lyue and are remaining in the comming of the Lord shal not preuent them which sleepe For the Lord himselfe shal descend from heauen with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel with the trump of God the dead in Christ shal rise first Thē shal we which liue and remain be caught vp with them al in the clouds to mete the Lord in the ayre and so shall we euer be with the Lord wherfore comfort your selues one another with these wordes An. I haue oftentimes bene tēpted about our resurrectiō these cogitatiōs greuously vexe me Christ did rise in his owne power strength as true God but how shal we poore wretches rise which cannot remooue or driue away from vs euen the lest sicknes that hapneth to vs wherfore I besech you tell me how Christes resurrection maketh vs to rise Vrb. Whose sinnes were they which Christ did beare An. It is manifest certain that he bare our sinnes Vrb. What maner of nature was it which Christ tooke vpon him An. It was our nature For we beleue that he toke vpon him our very humaine nature Vrb. Wherfore did the son of God take vpon hym our nature in the vniō of his deuine euerlasting person why did he take vpon him our sinnes An. He became true man for our sakes toke vpō him our sins that he might be a true oblation and sacrifice for them on the crosse and wipe them away and reconcile God the father vnto vs. Vrb. I heare you say that our sinnes were the cause of Christes death but what hurt did sinne vnto vs men An. It brought vpon vs an horrible destruction decay of al mans strength as wel of body as soule together with euerlasting death and condemnation Vrb. Seyng then that Christ by his death satisfied for our sinnes and suffered death for them that he might put them away it is not to be doubted but that he also abolished and destroyed death which had rule dominion ouer vs But if he destroyed death in vs as I say he did it followeth well that we shall rise agayne to lyfe For he did not these most worthy workes to wit that he suffred that he dyed that he rose again for himself or for his own cause for he is innocent free frō all sin so that he had no nede to do any of al these for himself nay there was no cause why he should do these things in respect of himself or in his owne behalfe but for vs Yea whatsoeuer he did or suffred he did it suffred it al for our sakes profit he gaue vs that his victory ouer deth This therfore is a good consequēt Christ died for our sins rose again for our iustificatiō Therfore shal we also rise in our flesh otherwise should we deny the vertue operation of Christs passion resurrection in our nature and be worse and more wicked thē Turks or Ethnikes which deny Christ An. Now you bring into my remembrance the 15. cha of the first to the Corrinthians which you do so highly and often commend vnto me wherin you say that Paule hath so coupled and ioyned Christes and our resurrection together that they can in no wise be seperated ☞ Vrb. That chap. hath such and so much sweete and sound comfort in it that I wish all christians in the worlde would wel faithfully remember it Paul in that cha reasoneth thus Christ is risen from the dead therefore shal we also rise againe from the dead because he dyed and rose againe only for our sakes for our saluation If we should stil abide in death then the death and resurrection of Christ had nothing profited vs neyther had they wrought any alteration in our nature but we had still bene should so haue continued in death euen as in our earthly father Adam we were borne to die But god forbid it were so our hope is sure For as it is certaine that Christ rose from death sitteth at the right hand of God so certain is it that we shal rise again because Christ is our head our bridegrome our redeemer our life And therfore wheresoeuer Christ remaineth and is there must nedes we also be abide for euer There is no cause why you should dout left Christ our head should leaue vs his beloued members spirituall body here behynde him in earth Marke what Paul teacheth vs in the 5. to the Eph. Note how he bindeth vs tieth vs to Christ We are saith he the members of his body of his flesh and of his bones ¶ Anna. Blessed be God our louing fauorable and heauenly father for euer euer for these infinite riches of his grace These wordes of Paul do greatly comfort ioy vs for if we be the members of Christ of his flesh surely there is no doubt but as Christ did rise again in his owne body euen so shal we also rise agayne in our bodies vnto euerlasting life by the power of the glorious resurrection of Christ Vrb. This is as certaine as you see now your selfe and heare your selfe speake ¶ Anna. But the condicion state of our bodies shal not then be such as they be now for now our bodies eate drinke slepe are subiect to wearines We eate disgest and waxe hungry and they that do not eate and drink must nedes decay and die But though we do eate and drinke yet can not these earthly meates or drinkes maintayne our lyfe here for euer For when we be olde and sickly and when our stomacks leese their naturall heate and disgesture then can neither meat nor drinke help preserue or prolong our life But when the natural helth strength is gone we end our dayes and die It must nedes therfore be a strange kinde of meate which we shal eate in the world to come which maketh vs liue for euer And the condicion and state of our body which shal be then must nedes be far differing from this and much better more excellent happy and blessed thē either hart can thinke or we desire ☞ Vrb. Paul hath taught this euidently plainly manifestly in his epistle to the Phil. where he saith Christ in the last day shal change our vile body that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious bodye according to the working wherby he is able euen to subdue al things vnto himself Lo both in this place to the Cor. he saith the our bodies in the last resurrection shal be pure cleare and vnspotted like the stars of the firmament and lyke the sunne moone And among other things he saith that this body of ours is as a graine of corne sowen in the earth in corruption and is raised in incorruption it is sowne in dishonour and raysed in glory it is sowen in weaknes and is raised in power it is sowen a natural body is raised a spiritual body that is to say
dye and be buried but not corrupt and rotte as our sinfull flesh doth and that his blessed deuine soule should not be cast in hell or graue but be vnited againe to the body that he should rise agayne from death sit at the right hand of God giue vs euerlasting lyfe It was meet that he should be the first fruites of thē which were dead that by his glorious resurrection he might open vs the true gate vnto lyfe and make the way for vs by which we also must go to him But Peter and Iohn the other Apostles before Christs rising againe vnderstood not this although they had heard it oftentymes vntill they saw the lord aliue agayne Wherfore it is no wonder though Cleophas and his companion vnderstood it not Dauid saith O lord my God I cryed vnto thee and thou hast restored me O lord thou hast broght vp my soul out of the graue Thou hast reuiued me from them that go downe into the pitte Arnobius and Augustine vnderstande this prophesie of the death and resurrection of Christ And againe he sayth God shall deliuer my soule from the power of the graue for he will receiue me Selah The church vnderstādeth these wordes also to be ment of the death descending into hell and risyng agayne of Iesus Christ And in another place he sayeth Thou hast shewed me great troubles and aduersities but thou wilt returne reuiue me And wil come again take me vp frō the depth of the earth These wordes also doth Arnobius expound of the death of Christ of his descendyng into hel and of his resurrection And againe in the 86. Psal. Christ saith to God the father Thou hast deliuered my soule from the lowest graue S. Augustine and with him the whole church of Affrica vnderstand this to bee vndoubtedly ment of the descending of Christ into hell of his rising againe The 22. psalm doth more fully and plainly then any other describe the passion resurrectiō and euerlasting kingdom of Christ And there are the very same wordes in which Christ in his great agony his extreme necessitie called vnto his father vpon the crosse And that psalm describeth Christ his passion also setteth forth the fruite of his death resurrection saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All they which see me haue me in derision they make a mo nod their hed saying He trusted in the lord let him deliuer him let him saue him seyng he loueth him They perced my handes and my feet I may tel al my bones yet they behold and looke vpon me They part my garments amōg them and cast lottes vpon my vesture Behold how exactly how liuely how truly and how excellently the holy ghost foretold Christes passion vsing the very same wordes which the Iewes vsed when they mocked Christ hanging on the crosse And the Euangelists are witnesses that al these things happened in his passion which were fore told of it And they recite the very same words to the end they may proue that it was the good will both of God the father and the son that Christ suffered seing the holy ghost prophesied many yeres before that all these things should happen vnto Christ Yea the spirite foreshewed also that Christ by this his passion should enter into his glory be lord ouer al things As before ye haue heard in the 8. psalm But in this 22. psal he saith I will declare thy name vnto my brethren and in the middest of the congregation will I praise thee Do you see he shal first suffer his passiō but he shall not bide in his passion and death For euen thē shal he magnify his fathers name and make it famous and wel known through the whole world by this glorious and famous preaching of Gods mercies in that he spared not his owne onely sonne but gaue him for our sakes to the death of the crosse that we might therby obtaine the benefite of euerlasting lyfe For so it followeth in the psalm The poore shal eate and be satisfied they that seeke after the lord shal prayse him their harts shall liue for euer This eating and satisfieng of the poore is a spiritual satisfieng when the poore sinners eate the true bread of heauen that is when they heare the gospel of Christes humanity passion and resurrection and kepe it in their hartes by fayth For then are they fed by it vnto euerlasting life according to that of Iohn I am the liuing bread which came down from heauen if any man eate of this bread hee shall liue for euer Neither can mans cōscience be otherwise satisfied and set at quiet that it be not vexed and troubled by any other thing but onely by Christ apprehended by fayth It followeth All the endes of the world shall remember themselues and turne to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee For the kingdome is the lordes and he ruleth among the nations This is when men by the preaching and doctrine of the Gospell are put in mynd of gods great benefites and are constrayned to acknowledge worship confesse glorify and call vpon Christ their lord who is appointed of God the father to be the head of all things and king ouer all nations of the whole world Here haue ye the kingdome of Christ which is the holy catholike church spread ouer the face of the whole earth And now in all things and places where that euill spirit the deuill before ruled by lying hauing seduced all people and led them into all kindes of errors and idolatry that they might be as Paul sayth without Christ without the worde without hope and without God in the world there I say in those partes shall Christ now be heard It followeth their seede shall serue him and the lord shal be preached from age to age But if Christ shal haue seede that is to say spirituall children borne by the gospell as well of the Iewes as Gentiles as you see by this text he must then can he not be ouercome by deth nor abide in the graue For how could he then regenerate and congregate the Gentiles together into the catholike fayth and rule such an empire which should fill the whole world whose dominion should not extende through one piece of the earth onely but thorough the whole circuit of the wide world and so cōtinue for euer world without end For whosoeuer beleueth in Christ shal be partaker of euerlasting lyfe Wheresoeuer therfore the prophets set down the kingdom of Christ saying that it shall haue continual peace health and felicitye there is set downe and in dede declared the deth and resurrection of Christ and all christian men For if Christ shal be a king and set vp and haue an heauenly and euerlasting kingdome it must needes follow that he should leaue this temporall mortall lyfe by death
seed and trusteth not in him with all his hart he perysheth he is vndone he is ordayned to damnation he is the bondslaue of Sathan how great so euer he be both in body and soule But he that layth hold of this seed here promised by faith he escapeth the tyranny of Sathan and is delyuered from death and eternal damnatiō with him al things go wel because he shal be the Sonne of God partaker of euerlasting saluation and heir of life which lasteth for euer Here must we diligently mark that God doth promise help deliueraunce and sure victory of Sathan death and sinne but not without our Mediator not for our own sakes not by our own strength not for our own vertues not by our own wisdom not by our own skil not for our deserts or worthines By or for what then Not by or for any other thing but only this seed of the womā that is Christ alone our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mediator To this word or holy promise must we trust which if we doe there is no doubt but that God by Christ wil delyuer vs out of the power of Sathan Which thing the holy Ghost doth fully witnes by many testimonies in the new Testament where he saith that Christ is our Priest our high Priest our Righteousnes our Mediator our Redeemer our Life our way our Light our Truth our Sauyour and the Conqueror of the Prince of the world And one that hath geuen vs again a great deal more fully and absolutely those thinges which we lost in Adam then before we had them And this doth Paul very notably set forth to the Romans where making an Antithesis betwixt Adam Christ Sinne and Grace he saith But yet the gift is not so as is the offence for if by one mannes offence many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ hath aboūded to many The Latine text hath Insidiaberis calcaneo eius that is Thou shalt lay wayt to sting his heele as the seuenty Translators did translate it But the Hebrue text hath it Veathath teschu phennu akeb that is Thou shalt rent or bruise his heele The holy Ghost doth vse in both the places in the Hebrue tongue only this word scoph But Rabbi Salomon geueth this note In as much saith he as this word which is here vsed is twise set down in this promise it is as much to say as with hissing to assail or to hisse as doth an Adder which hissingly assayleth a man and puffingly bloweth vpon him and hath not yet stinged him And this interpretation hath a very good sence here very fit and agreeing with this place For although that old Serpent be most cruel and enuyous against vs and although he hate vs stil most deadly and striue against vs and tempt vs euery way yet hath he not power at his plesure to hurt vs as he would For it is but only with vain hissing that he assayleth Christ and his Church And the enmity which is betwixt that old Serpent that vnclean Spirit and Christ and Christians both hath and will shew it self by many and plain signes and persecutions For that sinful Serpent hissed vpon Christ when he was made man very bitterly and enuiously and he prickt and hurt his heel greeuously at what time the Iewes being set on fire with a most deuilish enuy hatred cruelty and spitefulnes rushed like mad men vpō Christ and first horribly and intollerably beat him and then nayled him to the crosse and lastly most shamefully killed him Yet was this foul Serpent so far from extinguishing and ouercomming Christ that by that very means wherby he wēt about to hurt him he ouerthrew him self and destroyed his own kingdome and power For then he lost all the right and abilitie which he had either to trouble appeach or accuse the true beleeuers in Christ And though he as his nature is sting and hisse at all the Children of Adam and miserably vexe greeue and torment them with temptations lyes heresies persecutions sinnes and death it self Yet all that he can doe against the godly though he be neuer so enuyous and wicked is nothing els but hissing yea he is so far from hurting or harming them that he greatly euen profiteth them when he killeth them and thinketh to hurt them For by that hissing wherwith he assayled the Seed of the woman he bringeth mankind out of this miserable and wretched world into most happy and euerlasting blessednes And the womans Seed that is to say Christ who himself also vnder the shape of a Serpent was lifted vp in the wildernes doth in the mean time break his head beat it all to pouder Who so euer doth behold this Christ with holy eyes putteth all his hope trust in him Sathan with all his poysened hissing and byting can neuer a whit hurt him in that appertayneth to the health of his soule He may in deed tosse vs with temptations and puffe vpon vs with his poisonful hissing and throw vs into the puddle of sinne But Christ is redy at hand to help vs and to heale the wounds which we receue of the Serpents biting He forgeueth vs our sinnes and strengthneth vs with his holy spirit that Sinne hath not henceforth dominion ouer vs and he restoreth vs again to life that by this temporall death we enter not into euerlasting death but sleep in Christ which is our life in whom both in body and soul we shal liue for euer So that both truely and godly it may and ought be sayd that the Gentils and the vnbeleeuing only be they that dye and not the faithful in Christ This is most certain and sure Christ by his desert hath wrought this thing in vs and is the Author of this great and wonderfull benefit Sathan can doe vs no harme he cannot any way hurt our soules but shal be thrown as subiect vnder our feet For Christ hath ouercome that our enemie bereft him of his pray and daunted all his force This victory which Christ hath got of Sathā and obtayned in his manhode for mannes saluation doth Paul set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrewes where he saith For asmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and bloud that is for asmuch as men did spring of Adam He that is Christ also himself likewise toke part with them that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the Deuil and that he might delyuer all them which for feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage For he in no sort toke the Angels but he took the seed of Abraham And thus that cōfortable promise which was made to Adam was the Gospell and onely comfort of Adā and all the holy Fathers vnto Noe and Abrahā This promise the Fathers beleued and by this promise were they iustified saued For all their trust
and of the forgiuenes of sinnes which we haue onely by the bloud of Iesus Christ as it is written to the Hebrues They were only exercises of outward discipline holines and iustification of the flesh which beyng but giuen vntil the tyme of reformation were then to haue the full end when he should come which by these types and figures was prefigured ¶ Anna. I would gladly heare how Aaron with his priesthood and sacrifices do signify prefigure Christ And I pray you expoūd me euery parcell of it orderly ☞ Vrb. I wil. But that you may as in a table plainly see it and that the matter may the better be vnderstood and perceiued I haue here vnder set downe the figures of the old testamēt with the fulfilling of them the truth of the new testament set ouer against them ¶ A Table conteyning the figures of the old law and things in deede figured therby The Figure The things figured 1. AARON with his priesthood in Leuiticus 1. CHrist and his euerlasting priesthood in the whole epistle to the Hebrues 2. Aaron the hie Priest in the law 2. Christ a high priest in the whole epistle to the Hebrues 3. Aarō teacheth the law giuē by Moses which accuseth vs and worketh wrath Iohn 5. Rom. 4. 3. Christ teacheth the Gospell which excuseth and defendeth al true Christians giueth thē mere grace Ioh. 1. Grace truth by Christ 4. Aarons doctrine was the letter writtē with the finger of God in tables of stone 4. Christes doctrine is spirite and lyfe the christian faith written in the fleshly tables of the harte by the holy ghost Iohn 6. Iere. 31. 2. Cor. 3. 5. Aaron praieth for the people 5. Christ is our Mediator aduocat praieth for vs Ro. 8.1 Tim. 2. 6. Aaron beareth the sinnes of the people the 3. booke of Moses 6. Christ is the true lamb of God which beareth the sinnes of the world and paieth the raunsome for them Ioh. 1. 7. Aarō offred vp beasts and bloud of beastes for the sinnes of the people 7. Christ offred vp him selfe for the sinnes of the world and shed his owne bloud for them Ebr. 9. There be fiue kind of sacrifices in the law All kindes of sacrifices were fulfilled in Christ 1. The Holocaustum was consumed with fire Leui. 1. 1. Christ is our true burnt offering burning in the feruēt fire of loue towardes vs and geueth himselfe wholy for vs that he may thereby deliuer man holily 2. The offering vp of sacrifice in Leuit. 2. 2. Isichius vnderstādeth by the offering of the sacrifice the manhood of Christ Ierome also vnderstandeth Christ who is the bread of life Ioh. 6. 3. The peace offering Leuit. 3. 3. Christ is our true peace offring Rom. 5. 2. Cor. 5. by the death of the sonne we are reconciled to god Col. 1. he hath set at peace by the bloud of his crosse all thinges c. 4. The offring for sinnes Leu. 1. 4. Christ is our true offering for sinnes committed and duety omitted 2. Cor. 5. Ro. 8. 5 The offring for transgression Leui. 6.7 5. For our sinnes he laid downe his lyfe the Lord layed vpon him the iniquity of vs all Esay 53. Figures The truth and the thing figured 1. The bloud of beastes was shed in the law to purifie sinnes Heb. 9. Leui. 9. 1. Onely the bloud of Christ Iesu the sonne of god which he shed on the crosse doth purge vs from all our sinne 1. Ioh. 1. Heb. 9 2. The high priest once and no more euery yere entred alone into the holy of holiest or into the second tabernacle Leui. 16. Exod 30. by the bloud of beasts with which yet notwithstanding he could not eyther iustifie or purifie any man. 2. But Christ an high priest of good thinges to come once entred not into a tabernacle made with handes but euē into the very heauens into the presence of God by his owne bloud wherby he reconciled vs purified vs and obtayned for vs euerlasting lyfe Heb. 9. 3. Aarons sacrifices of necessitie ought to be most pure cleane and perfect without eyther blot or spot 3. Christ of al the sonnes of men had neyther spot blotte nor blemish beyng conceyued of the holy gost and borne of the pure virgin Mary Esay 53. These sacrifices shedings of the bloud of beastes in the lawe signified the precious and incomparable death of Messias because he in the nature shape and state of man would once be slayne and offered vp to wash away our sinnes Here must we first well diligently obserue that the sacrifices of the law with the bloud therof cannot in deede purge or take away any sinne neither reconcile any man to god They were onely figures ordeyned and instituted of God that they might represent vnto vs that only and true sacrifice and reconciliatiō of the new testament that is to say Christ on his crosse by whose only sacrifice sinne was truly and verily purged clensed and washed away certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is redemptiō is obtained Secondly that if only by the death of Christ sinn be truly purged and washed away then by it alone shal death be vanquished and extinguished in as much as death is the rewarde of sinne and where no sinne is there death can haue no power Thirdly this also doth follow by a firme and inuincible consequence that Christian beleuers who haue part of this sacrifice are truly deliuered from their sinnes and shal by it also though in body they dye yet be restored againe to lyfe All the priestes of the law died successiuely neither could they deliuer themselues nor others from sinne and death but Christ hath no successor because he is alway one and bides for euer a priest of the euerlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 priesthood by which he both can and will saue vs for euer and by which he purchaseth for vs euerlasting redemption Heb. 7. and 9. Wherfore all which are his that is which beleue in him shal be fellow heyres with him of euerlasting lyfe He is not God of the dead but of the liuing And therefore they also must needes by Christ rise againe frō death but if we should rise again frō death enioy euerlasting life it was needefull that he should first rise again frō death and be the Lord of life as Esay sayth When he shall make his soule an offring for sinne he shall see his seede shall prolong his dayes Here the Prophet teacheth that Christ after he had finished his sacrifice on the crosse should liue and raigne with his church for euer and neuer die as other priestes kinges and lordes did Must not a godly hart of necessity here conceyue much ioy when he seeth and considereth how plainely how clerely and how directly vnder the shadowe of these figures both the death and the resurrection of Christ and all faythfull christians are signified and set forth and also when we see
of the priests asked Peter and Iohn in the Actes by what power and in what name they helped the lame man Peter answered by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth For in deede there is none other name vnder heauen giuen vnto men in which we can or must be saued ¶ Anna. Is not the high priest in Zachary also called Iesus how commeth that to passe or how can this so deuine and glorious a name be giuen to him ☞ Vrb. The high priest in that place is only a figure of Christ and therefore hath he this name giuen him For Iosua the sonne of Nun is called Iosua because he was a figure of Iehoscuah Iesus And although God gaue the people of Iuda many benefites and commodities and increased them maruelously by these mens meanes yet were they all but only temporall and terrestriall giftes which they receyued of God by theyr handes and very trifles in deed in comparison of the great giftes and benefits helth and helpe which God through Iesus Christ hath now giuen not to one people only but to all the world For Christ deliuereth vs from eternall misery from sinne from death and from euerlasting damnatiō and giueth vs innocency helth lyfe and eternall saluation This name therfore filleth heauen and earth with vnspeakeable ioy because by this name commeth true and present helpe in all troubles and certain saluation from all calamities As Peter sayth in the Acts. To him giue all the Prophets witnesse that through his name all that beleue shall receyue remission of sinnes To conclude this in deede is true helpe true lyfe and true liberty What I pray you is the ayde helpe of all the world and worldly creatures in comparison of this can they deliuer a mā frō any sinne can they giue any mā eternall lyfe can they saue ones lyfe or rayse one frō deth or deliuer one from the deuill a fig they can But our Christ only is he that can helpe the world neither can he only but also will doth that which he can Wherfore he only and none other is that true Iesus which both in body and soule and in lyfe and death helpeth aydeth deliuereth and with eternall lyfe blesseth all that beleue in him This true helpe and helth and this holy name full of all comfort consolation was oftentimes foretold of by the prophets As in Iere. the 7. where Israel confesseth that there is no helpe any where but with god And there amongst other he sayth Truely in the Lord our God is the health of Israel In the holy tongue it is Theschath that is thy sauiour helpe or health Thus haue you heard that life is promised to the worlde in no other but only in Iesus Christ as Peter saith in the Acts. Wherfore it may be supposed that where so euer mention is made in the Scriptures after this sort of the ayde helpe or saluation of God that there Christ is to be vnderstood Christ also in Esay comforteth his church and promiseth her the seruice and ministery of the Gentiles and kings and amongst other he hath these wordes Thou shalt sucke the milke of the Gentiles and shalt sucke the brestes of Kings thou shalt know that I the lord am thy sauiour and thy redemer the mighty one of Iacob What other redemer doe we here vnderstand but Iesus Christ whō al the godly know and beleue to be promised giuen of God to redeme and deliuer the world Also in the 43. of Esay it is said I am the Lord thy God the holy one of Israel thy sauiour In both these places the name of Christ Meschiah is vsed which commeth of the Hebrue word Iascha that is saued And in the 45. of Esay it is said Israel shal be saued in the Lord with an euerlasting saluation you shal not be ashamed nor confounded world without ende And here the word Thescuah in Hebrue is vsed And that which is sayd here is in deed fulfilled in the true and spirituall Israel that is in the Catholike church of Christ which findeth euerlasting lyfe health helpe in Christ Iesu Wheresoeuer also we finde in the Psalmes Ieschuath cha which signifieth thy sauior or saluation there Augustine alwayes vnderstandeth Christ our alone sauiour as in the Psalm 119. and in many other which for multitude I cannot recite For we see thē euery where Rabbi Ishak Nathan hath gathered a great many of them together in his Perusch Aleph and Beth which you may read if you will. But here I would not haue you ignorant that some men thinke Iehoschuah and Iesus not to bee both one For they say that Iesus is deriued of the Hebrue word Iesch which as Capnio interpreteth it signifieth is or els of the true and proper name of God Iehouah which signifieth such a one as hath not or borroweth not his beyng of any other but is of himselfe as Christ saith to the stubborne Iewes in Iohn Before Abraham was I am Wherby is proued that Christ is truly and properly so called and els no man For God calleth himselfe I am that I am where telling Moses what is his name he sayth I am that I am Thus shalt thou say to the childrē of Israel I am hath sent me vnto you Hereupō some suppose this name Iesus to be the very name of God Tetragrammaton which in the holy tonge is written with foure letters namely Iod hoe uof hoe In stead of which name the Iewes for religion and reuerence sake vse this word Edonai Now if we put in this letter schin with these fower letters they wil make the word Ieheschu or Iesu which properly signifieth God himself or the deuine essence For God promised in his prophets that he himselfe would come and saue vs And we in our true and vndoubted Catholike faith beleue that Christ is true and natural God which both made and preserueth all things c. Wherefore this holy and royall name Iesus is giuen only to him By which the Angel Gabriel said he should be called whē as yet he was not conceiued by the holy ghost This most holy name was giuen him openly when he was circumcised neither hath it ought it or iustly can it be giuen to any other but onely to our true Messias For the scripture witnesseth that he is very God in mans nature Paul to the Phil. sayth f. Christ had a name aboue all names And what name can that be but onely the name of God and thus much of his former name Iesus Now the other of the two names which in the scriptures be commonly giuen to Christ is Messias which word signifieth annointed and belōgeth to a king For in the law the kings were annointed as well as priests Yet was not Christ annointed after the maner of other kings but after a strange and peculiar maner so that he is a Messias peerlesse to whom there is not an
calling for helpe cryeth as one helpeles My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And where as he had sayd that who so beleued in him should not see death for euer yet he himself both suffered death and was buryed in the sepulcher Here if we were led by humayne reason we should with Cleophas and his companion say Wee hoped that he had bene the redemer of Israell whiche should haue saued vs all but now he himself is dead Howe shal a dead man saue vs and how can he which is slain haue an euerlasting kingdom You see howe this name Pele was not without special cause geuen to this child whō it doth by that name of sauiour represēt For so he is in deed the true sauior redemer which deliuereth vs from all our sinnes and miseries And so it pleased him by hys pouerty to blesse vs with spirituall riches by the tauntes and checkes which he suffred to deliuer vs from euerlasting shame by his crosse to bring vs to eternall honour and glory by his weaknesse to giue vs eternall strength and by his death to giue vs a flourishyng lyfe and to abolish our death by dying hymselfe All these he hath done and daily doth in vs when he maketh vs like himself that is to say weake in body but strong in spirite base lowe and contemptible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very ofscouringes before the world but the vessels and instruments of glory in the sight of god And thus he suffereth vs to dye that the Infidels may thinke there is no difference betwene a Christian and no Christian as Turke or iewe But yet our death is precious in the sight of the lord neither doth he suffer vs to abide in death All these things are great meruelous wonderful and far passing our reason and vnderstāding yea far exceding all the strength power effect working of our nature An other name is Ioetz that is councel For though this Pele doth lead and gouerne vs thus wonderfully by his crosse ignominy maketh vs glorious yet are we ignorant rude fayntharted fearfull and therfore is it necessary that he merueilously prouide for coūsail and help vs For it is not in our power and strēgth to endure and stand in trouble and persecutiō But what counsel geueth he verely cleane contrary to the world The world willeth vs to beware flie and eschue the cros affliction to reuenge our selues But Christ casteth hys seruantes into trouble and vexations and therein trieth them as gold is tryed in the fire furnace But yet so that he comforteth them alwayes most louingly as it appereth in Ioh. where he saith vnto the Apostles Be of good chere I haue ouercome the world And a little before he sayth Ye shall weep and lament the world shall reioyce ye shall sorrow but your sorrow shal be turned to ioy and your ioy shal no man take from you What els I pray you is the whole sacred scripture but a plentifull and rich Pharmacopole whence wee may fetch present help and most fruitfull and sound comfort for all sicknes calamities and euils as Paule witnesseth saying what soeuer things be writtē afore tyme are written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might haue hope For hee whiche speaketh in the scriptures is almighty and both can will help vs alway His word is not spoke in vayne but al things are done which he hath promised Yea the holy ghost himselfe whiche is the spirit of truth is our comfort and help For thus we read in the book of wisdome O Lord neyther herbe nor plaister healed thē but thy word which healeth all things hath made vs safe And Ionathas the high priest saith vnto the Spartanes We Iewes stand no nede of the societie and friendship of the Gentiles hauing the holy bookes which are in our hands for our cōfort And now I pray you what trouble what affliction what calamity or what dāger in al this world cā be so great how great so euer it be against which the word of god that most holesome and holy gospel cannot minister giue most holesom plētiful perfect sound consolation and comfort seeyng that it promiseth not only corporal but heauenly help And the promises therof are by Christ confirmed established and sure yea and Amen If you read better read all the workes of the Heathen philosophers you shal find nothing in them and yet their whole study trauel was to find some comfort against death wherin you may take true cōfort All their arte al their knowledge all their wisdom and all the remedies that euer they found are nothing if thei be compared but with these two comfortable sentences in Mat. The first is Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule Here you see the immortalitie of the soule of which the Ethnikes speake euen as blynde men of coulors But the words folowing which is the second are not vttred by any philosopher but by Christ himself the euerlasting truth and very true lyfe Euery one sayth he that beleueth in the sonne of God hath euerlastyng lyfe and I wil raise him vp in the last day Here you haue the resurrection or rising againe of the flesh of which the Gentils and the whole world with all their wisdome had no knowledge Go to then if any be in the agony of death or assailed with the tempests of persecution afflictiō either els vexed pinched with the bitter dolors terrors of conscience for his sinnes as soone as he shal lay hold on these two sentences by faith lay them vp in his hart he shall find comfort haue true and plenteous consolation For he hath forgiuenes of his sins sure hope of euerlasting life nay rather he hath life alredy because he is in Christ Christ in hym This in dede is true counsell For all mens counsels consolations are vaine momentany cannot help deliuer vs in extremity peril danger but the counsel of the lord doth abide continue for euer God the father commaunds vs to heare this counsailor saying Heare him The 70. interpreters haue expounded this word Ioetz the angel of the great counsail beautifiyng Christ with the notable and apt epitheton giuing him the proper title For Christ is the legate angel of the great counsail of the triple vnitie and most holy trinity and is also the eternal wisdom of the father The third epitheton or name of the child is El it signifieth strēgth fortitude or God as the 70. interpreters haue translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the mighty god This name conteineth a singuler cōfort For it telleth vs that Christ doth not only prouide for vs by the word of his gospel but also is presēt with vs doth mightily help vs faithfully perform to vs those
pure free frō al sinne All mankind in deed is subiect to it But Christ paied the price of all our sinnes and in his owne person ouercame death and so destroyed it that henceforth it cannot vtterly vndo vs and deuour vs Because all we which beleue in Christ shall rise again by the vertue of Christes resurrectiō This also might haue comforted Cleophas and his companion haue certified them that Christ was a spirituall king which should not restore that corporall kingdome of Israel but redeme the true Israelites to wit the children of promise through the whole world from the kingdome of Satan and bring them into the heauenly and spiritual kingdom of euerlasting lyfe and immortalitie Esay in his 26. chapter hath a notable song of the kingdom of Christ of the church of the faithfull and of the fortitude and security therof where he sayth We haue a strong city saluation shall God set for walles bulwarks That is to say the walles and armour of it are the sauing helth and victory of Christ which are sure and inuincible fortresses Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which kepe the truth may enter in Here are the citizens of this city described to wit the righteous which beleue in Iesus Christ It followeth By assured purpose wilt thou preserue perfect peace because they trusted in thee This is spokē of the king which ruleth this heauenly city because he doth alwayes and in all places giue and maintayne true pleasant and perpetuall peace against Satan the world and the flesh This peace is in consciēce through faith in Iesus Christ A little after Esay doth prophesie of the resurrection of those dead which shal haue beleued in Messias and are citizens of that heauenly Ierusalem saying Thy dead men shall liue euen with my body shall they rise Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust For thy dew is as the dew of herbes and the earth shal cast out the dead Come my people enter thou into my chambers and shut thy dores after thee Hide thy selfe for a very litle while vntill the indignation passe ouer for loe the Lord commeth out of his place to visite the iniquity of the inhabitauntes of the earth vpon them and the earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no more hide her slaine Now if the righteous which yet lye in the earth shall rise in theyr owne bodies then must it needes be that Christ should rise before who is the head kyng by whome they are iustified and deliuered from theyr sinnes and by whom they shall rise agayne The prophet therefore vndoubtedly speaketh here of the resurrection of Christ and christians and calleth the faythfull of Christ the lordes dead that is pertayning vnto the lord or which are the lordes of whome God will take an accompt and whome he will preserue and not leaue them in death but bring them to euerlasting lyfe For if God be theyrs and they Gods then out of all doubt can not they continue in death neither hath death totally swallowed them vp and cōsumed them but it hath for a short tyme separated their body and soule For God is not the God of the dead but of the liuyng The soule is with Christ and the body in the ground But at the last day the lord will purge and purifie theyr bodies and adorne them with infinit and vnspeakable glory Esay teacheth vs what maner of lyfe we shall haue after our death when he sayeth Awake and sing If the godly must sing and vndoubtedly they shall syng that euerlastyng Alleluya that is a thankesgiuyng because death is swalowed vp in the victory of Christ then out of doubt shall our lyfe after this temporall lyfe be a most happy and blessed lyfe and we shall haue continuall ioyes without any tast of payne or sorrowes perpetuall health without sickenesse eternall and true pleasures delightes and comfortes without any wearisomnesse or molestations After that day sicknesses shall trouble our bodies no more neyther shall olde age wither our bodies or decrease our strength but we shal alwayes haue a continual spring euerlasting pleasure and perpetuall beauty Therefore sayth the prophet Thy dewe shall be as the dewe of a greene medowe That is after your resurrection you shall not fade or decay but flourish alwayes and for euer and be as a fayre medow and greene garden which by her sweete dew comfortable buddes and pleasaunt delectation feedeth the eyes of all men But before this most ioyfull day of the resurrection of the faythfull we must suffer much affliction and heauinesse as Christ warneth vs in Iohn saying In the world ye shall haue affliction and bee made conformable vnto hys death This must be suffered paciently and moderately that be suffering we may be made lyke vnto Christ and so according to our portion be partakers of glory And so Paul sayth to the Philippians The thinges which were vauntage to me the same I counted losse for Christes sake that I might winne Christ and that I might knowe hym and the vertue of hys resurrection and the fellowship of his affliction and bee made conformable vnto his death if by any meanes I might attayne vnto the resurrection of the dead In the meane while we sit as it were shut vp vnknowen to the world in our parlor or closset of the holy church beleuing the doctrine of the sacred Gospell and confirmyng our fayth and hartes with the sweete promise of GOD in hys worde euen vnto the last iudgement that the wrath of GOD may passe ouer and that which ought to be iudged receiue iudgement Our afflictions here are not continuall but for a short tyme which compared vnto eternitie is not the twinckling of an eye And this tyme once finished the Lord will come to iudgement and giue vnto euery one accordyng to his workes Then shall the godly and guiltlesse Abel ryse from the dust of the earth and then shall not the earth any longer couer the bodye of the righteous but it shall giue them vp that together with their soules they may be glorified And the Prophet in his 27. chapiter prophesieng of Christes kingdome and the catholike church calleth it a vineyarde saying In that day sing of the vineyarde to wit the church of red wyne I the Lorde do keepe it and will water it euery moment least any assaile it I will keepe it day and night Hereafter Iacob shall take roote Israel shall flourish and growe and the worlde shall bee filled with fruite And in that day also shall the great trumpet be blowen and they shall come which perished in the land of Ashur and they which were chased into the land of Egypt and they shall worship the lord in the holy mount at Ierusalem This vineyarde is the church of the faythfull which is enclosed and hedged about with the worde of God adourned with the holy spirite and moystened and watered with the
and condemned to the death of the cros but that heuy and vnspekable payn that the Lord of all things and iudge both of the liuing and dead suffered himself to be iudged and condemned by sinful men was not to continue longer then three dayes After which torments he should at the last being rysen agayn raigne with great glory ouer Israell He dyed once and dyeth no more Death henceforth hath no more power ouer him but he is ruler ouer it for euer Whereupon sayth the prophet who shal declare his age or generation or tel of the time of his raign When the Iewes supposed he had bin dead and quite destroyed then at the last he passed from time which perysheth into eternity which neuer shall haue end and he rose from death into the glory of the euerlasting ioy and immortality This is that infinite merite of Christes passion by which he deserued for vs forgeuenes of all our sinnes and euerlasting life He was cut of and taken away by his passiō out of the land of the liuing which liue here in this transitory life Our life verely is miserable and short and alwayes caryeth death about with it and is euery moment in danger of death and hath death following it euen as the shadow doth follow the body But Christ then in his passion passed from death to euerlasting life where he doth now raign our Lord and king for euer and euer ¶ Anna. Why saith Esay the Lord made his sepulchre with the wicked or suffered him to be buryed as the wicked ☞ Vrb. The prophet speaketh of the outward passion of Christ Paul to the Gala. calleth him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is cursed or maledcition and there he sayth that for our sakes he became accursed as though he should say although Christ as touching his own person was innocent and that blessed seed of Abraham againste whom neither sinne nor death had any power yet of his own free wil he became in his outward man contemned and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accursed and suffered himself to be slain vpō the cros for vs poore miserable sinners this kind of deth is due only to those who for their offēces and wicked life are condemned He suffered this most shameful death became for our cause the curse that we through him might obtayn blessednes Thus then suffered he on the cros for great offences wherewithall the blinded Iewes did most vniustly charg him They accused him of blasphemy and sedition saying that he trespassed against God Cesar so rightly deserued that cruel death wheras in deed he suffered willingly for our sakes that vile ignominye false accusation which they falsly forged against him For he him self neuer sinned neither could offend but so was the wil of our heauenly father He spared not his deerely beloued Sonne that we poore sinners might by that his most shameful and contemptuous death but vnto vs sure saluation be delyuered from all our sinnes Esay teacheth in the words following what commodity we haue by this miserable and ignominious death of Christ and he sayth The figures or types of the sacrifices in Moyses law are fulfilled by this onely Sacrifice of Christ These be his words when he shall spend his life for our sinne when he shall make his soule an offering for sinne or when he shall geue his life a sacrifice for sinne then shal he haue seede his age shall be prolonged that is when he shal haue offered himselfe vp in Sacrifice vpon the cros to his heauenly father for our sinnes then shall he haue seed or children that is faithfull beleeuers in him And his yeares shall be so long that the life of him and all faithfull christians shal be without end It is otherwise with erthly kings for they when they dye depart from their kingdomes their Successors possesseth thē But this our king of glory Christ dyed another holesome and liuely kinde of death by which he entereth into true life and most mightely beginneth the administration of his eternall kingdome And here again is the resurrection of Christ and faithful Christians foretold For this is the right and true ruling gouerning erection and establishing of a kingdome whē the king erecteth such a kingdome as wil neuer decay in which the subiectes alwayes haue continuall and perfect safety protection peace surety felicity and all good things aboundantly and this can no earthly king doe For all earthly kings dye their kingdomes perish and decay with them as we see all dominions princely power and kingdomes continue in this world but a while and not for euer but within a few ages to come vtterly to ruine Wherupon Esay saith that the wil of the Lord is in his own hand or his determination or purpose by the hand of Messias shal haue prosperous succes For what thing soeuer the father commaunded Christ to doe for vs all that hath he fully finished with perfection yea with faithfulnes and to our great commodity and he plainly declareth that this was done by Christes merite where he saith his soul was in payn that is he suffered much vexatiō greef sorrow misery for our sake but shall haue a great reward or worthy hire For after so many tribulatiōs he shal see those things which wil make him ioyfull that is the catholick church or the true godly who through sincere faith doe openly honor Christ glorify Christ preach Christ and confes the Lord Christ and so highly esteem these his labors miseryes and greefes that they doubt nothing but that by the same they shal attain euerlasting saluation peace rest and consolation And therfore they wil not be afraid to suffer temporall death for the glory of Christ For they know that true righteousnes euerlasting life eternall saluation and aboundant treasures of all goodnes and felicity are to be found in Christ Iesu Now haue you heard how Christ bare our sinnes and satisfyed for them In the words following Esay teacheth vs how we may be iustifyed and made partakers of that most holsome passion and merits of christ And he sayth his knowledge or the vnderstanding of Christ is the mean wherby we receaue attain that great treasure Wherfore wife if you beleue this prophecye to wit that Iesus Christ the true sonne of God God man tooke away from you your sinnes satisfyed for them and offered him self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacrifice for you and that he became your sauiour hath by his myserable and innocent death reconcyled you to God These I say if you beleue by this faith shal you receue forgeuenes of your sinnes and be reputed before God both iust and holy as the Euangelists and Apostles and especially S. Peter Paul and Iohn in euery place witnes This is the righteousnes of Christians to acknoledge and beleeue that Christ is our onely Mediator Sauyour and Redeemer whom God sent to take our sinnes vpon him and satisfy for them
though the Deuill torment them with griefes and feare them with death hell and Gods iudgementes yet shall they finde in this sermon such so great and so sweete promises of god in christ that there is no soul so fearefull though most fearful no fayth so weake though most weake nor any man so ignorant doubtfull and hartlesse though he be most ignorant doubtfull hartlesse but that he may in this sermō gather such hart receaue such hope and growe vnto such knowledge strength and stabilitie that if he will but come and either heare it or reade it he shall returne as did Cleophas leape lyke an hart walke lyke a Lyon stand lyke a rocke which cannot be moued with any surging sea of temptatiō For that learned byshop of Germany doctor Vrbane Regius hath here so displayed Christ with the kingdome of Christ the mercies of god in christ that if any sad Cleophas doe but couet to come to Emaus the bright morning of the knowledge of Christ his kingdome and will bring but so much good seede with him by gods grace as that he hath a desire to know Christ to heare Christ to enioy Christ and to reason and reade of Christ for this is fayth yea though he be heauy and sorrowfull and come weeping yet shall he in this booke so meete with Christ and heare such a sermon of Christ that it will last him and not leaue him vntill he come to the trew Emaus in deede the bright knowledge of Christ and there shall his blind eyes be opened and he shall see know acknowledge Christ to be his sauiour and shall returne a right Cleophas in deede and bring such showes of fayth hope and peace of conscience with him that Nimrods net shall be broken the pray mans soule shall be deliuered the feare of death and desperation shal be abandoned And of this you may fetch if you will aprobatum est out of the gospell of Saint Luke For he maketh mention of this sermon and sheweth both when where why to whome out of what Christ made it what effect it had in it Thirdly whereas I sayd we are by nature vnperceiuing Ethiopians which reading the Prophets vnderstād not the Prophets this little booke wil well serue vs for a Phillip a sound interpreter of the prophets For it doth so drawe the vale and curtayne of the letter that it manifestly sheweth the precious perle Christ hidden vnder the letter and it so plainely discouereth the field of the olde testamēt that it leadeth vs by the hand to our Iesus that great treasure hidden in the law and the prophets Yea it doth so playnly proue Christ to be Christ that both the ignorant Gentiles and obstinate Iewes may know and acknowledge Christ to be Iesus the sauiour of the world But because we are subiect to many enymies crosses and temptations and so haue neede of comfort and because also when we both haue heare and reade of comfort we be as Thomas was hard receauers of Comfort I thinke it needefull that for the better obtayning of comfort we vse two thinges in the reading of good bookes and the holy scriptures the cornu copia of all comfort The first is that before we read we pray For as of ourselues we are haue nothing so to faythfull prayers is made a promise of all thinges The second is that in all our priuate reading we apply the worde to our selues take that which is there spoken and reade to be spoken to vs or him that readeth it for els shall we neither haue our lyues mended nor our soules comforted by the worde and then the word leeseth his fruitfull effect But if when wee see and heare Ephraim Ierusalē Iuda or the scribes pharises threatened reproued for their sinnes we will in place of them put in our owne selues and names and know it to be spoken to vs as it is in deed if we be lyke thē then no doubt we shall read to our amendement Againe if when we see promises made and comfort geuen and forgeuenes graunted to Iuda Ierusalem and Sion or the Church we will in place of them suppose or put in our owne names and persons and both beleue and know that those promises forgeuenes and those comforts are made set downe and geuen vs and euery one of vs that heare or read them as they are in deede yf we beleue them then shall we finde in this sermon and other holy scriptures such salue for our sores and such comfort for our hartes that sinne shall be subdued dispayre shall be remoued and our heauy hartes shall be comforted And here I will passe ouer the iust prayses which this booke deserueth both in excellēcy of the matter as god hath geuen it in laudablenes of the maner as Vrbane hath hādled it For in that it containeth the prophecyes of Christ and the promises of God true saluatiō vnto all that beleue a wine a man would thinke vēdible enough amongest the depraued and dead sonnes of Adam it doth sufficiently approue and promote it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely this I thinke meete that before I end I put you in remembraunce that we are all by nature wicked and the childrē of wrath and death and must without the knowledge of those thinges which are set downe in this booke dye as we be and be as we dye euen without Christ firebrandes of hell But now to returne where I began I beseech you honorable and worshipfull Citizens that as you haue heard my dedication was not without cause so now ye will graunt me a petition or two which doe not exceede reason The first is that God hauing his dew prayse for all his goodnes ye would both pardon this my bouldnes and also vouchsafe my simple labors about the heauenly worde no worse entertainement and protection then ye vse to shew to your earthly peuples Secōdly that if ye reape any profit by this worke ye would geue deserued prayse to two learned and well lyued doctors of this church namely M. Barnard Gilpin of the North and M. Iohn Fox of the South Whereof this godly and painefull father moued me to translate it and the other great Moecenas hath brought vp me poore sinner to this little I haue and many other learned men to the Churches commoditye And lastly I beseech you in the Lord that you will take pity vpon your wiues your children your selues and your soules to wit that you will by hearing beleuing practising the word seeke to be safe from Sathan that seeketh to sifte you Furnish your selues and your familyes I pray you with spirituall armour Geue your inward man but euery moneth one of these articles for his repast and let it be well digested Let the spirite once rule ouer the flesh and let Christes spouse the soule now at the last be as well bewtified as the Deuills cōcubine
I had so shrill loud and strong a voyce and so many tongues and mouthes that I might sound out and fil the wholl world with this doctrine God also sayth By his knowledge shal my righteous seruant iustifie many that is to say in the knowledge of him or when he shal be knowen To know and vnderstand Christ is the most marueilous and chiefest knowledge and vnderstanding of all knowledge for this knowledge alone clenseth vs iustifieth vs and maketh vs free from al sinne and therfore the Apostles in all places preach this knowledge and vnderstanding of Christ to all congregations and they speak of it and beat it stil into the peoples eares as the principall point and chiefest article of the wholl Scripture And Paul of purpose doth often vse this word in all his Epistles as in the second to the Collossians I woul ye knew what great fightings I haue for your sakes and for them of Laodicea and for as many as haue not seene my person in the flesh That their harts might be comforted and they knit together in loue and in all riches of the full assurance of vnderstanding to know the mistery of God euen the Father and of Christ in whom are hid al the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And the same Paul to the Corinthians who were puft vp with worldly wisdome and knowledge braggeth of no other skil and knowledge then that he knew Christ crucified He therefore which knoweth this Christ well is passing well learned and hath the knowledge of high great things He which knoweth him not is rude and ignoraunt of that knowledge which may wel and truely be tearmed knowledge He which knoweth Christ the same knoweth God the father and is delyuered from the horrible tiranny raging might and cruel violence of Sathan and is freeed from sinne from death and from euerlasting damnation He which knoweth not Christ knoweth neither him self nor God he is bewitched and blinded he is an Ethnick and Turk he is inwraped in the bands of Sathan and subiect to his Tiranny yea he dwelleth and abydeth in his sinnes in death and in euerlasting damnation What more horrible torment what more greeuous los and what greter misery can there be then to be in the thraldome and power of Sathan and to be all together geuen ouer both in body and soule his bondeslaue for euer Wherefore not without great cause are they heauy and sad which know not Christ because they being ouerwhelmed drowned in al calamities haue not any that can either help them or saue them They also want that great and excellent knowledge which with true ioyes filleth both heauen and earth and is our onely saluation of body and soule As Christ saith in Iohn This is life eternal that they know thee to be the onely very God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ for Christ crucified is to the Iewes a stumbling block to the Gentils folishes but to the chosē that is to the true godly and faithfull he is the power and wisedome of God. ¶ Anna By the grace and goodnes of God I beleeue these things which you say but my faith is slender and weak and my knowledge in the marucilous and great misteries of God is not so great as it ought to be And great darknes as yet so couereth the eyes of my soule that me thinks I can but hardly see them as it were a far of dimly and through a darck cloud and therfore I haue good cause to be sad and I hartely desire of God that he would lighten my hart with such knowledge that the true light may shine in my mind that Christ also would so feed me that I may hartely reioyce in the Lord as those two discyples did when Christ had instructed them taught them and geuen the bread vnto them Vrb. If you aske that hartely and earnestly Christ will not forsake you nor reiect your prayers he hath commaunded that we should aske al good and necesssary thinges of him and he hath mercifully promised that he will heare vs But first of all he teacheth vs to seeke the kingdome of heauen and the righteousnes therof and he crieth saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink ¶ Anna. It is no maruell then that those two Disciples were glad seeing that Christ the foūtain of life was then present with them and made so wonderful and excellent a Sermon to them wherby they knew him and were filled with ioy and frendly told it and communicated it with the other Disciples saying Verely the Lord is rysen again Would to God I might heare such a Sermon surely there is nothing in the world I had rather heare then that Sermon which he made out of all the Prophets and in which he manifested him self out of the hid treasures of the Sacred Scriptures to his Disciples that they might perfectly know him and be partakers of all perfect and true ioy That Sermon I say that most excellent Sermon without all controuersie was of al other most comfortable and ful of power If we knew those thinges or if those thinges had been kept to the posterities which Christ then spake no precious Iewel nor Treasure were comparable to them and if that Treasure were hid at the vttermost end of the earth or beyond we ought to indeuor and procure with al speed possible that it might be transported and brought to vs. ☞ Vrb. The danger is past I vnderstand that you earnestly desire to learn Christ and to know what the holy Ghost in the holy Scriptures did forespeake of him and peraduenture you think that it cannot be known what Christ spake then and happely you think the catholick Church lacketh that most comfortable Sermon and that none haue knowne what the sermon was but those two disciples which heard it in the way to Emaus Anna. I thought so in deed and how could I think otherwise seing it was nether left in writing by them that heard it to the posteritie nor deliuered to vs as it were by hand Vrb. You are deceiued Christ had greater care ouer his church thought more carefully of the safety therof then that he would defraude and depriue it of so excellent a sermō For for that cause most especially was Christ sent of the Father into the earth that he might teach this sermon to all the Children of god You see not now Christ face to face but you heare his wordes and voyce by his Euangelists and in these same writers of his gospel you heare that sermō which he made then to those two his Disciples What haue we not that incomparable great treasure of his sacred word Prophets besides this we see in the acts of the Apostles how the Discyples vnderstoode the Testimonies and writings of the Prophets concerning Christ and how they prophesied by the inspiration and motion of the Spirit of truth which was promysed them before the death of
our harts ioyful and glad as when we vnderstand what inestimable and great riches of his grace God in his Prophets hath promised to vs sinners and when we see those promyses of him fulfilled now in the Gospel and dayly also to be in fulfilling and seeing we haue Christ himselfe the very Sonne of God a most sure pledge of the performance of those promyses may we not well I say reioyce and be glad ¶ Anna. I am very desirous to heare of you if time serue you the order of Christes Sermon out of Moyses and the other Prophets What and how in euery place they prophesyed of Christ that thereby I may when my faith is strengthned haue ioy in the lord And though you spend some time in explicating these prophesies yet happely it may be a work worth our labour and you shal neuer a whit misspend the time nay I think the time that is so spent godly profitably very necessarely spent seeing S. Paul warneth vs that the word of Christ should dwel plentifully in vs. ☞ Vrb. We read in the acts that Paul made a long Sermon of Christ out of the Law and prophets euen from the morning til night Why then should not we speak often much and willingly of our Lord Iesus Christ our only and incomparable Treasure with whom we shal liue and dwel for euer But first note what Luke wryteth in his last chapter where he sayeth when Christ had blessed broken and geuen the bread to his Discyples their eyes were opened and they knew him And a litle after he saith that Christ opened their vnderstanding that they might know the Scriptures Wherfore we also must pray to Christ that he would feed and refresh vs with his bread of the knowledge of him that he would driue away the thick cloudes of our vnbeleef that he would mend and take away our ignorance and dulnes that he would send down into our minds the light of his holy spirit wherby we may learn to know him out of the holy scriptures Paul saith we haue not receued the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the thing which is geuen vs of God. Let vs therfore pray with humble feruent harts Almighty God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ our Father and the Father of all mercy and God of all comfort and consolation haue mercy vpon vs heare vs we beseech thee O God for thy deerely beloued sonne Iesus Christs sake for all his workes and benefits which he hath done for vs and for his precious passion and death which he suffered for the redemption of vs Send thy holy Spirit of truth into our harts that it may geue and ingraft in vs true and constant faith so that the light and brightnes of thy Gospel and the glory of Christ may appeare vnto vs and lighten our harts that we may learn and vnderstand the vnspeakable and aboundant riches of thy mercyes O Father of glory geue vs thy Spirite of wisdome and bring vs to the knowledge of thee and thy deerely beloued Sonne Iesu Christ Open and lighten we beseech thee the eyes of our minds vnderstanding That we may perceue what is the hope of our vocation and what is the rich glory of our heauenly and euerlasting Herytage which in Christ and through Christ thou hast geuen vs That by true faith vnderstanding and knowledge of thy eternal wisdom which is Iesus Christ we may in deed be made as we are called true christiās That we may worship thee alway in Spirit and truth And that we may now and for euer shew forth thy glory whereby thou hast blessed vs in Christ our Sauiour Graunt this O Father through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen ¶ Anna. Amen ☞ Vrb. Now Christ being our gouernor and our good guid let vs begin the treatise and opening of the matter which we haue taken in hand But first of all wife see you harken with as great reuerence diligence desire as if Christ were present seeing Christ sayth He that heareth you heareth me And looke also that you beleeue al things which shal here be spoken and declared vnto you to be as true and certayn as if Christ himself visibly and in his bodely shape had spoken them vnto you out of the Prophets And as if he should in his own person declare vnto you by his own mouth how and for what cause it was conuenient he should be born suffer dye and rise again and so ascend into his glory ¶ Anna. Begin then Husband at Moyses and tel me I pray you what he wrote of Christ ☞ Vrb. Moyses hath written much of Christ as Christ himself witnesseth in Iohn where speaking to the Iewes he saith If you had beleeued Moyses you had also beleeued me for he wrote of me And Moyses euen in the beginning as soone as heauen earth and man were made saith that the Serpent to wit Sathan deceiued Eue and entyced her to make a lye and seduced her and she afterward perswaded and deceued Adam and so God being despised and set aside brought him and threw him headlong into the same calamitie and thus they beleeued a lye wherin they cōmitted an horrible offence because they broke Gods commandement and did not obey the Lord their God as their duety was but were obedyent vnto the Deuil which from the beginning is a lyar and a mankiller into whose power and tiranny they fel both in body and soule by their transgression and disobeydience and so death by the sinne of Adam came in both vpon Adā al Adams posterity in so much that by the iust iudgement and iustice of God all men should haue entered by the death of this body into euerlasting death And thus did death through sinne mightely raign in all the world Alas what is more horrible then this power of sinne and this extreame calamity which casteth vs into euerlasting damnation What burthen is there heuyer or harder then this and what more cruell mischiefe could there haue hapned then this But God here in the middest of this danger being mindful of his mercy as the Prophet saith of him found a most present and soueren salue for this sore to wit he offred vs his grace and promysed that he would pardon our sin and destroy death by a certain marueilous meane to wit by his only begotten Sonne who when the fulnes of time that is to say when the determined time was come was sent into the earth from heauen and salued this sore that is to say redeemed and deliuered the poore prysoner mankind out of the tyranny and power of darknes and Sathā and that after a strange and secret sort For he tooke vpon him the shape of a seruant and being made man subiect to all misery calamity and troble of this life yea and death it self but yet free from all faulte and pure without sinne vouchsafed to dye for vs that
he might by his death take away our sinnes and he rose again from the dead and threw Sathan all conquered and ouercome vnderfoote and bereued him of the spoyle and pray which through his false lye he had brought into the bondage of sinne death and damnation that is to say he brought mankind again into the kingdome of God which is the kingdom of health and euerlasting life This is the first promise of grace I wil put enmity betwixt thee and the woman betwixt thy seede and her seede He that is to say the seed of the woman for so is the Hebrue text shal break thy head and thou shalt bruse his heele In these words God promysed his Sonne to the world And this promise is the Gospel it self that is to say most mery and pleasant tidings of Christ Adam being now drowned in sinne and the child of wrath and being both in body and soule subiect to the curse saw nothing but euerlasting damnation and therefore his conscience was miserably trobled vexed and tormented so that in this his agony he was almost come euen to desperations dore For he felt no kind of comfort but the horrible torment of euerlasting death and bitter greef of hart For he had cast him self by disobedyence into the tiranny of Sathan and was now become his prisoner and seruant through sinne But as soon as God had promysed to him the seed of the woman straight way he conceaued hope of life and beleeued that god of his grace and mercy would by that promised seed saue him and delyuer him out of Sathans tyrannye The Gospell therfore is the promise of lyfe in this seede of the woman or through this seede Thus then God promised his naturall sone which should be born of a woman but without sinne that he might tread down and breake Sathans head that is to say that he might ouerthrow Sathans power and kingdome which is the kingdome of sinne and death and that he might tread vnderfoote ouercome and destroy sinne death and hel This promised seede is Christ as Paule sayth The wordes of this promise be but fewe but they contayne many and great misteries First they shew vs that God should take vppon him mans flesh For if that seede had bene nothing els but man he could neuer haue broken the head of Sathan that is haue abolished sinne and death and haue subdued and destroyed Sathan him selfe Furthermore these wordes import that this seede should not be subiect to any sinne neither be naturally conceiued after the manner of man and of mans seede but by the holy ghost and that this seede should not be born as al other mankinde is of a woman that had known a man but of a pure virgin Therfore is he not here called the seed of man but onely of woman Also seing he would deliuer and make mankind free from the tyranny of Sathā sinne being taken away it was needefull that all sinnes should first be purged and that he should first satisfie the high and seuere iustice of God and so this seede or this sonne of this woman is set in the place of a captiue man seing all mankinde for sinne was appointed to dye it was determined that he to wit this seed of the womā should suffer death that by his death he might pay and discharge the sinnes of mankinde That we being deliuered from the power and tyrannie of Sathan might be reconciled to our God by a sufficient purgation and satisfaction Now then if he ought thus to tread downe the head of Sathā to wit abolish death it could in no wise be that he should still abide in the graue but seing he should dye for out offences leauing this fraile and temporall life it was very necessary that he should rise againe from death and begin and posses another euerlasting life Otherwise he could neuer haue delyuered man from so great and horrible a calamity wherin he was Neither could man haue been saued vnles satisfaction had been made for his sinnes and vnles death had bin ouercome and eternal life so obteyned and geuen that neither sinne death nor Satan could further hurt vs Furthermore as the Text here maketh mention there is enmity betwixt Christ and that Serpent the Deuil And by this same Text we know which of them should get the victory to wit the seed Christ with his seruants he shal ouercome and tread down Sathan that venemous Serpent And although that Serpent doe neuer so deadly sting the heele of Christ and the true Church that is persecute and tempt them yet Christ being both far greater mightyer and stronger then he doth return Conqueror from the bataile and caryeth away the victory and in the end tryumpheth with the whol Church that is with the true godly beleeuing which shal raign and liue with Christ foreuer And thus in this promise is foretold as you see the birth passion and resurrection of Christ together with the victory wherin Christ broke the force of Sathan sinne death and hel And though in hid and figuratiue words yet such as admit no other sence but truely and plainly import that which we haue sayd Christ is prefigured prophesied of in the Scripture two wayes Sometime in darck figuratiue and hidden promises and types Other sometimes in manyfest promises and expres and playn words Therfore all promises which followed this in the Byble did betoken this seed and are to be applyed to this seed and are made more manifest and known vntil Christ put on our flesh fulfilled them Some Latin Bibles in this Text of Genesis haue it She shall tread down the head of the Serpent not he nor it Wherupon it grue that this promise was taken to be spoken of Mary as if she had troden down the Serpents head But this promis can in no wise be referred to Mary The Hebrue tongue saith not She but It doth perform this work And the same Text doth vnderstand the seed of the woman For thus saith the holy Ghost in that Sacred tongue wherein the Prophesies were writtē Vben sarecha Vben sarach hu ieschupcha rosch That is I wil put enmity betwixt thy Seed and the Seed of her that is to say euen the seed of the woman shall tread down thy head For it is euident that Hen doth not signifie her but Him or It and this is the proper and right signification of this word * Thargum hath it thus betweene thy Sonne and her Sonne which wordes doe expresse and declare the meaning of this Text more plainly and perfectly For it is ment only of Christ by him alone and by no other Seed nor man is Sathan ouercome sinne abolished and remission of sinnes and life recouered and freely geuen Adam and all Adams childrē that is to say all mankind had been damned and subiect to Sathans tyranny and had perished eternally in hell vnles that seed had bin promysed and geuen vs. He which reiecteth this
nor no tyme to come as the creature hath and therefore Christ speaketh of his deuine and eternall nature in that one word or syllable of the present tyme saying I am For in deed eternitie is for euer and hath neyther former nor latter tyme beginning nor ending The vacabond and vnbeleuing Iewes supposed iudged that he was no more but bare man and such a one as Abraham or Elias was neither could they abide to heare the mysteries of Christes wordes or giue credite to them They dreamingly thought it could not be possible that he should haue seene Abraham seyng it was ful two thousand yeares and more betwixt Abrahams departure out of the world and Christs comming in the flesh into the world neither did they know or vnderstande the scriptures which teache and foreshew that Messias should not only be borne in Bethleem in tyme but also that his forth going was before all tyme as Paul testifieth to the Hebrues saying Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same also euen for euer Here then if you will well waigh this prophesie you maie see in it both the death and resurrection of Christ which necessarily is to be required that hee might raigne and rule eternally and spiritually For in as much as it was determined that he should be borne of the stocke of Dauid a perfect and very natural man in the citie of Bethleem it was not to be thought strāge though he should dye as well as Dauid Salomon other men did What meruail is it I pray you to see a naturall man die certainly the corporal or vitall life can not alway indure Neuerthelesse for all that in as much as he should be the true and chiefe Lord of Israel it can not be that he should be subiect to death or that death should vanquish or deteyne him but that of necessity he must rise agayne from death liue for euer And therfore is he compelled by temporall death to leaue his mortall lyfe for how can mortall man come to immortalitie least first he put of his mortall body which can not be done but by corporal death And thus it behoued him to change this frayle corporal and corruptible lyfe into a spirituall inuisible immortall and incorruptible lyfe that he might become the true and euerlasting Lord of all the Israelites as well of those that before had bene as of those that thē were and afterward at any tyme should be and that he might also begin his true eternall and spirituall kingdome the administration whereof is not after the maner of men nor yet consisteth in worldly matters And therefore Iohn sayth Verily verily I say vnto you except the wheat corne fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit ¶ Anna. O good Lord though it be not seene and known of fleshly eyes yet how full of sweete comfort and consolation how full of marueilous maiesticall deuine wisdom and deep mysteries is the sacred scriptures O how great and vnspeakable wisdome and knowledge lyeth hid vnder the letter how truly sayd Dauid O how sweete are thy promises vnto my throte yea sweeter then hony vnto my mouth By thy Commandements haue I gotten vnderstanding therfore I hate all wicked wayes Thy worde is a lanterne vnto my feete and a light vnto my paths O I say what a tresure of knowledge wisdome what precious pearles of euerlasting lyfe lye hid in the wordes of God how doth it flow with vnderstanding most aboundantly and intelligence farre passing mans capacitie what sound present and aboundant comfort may a godly man cōceiue of this holy worde If these two disciples after this sort had known the person of Christ in this prophesie of Micheas they had not bene so offended at his death but had vnderstood and receiued comfort Because God had so ordeyned prouided all these things to come to passe and had so determined that the crosse of Christ should be the glory and triumphant victory of all true Christians But in as much as you haue shewed me the scriptures concernyng the place of his birth Say also I pray you what is written of his Mother ¶ Of the Virgin Mary the Mother of Christ and of Christes conception Vrbane WHen Pekah the king of the ten tribes which fell away in Israell and Rezin the king of Syria made warre vpon Achas the fifteenth king of Iuda murthered and spoyled the inhabitantes of the country purposing and determining to remoue Achas place an other in his kingdome then the holy ghost while these two kings with detrunēt and bloodshed had all to defaced the land of Iuda prophesied by the Prophet Esay Of the blessed Virgine Mary that she should beare the child Christ And although those kings were very cruell vpon Achas and were both mightily and maruelous bloudily bent against him yet did not God for all that suffer them to preuayle against him and his poore tribe of Iuda because he would faithfully perform and pay that which he had promised to Dauid euen that Messias should come of his house and lynage He comforteth therfore Achas the king in this perill purposing to quicken and confirme his faith by this miracle to the ende he should not feare his enemies For God promised that he himselfe would ayde him But Achas was an Idolater and an hypocrite neither did he receyue that for a signe of Gods helpe Wherfore God reiected that wicked king and yet neuerthelesse published the myracle and gaue the signe to the house of Dauid which was the signe of true helpe and deliuerance from the horrible and euerlasting calamity and misery wherin all we were wrapped euen death damnation and the tiranny of Sathan These be the wordes of the prophet Behold Haalmah or a Virgin shall conceiue and beare a sonne and his name shall be called Emanuel or Immanuel Loe here you see that he prophesieth of the Virgin Mary and her sonne Christ our Sauiour And here the holy ghost telleth vs that Messias should not be borne after the maner of all the other sonnes of Adam of the seed of man but onely of the pure and vndefiled virgin Mary And therfore his birth is not as ours is vncleane defiled and infected but holy pure and free from all blemish of sinne Because he is that blessed seed of Abraham by which onely and by no other all we wretched children of Adam conceiued and borne in sinne must be clensed blessed sanctified iustified frō all the filthines of our sinnes Moreouer the wordes of this prophesie do plainly paynt out the maner of his conception signifiyng that he was not conceyued of mans seede but that Mary onely by the vertue of the holy ghost conceiued For here is promised that a child should be borne and yet the mother remayne a pure virgin And yet here is no mention of any father because it might bee a famous signe and miracle
virgin Mary For Christ in deed is that stone which without handes that is without the seed or helpe of man was taken out of the pure body of Mary For so the holy and godly doctors of the primatiue church as Didimus Ambrosius Hierom Augustine and Irenaeus tooke it And so doth the holy church now take it consenting and agreeing with these godly doctors Now where as the sonne of this virgin is called Emanuel or Immanuel it ministreth great and infinite comfort to the godly For Immanu doth signifie with vs and El signifieth God because God is now with vs and amongst vs not onely thorow his grace as he is alwayes in euery place as he was in tymes past with our fathers but he is with vs otherwise after a new and singuler maner to wit in a bodily presence or in his present body For God is become man And as Paul sayth In Christ dwelleth all fulnesse of the Godhead bodily That is God is not only in Christ in power and grace as he is in all other holy and godly men But very God himselfe dwelleth in the holy manhood of Christ euen as in his temple so that both God and mā is in Christ one person And as Athanasius saith in his Creede As the reasonable soule and flesh is one man so God man is one Christ ▪ That is as Augustine sayeth Of things which God made this is the most gracious that man is ioyned with God in vnitie of person in heauēly things the highest truth is rightly attributed to the word of God. What greater honor and more excellent dignity could our humaine nature haue then to haue God himselfe descend from heauen out of his high maiesty and glory and come into the earth and take into vnity of person not angels nature but mans nature euen the seed of Abraham and so become true man that by that meanes he might bring our nature to the glory of the blessed euerlasting life and as it were hauing now laid apart his power wisdome and dietie shewe himselfe altogether as myld meeke lowly louing tractable duetifull to vs as if he were our seruant and bondeman bought with our mony For as Paul to the Phil. saith When he was in forme of God he thought it no robbery to be equall with God but he made himselfe of no reputation and tooke on him the forme of a Seruant and was made like vnto men and was found in shape as a man He humbled himselfe and became obedient to the death euē the death of the crosse And to Titus he sayth that the goodnes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is loue towardes men of God our Sauiour appeared Truly that was an infinite great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For how could he by any means set forth the flagrant affection of his loue towardes vs more then both sweetely and louingly to imbrace our miserable and humaine nature and also earnestly seeking our saluation vouchsafe to be made man. Be not these I pray you especiall arguments and sure signes of his great mercifulnes good will loue infinite affection towards mankind Surely he would not haue become man for any other cause but only that he might plentifully poure vpon vs vnworthy wretches his vnmesurable incomprehensible vnsearcheable treasures with the infinite riches of his abundant goodnes and grace Verily we may now truely say Immanuell God is with vs seeyng he is not onely graciously with vs and amongst vs as a creator and gouernor with his creatures mouing renuing nourishing and preseruing all things by his power But also in that he is man and for our cause only to the ende he may make vs partakers of his kingdome and lyfe euerlasting and so is with vs after a new and peculiar maner Afore tyme he dwelt with his creatures only as God But now he is with vs men as man yea he is a heauenly man and a humaine god What sounder greater truer or fruitfuller comfort can there be in all affliction and calamitie then that God in this sort is with vs who now as Paul boldly sayth can be against vs If God after this admirable vnspeakable incomprehensible and maruelous maner of his manhood had not bene with vs we needed not haue looked for lyfe For there had bene neither hope nor helpe counsayle nor comfort left for man to looke for who by reason of sinne is in so great and horrible danger of eternall death But we may now in the Lord alway reioyce we ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always to giue thanks to Christ our God for this great mistery of his holy and sauing incarnation For now our mortall nature hath a certayne and sure hope nay it hath so sufficient and precious a pledge of lyfe that it cannot wauer or doubt But that together with Christ it shall liue for euer For as Athanasius that godly and auncient Doctor saith touching this matter in his booke of the passion of Christ the mortall body was ioyned to the immortall and corruptible man was coupled with the incorruptible worde Wherefore death by the worde which discended from heauen in Christ is abolished euen as stubble is of the fire consumed ¶ Anna. Blessed be that Haalmah for euer amongst all women and blessed bee the fruite of her wombe our true Emanuel world without ende ☞ Vrb. Amen ¶ Anna. You promised to expound me the name of Christ and to open the prophesies in the scriptures which spake of it long before Of Christes Name Vrbane CHrist in the holy scriptures hath many names and all of them most sweete and comfortable as is this Emanuel of which you heard euen now out of the seuenth of Esay But there be two especial chief names which the scripture giueth him which we wil first hādle The former of them is Iesus a name most proper and agreeing with him and most comfortable to vs This name is an Hebrue word for the Hebrues say that Ieschuah or Iehoschuah is as much to say as health a sauiour or keeper and it cōmeth of the worde Iascha which is saued or deliuered or els it may come of Hoschia that is he hath saued kept or deliuered This roiall or glorious name agreeth not with any so truely fitly as with Christ He iustly in deed and by good desert is honoured and called by this name for he onely it is that deliuereth and saueth vs from all calamities both temporall and eternall And thus doth the Angell interprete this name in Mathew where he sayeth to Ioseph Ioseph thou sonne of Dauid feare not to take Mary for thy wyfe for that which is conceiued in her is of the holy ghost she shall bring forth a sonne and thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shal saue his people from their sinnes And whē Hanna the high priest and Caiphas and Ioanne and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred
this child had not bene borne for vs we had all vtterly perished for he was borne for the helpe helth and deliuerance of vs all Wherefore most swete Iesu Christ our child most comfortable which for our sakes humbled thy selfe vouchsafed to be made man we beseech thee to deliuer and defend vs from the tiranny of the deuill This is the meaning of this Germains song which I here recite because it containeth expresseth the effect of this prophesie in ful graue and plaine words because it sheweth the piety of our forefathers and their true faith in Christ First here the holy church saith that a child was borne for a special comfort for all mortal mē And furthermore it saith that for vs and for our sakes he was borne For he had no neede neither was there any cause why he should be born for himself For what nede standeth god of any creature Secondly the church here declareth setteth forth the fruit vse of Christes natiuity to wit our saluation For vnles this child had bene borne for vs we had abidden still in our sinnes neither could we haue deliuered our selues but had all died eternally Thirdly the church confesseth that this sauior or saluation happened to all which thing Simeon confesseth in Luke saying Mine eyes haue seene thy saluation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lightē the Gentils to be the glory of thy people Israel And Paul saith Christ Iesus gaue himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome for all men Fourthly the church speaking of the kingdom and power of Christ confesseth the true manhood and godhead of the child Iesus beseching him and desiring him for his names sake which is Iesus that is our sauiour or deliuerer that he would preserue and kepe vs from eternal deth By which song the church confesseth this childe to be king and most mighty lord ouer sinne death and hell Which seing it is true it must needes follow that he is true God and that our health and saluation is in his hand and power and that he onely can and will saue deliuer vs from hell fire ¶ Anna. What meaneth this which this prophet Esay sayth his gouernement or kingdome is on his shoulders ☞ Vrb. Did you neuer see the image of the child Iesus painted as if he went downe from heauen vnto Mary bearing the crosse vpon his shoulders ¶ Anna. I haue seene it often but that signifieth his passion What other thing did he beare in his crosse but vs miserable and wretched sinners the heuy burthen of our sinnes Iohn saith This is the lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world He is the good shepeherd which sought the lost and wandring shepe and hauing found it caried it home vpō his shoulders We also are the kingdom or principalitie of Christ For Peter calleth vs a royal priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a people redemed or peculiar vnto Christ Christ is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe corner stone or to be placed in the chiefe corner vpon whom all the other stones the spirituall building to wit the whole church standeth leaneth For the church is builded on Christ as on a most soūd and sure rocke The Calde text is in this place of Esay thus Hee that is this child shall take vpon him the law that he may fulfill and kepe it This text out of doubt hath in it notable comfort For our corrupt and sinfull nature could not with all her strength keepe the law of god For it is a law that cōmaundeth such high great things as homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the natural man cannot perform And therfore God sent his derely beloued sonne Christ Iesus that he might fulfil the law be the fulfilling thereof to all that truly beleue in him who although they should be most miserable sinners yet for Christes sake should they be accounted as righteous before God as if they themselues by their own righteousnes had fulfilled it and that he might deserue for vs and geue vs the holy ghost which might heale reforme restore our wounded decaied and corrupted nature so that euen our nature also might by the spirit of Christ keep the law without which it could neuer haue done it Now followeth vi most notable worthy names or titles of the child Iesus vsed in this prophesie First he is called Pele that is admirable wōderfull merueilous or doing merueilous things he is in deed marueilous in hys person merueilous in hys doyngs and his kingdom is merueilous and he defendeth and gouerneth it merueilously His person is meruelous because he is true man and yet neuertheles holy euerlasting God borne after a strange maner to wit of that virgin without mans seed all hys works are merueilous for being a child of xij yeres old he disputed with the learned and great doctors in the temple at Ierusalem But after when he came to mans state he wrought such wonders strange things as no other man could euer do as Nichodemus witnesseth in the iij. of Iohn Hee gaue sight to the blind and made the deafe to heare he droue wicked spirits out of the possessed he clensed the leprous he healed all maner of sicknes and diseases he raised the dead to lyfe he fed many thousandes with a few loues hee commaunded the sea to be quiet and straight way it waxed calm he forgaue sins he restored men both body and soule to lyfe and health and whē of his own free will he had for our sakes suffered death he by his own power rose agayn from death But look I pray you by how strāge a way it pleased hym to deliuer vs from Sathan and to bring vs into hys kingdom When he would deliuer man from death geue hym euerlasting lyfe he became man hymselfe he yelded himself to death and was buried and taryed in the graue vnto the third day Was not this a very marueilous thing what can bee more marueilous it is hee thorough whom we shall haue euerlasting life whereunto the Prophetes and the Gospell beare witnesse And Paule calleth the Gospell the promise of lyfe in Christ Now consider with your selfe how wonderfull all things be whether it is merueilous or no that our King about to erect hys kingdome redeme hys seruants deliuer vs from all euill casteth hymselfe into extreme misery yeldeth himself to be crossed afflicted reuiled and opprobriously killed He becommeth poore to enrich vs he becommeth shamefull ignominious and suffreth vpon the crosse to exalt vs to honor glory And he promiseth to giue vs power and strength against our enemies where he himselfe vsed no power nor force against his foes but was of thē taken bound whipped crouned with thornes crucified and killed To be briefe he promised to helpe vs when he himself vpon the crosse
of Math. he made a poore man see he made the dūme speake the deafe here he cast forth a spirit and restored the dry hand and in the 15. of Math. he healed the Cananites daughter which was troubled with a deuil he restored the lame the blind the deafe the dumme the maimed many other diseased to their former helth And so by these his mighty actes strange maruels he sheweth that he was the true Messias of whom Esay writeth thus Hee wil destroy death for euer or he deuoured it or swalowed it vp For he called the dead to life again As the princes of the sinagogs daughter the widowes daughter and Lazarus which had lyen in the graue 4. dayes and did stinke The raising of these to life was a foreshewyng certification confirmation sure argument of his true resurrection from the dead Of which we in the last day also shal be pertakers when the lord shall sūmon all the dead raised out of their graue before his tribunall seat in the twinckling of an eye We may finde his other miracles wōders which he wroght est down in the euangelists so that it is not nedefull here to speake any more of them ¶ Anna. Now I know why you still apply and include those miracles that Christ did in the gospel as his restoring of the sick to helth and the dead to lyfe in the article of the resurrection of the dead to wit that we may more surely aod deepely by these miracles imprint and ground in our harts the hie mistery of the last rising agayne of the body and that we may therby confirme and kepe the fayth hope of our resurrectiō But now explicat proue out of the prophets the other articles of Messias to wit of his passion descēding into hel resurrectiō of his kingdō ¶ Of the death descending into hell and the glorious resurrection of Christ of the causes and infinite commodities of his passion resurrection and of his euerlasting kingdome Vrbanus THese in deede were the chiefe articles which Christ taught Cleophas his companion as they went to Emaus And seyng the holy prophets prophesie of these ministeries of Christ in one place annexe them together we will also speake of them together as it were knit them vp in one and open them seuerally or ioyntly as the prophesies giue occasion And first of all let vs heare the worthy prophet Dauid in the 8. Psalm where he sayth What is man that thou art so myndful of him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him for thou hast made him little lower thē God crowned him with glory worship thou hast made him to haue dominion in the works of thine hands Thou hast put al things vnder his feet all sheep oxen yea and the beasts of the field the foules of the aire the fish of the sea and that which passeth thorough the pathes of the seas O lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the world This psalme which the new testament doth soundly opē vnto vs prophesieth of Messias saying that it should come to passe that for a tyme Christ should be humbled debased and as it were forsaken of God the father And that tyme was the space of 3. dayes when he was taken deliuered to the Iewes and Gentils and when they beat him with whips crouned him with thornes crucified him killed him and buried him The Hebrues text is thus Vathechasrehu meat meeloim that is for a tyme thou sufferedst him to be without God or thou shalt suffer him a while to be forsaken of god For it seemed that God had forsaken him all the tyme of his passion euen vnto the third day because he suffred him to be slaine and buried And the Iewes thought that Christ had bene dead in deede and vtterly destroyed Neither did they vnderstand that comfortable decree of the Lord how that therefore he sent his sonne that he might by his crosse reconcile his father to vs and that Christ suffred not of constraynt but was willingly and gladly obedient vnto his father euen vnto the death the death of the crosse The Greeke text is thus As Paule also citeth it to the Hebrues in the 2. chap. where this Psalm also is applyed to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Thou hast made him a little inferiour to the Angels The Caldee Bible hath in that place mi maleachia that is from the Angels As our Lord sayde vnto Peter when he had cutte of the eare of the high priestes seruauntes and so thought to helpe Christ Thinkest thou that I can not nowe praye to my father and hee will giue me moe then 12. legions of angels how thē should the scriptures be fulfilled which saye it must be so Christ would here stand great neede of help that therby he might succor vs For for our sakes he came into the erth humbled himself and suffred himself to be forsaken to wāt al help so that no angel could help or deliuer him Paul vnto the Hebr. expoundeth these words of the Psal. applieth them vnto Christ saying For in that he hath put al things in subiection vnder him hee left nothing that should not be subiect vnto him but yet we see not all thinges subdued vnto him but we se Iesus crouned with glory honor which was made a little inferior to the angels through the suffring of death that by gods grace he might tast death for al men for it became him for whō are al things by whom are al things seyng he brought many children vnto glory that he shold consecrate the prince of our saluation through afflictions for he which sanctifieth they which are sanctified are al of one And so the prophet marueleth that this true man sonne of man was for the little time of his preaching and passion here vpon earth forsaken contēned humbled or abased but after a little that is after 3. dayes highly glorified honored crouned made lord of al creatures in heauen earth And that afterward his name became renomned famous and admirable through the whole world As Paul out of this Psal. teacheth at large to the Ephes where he sayth That the god of our Lorde Iesus Christ the father of glory might giue vnto you the spirit of wisdom reuelation through the knowledge of him that the eies of your vnderstanding may bee lightened that ye may know what the hope is of gods calling what the riches of his glorious inheritance is in his saintes what is the exceding greatnes of his power towards vs which beleue according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him vp frō the dead set him at hys right hand in the heauenly places far aboue al principalitie power might dominion and euery name that is named not in this world only but also in that that
our body here is a natural body and to the fustentation therof we must if we wil liue eate drinke slepe disgest purge And the same body is weried and in the ende corrupteth and fadeth And therfore as sone as that soule departeth frō the body the corps beginneth to smell putrify so that no man can abide the stinke therof This is the dishonor which for sinne is laid vpon the body But in the last day the lord wil trāsfigure our body into such brightnes make it so beautiful that it shal be like the sunne so shal alway abide continue a firm sound immortal body without bodily meat fed of god for euer And therfore saith Paul pointing as it were to his body with his finger this corruptible body wherin I now stād sit walke speake this same body I say must put on incorruption this mortal must put on immortalitie When this corruptible body hath put on incorruption this mortal hath put on immortalitie then shall bee brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swalowed vp into victory ¶ Anna. Now I haue heard the fruit of Christes passion resurrection which I take to be this That what Satan in Adam our nature by sin had corrupted destroyed the Christ by his death resurrection hath recouered restored to wit he hath destroyed sin ouercome death giuen life that we which beleue in Christ may be deliuered from our sins freed from the tiranny of deth the diuel be made heires of euerlasting life Now shew me what maner of kingdom Christs kingdom is which is so magnifically set forth promised vnto vs in the law prophets and euangelists ☞ Vrb. The kingdom of Christ which is promised in the prophets is a spirituall kingdom not of this world it is a kingdom of euerlasting blessednes mercy truth righteousnes peace life wisdom light ioy security liberty euerlasting saluatiō in which Christ the king of glory being taken vp into heauen exalted at the right hand of god doth by the gospel the holy ghost in fayth raigne inuisibly gouern defend al that beleue in him euen in the midst of their cruel deadly enemies to wit the world Satan heretikes persecuters of the church sin death Moreouer he is our intercessor in heauen to god the father he forgiueth vs our sinnes he sēdeth his holy spirit into our hartes he renueth repayreth our corrupted depraued decaied nature and he restoreth in vs the most beutiful image of god which through sinne was blotted out destroyed in vs To be briefe he sanctifieth vs defendeth vs preserueth vs in all dangers euils and so he in this life euen vnto the day of iudgement gathereth vp into his kingdom which is the true catholike church of the godly the children of God dispersed throughout the whole world He ouercōmeth in them sinne death the prince of this world by this means he prepareth maketh thē redy for that great glorious day of our full perfect redemption And although the godly die in the mortal body yet will he raise thē all again at the last day and they shall liue with Christ for euer But vntil the day both the euil and the good the godly the vngodly shal be mixt dwel together and the vngodly wil colourably seeke to beare a face and outward shew of godlines wil also be taken in place for godly nay they will be the chiefe in this earth and sit as magistrates vaunt themselues to be the heads of the church as Annas and Caiphas did in Christes tyme yea they wil root out curse and vehemētly persecute the true godly to the vttermost For in deede the true church is so hidden in this world the some times in great temptations it cannot for a space see it selfe ¶ Anna. What meaneth the miserable people the Anabaptists what madnes moueth them to seeke to cōgregate a church heare in this world which shold be pure vnspotted vndefiled and without all blot and where in they wil haue no sinner seing that euē the godly offend fal in many things the greatest part of those which are called christiās are mere hypocrits very wicked mē ☞ Vrb. These miserable mē vnderstand not the scriptures And therefore they know not what is the true church what maner of church it is or what the state of the true church is in this world Christ only is he which at the last day shal purge the chaffe that is the vngodly frō the good wheat which is the godly christians In the meane time that godly are compelled here to dwel liue among the vngodly And yet shall they not haue any discōmōditie or losse therby if they learne not at thē to liue be vngodly The godly may bear publik offices haue such politike functions as the ciuile magistrate doth ordain so long as they be not cōmaunded compelled to do that that is contrary to the commaundement of God and his holy word yea they both may with a safe conscience also ought as far as belōgeth to the body tēporal goods vse al humane publike ordināces and cōtracts which make for that maintenāce of this life society If so be they may be suffred to kepe retaine the true doctrine of the sauing gospel liue as it cōmādeth ¶ Anna. Seing you haue alredy described the kingdom of Christ I pray you discouer me the kingdō of Satan ☞ Vrb. Sathans kingdom is quite contrary vnto the kingdom of Christ it is a kingdom of euerlasting perdicion of lies of death of sinne of ignorance of blindnes of darkenes of heauines of affliction of sorrowe and of continuall captiuity and damnation And this kingdom of condemnation beginneth in this worlde and hath in it all the vngodly which will not beleue and obey the Gospell in whom the euill spirit worketh and is effectual And therupon is called in Iohn the prince of this world the god of this world This spirit blindeth the mynds of that vnbeleuers so that they see not the most cleare light of the gospel of the clearenes of Iesus Christ which is the image and caracter of God. ¶ Anna. How doth Sathan raigne in this world ☞ Vrb He is the strong man armed in his house of whō Luke speaketh who kepeth the wicked in his hande and hath thē in his power driueth thē whether he will at his pleasure Paul saith he bindeth thē holdeth thē in strōg lies errors darknes bewitcheth their harts and casteth thē hedlong into al wickednes filthines vncleannes and moueth and inflameth thē to all vngodlines Satan is alwais an enemy and an aduersary vnto true christians in all their godly enterprises procedings He stirreth vp fals teachers and draweth many into horrible heresies He alwais maketh
moueth sedition bloudshed warre strife brauling grudging debate hatred He neuer slepeth he is alwayes watching he daily traueleth laboureth very sedulously and all to this ende that he may hurt man bryng him into some misery destructiō of body soul name goods He stirreth vp most cruel persecutiōs sharp stormes and poisonfull hatred against the godly To be short what euil calamity wickednes abhominations diuelishnes is done in al the earth he is the causer therof and to speake at a word he hindereth as much as in him lieth the gospel kingdom of Christ and laboreth both day night with all his might with hand and foote with tooth nayle that the territories therof be not augmēted enlarged But al his force studies and practises shall be frustrate For we haue on our side with vs the angels the good spirits of god which repugn and resist Satan Yea we haue Christ himself with vs who is a fiery brasen wall about al that faithful that the euil spirits do thē no harme nor iniury but that they may be in safety and with out danger Satan is an horrible enemy in deede so forceable that vnles god by his holy angels hindered and destroied his deuises withstood and resisted his assaults there should be no family in the whole world in which he should not euery day cause worke wickednes slaughter calamity tumultes sorrow debates mourning all kind of mischief nay rather he would disturbe destroy dissolue ouerthrow and make a confusion hauocke of the whole world he is an euerlasting irreconcilible bloudy deadly sworn enemy to al the godly And he maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellum continual war without any truce vpon the godly euen to the last day And therfore we must both morning euening euery day giue thanks to God because that of his fatherly mercy towards vs he doth so wondrously so mightily and so gloriously defend and kepe vs from so cruell horrible mischieuous mighty and noisome enemies ¶ Anna. We ought so to do in dede And I wil do it with all my hart with all diligence as my duty is For we are bound to be thankfull to our good father God almighty because he hath in such great dangers so carefully prouided for vs preserued vs from all enemies and euils For we haue often seene how these wicked sprites lay wait for vs and seke by al meanes to endamage vndo and destroy vs But God hath opēly frustrated all their assaults And now I pray you recite expound the prophesies of the mystery of our fayth to wit of the death resurrection and kingdome of Christ which we haue now in hand ☞ Vrb. I wil first begin to recite the testimonies of the Psalmes as I haue done before For of al the prophets Dauid is the floure for he prophesieth much plainly euidently of Christ who should be born of his familie or tribe according to his humanity of all his workes mysteries You haue heard before how the kingdom of Christ was described in the 2. Psal. where God the father did not onely constitute his sonne king ouer the Iewes but also gaue him the Gentils of the whole world for his inheritance Wherupon it followeth that Christ should not abide in death although he died as true mā of the seed of Dauid For it was requisite that accordyng to the decree and statute of God the father he should be king ouer the whole world Which thing could not haue bene in any corporall worldly maner as the Iewes dreamed that Messias should rule haue in this world a great corporall kingdom And therfore it was necessary that the state and condicion of Christes kingdome should be altogether of another sort then the kingdomes of this brickle frail life are Christs kingdom was to be euerlasting he which is in that kingdō shal for euer haue euerlasting righteousnes peace safety life felicity eternal saluation And therfore he endeth the psal with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conclusiue exclamation Blessed are all they which trust in the lord But he speaketh not of a tēporal blessing here in this world For the king himself and his chief nobles his welbeloued prophets and apostles had no great plenty here of worldly welth and pleasure of this life but were miserably afflicted and always subiect to many grieuous perils calamities In the 3. Psal. Dauid saith I take my rest and sleepe I rise agayne for the lord sustaineth me The old church a thousand yeres ago vnderstood this prophesie of the true death and resurrection of Christ as appeareth by Arnobius And againe Dauid saith O giue saluatiō vnto Israel out of Sion when the lord turneth the captiuitie of his people then Iacob shal reioyce and Israel shal be glad Here Dauid in sprite desireth and godly and feruently prayeth Messias who onely is called in the holy scriptures the true sauiour and redeemer seeing both the Iewes and Gentiles by him are deliuered from all euils and perils that they may through him and in him enioy euerlasting blessednes S. Augustine also taketh these wordes to bee ment of Christ And take this wife for an infallible rule for you in the scripture that in so much as there is but one onely deliuerer giuen of God vnto men by whom they may be iustified and saued that Christ is truely properly certainly ment signified and vnderstood in all those and such places where there is mention made eyther of saluation sauiour redeemer or deliuerer whether it be spoken in figures or playne and manifest wordes For seyng Israel and Iacob that is the catholike church beyng congregated of the Iewes Gentils should be glad reioyce in Christ they must liue in peace and security That cannot be vnles such troubles be taken away the conscience be comforted death abolished These words therfore importe and plainly shew that our redemer out of Sion or as it is in Thargum our redemption saluation which is Christ himself shal take away destroy all those things that trouble afflict that godly to wit an euil conscience tribulation sinne persecution and all kind of vexation death it self c. For of necessity he must lead captiuity captiue that is he must ouercome Satan who hath vs in captiuity and he must deliuer vs from his tiranny Christ in the Psalmes sayth My flesh also doth rest in hope For thou wilt not leaue my soule in hel or in the graue neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruptō Thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is the fulnes of ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for euermore We can haue no surer nor better expounders of the prophets then the Apostles and Euangelistes And Peter and Paul haue expounded this prophesie to be ment of Christ saying that he should
deadly sicknes of sinne and ouercome the power of darknes thorough the might and power of this signe Christ crucified But it is especially to be marked that the prophet saith All nations shal seke vnto him The 70. translaters haue interpreted these wordes thus Which shall rise again to be the king of the Gentiles that is of all people in the earth in him shal the Gentils trust Like as the patriarke Iacob said according to the exposition of the 70. translaters in these wordes Siloh shall be the hope or expectation of the Gentils Here haue we a plaine euident testimony of the calling of the Gentiles to the grace of the gospell For they shal enquire after Christ or seeke him as their only sauiour put all their hope trust in him What els is this but that they shall acknowledge Christ to bee true GOD and true man of the stocke of Dauid For hope in the first commaundement is the honour due onely and soly vnto the true and liuing god And thus the kingdome of Christ according to this prophesy shall be as wide and large as the whole worlde so that the Iewes shall bee the least and smallest parte of Christes kingdome And euen all the Iewes vnderstande this chapter of Messias who should recouer and restore the kingdome of Israel And where as the Prophet sayth His rest shall be glorious that is his death and buriall shall be glorious for his body is neither corrupt nor rotten He died an innocent whose death brought all vs the childrē of Adam out of eternall death and shame into euerlasting honour and glory For Christ by this his most holy and sacred death entred into his glorious and euerlasting kingdome and so after his death began his raigne in lyfe And when as the Iewes supposed that hee was dead in deede and quite extinguished al those things which he had promised and spoken to be vaine and of none effect as Cleophas also and his companions supposed then beeing risen from death to life came forth and ouercame and quite destroyed and killed death and became glorious and was made kyng both of the Iewes and Gentiles and raigneth for euer throwyng downe his enemies with euerlastyng shame First therfore in these wordes is contained the deth of Christ for the prophet sayth his rest And afterward is noted his glorious victorious resurrection For the prophet saith that his rest shal be glorious but his rest or death could not haue bene glory or glorious or honorable if he had abiden still in death wrought done nothing by it In Exodus it is written that the lord stretched out his hande and by his great miracles declared his power that he might deliuer his captiue afflicted and oppressed people out of Egypt and bring them vnto the promised land of Canaan And here the Prophet doth agayne promise such a deliueraunce but a much more glorious and meruailous deliueraunce then that was when hee drowned Pharao with all his hoste in the red sea and brought his people out of all danger into the land of promise without hurt and harme The deliuerance out of Egypt was but onely a figure of this deliueraunce of which the prophet speaketh here For God wil deliuer the remnant of the Iewes and Gentiles out of the eternall captiuity of Satan by Iesus Christ and gather them all together into the kingdom of heauen where they shall neuer suffer eyther damage detriment or losse And he calleth all nations throughout all the whole worlde For saluation hath extended it selfe to all the world that the dispersed and wandring children of god might be gathered together out of all quarters of the earth as Christ himselfe saith in Iohn And I if I were lift vp from the earth will draw all men vnto me And agayne Christ should dye for the nations not for the nations onely but that he should gather together in one the children of God which were scattred abroade The prophet Esay singeth a notable Psalme of this great and inexplicable benefite of the true and spirituall redemption in Christ wherby we be deliuered from euerlasting damnation And in that Psalme he meruailously setteth forth the goodnes of god in Christ saying Behold God is my saluation I will trust and wil not feare for the lord God is my strength and song he also is become my saluation If Cleophas and his companion had known him to be the sauiour and deliuerer of Israel as well as Esay did they had neuer bene in harte so heauy as they were It followeth in the prophet Esay Therefore with ioye shall ye drawe waters out of the welles of saluation And yee shall say in that daye prayse the Lorde call vppon his name declare his workes among the people make mention of them For hys name is exalted Syng vnto the Lorde for he hath done excellent thinges This is known in all the world Cry out and shoute O inhabitant of Sion for great is the holy one of Israel in the midst of thee Note here how greatly and aboundantly the prophet reioiceth in spirit or the bountiful grace of god offred in Christ our only sauiour and deliuerer When the gospel of God is taught vnto vs then is the holy ghost with all his graces giuen vnto vs to wit remission of sinnes peace of conscience true ioy He is the true fountain spring of the liuing water of which Christ speaketh in Iohn saying The water that I shall giue him shall be in him a well of water springing vp into euerlasting life And againe Christ sayth If any mā thirst let him come to me drinke he that beleueth in me as saith the scripture out of his belly shal flow riuers of water of life He spake this of the spirit which they that beleue in him should receiue For he obtained this holy ghost by his deth for vs and he mightily shewed forth to vs how that by his death the victory of his resurrection he ouercame sinne death and Satan The true Sion that is the catholike church of the faithfull doth in dede and not without good occasion reioice shout for ioy yea she may well and worthily glory For she hath gotten forgiuenes of sinnes righteousnes the holy ghost peace of conscience and euerlasting saluation For Paul sayth to the Corinthiās That God hath giuen vs a glorious victory triumph ouer the law sin death hel through our lord Iesus Christ Esay prophesieth in like maner in his 25. chapter of the victory of Christ saying God Messias will destroy death for euer and the Lord God will wipe away the teares from all faces and the rebuke of his people wil he take away out of all the earth For the lord hath spoken it Now then if Christ hath swallowed vp death then are we surely deliuered from it For death neither hath nor euer had power ouer Christ because he was
children neither could it be thought that of them should come such a famous people Notwithstanding it came so to pas that this seed was so multiplyed that it was like the sand of the sea according to the promise of the lord And so though the litle flock of Gods people in this world be as a desolate barrain and only widow in comparison of the great number of the vngodly yet shall it come to pas that thou shalt increase grow and be exceeding famous For although thou hast in this world many enemies which do all they can and imploy themselues totally to subuert thee to root thee out and to ouerthrow thee yet can they not hurt thee Their councels and deuises shall all be frustrate yea they them selues how great soeuer they be are nothing nay much les then nothing For the moth shall eat them as a garment and the worme shall consume them like a vesture but my righteousnes remayneth and abideth for euer from generation to generation Yea and he addeth a saying that is ful of comfort The Lord shal comfort Syon he shall comfort all her desolations and he shall make her desert like Eden and her wildernes like the garden of the lord Ioy and gladnes shall be found therin praise and the voyce of singing Which is to say although the church be like vnto Abraham solitary and forsaken yet shall she be blesssed and florish like as a most pleasaunt garden And therfore we ought in no wise to be offended at the base estate of Christ and his former comming or at the homely state of the church while she walketh in this crooked world like to a pilgrim And a litle after in the same chap. the Lord speaketh to his people I euen I am he that comforteth you This is a greate and worthy mistery for we vnderstand here Christes humanitye as if he should say my seruants the prophets haue much and diuersly hetherto comforted you but yet came not that true comfort of Israell Now therfore will I far otherwise comfort you and that much more liuely and in greater aboundance then before For now euen I my selfe will come in mine own person and comfort Sion This came to pas when Christ was made man and liued among men For he sent not a Prophet or an Angel but he himself at the fulnes of time came in the flesh that he might comfort vs in the flesh Those two discyples plainly felt that comfort on Easter day when God him selfe in mans nature glorifyed and reuiued them and cheered vp their heuy harts by the scriptures And Esay saith further Arise put on thy strength O Syon c. And here again doth the prophet comfort gods people making them promise of Christ their redeemer as if he should say goe to Sion thou which art so often afflicted and troubled thou which art now prisoner vnto thy enemies and now again set free and yet afterward captiue and laid wast so that thou maist truely be called most miserable and wretched Now reioyce Now be glad and leap for ioy for thy miseries shal once haue end For I promise thee a better and more blessed state in time to come Hethertowards thou hast bene for a time redeemed from thy enemies and for a tyme thou hadst tranquility and wast afterward afflicted agayn But now thou shalt enioy at last sound consolation which shall neuer decay after which no captiuity or destructiō shal follow Wherfore put all heauines from thy hart be of good courage and awake for the time wil once come wherin thou shalt truly be set at fredome And thus the prophet speaketh of that euerlasting deliueraunce which we haue in Christ who hath vanquished our enemies by whom we were afflicted and vexed in captiuity and hath deliuered vs from them and restored vs to our old fredome and all this he did of his own mere grace cleane without our desert though it cost him euen the best chiefest and most precious humain thing he had For he offered vp his body for a sacrifice and shed his most precious bloud for our redemption that thereby he might put away our sinnes ouercome death and vanquish and destroy hel And by these works of his euerlasting and infinite person he obtayned for vs euerlasting redemption Sion the spirituall citie is vexed and troubled because it is constrayned to harborow and beare the vngodly It can in no wise paciently suffer such griefe and blasphemies against god and his name Therfore God by the prophet promiseth that the vncircumcised and vnclean that is the vnbeleuers whose hartes in Christ Iesus are not purified nor cleansed but hate the church of God shall not haue their habitation there But this thing in this world is done spiritually For whosoeuer beleeueth not in Christ yea though he sit in Peters chaire or were head of the church as Annas and Caiphas were in the Sinagogue and other many wicked Iewes which would be counted righteous yet is he no member of true Syon that is of the Church for he hath not the spirite of Christ and how then can Christ be hys head or he his member for such a one is without the communion of saynts But at the day of redemption when Christ shal come to geue sentence then at the last shall all the wicked infidels and false Christians be euen corporally seperated from the faythfull Then shall Sion be most beautifull and delectable when all which shall dwell in her shall put on their wedding garments then shall the Church be clean without blot or wrinkle and then he which hath not on his wedding garment shall with his hands and feet fast bound be cast into vtter darcknes In the meane tyme Sion in outward apparance hath a heuy countenance because we wander yet in this flesh and because the old man is not yet mortifyed and because sathan and the world doe iniury vs persecute vs and torment vs and because tirants vexe and trouble vs with the doctrine and traditions of men But we must not sleep in security we must rise and lift vp our selues and shake of slouthfulnes And although with our body we cannot come vnto that wished marke and full perfection yet in hart we must aspire fly vp to Christ our redeemer as Paule teacheth to the Philip. saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our conuersation is in heauen Moreouer we must still stand in our freedome which Christ by his pretious and inestimable price wrought for vs And we must by pure and vnspotted faith cleaue closely in all we can to Christ and cast the bonds of humain traditions quite and clean out of our consciences that so Christ may rule in our harts otherwise we shall neuer be able to stand And then the prophet speaketh of a twofold captiuity and transmigration The first is corporall when as they were most miserable captiues in Egipt and afterward amongst the Assirians and Caldeans who at that time
he was wounded for our transgressions he was broken for our iniquityes the chastisment of our peace was vpon him and with his stripes are we healed all we lyke sheepe haue gone astray we haue turned euery one to his owne way and the Lord hath layd vpon him the iniquities of vs all He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet did he not opē his mouth he is brought as a sheepe to the slaughter and as a sheepe before her sherer is dumme so he openeth not his mouth he was taken out of prison and from iudgement And who shall declare his age for he was cut out of the land of the liuing for the transgressions of my people was he plagued and he made his graue with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no wickednes neither was any deceit in his his mouth Yet the Lord would breake him and make him subiect to infirmities when he shall make his soule an offering for sinne he shall see his seede and shall prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his handes He shall see of the trauaile of his soule and shal be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous seruant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities Therfore will I geue him a portion with the great and he shall deuide the spoil with the strong because he hath powred out his soul vnto death and he was counted with the transgressors and he bare the sinne of many and prayed for the trespassors ¶ Anna. Euery one may see if they waye thease wordes well that this prophecy speaketh of none but of Iesus of Nazareth so playnely and manifestly doth it set forth the passion of Christ not differing at al from the historye of the Euangelistes Vrb. You say true the Iewes see it but being bewitched of sathā they see not that which they do see now they seeke absurd and diuers and marueilous strange and coacted expositions and starting holes to creepe out at least they be forced to graūt that this text speaketh only of Christ and so be found giltye of manslaughter which they cōmitted in their Messias 1576. yeares agoe They complayne in deed and thinke that their sinnes are more heinous and greuous then the sinnes of their forefathers because they haue bene captiues now more then .1500 yeares For their fathers were but .70 yeares captiues in Babilon for committing Idolatrie But when they see that this their captiuity continueth now so long they can conceaue no comfort by the law and prophets neither haue they any certayne hope that euer their bondage shall end that they may returne agayne into the lande of Canaan as at other tymes they did when they were restored and delyuered out of captiuitye And thys doth Rabbye Sammuell himselfe confesse Yea they are so obstinate and so cleane without repentaunce that when they euē see and perceiue by the prophets that Iesus of Nazareth by all mens accounts is the true Messias yet they passe it ouer with silence and conceale it will speake nothing of it in the sinagogue before the youth simple people and so hold them stil in their blindnes error Koheleth of Prage in the disputations at Ausburge which Doctour Phillip Melanctō Doctour Brentius and I had with him wold gladly haue expounded this chapiter of those Iewes which at this day are disparsed afflicted and contemned in all the worlde but he brought in so ill fauored vaine folishe and vnsauery stuffe and reasoned so baldly that he shamed him selfe and blushed before vs all The Iewes before they fell into this blindenes and reprobate sence for killing of Christ that is before the natiuitye of Christ while as yet they had the prophetes vnderstode this text of Messias as appeareth by Ionathas his Thargum which beginneth to expoūd this chapiter thus Haizlach Abdi Meschiho that is behold my seruaunt Messias shal be made fortunate The old Hebrues also expounded this chapiter thus Messias shal be more exalted then Abraham and set aboue Moses and none shal be lyke him in greatnes and glory he shall excell all the angells of god in honour and dignitye Anna. This is a horible blindnes of the Iewes of our time that reding these things in their bokes they will not se the truth For as S. Paul saith euē vnto this day the vale of Moyses couereth their hartes that euen when they reade of Messias yet they vnderstand not what they reade But when they shal be conuerted vnto the Lord then the vale shal be taken away and as soone as they shall beleue the gospel they shall plainely vnderstād all the prophesies cōcerning Christ so that they may very easily knowe them although now they vnderstand no title therof is not this a darke and deepe blindenes that they dreame Messias should in this earth haue an earthly corporall kingdome but that he should purge all mens sinnes and deliuer all mankind from death Of this they are vtterly ignoraunt and of this they cannot abide to heare because they vnderstand noe prophesies but euery day are more more wrapped in blindnes vntill it shall please God to take mercy vpō thē A yet no blindnes seemeth to me more grosse then the blindnes of that euill and doting man Rabbi in hannapher who in the Sinagoge euē before your face did not let to say that he neuer sought nor looked for forgiuenes of his sinnes or righteousnes by Messias O horrible execrable and lamentable blindenes Vrba Yt was my hap to heare the same filthy and abhominable error of the Iewes at Brūsuige in their Sinagog Paule to the Thes pronounceth a very heauye and fearefull saying and sentence agaynst them to wit that the wrath of God is come on them to the vtmost verily they neither know nor vnderstand the person or ministerye of Christ But let vs leaue these blinded bussardes and come agayne to the wordes of the prophet It is sufficient for vs which beleue in Christ that the Euangelists and Apostles do euery where playnely and vndoubtedly expounde this 53 chapter of Esai to be mēt of Iesus Christ as appeareth in Math. 8. Mar. 15. Lu. 22 Ioh. 12. Acts. 8. Rom. 10.4 and 15.1 Peter 2. But first we must note that this Chap. almost in euery verse witnesseth that the kingdome of christ is not of this world but heauēly because he neither hath nor braggeth of any of this worldly beuty glorye or magnificensy nay he which is the king head of this kingdome is mocked scoffed scorned contemned killed of this world and therfore it was a great blind ignoraunce and doltishnes that sum euen of the beleuing Iewes did dreame that he should erect and restore agayne the earthly kingdome of Israell or that he should be an earthly or worldly king of the Iewes in the land of Canaan and deliuer them from the tyranny of the Gentiles He came for greater yea I say for far greater
causes then all the kingdomes empires powers honors wealthes and riches of this world to wit to destroy the workes of Sathan with the kingdome of sinne and death and to establish his kingdome of righteousnes and euerlasting life But carnall men do carnally expound the promises of the Lord vntill they receaue the holy ghost the true Doctour and teacher of the truth It is the spirite of God which at the last doth trulye open the eyes of the hart that the truth of God may be seene perceaued and vnderstode The Euangelists vse so to speake of the person of Christs as though we may take thē some tyme to speak of the Godhead and glory of Christ and sometyme of his humilitye submission affliction miserye and contemptible state in the eyes of the world euen as occasion and place serue You haue heard before how Esay prophesied that the onely begotten sonne of God Iesus Christ who was spoken of before by the prophets should come into this world euen in his own person But Esay now in this 35. chap. telleth what he should doe and performe at his cōming in the fleshe to wit that he should be our seruaunt And the Father calleth him his seruaunt in respect of his office because he is to helpe vs obediēt to his Father euen vnto the death the death of the crosse and because he humbleth himselfe beneath all men and is a very abiect and lowlye seruant to all men that thereby he may exalt all men The Prophet also sheweth that Christ after this his humilitye should be exalted vnto the most highest state of honor and glorye ¶ Anna. I pray you then tell me how shall Christ obay and how shall he rule ☞ Vrba Very wisely For he will so rule and gouerne the misterye which his Father committed vnto him that no man can euer sufficiently commende him For though it may seeme absurde and foolish vnto reason that Christ should promise to deliuer other mē from death whē he himselfe dyed and to bring all that beleeue into eternall glorye when he himselfe came to eternall shame and ignominye yet this was the best and fastest way to worke such a notable worke For how can the euerlasting wisedome of the Father doe anye thing that should not in euery respect be most excellently done And Iaskaet may be thus translated He will geue wisedome and vnderstanding or he will make men wise and skilfull For Christian beleuers teach true and perfect wisedome in the schoole of Christ which wisdome no worldling can vnderstād The children of this world by the wisedome of the flesh can search after and get nothing but the fraile and transitory goodes of this world But faythfull Christians are much wiser they vse this world and the treasures thereof as the stranger vseth his inery they after the true eternall treasures of their heuenly cuntrye But we must note that this seruice of Christ was not of long continuaunce and that after it should follow true and perfect glory with euerlasting honor And therfore sayth Esay he shal be exalted extolled hiely estemed And this thing shal be so that many may wonder and be offended at his great and extreame humilitie which thing hapned in the Iewes who abhorre and thinke it detestable great wickednes to say that Messias which is promised in the prophets should be constrained to suffer a most vile and ignominious death whereupon they call Christ Thalui that is hanged vp blaspheming him most horribly wickdly and detestably The cause why they are offended at the crosse of Christ is because they seeke in Messias the corporall goodes and temporall honors and dignities of this world They thinke it wickedly and impiously spoken to say that so great a king of Israell should hang among theues as though he himselfe had bene a most hainous and wicked offender But if so be that the sight of him should be so miserable so vncomely so vile so foule that he should not seeme in the eyes of the world to be the man that could deliuer others and bring them vnto honor and glory and this is the cause that he is the stone of offence how could his kingdome be worldly Worldly princes must so set forth their brauerye dignitye and maiestye that men may euen be amased to looke on them A worldly kingdome cannot stand vnlesse there be in it both power and reuerence where the prince is poore and dispised and oppressed by the violence or tyrannye of the enimies and doth neither in power nor riches excell his aduersaryes there must needes the kingdome come to ruine But this our king wil doe more by his humility then all the princes and kings in this earth can doe with all their pompe power and riches What will he then doe The prophet saith He wil sprinkle many nations This is an Hebrue phrase This word Iaseh doth properly signify to disparce abroad hether and thether euen as drops of water are sprinkled here and there This sprinkling therfore of the Gentils betokeneth nothing els in this place but to teach and preach gods word amongst them and this was fulfilled when the Apostles by the holy ghost instructed the gentils through the holy word opened vnto them this welspring of Gods grace in christ Iesus and dispersed the same euen as the fertil rayn which falleth in May that therby the fruit of Gods knowledge might grow and increase in al places they preuailed so much through the preaching of Gods word that euen mighty Emperors and Princes did worship adore and feare Christ Iesus and held their tongues and were astonyed And among the gentils and other places where before the scriptures were not known and the gospell not heard of there did they so teach the great misteries of the gospel that they were vnderstood Seeing then in Christ such great maruels and wonders are wrought to wit that God becommeth man humbleth him self very lowly and in his blessed and most innocent humanity I cal his humanity that humain nature which he tooke vpon him suffereth so great shame greef and calamity and that of his own people whom he had blessed with so great and infinite benefits both of body and soule and seeing he must by this his ignominious death be exalted vnto honor and so begin his spirituall kingdome but must first as the king therof labour vnder his crosse and suffer all kind of calamity and shame and yet by the self same crosse be in deed exalted to honor and crowned with eternall glory seeing I say these wonderful things which are contrary to mans reason are done in Christ and his kingdome the world wil not beleeue them when it shal heare them And this thing the prophet saw in spirite when he sayd who wil beleue our saying that is our preching or doctrine They are so great incredible that reason cannot be perswaded that such wonders either are or could be done How did
herbe and the hand of the Lord shall be knowne among his seruauntes and his indignation against his enimies You heare in this prophesy that Ierusalem grones vnder her crosse because she is so miserably and hotly persecuted and troubled here in the earth But God promiseth that there shall be such plentifull comfort in the heauenly Ierusalem that the faythfull beleeuers shall not remember their former griefes He vseth a figuratiue speach saying lyke as a hungry sucking infant greedely draweth his mothers brestes with pleasure and thinketh nothing sweeter then his mothers milke so shall there be brests of all comfort in the church by which the faythfull shall take most pleasaunt repast and pleasure For the Church in this lyfe hath the most pleasaunt and hony sweete milke of Gods promises which the children of God suck and with which they are nourished and battned in fayth and by which they are vnspeakeably and vncredibly comforted in the spirite which doth inwardly illuminate and teach them the misteries of the gospell And though the Churche here vpon earth be afflicted tormented and tossed with troubles and hath no resting place yet doth god promise it great plenteous and eternall peace which as a flowing riuer whose course is neuer stayed shall neuer be dried For the kingdome of Christ is a kingdome of eternall peace whiche wee haue with God through Christ And as the tender mothers nourishe and beare their young infantes in their laps armes so do the pastors in the kingdome of Christ beare the faythfull Christians and they faythfully minister and truely breake to them the pure and sound foode of the word of God and geue to euery one as well weake as strong according to their neede Neither was there euer yet vpon this earth any parents though they were most pampering and fond of their children that could so sweetly intreate so delicatly nursse or so derely loue so faythfully carefully watchfully looke to their childrē as God doth to vs And therfore though the Church of the faythfull lye opē to euery crosse calamity after her christs exāple yet is the force of these heauēly promises such in the middest of these troubles that doubtedly all the ioyes pleasures cōsolatiōs of this world are nothing in respect of them For as Paule witnesseth to the Cor. As the sufferinges of Christ abound in vs so our consolation aboūdeth through Christ In the psalmes also it is written in the multitude of my thoughtes in my hart thy comforts haue reioysed my soule and Christ tould his desciples vs before hand that they should wepe and morne in this world but the world should laugh and reioyce But immediatly after he greatly comforteth them and vs with a comfortable promise of eternall ioy saying your sorrowe shall be turned into ioy which no man shall be able to take from you for euer Hath not a godly man passing surmounting ioy here vpon earth when hee remembreth this heauenly Ierusalem and beholdeth with spirituall eyes this glorious city of God and when he remembreth that all Gods deere childrē in all the wide world which are innumerable shall haue one father one king one teacher one fayth one minde one hope and one euerlasting inheritaunce together with them that are allready departed in the Lord and which we shall see at the last day in a gloryfied body with these eyes O what an exceeding ioy will it be to behold that Christ the head of all Saints and holy Mary the blessed mother of God with all the Patriarches prophets Apostles virgins martyrs infāts angels in heauē Verely mans hart in this mortall flesh can not thinke or with sence conceaue any part or parcell of this so great excessiue euerlasting treasures and ioyes For it far very far passeth our capacitie as Paule witnesseth out of Esay saying Eye hath not seen neither eare hath hard neither came into mans hart the thinges which god hath prepared in his heauenly Ierusalem for them that loue him Besides this our bones shall florish and bud This is not to be vnderstood onely of the recreation refection and ioy that we haue here by the word of God but as the Church hath hetherto euer expounded it of that glorious resurrection of our bodies in the laste day when our dry bones be they neuer so ill fauored broken and parched wheresoeuer they be either by water or by lande shall bud and florish that is shall be restored and repared at the sound of the archangell and the bodye it selfe shall be indewed with eternall helth and prosperitye by this meanes our bones may bud for euer seing our bodyes though now they be weake feble and fraile shall contrary to Porpherye lyue also for euer For the Lord hath said it Thus then in that heauenly Ierusalem after domes day shal be no sicknes no old age no death but continuall health of body and alwayes a fresh mery flowrishing and liuely youth To be short as Saint Augustine sayth There shal be an euerlasting perpetuity of a most happy blessed merye and ioyfull life The children of God here in their lyfe tyme be but weake feeble dispised and subiect to the mockes and persecutions of the vngodly who kyll them and butcher them euen as Sheepe prepared for the shambles Contrarylye the world florisheth in power honor pleasure and prosperity and florisheth so in all dayntye delicates that there seemes to be no such calamities and miserable man as the true godly beleuer in Christ but at the last day when this heauenly Ierusalem shall be builded for altogether then shall Gods hand or power be knowen with which he will deliuer his seruants the true godly those that beleue in Christ Then shall they not be either weake feble miserable or contemptuous but they shall be strong bewtifull and sit on christes right hand in gloryfied bodyes lyke to Christ and being in hye and infinite glorye and adorned with inestimable ornaments and deliuered frō death and all misery They shall for ioy sing and triumph thē shal they sit in their maiesty and mock and point with the finger at death and Sathan saying death where is now thy sting hell where is now thy victory death is for euer swallowed vp in the victory of Christ And though the children of this world whiche would not beleue the gospell for a tyme here vpon earth haue had some wealth and wallowed in pleasure as if god had most fauored and loued them yet at the last day they shall well finde that they were Gods enemies and thē shall they to their smart feele how hote heuy and horrible the wrath of God is against them that be now agaynst Christ For then shall God without mercy and pitye throw them with Sathan and all his ministers hedlong downe to hell there to be damned for euer Esay in the end of his prophecy foretelleth of the calling of the Gentils to the gospel
will reioyce ouer thee in great gladnes that is he will poure forth all his faythfulnes vpon thee and his fatherly good will towards thee that at the last the world may be compelled to see and palpably feele but especially the children of God shall know that the Lord loueth thee aboundantly as Paul writeth to Titus And he promiseth Christian liberty because he will take away these toyes to wit the lyfe and tradition of men we knowe the pharasies taught the law naughtely and went a horing with the doctrine of men teaching that men should do the workes of the law to the end that they should be iustified and haue remission of sinnes by the workes of the law and not by the mere grace of God and Christ alone And he promiseth the Church such a helpe as by which her enemies should be destroyed but she continew still Wherfore though hereticks lye and deceaue neuer so much though tyrantes murder and kill neuer so many though false Christians berwaye and betray all they can and though Sathan rage and rore neuer so much Yet in the end shall the Church the kingdome of Christ ouercome and the enemies of christ yea death the last enemy of Christ Christians shall be destroyed The Church as Sophony sayth hath a mighty Sauiour which can mightely saue and deliuer her And as Math. sayth a rock whereon it is builded against which euen the gates of hell can not preuaile And although gods children are a miserable afflicted and calamitous poore people though they be crippells and outcasts and though they be outwardly in body persecuted inwardly in the soule shakē and tormented with the terrors of death and with feare of damnation yet will Messias helpe them and ayde them and bring them to honor and gather them into his kingdome as Luke sayth in the 11. chapiter where Christ calleth the halt and lame to his supper Is it not a marueilous great honor and glory that he pronounceth of the Iewes that saluation shall come of them and of the Church that it is the Citie of God which the Lord himselfe hath foūded and builded and that there is no other true ioye peace safety righteousnes fortitude riches honor lyfe or saluation but onely that which is in the catholicke Church in the time of grace and Messias I will bring you that is I will by the Gospell call you on all sides from amōgest the wicked vnto Christes kingdome and I will gather the disparsed children of the Lord and I will exault them to honor when I shall haue turned away their captiuitie Man speaketh not these thinges but God himselfe whose will or purpose no man can let or hinder He sayth that he will gather his seruaunts into the kingdome of Christ and therein make them honorable in deede For as it is the vildest shame and greatest ignominy that can be to be a sinner and bondslaue of Sathan so on the other side it is the greatest glory laud and honor that can be to be deliuered from sin and Sathan and to be made the childe of God by the gospell To conclude in that we be made by grace children by adoption so that now we may lyue and raigne with Christ for euer who can either speake or thinke of this glorious glory gloriously enough ¶ Anna. Hath Aggeus any promises of Christ ☞ Vrba Yea forsooth For he prophecied after the captiuitie of Babilon and he moueth the people earnestly to build vp the temple agayine that the worship of God might be restored For this second temple should become very honorable because the true God of Israell himselfe should personally come into it as Mallachy prophecieth And afterward he promiseth Christ and sayth that the time of his comming draweth nye his wordes be these Thus sayth the Lord of hostes yet a little while and I will shake the heauē and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will moue all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory sayth the Lord of hostes The glory of this last house shall be greater then the first sayth the Lord of hostes and in this place will I geue peace sayth the Lord of hostes This prophecy forespeaketh of the former comming of Messias into the world how he should come to Ierusalem into the temple and how there should be a great change both in heauen and earth For the Lord hath sent the Angell of the great counsell euen his son in the flesh that by Christ he might summarily restore all thinges in heauen and earth wherefore it was of necessitie to follow that Iudaisme should be abrogated and that the Iewes should reuolt and that the gētiles should be made the people of God and that great wōders should be don at which euen the Angels should maruell for euer And he sayth that Christ is the hope of all nations For all men are borne sinners and sinn dayly but he which sinneth doth the worke of the deuill and is the seruaunt of Sathan and child of death From the which kingdome of sin death and damnation no man can otherwise be deliuered but by Messias who onely was sent of God to take away the workes of the deuill and destroy the kingdome of Sathan to wit sin and death and to geue vs true life And therefore he is the hope of the whole world neither is there any comfort helpe forgeuenes of sinnes righteousnes peace safety ioy lyfe or health any where els to be found but onely in Christ Therefore all the elect euen from the beginning haue very carefully and earnestly desired Christ because no man either could or ought to helpe the wretched world or deliuer it from euerlasting misery and calamity and bring it to euerlasting ioy but only Iesus Christ Whē Christ in the last week of Daniel came into this world then came our true preacher our onely reconciler and mediator who made and confirmed the euerlasting couenāt of peace betwen God and vs And the prophet repeateth this word the Lord of Zebooth 5. times that the faint harted Iewes ready to fall to desperation should in no wise be discouraged but finish the worke which they had begun and stedfastly waight for the comming of Messias seeing the almighty God who is the truth it selfe had so often and so earnestly made promise of him And so we haue Christ the comfort of all nations of all sinners the true peace of the whole world and that in the temple that is in the Churche of Christ who him selfe is our peace as Paule sayth And seeing Christ is the comfort of all nations it followeth that both they ought to beleue trust in him and that his kingdome also should be among all nations both Iewes gentiles through the whole world And therefore shal they hope to haue also surely receaue of him forgeuenes of their sinnes righteousnes reconciliation
with God true peace securitye euerlasting ioy true life and eternall saluatiō For if the sin of the Gentiles should not be taken away then in deede should neither death nor Sathans tyranny and kingdome be taken away neither could they haue any cōfort or hope But seing that Christ is their hope and comfort and that no vaine comfort for God himselfe speaketh it then surely must all heuines calamities and misery be taken away from the gentiles also which is nothing els but sin euill conscience death and euerlasting damnation And therfore must they also of necessitie rise from death and liue for euer with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen You see by the Epistle of S. Peter that the prophets haue respect vnto the health of the soules and therfore their whole indeuor is to preach true comfort seing the prophecie of Christ who brought vs from sin to righteousnes and innocencye and from death to life euerlasting as we finde he doth in deed Moreouer he hath deserued for vs the comforter the holy Ghost by whome he helpeth and comforteth vs vnder the crosse vntill we be called out of this fraile and miserable life and receaue the promised crowne of glory which in deede we posses in this earth though it be but yet in fayth and hope ¶ Anna. You alwayes haue sayd that Zachary is a prophet full of notable comforts Let vs therfore here what comfort he geueth vs by his promises ☞ Vrba He is in deede a comfortable prophet and the dayes wherein he liued required the same For he prophecied when the Iewes were euen at the point of returning out of the captiuitie of Babilon and when the Citie with the temple should be builded agayne The people at that time were yet faint harted fearefull and doubted that they should not be safe from their enemies and therfore he comforteth them and setteth Christ before their eyes as a louing Sauiour that so they might be of good cheare saying that Christ should spedely come and helpe his seruantes and spread his kingdome through the whole world and therfore was it needefull that Iuda and Ierusalem should be builded againe to the end they might receaue their owne king And the prophet speaketh as followeth Ierusalem shall be inhabited without the walles for the multitude of men and cattell therein For I sayth the Lord will be vnto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midest of her Here he prophesieth of the spirituall Ierusalem to wit the church of Christ for the earthly Ierusalem had hir boundes and walles but the heauenly Ierusalem shal be so wide and large that it can not be compassed with any walles yea it shall be as wide as the world For it is the kingdome of Christ which by little and little without ceasing shall be increased vnto the last day and the true children of Abraham are as the God of Abraham promised euen as the sand of the sea and the starre in the firmament and the promised blessing shall come vpon all nations through the whole world that Christ maye be knowen and worshipped euery where for the true Lord god By the cattell vnderstand weakelinges and such as are ignoraunt in the knowledge of the scriptures and fayth these are led and fed in the pastures of Christ by those which are more strong and firme in fayth But he is a merueilous wall which is all fiery truly the Church of Christ in this place hath so great and comfortable a promise of Gods helpe as you shall scarsely finde in any other place of the scriptures For I wil be saith the Lord a wall of fire round about hir the Church of Christ You see that he speaketh here of the heauenly Citye wherein God himselfe will be the watchman keper wall defēder if their God be thus present with vs we haue iust cause to reioyce in the Lord seeing that wheresoeuer God himselfe watcheth defendeth and fighteth for vs there are we safe out of daunger of this world and Sathan and neede not feare them To be breefe the great humilititie of Christ Iesus in that he vouchsafed to become man being the true son of God and the sending of the holy ghost the true teacher of holsome doctrine in the Church of God whereby the church is still houlden and preserued in truth that it may stedfastly cleaue to God where as otherwise the whole world is blinded with errors caried away with lyes and miserably deceaueth it selfe these I say do sufficiētly declare how gloriously the Lord hath shewted himselfe in this spirituall Ierusalem Sathan the world and heretickes do not cease nor sleepe but bend themselues in all they may yea they striue with hand and foote to destroy Christ his church But although according to the flesh it be weake yet neuerthelesse it standeth and getteth the victory ouer all hir enemies So plentifully doth the Lord declare his glory in his spirituall citye the Church In the wordes following he setteth forth the helpe and comfort which we shall haue in Christ his kingdome saying He which toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye How I pray you could a most louing and tender father speak more louingly or sweetely euen to his darling and derely beloued son if the Lord looke carefully to vs as men vse to looke to the apple of their eyes then surely can no hurt happen vnto vs in the kingdome of Christe neither neede we to feare any daunger A little after Zachary comforteth such Christiās as are vnder the crosse and by reason of the weakenes of the flesh are in feare and trouble euen as the Iewes were at that time saying Reioyce and be glad O daughter Sion for I come and will dwell in the middest of thee sayth the Lord and many nations shall be ioyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the middest of thee and thou shalt know the Lord of hostes hath sent me vnto the. And the Lord shall inherit Iuda his portiō in the holy land and shall chuse Ierusalem agayne Let all flesh be still before the Lord for he is raised vp out of his holy place That is to say O Sion although thou be afflicted here in the earth yet be of good chere because thou shalt cōtinew For I my selfe do come and abide with thee Was not this fulfilled when god became man and at this day wheresoeuer Gods word is receaued there doth God dwell and that is the true Sion as Christ sayth in Iohn He that loueth mee keepeth my commaundementes and my Father will loue him and we will come vnto him and will dwell with him Surely this is the spirituall kingdome wherein god dwelleth with vs by the gospel and by fayth which the holy ghost worketh in vs as S. Paul sayth to the Ephe Christ dwelleth in our hartes by fayth And Esay telleth vs where God
he was crucified But at the last day shall his true humain nature wherin he was crucified and woūded in deed be seen He kept the print of his wounds in his body after his resurrection Moreouer Christes frēds and Christifidelians mourned and lamēted for Christ But especially and properly the godly mourn when by faith they apprehend and deeply ponder the passiō and death of Christ when they imitate Christ in suffering and when euery one beareth his own cros and suffreth with Christ to the mortification of the old man. And Zachery in chap. 13. prophesyeth of the fruites of Christes passion of the forgeuenes of sinnes of the holy ghost of baptisme in the house of Dauid and of the church which should be saying in that day there shall be a fountayn opened to the house of Dauid and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem for sinne and for vncleannes Messias shall make this fountaine to flow in his kingdome of which Iohn speaketh If any man thirst let him come to me and drinke He that beleeueth in me as the scripture saith out of his belly shall flow riuers of water of life He spake this of the spirite which true beleeuers in him should receaue This holy ghost is plentifully poured vpon vs in baptisme by the washing of the new birth And this holy fountain standeth alway open in the house of Dauid that all men may come drinke For the church receaueth both Iewes and gentils into the kingdome of Christ by baptisme which purgeth away the vncleannes and filth of originall sin by which the holy nature of man in his first natiuity is stayned and spotted euen as with poyson It taketh away also that sinne which we our selues commit that is to say al sinnes are by baptisme pardoned in the house of Dauid the new Ierusalem the kingdome of Christ There were in the old testament many washings and cleansings but none could be deliuered by them from sinne but this spring of the new testament hallowed by the precious bloud of Iesus Christ floweth alwayes full of meer grace and this welspring cleanseth and drowneth all the filthynes and vncleanlynes of all sinnes And all these things rise and come to vs vpon this that Christ was crucified and pearced blod and water flowed out of his side and out of doubt it was for the washing away of all our sinnes And Zachary prophesyeth again a litle after of the passion of Iesus Christ our true shepheard saying Arise O sword vpon my shepheard and the man that is my felsaith the Lord of hostes smite the shepheard and the sheep shal be scattered and I will turne my hand vpon the litle ones And in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut of and dye but the third part shall be left therin And I will bring that third part through the fire and wil fine them as the siluer is fined and wil try them as gold is tryed They shall call on my name and I wil heare them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God. This sword at that time was the power of darcknes For Pilate and the hard harted Iewes bare the sword and authority at that time in the earth but notwithstanding they could not haue hurt Christ vnlesse God had suffered them and ordayned the same before as Christ saith Pilat had his power from aboue This shepheard is Christ the sheep are the Apostles which fled when Christ was taken and suffered Christ himselfe alleadgeth this prophecy in Mat. 26. Furthermore the Lord calleth Christ the man that is his fellow For Christ is the true and onely shepheard in the church and is also with the father for euer as Iohn saith The sonne is in the bosome of his father Marke also how the kingdome of this world hath no beauty but appeareth oftentimes miserable and therefore can it in no wise be earthly and of this world The shepheard him selfe was smitten by the earthly magistrates and his sheep were terrified and disparsed and the disciples them selues were offended in Christ as you haue heard in Cleophas and his companiō They supposed that he would haue smitten others and that he would haue deliuered the Iewes from all tiranny of the gentils neither did they yet see how that they should in Messias haue a spirituall deliuerance from their sinnes and death But those litle ones vnto whō Christ turned him selfe are the afflicted and poore christians which are dispysed in this world but deerely beloued children before God. ¶ Anna. What are these three parts of which the third part only remayneth ☞ Vrb. Two parts is that great multitude of the vngodly in the earth which are offended in Christ of which one part cannot abide the cros and tribulation but turneth back vnto the world and stifly cleaueth vnto it Another part suffereth them selues to be seduced frō the way of truth by false teachers to perish in their errors But the third part are the true godly which stedfastly stand to the gospel and become like vnto gold finely tryed and purifyed in the fire of temptation and persecution These are those true Christians who only doe obtain saluation because they abyde in the true fayth euen vnto the end and suffer not them selues by any meanes to be called or drawne from Christ Their fayth is tryed in tribulation by which they cal vpon the name of god in spirit and truth without hipocrisy and alwaies glorifie God and are hard of god God acknowledgeth them for his dearly beloued sōnes and they also confes god to be their most louing father Seeing then that the Prophets haue so often in time past prophesied that Christ and hys people should be persecuted and afflicted but yet that all crosses and tribulation should not either let or hinder Christ nor his church to attain vnto the ioy promised those two disciples ought not to haue been so offended at the death of Christ And he prophesyeth again of Christes kingdome saying The Lord shall be king ouer all the earth And here agayn Christ is called true god In that day shall there be one God and his name shall be one This is spoken of the vnity of the Christian fayth Before that time there were many fayned Gods but in the day of Messias shall the only true God alone be called vpon in Christ And who so will not come vp of all the families of the earth vnto Ierusalem to worship the king the Lord of hostes euen vpon them shal come no raine That is those which come not into the church of Christ and doe not with one consent together with all the faithfull adore Christ and acknowledge him to be the king of glory they shall be a cursed people vpon whom no rayne of the spirituall benediction shall fall For they which are not in the church of Christ haue neither the word of god nor faith nor mercy
is the most splendent and bright son of all innocency and righteousnes in whom is neither blott cloud nor spot of sin He onely kindleth maketh warm our cold harts with the beames of his spirit he fructifieth our dry and parched ground that we may bring forth vnto him the fruits of righteousnes for without him we can do nothing that is good When this sun shal rise in his perfect brightnes thē shall it bring to vs that bright and wished day of liuely eternity and it shall shine vnto vs for euer and shall neuer go from vs Vnder the winges of this son is lyfe and health the Hebrew word in this place is maruell comming of this worde Ropho which signifieth to heale or medesine Note therfore that we are dāgerously and deadly sick For sinne hath destroyed and infected both our body and soule with deadly poyson The soule is full of sinne the body also is all sinfull and mortall so that of necessitie we had died for euer if the Lord had entered into Iudgement with vs but he gaue vs Christ the Phisition of our wounded and deadly sicke nature to deliuer mans nature from all sicknes and to restore vs both body and soule to perfect health He which calleth vpon this Phisition and beleueth in him shall be lightened and clerely deliuered both in body and soule from all sinne and euill which sin brought with it into the world the soule shal be clensed frō the staines of sin and frō euill thoughtes naughty lustes and vngodly desiers and the body shal be deliuered from mortalitie and corruption For this phisition is the Lord himselfe who for this cause onely tooke vpon him our nature that he might in vs make it altogether cleane innocent immortal and pure and saue it Whereupon the prophet sayth Health is vnder his winges For he which flieth to be vnder the winges of this son and seeketh health and saluatiō at his hāds is saued In deed these wordes are figuratiue but they meane nothing els but that which the Euangelistes and Apostles speake in plaine wordes to wit that he which beleueth in Christ shall be saued and haue euerlasting lyfe But if he which beleeueth in Christ hath euerlasting life surely he hath also true and euerlasting health For he which abideth in his sinns abideth in a most dangerous disease dieth an euerlasting death For the wrath of God abideth on him But he which layeth hold on Christ as one the true phisition by fayth he obtaineth euerlasting health both of body and soule Christ verely cōpareth himselfe to a phisition in Math. saying that he came vnto the sicke men as the phisition to the sick and he mightely shewed and exercised this art in this earth all the time of his pilgrimage when he healed and restored not onely the soules frō sinne and the bodies from all kinde of sicknes and diseases but raised them vp euen from the dead ¶ Anna. What meaneth Malachy in that he saith you shall goe forth and grow vp as fat calues or you shall goe forth and daunce or leape and come in like a fatted calfe ☞ Vrb. This is a figuratiue kind of speech spoken of the godly to whom the word of God is a most pleasant pasture for it shall goe wel with them in the last day For then shall they be free and safe from all euill sinne lust feare heauines and persecution Wherupon Paul calleth the last day the day of redemption And Christ in Luke exhorteth the godly to lift vp their heads when the day of the Lord draweth nye because then their redemption also is at hand Then shall that last enemy of the godly to wit death be destroyed and mortality shal be swallowed vp in the life of Christ Then shall they all haue lyberty and ability to be alwayes with Christ without any impedimēt of the body Now the body is slothful loytering and weake but at the last day it shal be as cleere as the sun immortall elegant strong puissant liuely suttle neate pure spirituall and nimble and haue eternall health For they are saued both in body and soul as our creed doth teach vs I beleeue the rising again of the flesh which with the soule must be glorifyed and haue euerlasting life The vngodly here in this earth doe miserably kick treade vpon afflict iniury and mock the godly and count thē as ofscourings of the earth nay they iudge them to be most wicked men of all and euen sacrifices for sinnes For the elect shall haue tribulation euen vnto the last day but when Christ the sonne of righteousnes shall come down from heauen to seperate chaffe from wheat to wit his seruants from the wicked then shall there be an alteration of all things then shal the pompe brauery and glory of this world with all the foolish confidence therof fail and fall Then shall the wicked be tumbled down from their honor and be for euer vtterly shamed and be made our footstole Then shall they be broaken and troaden down and be contemned for euer and be more filthy and vile then the durt in the streetes For he which here suffereth with Christ shall in the world to come be glorifyed and raign with Christ for euer But he which here beleueth not the gospell in this life and is not like to Christ our head in the crosse he at the last iudgement shall be condemned vnto horrible and euerlasting death lamentations calamities and miseries with all the deuils in hell And this shall the Lord of Zebooth or the Lord of hostes doe He shall bring that day vpon the world when it shall liue most securely and vnto his that is vnto the Christifidelians he shal geue that kingdome of glory which by the prophets and euangelistes he hath promised them In the wordes following he exhorteth the people that they call to mind the law of Moyses as if he had sayd the time of Messias is not far of it is euen now at hand Beware and watch that ye despice not the day of your visitation that when the Lord commeth you be not offended at him Moyses hath foretold you in Deuter. that the Lord wil rayse vp vnto you a prophet of your bretheren like vnto him to Moyses that is one which is true man as Moyses was he shall teach by the commaundementes of God and the Lord will punish him which will not heare him For Moyses saith that God will require it of them that is they which wil not beleue the gospell of Messias shal at the last day geue account vnto the lord and for their vnbeleefe they shall be iudged in the Lords anger If the Iewes had obayed this admonition and more diligently sought Christ in Moyses if they had learned better to know his person and office seeing Moyses speaketh so plainly of Christ then had they not so wickedly and cursedly despysed that day of their visitation but would haue imbraced Christ