag. 26. you should put 25. the sorrow and feare of death which it pleased our Sauiour to feele in oâ—…r nature came not for want of strength but of purpose to quench and abolish those affections in vs. I say it came from both And I say you doe not onely rashly crosse Saint Austen in that Negatiue but you know not what you say For the question is not whether feare and sorrow be infirmities which is your wise conceite but whether Christ admitted them by his power and will or by constraint and necessitie which Saint Austen there calleth infirmitie and I named want of strength His words a man would thinke are so resolute that without better ground then you haue any a sober Diuine would not so proudlie confront them b August in Iohannem tract 60. Non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dubitandum non â—…um 〈◊〉 infirmitate sed 〈◊〉 turbatum It is by no meanes to be doubted that Christ was troubled not for any weaknesse of minde but of his owne power What saith your wisedome to this Austen meaneth not onely by infirmitie but also by his owne will and power Coherent and different things may be thus coupled together because both may be true and diuerse respects may reconcile contraries but in one and the same sentence and sense to harle priuations and positions whereof the one excludeth the other as you doe is to make no construction but a contradiction in Saint Austens words As if a man should say this answere of yours is not onely foolish but also wise not onely vnlearned but also learned weâ—…e it not ridiculous And yet you knit Saint Austens words together in that sort where if the one be true the other is false For if Christ were troubled by infirmitie and necessitie then was he not by his power and will as Austen auoucheth he was Wherefore you hit Saint Austens meaning as rightly as if a man should post to London Bridge with his backe towards it or else you confute him your selfe as how because I say with Austen Christ admitteth these affections and infirmities of mans nature not for want of power to represâ—…e them but by volunâ—…arie obedience and humilitie that in him they might be meritorious Then how these affections preuailed on Christs Soule is the Question whether by necessitie Christ not being able to resist them or moderate them which is the weaknesse of mans nature or by his owne submission when he would as he would and to what ende he would c August in Iohannem tract 49. Thou art troubled saith Austen against thy will Christ was troubled because he would In illius potestate erat sic vel sic â—…ffici vel non affici It was in his power to be affected thus or thus or not to be affected Where there is soueraigne power there infirmitie is gouerned according to the direction of the will He must be ruler and commaunder of nature by his power that was not troubled with any affections or infirmities but according to the liking of his owne will So was it in Christ. d August ibidem tract 60. Non â—…rgo est aliquo cogente turbatus Affectum quippe humanum quando oportuisse iudicauit in seipso potestate commouit Christ was not troubled by the compulsion of any For when he thought it needfull he did stirre in himselfe by his owne power humane affections If to raise feare and sorrow within himselfe when he would were power aboue nature and no humane infirmitie as also to appoint how farre they should preuaile in him what was it then by the power of these affections in him to represse and temper all our infirmities and affections and to endue vs with heauenly grace and courage to resist and restraine the excesse of those affections in our weake natures was it power or infirmitie in Christ thus to worke either in himselfe or in vs It was power no doubt in Christ to limit the time degree and force of those affections which his will would admit and in all these things the lesse necessitie of nature vrged him the more acceptable was his obedience vnto God that would
the time though it were after restored with greater glory This I did not put for the cause of his agonie as you idlely amplifie but noted it as a respect that might worthily lead Christ to dislike or abhorre death in respect of his perfection and communion with God aboue all men and Angels saue for the will of his father and the good of man which ouerruled this dislike in him g Defenc pag. 105 li 22. You say excellent well but by your practise in all matters so farre as I see you neuer meane to obserue it in Gods cause let Gods booke teach vs what to beleeue and what to professe shew me then where you read in Gods word any or all these to be effectuall causes of this strange 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 my part I shall neuer beleeue you If I did professe to bind mens faiths to these causes of Christes agonie as you doe to your new redemption by the paines of the damned I would shew you where I redde them in the word of God or els I would leaue â—…ch beleeuer to his libertie but I forwarned all men that the Scriptures directly and particularly speaking nothing of the causes of Christes agonie the safest rule that I could find or they could follow was not to depart from any knowen and receaued grounds of Religion and principles of pietie for the causes thereof For since the Scriptures keep silence and our Sauiour himselfe would not shew it to all his Disciples but chose three from the rest to goe with him and tooke the darke time of the night and left those three whose eies were so heauie that they could not forâ—…eare sleepe about a stones cast before he would pray because he would not haue thâ—…m 〈◊〉 to all that he said or did in that place I see no reason why any man should be ouer curious in searching that which the word of God hath not precisely reuealed specially seeing no demonstratiue cause can be giuen of secret affections and voluntarie actions such as these were in Christ. And your audacious and presumptuous boldnesse is the more chalengeable for that you not onely take vpon you to giue the right and exact cause therof out of your owne braine but you light on such a cause as hath no foundation in any part of the Scripture nor any coherence with the maine positions of the Christian faith vnfalliblely deliuered in the word of God Wherfore I haue not transgressed my directions when I teach what iust and waighty respects of feare sorow zeale our Lord Sauior had in the worke of our redemption which might be the causes of that earnest prayer agonie and withall shewed the iudgements and opinions of diuers ancient and learned Fathers concerning the same but you as insolent in your conclusions as in your conceits take vpon you to specifie the full and true cause thereof for which you haue no shew of Scriptures nor touch of reason And such is the cause which you yeeld that thereby you crosse the chiefe streames of faith and trueth most currant in the sacred Scriptures and with all learned and religious antiquitie The same rule then binding you which bindeth me shew you what Prophet Euangelist or Apostle euer taught or thought the paines of the damned to be inflicted on Christes soule in the Garden by Gods immediate hand and that without the paines of hell we could not be 〈◊〉 or els my not beleeuing you will not excuse your enterprise you must answere to God and to all the faithfull for innouating the very roots and branches of their redemption by the bloud and death of Christ Iesus which you auouch to be vnsufficient for the ransome of our sinnes except your hell be thereto added when the Holy Ghost who should best know the trueth being the spirit of trueth hath expressed no such thing in all the Scriptures h Defenc pag. 105. li. 32. Your sixt and last maine cause is that Christ by this his bloudie sweate and 〈◊〉 praiers did nothing but voluntarily performe that bloudie offering and Priesthood 〈◊〉 in the Law This we simply grant If you should truely repeat and conceiue any part The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agonie of my writings you should put your selfe to more paines than you are willing to take iustly to refute it Wherefore your course is either to misrecite or to misconstrue all that you bring In the oblations of the Law which prefigured the death of Christ I obserued that not only the Sacrifice was slaine by the shedding of bloud but that the person of the Priest was sanctified as well as the sinner presented by the Priest to God with earnest and humble prayer to make atonement for the trespasse And since the trueth must haue some resemblance with the figure Christ might in the Garden performe some points requisite to his Priesthood as the sanctifying of himselfe with his owne bloud and presenting his bodie to be the redemption and remission of our sinnes with most instant and intentiue prayer for the transgressours This if you simply graunt as in wordes you say you doe tell vs now which way you will conclude Christes suffering of hell paines in the Garden from his bloudie sweat It hindereth not our assertion Much lesse doeth it further it but yet if there might be a cause of Christes voluntarie sprinckling himselfe with his owne bloud and dedicating it to Gods pleasure for mans redemption besides and without your hellish torments you will come shorter than you recken to make good your conclusion i Defenc. pag. 106. The Scriptures which you cite prooue indeed that Christ now executed his office of Priesthood but will you diuide and exempt his death on the Crosse from his Priesthood Who besides your selfe restraineth Christes euerlasting Priesthood either to the garden or to the crosse But it was one thing for Christ with feruent and submissiue prayer to present and submit his bodie which was his Sacrifice to the will of his Father as he did in the garden and another thing to receiue and admit the violent and wicked hands of the Iewes executing their rage on his bodie with all reproch and crueltie as he did on the crosse Now what had his Priesthood to do with the paines of hell since he was to present and performe the bloudie sacrifice of his bodie prefigured in the Law which he did in the garden and on the crosse And forsomuch as you grant that Christes bloudy sweat and his vehement prayers in the garden were pertinents to his Priesthood prefigured in the Law which indeed is k Hebr. 5. confirmed by the Apostle as you can shew no figure of suffering hell paines or the second death in the sacrifices of the Law no more doth either of these performed in the garden concerne any secret death of the soule which Christ there suffered from the immediate hand of God l Defenc. pag. 106. li. 14. Why say you not aswell that his death
Creed how we were saued and what is the price of our Redemption specially the Scriptures going so cleare with them and they teaching so closely and soundly the trueth there expressed d Defenc. pag. 110. li. 9. These very sentences of the fathers I can easily admit if they import no more then that those outward afflictions on the Crosse were SOME CAVSES AND THAT NO SMAL of his complaint alwaies remembring that some greater cause also did concurre and was conioined with them Then by your owne confession haue the fathers spoken trueth and there was small or no cause giuen you to make so light regard of them As for your other greater cause when you prooue by Scripture as you intend that Christs soule on the crosse suffered the second death and the paines of the damned you shall haue a speciall reseruation that your fansies may be conioined with Christs praiers otherwise your reasons be like your resolutions they haue neither proofe nor strength besides your owne priuate and presumptuous perswasions e Defenc. pag. 110. li. 14. Your third sense if I conceiue it aright is that his being left to bodily death caused him thus to mourne which is but as the last before And yet you seeme to meane not only that but also because his flesh now should want all feeling of his heauenly comfort for that while that it should remaine dead A maruailous exquisite and farre fet cause The sense is neither mine nor so farre fet as you would make it I tooke it out of Tertullian Hilarie and The third sense of Christs complaint on the crosse Epiphanius whose wordes I produced to that purpose and howsoeuer you gibe at it after your scornefull maner I suppose it will prooue sounder then your hellish death which you haue so learnedly deuised out of their words The difference betwixt this and the former sense is not great For there the fathers ment Christ was forsaken that is not deliuered from the rage of his persecutors whiles he liued and these doe adde that he was left vnto death presuming death to be the greatest and most grieuous of all outward afflictions which in this life befall the nature of man f Defenc. pag. 110. li. 19. Yet me thinks as this crosseth your other expositions here so it is flat contrarie to the Scripture also If the expositions were contrary each to other so long as they be sundrie mens and repeated onely by me to shew how many senses haue beene deliuered in the Church of Christ by learned and auncient Fathers touching that complaint or praier of Christ which you would faine abuse to hatch your hell-paines what els note you by their contratiety but the diuersity of mens iudgements vpon these words all which conioined in this against you that Christes complaint on the crosse may diuersly be conceaued according to the different acceptions of forsaking and yet your paines of the damned haue no place in that variety or contrariety of â—…enses But this third sense you say is flat contrarie to the Scripture That were worth the hearing indeed if your foolish conceits were not farre more likely to crosse both themselues the Scriptures then iustly to controle the iudgements of so learned fathers But what is this great ouersight that is so much repugnant to the Scripture the Scripture g Ibid. li. 21. giueth after a sort to Christes dead flesh this LIVELY AFFECTION my flesh shall rest in hope The soule of Christ which was replenished with life trueth and grace as being personally vnited vnto God and of whose fullnesse we all haue receaued you affirme died on the Crosse and none other death then the second death and Christs flesh lying dead in the graue you imagine not only to haue life but to be a liuing spirit For you giue vnto it the liuely affection of hope which nothing hath that is not a liuing and reasonable soule or more You doe it you will say but after a sort That sort is absurd inough of figuratiue speaches in the Scriptures to make positiue doctrines For if you defend that the dead flesh of Christ in the graue had indeed any liuely affection of hope in part or in whole it is a brutish heresie denying that Christ was truely dead and that his body was truely flesh since a liuely hope impoâ—…teth not only life but vnderstanding and faith If you graunt these speaches to be figuratiue then doe you betray your folly to thwart the fathers assertions with figuratiue florishes as if they were proper and to pronounce their sayings flat contrary to the Scriptures because you can pike out a word that in outward shew soundeth somewhat strangely Hope in these wordes of Dauid is either applied to the soule of Christ in respect of the resurrection of his body which he beleeued and hoped for as most assured or if we apply it to the body it noteth safety from corruption and promise made by God of speedie resurrection which was the thing wherewith Christs bodie might be inuested But we shall haue mainer proofe for this matter h Defenc. pag. 110. li. 24. Is it likely is it possible that he should so dolefully mourne that either he should bodily dy or that his body should want the sense of his diuine presence so little a while when as in HIS MINDHE SPEAKETH SO TRIVMPHANTLY of his CONSTANT and CONTINVALLIOY IN GOD yea not excluding euen his body though dead from participating in some sort therein as we read in the former place at large I i Act 2. 26 27. BEHEID the Lord alwaies The Defender 〈◊〉 contradicteth his owne doctrine before me for he is at my right hand that I should not bâ—… shaken Therefore did mine heart reioice and my tongue was glad and moreouer my flesh shall rest in hope Now can a man in this EXCEEDING GENERALL and CONSTANTIOY so vncomfortably mourne in that sense as you vrge My God my God why forsakest thou my flesh it cannot be I would not thinke it likely nor possible if I did not see it before mine eies that such a pert Proctour should so proudly despise all auncient writers and fathers that fauour not his faction and yet so palpably confound himselfe and his whole cause with ouermuch prating For Christian Reader I pray thee take no more but his owne confession or assertion in this place by which he thought to ouerbeare all that stood in his way and obserue both how desperatly he contradicteth himselfe and how sensibly he subuerteth his whole doctrine and his deuice of this new found hell But the lease before he told vs peremptorily that k Pa. 108. li. 8. Christes Godhead as it were withdrawing and hiding it selfe from him for that season of his passion gaue him NO SENSE NOR FEELING OF COMFORT OR IOY in spirit soule or body Now suddainly whiles he eagerly hunteth after his hell paines he not onely falleth ouer head and eares into the myre of contradictions
de Trinitate li. 10. Derelinqui se ad mortem questus est sed TVNC confessorem suum secum in Regno Paradisi recepit Christ complained that he was forsaken or left vnto death but EVEN THEN he receiued the Thiefe that consessed him into the kingdome of Paradise iointly with himselfe Ambroses words are u Ambros in Luc. li. 10. de commendatione spiritus in 〈◊〉 Patris Clamauit homo diuinitatis sepâ—…ratione moriturus The man Christ cried not then dead in soule when he cried as you would haue it but ready to die or that after should die when he yeelded his spirit into his fathers hands The very next sentence before sheweth that this departing was of the diuinity from the body to leaue that vnto death x Ibidem Euidens manifestatio contestantis Dei secessionem diuinitatis corporis A manifest speach of God witnessing the departure of his diuinity from his bodie So that by no meanes Ambrose euer imagined that Christes soule died but as he expresseth himselfe in the same Chapter y Ibidem Caro moritur vt resurgat spiritus Patri commendatur vt pax fuerit in Caelo The flesh dieth that it might rise againe the spirit is commended to God the father that peace might be established in the heauens Thus shortly haue you taken the paines to produce three Fathers for the death of Christes soule and haue as shamefully peruerted and inuerted euery one of them which is no newes with you and yet all that you can conclude out of them may amount to a pestilent heresie if you will that the vnion of Christes person was dissolued for the time of his death but it can neuer inferre any thing pertinent to your purpose z Defenc. pag. 113. li. 4. Here the Fathers do sâ—…ew indeed that Christ died but more than a meere bodily death euen the death of the soule also Heere the Fathers are exquisitly belied and falsified otherwise that Christes soule died they offer neither word nor syllable sounding that way And though you can not speake trueth in so false a cause yet you should learne to speâ—…ke coherently You grant they auouch here that Christ died the death of the bodie and more euen the death of the soule also whereas it is euident by the words of the holy ghost as also by your owne positions that Christ neither did nor could die these two deaths at one time For by the manifest witnesse of the Euangelist Christ a Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 his spirit into his Fathers 〈◊〉 and so died Then most certeinly the soule of Christ was accepted and receiued into the hands of God which I trow is life and not death when the bodie was left to death Wherefore if their words concerne his bodily death they by no meanes admix the death of the soule since they all affirme aâ—… the Scripture doth that Christ committed his soule to his Fathers hands and so died of which death they say he spake in those words Why hast thou left me that is to die as they expound it Now if you affixe any death to the soule of Christ I hope you will free him from it before he commended his soule into his Fathers hands And so the one must be ended before the other could enter and consequently if they spake of the latter their words haue no intent to implie the other But what dispute we of their meaning when their words are so manifest that you can not hale them to your hell-paines but by shamefull corrupting of their sentences and wilfull misconstruing the bodie for the soule b Defenc. pag. 113. li. 6. What is the separation of the deitie from his soule els but the death of his soule Which of these Fathers doth auouch the separation of Christes deitie from his soule Is it so small a mote in your eye that Christes deitie was separated from his humane soule that you may loosely and lightly surmise it by disordering and altering other mens words At this speech of Ambrose you could not so grosly haue stumbled had you but read the Master of the Sentences who long since in one whole distinction of his third booke examined those words and answered as the trueth is that separation in that place was taken for want of protection and withholding Christes power whiles the bodie died c Sententiarum li. 3. dist 21. Separauit se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subtraxu protectionem Separauit se foris vt non esset ad defensionem sed non 〈◊〉 defuit ad vnionem Si non ibi cohibuisset potentiam sedexercuisset non 〈◊〉 Christus The deitie seuered it selfe because it withdrew protection It separated it selfe outwardly not to defend but if failed not inwardly to continue the vnion If it had not refrained but exercised power Christ could not haue died Theodoret calleth this dereliction d In Psal. 21. The permission of the deitie that the humanitie might suffer And Isychius sayth e 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 li. 5. ca. 16. Diuinit as abijsse dicitur cohibens propriam virtutem ex humanitate vt daret spacium Passioni Christs deitie is sayd to depart by withholding his owne power from his humanitie that he might giue time to his Passion Otherwise it is a certaine truth which â—…ulgentius teacheth f Ad 〈◊〉 lib. 3. Licet in Christi morte carnem morieâ—…tem fuisset anima desertura diuinit as tamen Christi nec ab anima nec à carne posset separari suscepta Though in Christes death the soule were to forsake the bodie dying yet the deitie of Christ could not be seuered from the soule nor from the bodie once assumed g Defenc. pag. 113. li. 7. Howbeit note I pray that neither the Fathers nor I do meane any separating of the vnion of both natures in Christ nor the separating of any holinesse or habituall grace of God from his soule nor the separating of Gods loue from him but the separation of all comfortable feeling and assistance of the Godhead This separation is meant and may be called the death of the soule If you separate none of these what then is it that you separate from the soule of Christ to proue it dead All comfortable feeling and assistance of the Godhead He knew himselfe to be personally God and man he saw his soule full of all truth and grace he was assured the loue of God towards him could neither faile nor change he knew that his obedience and sacrifice were acceptable to his Father and should be the redemption of the world and he was most certaine that the third day he should rise againe into immortall and celestiall glory hauing men diuels and angels euen all things in heauen and earth subiect to his manhood Were all these no comforts or was there no assistance of the Godhead in these Nay take but your owne words a little before that Christ on the crosse euen when he complained of his forsaking was in h Pag.
When they are diuers the Reader may make his choise what he best liketh but there is no cause nor reason to reiect all that can not be reconciled Neither did I tell you they might all stand together but I sayd they stood well with the rules of Christian pietie And since they had in them no contradiction to the text nor to the faith I saw no ground to depriue the Reader of them much lesse to reiect or disdaine the authours of them as you do And yet truly it were no such hard matter as you imagine to make the substance of them stand together For why might not Christ on the crosse as the head and Sauiour of his bodie in his owne name make his complaint or inquire the cause why both he and his were so long and in this wise forsaken as namely the head to be left to the paine shame and death of the crosse and his members to the poison of sinne and rage of Satan and therefore pray that his members might be freed and restored to Gods fauour and himselfe be eased of his anguish with deposing his spirit into his Fathers hands and honoured with the signes of his Fathers loue and liking towards him when he should depart this life that all his enemies might know there was a great and good cause euen the glory of God and mans saluation why he was thus martyred and mocked on the crosse Here are the effects of those sixe or seuen causes layd together what so great repugnancie finde you betwixtthem that because they are manie therefore your hell-paines should be the likelier to be the true meaning of these words a Defenc. pag. 114. li. 27. A very badde opinion of the holy Scriptures you seeme to haue if you thinke they may be handled by Interpretations and Expositions thus that a man may take them in sixe or seuen diuers senses and all sustisiable I honour them more in not reiecting the manifolde expositions of considerate and godly Interpreters than you do in fastening them to the leauen of your sower humour and affixing such senses to them as shall contradict the maine grounds of faith and religion deliuered in them And who but you did euer hinder Expositors olde or new to labour in them and scant to reach to the depth of them since as you seeme to be affected no man may offer diuersly to interpret them for feare of hauing a badde opinion of them But such is your stiffe and proud presumption all things that like not you are vaine and friuolous and your fansies be they neuer so vnreasonable or irreligious must be weighty and holy b Defenc. pag. 114. li. 34. Now it resteth that I gather some reasons from the expresse Scripture to shew you that indeed very paines and the vehemencte of sorrowes namely which he now susteined by way of yeelding satisfaction and sacrifice for sinne were the principall and only proper cause of his most dreadfull agonies and complaint Which trucly though it need no reason for proofe of it the matter being so cleere in it selfe yet your vnreasonablenesse is such that it draweth somewhat from me about it Your Art of carping hath fayed but ill-fauouredly with you you will now proceed to your trade of prouing and that by expresse Scripture wherein you shew your selfe to be right your selfe that is take all your owne fansies for expresse Scripture and though your conceits be such that are more worthy to be derided than answered yet the matter you say is so cleere in it selfe that it needeth no reason for proofe of it The expresse Scriptures on which you so much stand are the name of the Agonie the Houre and the Cuppe with this one sentence My soule is on euery side heauy vnto death About these you brabble going neither backeward nor forward but heaping vp a few generall phrases of mightie sorowes and excessiue paines you iterate the very same that you often sayd before and adde not so much as a piece of a reason that should stumble a man of any vnderstanding And touching your hell paines or the second death you lay that on soaking till your proouing be ouerpast and then we shall heare of it at Lands end when you are lightned of your burden c Defenc. pag. 115. li 3. First no Christian doubteth I suppose much lesse denieth that Christs most wofull agonies and complaining belonged properly and directly to his Passion and sacrifice and that they expressed a part thereof yea as I thinke not the least part but his whole sacrifice consisted in afflictions The prince of our saluation was consecrated through afflictions Therefore afflictions sorrowes and paines were the cause of his agonies and complaint not his religious The Defenders maner of reasoning is as illogical as his matter is false feare not his piette or pitie Somewhat it was this gecre was Drawen from you it commeth not so vnwillingly but it commeth as vntowardly from you First to the forme and then to the matter of your argument Your conclusion is a strange kind of creature it hath to much and yet it hath too little For before you can exclude religious feare pittie and pietie from the cause of Christs agonie or complaint you must adde onely to your inference and say Afflictions sorrowes and paines were the onely cause of Christs agonies and complaint Otherwise with one part you exclude another as if a man would say that your head is not part of your bodie because your heele is which would put all your reasons in daunger to be drawen out of your heele and not out of your head And yet as defectiue as your conclusion is one way it is as excessiue another way For these words were the cause are stollen into this conclusion of which there was no mention in your premisses and so your precedent propositions are of one countrey and your conclusion of another they haue not so much as entercourse eche with other where by the rules of reason and Art there should be nothing in your conclusion which is not exactly specified in your premisses Your maior beginneth with belonged to your minor proceedeth to consisted in and your conclusion huddleth was the cause of which are rather like forkes to skatrer then rakes to gather the parts of your syllogisme together If to hale in your conclusion you will amend your assumption as you must and say that afflictions were the onely cause of Christs sacrifice we shall more wonder at this monster then at the former For besides the falsenesse of it in that it is vtterly repugnant to all truth since the causes of Christs sacrifice were sinne in vs needing it Loue in Christ proferring it and Iustice in God requiring it how come the parts of any thing to be the causes thereof Afflictions suffered were parts of Christs sacrifice and not the causes And therefore you must pray the Printer to stampe you a new conclusion before any part of this argument will haue
when I came I should haue SOROVV of them of whom I should haue ioy When the rest of the seruants saw what the euill seruant that was pardoned of his master the great debt of 10000 talents did to his fellow that ought him an hundred pence n Matth 18. vers â—…1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were very sory And when Christ sayd to his Disciples One of you shall betray me o Matth. 26. vers 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were exceeding sorowfull and bâ—…ganne euery onâ—… to say Master is it I As also when â—…e tolde them of his departure and their troubles he added p â—…ohn 16. Because I haue spoken these things vnto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorow hath filled your hearts And generally thorowout the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doeth no where signifiâ—… actuall and absolute paâ—…ne but griefe and sorow of minde And therefore your wresting of our Sauiours words with a false translation in saying My soule is full of paines intending thereby the paines of the damned inflicted by Gods immediaâ—…e hand is a false and lewd corruption q Defenc pag. 116. li. 34. Here we will remember againe what is taught by authoritie in England The rather for that you take on as a man impatient because I doe affirme that our doctrine not yours hath the publiâ—…e authoritie for it You call it an egregiouâ—… lie an insolent and impudent speach well becomming â—…n alchouse c. and yet in the very next page in plaine termes you graunt the same to be taught in our hâ—…milie of Christs Passion The way to mend a lie is not to double it and â—…riple it but to see your error that you may acknowledge the trueth Iâ—… I had then cauâ—…e to dislike the egregious lie which I iustly challenged I haue now more whâ—…n to saue your â—…elfe from some impudencie you â—…hew more then stupidity You would needes in your treatise amongst other vntrueths auouch that your doctrine 〈◊〉 the r Treatis pa. 89 li. 13. publike authorised doctrine of England deliuered in the booke of homilies I told you then which yet is true that this as well as others was an insolent and impudent speach You aske s Defenc. 〈◊〉 â—…7 〈◊〉 30. who is that egregious lier now t Defenc. 〈◊〉 â—…7 〈◊〉 35. you hope you are cleare from it Euen he that was before and you are cleare from it as Iudas was from betraying Christ by â—…aying is it I master to cleare your selfe you now say your exposition of those words My God my God why host thou forsaken me is found in the booke of Homilies and that I my selfe in plaine wordes confesse so much Then are you the verier lyer to say this is your doctrine which I impugned or that our maine question was about the exposition of those words Christs complaint on the crosse I sayd did not prooâ—…e your hell-paines nor the second death to be suffered in Christs soule which way soeuer you expounded it so you followed any example of Scripture vsing that word To reprobation or desperation if your conscience did thereto stretch you might applie this word by some examples of Scriptures but not to reall and actuall damnation no not in the most wicked castawayes that â—…uer were The sundry senses which I gaue out oâ—… the Fathers shew the wâ—…aknesse of your illation from those words they directly touch not the maine point of doctrine questioned betwixt vs and amongst theâ—…e senses this was one which the booke of Homilies seemeth to follow The direct cause of Christs feare sorrow and bloodie sweate since the Scripture concealed it I sayd could not be certainly concluded thence what is that to Christes complaint on the crosse whose words though they may be extended to expresse his paines yâ—…t your doctrine is no whit the truer for all that nor the more confirmed by the lawes of this Realme So that the lie by your leaue doth lye where it did only you haue furnished the former lie with two or three fresher and as your vse is you correct matters amisse by making them worse then they were u Defenc. pag. 117. li. 6. Here I am sure you thinke not that our Homilie maketh Christes pietie or pitie nor yet his meere bodily paine to force him thus farre Nor in these words next following there O that mankind sâ—…ould put the euerlasting sonne of God in such paines for the grieuousnesse of our sinnes Are you sure what I thinke well fare your wisedome yet that when you should prooue your doctrine to be receaued and authorized by the publike lawes of this Realme you are sure I am of your mind This is not onely a childish fainting but foolish dallying to cleere your selfe from a notorious lie by assuring your selâ—…e what I thinke If you will needes know what I thinke first it is euident to him that readeth these homiliâ—…s that the whole summâ—… and meane of our redemption being theâ—…e purposely deliuered neither of these homilies speaketh one word of your hell-paines nor of the second death to be suffered in the soule of Christ. Againe it is as euident that the suffering of a shamefull and painfull death in Christs body is there taught to be the only sacrifice for our sinnes The wordes are x 1. Sermon of the Passion pa. 5. There is none other thing that can be named vnder heauen to saue our soules but this only worke of Christs pretious offering of his body on the Altar of the Crosse. What paines Christ suffered on the Crosse whether the paines of the damned or of his body bruised and broken on the Crosse the booke it selfe doth plainly witnesse c Christ being the sonne of God and y 2. Serâ—…on of the Passion pa. 9. perfect God himsâ—…lfe who neuer committed sinne was compelled to come downe from heauen and to giue his BODY TO BE BRVISED AND BROKEN ON THE CROSSE for our sinnes Was not this a manifest token of Gods great wrath and displeasure towards sin that he could be pacisied by none other meanes but ONLIE BY THE SWEET AND PRETIOVS BLOVD of his deare sonne If you teach this that the bruising and breaking of Christs body on the Crosse and the shedding of his pretious bloud was the ONLIE MEANE to pacifie Gods wrath against sinne then I did you wrong to call your speach impudent but if this be the new doctrine which I defend and you impugne then doe you deserue not only the termes which I gaue but worse so openly and obstinately to resist deface and belie publicke authority z Defenc. pag. 117. li. 12. Adde herâ—…unto the full and large declaration hereof in the authorised Catechisme Christ suffâ—…red not only a common death in the sight of men but also was throughly touched with the horror of eternall death c. When he did take vpon him and beare both the guiltines and iust paine of mankind damned and lost he was afflicted with
so grieuous feare trouble and sorow of mind or soule that he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I make good difference betwixt the Booke of Homilies confirmed as well by the publicke authority of Prince and Parliament Anno Reginae 13. ca 12 as by the generall subscription of the vpper and neather house in the conuocation Anno 1571 to a In the 35. article of Homilies containe godlie wholesome and necessarie doctrine and the Catechisme then licenced to be taught in Schooles to yong scholers but without any such autoritie as the former is Shew the like approbation and you shall freely call it the publike autorized doctrine of England till you doe so giue me leaue to tell you that the one is indeede by publicke authority receaued and ratified euen as the articles are the other was by priuate discretion permitted and tolerated to be taught in Grammar schooles but publicke authority of the whole Realme you may chalenge none vnto it And therefore I take my selfe in matters of faith not bound vnto it farder then it accordeth with the manifest trueth deliuered in the â—…acred Scriptures Againe your selfe doâ—… more impugne the Catechisme then I doe For if your owne wordes be true that Christ when he vttered those b Defenc. pag. 110. li. 28. 34. words spake in his mind of his constant and continuall ioy in God and was in exceeding generall and constant ioy What place leaue you for any of those wordes which you cite out of the Catechisme to haue any trueth in them since they speake of exceeding and horrible feares and sorrows which I thinke are contrarie to your triumphant generall and constant ioy And although I thinke it no reason that a thing priuatly permitted should abrogate the full and maine consent of the learned and auntient Fathers as you would haue it to doe and therefore make it free when the Carechisme swatueth from their sense and interpretation to be of another mind yet I condemne nothing in it as wicked but wish that soâ—…e few places had been more cleerly and more particularlâ—…e deliuered and expressed to auoid such cauillers as you and some others are But you with open mouth reiâ—…ct euen those places which now you produce as passing strange doctrine and simply impossible For where the Catechisme here in these words which you alleage saith Christ was Aeternae mortis horrore perfusus perfused or wholy touched with an horror which is a trembling feare of eternall death you not only reason against it that c Defenc. pag. 9â—… li. 13. Christ could not feare that which he perfectly knew concerned him not at all and by no meanes could euer possibly come neere him but you make it d li. 12. passing strange doctrine and simply impossible that Christ should feare or pray against the whole and intire cup of eternall death And yet the Catechisme saith he trembled and was ouercast with the horror of it You misâ—…ike that the Catechisme saith except you may peruert it to your pleasure and in steed of fearing eternall death you say Christ suffered the second death which is die death of the damned and so refusing the Catechisme for saying so much you say more and thinke the Catechisme is of your mind But sir tell vs how Christ could be stroken with the HORROR OF ETERNALL DEATH for those aâ—…e the wordes of the Catechisme and not how he suffered your new made hell which the Catechisme neuer speaketh of I haue deliuered two senses to salue the Catechisme which you impugne The first that Christ in respect of his members to whom that death was due might in loue and pietie towards them inwardly tremble at the punishment deserued by them since mercie maketh vs truely feele the very smart of other mens harmes and dangers and where we hartily loue no lesse then if they were imminent ouer our owne heads The second that Christ fearing the power of Gods wrath against sinne which is infinite may in a sort be sayd to tremble at the effects thereof by reason he trembled at the cause thereof And in this sense the consideration and apprehension of Gods infinite power and displeasure against sinne might brâ—…ede those horrible feares and sorrowes which the Catcchisme talketh of Otherwise I must be plaine the Catechisme sayth more then can be prooued by any Scripture or any learned and auncient Father and more then you your selfe allow or like saue that you would out of his vehement speaches make some aduantage to your cause though in substance you wholy dissent from the maker thereof For he speaketh of feare and sorrow you of re 〈◊〉 al solute suffering he of eternall death due to sin you of a new found hell from the immediate hand of God which is no part of the Catcchisers meaning since he plainely nameth future and euerlasting death due to sinners and not a present and temporall hell which is not the full wages of sinne nor of the damned The like I say for the notes added by the Printer or correctour to the great Bible whose text is authorized to be read in the Church but not the notes to be of equall credit or authoritie with the text And if you may turne of the whole aâ—…ay of auncient and Catholike Fathers because they diflent from your conceits how much lesse am I bound to correctours or Printers adding often times to other mens workes and labours what pleaseth themselues Though the note be not such but that it may receiue the former construction and be tolerated welâ—… enough Wherefore I meane euen the same giddy spirit which before I did buzzing in the eares of the people his owne fancies against the Scriptures against the Fathers and against the doctrine of this Realme confirmed by publike authoritie of Prince and Parliament The recollecting of your former reason so lately and largely answered I omit as tedious trifling and since you say no more then is before refuted what should I trouble my selfe and the Reader with repeating the same things so often iterated e Defenc pag. 118. li. 10. You haue yet heere and there some exceptions against this our doctrine which are not to be cleane neglected First you say I extend Christs agonie to farre because I will haue is proceede from the intolerable sorrowes and horrors of Gods siery wrath equall to â—…ell I shew not there the cause of Christs agonie and feare I shewed it of purpose in the beginning Why did you not refuse that You extend it so farre according to my wordes yea your maine purpose is to make that the cause of Christs agonie in the garden and on the crosse onely you would vse some cunning in the carriage of it first to make sorrowes and feares the cause thereof and at the next step to aske what sorrowes and feares could those be but the intolerable sorowes and horrors of Gods fierie wrath equall to hell And to this end you quote both the
determine cleane contraries in one sentence which were open inconstancie and no way imaginable in the Sonne of God or this latter must remoue the former being repugnant to the maine consent of his will and intent of his comming For therefore came he into this houre of mans redemption because he would not be saued from it with mans destruction And thus much the best and most skilfull Interpreters haue collected to be the force of the wordes following to which Christ addeth the coniunction aduersatiue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in their iudgement supposeth heere a negatiue precedent So Chrysostom conceiueth our Sauiours words I do not say saue me from this houre And why Because the words following with an aduersatiue repugnance to the former words doe proue not the first but the last to be Christs full purpose h Defenc. pag. 129. li. 38. Chrysostom Epiphanius doe descant about it trying how the text may beare such a meaning but it can not stand being so euidently against the course of the text Indeed Chrysostom and Epiphanius are not comparable to you neither in learning nor iudgement you make vs such new positions and principles both of reason and faith that their Diuinitie is stale to yours but with all learned and wise men the yongest of the twaine will be trusted for the true sense of a text farre before such Dreamers and Deuisers as you are The course of the text is euidently against it you say What course of the text The words vsed by our Sauiour are with it But therefore came I into this houre What sense or meaning can this sentence haue but that Christ purposely comming into this houre had no resolution to be deliuered from this houre which being true the former words Father saue me from this houre may shew the desire or doubt of nature inclining to that petition but the present refusall thereof followeth expressing Christes will and purpose in putting himselfe into that houre These words then But therefore came I into thiâ—… houre are in effect not so for therefore came I into this houre Which the best Interpreters olde and new haue obserued in the force of Christes words i Chrysost. in Johaâ—…nem homil 66. Therefore came I into this houre as if Christ had sayd sayth Chrysostom though we be moued and troubled yet we flee not death For I say not thus as my resolution Father deliuer me from this houre but Father glorifie thy name And Epiphanius k Epipha li. 2. Heres 69. What shall I say Father speaking by way of preparation and dubitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This sayth Christ I will say but therefore came I into this houre For he came not against his will but willingly Theophylact l Theophylact. in 12. cap. Johannis For this cause sayth Christ came I into this houre that I might suffer death for all He teacheth vs very plainly by this that though we be troubled and perplexed with it yet we should not flie death for the truth For I sayth he am troubled being a true man and permit mans nature to shew it selfe yet do I not say to my Father that he should saue me from this houre but what say I Father glorifie thy name The later Writers of no meane iudgement allow the same sense Erasmus thus rendreth the summe of Christes words m Erasm. paraphra in cap. 12. Johannis I finde my soule troubled for the day of my death now approching And what shall I say For the loue of mine owne life shall I neglect the life of the world By no meanes I will applie my selfe to the will of my Father Mans weaknesse troubled with feare of death may say vnto him Father if it be possible saue me from this instant danger of death But Loue desirous of mans saluation shall presently adde Nay ra-rather if it be expedient let death which I desired come for somuch as wittingly and willingly by the leading of the spirit I haue offered my selfe to die These words n Bullingerâ—… in ca. Joh. 12. Bullinger citeth and calleth an excellent explication of that text Gualter in like maner o Gualteruâ—… homilia 118. in 12. ca. Johannis This is as if Christ had sayd Let no man thinke me as a cowardly captaine to exhort others to patience and constance being my selfe safe from danger For death approcheth me and that so cruell and bitter that the very remembrance thereof troubleth my soule What then shall I say when amongst men there is no hope To thee ô Father I turne saue me from the houre of this terrible death But what do I say Euen therefore came I into this houre What other thing then shall I aske ô Father but that thou shouldest gloriâ—…ie thy name Doe all these learned Interpreters wrest this text and speake they against all reason without considering the nature and frame of the wordes or doe they out of the very frame and force of the wordes deduce Christes resolution to be this Father glorifie thy name notwithstanding my former words since I came of purpose into this houre not to be freed from it The first words p Defenc. pag. 129. li. 36. pretend a plaine resolution or at least a great inclining towards resolution If a plaine resolution then Christ contradicteth himselfe with a plainer resolution in the end which to affirme of the Sonne of God aduise you whether it be blasphemous or no. As for an inclination since Christ made no idle deliberation but spake out of his naturall humane affection abhorring death that maketh wholly with my speech affirming that howsoeuer the sense of nature in Christ did incline to auoid death in this debating with himselfe yet he presently refused it by saying But therefore came I into this houre and fully resigned it when he sayd Father glorifie thy name which resolution of his God ratified with his owne voice from heauen I haue glorified it and will glorifie it q Defenc. pag. 130. li. 10. Hence I reasoned effectually before but no where you answere it If Christs such suffeings in his soule were ordained of God for him then certainly indeed he did suffer the same Certainly indeed a man shall scant meet with such another that disdaineth all mens reasons and interpretations besides his owne and when he commeth to conclude any thing can hardly discerne an Owle from an Eagle Here is a profound argument made for your hell paines that Christes soule was troubled with the foresight and remembrance of his death on the Crosse ergo God ordained that certainly and indeed he should suffer in his soule the paines of the damned Children in their cradles if they could prattle would easily match the goodnesse of this reason and other answer as it needeth none so it shall haue none for me how effectuall soeuer this fansie seemeth vnto you r Defenc. pag. 130 li. 17. Further you except that this was feare of eternall death which caused in
death for which we must not pray But whosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not that sinne and so neither Christ who was the true Sonne of God nor any of his chosen who are the children of God by adoption can sinne that sinne nor die that death because he that is begotten of God liueth by God who is eternall life to all that know him and cleaue vnto him without separation If then the sinnes of the Elect be not vnto death but such as we in pietie may and in charitie must pray for consequently the death of the soule here meant by Saint Iohn is such as is not incident to any of the sonnes of God and so not the temporall hell which you communicate to Christ and his members Heere are your eight places of Scriptures proouing as you pretend the second death of the soule which you ascribe to Christ in euery one of which saue the first and second there can be no question but euerlasting damnation is intended and in those two the guiltinesse of eternall death which is due to sinne may be comprised in the name of death which the Apostle iustifieth when he sayth t Rom. 5. v. 12. The offence of one came on all men vnto condemnation which is in effect that he sayd before Death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned But that any of these intend your temporall hell brought into this life not by snares and feares working on the soules of men but by substance and essence and not eternall death in hell fire with the Diuell and his Angels you nor all your adherents shall euer be able by any ground of holy Scripture to make it appeare And therefore your presuming it vpon the bare shew of places concluding no such thing is a pestilent intrusion vpon the word of God whiles you sticke not to couple your conceits which are false and erroneous with his vndoubted and vndefiled trueth x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 31. First ordinarily and commonly it belongeth only to the damned wherewithall are the ordinarie accidents and concomitants desperation induration vtter darknesse c. with perpetuitie of punishment and that locally in HELL Generally and truely the Scriptures neuer vse the name of the second death but for the lake burning with euerlasting fire into which the Diuell and all the Reprobate shall be cast and whatsoeuer you otherwise pretend is your owne absurd deuice without the Scriptures and against the Scriptures to keepe your doctrine from open derision and detestation And since your selfe acknowledge that this is the ordinarie and vsuall doctrine of the Scriptures it shal be needfull for your Reader to hold you to that till you fully proue your extraordinarie deuice by the same Scriptures by which the other is euidenly confirmed and so much openly confessed by you y Defenc. pag. 135. li. 36. In this sense the Fathers generally do take it where they denie that Christ suffered the death of the soule and so do we If your cause haue so little holde in the Scriptures it hath lesse in the Fathers who in the necessarie worke of our redemption thought it sacriledge to say any thing that was not apparently proued by the Scriptures And as you light not on a true word when you come to deliuer vs the mysteries of your new hell so this is patently false that the Fathers generally take the death of the soule for eternall damnation only when they denie that Christ died the death of the soule They speake as the Scriptures leade them and confessing two deaths of the soule as the Scriptures doe which are sinne excluding all grace and the wages of sinne euen euerlasting damnation they generally denie that Christ died any death of the soule and haue for confirmation of their doctrine therein the whole course of the sacred Scriptures concurring with them x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 37. Secondly the death of the soule or the second death may be extraordinarily and singularly considered namely to imply no more but simply the very nature and essence of it You broach two apparent and euident vntrueths which you make the whole foundation of your presumptuous errour First that either Christ or his Elect in this life did or do suffer the very nature and essence of the second death Next that the Scriptures do singularly and extraordinarily reserue that kinde of second death for Christ and his members Shew either of these by the word of God before you make them grounds of your doctrine or els any meane Reader may soone conceiue you meane to teach no trueth confirmed in the Scriptures but a bolde and false deuice of your owne which you would extraordinarily intrude vpon the word of God a Defenc. pag. 136. li. 5. This is a death to the soule as before we haue shewed according to this sense the Scriptures and Fathers before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. When you glaunced before at the death of Christes soule you prayed vs to haue patience When the Defender shouâ—…d proue the death of Christs soule he sayeth bee hâ—…th proued it already till you came to the place where we should receiue a reasonable satisfaction and now you are come to the place where you should make iust and full proofe thereof you send vs backe againe and say you haue shewed it before What meaneth this doubling and deceiuing of your Reader but that you would seeme to haue many proofs when indeed you haue none and therefore you post vs to and fro to seeke for that we shall neuer finde In the 113. Page of this Defence you went about by your miserable misconstruing of certaine wordes vsed by some of the Fathers to enforce a shew of a death on the soule of Christ but against the haire as there I haue proued and therefore stand not on your former vnfortunate aduentures but either heere make proofe by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or leaue prating and publishing it so confidently as you and your adherents do for the chiefe part of mans redemption The Scriptures and Fathers you say before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. Is this all you haue to say for the death of Christes soule that the Scriptures and Fathers may be vnderstood not to denie it The Scriptures must affirme it before you can make it any point of Christian religion or part of our reconciliation to God b Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and not by not denying If that be your course to put any thing to the Creed which you list to say the Scriptures doe not denie you may quickly haue a large Creed containing all things which the Scriptures abused with your figures and wrested to your fansies shall not in expresse words as you thinke denie c Defenc. pag. 136. li. 9. Moreouer let it be obserued that if we had no proofes at all
in Scripture for this point yet our question is fully proued and confirmed by those other sufficient and pregnant proofs alleaged and iustified before Your palpable and pregnant follies are sufficiently seene before your proofs were none but bald and false presumptions conceiued by your selfe though otherwise voide of all reason and authoritie with such props you haue hitherto supported your Defence and now you be come to the maine issue whether the Scriptures or Fathers doe teach that Christ for our redemption died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which is the second death you would passe it ouer as a matter of no moment and here tell vs if you had no such proofe as indeed you haue none yet you haue played your part before which was to set a good face on an euill cause and to proue iust nothing d Defenc. pag 136. li. 13. For it is to be noted that no man setteth the question in these tearmes that Christ died in his soule neither doe we at all vse them very much in speaking of this matter The Scriptures themselues set that for the question First of all I e 1. Cor. 15. deliuered vnto you sayeth Paul that which I receiued how that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Since then f Rom. 5. we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and Christ is the g Hebr 9. Mediatour of the New Testament through death for the redemption of the transgressions in the former Testament and where a Testament is there must be the death of him that made the Testament The question riseth of it selfe what death the Sonne of God died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scripture And hitherto for these fifteene hundred yeeres and vpward the Christian world both of learned and vnlearned hath beleeued that the Sonne of God by the death of his bodie on the tree ransomed our sinnes reconciled vs to God and vtterly destroyed the kingdome of Satan and that he neither did nor could suffer any other kinde of death as the death of the soule or the So that the reference of the Apostles words standeth thus he offered vp praiers and supplications with strong cries and teares to him that was able to saue him from all touch of death and was heard in that he prayed for and though he were the sonne and god was able to keepe him vntouched of death that is to make him the Sauiour of the world without tasting any kind of death yet such was Gods counsell and his owne liking that he learned or perfourmed the obedience of a sonne by the things which he suffered Whereby the Apostle teacheth vs it was neither want of power in God that Christ died for God was able to haue saued the world by him without his death neither was it lacke of fauour towards his sonne for God HEARD him in that he asked but to manifest in his person the perfect submission of a sonne to his father God would haue him obedient to death euen vnto the death of the crosse and so make him the author of eternall saluation to all that obey him As he obeied God his Father Those words then Christ offered praiers to him that was able to keep him from death prooue not death to be the cause of Christs feare nor the scaping therefrom to be the scope of Christes strong cries and teares but the Apostle thereby noteth that Christ neither doubted of his Fathers power nor loue when he praied so earnestly vnto him but was assured of both and enioyed both in such sort as might best stand with the honor and wisedome of God the father and of Christ his sonne And therefore all your collections and illations built on that false ground doâ—… fall of themselues as hauing nothing to support them but your idle and vaine supposals a Defenc. pag. 137. li. 6. Your owne selfe doe fully grant and affirme it with me yea you affirme farder then we doe or then the trueth is or possibly can be you say Christ heâ—…re thus feared eternall death and euerlasting damnation I must take no â—…corne to haue you wrest and wring my words to a contrary sense when you offer that course to the Apostles words The place which you quote for proofe of my meaning will conuince you to be a malitious falsifier My words a man would thinke are plaine enough and my exposition of that speach vsed by some men is such that no man of any intelligence or conscience would so grosly peruert it Thus I say pag 23. b Serm. pag. 23. li. 4. Distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe we cannot so much as imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith which we may not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant And againe c Ibid. li. 17. I refraine to speake what wrong it is to put either doubtfulnâ—…sse or forgetfulnesse of these things in part of Christs humane nature And to the question thereon demanded d li. 20. Why then did he pray that the cup might passe from him I answere he had no need to pray for himselfe but only for vs who then suffered with him and in him What learning I cannot say but what lewdnesse is this to father that on me which I fully forsake and still to presse me with that which I so often preuent and repell I did not intend in my Sermons to note any by name nor sharply to censure their sayings but repeating as much as I saw I gaue the best construction or mittigation to their words that any trueth would endure Where then some men whom by your importunity you haue vrged me to name as the Catechisme of master Nowel which you would seeme so much to reuerence in plaine words auoucheth that Christ was e Pag. 280. 〈◊〉 mortis horrore perfusus perfused or plunged with the horror of etâ—…rnall death And master Caluin saith f Institutione li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Oportuit 〈◊〉 cum inferorum copijs 〈◊〉 mortis horrore quasi consertis manibus luctari Christ was to wrâ—…si â—…ith the powers of hell and with the horror of eternall death as it were hand to hand Their words suppressing their names I there taught might be tolerated if we tooke horror for a religious feare only trembling at the terror of hell and praying against it or did attribute that trembling and feare of eternall death to Christ in respect and compassion of vs that were his members and whom he ioined and reckened in his sufferings for vs as one person or body with him Which moderation of mine you euery where conceale and make your Reader beleeue that I fully grant and affirme that which I expressely denie And not content therewith you enterlace my words with your lewd additions as if I said Christ thus feared eternall death You meane with strong cries and teares and
his power to be destroyed and ouerthrowen If you regard the Catechisme so highly as you pretend why slippe you from it in these or other points at your pleasure why obtrude you that to others as authorised which your selfe doe not admit indeed some men haue of late yeeres inclined to vehement and violent temptations offered to the soule of Christ in his sufferings and some to feares and horrors euen of eternall death as master Caluin and the Catechisme which you cite but if you may be suffered to shrincke from them at your liking neuer blame me if I doe not preferre them before all these fathers Howbeit to speake vprightly without wronging them I doe not see that either the Catechisme or master Caluin doe expressely defend the death of Christs soule or the second death but only the feare and horror not of a temporall hell as you haue distilled their infusion but of eternall death which you with might and maine reiect And surely if they did contradict the confession of all these fathers I would adhere to the primatiue church of Christ in matters of faith rather then to the deuices of late writers dissenting from themselues and others But touching the death of Christes soule I see no cause to depart from them since they define no such thing and therefore they aâ—…e idlely alleadged by you euen as the rest are by you proudly neglected And till you leaue this contemning of ancient Fathers and straining of later writers beyond their meaning I for my part thinke you worthie of no charge in the church of Christ neither of that you had wherein you sowed as much cockle as corne nor of that you may haue except you change your mind and learne to teach nothing to the people of God but what is warranted by the word of God c Defenc. pag. 142. li. 36. ` You say I should haue donne well to haue laied downe for a shew which is written in Easy he laied downe his soule vnto death Verily if I had it would haue made some shew I said indeed the Prophet Esay would make a better shew for the death of Christ soule then the Poet Terence whom only you produced for proofe thereof but such was then and still is your presumption that on your bare word you will pronounce what best pleaseth your fansie Howbeit the words of Esay are but a shew for the death of Christes soule since they exactly declare his bodily death to be the redemption of mankind For when the soule in the Hebrew tongue and in the old Testament is said to die either by the soule are ment the vegetatiue and sensitiue powers of the soule whereby the spirit of man is vnited to his body and which are quenched by death or by death is ment the distraction of the soule from the body which violence of death is common as well to the soule thrust from her body as to the body left without a soule That signification of the word soule the Apostle sheweth when he praieth the d 1. Thess. 5. whole spirit and soule and body of the faithfull may be kept blaâ—…lesse vnto the comming of Christ and saith e Hebr. 4. The word of God pearceth to the diuiding a sunder of the soule and the spirit And this sense of the word death the Scriptures expresse when they often mention that the soules of the godly doe or would die When Iosephs brethren would haue slaine him Ruben said vnto them f Genes 37. vers 21. Let vs not strike him in the soule that is let vs not kill him So Balaam seeing the glory of Gods people said g Numb 23. vers 10. Let my soule die the death of the Righteous and mine end be like his that is Let my soule depart in peace as the Righteous doe And least any thinke that Balaam spake he knew not what Sampson willing to end his life with reuenge of the dishonour done to God by the Philistines insulting at his bonds and blindnesse when he pulled the house on his and their heades said h Iudâ—… 16. vers 30. Let my soule die with the Philistines So Elias wearie of his life i 1. Kings 19. vers 4. desired for his soule to die saying Lord take my soule he ment from his body So Moses comparing a rape with murder saith k Deuter. 22. vers 26. This is as if a man should fall vpon his fellow and kill him in the soule And so Ieremie to Ierusalem l Iere 2. v 34. In thy bosome is found the bloud of the soules of the poore innocents Infinite places are there in the Scripture to like effect All which declare that the soule of man feeleth the death of the body by her departing from it and that the Prophet Esay when he said of Christ He m Esa. 53. v. 12 powred forth his soule vnto death Had no meaning but to describe Christs bodily death in which the soule is powred out from the body that is wholy separated from it The very phrase of powring forth the soule which must needes be from the body sheweth that the Prophet directly described the death of Christs body by which the soule is emptied and powred out of the body as out of a vessel replenished with it So that heere you haue as much hold for the death of Christs soule as you had before which is vtterly none n Defenc. pag. 143. li. 1. You earnestly affirme that this word signifieth soule or spirit in a proper sense Also how resolute are you forbidding to diuert from the natiue and proper significations of words but when the letter impugneth the grounds of Christian faith and charity In the Page 167. which you quote I neither spake of this place nor of this word and therefore your considering cappe was not on when you so much mistooke my words I know Nephesh is applied as well to beasts who haue no soules as to bodies once liuing but then dead And therefore of Nephesh I affirmed no such thing of S. Lukes words repeating Dauids and exactly distinguishing the soule from the flesh in Christ I did indeed auouch and still doe that we must not rashly depart from the proper significations of that and other words in the Scripture except the letter breed some inconuenience to faith or good-maners But what is that to this place where though the word Nephesh be granted properly to import the soule yet the rest sheweth it to be referred to the death of the body because the soule is powred forth of the body by the death thereof where before it was conteined and inclosed o Defenc. pag. 143. li. 15. The rather if we note that which followeth he was counted with sinners that is he was punished by God as sinners are punished and not by the Iewes only counted among Theeues You take vpon you to controle both the Prophet and the Euangelist who refer this misiudging of Chriâ—…t to men not to
departed from the bodie it rested not idle but descended ad inferos vnto hell And surely the one and the other societic both of godly soules and of the damned found the presence of Christes soule For the soules of the faithfull were cheered with great comfort and gaue God thanks sor deliuering them by the hand of this Mediatour and performing that which so long before he had promised Other soules also adiudged to euerlasting damnation animae Christi aduentum persenserunt perceiued the comming of Christes soule Zanchius shewing the different interpretations of those words of the Apostle Christ spoiled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in himselfe that is in his owne person sayth Other Interpreters hold that these enemies were vâ—…nquished and conquered on the crosse by Christ but the triumph was pâ—…rformed when Christ in his soule entred the kingdome of Hell as a glorious victorer For so they interpret the Article He descended into Hell And because the word deigmatizein doth signifie to carie one in an open shew as the Romans were woont in the eyes of men to leade their enemies once ouerthrowen with their hanâ—…s bound behinde them to their perpetuall shame and the soule of Christ separated from his bodie might really doe this to the diuels bringing them out of their infernall kingdome and carying them along the aire in the sight of all the Angels and blessed soules therefore nothing hindereth vs to interpret that which Paul heere writeth as the words sound euen of a reall triumph ouer the diuels in the sight of God onlie and of the blessed spirits specially since the Fathers for the most part so expound them ex nostris non pauci neque vulgares and of our Expositors not a few and those no meane men Aretius in his Problemes purposely treating of Christes descent to hell first alleageth that Tota Ecclesia vbique terrarum hodie illum Articulum agnoscit diuer sum à sepultura recitat the whole Church throughout the world at this date acknowledgeth that article and reciteth it as different from Christs buriall And to that obiection that some Creeds had not this clause he answereth The Church finding the descent of Christ to hell to be plainly deliuered in the Scriptures with great aduise admitted this Article into the Creed Otherwise how could it be that with so full consent of all nations and all tongues this clause should be so constantly and so consentingly receaued Repeating therefore many other senses he refuseth them euery one and concludeth Quare mea est sententia Christum descendisse ad inferos postquam tradidisset spiritum in manus Dei patris in cruce c. Wherfore mine opinion is that Christ descended into hell after he yeelded his soule on the Crosse to the hands of God his Father And hell in this question we put to be a certaine place appointed for the damned euen for Satan and his members To the words of Christ vttered to the thiefe this daie shalt thou be with me in Paradise I answere they hinder not this cause For Christ was in Paradise with the thiefe according to his diuinity in the graue according to his body in hell according to his soule Howbeit there is no certaintie how long Christ staied in hell not long it seemeth so that he might in soule that verie day returne from hell and after a glorious sort enter Paradise with the thiefe Neither hath that any more strength that Christ commended his soule into his Fathers handes For the soule of Christ was still in his Fathers hands though he descended into hell This descent was voide of forrow and shame to Christ. Where they say there was no need of this descent they run backe to the beginning for how should it be needlesse which the Scripture pronounceth Christ did and we confesse in our Creed We iudge it therefore needfull first for the reprobate that they might know he was now come of whose comming they had so often heard but neglected it with great contempt Againe Satan was perfectly to know that this Christ whom he had tempted in the desart and deliuered to death by the fraud of the Iewes was the very Messias and the seed promised to the woman Hoc inquam expediebat etiam Demonibus in imo Tartaro innotescere This I say was expedient euen for the diuels in the deepe of hell to know Thirdly it was expedient for the elect that Satan might see he should haue no right no not on their bodies since Christ heereafter would raise them to life Hemmingius As Christ by his death conflicted with the enemy on the gibbet of the crosse and ouercame him so by his glorious descent to hell resurrection and ascension to heauen he executed the triumph erecting as a monument of his victorie the ensigne of his crosse Mollerus writing on the 16. Psalme Touching Christes descent to hell We saith he vnderstand that Article of our faith in the Creede simply and without allegorie and beleeue that Christ truely descended to the lower parts of the earth as Paul speaketh Ephes. 4. It is enough for vs to beleeue which Austen affirmeth in his Epistle to Dardanus Christ thereforâ—… descended that he might helpe those which were to be holpen For Christ by his death destroied the powers of hell and the tyrannie of the diuell as is said Osee 13. O death I will be thy death and thy destruction O hell And this his victory he would in a certaine maner shew vnto the diuell that he might strike perpetuall terrors into the diuell and take from vs all feare of Satans tyrannie Let it suffice vs to know this and omit curious questions and disputations heereabouts Pomeranus on these words of the 16. Psalme Thou wilt not leaue my soule in Hell Heere hast thou saith he that Article of our faith Christ descended into hell If thou aske what he did there I answer He then deliuered not the Fathers onely but all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the end thereof not out of Lymbus but out of the lowest nether most hell to which we all were condemned and in which we all were as in death by the sentence of God There euerlasting fire did abide to vs all that being deliuered to death by the sinne of Adam we might in the last iudgement be deliuered to punishment and perpetuall sire Christ therefore descended euen thither vnto death and hell to this end least thou shouldest dâ—…scend thither that as he had redeemed vs from death so he might deliuer vs from hell Westmerus in his expositions of the Psalmes followeth worde for word the confession of Pomerane Wolfgangus Musculus Christ therefore was to die not that he should simply be dead but that by his death he might conquer death and ouercome him that had the rule ouer death and so he was to descend to hell
thing so to thinke Ambrose confesseth the same Expers peccati Christus cum ad Tartari ima descenderet vinctas peccato animas mortis dominatione destructa é fâ—…ucibus Diaboli reuocauit ad vitam Christ free from sinne when he descended to the lowest pit of hell recalled to life out of the diuels iawes the soules that were bound with sinne destroying the Dominion of death And so doth Ierom. Infernus locus suppliciorum atque cruciatuum est in quo videtur diues purpuratus ad quem descendit dominus vt vinctos de Carcere din itteret Infernus is the place of punishments and torments in which the rich man clothed with purple was seene and to which the Lord descended to dimisse such as were bound out of prison These I trust were no Heretikes but if need were and I would vse that aduantage against you which you insisting on Tertullians error seeke against me they would doe little lesse then prooue you to be a refuser and peruerter of the faith receiued in the Church of Christ and professed not by them onely but by all those Fathers whom I formerly cited as concurring in this cause with them But I smile at your follie and remit your reproches to the Readers impartiall Censure Athanasius also saying where humane soules were held by death there Christ brought his humane soule meaneth nothing else but that his soule came vnder the same condition of death as other humane soules did not that he went to the place of the damned Neither must he be vnderstood after your partiall translation when you say ex orco out of hell himselfe saith ex Hadou out of the power of death You set your selfe to outface all the places which I brought out of the Fathers for Christs descent to hell and as you played your part in wrenching wrying the words of Tertullian Austin from their rightsense so you continue in all the rest with like successe thinking it enough for you to say the word though it be neuer so false and farre from the Fathers meaning As first in Athanasius wordes what double punishment was that I pray which God threatned to Adam for sinne in saying to the earthly part earth thou art to earth shalt thou returne and to the soule thou shalt die the death for those are Athanasius words and what be the two places to which man after his dissolution was condemned Did God threaten nothing to Adam but the dissolution of bodie and soule or did he threaten the death of the soule also after this life which properly noteth hell besides the death of the bodie I trust you be not so senselesse as to say that God for sinne threatened no more to Adam and his posteritie but onely a bodily death for so could none of Adams off-spring by that sentence be adiudged to hell which yet we find daily performed by Gods iustice Then the death of mans soule threatened by God for sinne and meant by Athanasius in those words which you would elude was the place of perpetuall torments where the soule of man was truly held in death and not the condition of the soule seuered from the bodie without respect of any consequent miserie Therefore your maine foundation is euidently false that Athanasius by the death of mans soule meaneth nothing els but the soules being apart from the bodie without regard of punishment following but in expresse words he noteth the place Vbi tencbatur anima humana in morte where the soule of man was held captiue in death which spite of your heart must needes be hell Againe according to the double death threatned for sinne Athanasius saith â—… Homo in duas partes discerpitur vt ad duo loca discedat condemnatur Man dying is distracted in two parts and CONDEMNED TO TWO PLACES Now in your diuinitie is any man condemned to heauen or to Paradise you must find vs then two places of condemnation whither either part of man dissolued was adiudged as his bodie to the graue his soule to hades So saith Athanasius in expresse words If you can shew me another place of condemnation well you may say that a man is diuided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into three places and that being reuoked out of two places he remaineth bound in the third but if you can shew none other place of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the graue and Hades from which man is perfectly freed Christ deliuering vs how say you then that God is not reconciled vnto mankind If then Hades bee a place of condemnation â—…or sinne where the soule of man was bound till it was freed by Christ 〈◊〉 certainely Hades with Athanasius is neither Paradise nor heauen but onely hell Againe if by death raigning in the soule of man Athanasius intended nothing but the condition of death common to good and bad and euen to Christ himselfe how could hâ—… say of Christ that he was then and there inuiolus a morte not subâ—…ect to death or that he brake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bands of the soules detained in hades Hath heauen or Paradise any bands that must be broken And as for you last conceit that Hades being enemie and opposite to the immortalitie and resurrection of mens persons cannot by any means be hell for in hell shal be immortality resurrection as well as in heauen it is so like to the rest of your diuinitic that I doc not ouer much maruaile at it If hades be enemie and opposite to immortalitie as you confesse out of Athanasius then Hades is neither heauen nor Paradise for they are both places of immortalitie there is no death but life in either of them And though you cunningly shift handes and change mens persons for mens soulâ—…s of which Athanasius speaketh when he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where mans soule was held in death there Christ presented his humane soule to breake the chaines of death euen in hades yet that immortality is as well in hell as in heauen is a phrase of your owne framing to put all trueth and faith out of ioint The Scriptures teach most truely that God alone hath immortality It then you haue found vs a new immortalitie in hell you haue found vs a new God also And what is immortalitie but without all death since then in hâ—…ll there is nothing but death that eternall as well of soule as of body your deuices are very delâ—…cate in euerlasting death to finde no death But dally not thus with the grounds of Religion least God doe not dally with you if by your assertion the deliuerance from death and immortalitie which Christ brought to his elect be none other then such as men in hell shall haue pray God your braines be not as much crazed as your faith is And as for your interpreting Athanasius words and gessing at his meaning when we vse madde men to
you to expresse it rightly But you varie so often and say nothing in the end that your hearers can hardly sound the bottome of your Hades That God hath no handes as we haue this euery meane Christian doth or should know Since then this similitude is taken from men and with them it is not strange to put those on their right hand whom they will honour and aduance it is easie for the simple to learne that Christes sitting at the right hand of God is as much as his sitting in glorie and Maiesty with God which though they cannot presently perceiue how great it is yet may they readily coÌ„ceaue what the meaning thereof is In your descending to Hades it is nothing so Your inconstancy and varietie in expounding that phrase is a proofe what difficultie there is in it and your predicament of twelue parts at the end of your booke is a laborinth long enough for simple Christians to loose themselues therein Though therefore your deuices be familiar to your selfe who night and day dreame thereof yet that maketh them no whit the easier to the simple who can quickely apprehend that Christ was content to die for their sinnes and to be buried for the more certaine triall of death and to haue his soule bestowed where pleased himselfe till his resurrection when he raised himselfe from death as the vanquisher and commaunder of death and of the whole power and Dominion of Satan death and hell but that Christe soule after death descended to Hades that is to the generall indefinite condition and Dominion of death without any mention of the place where it abode this is more like one of Aristotles Metaphysicall abstracts then any part of the Christian faith Heerein all the later famous and godly restoarers of religion in a manner doe ioyne with vs as Master Bucer P. Martyr Bullingere Oleuian c. yea master Caluine liked this also well enough though yet he seemeth to leane more to another sense If you meane those learned men were of opinioÌ„ that descending to Sheol which the Septuagint cal hades referred to the bodies or liues of good or bad did in the old Testament signifie their going to the graue I am of the same opinion with them I haue not once nor twice professed as much but if any of them did thinke as none of them doe that Sheol in the Hebrew tongue or in the Scriptures importeth not hell but onely the graue I must haue leaue to dissent from such as be of that mind Howbeit neither Peter Martyr nor Bullingere nor Bucer nor Oleuian nor Caluine are of that mind notwithstanding they diuersely expound this Article What Caluine thinketh of Christes suffering hell paines is not to this purpose but most certainely hee taketh Hades in the Creede for hell and for the paines thereof Of the rest excepting Oleuian I haue spoken before and Oleuians reasons to prefer his sense before all other senses of this Article are very weake and not worthy a man of his learning He layeth this for the maine ground thereof which is not graunted and cannot be prooued That this Article of Christes descending to Hades was Christs extreamest and lowest humiliation and no part of his exaltation Which way will you or Oleuian prooue that and yet this is the onely cause why he would haue Hades signifie the ignominious state of Christes bodie in the graue where he lay oppressed and as it were swallowed vp of death But Oleuians suppositioÌ„ that certainly Peter in the second of the Acts spake of Christs extreamest humiliation and deriued it from Dauids wordes is vtterly void of all iust proofe For Peter proposeth the manner and power of Christes resurrection Now that was no part of Christes humiliation Againe the words which Peter citeth out of Dauid argue rather the singular prerogatiue which Christ had ouer death aboue Dauid and others that his flesh saw no corruption nor his soule was for saken in hell which things whatsoeuer their meaning be sound rather to Christs honor and Soueraignitie then to his abasement and humilitie Thirdly Oleuian referreth this to the basenesse of the graue where I hope Christes soule was not And if you make heauen or Paradise where Christes soule was the lowest abasement that Christ could suffer you will proue a mad merrie diuine Lastly where Oleuian would haue the shame of the graue to be the victorie of those hellish paines which he supposeth Christ suffered on the crosse call you that the victory of hell ouer Christs soule when it ascendeth with honour and blisse to heauen and the society of all the Saints These things must hang better together before I can be induced to admit them whosoeuer offereth them though I make it as lawfull for me to refuse Oleuians coniectures as he maketh it for himselfe to leaue all the Fathers and the reformed churches of the Augustane confession expounding that article of the Creed as I doe But we are to know that as you cite them and vrge them they haue no such authority and credit as hitherto we haue yeelded vnto them And that for three causes First for that your translating and turning them he descended into hell is corrupt partiall and vntrue The exceptions which you take against these words are three First that they are ill translated by me Secondly that they were lately put into the Apostles Creed Thirdly that they conteine an error which was Christs going to Limbus to fetch the Patriarks thence If the rest be no truer then the first we shal soone haue done with them Is this my translation of the Creed he descended into hell Can you shew vs since this Realme spake English or since it receaued the Christian faith that euer it had any other word in this place of the Creed but hell or a word equiualent to it The Saxons before vs said And he ny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…o helle and he downe went to hell The Britons before them if that tongue be not changed Descenawdd y yffern he descended to inferne So that in calling this translation corrupt partiall and vntrue you shew that you haue lately deuised a sense of that article which these parts of the Christian world neuer heard before And where you would haue me euidently and soundly conuince you by Greeke authority that hades is neuer applied to the state and condition of the godly deceased and then you will yeeld I like well your wit that wil be sure to say what you list without warrant or proofe and then lay the burden on others Must I prooue the negatiue or you rather not be beleeued till you haue iustly prooued by the Sctiptures and by the auncient Greeke fathers that hades with them did signifie the place where the soules of the righteous were receaued after Christs resurrection or that hades with them was not a place of darkenesse vnder the earth which what that be in Christian religion besides hell I leaue to the
his buriall and going downe into his graue as you acknowledge that hades many times may well signifie With the septuagint that were Iewes and translated the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke almost 300. yeeres before Christes birth I said indeed Hades stood aswell for the graue as for hell euen as the Pagans also did vse it but the Euangelists and Apostles retaining a difference betweene Thanatos death and Hades take Hades for hell and neuer for the graue whose example the Greeke Diuines doe follow and therefore Hades with them doth not signifie the graue but the place where the wicked are tormented after death as it doth in the Gospell of S. Luke Secondly the wordes of Ignatius agree not with that in Matthew by which you would expound them For Matthew saith the graues did open at Christs death and manie bodies of the Saints that slept arose and comming out of their graues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his resurrection came into the holy citie and appeared to many They did not rise with Christ but after him as Austen well expoundeth it that Christ alone might be the first fruits and first borne from the dead And therefore Ignatius did not speake this of Christes resurrection but of his ascension euen as Thaddeus did in the selfe same sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended alone to Hades but he ascended to his Father with a great multitude That Ignatius here noteth Christes buriall in none other wordes besides If you meane in the same sentence there was no cause nor need he should if you meane in the same place it is not true for the next sentence sauc one is this The day before the Sabbaoth at the third houre Christ receaued sentence of condemnation from Pilate at the sixt houre he was crucified at the ninth he breathed out his spirit and before the Sunne-set he was laid in his graue The Sabbaoth day he staied vnder the earth in his graue and at the dawning of the Lords day he rose from the dead But that Ignatius wordes can not be verified of Christes buriall is euident by the very purport of the wordes themselues he descended to hades alone saith Ignatius To his graue Christ descended not alone Those that were crucified with him were buried at the same time with him Besides he descended alone is as much as of his owne accord and by his own force no man helping or accompanying him which was not the manner of his buriall For his bodie was buried by others and could not of it selfe descend to the graue His descending to hades was a voluntarie action euen as his ascending from it was which in a dead bodie no man can imagine Lastly the wall neuer broken before can not be vnderstood of the graue since from the graue some others rose long before the death and birth of Christ as is plaine by the storie of him that was cast dead into Eliseus graue and of Lazarus Faine you would slubber vp these things but they hang in your teeth and will not goe downe The power of the graue or the strength of death which remained indeed from the beginning of the world as a mightie wall not broken downe was now you say by Christes death vtterly ouercome and dissolued In this answer you inclose three vntrueths First Christ neuer descended into the power of the graue nor strength of death as you conceaue they had no power or dominion ouer him he breathed out his owne soule at his owne pleasure to be resumed againe when pleased himselfe though for the proofe of his death to be true and vnfained hee was content his body should lie in the graue till the third day Againe the power of the graue or strength of death was no wall vnbroken from the foundation of the world Many rose from the dead before Christ and some were translated that they should not see death Thirdly it is not yet as you affirme vtterly ouer come and dissolued For the bodies of the Saints are vnder it and so shall be till the last day when the wicked shall rise from their graues aswell as the Saints though not to heauenly blisse as they shall Besides this the words as well of Ignatius as these of Thaddeus must be performed betweene Christs descent to hades and his resurrection For so Eusebius reporteth the wordes of Thaddeus Christ descended to hades and brake the wall neuer broken before since the world began And rose againe and raised the dead which had slept from the beginning Hades then hath a partition which neuer man brake as Abraham told the rich man Onely Christ who was God and man voluntarily descended thither and with his returne thence broke the wall that was neuer broken before Though some being dead did rise to life againe before Christs resurrection as touching the time yet the vertue and power of Christs resurrection was before them by which onely and meerely they rose againe Neither yet was resurrection to alâ—… the dead forthwith performed by the resurrection of Christ neuerthelesse purchased it was euen then and by the onely power and vertue thereof is and shal be performed to all in dâ—…e time You would seeme in this to answere me but indeed you refute your selfe For you confeste that this partition betweene death and life was often broken before Christs resurrection bâ—…it the power of Christs resurrection you say was before them by which onely they rose againe But both Ignatius and Thaddens say it was neuer broken before the time that Christ descended to hades They therefore doe not meane the graue as you doe If you say the graue was a partition to stay men from heauen till Christ was risen then were not the soules of the Saints in heauen whose bodies were in the graue which is repugnant to your owne position So that the graue neither hindering the body from life nor the soule from heauen before Christs comming was not the wall vnbroken till Christs descent to hades of which these auncient writers speake Our resurrection was purchased by Christs death and openly confirmed and assured to vs by Christs resurrection but since it shall not be performed vnto vs till the last day this wall is not vet actually broken downe to all Christs elect no more then death is abolished to them which is the last enemy that shal be destroied but is not yet subâ—…ected vnder Christs feet in respect of his members which doe and shall lâ—…e in theiâ—… graues to the end of the world Neither doth the Apostle call Christ the first fruits of the dead as you intend because others who rose from the graue before Christ did rise by the vertue and power of his resurrection you commit heerein a double error Christ was truely the first that euer rose from death to an immortall and celestiall life and the power and force of his resurrection bringeth not men backe to a
mortall and miserable life in this world but to be conformed to his glorious body that is to incorruption and immortality g Thus I vnderstand your Thaddeus also Athanasius in his Creed as it seemeth most reasonably and necessarily because they expresse neither his death nor his buriall at all in any other words saue these he descended to hades You runne so fast on your owne conceits that you see not what you passe by Hath Thaddeus no words touching Christs death what make you then of these scant a line before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how Christ humbled himselfe and died And though the Creed prouided for the simpler sort distinguisheth Christs crucifying death buriall and descent to hell yet what need is there that the learned euery time they talke of Christs crosse or death should number all these seuerally and orderly as they stand in the Creed crucifying is enough to note his death for they crucified him vnto death Christs buriall had in it no more but the certainty of his death and by Gods prouidence the vigilancâ—…e of his enemies that his body should not be thought to be stolen away by his owne Disciples Other moment or matter of our redemption there was none in Christs buriall The goodly words with which you would feed vs that in the graue he came vnder the power strength dominion and kingdome of death are rather variations for a nouice then any points of sensible doctrine for a diuine So that Athanasius expressing Christs suffering for our saluation his descending to hades and rising the third day from the dead fully compriseth all the principall works which Christ performed for our saluation from his crosse to his resurrection Now what Athanasius meaneth by hades since his works are extant in Greeke we shall not need to depend on your partiall coniectures We haue many plaine and perspicuous places which deliuer his sense and meaning vnto vs. I haue shewed before which I must not so often repeat that Athanasius maketh two places of condemnation whither man after death was adiudged for sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the graue and hades And of Christs body and soule he directly saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bodie of Christ went to the graue the soule to hades these places being diuided with a great distance and the graue receauing the presence of his body for there was his body present and hades receiuing his humane spirit Thinke you this to be plaine enough that Christs descent to hades was not his buriall where his body lay but the going of his soule to hades whither man was condemned for sinne and which Athanasius saith The Diuell kept as the onely place of his strength The enemie saith he fallen from heauen remoued from the earth expelled from the ayre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euery where vanquished determined if he could to keepe hades safe For this place was yet left vnto him But as soone as Christ died the world wanted the light of her Sunne the Vaile of the temple rent the earth trembled the Rocks did cleaue in sunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the souldiers together with the keepers of Hades did shake for feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Diuell thiâ—…ing to carry Christ to hades was himselfe throwen out of hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not long after but Christ loosed the sorrowes or paines of hades Athanasius then without peraduentures taketh hades for hell and Christs descent thither in soule to worke the subuersion of Satans kingdome and deliuerance of all his elect thence were they liuing dead or yet vnborne Your seeking to peruert this reason because the auncient Creedes want sundry other Articles which now are in our Creede is to no purpose For so much as they all do euermore intend to set downe perfectly the summe of Christs accomplished Redemption and mediation at the least Not any of those his maine workes are in them omitted If your pride were not greater then your skill we should haue a great deale lesse prating from you How shall the Reader beleeue your report of Fathers and their meanings when you neuer saw so much as the Creedes of the auncient Councels and yet pronounce so boldly of them as if you had perused them all but yesterday The great Nicene Creede maketh no mention of Christs death or buriall but saith He suffered and rose the third day The first generall Councell of Constantinople whose Creede was after vsed in the Church Seruice saith Christ suffered and was bâ—…ied and rose the third day omitting his crucifixion and death The great Councell of Aphrica and the generall Councell of Ephesus concurre with the Nicene and say he suffered and rose the third day What truth then is there in your words where you say they all doe euermore intend perfectly to set downe the Summe of Christs Redemption for vs not any of those his maine works are in them omitted Is the death of Christ none of his maine works for our Redemption finde you now that his buriall may be omitted and yet the Creede not be imperfect These things good Sir are implyed as consequent or antecedent to the parts expressed For if Christ did rise the third day he rose from the Graue where he had lien three daies and buried he was not before he was dead As also he rose not but from the dead Wherefore in his resurrection are both his death and his buriall comprised Besides he suffered vnto death Which things were all plainly proposed to the simple in their Creede called Aposto like but not in the Creedes concluded by the learned Pastours in their Councels The same course kept the Greeke and Latin Fathers sometimes expressing Christs death buriall and descent to hell sometimes omitting some of them as the cause required Epiphanius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ saith he speaking of the things as they were done is crucified buried he descended to the places vnder the earth in his Deitie and in his soule he leadeth Captiuitie Captiue and riseth the third day Vigilius Constat Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum sexta feria crucifixum ipsa die ad Infernum descendisse ipsa die in sepulâ—…hris iacuisse ipsa die Latroni dixisse hodie mecum eris in Paradiso It is certaine that our Lord Iesus Christ was crucified on the sixt day and that day descended to hell that day lay in the graue and that day said to the Theise This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And declaring how this was verified in Christ ergo dicimuâ—… Dominum iacuisse in sepulchro sed in sola carne Dominum descendisse ad infernum sed in sola anima Then we say that the Lord lay in his graue but with his Body alone and descended to hell but with his Soule alone without his Body Howbeit to speake plainly your Thaddeus whom
questioned which you say was without any presence of his humane soule and consequently must be referred to his diuine nature I aâ—…irme the contrarie that this exaltation to be Lord ouer heauen earth and hell pertained not to Christes Deitie which neuer wanted that Soueraintie but to his manhood which was obedient vnto death and was therefore aduanced to this hight And since this conquest ouer hell was reall in proofe not verball in claime speciall to Christes person not generall to all his members and performed after Christes death not by Christes diuine but by his humane nature this must needs be referred to Christes soule which might descend to hell and must before it could shew it selfe vanquisher of hell and not to his bodie which lay dead in the graue and could neither ascend nor descend till it was restored to life You make Christ Lord ouer hell because he kept himselfe from thence but so were all the faithfull whose soules were not inclosed in hell whom yet the Scriptures make not Lords ouer death and hell but deliuered from both There must be a conquest peculiar to Christ whereby he did take all power from them and reserued it to himselfe and rose from death as hauing the keyes of both The particular manner whereof in time and other such circumstances though the Scriptures do not expresse yet must not the general be doubted because the Scriptures witnesse that Christs soule was not left nor for saken in hell of Gods diuine power and presence but thence returned as conquerer of all Satans power and Dominion This the Church of Christ hath alwayes professed and this may the godly safely beleâ—…ue notwithstanding M. Broughtonsbedlom proclamation that it is the generall corruption of religion Scripture and all learning Our fourth reason There is altogether as great reason and as vrgent cause that Christ whole man both soule and bodie should be present in hell to free vs thence wholy that is our soules and bodies as there is that his soule must be there present to free thence our soules Heere I wish you would answere my proposition without skoffes and taunts and â—…autie disdaine as your manner is You cannot mocke and that is great pitie When your propositions want not only proofe and trueth but learning and vnderstanding shall I say they be sage wise Christian resolutions your deuices I call dreames your contradictions I call contrarieties your neglect of all Councels and Fathers I call presumption and your shifting and outfacing affirming that which is false and dâ—…nying that which is true I call vnshamefastnesse if not impudencie What other names should I giue them I professe I cannot flatter you in your fansies neither see I any cause why you regarding no man besides your selfe should thinke your selfe fit to be regarded with the disgrace of all auncients and others Where the matter is not meet to be reiected with disdaine I vse it not and where it is why should I not Yet now you would haue a direct and faire answere to your proposition though you little deserue it you shall This which you mention to wit our deliuerance from hell was not the onely cause of Christs descent thither his owne honour and right that suffered shame and wrong at Satans hand on the crosse was the chieâ—…e cause of his descent that after death he might shew himselfe in his manhood the conquerer and destroier of Satans power This you cleane leaue out of your proposition because you would be sure to bring nothing that should be sound and sufficient Againe your proposition as it standeth hath no strength in it besides your owne imagination For hell once subdued and conquered by Christ needeth not the second time to be conquered Since then till the day of iudgement hell hath no more but the soules of the wicked some few excepted who descended aliue to hell what needed more then the soule of Christ to conquer hell Thirdly sâ—…ing the body is cast into hell to increase the paines of the soule the soule being acquited and freed from hell there is no cause the body should goe thither And so in respect aswell of Gods ordinance till the day of doome as of the soules preeminence in and ouer the body the soule of Christ after death might iustly discharge our bodies and soules from all the power and claime that Satan had against vs. Lastly the proportion which Fulgentius Athanasius and others mention as deriued from the Scriptures that as the two parts of man after death were for sinne appointed to two seuerall places his soule to hell and his body to the graue so the Redeemer did â—…etch man backe againe from those two places of condemnation with the presence of his soule subduing hell and of his body resisting corruption this pâ—…oportion I say gâ—…ounded on the Scriptures is more then you can any way confute or open your mouth against with any trueth You aske why this going to hell by our Sauiour was not rather afâ—…er his resurrection when both paâ—…ts were ioined together First because by death which is the separating of the soule from the body Christ was to destroy both death and hell Next he was to rise conquerer of them both and not after his resurrection which was a conquest of both to reconquer them againe This therefore is an vnwise demand and sheweth that you doe not vnderstand what belongeth to Christs death or resurrection who was to rise the full conquerer and Lord of all his enemies in his owne person and not aâ—…ter his resurrection to make a new conquest ouer them And therefore your heaping of seuenteen places of Scripture in the margine of your booke to shew that Christ died and rose againe is to let men see that you haue emptied your note Booke and there find that Christ did rise from the dead To which if you will adde which is the true intent of all those places that Christ was to rise a perfect conquerer of death and hell you shall make so many proofes that Christ conquered both before and with his resurrection and by no meanes after it For his resurrection was manifest proofe that neither his soule was forsaken in hel nor his flesh left to see corruption in the graue and therefore both hell and death were perfectly subdued when he ioined againe his soule to his body and aduanced them both to an immortall and celestiall life Considering then whence the parts of Christs manhood were taken when he rose from the dead to wit his soule from hâ—…ll where it was not forsaken and his body from the graue where it was not corrupted you shall easily see if you doe not wilfully shut your eies that the power and force of Christs resurrection beganne with the subduing of hell by his soule and ouermastering putrifaction by his body Against whose soule and body since neither destruction nor corruption could preuaile it was not possible but he should rise vanquisher and Lord
priuatiâ—…e condition of death they wâ—…l â—…ile at your presumptuous folly If it be a matter of faith it â—… no phrase if we must beleeue as they teach that Christ after his death and buâ—…all deâ—…cended to hell you must shew vs some other hell to which Christ descended after death or els I conclude that the Lawes of this Land bind all men to beleeue and professe that Christ descended to that hell which the Scriptures acknowledge and not â—…hich your roling concâ—…its and totterâ—…ng tonguâ—… would establish against the warrant and word of God whose only will should be the line whose only trueth should be the guide whose only praise should be the end of all our professions and actions THE TABLE SERVING for their vse that are desirous with more ease to finde out the speciall contents of this booke as they are handled in their seuerall places A A Brahams bosom pag. 552 the place therof vnknowen 656 Aâ—…yssus in the Newe Testamenâ—… is hell 6â—…9 Aâ—…sed iâ—…nocents and penitâ—…nts â—…re not though hanged on a tree 238 Châ—…t was noâ—… Aâ—…sed how great soeuer his paines weâ—… 164. 165 S. Auâ—…s iâ—…dgement how Châ—…ist was accursed 241 Men câ—…n not be truly blâ—…ssed and accursâ—…d 253 Thâ—…t is â—…ccâ—…ed whâ—…ch God hateth 257 A sacâ—…ifice for sinne is not acâ—…ursed but accepted of God 258 Adam sinned aswell by bodie as by soule 183. 184 Was punished for his sinne after Christ was promised 147 What God threatened to Adam if he sinned 177. 178 Aeternall death fâ—…r whom Christ might feare 484 Against aeâ—…rnall death as due to him Christ could not pâ—…ay 378. 379 Aeternally God doth not punish one for anothers â—…ault 336 Affections are pâ—…infull to the soule 4â—…9 make sensible alterations in the heart 193. 194 Good affections of loue and zeale are not painfull 26 Euill affections are punishments of sinne 31 Inward affections make outward impressions in the heart 193 The heart is the seat of mans affections and actions  Christ couâ—…d represse and encrease his affections as he saw cause 400 The Aâ—…xe cleaueth to the Verbe and not to the Noune 216 Afflâ—…ctions of the godly are moderated punishmeÌ„ts 9. 10. 11. 17. manifest Gods displeasure against sinne 14â—… Agony what it is 339 Tâ—…e paines of hell were not the cause of Christs agony 58. 59 The causes that might be of Christs agony in the â—…ardeÌ„ 9â—… they crossâ—… not one another 97 I diâ—… not resolue what was the cause of Christs agony  The precise cause of Christs agony is not reuealed in the Scriptures 338. 346. though the general occasions may be coniectured 346 The parts of Christs agony 339 An agony proueth rather zeale then feare 339 Feare and sorrow the Scriptures witnesse in Christs agony 342 Submission to God and compassion on men the generall causes of Christs agony 347 The first cause coÌ„curring to Christs agony 347 The second 354 The third 370 The fourth 371 The fiâ—…th 375 The sixt 399 The Fathers determâ—…ne not the exact cause of Chrâ—…sts agony 371 How some vse the word agony 403 The different affâ—…ctions in Christs agony had different causes 558 Amazâ—…d neither Moses nor Paul were in their praâ—…ers 368 Christ was not amazed in his praier 369. 479 Christs praier prooueth hee was not then amazed 469 Christs â—…raier was no amaze 467 The Defender yeeldâ—…th perfect knowledge to Christ in his amazednes 481 Angry God was with our sinnes but not with Christs person 463 God is truely angry with his childrens sinnes 14 Angels sinned in their whole nature as men doe 197 Angels and good men receaued the bowing of the body 662 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth For as well as From. 501 The Apostle 1. Cor. 15. speaketh onely of the resurrection to glory 640. What his wordes Hâ—…b 5. inferre 498. 499. 500 Beleeuers may not iudge of the apostles words 89 More Apostles then twelue 651 The diuers reading and translating of the apostles words 1. Cor. 15. 55. 639 Astonishment what it is 441 What astonishment with feare is 468 Christ did not pray in astonishment 441 Why Christ might be somewhat astonished 468 Athanasius lewdly falsified by the Defender 275 taketh Hades for hell 569. 600. 601 What Athanasius speaketh of Adam the Defender referreth to Christ. 275 Augustine not ignorant of the Greeke tongue 608 his iudgement how Christ was accursed 241 keepeth the sense of Peters word Act. 2. 626 is grossely mistaken by the Defender 627  Christ tooke our naturall but not sinfull affections 330 Christ might beholde the power of Gods wrath and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked 348 Christ prayed for vs and against Satan 352 Christ knew the burden of our sinnes must lie on his shoulders 353 Christ and his members must drinke of one and the same cup. 353 Christ wept for the desolation of Ierusalem and sorowed for the reiection of the Iewes 354 Christ wept and sorrowed when he would 355 Christ grieued at the wilfulnesse of the Iewes 357 Christ sorowed that his death should be the ruine of the Iewes ibid. Christ chose the time and place to shew his vehement affections 358 Christ could not be content to be separated from God for vs. 367 Christ suffered the likenesse of our punishment not of our sinne 273 Christ was not ordained to be damned for vs. 364 Christ feared not death but his Fathers power 370 Christ might pray to haue the deepnes of his sorrowes comforted paines asswaged 374. 375 Christ might pray against the sting of death which he was to feele before he died 381 Christ could not pray against eternall death as due to him but vnto vs. 378. 379 Christ was most earnestly to aske what God had faithfully promised to graunt 384 Christ felt all our affections not of necessitie but according to his owne power and will 386 Christ shewed in the garden how mans soule strugleth with the panges of death 388 Christ was weake to comfort the weak but stronger then the strongest on the crosse 388. 390 Christ saw the whole danger from which hee should redeeme vs. 392. 393 Christ teacheth all his to feare Gods power as himselfe did in the garden 393. 394 Christ presented and dedicated his body in the garden which he sufâ—…ered on the crosse to be done to death 399 Christ died not in the garden 400 Christ could represse and increase his affections as he saw cause 400 Christ found no ioy in his paines but comfort in his hope 411 Christ emptied himselfe of glory not of grace 412 Christ citing the 1. vers of the 21. Psalme noteth the whole to appertaine to his passion 434 Christ was mortified in flesh but not in soule 507 Christ might passe from hell to heauen 550 Christ needed no long time to deâ—…cend to hel 551 Christ presented himselfe in euery place 564 Christ was to rise full conquerer of hell and death 668 How Christs death was like the godlies 7 How Christ laid downe his soule for
ordained to be damned for vs. 364 Dauid neuer felt the true paines of hell 453 Dauids feare vnlike to Christs 442 What Death Christ died 19 A threefold death the wages of sinne 13â—… Corporall death in all men is the punishment of sinne 149. 150. 151. 176 Death in Christ was the satisfaction for sinne 176 Euerlasting death the wages of sinne which Christ could not suffer 226 The death of the body is euill in it selfe though God to his make it a passage to life 244. 245 The consequenâ—…s after death doe not proue death to be good 246 The nature of death not changed in the godly 252 God so hâ—…teth death that he will destroy it as an enemie 254 Naturall death came not by the sentence of Mosâ—… Law 261 Thâ—…e is no death of the Soule without sinne 366 All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before he died 389 The death and life of the soule here on earth mistaken by the Defender 430 What the second death is in the Scriptures 492 Eight pâ—…es of Scripture abused for the death of Christs Soule 493 By one lande of death Christ freed vs from all kinds of death 504 To be vtterly forsaken of God is the death of the Soule 517. 518 The extreamest degree of pains where grace doth not faile is no death of the Soule 524 What things the death of the body doth import 649 The Defender grosly peruerteth my words 44. 45 The Defender contâ—…adicteth himselfe 56. 57 The Defender contemneth the Fathers and their iudgements 82 The Defender deuiseth shifts to decline Scriptures and Fathers against him 94 The Defender would make the maner of Christes dying onely vnusuall 95 The Dâ—…fender doth grossely mistake the reiection of the Iewes to be the meaning of Christes complaint on the crosse 98 The Dâ—…fender not able to support his errors doth quarrell with the question 99 The Defender eludeth the Scriptures with his termes of single and meere 125. 126. 127 The Defender clouteth one conclusion out of diuers places 146 The Defender maketh the sufferings of Christs flesh needlesse to our redemption 168. 169 The Defender peruerteth the doctrine of the Homilies 224. 225 The Defender maketh Christ sinfull accursed and defiled 265 The Defender would not faile to cite Fathers if he had them 273 The Defender compareth Christ in want of comfort with the damned 291 The Defender vainly presumeth all places of his vnanswered to be granted 319 The Defender hath deuised torments for Christs soule 323 The Defender controleth the words of the holy Ghost by his new phrases 413 The Defender in steed of proouing falleth to granting his owne positions 5â—…3 The Defender misciteth S. Iohns words and on that error groundeth all his reasons 644 The Defender giuing a reason of nâ—…thing asketh a reason of all things 415 The Defender claimeth like reuerence to his words as to the Scripture 325 The Defender saith the Scriptures are ordinarilie true that is sometimes false 367 The Defender doth euery where mistake and misapply what is said 384 The Defender forgeth a pace new parts of the Christian faith 393 The Defender taketh the parts of Christs agonie for the causes thereof 401 The Defender is somewhat pleasureable 528 The Defender corrupteth S. Luke 402. 403 The Defender ascribeth a liuely affection to Christs dead flesh 422 The Defender vttereth a flat contradiction to his owne doctrine 422. 423 The Defender confesseth the Fathers prooue my meaning 425 The Defender is driuen to contrarieties 431 The Defender taketh from Christ inward sense and memory in his sufferings 440 The Defender yeeldeth perfect knowledge to Christ in his amazednesse 481 The Defender foolishly prooueth the death of Christs soule 495. 496 The Defender abuseth the Scriptures 534. 535 The Defender cannot discerne a conclusion from a quotation 568 The Defendours foure restraints of hell paines 4 The Defendours disdaine of the fathers 98 The Defendours vaine shifts 114. 115 The Defendours skill in framing arguments 327 The Defendours absurd deuises 490 The Defendours manner of reasoning as illogicall as his matter is false 336 Dereliction in the Scriptures neuer implieth the paines of the damned 415 Deepe what it signifieth 566 To what Deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 The true sense of Paul and Moses words Rom. 10. concerning the Deepe 568 The whoâ—…e church taught that Christ after death descended to hell 544. 545 New Writers teach Christs descent to hell 546. 547 Christ needed no long time to descend to hell 551 Of Christs descending and ascending 553 Christ aescended and ascended to be Lord ouer all 563 To what deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 Descending is to places below 569 How long this clause of Christs descent to hell hath been in the Creed 653. 654 What Ruffinus meaneth by Christs descent to hell 655 Descending to hades was not the buriall of Christs body 556. 557. 558 The causes of Christs descent to hell 666 Desâ—…ending to hell was a part of Christs exaltation 671 The descent of Christ to hell confessed by the Catechisme 677 The Lawes of this land doe binde all to beleeue Christs descent to hell 678 Desperation in hell is no sinne 71 Desperation is the sorest torment in this life 238 A small Difference of wordes may quite alter the sense 199 Difference of Christs offering and suffering 276 Difference of outward and inward temptatioÌ„s 314 Difference betwixt Gods threats iudgements 472 How the Diuell may discerne and incense our affections 192 The Diuell tormented not Christes soule on the Crosse. 295 Christ suffered as deepe paines but not as deepe Doubts as we may 321 E. ELect Who is enemie to Gods Elect. 233 The Elect are neuer truely accursed 252 The Elect cannot perish 364 Erasmus fouly mistaken by the defendor 653 Foure notable Errors grounded by the defendor vpon the facts of Moses and Paul 363 The first 363 The second 365 The third 367 The fourth 368 What impressions Euill maketh in the soule of man 341 Euill past present or to come worketh sorrow paine and feare in the soule of man 341 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it importeth 485 Is contrarie to feare 501 Esay doth not touch the death of Christes soule 526. 527 Esay 14. Shcol for hell 559. 560 Eusebius report of Thaddeus allowed by the best historiographers 660 F FAthers their iudgements may be called Authorities 83 The Fathers may be left in some priuate opinions 84 I leaue not the Fathers in the grounds of faith 85 The Fathers doc not teach that Christ suffered all which we should haue suffered 138. 139 The Fathers disclaime all necessitie in the death of Christ. 285 The Fathers determine not the exact cause of Christs Agonie 371 Wherein we should follow the Fathers 415 Some Fathers expound me in Christs wordes for my members 416 No Father auoucheth the death of Christs Soule 142. 143 Diuerse Fathers euidently corrupted for the death of Christs Soule 428. 429 By the iudgement of the Fathers Christ died
Hieronymus ad Hedibiaâ—… quaestiâ—… 8. c Defenc. pa. 32. d Defenc. pa. 32. e Pag. 32. li. 45. * Luk 23. ‖ Vers. 47. Vers. 48. f Bernard seria 4. â—…ebdo paenosâ—… g Defenc. pag. 33. l. 1. h Sâ—…rmo pa. 3. i Austen de Triâ—…tated l. 4. cap. 13. k Seâ—…mons pagina 8. l August in Iohan. tractat 119. m Athana cont Arâ—… orat 4. n Origenes in Iohan. Euang. 〈◊〉 19. o Gregor Nâ—…ssenus de resurrectione Christi Oratio 1. p Nazianzen in Christo patiente q Hierom. 15. cap. Marci r Idem ad Hedibiam quâ—… 8. s Chrysostom in Matth. cap. 27. hom 89. t Victor Antioâ—… in cap. 5. Marci u Leo Serm. 17. de Passione Domini x Fulgentius ad Trasimundum lib. 3. * Sedul operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 17. * Nonnius Paraphras in Joan ca. 10. ver 18. y Bedâ—… in Matt. cap. 27. z Ibid. in Marci cap. 15. a Theophylact. in Matth. cap. 27. b Idem Marci cap. 15. c Idem Marci cap. 23. d Lyra in Matâ—… cap. 27. e Erasmus paâ—… in Lu. ca. 23. f Idem in Marci cap. 15. g Musculus in Matth. cap. 27. h Gualter in Ioh. hom 169. i Marlor in Matth. ca. 27. k Defenc. pa. 32. The Defender deuiseth shifts to decline Scriptures and Fathers against â—…im l Trea. pag. 53. m Ibidem n Defenc. pa. 33. I did not resolue what was the cause of Christs agonie o Defenc. pa. 33. li. 12. p Serm. pag. 37. li. 33. q Defenc. pa. 34. li. 3. 6. r Matth. 26. s Luk. 22. t Defenc. pa. 33. li. 10. u Iohn 7. x Defenc. pag. 33. l. vlt. y Pa. 33. li. 17. z Ibid. li. 24. a Trea. pa. 65. li 25. b Trea. pa. 66. li. 31. c Trea. pa. 67. li. 11. d Trea pa. 68. li. 3. 8. e Defenc. pag. 3â—… The Defender doth grosly mistake the reiection of the Iewes to be the meaning of Christs complaint on the crosse f Defenc. pag. 35. The Defender not able to support his errours doth quarrell with the question g Serm. pag. 8. li. 35. h Serm. pag. 8. li. 23. i Ibid. li. 29. li 36. k Pag 9. li. 1. 3. l Serm. pag. 9. li. 14. m Defenc. pa. 35. li. 32. o Defenc. pa. 35. li. 32. p Pag 8. 14. q Defenc. pa. â—…5 li 36. â—… Ft pa. 36. l. 2. What is contained in Christes bodily death r Hose â—… s Psal. 82. t Defenc. pa. 36. u Pag. 35. li. 3â—… x Defenc. pa. 36. li. 13. y Defenc. pa. 36. z Luc. 21. a Ephes. 4. b Psal. 72. c Hebr. 11. d Luc. 1. e Heb. 9. f Eph. 5. g Gene. 2. h Rom. 6. i Hebr. 9. k Hebr. 2. l Rom. 5. m Coloss 1. n 1. Pet. 1. o Hebr. 9. p 1. Iohn 1. q Ephe. 1. r Luke 22. s Iohn 6. t Hebr. 10. u Iohn 10. x Matt. 20. y Esa. 53. z 1. Coâ—…in 15. a Defenc. pa. 36. li. 31. b Treati pa. 11. li 30. c Rom. 4. d Esay 53. e Defenc. pa. 37. li. 5. f Heb. 5. g Defenc. pa. â—…7 li. 10. My Exceptions to the Defenders instance of the Scape-goat h Leuitic 16. vers 7. i Defenc. pa. 37. li. 21. k Leuitic 16. vers 6. l Defenc pag. 37. li. 28. m Defenc. pa. 38. li. 13. n Pag vt supra li. 5. o Leuitic 16. vers 10. The Scape-goat might in some sort be a figure of Christ. p Iustinus in Dialâ—…go cum Tryâ—…one q Tertul. contra Marcio li. 3. aduers. Iudaeos de 2. Christi aâ—…uentu r Theodoreti quaesti in Leâ—…it siâ—…il Dialogo 3. s Isychius li. 5. in Leuit. 16. t Caluinus Harâ—…o in 4. li. Mosis in 2 praecâ—…pto ex cap. 16 Leuitici u Defenc. pa. 39. li. 4. x Matth. 12. y Iohn 19. z Ambro. de incarn dom Sacramento ca. 5. a Eusebius demonst Euangel li. 1. ca. 8. b Ibidem li 3. cap. 6. c Trea. pa. 11. li. 24. d Leuit. 16. vers 22. e Ibidem f Defenc. pa 40. li. 2. g Defenc. pa. 38 li. 21. What salt flower â—…le wine added to the Iewes sacrifices â—…ight signifie h Pag. 38. i Pag. 38. li. vl k Pag. 39. li. 1. l Pro. 21. v. 1â—… m Leuit. 16. vers â—…0 n Esa 43. v. 30. o Mark 15. p Munst. Annotat in Leuitic ca. 16. q Tertull. contra Marcio li. 3. r Defenc. pa. 40. li. 8. What the Holocaust did signifie s Trea. pa. 13. li. 18. t Trea. pa. 11. li. 24. u Defen pa. 40. li. 13. x Defenc pa. 40. li. 20. y Hebr. 10. z Heb. 9. a Defen pa. 42. li. 8. What fire did signifie in sacrifices b Iudges 6. c 2. Chron. 7. d 2. Kings 18. e Leuit. 9. f Leuit. 6. vers 12. 13. g Leuit. 10. h Genes 8. i Exod 29. k Leuit. 3. v. 5. l Reuel 8. Christs suffering without the gate of the Citie m Esa. 5. v. 24. Nah. 1. v. 10. 1. Coâ—…inth 3. n Pro. 17. v. 3. Sap. 6. v. 3. Eccles. 2. v. 5. o 1. Pet. 1. p Def. pag. 41. q Conclus pa. 236. li 30. r Defenc. pag. 40. li. 37. s Defenc. pa. 42. li. 1. The Defenders â—…aine shifts t Trea. pa. 11. u Defenc. pa. 39. li. 11. x Trea. pa. 11. li. 9. 12. y Trea. pa. 41. z Defenc. pag. 42. li 9. a Aug. contra â—…aust Manâ—… li. 22. ca. 17. b â—…eda quâ—…st super Leuit. cap. 3. c Cyrillin Leuit li. 1. d Hebr. 9. v. 7. e Vers. 8. 12. 24. f Defenc. pag. 42. li. 12. g Phil. 3. h Rom. 8. h Rom. 8. i Mat. 5. v. 48. Col 4. v 12. Iâ—…m 1. v. 4. k Defenc. pag. 42. l Defenc. pag. 43. li. 1. m Defenc. pag. 42. li. 37. n Defenc. pag. 42. li. 38. Sacraments doe constantly and continually signifie and represent the same o Defenc. pa. 42. li. 29. p Serm. pa. 63. li. 22. q Ibid. li. 23. r Defenc. pa. 43. li. 3. s 1. Cor. 10. t 1. Cor. 11. u Trea pa. 14. li. 12. x Defenc. pa. 21. li. 4. y Trea. pa. 5. li. 27. z Defenc. pa. 43. a Arist proble sectio 5. numero 19. b Hippocr li. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Galenus in â—…undem librum d Hesychij I exicon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Theophrasius de causis â—…lantarun lib. 3. cap. 19. f In verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g Aristopha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Chrysostomi Leirurgia Graecè i Germani historis Ecclesiastica k Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 li. 3. ad finem l Galenus in 2. lib. Hippocra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 m Galenuâ—… de â—…eth medendi lib. 6. n Galenus in 2. lib. Hippocra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o Hippocrates in 2 lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p Galenus de Methodo medendi li. 6. q Psal. 22. vers 15. r Defenc. pa. 43 li. 15. s Forsteri Dictionarium Hâ—…braicum in themate Dacha 2â—…8 t
THE CROSSE OF CHRIST should be frustrate For the PREACHING OF THE CROSSE is to them that perish foolishnesse but to vs that are saued it is the power of God Christ crucified then being the very ground of our saluation and the Gospel declaring him to be the power of God to saue all that beleeue euidently the crosse of Christ was the maine doctrine of the Gospell which Paul preached to the Galathians and which the false Apostles mixed with circumcision and the righteousnesse of the law as well for the aduancing themselues being Iewes as for feare of their countreymen who vtterly disdained and egerly pursued all that taught a man hanged on a tree as a malefactor for so the vnbeleeuing Iewes conceiued of Christ to be the Sauiour of the world and complement of all Gods promises made to the seede of Abraham for their euerlasting blisse The rage of the vnbeleeuing Iewes against Paul for preaching the death and blood of Christ to be the Redemption of all the faithfull is manifest in many places of the Actes and of his owne Epistles which furie whiles the false Apostles sought to decline and somewhat to please and pacifie the Iewes they added circumcision and the obseruation of the law vnto the Crosse of Christ as necessary for iustification and saluation without which the death of Christ could doe vs no good This error then newly sowen among the Galathians to whom Paul before had preached Christ crucified as the sole and sufficient meane of their Redemption and Iustification through faith in his blood the Apostle throughout that large Epistle of his written vnto them with his owne hand doth purposely and mightily confute and is so farre from coupling any thing with Christ as requisite for righteousnesse or blessednesse and chiefly the law that he opposeth himselfe against men and Angels for the truth of his doctrine and resolueth cleane contrary to those false teachers and flatterers of the Iewish nation in most vehement manner Behold I Paul say vnto you that if yee be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Ye are abandoned from Christ whosoeuer are iustified by the law ye are fallen from grace His reasons are vrgent and euident If righteousnesse could be by the law then Christ died in vaine And that no man is iustified by the law in the sight of God it is plaine for the iust shall liue by faith now the law is not of faith For all haue sinned and are iustified freely by Gods grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus whom God hath set foorth to be a Reconciliation THROVGH FAITH in his blood to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenes of sinnes As many then as are of the works of the law are vnder the curse but Christ hath redeemed vs from the curse of the law being made a curse for vs as it is written cursed is euery one that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentils through Iesus Christ. And that made the Apostle enter this disputation with so sharpe a rebuke to the Galathians for sliding from this Gospel or glad tidings of their saluation in the Crosse of Christ to circumcision and the works of the law O foolish Galathians saith he who hath bewitched you not to obey the truth to whom Iesus Christ was before your eyes described crucified among you And in this confident course he goeth on with plentifull and substantiall proofes that the Redemption righteousnesse blessednesse adoption freedome and sanctification of Gods children proceede from the grace of God and of Christ who gaue himselfe for our sinnes that he might tast death for all and are receiued by faith in the blood of Christ which confesseth him to be the Sonne of God and the only Sauiour of the world What marueile then if in the close of this example when Paul had shewed his care to haue the Galathians persist in this truth in that he wrote so long a letter vnto them with his owne hand which otherwise he did not vse he did also traduce the pride and pollicie of the false Apostles who partly to aduance themselues because they were Iewes partly to shunne the enuie of their countrimen frustrated the Crosse of Christ by adding circumcision and the obseruation of the law vnto it not that they themselues kept the law but only because they would not suffer persecution for preaching the Crosse of Christ which the vnbeleeuing Iewes so egerly resisted and impugned and withall professed of himselfe that howsoeuer they reioyced in the flesh that is in the circumcision of the Gentils yet God forbid that he should reioyce but in the crosse of Christ as the most sufficient meane of mans Redemption by which he was crucified to the world and the world to him what persecution soeuer he suffered for it And the verses following which you peâ—…uishly pull to patience in persecution pertaine directly to establish the truth and force of Christs Crosse. For in Christ Iesus saith he that is to attaine saluation by Christ crucified neither circumâ—…sion anâ—…leth any thing nor vncircumcision but a new creature that is Regeneration in Christ when the inward man of the hart is renued by faith through the operation of the spirit And as many as walke according to this Rule of doctrine by preaching and beleeuing the crosse of Christ for many walke after an other rule of whom I haue often told you that they are the enimies of the crosse of Christ peace be vpon them and mercy and vpon the Israell of God that is vpon as many as be Iewes within and not without and haue the circumcision of the hart in the spirit not in the flesh whose praise is not of men but of God And therefore from hence forth let no man put me to businesse as if I liked or allowed circumcision when and where pleased me For if I yet preach circumcision why doe I yet suffer persecution the slâ—…inder of the Crosse is abolished and the Iewes haue no cause of offence against me But of the Iewes fiue times receiued I fortie lashes sane one I was thrise beaten with rods I was once stoned I haue beene in stripes aboue measure in prison frequent in death often I beare in my body the markes of the Lord Iesus that is the signes of these persecutions suffered for his cause which prooue that in preaching the crosse of Christ I goe not about to please men but God For if I would please â—…en I were not the seruant of Christ. There is no miscoherence with the Text nor dissidence from the truth in this exposition which not my selfe alone but the auncient Fathers and best Diuines both olde and new haue imbraced yea it fully agreeth with the maine intent of Paul in this Epistle with the perpetuall vse of his words and with the cleare light of other places where