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
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
righteously who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree 2. By this unspeakeable obedience of the Son of God in vouchsafing to suffer for us with unimitable patience what hee had in no degree deserved wee who were by naturall condition slaves to Satan were fully redeemed unto the liberty of the sonnes of God Of what kinde soever his sufferings were such and so many they were and all so patiently sustained by him that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world as the ancient and our English Liturgie expresseth And that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for all the sinnes whether of disobedience or impatience in sufferings of all those men who are in any degree redeemed by him is not questioned by any Christian whether in truth or profession onely who grant that the Sonne of God did make any true and proper satisfaction for the sonnes of men Concerning the extent of mans redemption by the Sonne of God or for his full satisfaction for their sinnes wee shall if God give leave discourse hereafter But whether unto this full and perfect satisfaction which hee undertook to make for men if not universally as our Church teacheth yet as all reformed Churches agree indefinitely taken it were necessary requisite or expedient that the Sonne of God should in our nature undergoe the same penalties or sufferings in kinde which without his satisfaction for them all mankinde should have suffered is a question which of late yeares hath troubled even those reformed Churches which agree upon this generall that his satisfaction was most full and all-sufficient The heat of this contention is unto this day rather abated than extinguished Now the paines which all the sonnes of Adam and Adam himselfe without full satisfaction made by the Sonne of God should in justice have suffered were the paines of Hell perpetuall durance in that unquenchable fire which was of old prepared for the Devill and his Angels Whether this fire be it materiall or immateriall or more then equivalent perhaps unto materiall fire did seize upon the humane soule or body of the Son of God or upon both either in his Agony in the garden or upon the Crosse is the point or probleme now in question The affirmative part of this probleme hath been averred by some in their publike writings under the title of the Holy Cause so dignified for no other reason as I conceive but because it was in those daies maintained stiffly by such as deemed thēselves more holy than other men at least more Orthodoxall in points of sacred doctrine than their Fathers in Christ and by confession of their owne consciences more learned than themselves Others taking this for granted that Christ did suffer all the pains of the damned have been so farre overswaid with their adherence unto this doctrine as to misdeem that Article in the Apostles Creed concerning Christs descending into Hell or ad inferos to incline this way as if to beleeve Christ did descend into hell had been all one as if he had suffered the paines of hell in his Agony in the garden or upon the crosse But if this had been any part of the true meaning of that Article the Apostles or whosoever were the first Composers of the Apostolique Creed as we now have it in the Latin especially in the English would haue exprest thēselves in plainer termes For if by Hell in that Article the paines of Hell had been by them meant or intended they would not have said that the Son of God descended into hell but rather that hell had ascended up unto him whether in the garden or on the Crosse That the Son of God our Saviour Christ did truely descend into the nethermost Hell may with greater ease and more probability bee proved out of the Canonicall Scriptures as well of the old Testament as of the New than his suffring the pains of hell can be inferred from either Testament or from the Apostles Creed That Christ did after his death or dissolution of body and soule descend into hell such as maintain his suffering the very paines of Hell do generally deny But to omit this incongruous paradox or this preposterous expression of it that Christs descention into hell should intimate his suffering of Hell-paine before his death it shall suffice to examine the reasons which have been or may be brought that hee did or was to suffer such paines whensoever or in what place soever All the reasons which can bee alledged that hee did suffer such pains must either be drawen from the event or some experiments recorded in the new Testament or from some predictions in the Old or from a necessity or expediencie whether in justice in equity or out of his abundant love to mankinde that he was to suffer them 3. No necessity or expediency of such sufferings can bee as I conceive pretended but either for satisfying Gods justice or for his full and absolute conquest over Satan or for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things concerning God or a sweet comforter of all such as suffer whether in body or soule for his sake The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the former question that hee did suffer the very paines of Hell must bee proved or attempted from his speeches gesture or other experiments related by the Evangelists in their accurate descriptions of his Agony and sufferings upon the Crosse To begin then with the relation of his Agony That is related at large by S. Matthew and S. Luke which is scarce mentioned by S. Iohn whose speciall part in penning this sacred tragedie it was to remember that divine discourse with his Disciples being at his last Supper with them and his repaire to the garden beyond Cedron which he had so often frequented before that the opportunity of this place made Iudas of a secret thiefe an open Traytor 4. The maner circumstances of the Agony it self are most fully related by S. Luk. cap. 22. ver 39 c. And he came out and went as he was wont to the mount of Olives and his disciples also followed And when he was at the place he said unto thē Pray that ye enter not into temptation And he was withdrawn from thē about a stones cast and kneeled down prayed c. Not to dispute about the phrase here used by S. Lu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whether it imports some violent withdrawing by impulsion or some extraordinary instinct or whether in true construction it be no more than thus he did voluntarily withdraw himselfe questionlesse he was by the one meanes or other now led the second time to be tempted The temptation was grievous and more extraordinary then his former temptation in the wildernesse Thus much is intimated by that peremptory monition to his Apostles Pray that yee enter not into temptation partly from the maner of his
hence follow that he should at all times know either the true quality or exact measure of the paines which hee was at the time appointed by his Father to suffer for accomplishing this great worke undertaken by him For of all things that can bee knowen by men the knowledge of paines either for quality or the distinct measure of them is least possible without experimentall knowledge or sensible feeling of them Many Physicians haue learnedly discourst of the severall sorts of feavers and calculated their degrees more mathematico as Mathematicians doe the quantity of figures or solid bodies or revolutions of the Heavens But the reall paines or languishments of hecticall pestilentiall or other feavers the most learned Physician in the world cannot distinctly know or calculate unlesse hee feele them Or in case by sensible experience he knew the nature or quality or severall degrees of every feaver he is not hereby enabled distinctly to apprehend the maladies which attend the Gout untill he feele them Or suppose he knew these maladies from the highest to the lowest degree this will not indoctrinate him to know the extremities of the Stone so perfectly and distinctly as his meanest Patient doth which hath sensible experience of it though in a middle degree Our Saviour long before his last resort unto the garden of Gethsemane was a man of sorows had plentifull experience of humane infirmities or bodily maladies For he had felt the griefe and paine of all the diseases which he had cured by most exact and perfect sympathy with the diseased His heart was tunable to every mans heart that did seriously impart his griefe of minde or affliction of body unto him Onely in laughter or bodily mirth hee held no consort for ought we reade with any man But the griefe and sorow which in the garden he suffered could not be knowen by sympathy The protopathy was in himselfe and no man not the Apostles themselves could so truely sympathize with him in this griefe as he had done with them or the meanest of their brethren in other grievances or afflictions For never was there on earth any sorow like unto the sorow wherewith the Lord had afflicted him in this day of his wrath Yet was his obedience more than equall to his sorow and this obedience he learned by his sufferings 7. But if in this houre or any other hee learned obedience this seemes to argue that he was either disobedient before or at lest wanted some degree or part of obedience For no man can be said to learne that lesson which he hath already most perfectly by heart To this wee say That how ever the Sonne of God or the man Christ Jesus did never want any degree or part of habituall or implanted obedience yet the measure of his actuall obedience was not at all times the same The obedience which the Apostle saith hee learned was obedience passive and all passive obedience doth properly consist in patient suffering such things as are enjoyned by lawfull authority or in submitting our wills and affections not our bodies onely unto the just designes of Superiours Our Saviour at all times wholly submitted his humane will unto his Fathers will had alwayes undertaken with alacrity whatsoever his Father had appointed him to undertake or undergoe but his Father had never called him to such hard service as in this houre was put upon him Now if obedience passive consist in patience of suffering it must needs increase as the hardnesse of the sufferings increase in case the hardest service bee borne with equall patience or undertaken with the same measure of submission unto his will which enjoines them that meaner services are Againe if the true measure of bodily paines or sorow of minde cannot otherwise be knowen than by experience the Sonne of God himselfe as man and in the forme of a servant was to learne obedience at lest some new degrees of it by gaining experience of unusuall paines and sufferings And such questionlesse were those anguishes whether of soule or body which he suffered in the garden That hee had often prayed before this time wee reade and no doubt had alwayes tendred his petitions to God as to his Father with such humility of spirit as became an obedient Sonne and faithfull servant as did best befit the Ideall paterne of all true obedience But we doe not reade nor have wee any occasion or hint to conjecture that at any time before this hee did so humble himselfe in prayer as at this time he did whether we respect the forme or tenour of his supplications or his voice or bodily gesture in the delivery of them All the circumstances of these his supplications are accurately recorded by the Evangelists He was withdrawen or did withdraw himselfe from his Apostles about a stones cast And yet in this distance his Apostles though drousie and heavie did heare him pray distinctly who had taught them and us to pray for our selves in secret so secretly as that none besides our heavenly Father might heare them As for his gesture or posture of body that at the first delivery of his prayer and supplications was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So S. Luke Cap. 22. ver 41. Hee went forward saith S. Mark a little and fell on the ground and prayed Mark 14.35 So hee might doe and fall on his knees as S. Luke relates But S. Matthew addes he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from me That he thrice used this forme or tenour of prayer whether at each time hee used the same posture of bodie or rather falling on his knees than on his face is not so cleare though most probably hee did so Now that which these three Evangelists doe intimate or imply in the accurate relations of these circumstances is more expresly recorded by S. Paul Heb. 5.7 to wit that in the dayes of his flesh hee offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares And no wonder if streames of teares gushed from his eyes when his whole body as S. Luke informes us did distill blood The full importance of this sacred passage of S. Paul Heb. 5. from the fourth verse to the ninth seeing it containes matter of deeper mysteries than most Interpreters which I have read have taken any great paines to sound must be part of the subject of another following Treatise concerning his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Thus much in the meane time I take as granted that the forecited seventh verse of the fifth Chapter to the Hebrews doth in speciall referre unto the supplications made by our Saviour in his Agonie and will be the best Comment I know upon the Evangelists for clearing that point now in question what Cup it was for whose removall hee thrice so earnestly prayed 8. Hee offered up these his prayers saith the Apostle unto him who was able to save him from death This is exactly parallel
little before his death My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The collections which many learned writers of the Romish Church have drawen from Calvins Comments upon these words are too plentifull to be here inserted and the imputations which they lay upon him and his followers unanswerable if he meant or spake as they expresse his meaning to wit that these words should argue a sensible experience of Hell paines or the worst symptomes of such paines as either despaire distraction of minde or discontent I should be very sory to reade them in Calvin or in any other writer of the reformed Churches very unwilling distinctly to call to memory some passages in late English Writers which to my remembrance incline too much this way All I can say in Calvins defense if hee peremptorily affirme that our Saviour did suffer the paines of Hell upon the Crosse is this If it be an heresie as the Romish Church doth make it and I cannot gainesay them if it bee stifly maintained the heresie was broached by a great and learned Romish Cardinall before Calvin wrote And when the Pope who is the pretended Judge of all heresies shall condemne his books for hereticall or his opinion in this particular for an heresie I shall be ready to perswade the Church of England as farre as I am able to doe the like The true importance of our Saviours exclamation or proclamation rather upon the Crosse for hee uttered it voce magna with a proclamatory voice will come to bee scanned in the next Treatise But if Satan either by his owne strength or by speciall permission from God the Father did tempt our Saviour upon the Crosse whether immediatly or mediatly by the malicious stratagems of the Jews and by the prophanesse of the Roman Souldiers so farre as to proclaime his owne despaire or diffidence of Gods favour towards him or to the least degree of impatience or discontent it would bee hard to make any construction of our Saviours prediction Ioh. 14.30 The Prince of this world commeth and hath nothing in me or as some have more fully exprest the Hebraisme nothing against mee As certainly he had no matter to work upon no occasion of solace either to himselfe or to his infernall associats as if they had moved him to the least degree of diffidence or impatience For our Saviour questionlesse was more then certaine by a more excellent certainty than the certainty of faith that he should be saved from the second death that he should never fall away from Gods favour nor be for a moment forsaken of him Otherwise he had been a lesse faithfull servant of God lesse mindfull of speciall revelations made to him as man then they are who beleeve their owne speciall election or predestination onely upon application of Gods generall promises to themselves in particular For besides the internall revelations made to him as man he had many publique assurances such as others besides himselfe did heare none of which hee did ever distrust or doubt much lesse could hee feare lest his Father should be so farre displeased with him as ever to forsake him Now his pains upon the Crosse were grievous and the indignities done unto him to flesh and blood intolerable yet his apprehension of celestiall joyes due unto him was never interrupted And out of this never interrupted apprehension or rather view of these joyes hee endured the Crosse and despised the shame as our Apostle tells us Hebr. 12.2 Not onely his apprehension of these but his most circumspect observance of all opportunities to doe his Fathers will and to see all the Scriptures concerning him fulfilled was neuer more conspicuously remarkable whilest hee was upon the Crosse than in his last conflict with death The fulfilling of the Prophecies concerning his sufferings requires a peculiar Treatise For his extraordinary circumspection about that very point of time wherein hee uttered these words Eli Eli lamasabacthani My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that is abundantly testified by S. Iohn who was an eare witnesse of his speeches Now there stood by the Crosse of Iesus his mother and his mothers sister Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene When Iesus therefore saw his mother and the Disciple standing by whom hee loved hee saith unto his mother Woman behold thy Sonne Then saith he to the Disciple Behold thy mother And from that houre that Disciple took her unto his owne home Joh. 19.25 26 27. CHAP. XIII The bloody Sacrifice of the Sonne of God was all sufficient to make full satisfaction for the sinnes of the world without his suffering of any supernaturall or unknowen paines 1 BUt however the former pretended conclusion concerning Christs suffering the paines of Hell or any of their symptomes cannot bee inferred either from his bloody sweat in the garden or from any speeches of his or any effect related by the Evangelists yet the favourers of this conclusion rather than they would give it over endeavour to prove it by reason drawen from the finall cause of all his sufferings The suffering of the paines of hell say they was necessarily required to the full satisfaction for all our sinnes which all good Christians confesse hee did beare both in his Agony and upon the Crosse But the very foundation of this assertion is very weak and the superstructive worse most derogatory to the infinite worth of Christs bloody Sacrifice First it is not required by the rules of equity whether Divine or humane that satisfaction for wrongs done should alwayes be made in kinde or by way of counterpassion It is in many cases more full and more sufficient when it is made by equivalencie than if it were made in kinde As in case a man in his rage should cruelly beate his neighbour or butcher his cattell to permit the party which suffered the wrong whether in his person or in his goods to exercise the like rage or cruelty upon his person or live-goods which did the wrong could be no true satisfaction either to the law or party wronged but rather beastly revenge The best satisfaction which in this case could be awarded to the party wronged would be to give him such contentment in one kinde or other as might in reason though not to passion be as beneficiall and usefull to him as the effects of his fury and rage which did the wrong were in just estimation hurtfull and yet such withall as should make the offender as unwilling to doe the like wrong againe as the party wronged or any in his case would be to suffer it This is the onely true satisfaction which in the same or like case could be justly made to the Law whose true intendment alwayes is to make all men willing to doe to others as they desire should bee done unto them unwilling to doe any thing to others which they would not have done unto themselves Our father Adam had wronged our common nature and all of us had offended
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
marginall note Yet if the Originall in this place might be as Cramerus would have it reciprocall the basis of these two contrary significations should bee the passive And though both versions saving himselfe and saved himselfe meet in one point yet it had been more handsome to have said salvatus a seipso then servans seipsum And so Vatablus in his annotations upon this place tells us it may bee rendred Vertere potes saith hee servetur sub a se pro servans se But Masius a man more skilfull then the vulgar Grammarians hath so farre impeacht these grammaticall curiosities about the peculiar force or value of Conjugations that it is not safe to put a matter of so great a consequence as the fulfilling of a Prophecie concerning Christ upon their verdict And however many other Verbs in this forme to wit in Niphal bee rather equivalent to actives then truely actives neuterpassives or reciprocals yet their use though it were more frequent then it is cannot prescribe against the proper and naturall signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place which for ought I finde is alwayes a meere passive Wherefore to wave these grammaticall curiosities this observation I take it is more reall and of better use That as vulgar Philosophers usually ascribe the variety of effects unto the agents or efficients which ariseth wholly from the matter or Patient So Grammarians often labour to salve the regular use or importance of words from the diversity of formes or conjugations in their derivatives or multiplicity of significations in the primitive when as all the variation proceeds wholly from the nature of the subjects unto which one and the same word in one and the same forme or signification is applied As for instance when Melchisedeck saith Benedictus sit Deus Abrahami Benedictus sit Abraham a Deo c. Blessed bee the God of Abraham and blessed be Abraham of the most high God the formall signification of the Latin benedictus and the English blessed is one and the same but the use or importance much differ whilest applied unto God and unto Abraham For Abraham or man to bee blessed of God or to have good words bestowed upon him by divine goodnesse alwayes importeth some reall donative whereby hee becommeth more happy then hee was before For in God benedicere is benefacere his good word or blessing is alwayes operative of some reall good to the party whom hee blesseth But for God to bee blessed by man or which is all one for man to blesse God can import no more then a testification of his love and loyalty towards his Creator that hee no way envieth but heartily congratulateth his eternall happinesse and could wish if it were possible that it might be greater or that hee could expresse his loyalty and thankfulnesse better unto him who is worthy of all praise honour glory and blessednesse c. 5. In like case admitting the proper and formall signification of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee alwayes one and the same and punctually rendred by Arias Montanus salvatus yet the importance of it whilest our Sauiour is the Subject and wee the Agents will much differ from the importance of it whilest wee are the Subjects or passives and he the Agent or Donor Salvatus applied unto us alway implies some reall salvation of soule or body or of both and is as much in English as to be saved or redeemed from death and danger The same word againe applied to the King of Sion by his Subjects or by us sinfull men unto our Saviour and Redeemer can imply no more then our congratulation of his dignity or an acknowledging of his power to save or our hearty prayers that hee would bestow his saving health upon us If Arias Montanus or other Translators of the Hebrew had been tied to have used no other then Ciceronian or Terentian phrases it would perhaps have been a solecisme to have put the Latin salvatus for salutatus But the Latin Translators oft times use a phrase or dialect more ancient by much then Cicero or Terence whose language though unto such as peruse few other Writers then Tully or Terence or others a little before or after them it may seeme harsh yet is it more expressive of the Hebrew the ancientest of Languages then the moderne Latin as salvatus in this place is more significant and holdeth better analogy with the propriety of the Latin Tongue then if he had said salutatus Hee whosoever he bee to whom we say sis salvus or jubeo te salvere may according to the fundamentall rules of Grammar Latin though not according to the custome of Criticks or Refiners of that Language be more properly said to be salvatus then salutatus And I make no question but Montanus and others did use it in this sense as the most punctuall expression of the Originall unlesse they had said salvandus However hee is properly said to bee salvatus or salutatus who is either really saved from danger or unto whom wee wish all health and safety The passive juratus is in its formall signification one and the same whilest it denotes the party or person or matter by which wee sweare or protest or the parties which make oath not onely according to the Hebraismes or Ellenismes used by most Translators but in the elegancie of the Latin or Roman refined dialect So an elegant Poet expresseth Amphiaraus his scrupulosity or rather observance of decorum in not swearing by Apollo but old Chaos in that region of darkenesse Testor inane Chaos quid enim hic jurandus Apollo If hee had sworne by Apollo Apollo had been juratus yet not juratus in that sense as a Jury with us are said jurati that is sworne men or men which take an oath being administred unto them for it must consist of swearing men or of swearers a new title given by some Roman regular Catholiques as they call themselves unto such Seculars of their owne Profession as will take the oath of Allegiance or acknowledge it to be administred unto them by lawfull Authoritie And yet I take it hee that takes a voluntary oath may be truely said to bee juratus not onely to sweare but to bee sworne and that not in vulgar or legall English onely but in pure refined Latin as in that of Prudentius Tentavit Geticos nuper delere Tyrannos Italiam patrio veniens juratus ab Istro According to the custome of refined Latin it would perhaps bee a solecisme to say a man that dies of poison were venenatus albeit venenatus be a proper Latin word not obsolete whilest it denotes arrowes or bullets but in our English wee speake as properly when we say a man was poisoned as when wee say a poisoned bullet a poisoned shaft And so no question according to the true intent of the Prophet Zachariah our Saviour was as properly said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saved
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
before the ordinary time of expiration by the ordinary course of nature in such as die that unnaturall and accursed death which he sought after But the Psalmist had thus prophecied and prayed against him Psalme 109.17 As he loved cursing so let it come unto him as hee delighted not in blessing so let it bee farre from him As hee clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment so let it come into his bowels like water and like oile into his bones Yet do we not reade nor have we any occasion to suspect that Iudas being a Companion of the blessed Apostles till his death and a continuall follower of Christ the blessed whilst hee lived on earth was accustomed to sweare curse or blaspheme His demeanor amongst them doubtlesse was civill not prophane How then were the Psalmists words punctually verified of him He loved cursing he delighted not in blessing The meaning is as in many other places of the Psalmists that however hee did not openly sweare curse or blaspheme or bewray his hate to goodnesse yet in his heart hee did abhorre the wayes which tend to peace and happinesse and set himself not immediatly or directly to cursednesse How then is he said to have loved cursing Because through avarice and stiffe adherence to sinister privat ends which hee had secretly proposed unto himself hee was diverted from the wayes of peace and happinesse which is the end that all men in the generall seek and wish for unto the crooked paths which winde to cursednesse and malediction As his addiction to these paths was secret and hid so was the disease whereof he died It gathered secretly though suddenly within his body It soaked like oile into his bones and into his bowells like water And as a good Author whose words and name I now remember not hath conjectured he died of a dropsie more acute and sudden then that disease naturally is Yet however it bred within him by causes naturall or supernaturall it might be the true and naturall cause of his bursting in the middle and of the gushing out of his bowels Of his sudden disease and destruction other Psalmists had likewise prophecied Now that these and the like Propheticall imprecations might be exactly and remarkably fulfilled in him the righteous Lord would not suffer him to die meerely of strangling or suffocation but smote him with these secret and sudden diseases of what kind soever they were CHAP. XXIX Of the Harmony betwixt the Evangelists narrations or historie from the time our Saviour was sentenced to death untill his expiration upon the Crosse and the Mosaicall prefigurations or Prophecies concerning his death and sufferings 1 THere is no knowledge comparable to the knowledge of CHRIST nor is there any other part of this knowledge more usefull then the contemplation of his Crosse A Theame of which no private Christian can meditate too often or too much so he follow the directions of the learned for his practice Of this argument a great many Interpreters have writ very much and a good many very well both for the doctrinall part and for the usefull which must bee grounded upon the doctrinall The expressions of my meditations upon this point or which is all one the use or application of this grand Article of belief for whom he died or what is to bee done by them who intend to be true partakers of this common salvation purchased by his Crosse These and the like I must deferre untill I have set downe as God shall enable me the doctrinall points of his humiliation whereof the Crosse is the period and his exaltation which was accomplisht by his ascension That which must confirme and cherish our belief as well of his crosse as of his resurrection and ascension is the cleare harmony betweene the Evangelicall histories themselves and the predictions or prefigurations of what they jointly or severally relate recorded in the books of Moses and the Prophets or the historicall volumes of the old Testament 2. Hee bearing his Crosse saith S. Iohn went forth unto a place called in the Hebrew Golgotha Chap. 19.17 When they had mocked him saith S. Mark they took off the purple from him and put his owne clothes on him and led him out to crucifie him and they compell one Simon a Cyrenian who passed by comming out of the Countrey the father of Alexander and Rufus to beare his Crosse Chap. 15.20 Betwixt these two relations of S. Iohn and S. Mark there is some variation no contradiction no such appearance of contradiction as might bee pickt betweene S. Matthew and the other Evangelists about his riding unto Jerusalem upon the Asse and the Colt as S. Matthew saith or as the others expresse upon the Colt onely But that appearance of contradiction as hath been set downe before will easily vanish to him that peruseth the Prophet Zachariah the Evangelists with an observant and cleare eye For he might ride part of the way upon the one and part upon the other In like manner seeing his progresse from the Common hall unto Golgotha was divisible as the locall distance between them was our Saviour himself might beare his Crosse some part of the way or for a while and Simon the Cyrenian perhaps a greater part of the way or for a longer time Againe seeing the Crosse it selfe was not onely divisible but actually divided our Saviour might beare one part of it all the way and Simon another for the most part of the way betweene the Praetorium and Golgotha Nor is it probable that either of them should for any time or for any portion of the way beare both the whole Crosse and the Chapiter whereon the title of his accusation was engrost by Pilar Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews That our Saviour did beare his Crosse out of the Praetorium or place of Judicature is cleare from the forecited place of S. Iohn And it is more then probable that he did beare it all along the City till he came to the publique gate where the Souldiers meeting with Simon comming out of the Countrey compell him to goe back againe with them and beare the Crosse to Golgotha And as they came out saith S. Matthew or rather as they were comming forth not from the Praetorium or Common-hall but from the gates of the City they found a man of Cyrene him they compeld to beare his Crosse It is cleare againe frome S. Luke 23.26 that Simon did beare the Crosse JESUS going before him Whether our Saviour did faint under it at the gate through feeblenesse of body or by long watching I will not dispute much lesse determine though some good Writers give this reason why Simon was compeld to beare it being first laid upon our Saviour But whether for this reason or some other they took it from our Saviours shoulders and laid it upon Simons there was a mysterie in it and at least an Emblematicall expression of what our Saviour before had said If any man
hands of a woman yet hee died by the hands of his Page or Armour-bearer And a certaine woman cast a piece of a milstone upon Abimelechs head and all to brake his scull Then hee called hastily unto the young man his Armour-bearer and said unto him Draw out thy sword and slay mee that men say not of me A woman slew him And his young man thrust him through and hee died Judg. 9.53 54. But as some Schoolemen have in the disquisition of this point gone too farre so others have acutely resolved the difficulty and elegantly reconciled the difference in opinions Mors Christi non fuit verè miraculosa erat tamen miraculum in morte Christi Christ did no way make away himself or die by miracle but by course of nature Yet was it a true miracle that his life and spirits being so farre spent he should have speech and memory so perfect as to make delivery of his soule into his Fathers hands viva voce at the very moment of his expiration The Jews and Romans did truely and properly take away his life and yet hee did as truely and properly animam ponere lay downe his life for his sheepe in that hee patiently submitted himself to their tyrannicall cruelty and more sweetly and placidly resigned up his soule into his Fathers hands at the instant of death by course of nature or perhaps a little after it than a sheepe doth his fleece unto the shearer or his owner In this resignation or bequeathing of his soule thus placidly into his Fathers hands in his inimitable patience in all his sufferings whether of torture or indignities there was a most exact concurrence or coincidence rather of all former sacrifices and obedience more then the quintessence of those sacrifices wherewith God was alwayes best pleased that is the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and broken heart not humbled but humbling it self unto death The most ful and proper satisfactory sacrifice that could be required by God or desired by man a sacrifice so compleat as no wisedome besides wisedome truely infinite could have conceived no person besides the person of him that was truly God could have offered or performed CHAP. XXX That the Sonne of God should be offered up in bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the intended death of Isaac 1 THat the Sonne of God should be thus offered as a true and proper bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the sacrifice of Isaac intended by his father Abraham That the Crosse whereon he offered himselfe should be the very Altar of Altars the body which the legal Altars did foreshadow and that this Crosse should be erected without the gate of Jerusalem was foreshadowed by other matters of fact recorded by Moses To begin with the first type to wit Isaac The place appointed by God himself for the sacrifice of Isaac was either the Mount whereon the Temple stood or some Mount neer unto it if not Calvary it self And when Abraham came neere to the foot of the Mount which of the Mountains of Moriah soever it were he laid the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac his sonne Isaac then bare his crosse unwittingly and was afterwards willing by gentle perswasions to die upon the wood which he bare For if he had detested or abhorred the fact intended upon him hee was of years and strength sufficient to have resisted his father he being at least twenty five years of age and Abraham one hundred twenty five Now our Saviour as the Evangelists record went forth bearing his crosse unto a place called in Hebrew Golgotha either a place where the sculs of dead men were laid or rather for the forme or fashion of it like a scull But here some curious Inquisitor or one disposed to examine or scann the relations of the Evangelists as Lawyers doe later evidences by more ancient deeds would interpose this or the like exception Non concordat cum originali For our Saviour CHRIST as the Evangelists record was really sacrificed actually crucified and put to death but so was not Isaac as Moses tels us But all this will inferr no more then all good Christians must of necessity grant to wit that the Evangelicall records are more than meer exemplifications of Moses For that which was verified or truly foreshadowed in Abrahams readinesse to sacrifice his onely sonne and in his sons willingnesse to be sacrificed by him was to be really and exactly fulfilled of God the Father who had bound himself by promise to give his onely sonne unto Mankinde and in the willingnesse of this his onely sonne JESUS CHRIST to be offered up in sacrifice for the sinnes of the world Our Apostle is not afraid to say that Abraham by faith offered up his onely sonne that very man upon whose life or death the fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham and his seed did depend accounting or being resolved that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure Heb. 11.17 18. Isaac then was a true figure both of Christs death and resurrection And Abraham first in stretching forth his hands to slay his onely sonne and secondly in being prohibited by God from accomplishing his resolution did accurately foreshadow those fundamentall truths which wee Christians beleeve concerning the true and bodily death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Abraham by benigne Interpretation of the minde or resolution for the very fact or deed did both sacrifice his onely son and receive him from the dead 2. But was there no more then a tentation or tryall of Abrahams faith in that story of Moses Gen. 22 If no more then so the tempting or tryall it self might seem superfluous For God who knoweth all things aswell possible as determinate or future did most infallibly know what Abraham would do upon his command what hee would leave undone upon expresse prohibition This onely concludeth that the omnipotent and all-seeing Father of power did not stand in need of the determination of Abrahams will either to foresee or determine that which upon this actuall obedience of Abraham he did first binde himself by oath to performe That which long before he had decreed ad extra and in his generall expression of his mercy and loving kindnesse he had promised to doe We had his promise before Mankinde was actually propagated or multiplyed upon the earth that the womans seed should bruise the old Serpents head which had seduced her The like comfortable words were at sundry times interposed by God himself to Noah and Abraham 3. But upon this present fact of Abraham the same Lord interposeth his oath and it was the first oath which we reade that God did make for the fulfilling of the generall promise in one of Abrahams seed Because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thine onely sonne by my self have I sworne that in thy seed all the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed But did not
Sermon to be annexed by Gods assistance with others to this present and the former Treatise All in this place intended by me is to satisfie such as will be satisfied that our Saviours sufferings upon the crosse were a most true and proper sacrifice a sacrifice fully satisfactory for the sinnes of the world the accomplishment of all the sacrifices of the law the onely sacrifice whereof the anniversary sacrifices used in the feast of atonement were but shadows no true images Againe that the anniversary sacrifices of the Passeover which were in the moneth Abib and those in the feast of Atonement were to be joyntly accomplished at one and the same time to wit in the first moneth after this peoples delivery out of Egypt is implyed in the alteration of the account upon their deliverance For that alteration portendeth that in the very same moneth in which they were delivered there should be in after times a more generall deliverance of Gods people whose memory should deserve the precedency of all feasts and solemnities Such was that feast of the Passeover wherein our Saviour suffered 2. As for all the circumstances of place or time or the like wherein other legall sacrifices were offered the mysteries prefigured by them could not possibly be accomplished in one and the same time and place by any sacrifice not by the sacrifice of the Sonne of God himself though all-sufficient for its substance For if he should have fulfilled the sacrifice of Atonement in the feast of Atonement and the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb in the month Abib or in the place where it was offered he must have dyed oftner then once and in more places then one For the mystery prefigured by the Paschal lamb that was accomplished in due time on the day appointed for that sacrifice So was the Altar whereon he was offered that is the crosse the accomplishment of the figurative place whereon the first Paschal lamb was offered and that was the lintels or doore posts of the Israelites houses on which the blood of the Paschal lamb was sprinckled But the slaughter of the Paschal lamb in the first institution was intra pomaeria within the doores or precincts of private families or within the compasse of publick places of meetings So that in respect of the place wherein the true Paschal lamb and the true lamb of God was slaine or sacrificed there is some disparity yet a full harmony betweene the substance of both sacrifices and the circumstances of time wherein they were offered But this defect or rather this variation concerning the circumstance of place wherein the Paschal Lamb and the Lamb of God who taketh away the sinnes of the world were offered is most exactly recompensed by the circumstance of place wherein the body of the hee goat on which the Lords lot should fall and other sacrifices in the day of Atonement were by a most peremptory law to be consumed And that place was without the camp whilst the posterity of Iacob had no Temple or no fixt place of worshipping God but a mooveable Tabernacle Also the bullock for the burnt offering and the goat for the sinne offering whose blood was brought to make a reconciliation in the holy place shall one carry out without the hoast to be burnt in the fire with their skins and with their flesh and with their dung Lev. 16.27 This is the Apostles meaning in the forecited place Hebr. 13. Iesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his owne blood suffered without the gate that is without the city yet neare the suburbs of Jerusalem whose type or figure was the camp of the Israelites in the wildernesse or at that time wherein the Tabernacle was moveable For the Tabernacle was but a model or paterne of the Temple in Jerusalem as the camp of the Israëlites in the wildernesse was of Jerusalem it self 3. And however their GOD and supreme Lawgiver did by a peremptory law enjoyne his people that no manner of bloody sacrifice should be offered or at least no publick solemne feast be celebrated save only in Jerusalem after the Ark was brought into it and placed in the Temple Yet the circumstance of the place wherein our Saviour was sacrificed was exactly foreshadowed by the place wherein the anniversary sacrifices in the feast of Atonement during the time of this peoples progresse in the wildernesse or moveable Tabernacle were offered and that was without the camp or trenches of that great Congregation 4 The summe of all the forementioned prefigurations or predictions whether of our Saviours offering up of himself according to his Fathers will and appointment or of the times and places wherein he was offered is this that this his offering up of himself was a true and proper sacrifice a more full satisfaction for all the sinnes or tranagressions of men against the morall law of God then the sacrifices in the feast of atonement or the Passeover or other anniversary solemnities were for sins whether of omission or commission meerely against the law of ceremonies This is most divinely exprest by our Apostle Hebr. 9.13 as hath beene handled more at large before CHAP. XXXIII At what houre of the day our Saviour was crucified at what houre taken down from the crosse and of the mysteries ensuing his death 1 ABout the time of the yeare as in what moneth and in what day of the moneth the Lamb of God was offered or did offer up himself in bloody sacrifice there is no question of moment or none at least which may not easily be resolved But as concerning the time of the day or hour wherein hee was offered there is more then variety of opinions amongst the learned some apparance of contradiction betweene two over whom were they now alive no authority now on earth could have any power either of arbitration or jurisdiction It was the third houre saith S. Mark and they crucified him c. 15.25 designing the time after he was brought to Golgotha and refused to taste of the wine mingled with myrrhe Whereas S. Iohn speaking of the time a little before Pilat gave sentence saith It was the preparation of the Sabbath and about the sixth houre Iohn 19.14 That the various relations of these two Evangelists if we take them as they are extant in most copies should be reconciled there is a necessity And if either of their owne writings were to be corrected by the other S. Iohns Gospel as Maldonat well observeth were to be corrected by S. Marks For S. Marks assertion is punctuall and precise and betweene the ancient Manuscripts and moderne exemplifications of his Gospel there is no variation but in S. Iohns there are For in some copies yet extant and in some which Nonnus in his Poeticall paraphrast did follow there is expresse mention of the third houre not of the sixth Whence it is probably conjectured by some that the sixth houre was inserted by the Transcribers of S. Iohns Gospel for the
prayer for himselfe Father if thou bee willing remove this Cup from mee The question is what Cup this was whose removall hee desired It was a deadly cup as all agree but of what death naturall or supernaturall death of body onely or of soule Had the Cup which he so feared to drinke been onely a death naturall or such as other men had or may taste of his serious reiterated deprecation of it would in some mens collections argue lesse courage or resolutiō in him than many others though generous yet but meere men have exhibited either at the approch or onset of death or in the very conflict with deadly pangs or terrors Or if Peter at this time had not been amazed with heavinesse of spirit hee might thus have crowed over his Master dulce bellum inexpertis when I forewarned you to bee good unto your selfe and not to let these things come upon you all the thanks I had for my paines was this Get thee behinde mee Satan for thou savourest not the things which are of God but the things which bee of men And yet now thou prayest unto thy Father that these things which I advised thee to beware of may not fall upon thee Wherein then I beseech thee did I offend unlesse it were in foreseeing or foretelling that in time it would repent thee of thy forward resolution But admit this Cup whose removall hee now prayes for were more than either the feare or feeling of a naturall death though accompanied with more grievous symptomes than any man before him had either felt or feared was it possible that the horror of it should not bee duely apprehended by him from the time wherein he had resolved to suffer those things which Peter counselled him not to suffer If he were ignorant how dearely his future sufferings would cost him why did hee undertake to make satisfaction for our sinnes by them For to undertake any businesse of greater consequence out of ignorance or out of knowledge in part commendable without due and constant resolution how ever the successe fall out doth alwaies prejudice if not elevate the just esteeme of the undertakers discretion The undertaker in this great businesse of mans Redemption was the Sonne of God whose wisdome no man can too highly estimate whose undertaking for us all men besides himselfe doe esteeme too low Shall wee say then hee was not ignorant of any thing that should befall him yet ignorant of them as man or that hee was ignorant of them in part in part did foreknow them Surely as hee was God hee did know all things before they were before they could have any title to actuall being For infinite knowledge such is the knowledge of the Deity and of every Person in it can neither be ignorant or nescient of any thing whether future present or past or of any thing possible to have been or possible to be either for the present or future If the least degree of knowledge of any thing past present or future could accrue or result de novo unto the Divine nature either in it selfe or in any person in it whether ab extra from occurrences which happen in the revolution of time or from the supposed determination of his owne will from eternity we should hence be enforced to deny that the wisdome or knowledge of the Divine nature or of any Person in it were absolutely infinite For that unto which any thing can accrue or bee added is not truely infinite for the present or in it selfe can be no otherwise infinite than by succession or by addition of somewhat to it besides it selfe If it were true which some avouch that God doth not or rather cannot foreknow contingents future otherwise than by the determination of his owne will this supposed determination of his will being indeed but a fancy or transformation of his will to the similitude of ours doth make his knowledge absolutely infinite being of it selfe onely capable of true infinity by this addition 5. That God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost is of wisdome and knowledge truely infinite not by occurrences ab extra from the Creation but in himselfe I firmely beleeve As for the manner how hee doth know or foreknow things future contingents especially is a point which I could wish were not at all or more sparingly disputed as being assured that this point of all others now questioned cannot possibly be determined by any man or Angel unlesse he be every way as wise as God or somewhat wiser God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost I verily beleeve did more perfectly know the degrees and qualities of all the suffrings of our Saviour in the flesh than he himself as man did either know or foreknow them Yet did not the Divine nature or any Divine person as Divine know them by experience or painefull feeling as the man CHRIST JESUS did but by a knowledge as supereminent to the knowledge of sense or humane reason as the Divine nature is to the nature humane or as ubiquitary being or immensity is to circumscriptive or locall presence The Divine nature whether wee consider it in the Person of the Father Sonne or Holy Ghost could learne nothing which they knew not before by the sufferings of the Sonne yet the Son himselfe as man did learne obedience by the things which hee suffered in the flesh Whatsoever may be thought or said of other knowledge communicated to the man CHRIST JESUS by the vertue of the Personall union yet his sensible or experimentall knowledge as of pains and sorrow whether incident to body onely or to both body and soule was not from his cradle infinite was not so compleat at his baptisme as at his last Supper nor then so exact as in the garden or upon the Crosse it was A growth or increase in this kinde of knowledge is granted by such of the Schoolemen as did not know or consider what it was for the Sonne of God to be in the forme of a servant but tooke this to bee all one as to bee in the forme of a mortall man But such as duely consider his peculiar estate or condition whilest he was in the forme of a servant will easily conceive his voluntary renouncing that full measure of knowledge which hee now hath as man and his obedient submission of his manhood unto the feeling of our infirmities to haue been a necessary part or rather the very depth of that humiliation or exaninition of himselfe whereof the Apostle speakes For it is one speciall good quality of a servant not perfectly to know his errand not to be too inquisitive after the particular contents of it before hee be sent but to expect instructions from him that sent him though it be in an Ambassage 6. If wee take it then as granted that our Saviour as man did from his infancy most clearly foresee or distinctly know that hee was to redeeme mankinde by tasting the bitter cup of death for them it will not