without originall sinne as being made out of this substance after such a maner as the Messias or Sonne of God was made of a virgin Sit fides penes Authorem We know the blessed Virgin was the daughter of Abraham and the daughter of David but not by any portion of Abrahams or Davids body altogether exempted from such alterations as the Elementary vertues of which all mens bodies are made are subject unto Nor was the body of the Messias to be made of any such portion of Adam perpetually exempted from the contagion of sin original unto the time wherein the blessed Virgin was affianced to Ioseph The first exemption of any portioÌ„ of the humane nature or substance of Adam after his fall was granted and wrought by the immediate hand of God in the conception of his Sonne by the holy Ghost which was immediatly upon that sweet assent of the blessed Virgin unto the Angel Gabriel Ecce ancilla c. Capnio Vellem expressius audire an veteres Heâ— braeorum senserint matrem Messiae in peccat-originali concipiendam non fuisse Galatin Quamvis ex his quae diximus satis utarbi tror apertè colligatur hanc priscorum Iudaeorum fuisse fidem nedum opinionem hoc tamen manifestius ex verbis praedicti Rabbenu haccados habetur qui eodem in libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gale razeia cum ad septimam Antonini Consulis urbis Romae petitionem inter caetera dixisset propter matrem verò ejus scil Messiae ait David Psal 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est aâ—acum quam plantavit dextratua Dixissetque ei Antoninus Cur mater Dei comparatur abaco curve dicit eam a dextra Dei plantatam Respondit sic Ille Similis facta est abaco mater Dei Quandoquidem sicut aâ—acus est armarium quod Principes conficiunt ad collâ—canda vascula auri argenti ut gloriam suam atque opes omnibus ostendant Ita mater Regis Messiae erat armarium quod Deus construxit ut in eo sedeat ipse Messias ad ostendendam gloriam Maiestatis suae cunctis mortalibus Per id autem quod ait plantâ—tam esse a dextra Dei ostendit eam primam esse creaturam Dei in genere humano sicut dictum est Micheae Cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Et egressus eius ab aeternitate a diebus seculi Dicit enim egressus numero multitudinis Quiâ— sunt duo Messiae egressus Vnus Divinitatis quae est aeterna ideoque dicit ab aeternitate Alter humanitatis quae in sue matris extat substantia quae creata est ab hora creationis mundi Haec ille quem Iudaei Magistrum nostrum sanctum nuncupant Ad quorum declarationem notandum est Quod opinio quorundam veterum Judaeorum fuit matrem Messiae non solum in mente Dei ab initio ante secula creatam fuisse ut paulò superiùs dictum est verùm etiam materiam eius in materia Adae fuisse productam ipsamque gloriosam Messiae matrem principalem extitisse cum eius amore ut dictum est mundus creatus sit Nam cum Deus Adam plasmaret fecit quasi massam ex cuius parte nobiliori accepit intemeratae matris Messiae materiam ex residuo vero eius superfluitate Adam formavit Ex materia autem immaculatae matris Messiae facta est virtus quae in nobiliori loco membro corporis Adae conservata fuit Quae postea emanavit ad Seth deinde ad Enos deinde succidaneo ordine ad reliquos usque ad sanctum Iehoiakim Ex hac demum virtute beatissima mater Messiae formata fuit Et idcirco eam Zach. cap. 4. suae prophetiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est petram primariam recte appellavit Ex qua ut antiqui Judaeorum exposuerunt excidendus erat Messias Neque quidem abs re cum tempore gradu excellentia primaria futura esset Ex qua quidem opinione apertè concluditur carnem gloriosae matris Messiae non fuisse peccato originali infectam sed purissimam a divina prouidentia praeservatam Quocirca nec anima eius hujusmodi peccatum in conceptione contractura erat Petrus Galatinus lib. 7. per totum caput tertium 6 If it were lawfull to moralize such fables as I take this of Galatinus to bee no better the best moral I can make of it would be this However there had been many intermediat generations as many as S. Luke relateth if not more between our father Adam and the conception of the Sonne of God yet was our Saviour in some respects the immediat Successour of Adam the onely second Adam His immediat Successor not in sinne but of that purity of nature wherein the first Adam was created and yet withall immediat successor unto that curse which Adam by transgression had incurred but was not able to expiate nor to beare save onely by the everlasting death of himselfe and his posterity And for this reason if I mistake not the Sonne of God doth call himselfe as no sonne of Adam before him did The Sonne of man by peculiar title Yet was this a title as Maldonat well observes not of honour but of abjection of greater abjection than the like title given to Ezekiel not by himselfe but by the Angels And yet Ezekiel is called by the Angel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the difference betwixt these two titles which are both exorest in our English by Sonne of man I referre the Reader to the 49. Psalme ver 2. and the Commentators upon it As the Sonne of God was immediate Successour unto Adam so he was the immediate heire unto the blessing promised to Abraham more than heire the Author and foundation of it He was likewise immediate Successor unto David and his kingdome the onely body in whom the shadow of Gods mercies unto David for the good of Israel and Judah was to be fulfilled If hee had been immediate Successor unto David onely this might have occasioned some suspition or distrust that hee had been the Redeemer of the Jewish nation onely or of the sonnes of Iacob Had hee been immediate Successor unto Abraham onely this might have occasioned the like surmise or fancy that hee had been manifested onely to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in Abrahams seed according to the flesh which was much more ample than the seed of Iacob But in as much as the Sonne of God did in time become the sonne of man the immediate Successor unto Adam the onely second Adam though not the first or second man from Adam This giveth us to understand that he was the next of kindred to all men as they were men whether Jewes or Gentiles He to whom the redemption of all mankinde did by right of kinred without partiality or respect of persons equally belong And for this reason hee did not take any created party or person into
him These were the weapons by which he foiled the old Serpent and obtained the victory by managing our weaknesse and infirmities better then our first Parents did those great abilities wherewith their Creator had endowed them to resist temptations The weapons which the old Serpent used in the conquest of our first Parents and by which hee retained their posterity in continuall slavery were their owne desires and affections these hee improved so farre that they became unweeldy And he having gotten as wee say the better end of the staffe did wrest our wills at his pleasure to doe those things which God forbids us to do and make us furious executioners of his cunning contrivances against our own soules The particularities of his sleights or cunning for bringing us into thraldome inextricable unlesse the Sonne of God set us free are elswhere deciphered These two are the maine generals First the extension of our naturall desire of things within their bounds good and pleasant Secondly the improvement of our feare of things distastfull to nature as of death disgrace or torture Now that the Sonne of God might thus beate him at his owne weapons it was necessary that he should first take upon him the forme or essentiall condition of a servant for without this first voluntarily undertaken by him the rule of justice could not possibly have suffered him to have suffered so much as he did for our redemption Wherein then did the state or condition of a servant which he tooke upon him formally consist Or when did he first become a servant from the first moment of his birth or conception 2. I cannot brooke their opinion who think our Saviour was by birth a legall servant as being filius ancillae the sonne of an handmaid or bond-woman This grosse heresie hath been well refuted by some late Schoolemen whose names I now remember not nor the names of the Authors or abettors of this opinion The mother of the Sonne of God was indeed ancilla an handmaid but to him onely whose service is perfect freedome So the Psalmist in the person of the Sonne of God to be manifested in our flesh or as his type directs his prayer Psal 116.16 O Lord truely I am thy servant and the sonne of thy handmaid CHRIST as all Christians grant was the Sonne of Gods Handmaid after such a manner and in such a sense as never any man besides him was For hee was the promised womans seed and the sonne of a woman in such a sort as hee was not the sonne of any man Againe hee was the servant of God after such a peculiar manner as neither man or woman had been or ever shall be But how doth this peculiar service of his fit our servitude unto sinne Even as the medicine doth the disease or as the plaister doth the wound for which it is prepared In the Sonne of God made man there were two distinct wills the one truely Divine the other truely humane To deny this distinction of wills in Christ were to revive the heresie of the Monothelites so called because they held but one will in Christ to wit the Divine An errour into which they haply fell as many since their time have done into a worse by not distinguishing betweene voluntas and arbitrium Our Saviour CHRIST whilest hee lived here on earth had a reasonable will of the same nature or quality our will is of sinne excepted And by this will he could not but desire his owne particular good as health welfare and other lawfull contentments of the humane nature which are requisite to true joy or happinesse But in as much as the Sonne of God from the beginning of mans servitude unto Satan became our Surety to make satisfaction for our sins did in the fulnesse of time take our nature upon him hee did wholly submit his reasonable will all his affections and desires unto the will of his heavenly Father And in this renouncing of the arbitrament of his will and in the entire submission of it unto the will of his Father did that forme of a servant whereof our Apostle speakes formally consist For unto the essentiall definition or constitution of a servant these two onely concurre First the use of reason for fooles infants or reasonlesse creatures cannot bee servants Secondly Carentia arbitrii proprii want of right or arbitrary power to dispose of their bodily actions or employments according to the desire or lawfull choise of their reasonable will So then the generall definition or abstract forme of a servant is univocally the same 1 in legall servants 2 in servants to sin and 3 in the Sonne of God during the time of his humiliation here on earth or whilest hee became hostage for our Redemption But the service of these three sorts of servants is in the concrete most different And the difference ariseth from the matter or subject in which they are respectively deprived of proper right or arbitrary power to dispose of themselves or of their actions A legall servant wants power to dispose of his employments or bodily actions in matters temporary concerning this life Servants to sin such all the sonnes of Adam are by nature want power to dispose of their actions or course of life in matters morall spirituall or such as concerne their consciences All and every one of us have a desire to be happy and yet all of us until we be freed by the Son of God from this naturall servitude are by the prince of darknesse usually diverted from this strait way which leads to happinesse unto the crooked by-paths which tend to death and inextricable misery The Sonne of God although according to his humane nature hee had a reasonable will and desire of happinesse which could never in any particular become exorbitant or diverted from that which is most holy and just yet even hee in the dayes of his humiliation wanted power to reape the wages of righteousnesse or fruits of holinesse Though joy and comfort was as pleasant to him as to any man besides though compleat happinesse was due unto him as hee was a most just and righteous man personally united to the Son of God yet having taken upon him the forme of a servant hee did with unspeakeable patience and obedience beare all the griefes and sorrows which Satan and his instruments by divine permission could invent against him and cheerefully undergoe the heaviest burden which his heavenly Father was pleased to lay upon him for our redemption 3. From this peculiar condition of a servant which the Sonne of God did voluntarily take upon him that maine objection which some moderne Arrians or Photinians make against the absolute satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer for our sinnes may easily bee answered or rather will dissolve it selfe God say these men could not without tyrannicall injustice require full satisfaction for the misdemeanors of all wicked and naughty men from one most just and holy man To slay the righteous with the wicked that
Moses in those men which were excluded by oath from the land of Canaan Num. 14.20 21 22 23. And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word But as truely as I live all the earth shall bee filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seene my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have tempted mee now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it All these which were all the Males of Israel above twenty yeares of age save Caleb Ioshua and Moses who was in part involved in this sentence did beare a true type or shadow of those who offending in like manner against Christ and his Gospel we call Reprobates yet not so true types of such a sinne against the holy Ghost as those which went to search the land of Canaan And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmure against him by bringing up a slander upon she land Even those men that did bring up the evill report upon the land after they had seene the goodlinesse and tasted the pleasant fruits of it died of the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the sonne of Nun and Caleb the sonne of Jephunneh which were of the men that went to search the land lived still and many happy dayes after that time Numb 14.36 37 38. 6. Very probable it is though I will not determine pro or con that the irremissible sinne whereof our Saviour and S. Paul speake for which there remaineth no satisfaction was if dot peculiar yet Epidemicall unto those primitive times wherein the kingdom of heaven was first planted here on earth by our Saviour and the holy Catholike Church was in erection by the ministery of the Apostles or in times wherein the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit were most plentifull and most conspicuous Even in those times into this wofull estate none could fall which had not tasted of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come and had not beene partakers of the holy Ghost Nor did such men fall away by ordinary sinnes but by relaps into Iewish blasphemy or heathenish Idolatry and malicious slander of the kingdom of heaven of whose power they had tasted God was good to all his creatures in their creation and better to men in their redemption by Christ of this later goodnesse all men werein some degree partakers The contempt or neglect of this goodnesse was not irremissible the parties thus farre offending and no further were not excluded from the benefit of Christs satisfaction or from renewing by repentance but of the gifts of the Spirit which was plentifully poured out after our Saviours ascension all were not partakers This was a speciall favour or peculiar goodnesse whose continued contempt or solemne abrenuntiation by relapse either into heathenisme or Jewish blasphemy was unpardonable not in that it was a sinne peculiarly committed against the person of the holy Ghost but because it did include an extraordinary opposition unto the indispensable law of justice or goodnesse which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are 7. Some sinnes then there be or some measure of them which being made up no satisfaction will be accepted for them It is impossible according to the sacred phrase that the parties thus delinquent should bee renewed by repentance But whether according to this dialect of the holy Ghost that grand sinne whereof our Saviour and the Apostle speakes be absolutely irremissible untill death hath determined their impenitency which committed it or onely exceeding dangerous in comparison of other sinnes I will not here dispute much lesse dare I take upon me to determine either branch of the maine question proposed As whether satisfaction were absolutely necessary for remitting the sinnes of our first Parents or their seed Or whether the Son of God could have brought us sinners unto glory by any other way or meanes than that which is revealed unto us in his Gospel It shall suffice me and so I request the Reader it may doe him to shew that this revealed way is the most admirable for the sweet concurrence of Wisdome Justice Mercy and whatsoever other branches of goodnesse else bee which the heart of man can conceive more admirable by much than wisdome finite could have contrived or our miserable condition desired unlesse it had been revealed unto us by God himselfe 8. For demonstration of this conclusion and for deterring all which pretend unto the priviledge or dignity of being the Sonnes of God from continuance in sinne no principle of faith or passage in the sacred Canon can bee of better use then that 1. Ioh. 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devill for the Devill sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the works of the Devill However the words which severall translations doe render one and the same word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee of different signification in point of Grammar yet is there no contradiction betwixt them upon the matter Our later English which I alledged readeth that he might destroy the former that hee might dissolve the works of the Devill Neither of them much amisse and both of them put together or mutually helping one another exceeding well Some works of the Devill the Sonne of God is said more properly to dissolve others more properly to destroy Sinne it selfe as the Apostle tells us is the proper worke of the Devill his perpetuall worke for he sinneth from the beginning And for this cause the man that committeth sinne is of the Devill the Devills workman or day labourer so long as hee continues in knowne sinnes Sinne the best of men dayly doe But it is one thing to sinne and doe a sinfull Act another to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phrase used by our Apostle a worker or doer of evill operarius iniquitatis Such workmen the sonnes of God or servants of Christ cannot be at lest so long as they continue sonnes or servants The points most questionable in those forecited words of S. Iohn now to bee discussed in this preamble to the manner how the Son of God did dissolve or destroy the works of the Devill are two The first from what beginning the Devill is said to sinne or to continue in sinne The second what speciall workes of the Devill they were which the Sonne of God did or doth undoe or for whose dissolution or destruction hee was manifested in our flesh CHAP. IV. From what beginning the Divell is said by S. John to sinne Whether sinne consist in meere privation or have a positive entity or a cause truely efficient not deficient onely 1 THe word Beginning is some times taken universally and absolutely
busie himselfe about small matters It must be a thing either visible or invisible and if it bee comprehended under either part of this division why are wee taught to beleeve that God the Father Almighty is the Maker not onely of heaven and earth but of all things visible and invisible in them If all things were made by him what could be left for Satan to work or make The apparance of this difficulty moved that acute and learned Father S. Austin sometime to say that sinne was nothing and oftentimes to allot it a cause deficient onely denying it any true positive efficient And many good Writers since his time in our dayes especially overswaid with this Fathers bare authority will have sinnes of what kinde soever to be privations onely no positive entities But they consider not that the selfe same difficulties besides other greater more inevitable inconveniences will presse them no lesse who make sinne to bee a meere privation or to have a cause deficient onely than they doe others who acknowledge it to have a positive efficient cause and a being more then meerly privation 6. What then bee the speciall inconveniencies wherewith their opinions are charged which make sinne either nothing or but a meere privation First wee account it a folly in man a folly incident to no man but an Heautontimorymenon to bee angry or chasing hot for nothing Hence seeing the Almighty Judge doth never punish either man or Devill but for sinne we shall cast a foule aspersion on his wisdome and Justice by maintaining sinne to bee nothing But fewer in our times there be though some I have heard out of the Pulpit which under pretence of St. Augustins authority make sinne to bee meere nothing But many there bee who hold it to be a meere privation which is a meane betweene meere nothing and a positive entitie Yet admitting not granting the nature of sinne to consist formally in privation meere privations for the most part have causes truely efficient fewer causes merely deficient if there can bee any causality in deficiencie Blindnesse deafenesse dumbnesse are privations and yet more men lose the sense of hearing sight or feeling in some particular members by violent blowes or by oppression of raging humours than by meere defect or decaying of spirits And where one man drops into his grave for meere age as ripe apples doe from the trees they grow on to the ground without blasts of winde or shaking a thousand die a violent or untimely death by true and positive efficient causes either externall or internall 7. That which either hath deceived or emboldned many Divines to allot sinne a being onely privative is a Philosophicall or metaphysicall Maxime most true in it selfe or in its proper sphere but most impertinently applied to the point now in question The Maxime is Omne ens quà ens est bonum Every entity in that it hath a being is good Most true if wee speake of transcendentall goodnesse or bonum entis for every thing which hath a true being is accompanied with a goodnesse entitative But the question amongst Divines is or should be about moral goodnesse or that goodnesse which is opposed to malum culpae that evill which wee call sinne Now if every positive entitie or nature were necessarily good according to this notion of goodnesse every intelligent rationall creature should be as impeccable as his Creator and wee should truely sinne if to speake untruly bee a sinne when wee say the Devill is a knave or any man dishonest For if every nature or entity as such were morally good it were impossible any nature or positive entity should bee evill qualified should be laden with sinne that is with that evill which is opposed to goodnesse moral or to holinesse whether this evill be a meere privation or positive entitie For in as much as the sight or visive facultie is the property of the eye or in as much as this proposition is true Oculus quà oculus videt this conclusion is most necessary when the eye hath lost the sight or visive facultie it is no more an eye unlesse in such an equivocall sense as wee say a picture hath eyes though not so properly If a man cannot see as we say stime but with one eye we account it no solecisme to say hee hath lost the other The case in the former instances is more cleare If Satan or man were morally good because they have a positive entity or nature neither of them could possibly be morally evill neither of them sinfull creatures albeit wee should grant sinne to bee as meere a privation as blindnesse is 8. It is a maxime in true Logick that is in the faculty or science of reasoning absolutely true and therefore true in Divinity also for truth is but one and it is her property not to contradict her selfe though examined in severall subjects Quicquid convenit subjecto quà tale non potest abesse sine subjecti interitu No naturall property can cease to bee or perish but together with the subject which supports it Whence if that Angel which is now the Devill had been truely good quà Angelus or if goodnesse moral had belonged unto him as he was a positive entitie or rationall creature hee had ceased to be either a rationall creature or any thing else when hee lost his goodnesse 9. Of sinnes of omission it is most true that they finde place in our nature rather by deficiency than efficiency and yet even this deficiencie for the most part is occasioned by some formall positive act or habit For this cause it is questioned among Schoolemen Whether there is or can bee any sinne of meere omission that is not occasioned by the commission of some other sinfull acts precedent or linked with some such act present To deny all sinnes of meere emission in nature already corrupted would bee more probable than in the first sinne whether of man or Angel Neither of them could possibly have committed sinne or done that which they ought not to have done without some precedent omission of that which they ought to have done But of this elswhere more at large and somewhat of it briefly in the next Chapter 10. Sure I am that the work which Satan wrought in our first Parents and in our nature had a cause truely efficient hath a being more than meerely privative For it was a work so really great and so cunningly contrived that the strength and wisdome of the Sonne of God was required as being onely all-sufficient to dissolve or destroy it and is it possible that any so great a work could be wrought by deficiencie or a defective worker Not Satan onely but his instruments are as positive as industrious efficients as effectuall workers of iniquity as the best man which ever lived the man CHRIST JESUS onely excepted was or is of righteousnesse But it is true againe that neither Satan nor his instruments can produce or make any substances or subjects these
them and mystically of Lucifer But they sinne no lesse for the act which say in their hearts or presuppose in their implicit thoughts altissimus est similimus mihi the most high God hath determined nothing concerning men or Angel otherwise than wee would have done if we had been in his place They preposterously usurpe the same power which God in his first Creation did justly exercise who though not expresly yet by inevitable consequence and by implicit thoughts make a God after their own image and similitude A God not according to the relikes of that image wherein hee made our first Parents but after the corruptions or defacements of it through partiality envy pride and hatred towards their fellow creatures But of the originall of transforming the Divine nature into the similitude of mans corrupted nature I have elswhere long agoe delivered my minde at large And I would to God some as I conjecture offended with what I there observed without any reference or respect either to their persons or their studies had not verified the truth of my observations in a larger measure than I then did conceived they could have been really ratified or exemplified by the meditation or practice of any rationall man This transformation of the Divine nature which is in some sort or degree common to most men is in the least degree of it one of those works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came into the world to dissolve by doctrine by example and exercise of his power But what bee the rest of those works besides this All I take it may be reduced to these generall heads First the actuall sinnes of our first Parents Secondly the remainder or effects of this sinne whether in our first Parents or in their posteritie to wit that more than habituall or hereditary corruption which we call sinne originall Thirdly sins adventitious or acquired that is such vitious acts or habits as doe not necessarily issue from that sinne which descends unto us from our first Parents but are voluntarily produced in particular men by their abuse of that portion of freewill which was left in our first Parents and in their posterity and that was a true freedome of will though not to doe well or ill yet at lest inter mala to doe lesse or greater evill or to doe this or that particular ill or worse Originall sinne is rather in us ad modum habitus than an habit properly so called All other habituall sinnes or vices are not acquired but by many unnecessitated vicious acts But to distinguish betweene vice and sinne or betweene vicious habits and sinfull habits is to my capacity a work or attempt rather of the same nature as if one should goe about to divide a point into two portions or a mathematicall line into two parallels 6. Nor are these sinnes enumerated nor sinne it self formally taken the onely works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came to destroy but these sinnes with their symptomes and resultances For the Devill sinneth from the beginning in continuall tempting men to sinne although his temptations doe not alwayes take effect He sinneth likewise in accusing men before their Creator or solliciting greater vengeance than their sinnes in favourable construction deserve Now that neither his temptations nor accusations do alwayes finde that successe which hee intends this is meerely from the mercy and loving kindnesse of our Creator in sending his Sonne to dissolve the works of Satan The generall symptome or resultance of all sinne originall or actuall is servitude or slavery unto Satan and the wages of this servitude is death not this hereditary servitude onely but death which is the wages of it is the work of Satan Yet a work which the Sonne of God doth not utterly destroy untill the generall resurrection of the dead Nor shall it then bee destroyed in any in whom the bonds of the servitude and slavery unto sinne have not been by the same Sonne of God dissolved whilest they lived on earth Hee was first manifested in the flesh and forme of a servant to pay the ransome of our sinnes and to untie the bonds and fetters of sinne in generall Hee was manifested in his resurrection to dissolve or breake the raigne of sinne within every one of us For as the Apostle speaks He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification And he shall lastly bee manifested or appeare in glory utterly to destroy sinne and death CHRIST saith the Apostle was once offered to beare the sinnes of many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.28 SECTION 2. Of the more speciall qualifications and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works which the Devill had wrought in our first Parents and in our nature and for cancelling the bond of mankindes servitude unto Satan CHAP. VI. Of the peculiar qualifications of the Sonne of God for dissolving the first actuall sinne of our first Parents and the reliques of it whether in them or in us their sinfull posterity 1. THe qualifications or undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving or remitting such actuall sinnes as doe not necessarily issue from our first Parents and for bringing them and us unto greater glory than they affected doe challenge their place or proper seat in the Treatise designed to his exaltation after death and his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Wee are now to prosecute the points proposed in the title of this Section and in the first place such points as were proposed in the title of this Chapter 2. The rule is universally true in works naturall civill and supernaturall but true with some speciall allowances Vnum quodque eodem modo dissolvitur quo constituitur Though the constitution and dissolution of the same work include two contrary motions yet the manner or method by which both are wrought is usually the same onely the order is inverted And wee should the better know how man 's first transgression was dissolved by Sonne of God if wee first knew how it was wrought by Satan or wherein the sinne it selfe did properly consist Infidelity or disobedience it could not bee for these are symptomes of sinnes already hatched Whatsoever else it was the first transgression was pride or ambitious desire of independent immortality Now the Sonne of God begun his work where Satan ended his dissoluing this sinne of pride by his unspeakable humility And to take away the guilt of mans disobedience or infidelity which were the symptomes or resultances of his intemperate desires the Sonne of God did humble himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse reposing himselfe in all his sufferings upon God The first man was the onely Favourite which the King of kings had here on earth the onely creature whom hee had placed as a Prince in Paradise a seat more than royall or monarchicall with hopes of advancement unto heaven it selfe It was a
bee farre from thee O Lord was the saying of Abraham to God Gen. 18.25 But farther surely it is and alwayes hath been from the Judge of all the world who is the eternall living rule of justice it selfe to put the innocent and righteous to the lingring and cruell tortures of an ignominious death for redeeming wicked and cruell men from deserved death or to purchase not the impunity onely but the advancement of willfull rebelle by the severe punishment of his deare and onely obedient Sonne This objection as was in the former Treatise intimated would pierce deepe if wee were disarmed of those Christian principles which these moderne heretiques have cast aside to wit the plurality of persons in the Trinitie and the Onenesse of person in the Sonne of God CHRIST JESUS God and man even whilest he was invested with the forme of a servant We beleeve and confesse as they doe there is but one God and yet in this God wee acknowledge as they doe not unum alium one person of the Father another of the Sonne another of the holy Ghost such a distinction of capacities that the Father not the Sonne exacts satisfaction for mans violation of the eternall and indispensable rule of equity and justice that God the Sonne not God the Father did become mans surety and undertake to make full satisfaction for all his sinnes 4. Now he that will make satisfaction to another must have somewhat to give of his owne so his owne as it is not the others to whom it is given What then had the Sonne of God to give by way of satisfaction unto God the Father or to the holy Ghost which was so his owne as it was not theirs Onely that part of our nature which hee tooke from the substance of his mother into the unitie of his Divine person In all other parts of our nature over all other parts of this universe God the Father and God the Holy Ghost had the same interest or right of dominion with the Sonne Now this part or our nature being thus assumed into the unitie of the Second Person The Sonne of God and the Sonne of the blessed Virgin doe not differ as party and party There is unum aliud one nature of the Godhead another of the manhood non unus alius not one person of the Godhead another of the manhood The Divine nature in the person of the Sonne is the onely party which undertooke our redemption the humane nature assumed into the unity of his Person was but his qualification an appendance or appurtenance no true part of his Person And as heretofore hath been observed albeit the flesh of the man Christ Jesus was Caro humana non divina flesh of the same nature and substance with our flesh yet were his flesh and blood more truely the flesh and blood of the Sonne of God than of the man CHRIST JESUS the humane body more truely and properly his owne than our bodies are ours Now our flesh and bodily parts are said to bee our owne not so much because they are parts of our nature as because they are appurtenances of our persons or because wee have a peculiar personall right or power so to dispose of them as to make them no parts of our nature Wee accompt it no unnaturall part in wise men to cut off any rotten or putrified member rather than suffer the whole body besides utterly to perish In some certaine cases publicke Societies or Communities of men none of which have the like peculiar authority over the meanest free private member as every owner of a body naturall hath over his teeth his toes his fingers or other lesse principall part necessary for some uses onely not for the preservation of the whole have by publique consent designed sometimes some principall members of the Communitie sometimes members lesse principall not condemned of any crime as sacrifices for redeeming others from present danger or for securing posterity from servitude or oppression And when outrages have been committed by great Armies the Authors or principall Incentives of the mutinie being unknowne or not convicted by legall proofe the expiation hath usually been made by decimation Every tenth man hath by wholesome discipline of warre been punished according to the demerits of the crime committed But albeit every tenth man since Adam had been by him and his successors consent devoted to death or lingring torture farre worse than death their execution could have made no expiatiō no satisfaction unto God for the transgressions of the whole Community The attempt of the medicine would have increased the malignity of the universall disease Yea albeit the Son of God could have been by man intreated to practice this cure which is used by private wise men for preservation of their naturall bodies or by great Commanders for preuenting mutinies or losse of Armies all this had not been sufficient to have redeemed the world or the whole Community of men from utter ruine and destruction or which is worse then both from everlasting servitude unto Satan Men by art or rather Artists by the guidance of Gods providence have found out remedies against venemous diseases by medicinall confections of venemous ingredients The poysonous bitings of the Scorpion are usually cured by the oile of Scorpions and of the flesh of some Serpents Physicians make soveraigne antidotes for preventing poison or for curing venemous diseases But the venome which the old Serpent had diffused not through the veines onely but through the whole nature of man was not curable by this course of physick The old Serpent was to be destroyed but not to become any ingredient in this Catholique medicine whereby the humane nature was to be cured That by the wisdome of God was taken out of the nature and substance wounded not from the substance which did wound or sting But this part of the nature wounded which was to bee the medicine for the rest was first to bee perfectly cured and throughly purified by personall unition to the Sonne of God And being thus purified and cleansed from all spot of sinne it was disfigured and mangled that the blood of it might bee as a balsamum and quintessence to heale the wounds and sores of our corruption If it were the will and pleasure of the Sonne of God to submit his most holy body unto the good will and pleasure of his most holy Father if with his consent and approbation it were bruised and mangled here was no wrong done to any man but on Gods part rather a document of his unspeakable love unto mankinde Love unexpressible on God the Fathers part that would suffer his onely Sonne to take upon him the true forme of a servant and undergoe such hard service for us Love unexpressible on God the Sonnes behalfe that did so willingly expose his humane body to paine and torture for our redemption Here was no wrong at all either to the Sonne of God from God the Father or
our Creator more grievously than any man can wrong another Now in that our God and Creator is withall the eternall rule of justice or rather Justice it selfe it was requisite that satisfaction should bee made unto him in the fullest degree For one man for all men which had done this wrong to make satisfaction to infinite Majestie either in whole or in part was impossible Though all mankinde had been condemned to suffer uncessantly both in body and soule they might by this meanes have been continually making satisfaction but never have made it albeit their sufferings had been endlesse Therefore was this great work undertaken by the Son of God made man for us 2. Suppose then all this had been foreknown before our Saviour was incarnate ever since the fall of our first Parents and the sentence denounced against them it would have been a more grievous sinne in our first Parents or in any of their posterity than the sinne of the old Serpent in seducing them or us to yeeld to his suggestions to have besought God the Father that his onely Sonne should make satisfaction for us in the very same kind which we should have made but could never make that is by suffering the paines of Hell That the man Christ Jesus might suffer such paines as the damned shall doe was perhaps the desire of Satan that which the great Enemy of mankinde did most earnestly labour to effect And if thus he did but desire this was the greatest actuall sinne which either hee or his infernall associats ever had committed or can commit Whatsoever they might desire all that our heavenly Father could require of his onely Sonne after hee became our surety was to make full satisfaction for all our sinnes against his Deity or the eternall rule of justice But all this he knew might bee accomplished by his onely Sonne after a more excellent maner than either by exercising his wrath due unto us or by suffering Satan whose redemption his Sonne did no way undertake to wreake the utmost of his malice or foehood against mankinde upon him For my selfe amongst others I must confesse I could never understand the language of many professed Divines who would perswade us that the full vialls of Gods wrath due unto our sinnes were powred upon his Sonne Whatsoever their meaning be which I presume is much better than I can gather from their expressions the maner of speech to say no worse is very improper and to me unpleasant For how was it possible God the Father should bee wroth with him in whom alone he was alwayes well pleased But wrath or anger against any one are alwayes the effects of some displeasure precedent and no satisfaction can be made whilest displeasure is taken or wrath kindled against the party which seeks to make satisfaction or reconciliation Now the infliction or permission of Hell paines to bee inflicted upon any is the award not of Gods judgement but of his wrath and fury 3. If it be objected that our sinnes were infinite though not for number yet for quality because committed against an infinite Majestie and consequently that no satisfaction according to the exact rule of justice could bee made without punishment or penalties truely infinite the answere is as Orthodoxall as easie or common That the satisfaction made for us by the Sonne of God was more truely infinite than the sinnes of mankind were For it was absolutely infinite Non quia passus est infinita sed quia qui passus est erat infinitus The person or party who made satisfaction for us or party which undertooke the satisfaction was both in Majesty and in goodnesse as truely infinite as the Majesty and goodnesse whom we had offended and by whom exact satisfaction was required both of them were both wayes absolutely infinite J omit the weaknesse of such calculatory arguments as this Our sinnes were absolutely infinite because committed against an infinite Majesty as too well knowen to most students and often enough if not too often deciphered in other of my meditations For this being admitted all sinnes should bee equall because all are committed against the same infinite Majesty and goodnesse As for the true measure of our sinnes and ill deservings that must be taken from the measure of Gods displeasure against them and that is but equall to the severall degrees of our disobedience to his most holy Lawes and Commandements This then we verily beleeve that the full height and measure of all disobedience and rebellions against God was neither higher or greater than the obedience which his Sonne performed in our flesh or whilest hee stood in the condition of a servant that our heavenly Father was never so much displeased at all our disobediences as hee was well pleased with the obedience of his onely Sonne or with their obedience that are truely ingraffed in him and are made partakers of his obedience in his sufferings Both parts of this conclusion may with facility be evinced in the judgement of all men which have subscribed unto or doe admit the principles in Divinity whether Legall or Evangelicall 4. It was a maxime undoubted in the time of the Law that obedience was better than sacrifice the corrollary or consequence of which maxime doth amount to this point that obedience without sacrifice was alwayes better than sacrifice without obedience Yet such sacrifices as were appointed by God being offered out of the spirit of obedience were alwayes more acceptable than obedience alone Such sacrifices as were appointed by God himselfe unlesse they were offered in obedience and out of conformity to his Law were abominable The principall part of obedience which the Law required was the humble confession of the parties sinnes for whose sakes they were offered This confession was made over the heads of the beasts which were offered the parties offering them alwayes acknowledging either expresly by their tongues or implicitly in heart that they had better deserved a cruell death than the dumbe creatures which they sacrificed had done Briefly Legall sacrifices were then acceptable when their offerers put on such affections as David maketh expression of when he saw the people plagued for his sinnes or at lest when the punishment of their owne sinnes came suddenly upon them through his folly Loe I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheepe what have they done Yet even whilest the best of Gods people thus affected did offer the best kinde of Legall Sacrifices bullocks whilst their hornes and hoofes began to spread their sacrifice and obedience did but lovingly meet they were not mutually wedded or betrothed But whilest the Sonne of God did offer up himselfe for us upon the Crosse his sacrifice and obedience were more strictly united than man and wife than mans soule and body For betwixt these there is oft times dissention or reluctance so was there never betwixt Christs Divine person who was the offerer and the humane nature which was the offering His humane
nature and will before it was sacrificed and whilst it was sacrificed was more obedient to his Fathers will than our first Parents senses or affections in their integrity were unto their reasonable soules When hee commeth into the world as our Apostle interprets the Psalmist he saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared or fitted for mee In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hadst no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to doe thy will O God This will of God accomplished through the sacrifice of his Sonne was that will of God by which we are sanctified and if sanctified then justified yet not justified without satisfaction before made Of the full meaning of this place and of the true reconciliation of the Seventy Interpreters whom the Apostle followes with the Psalmist or the Originall by Gods grace hereafter Thus much is pertinent to our present purpose that the body which the Sonne of God assumed to do that will of his Father which could not bee accomplished by any other sacrifices though numberlesse and endlesse was a body fitted for all kindes of calamities and crosses which are incident unto mortality a body more capable of paine or deeper impressions from the violent occurrences of all externalls which are naturall than any other mans body was or had been A body as it were moulded and organized of purpose to bee animated or actuated with the spirit of obedience and all manner of patience in suffering which can bee required in a faithfull servant Servants saith S. Peter bee obedient c. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully CHRIST JESUS who was the paterne of all obedience required in servants not onely whilest he was to deale with malicious unreasonable men but in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Agony when his heart within him was become like melting waxe through the vehemencie of that fiery triall did set the fairest copie of that obedience which S. Peter requires should bee taken out how rudely soever by every servant of God under his owne hand Even in this Agony when his mortall spirits did faint and languish the spirit of obedience was much stronger in him than the pulse of paine and sorow It did not intermit or abate when his paines and anguish did increase Being in Agony saith S. Luke hee prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 These words I referre if not to the third yet certainely to the second paroxysme of his Agony one or more of which fits did wring blood from his sacred body being otherwise full of health But most probable it is from S. Lukes relation Chap. 22. ver 44. that hee sweat blood both in the first and second fit and that in all the three hee delivered his supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kneeling or falling upon the ground The forme of his prayer and maner of deportment in it as was said before exhibite a true document or demonstrative argument that besides his Divine will hee had a will truely humane a reasonable will in that hee did desire or deprecate the removall or asswagement of his present sufferings with greater fervency of spirit and devotion than any sonnes of Adam could deprecate the paines of Hell if they should be beset with them or feele their approach And yet withall hee wholly submits his humane body soule and will unto his heavenly Fathers will who by his consent had free power to dispose of them in life and death as hee pleased Out of this fervent spirit of obedience consecrated unto Gods service by his most devout prayers he was delivered from the paines and terrors which he both feared and felt in the garden 5. As for his sacrifice upon the Crosse albeit we subduct the worth of it in it selfe considered which infinitely exceeds the worth of all other sacrifices it was most properly and most really the sacrifice of a broken heart or contrite spirit For after his naturall strength was spent and his bodily spirits diffused with his blood hee lastly offers up his immortall spirit his very soule unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost Luk. 23.46 The spirit of obedience did not expire with bodily spirits it did accompany his soule into Paradise it was not put off with the forme of a servant but cloathed upon with glory and immortality Shall wee yet doubt whether the sacrifice upon the Crosse being offered out of such unexpressible obedience were fully sufficient to make abundant satisfaction for all our disobediences albeit wee should subduct his obedience and patience in that grievous Agony in the garden 6. If any man bee disposed to move further doubt about this point the Apostles authority or rather his reason will put the point out of question Heb. 9.11 12 13 14. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the blood of goats and calues but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleane sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The forme and maner of his dispute in this passage as in most others throughout this Epistle is allegoricall but allegories in true Theologie alwayes include arguments of proportion and are as firme as any Geometricall or Mathematicall demonstration The termes of proportion in this argument are especially foure First sinnes meerely ceremoniall that is such errors and escapes as are evill because forbidden not evill in themselves The second the remedy appointed for such sinnes and that was the blood of bulls and goats c. The third sinnes properly so called that is all offences or trespasses against the Law of nature or against the Law of God Things not evill onely because forbidden but rather forbidden because evill in their owne nature The fourth terme is the antidote or preservative against such sinnes as in their nature poison our soules and this soveraigne preservative is onely the blood of Christ The Apostle takes it for granted that the sacrifice of bulls and goats were sufficient to make satisfaction for sinnes merely ceremoniall and the blood available so farre to sanctifie the parties offending against the Law of Ceremonies as that they might be admitted into the Congregation or stand recti in curia after the sacrifice was once offered Of this purification concerning the flesh by the blood of such sacrifices that which the Romanists say of the Sacraments of the new Testament might bee more
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknowne sufferings Such I take it as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come in which the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible for this being granted the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste a draught of the second death unto which no man is subject before he die the first death nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living or after death This error it seemes hath surprized some otherwaies good Divines through incogitancie or want of skill in Philosophie For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy the nature quality or measure of paines must bee taken not so much from the force or violence of the Agent as from the condition or temper of the Patient Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead nor the same upon greene wood which it hath on dry Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body and of strong bones and another sickly crasie or wounded the paines though issuing from the equality of the blowes would be most unequall That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all might drive the other into the very pangs of death Goliath did looke as big did speake as roughly and every way behave himselfe as sternly against little David as hee had against Saul and the whole hoast of Israel Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible did make no such impression of terrour upon David as it had done upon Saul and the stoutest Champions in his hoast And the reason why it did not was because David was armed with the shield of faith and confidence in the Lord his God a secret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides But a farre greater then Goliath associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast both for number and strength than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make more maliciously bent against the whole race of Adam than the Philistines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham was now in field And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre greater than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us For if all mankinde from the East unto the West which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time or shall continue unto all future generations had been then mustred together all of us would have fled more swiftly and more confusedly from the sight or presence of this great Champion for the powers of darknesse than the hoast of Israel did from the Champion of the Philistines when hee bid a defiance unto them All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter been committed alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath No If wee stretch the similitude thus farre wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse whether in the garden or upon the Crosse was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath or Israel over the Philistines David was Master of the field sine sanguine sudore multo without blood or much sweat The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods people had suffered As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But all this and much more being granted will not inferre that he suffered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines poenas infernales aut poenas inferorum such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could against the promised womans seed that is the manhood of the Sonne of God yet seeing as the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne not imputed but inherent it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule in whom there was neither seed nor relique neither root or branch of sinne Or againe admit hell fire whether materiall or immateriall be of a more violent and malignant quality than any materiall fire which we know in what subject soever it bee seated is and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture which they are enabled or permitted to use yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body whereon this fire could feed no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish or such as the damned suffer For these are supernaturall or more than so not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them but in respect of the Subject which endures them Satan findes alwayes some thing in them which he armes against them some inherent internall corruption which hee exasperates to greater malignity than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him 4. In respect of Divine justice or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan and vanquish him by suffering evills even all the evills incident to our mortall nature There was no necessity no congruity that the Sonne of God should vanquish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments These properly taken or when they are suffered in
see one joyfull day the light of Gods Countenance did not shine upon them as the history of the Old Testament especially of the Bookes of Kings and Chronicles do sufficiently testifie Nor did this Nation from the day of our Saviours death enjoy one quiet or secure day not one houre wherein there either was not apparent danger or some secret breeding of new calamities nor shall they enjoy any till it please him whom they crucified to restore them againe to the land of their Inheritance from which they are scattered or at least to their spirituall state from which they are fallen 6 That the forementioned lamentation or threne did in the literall and historicall sense referre unto the untimely death of good Iosiah that the calamities which ensued upon his death did typically portend just matter of greater sorrow for the death of the Lords Anointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messias that one place of the Prophet Zachariah to omit others perswades me They shall mourne for him as one who mourneth for his onely sonne and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne In that day shall there be a great mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo Zachar. 12.10 11. c. For in the valley of Megiddo Iosiah was slaine as it is recorded 2 Chron. 35.22 23. And all Ierusalem and Iudah mourned for Iosiah and Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Iosiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations This disaster occasioned by his owne oversight or forwardnesse to fight with Necho befel Iosiah after he had wrought that remarkable reformation in the house of the Lord and after hee had celebrated the Passeover with such solemnity as had not been seen before in Jerusalem nor after It was the eminency of Iosiah his zeale and fidelity in setting forth that solemnity and other services of God which occasioned this people even the Prophets first to conceive that they should prosper under his shadow and after these hopes had failed to lament his death in such passionate expressions as the faithfull amongst his people even our Saviours Disciples did his death But we trusted that it had beene he who should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.20 The extremity of sorrow upon our Saviours death foreshadowed by the Lamentations for Iosiahs losse was fulfilled pro illâ vice in that compunction of heart and spirit in Saint Peters Auditors Acts 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we doe But the full accomplishment of those mournfull Lamentations for our Saviours death whether foreshadowed or foretold or inchoated whether in the Old Testament or in the New is not to be expected before the conversion of the Jews which will not be publick or Nationall untill they seriously and publiquely repent them of their owne sinnes and of the sinnes of their forefathers for putting the Lord of life and King of glory to a bitter and shamefull death Nor is the Nation of the Jews onely but all the kinreds of the Earth to bewaile him and repent for all were causes of his death Behold he commeth saith Saint Iohn with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kinreds of the earth shall waile because of him Rev. 1.7 7 A fitter Subject for meditations to make either a private Christian truely wise or wise men especially Governors whether Ecclesiasticall or civill truly Christian I could not commend unto the one or other though bound so to doe upon my deathbed then the sacred historie concerning the estate of Judah from the death of good Iosiah to the end of the Babylonish Captivitie and the history of Iosephus and others who have decipherd the estate of the Jews since they put the Lord of life to death This parallel betweene Jerusalems two progresses to her first and second destruction was the maine theame of my first ministerial meditations the contents wherof would bee too laborious to collect and their expressions too long to bee interserted in this Treatise To returne therefore to the former path from which I have somewhat though not impertinently digressed 8 Of that glory of Christ which shall be revealed when every eye shall see him when they that crucified and pierced his body shall mourne after such a manner as Zacharie and St. Iohn in the places forecited import Hee himselfe in the houres of his greatest humiliation immediately after his agony in the garden and as I take it before Iudas did deliver him up to the high Priest and Officers did exhibite some rayes or glimpses by striking the Armed band which came to attach him backwards downe to the ground with the sole words or breath of his mouth And again by the deliverance of his followers from such rage and tyranny as they practiced against him that the words of the Prophets not their projects and his exposition of their meaning might be fulfilled I will smite the Shepheard and the sheep shall be scattered This prophecy wee have Zachar. 13.7 The accomplishment of this prophecy was in part exemplified by the scattering of his Apostles and Disciples upon his apprehension and death And so were the words immediately following in the Prophet punctually verified and really exemplified in recollecting them again after his Resurrection and the feast of Pentecost next ensuing The full accomplishment of the prophecy as it concerns the scattering of the flock or sheep was not publiquely declared or exemplified before the destruction of the second Temple and dispersing of the Jewish Nation The other parts of the same prophecy must be afterwards accomplisht in the conversion of the Jews CHAP. XXIIII Of the predictions or prefigurations of our Saviours sufferings after his apprehension in the High Priests hall c. 1 ALL these rayes or glimpses of the Sun of Righteousnesse did interpose themselves in the dayes of his humiliation and obscuritie before he was led bound to Caiaphas the high Priest But after Iudas of a close Ahitophel or cunning traitour became an open Dalilah and had betrayed his Master into their hands with a kisse this Sampson the Sun of righteousnesse became like another man or like the moone in eclipse More weak and impotent for any attempt of resistance or escape then Samson was after the razor had gone over his head and taken off the Ensigne of the Nazarite These enemies of the God of Israel did sport themselves more cruelly with the bodily miseries and calamities of the true Nazarite then the Philistines had done themselves with Sampson untill he resumed his former strength by dying So then Sampson in his strength and weaknesse or dejected estate was a lively type of JESUS of Nazareth in both his estates and conditions of life whilest he
they would not enter into the Common-hall or publique Court of Justice to indite him there being immediatly after to celebrate the usuall service for that day in the Temple It was againe an extraordinary courtesie in Pilat towards them that he would vouchsafe to take their accusations in the pavement or Court adjoyning to the Pretorium But as well the curtesie of the one as the hypocrisie of the other friendly conspired to accomplish the will of God which was to have his onely Sonne made that day a sacrifice of atonement for the sinnes both of the Jews and Gentiles whereas if Pilat had stood upon points of Authoritie or prerogative it is more then probable the Priests and Elders would rather have deferred their accusations for that instant then have entred into the Pretorium or Common-hall But having once obtained their desire in the Pavement they immediately returned into the Temple where Iudas attended them And having resolved as hee thought to have set his house or worldly businesse in such order as Ahitophel had done his hee went forth and hanged himself So that albeit Iudas had seene his Master dead in law that is sentenced to death by the high Priest and Pontius Pilat upon the Jews importunat accusations and testimonies against him Yet the Traitor having no witnesse produced against him besides his owne conscience No Judge or appointed Executioner besides himself did die an accursed death before his Master had made an atonement for the sinnes of the world So the Psalmist by way of imprecation had foretold Let sudden destruction come upon him unawares or as others let destruction come upon him and let the net that hee hath made for others catch himself into that very destruction let him fall Psalm 35.8 How this imprecation though not directed against Iudas alone did punctually fall upon him will better appeare anon in the discussions how the imprecations reiterated in the 109. Psalme were most punctually fulfilled in him That which for the present I intended to advertise the Reader of is briefly this That if we referre the time of Iudas death unto this point of time intimated the parallel betwixt St. Matthews relation of his fearefull end and other sacred passages in the Evangelists and Apostles will be more cleare St. Matthews relation yee have in the 27. Chapter 3. Then Iudas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought againe the thirty pieces of silver to the chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And they said What is that to us See thou to that And hee cast downe the pieces of silver in the Temple and departed and went and hanged himself And the chief Priests took the silver pieces and said It is not lawfull to put them into the Treasury because it is the price of blood And they tooke counsell and bought with them the Potters field to bury strangers in Wherefore that field was called The field of blood unto this day Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet Ieremiah saying And they took the thirty pieces of silver the price of him that was valued whom they of the children of Israel did value and gave them for the Potters field as the Lord appointed mee 2. But where this casting downe of the thirtie pieces of silver in the Temple was foretold or by whom there is and hath been great varietie of opinions amongst learned Interpreters as well Ancient as Moderne so great that many of them have rather soiled then any way cleared the meaning of the Evangelist and left the investigation of the truth more difficult to the ingenuous and sagacious Reader then if they had not medled with it or left it untoucht to his privat search The first difficulty is about the Grammaticall signification of some words in the Originall The second pitcheth upon a misnomer of the Prophet as whether that Prophecie which the Evangelist said was fulfilled in this fact of Iudas was uttered or written by Zachariah or the Prophet Ieremiah or respectively by both The third admitting thus much was either onely foretold or both foretold and forepictured either by Ieremiah or by Zachariah or by both whether they spoke in their owne persons or in the person of Iudas or of Christ or of both The first difficulty or rather discord about the literall sense of the Prophets words as they are related by the Evangelist hath been occasioned partly by the Translation of the Septuagint and partly by the Author of the vulgar Latin For whereas wee reade as well in St. Matthew as in the Prophet Zachariah And I cast them ad figulum to the Potter the vulgar Latine hath it And I cast them ad Stataarium to the Statue maker in the house of the Lord. The Septuagint thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast them into the furnace or to the metal-melter The Greek might import though not so directly as the Latine a Potters furnace But if we take Statuarius which is the expression of the vulgar Latine in its proper sense for a Statue maker whether in stone or of metall wrought with toole or molten there could be no use of such an Artificer in that Temple wherein all Statues or Images of what stuffe soever they could be made were most strictly forbidden Or in that people among whom the erecting or making of them was a crime capital To avoid this absurditie in their Authenticated Translation the Sectaries of the Romish Church by the Statuarie would have us understand GOD himself who is the former or fashioner of all things And for this Interpretation they alledge some ancient Greek Fathers but whose Authority they themselves will sleight or passe such censures upon their Authors as they will not permit us in like case to doe whensoever they make against their pretended Catholick tenets The most learned Interpreters in the Romish Church do partly bewray and sometimes openly professe that this Interpretation is too farre fetcht and farre wide from the meaning of the Prophet whosoever he was as he is alledged by the Evangelist What then could move so many of them to embrace or rather not to disclaime these roving collections Onely the authority of the Trent Councell which hath so fettered them in this and other like points that they dare not say that their reasonable Soules are under God their owne but are content to sacrifice learning reason and common sense to many illiterat resolutions of wilfull partial and corrupt men in that Councel assembled If the ingenuous Reader will not beleeve me in this particular let him take the pains to satisfie himself by observing how Ribera and Castrus with some other men very well learned and ingenuous so farre as they durst have utterly lost themselves in their Commentaries upon the 11. of Zacharie 3. Concerning the second difficultie many both in the Romish and reformed Churches will in no case admit of a misnomer in