marginall note Yet if the Originall in this place might be as Cramerus would have it reciprocall the basis of these two contrary significations should bee the passive And though both versions saving himselfe and saved himselfe meet in one point yet it had been more handsome to have said salvatus a seipso then servans seipsum And so Vatablus in his annotations upon this place tells us it may bee rendred Vertere potes saith hee servetur sub a se pro servans se But Masius a man more skilfull then the vulgar Grammarians hath so farre impeacht these grammaticall curiosities about the peculiar force or value of Conjugations that it is not safe to put a matter of so great a consequence as the fulfilling of a Prophecie concerning Christ upon their verdict And however many other Verbs in this forme to wit in Niphal bee rather equivalent to actives then truely actives neuterpassives or reciprocals yet their use though it were more frequent then it is cannot prescribe against the proper and naturall signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place which for ought I finde is alwayes a meere passive Wherefore to wave these grammaticall curiosities this observation I take it is more reall and of better use That as vulgar Philosophers usually ascribe the variety of effects unto the agents or efficients which ariseth wholly from the matter or Patient So Grammarians often labour to salve the regular use or importance of words from the diversity of formes or conjugations in their derivatives or multiplicity of significations in the primitive when as all the variation proceeds wholly from the nature of the subjects unto which one and the same word in one and the same forme or signification is applied As for instance when Melchisedeck saith Benedictus sit Deus Abrahami Benedictus sit Abraham a Deo c. Blessed bee the God of Abraham and blessed be Abraham of the most high God the formall signification of the Latin benedictus and the English blessed is one and the same but the use or importance much differ whilest applied unto God and unto Abraham For Abraham or man to bee blessed of God or to have good words bestowed upon him by divine goodnesse alwayes importeth some reall donative whereby hee becommeth more happy then hee was before For in God benedicere is benefacere his good word or blessing is alwayes operative of some reall good to the party whom hee blesseth But for God to bee blessed by man or which is all one for man to blesse God can import no more then a testification of his love and loyalty towards his Creator that hee no way envieth but heartily congratulateth his eternall happinesse and could wish if it were possible that it might be greater or that hee could expresse his loyalty and thankfulnesse better unto him who is worthy of all praise honour glory and blessednesse c. 5. In like case admitting the proper and formall signification of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee alwayes one and the same and punctually rendred by Arias Montanus salvatus yet the importance of it whilest our Sauiour is the Subject and wee the Agents will much differ from the importance of it whilest wee are the Subjects or passives and he the Agent or Donor Salvatus applied unto us alway implies some reall salvation of soule or body or of both and is as much in English as to be saved or redeemed from death and danger The same word againe applied to the King of Sion by his Subjects or by us sinfull men unto our Saviour and Redeemer can imply no more then our congratulation of his dignity or an acknowledging of his power to save or our hearty prayers that hee would bestow his saving health upon us If Arias Montanus or other Translators of the Hebrew had been tied to have used no other then Ciceronian or Terentian phrases it would perhaps have been a solecisme to have put the Latin salvatus for salutatus But the Latin Translators oft times use a phrase or dialect more ancient by much then Cicero or Terence whose language though unto such as peruse few other Writers then Tully or Terence or others a little before or after them it may seeme harsh yet is it more expressive of the Hebrew the ancientest of Languages then the moderne Latin as salvatus in this place is more significant and holdeth better analogy with the propriety of the Latin Tongue then if he had said salutatus Hee whosoever he bee to whom we say sis salvus or jubeo te salvere may according to the fundamentall rules of Grammar Latin though not according to the custome of Criticks or Refiners of that Language be more properly said to be salvatus then salutatus And I make no question but Montanus and others did use it in this sense as the most punctuall expression of the Originall unlesse they had said salvandus However hee is properly said to bee salvatus or salutatus who is either really saved from danger or unto whom wee wish all health and safety The passive juratus is in its formall signification one and the same whilest it denotes the party or person or matter by which wee sweare or protest or the parties which make oath not onely according to the Hebraismes or Ellenismes used by most Translators but in the elegancie of the Latin or Roman refined dialect So an elegant Poet expresseth Amphiaraus his scrupulosity or rather observance of decorum in not swearing by Apollo but old Chaos in that region of darkenesse Testor inane Chaos quid enim hic jurandus Apollo If hee had sworne by Apollo Apollo had been juratus yet not juratus in that sense as a Jury with us are said jurati that is sworne men or men which take an oath being administred unto them for it must consist of swearing men or of swearers a new title given by some Roman regular Catholiques as they call themselves unto such Seculars of their owne Profession as will take the oath of Allegiance or acknowledge it to be administred unto them by lawfull Authoritie And yet I take it hee that takes a voluntary oath may be truely said to bee juratus not onely to sweare but to bee sworne and that not in vulgar or legall English onely but in pure refined Latin as in that of Prudentius Tentavit Geticos nuper delere Tyrannos Italiam patrio veniens juratus ab Istro According to the custome of refined Latin it would perhaps bee a solecisme to say a man that dies of poison were venenatus albeit venenatus be a proper Latin word not obsolete whilest it denotes arrowes or bullets but in our English wee speake as properly when we say a man was poisoned as when wee say a poisoned bullet a poisoned shaft And so no question according to the true intent of the Prophet Zachariah our Saviour was as properly said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saved
to the humane nature of Christ from the Godhead or Divine person of the Sonne rather all indignities and harmes which were done unto the man CHRIST JESUS by Satan and his instruments did redound unto the Sonne of God The humane nature was the onely subject of the wound and paine The Sonne of God was the onely subject if wee may so speake of the wrong the onely party or person wronged by Satan and his instruments but no way wronged by the Father much lesse by himselfe as having free power to put that part of our nature which he assumed unto what service soever his Father would require Concerning this last qualification of the Sonne of God I have nothing more to say in this Treatise save onely how it was foretold or foreshadowed The predictions that the Sonne of God or the Messias should become a servant are frequent in the old Testament and will here and there interpose themselves in some ensuing discussions of his undertakings for dissolving the works of Satan The next inquirie is how it was foreshadowed or typically foretold CHAP. IX Gods servant Job the most illustrious Type of the Sonne of God as hee was invested with the forme of a servant 1 THe forme of a servant which the Sonne of God did take upon him was foreshadowed by all those holy men Prophets or other which are by sacred Writers instiled the Servants of God A title not usually given to many Kings or Priests not once I take it by God himselfe unto Abraham though he were the greatest of holy men which were but men the father of the faithfull whether Kings Priests or Prophets the onely Prophet Priest or other which to my remembrance was instiled the friend of God Moses Aaron and David are sometimes instiled the servants of God by God himselfe Yet were these three respectively more illustrious types of the Sonne of God as he was to bee made King Priest and Prophet than of him as hee tooke the forme of a servant upon him Of CHRIST JESUS as hee was in a peculiar sort the servant of God Iob the most remarkable paterne of patience before this Son of God was manifested in the flesh is the most exact type or shadow not for his qualifications onely but in his undertakings Iobs conflicts with Satan and wrestlings with temptations are more expresly recorded and more emphatically exprest than any mans besides before the onely Sonne of God became the Sonne of man and servant to his heavenly Father Satan by speciall leave obtained from God but so obtained by God as challenger did combat or play his prizes with this servant of God at two the most prevalent weapons which his cunning and long experience upon all aduantages which the weaknesse of men from the fall of Adam did afford him could make choise of And these two weapons were hope of good things and feare of evills temporall which this great usurper did presume were at his disposall either by right of that conquest which hee had gotten over the first man or could obtaine by Gods permission to ensnare the first mans posterity The direct and full scope of all our hopes is felicitie and so is misery the period of all our feares Unto felicity three sorts of good things are required Bona animae bona fortunae bona corporis The endowments and contentments of the reasonable soule health with ability and lawfull contentments of the body competency of meanes or worldly substance which are subservient to both the former endowments and contentments of soule and body No misery can befall man but either from the want of some one or more of these three good things which are required to happinesse as the Philosophers conceived it or from their contraries All the evills which men naturally feare are either evills incident to the body as sicknesse paine torments death want or losse of goods or worldly substance losse of good name disgrace or ignominy imputation of folly which are no lesse grievous to the rationall part of man than paine or griefe are to the part sensitive more grievous by much to ingenuous men than losse of goods than want or penury For as an heathen Satyrist well observed Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se Quam quòd ridiculos homines facit The shrewdest turne that poverty can doe to any mortall creature is to expose him unto contempt or scorne By feare of all these three evills Satan driveth most men into his snare of servitude as many if not more as hee drawes into the same snare by hope of good things By every one of these three evills by the very least of them if we take them single hee had caught so many as hee thought sufficient to make up this generall induction That none could escape his snares or springes so hee might be permitted by God to take his opportunities for setting them 2. Iob was a man as happy as any man before him had been according to that scale of happinesse which Philosophers could hope for in this life or could make any probable ground of better hopes for the life to come There was a man saith the Text in the land of Vz whose name was Iob and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evill This is a fuller expression than any Philosopher could make of the principall part of happinesse that is of a minde richly endowed with all kinde of vertues moral and more than so with spirituall graces And there were borne unto him seven sons and three daughters these were more than bona corporis more than parts of his personall constitution which besides these was exceeding good His substance also was seven thousand sheepe and three thousand Camels and five hundred yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee Asses and a very great houshold or husbandry great store no doubt of servants which were part of his worldly substance so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East Here was a great measure of those things which Philosophers call bona fortunae goods of fortune or as we now say goodly meanes faire revenues Iob was a richer man for those times in respect of others than any man this day living is in respect of our times Yet this goodly Cedar in his full height was sound within and straight without unshaken by any blasts of former temptations untill the Lord himself appointed him to bee a Dueller with Satan The challenge made by Satan is very remarkable There was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them And the Lord said unto Satan whence commest thou Then Satan answered the Lord and said From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and downe in it And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and
leade him away to the water and ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound loe eighteene yeares be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day Luk. 13.14 15. This bodily disease was a work of Satan which the Sonne of God came to dissolve Satan had thus bound her to the end that hee might by these bonds draw her to some unlawfull practise for her ease as to ask counsell of some cunning woman or to adventure upon the pretended mysteries of some unhallowed Art Of diseases meerely naturall the cunning Tempter makes use or way by them for his temptations though he have no finger in the inflicting of them yet hee moveth such as are grievously afflicted with them to repine or murmure against God and all such repining or impatiency in sicknesse though occasioned by sicknesse meerely naturall is a work of Satan which the Sonne of God came to dissolve or prevent But how did hee dissolve or prevent them by taking them upon him Though Satan could lay these and the like bonds of bodily afflictions upon this woman and upon many others both men and women in Judea in these times could he therefore lay the like upon the body of the Sonne of God It is certaine he could not How then did the Sonne of God in bodily maladies or grievances either parallel Iob whom Satan had smitten or those miserable creatures whom he loosed from Satans bonds Hee did not parallel them at all in the matter of the disease or bodily grievance that could not breed in his body it could not be produced in it by Satan yet did hee parallel Iob and all the parties whom he cured though smitten or bound by Satan in the griefe or paine of the disease whose matter could not fasten upon him Hee which commands us by his Apostle to weepe with them that weepe did out of all question exhibite a more reall paterne of this precept than the Apostle could practice Yet saith the Apostle of himselfe and he said it without hypocrisie without boasting Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burne not Such was his care of all the Churches that every mans griefe was in some measure the Apostles griefe every mans infirmity did in some portion weaken him yet was it not foretold of this Apostle by any Prophet that he should beare our griefes or take our infirmities upon him This was the peculiar Character of the Sonne of God manifested in the flesh expresly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. ver 4. and the accomplishment of it related by S. Matthew Chap. 8. ver 16 17. The maner of his curing others of their sicknesses and infirmities was by taking them upon himselfe not in kinde but by sympathy As the eye takes the forme or shapes of objects visible without participation of the substance whence they flow so our Saviour tooke the griefe or paine of every disease which he cured without the matter or corruption which did breed griefe in the diseased patient In all mens griefes he was grieved in all their paines he was tormented Hee wept with those that wept and mourned with such as mourned Who did grone and he was not troubled in spirit who did sigh and hee was not sad in heart Hee tooke their sighes and sorrowes at a lower key than they themselves did which had matter of affliction or sorrow in them Yet doe wee not reade that hee sighed groned or often wept when hee cured others but the reason was because such as besought his helpe did not beseech him with sighes with teares or grones At the raising of Lazarus from the dead he wept and groaned what was the reason Not to prejudice the allegories and mysteries which some ancient Fathers have hence observerd the principall reason according to the literall sense why at this time he wept was because Mary and her comforters came to him with weeping eyes So saith the Text Ioh. 11.13 When Iesus saw her weepe and the Iewes also weepe which came with her hee groaned in the spirit and was troubled in himselfe and said Where have yee laid him They said unto him Lord come and see and Iesus wept Lazarus no doubt had sighed and groaned in his absence had wished his presence with these and other like expressions of sorrow and now that he finds Lazarus dead and Maries cheeks for his decease bedewed with teares hee sympathizeth with her in her present griefe and by tuning his heart to Lazarus his dying pangs or throbs he looseth him from the bonds of death and freeth Mary and her good friends from matter of griefe and sorrow by taking her sorrow upon him 2. And as the care of all the Churches which he had planted was not the least part of S. Pauls griefe and vexation so the sorrow which the Sonne of God did conceive for such as would not seeke unto him for helpe for such as did not sorrow for their sinnes was a great part of his sufferings Thus hee wept for Jerusalem whilest Jerusalem went mad with mirth and resolved to banquet al her guests at that great Passeover with his blood When he was come neere he beheld the Citie and wept over it saying If thou hadst knowne even thou in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes Luk. 19.42 These teares were shed in publique for the City and Nation but how many more hee shed in private or with what sighes hee deplored their estate that would not implore his helpe that would not feele their misery being bound by Satan as well in body as soule this I leave to the Readers consideration and conjecture Even when the full weight of bodily misery did seize upon him when he was bearing the Crosse unto the place wherein hee was crucified hee pitied Jerusalem more than hee would suffer others to pitie him Weepe not for mee yee daughters of Ierusalem but weepe for your selves Thus hee did more than beare our griefs for he was grieved at their miseries which did not grieve for themselves Nihil miserius misero non miserante seipsum But in all these sufferings by sympathy there was no violence they were not mingled with disgrace or scorne Albeit his cures were often slandered by the Scribes and Pharisees yet were they still magnified by the parties cured or by the people But when his houre was come the houre wherein hee was to enter combate with the enemy of mankinde hee was not one minute free from violence or indignity The greatest evills which can befall men in this mortall life are tortures of body indignities or disgrace and it is disputable whether a wise man would not rather chuse death it selfe than either lingring torture perpetuall disgrace or a foule indignity But wee need not dispute this question in the case of the Sonne of God disgrace and paine indignities and torture did not come single upon him one of them was anothers second whilst
righteously who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body on the tree 2. By this unspeakeable obedience of the Son of God in vouchsafing to suffer for us with unimitable patience what hee had in no degree deserved wee who were by naturall condition slaves to Satan were fully redeemed unto the liberty of the sonnes of God Of what kinde soever his sufferings were such and so many they were and all so patiently sustained by him that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world as the ancient and our English Liturgie expresseth And that hee made a full and perfect satisfaction for all the sinnes whether of disobedience or impatience in sufferings of all those men who are in any degree redeemed by him is not questioned by any Christian whether in truth or profession onely who grant that the Sonne of God did make any true and proper satisfaction for the sonnes of men Concerning the extent of mans redemption by the Sonne of God or for his full satisfaction for their sinnes wee shall if God give leave discourse hereafter But whether unto this full and perfect satisfaction which hee undertook to make for men if not universally as our Church teacheth yet as all reformed Churches agree indefinitely taken it were necessary requisite or expedient that the Sonne of God should in our nature undergoe the same penalties or sufferings in kinde which without his satisfaction for them all mankinde should have suffered is a question which of late yeares hath troubled even those reformed Churches which agree upon this generall that his satisfaction was most full and all-sufficient The heat of this contention is unto this day rather abated than extinguished Now the paines which all the sonnes of Adam and Adam himselfe without full satisfaction made by the Sonne of God should in justice have suffered were the paines of Hell perpetuall durance in that unquenchable fire which was of old prepared for the Devill and his Angels Whether this fire be it materiall or immateriall or more then equivalent perhaps unto materiall fire did seize upon the humane soule or body of the Son of God or upon both either in his Agony in the garden or upon the Crosse is the point or probleme now in question The affirmative part of this probleme hath been averred by some in their publike writings under the title of the Holy Cause so dignified for no other reason as I conceive but because it was in those daies maintained stiffly by such as deemed thēselves more holy than other men at least more Orthodoxall in points of sacred doctrine than their Fathers in Christ and by confession of their owne consciences more learned than themselves Others taking this for granted that Christ did suffer all the pains of the damned have been so farre overswaid with their adherence unto this doctrine as to misdeem that Article in the Apostles Creed concerning Christs descending into Hell or ad inferos to incline this way as if to beleeve Christ did descend into hell had been all one as if he had suffered the paines of hell in his Agony in the garden or upon the crosse But if this had been any part of the true meaning of that Article the Apostles or whosoever were the first Composers of the Apostolique Creed as we now have it in the Latin especially in the English would haue exprest thēselves in plainer termes For if by Hell in that Article the paines of Hell had been by them meant or intended they would not have said that the Son of God descended into hell but rather that hell had ascended up unto him whether in the garden or on the Crosse That the Son of God our Saviour Christ did truely descend into the nethermost Hell may with greater ease and more probability bee proved out of the Canonicall Scriptures as well of the old Testament as of the New than his suffring the pains of hell can be inferred from either Testament or from the Apostles Creed That Christ did after his death or dissolution of body and soule descend into hell such as maintain his suffering the very paines of Hell do generally deny But to omit this incongruous paradox or this preposterous expression of it that Christs descention into hell should intimate his suffering of Hell-paine before his death it shall suffice to examine the reasons which have been or may be brought that hee did or was to suffer such paines whensoever or in what place soever All the reasons which can bee alledged that hee did suffer such pains must either be drawen from the event or some experiments recorded in the new Testament or from some predictions in the Old or from a necessity or expediencie whether in justice in equity or out of his abundant love to mankinde that he was to suffer them 3. No necessity or expediency of such sufferings can bee as I conceive pretended but either for satisfying Gods justice or for his full and absolute conquest over Satan or for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things concerning God or a sweet comforter of all such as suffer whether in body or soule for his sake The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the former question that hee did suffer the very paines of Hell must bee proved or attempted from his speeches gesture or other experiments related by the Evangelists in their accurate descriptions of his Agony and sufferings upon the Crosse To begin then with the relation of his Agony That is related at large by S. Matthew and S. Luke which is scarce mentioned by S. Iohn whose speciall part in penning this sacred tragedie it was to remember that divine discourse with his Disciples being at his last Supper with them and his repaire to the garden beyond Cedron which he had so often frequented before that the opportunity of this place made Iudas of a secret thiefe an open Traytor 4. The maner circumstances of the Agony it self are most fully related by S. Luk. cap. 22. ver 39 c. And he came out and went as he was wont to the mount of Olives and his disciples also followed And when he was at the place he said unto thē Pray that ye enter not into temptation And he was withdrawn from thē about a stones cast and kneeled down prayed c. Not to dispute about the phrase here used by S. Lu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whether it imports some violent withdrawing by impulsion or some extraordinary instinct or whether in true construction it be no more than thus he did voluntarily withdraw himselfe questionlesse he was by the one meanes or other now led the second time to be tempted The temptation was grievous and more extraordinary then his former temptation in the wildernesse Thus much is intimated by that peremptory monition to his Apostles Pray that yee enter not into temptation partly from the maner of his
prayer for himselfe Father if thou bee willing remove this Cup from mee The question is what Cup this was whose removall hee desired It was a deadly cup as all agree but of what death naturall or supernaturall death of body onely or of soule Had the Cup which he so feared to drinke been onely a death naturall or such as other men had or may taste of his serious reiterated deprecation of it would in some mens collections argue lesse courage or resolutiō in him than many others though generous yet but meere men have exhibited either at the approch or onset of death or in the very conflict with deadly pangs or terrors Or if Peter at this time had not been amazed with heavinesse of spirit hee might thus have crowed over his Master dulce bellum inexpertis when I forewarned you to bee good unto your selfe and not to let these things come upon you all the thanks I had for my paines was this Get thee behinde mee Satan for thou savourest not the things which are of God but the things which bee of men And yet now thou prayest unto thy Father that these things which I advised thee to beware of may not fall upon thee Wherein then I beseech thee did I offend unlesse it were in foreseeing or foretelling that in time it would repent thee of thy forward resolution But admit this Cup whose removall hee now prayes for were more than either the feare or feeling of a naturall death though accompanied with more grievous symptomes than any man before him had either felt or feared was it possible that the horror of it should not bee duely apprehended by him from the time wherein he had resolved to suffer those things which Peter counselled him not to suffer If he were ignorant how dearely his future sufferings would cost him why did hee undertake to make satisfaction for our sinnes by them For to undertake any businesse of greater consequence out of ignorance or out of knowledge in part commendable without due and constant resolution how ever the successe fall out doth alwaies prejudice if not elevate the just esteeme of the undertakers discretion The undertaker in this great businesse of mans Redemption was the Sonne of God whose wisdome no man can too highly estimate whose undertaking for us all men besides himselfe doe esteeme too low Shall wee say then hee was not ignorant of any thing that should befall him yet ignorant of them as man or that hee was ignorant of them in part in part did foreknow them Surely as hee was God hee did know all things before they were before they could have any title to actuall being For infinite knowledge such is the knowledge of the Deity and of every Person in it can neither be ignorant or nescient of any thing whether future present or past or of any thing possible to have been or possible to be either for the present or future If the least degree of knowledge of any thing past present or future could accrue or result de novo unto the Divine nature either in it selfe or in any person in it whether ab extra from occurrences which happen in the revolution of time or from the supposed determination of his owne will from eternity we should hence be enforced to deny that the wisdome or knowledge of the Divine nature or of any Person in it were absolutely infinite For that unto which any thing can accrue or bee added is not truely infinite for the present or in it selfe can be no otherwise infinite than by succession or by addition of somewhat to it besides it selfe If it were true which some avouch that God doth not or rather cannot foreknow contingents future otherwise than by the determination of his owne will this supposed determination of his will being indeed but a fancy or transformation of his will to the similitude of ours doth make his knowledge absolutely infinite being of it selfe onely capable of true infinity by this addition 5. That God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost is of wisdome and knowledge truely infinite not by occurrences ab extra from the Creation but in himselfe I firmely beleeve As for the manner how hee doth know or foreknow things future contingents especially is a point which I could wish were not at all or more sparingly disputed as being assured that this point of all others now questioned cannot possibly be determined by any man or Angel unlesse he be every way as wise as God or somewhat wiser God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost I verily beleeve did more perfectly know the degrees and qualities of all the suffrings of our Saviour in the flesh than he himself as man did either know or foreknow them Yet did not the Divine nature or any Divine person as Divine know them by experience or painefull feeling as the man CHRIST JESUS did but by a knowledge as supereminent to the knowledge of sense or humane reason as the Divine nature is to the nature humane or as ubiquitary being or immensity is to circumscriptive or locall presence The Divine nature whether wee consider it in the Person of the Father Sonne or Holy Ghost could learne nothing which they knew not before by the sufferings of the Sonne yet the Son himselfe as man did learne obedience by the things which hee suffered in the flesh Whatsoever may be thought or said of other knowledge communicated to the man CHRIST JESUS by the vertue of the Personall union yet his sensible or experimentall knowledge as of pains and sorrow whether incident to body onely or to both body and soule was not from his cradle infinite was not so compleat at his baptisme as at his last Supper nor then so exact as in the garden or upon the Crosse it was A growth or increase in this kinde of knowledge is granted by such of the Schoolemen as did not know or consider what it was for the Sonne of God to be in the forme of a servant but tooke this to bee all one as to bee in the forme of a mortall man But such as duely consider his peculiar estate or condition whilest he was in the forme of a servant will easily conceive his voluntary renouncing that full measure of knowledge which hee now hath as man and his obedient submission of his manhood unto the feeling of our infirmities to haue been a necessary part or rather the very depth of that humiliation or exaninition of himselfe whereof the Apostle speakes For it is one speciall good quality of a servant not perfectly to know his errand not to be too inquisitive after the particular contents of it before hee be sent but to expect instructions from him that sent him though it be in an Ambassage 6. If wee take it then as granted that our Saviour as man did from his infancy most clearly foresee or distinctly know that hee was to redeeme mankinde by tasting the bitter cup of death for them it will not
to the preamble which our Saviour used before the full ingruence or paroxysme of his Agony Abba Father all things are possible to thee take away this Cup from mee c. No man doubts but that his Father was able to save him from dissolution of body and soule that is from death it selfe whether it had come by course of nature or by violence But from this death it is plaine he did not save him Of this cup or kinde of death he tasted to the full in the utmost extremity upon the Crosse How then is it true which S. Paul in the forecited place addeth that after hee offered up prayers with strong crying and teares hee was heard in that hee feared Or as others reade for his piety Whether reading we follow this or that the just importance of our Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thus much at least that hee was delivered from that which hee so much feared though with a pious feare for out of such a feare hee offered up his prayers with strong crying and teares The Cup then which hee so earnestly prayed might passe from him was not the cup of violent death simply considered nor as accompanied with all the indignities done unto him by the Jewes Romanes and others the very next day For what then did hee at this time so earnestly pray for speedy release or deliverance from the heavinesse of soule or anguish of spirit which now had suddenly seized upon him The very first draught of this Cup had cast him into a bloody sweat and had hee been enforced to have taken a second or third deepe draught of it or if his present anguish had been for some few houres continued hee had prevented the cruell tortures of the Crosse and the indignities done unto his person by the Jews or Roman Souldiers This was that Cup which Peter counselled him not to taste of for whose removall hee never prayed as being fully resolved to pledge the utmost extremity of their malice with a farre greater measure of patience And for this reason when Peter drew his sword for his rescous as he intended he checks him againe as he had done Matth. 16.23 Put up thy sword into the sheath the Cup which my Father gives mee shall I not drink it Ioh. 18.11 But that cup which he so earnestly did pray might passe from him did certainely vanish with his Agony and his Agony did endure no longer than he offered up his supplications and prayers about the space of an houre There remained no signe or symptome of it after the Traitor had delivered him up into his enemies hands Or if wee ponderate S. Lukes relation of his Agony aright his prayers were heard upon the first or second uttering of them Seeing ease or deliverance from the ingruence of paines is all that they pressed for the present desires it is all one whether the burthen bee lessened or his strength to beare it be increased His ease and comfort is either way the same Admit then the heavy burthen laid upon the Sonne of God in the dayes of his flesh had continued the same or perhaps increased from his first entring into the garden yet his prayers were heard in that an Angel was sent whether to strengthen him or to comfort him Luke 22.43 The word in the Originall is often used for such internall strength as men recover by some comfortable refection when they are faint for want of meat or by gathering their spirits after they have been dissipated or dejected by sudden feare or amazement It would perhaps be accompted impertinent to make inquiry what Angell it was which was sent to comfort or strengthen the Sonne of God in that extremity of his Agony Yet many of the Ancients and of moderne Interpreters not a few are of opinion that it was the same Angel which did annunciate his birth and conception and that was the Angel Gabriel Who though perhaps hee did not take his name from his foreseene deputation to his function yet did hee never brook it better in any former acts of his ministery then in the performance of this present service His name imports as much as the strength of God and at this time hee strengtheneth the man CHRIST JESUS who then was and now is the Sonne of God as truely God as man Now if he who was the Sonne of God did receive strength or comfort from an Angel it is no paradox or soloecisme to say that hee learned obedience by the things which he suffered or that these present sufferings were unknowen to him as man untill he felt them For no reason can be to my apprehension conceived why hee who was the Sonne of God might not be capable of some growth in knowledge experimentall especially as well as in bodily quantity or strength of body Concerning the nature and quality of those sufferings wherein hee was strengthened or comforted by an Angel as whether they were naturall or supernaturall or if supernaturall whether they were the very paines of Hell or such as wee should have suffered without his satisfaction cannot be inferred either from the unusuall forme of his prayers uttered with strong cries or from his gesture in the garden 9. Some there be who take his bloody sweat in that grievous Agony to be a symptome of infernall paines But from what grounds either in Philosophy or Divinity I know nor If the paines of Hell or hellish paines so some distinguish be procured by the fire of Hell bee that materiall or immateriall bloody sweat can bee no probable effect of the one or other fire Nor is such sweat any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or demonstrative signe of paines more grievous than may bee inflicted by agents or suffered by patients meerely naturall For however in colder Countries bloody sweats bee as rare in mens bodies as showres of blood in the aire yet as a good Philosopher hath long agoe observed to sweat blood is not unusuall to Italians yet usuall onely as I take it to men of that Climate in some peculiar diseases The most remarkable instance which I have read of bloody sweat in a man not opprest with any disease is of a Captaine an Italian if I mistake not who being surprized by the subtilty of his Enemy whom hee had trusted too farre upon a tryste of Parly and thereby inforced either to yeeld up the Fort which he had stoutly maintained or otherwise to be presently hanged the consideration of this perplexity wherewith through his owne folly hee had intangled himselfe did make such deepe impression into his generous spirits that it squeez'd blood out of his veines Our Saviour no doubt as man had a more full apprehension of all the malicious disgraces and cruel indignities which his enemies could put upon him than this Captaine had The measure of his bodily sufferings and personall wrongs were in number farre more and for quality farre more grievous than ever were intended to this Captaine or to
nature and will before it was sacrificed and whilst it was sacrificed was more obedient to his Fathers will than our first Parents senses or affections in their integrity were unto their reasonable soules When hee commeth into the world as our Apostle interprets the Psalmist he saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared or fitted for mee In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hadst no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to doe thy will O God This will of God accomplished through the sacrifice of his Sonne was that will of God by which we are sanctified and if sanctified then justified yet not justified without satisfaction before made Of the full meaning of this place and of the true reconciliation of the Seventy Interpreters whom the Apostle followes with the Psalmist or the Originall by Gods grace hereafter Thus much is pertinent to our present purpose that the body which the Sonne of God assumed to do that will of his Father which could not bee accomplished by any other sacrifices though numberlesse and endlesse was a body fitted for all kindes of calamities and crosses which are incident unto mortality a body more capable of paine or deeper impressions from the violent occurrences of all externalls which are naturall than any other mans body was or had been A body as it were moulded and organized of purpose to bee animated or actuated with the spirit of obedience and all manner of patience in suffering which can bee required in a faithfull servant Servants saith S. Peter bee obedient c. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully CHRIST JESUS who was the paterne of all obedience required in servants not onely whilest he was to deale with malicious unreasonable men but in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Agony when his heart within him was become like melting waxe through the vehemencie of that fiery triall did set the fairest copie of that obedience which S. Peter requires should bee taken out how rudely soever by every servant of God under his owne hand Even in this Agony when his mortall spirits did faint and languish the spirit of obedience was much stronger in him than the pulse of paine and sorow It did not intermit or abate when his paines and anguish did increase Being in Agony saith S. Luke hee prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 These words I referre if not to the third yet certainely to the second paroxysme of his Agony one or more of which fits did wring blood from his sacred body being otherwise full of health But most probable it is from S. Lukes relation Chap. 22. ver 44. that hee sweat blood both in the first and second fit and that in all the three hee delivered his supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kneeling or falling upon the ground The forme of his prayer and maner of deportment in it as was said before exhibite a true document or demonstrative argument that besides his Divine will hee had a will truely humane a reasonable will in that hee did desire or deprecate the removall or asswagement of his present sufferings with greater fervency of spirit and devotion than any sonnes of Adam could deprecate the paines of Hell if they should be beset with them or feele their approach And yet withall hee wholly submits his humane body soule and will unto his heavenly Fathers will who by his consent had free power to dispose of them in life and death as hee pleased Out of this fervent spirit of obedience consecrated unto Gods service by his most devout prayers he was delivered from the paines and terrors which he both feared and felt in the garden 5. As for his sacrifice upon the Crosse albeit we subduct the worth of it in it selfe considered which infinitely exceeds the worth of all other sacrifices it was most properly and most really the sacrifice of a broken heart or contrite spirit For after his naturall strength was spent and his bodily spirits diffused with his blood hee lastly offers up his immortall spirit his very soule unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost Luk. 23.46 The spirit of obedience did not expire with bodily spirits it did accompany his soule into Paradise it was not put off with the forme of a servant but cloathed upon with glory and immortality Shall wee yet doubt whether the sacrifice upon the Crosse being offered out of such unexpressible obedience were fully sufficient to make abundant satisfaction for all our disobediences albeit wee should subduct his obedience and patience in that grievous Agony in the garden 6. If any man bee disposed to move further doubt about this point the Apostles authority or rather his reason will put the point out of question Heb. 9.11 12 13 14. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the blood of goats and calues but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleane sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The forme and maner of his dispute in this passage as in most others throughout this Epistle is allegoricall but allegories in true Theologie alwayes include arguments of proportion and are as firme as any Geometricall or Mathematicall demonstration The termes of proportion in this argument are especially foure First sinnes meerely ceremoniall that is such errors and escapes as are evill because forbidden not evill in themselves The second the remedy appointed for such sinnes and that was the blood of bulls and goats c. The third sinnes properly so called that is all offences or trespasses against the Law of nature or against the Law of God Things not evill onely because forbidden but rather forbidden because evill in their owne nature The fourth terme is the antidote or preservative against such sinnes as in their nature poison our soules and this soveraigne preservative is onely the blood of Christ The Apostle takes it for granted that the sacrifice of bulls and goats were sufficient to make satisfaction for sinnes merely ceremoniall and the blood available so farre to sanctifie the parties offending against the Law of Ceremonies as that they might be admitted into the Congregation or stand recti in curia after the sacrifice was once offered Of this purification concerning the flesh by the blood of such sacrifices that which the Romanists say of the Sacraments of the new Testament might bee more
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknowne sufferings Such I take it as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come in which the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible for this being granted the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste a draught of the second death unto which no man is subject before he die the first death nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living or after death This error it seemes hath surprized some otherwaies good Divines through incogitancie or want of skill in Philosophie For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy the nature quality or measure of paines must bee taken not so much from the force or violence of the Agent as from the condition or temper of the Patient Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead nor the same upon greene wood which it hath on dry Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body and of strong bones and another sickly crasie or wounded the paines though issuing from the equality of the blowes would be most unequall That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all might drive the other into the very pangs of death Goliath did looke as big did speake as roughly and every way behave himselfe as sternly against little David as hee had against Saul and the whole hoast of Israel Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible did make no such impression of terrour upon David as it had done upon Saul and the stoutest Champions in his hoast And the reason why it did not was because David was armed with the shield of faith and confidence in the Lord his God a secret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides But a farre greater then Goliath associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast both for number and strength than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make more maliciously bent against the whole race of Adam than the Philistines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham was now in field And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre greater than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us For if all mankinde from the East unto the West which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time or shall continue unto all future generations had been then mustred together all of us would have fled more swiftly and more confusedly from the sight or presence of this great Champion for the powers of darknesse than the hoast of Israel did from the Champion of the Philistines when hee bid a defiance unto them All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter been committed alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath No If wee stretch the similitude thus farre wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse whether in the garden or upon the Crosse was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath or Israel over the Philistines David was Master of the field sine sanguine sudore multo without blood or much sweat The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods people had suffered As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But all this and much more being granted will not inferre that he suffered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines poenas infernales aut poenas inferorum such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could against the promised womans seed that is the manhood of the Sonne of God yet seeing as the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne not imputed but inherent it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule in whom there was neither seed nor relique neither root or branch of sinne Or againe admit hell fire whether materiall or immateriall be of a more violent and malignant quality than any materiall fire which we know in what subject soever it bee seated is and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture which they are enabled or permitted to use yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body whereon this fire could feed no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish or such as the damned suffer For these are supernaturall or more than so not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them but in respect of the Subject which endures them Satan findes alwayes some thing in them which he armes against them some inherent internall corruption which hee exasperates to greater malignity than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him 4. In respect of Divine justice or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan and vanquish him by suffering evills even all the evills incident to our mortall nature There was no necessity no congruity that the Sonne of God should vanquish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments These properly taken or when they are suffered in
lived here on earth No type at all not so much as a shadow of Christs humilitie and patience in all his sufferings but rather a foile by his impatience to set a lustre upon the unparalleld meeknesse of this true Nazarite of God by an Antiperistasis Sampsons last prayers unto the God of his strength were that he would give him power at the houre of his death to be revenged on his Enemies for the losse of his eyes Jesus of Nazareth the true Nazarite of God when he came unto the crosse on Mount Calvarie the stage and theatre for his enemies sport and triumph over him in this solemne feast prayes heartily even for those that hoodwinckt him and bid him prophecy saying Who was it that smote thee And for the Roman Souldiers which were the Executioners of their malicious merriment he prayes for both in such a sweet and heavenly manner as no Prophet had ever done for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they doe He did not so much as either lift up hand or voice or conceive any secret prayer against one or other of his persecutors during the time of his lingring but deadly paines as knowing this was the time wherein his body was to be made as an anvile that he might doe the will of his Father by the Sacrifice of himself and sufferance of all other indignities more bitter to a meere man than twenty deaths though of the crosse The effect or purpose of Gods will in this sacrifice as our Apostle instructs us was our Sanctification But the will of God which he was now to doe was his will passively taken to wit for the body of CHRIST offered up once for all as our Apostle interprets the meaning of the Author or rather of the Holy Ghost who did inspire the Author of the fortieth Psalme with the spirit of Prophecie 2. As in perusing many other Psalmes so in this I cannot but bewaile the negligence of most Interpreters as well ancient as moderne for not inquiring more accurately after the Authour but especially the historicall occasions of composing it I had many yeares agoe sundry probable notions or conjectures that this Psalme though inscribed a Psalme of David or revealed to David for this inscription will well beare both senses as some other Psalmes which have the same Inscription were if wee may beleeve good Authors penned or paraphrased upon by Ieremiah for the peoples use in the Babylonish captivity But these conjectures and the perusall of such notes as I had then gathered concerning the Author of this Psalme I now wave or rather altogether omit But whether the Author of this Psalme suppose David did act his owne part as having some speciall Cōmission from the Lord to instruct the people that to doe Gods will in some peculiar service then required was better then sacrifice much better then burnt offering or whether he spake this divine vision or rapture in the person of the Messias alone this however is most certain that the 6 7 8. verses of that 40. Psalme do containe a concludent Prophecie of the abolition of legall sacrifices by the sacrifice of Christs body The argument or demonstration is most divinely gathered and irrefragably prest home to this purpose by our Apostle Heb. 10. from the 4. verse to the 11. It is not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sinnes Wherefore when hee commeth into the world hee saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared mee in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Loe I come In the volume of the booke it is written of mee to doe thy will O God Above when he said Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sinne thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the Law then said hee Loe I come to doe thy will O God hee taketh away the first that hee may establish the second By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of JESUS CHRIST once for all 3. The onely difficulty about the reconciliation of the Psalmist in the originall and the Translation of the Seuenty which the Apostle follows Heb. 10. and his approbation of it makes it to mee in this particular altogether as Authentick as the Hebrew or a better expression of it then moderne Interpreters without him could make The resolution of this difficulty will much depend upon the literall meaning or importance of the Hebrew phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Latine Interpreters render it thus aures perfodisti mihi others aures perforasti mihi others aures aperuisti mihi thou hast digged through boared or opened my eares And some of these conceit an allusion in the literall sense to the legall custome of boaring the eares of such as were content to continue perpetuall servants to their present Masters and not use the priviledge of the yeare of Iubilee But this conjecture is rejected by many moderne Writers and in particular to my remembrance by Pineda Aures perfodere saith the Tigurine Note upon this place symbolicâ oratione est in servitutem mancipare as much as to make one a perpetuall servant This Interpretation I take supposeth the former allusion to such as were made perpetuall servants by boring their eares But our Saviour although for a time hee tooke the forme of a servant upon him and was qualified for the performance of the hardest part of this service by opening the eare yet was he not made nor did hee become a perpetuall servant but shortly after to bee made both Lord and CHRIST 4. Ribera who doubtlesse had read very many and with great judgement saith Of all the Interpreters which hee had perused Genebrard comes neerest to the meaning of the Holy Ghost To exhibite Genebrards Interpretation in his owne words Aures mihi aperuisti id est corpus per Synecdochen e Paulo Heb. 10. Mihi aptasti corpus humanum in vtero virgineo Rabbini non satis perceptâ metaphorâ Aures fodisti sive aperuisti mihi ad tuae obtemperandum voluntati aurem revelasti retexisti ab aure abstulisti velum tegmen ut acutiùs audiret Effecisti ut te audirem ac tuae voluntati libens parêrem Me docilem obsequentem ad audiendum reddidisti Chald. Aures ad auscultanda tua praecepta formasti mihi Nostris congruenter Quia enim agitur de corporatione sive incarnatione Domini est metaphora simul Synecdoche ad quorum troporum difficultatem explanandam Apostolus appositissimè posuit Corpus aptasti mihi Est enim primùm metaphora a figulis qui manu fodicant ducunt argillam e quâ cupiunt vas aptare currente rota Quare Deus figulus fictor plastes nuncupatur ut alludatur ad Genes 2. quando ex humo humanum corpus duxit Est deinde Synecdoche pars pro toto aures
pro corpore Sed aurium praesertim meminit quia de obedientia agebatur The sum of his exposition is that the Psalmists meaning is most Elegātly exprest by the Apostle if we admit of a Synecdoche in the Psalmist and a Metaphor both in the Psalmist and Evangelist The Metaphor aures perfodisti is borrowed from the Potter who first works or kneads the clay or earth whereof he makes his vessell as if perfodere were as much as fodicare And so God who is stiled the former or fashioner of al things did work or frame the body of Christ in his mothers wombe as he had done the first mans body of red earth or clay The Synecdoche consists in this that he mentioneth the eare for the whole body for though the whole body were so formed by GOD yet the Psalmist maketh mention onely of the eare because hee treateth there of obedience 5. What further improvement of Genebrard his expression either Ribera or others of that Church whereof they were members have made I leave it to the diligent Readers further enquiry Genebrards expression in his own words is somewhat fuller then that which Iunius hath in his parallel betweene the Apostle and this Psalmist but neither any whit dissonant from the other If either of them or Ribera had diligently read some Writers of Reformed Churches their Ancients in time upon the 10. of the Hebrews any one of them might have spoken more fully and punctually to the question then all of them doe For if wee take it as granted which the Tigurine note upon the forecited fortieth Psalme imports to wit that to open the eare is a speech symbolicall the symbolicall sense of it is best expressed by the Prophet Isaiah in that portion of Scripture which was appointed by the ancient Catholique Church and retained by our Orthodoxall English for the Epistle on Tuesday in hebdomade sancta or weeke before Easter The exegeticall exposition of the Hebrew to open the eares made by the Prophet implies a qualification or rather consecration of the whole body for suffering all maner of grievances that could bee inflicted upon it and that this qualification was to be wrought by the eare as it is the sense of discipline whether active or passive whether of understanding or of patience in suffering Nor are the Seventy Interpreters in this point to bee blamed especially the Translation being so well approved by our Apostle Heb. 10. for their variation in words from the Hebrew but rather to be admired for their divine expression of the intent and meaning of the Holy Ghost as well in the fortieth Psalme as in the tenth to the Hebrews The Psalmist doubtlesse did foretell and the Prophet Isaiah did perhaps both foretel and forepicture the indignities done unto our Saviours body in the high Priests Hall by the Jews and in the Common hall or Sessions house by the Roman Souldiers and upon the Crosse by both This Prophet more particularly foretold his undaunted patience and resolution in suffering whatsoever they did or could inflict upon him To parallel the Prophet with the Evangelists the Prophets words are these The Lord God hath opened mine eares aperuit aures not aures perfodit or perforavit and I was not rebellious neither turned away back I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off my haire I hid not my face from shame and spitting For the Lord God will help mee therefore shall I not bee confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not bee ashamed Hee is neere that justifieth me who will contend with me Let us stand together who is mine adversary let him come neere to me Behold the Lord God will help mee who is hee that shall condemne mee Loe they all shall wax old as doth a garment the moth shall eat them up Isaiah 50.5 6 c. This resolution or undaunted patience which is the effect or consequence of opening the eare doth fully import corpus aptatum not an humane body onely framed or fashioned in the womb as Christs was but a body qualified or fitted by the discipline of the eare for all maner of sufferings as the body of a servant to doe his Masters will though by suffering the most cruell death or torture that could bee inflicted upon him And such was the body of Christ wherein he executed that part of his Father will by which we are sanctified once for all But the circumstances precedent and subsequent to the Propheticall passages will occasion the attentive Reader to dispute with himself at least to move the like question to that which the Eunuch proposed to Philip as whether hee spoke all this onely in the person of Christ or respectively both of Christ and of himselfe That the Prophet when he composed that divine passage had an explicite prevision of the indignities which should be done unto his Lord and of his admirable resolution to suffer them with inimitable patience there is no question but as hath been oftentime observed before the spirit of the most Evangelicall Prophets of which ranke Isaiah was a speciall one were usually elevated unto raptures or previsions of our Saviours sufferings by their owne like sufferings They had not onely a cleare foresight but a true feeling of them though in a farre lesse measure and lower degree then Christ himselfe had Yee stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares saith St. Steven yee doe alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your fathers did so due yee Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the comming of the just one of whom yee have been now the betrayers and murderers Acts 6.51 52. If these later Jews did to our Saviour CHRIST as their fathers had done to the Prophets his forerunners then the Prophets did suffer the like indignities of the former generation as Christ did of the latter They were not onely forerunners or foretellers of him but types or shadows of him in all his sufferings No Prophet was more cruelly dealt with then the Prophet Isaiah None did partake more deepely of the royall Sonne of Davids affliction then this Propheticall sonne of David for Isaiah was of the royall blood a neere kinsman to wicked Manasses who caused him to be sawed to death if we may beleeve Ecclesiasticall Stories 6. Isaiah in the beginning of this 50. Chapter brings in the Lord thus debating with the unbeleeving rebellious people of his time Where is the bill of your Mothers divorcement whom I have put away Or which of my Creditors is it to whom I have sold you Behold for your iniquities have you sold your selves and for your transgressions is your Mother put away Wherefore when I came was there no man When I called was there none to answer Is my hand shortned at all that it cannot redeeme Or have I no power to deliver Behold at my rebuke I dry
hath glorified his Sonne JESUS whom ye delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilat when he determined to let him goe But ye denyed the holy One and the lust and desired a Murderer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of life whom God hath raised up from the dead c. In this preposterous and sacrilegious choise they did the Devill a more peculiar and more immediate service then their Idolatrous forefathers had ever done either in adoring the brazen Serpent which was the most perverse Idolatry that ever they committed or in sacrificing their sons daughters to the infernall spirits In those services they declare themselves to be servants to Devils In this sinister choise they prove themselves to be the Devils own sonnes and exactly fulfill our Saviours prophecy or discovery of their inclinations before they themselves did know them For when Jesus had told such Jews as did in a sort beleeve on him that they were servants to sinne and could not be made free but by the Sonne who abideth in the house for ever they cholerickly reply that they were the sonnes of Abraham Our Saviour rejoynes Yee are of your Father the Devill and the lusts of your Father you will doe hee was a murtherer from the beginning Iohn 8.30 c. and the 44. And so they now desire Barabbas one whose name imports the sonne of their father and by quality the sonne of the Devill an infamous murderer to be delivered unto them in memory of their deliverance out of Egypt and importunately sollicite the murder of the Sonne of God of that very God who had delivered them out of Egypt who spake to Moses in Mount Sinai that Lord God unto whom Ioshua and all the Judges that succeeded him were but Generals in the time of warre unto whom in time of peace or counsaile for direction of publick affaires the best of the Priests and Prophets unto the dayes of Samuel were but Deputies For the Lord God of Israel all that time was their immediat and proper King Governors and Deputies they had successively many but none endued with royall Authority besides him No matter of consequence whether of warre or peace was undertaken by their Governors without speciall revelation or answer from him by Vrim and Thummim untill Samuels old age Then all the Elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah and said unto him Behold thou art old and thy sonnes walk not in thy wayes now make us a King to judge us like all the Nations But the thing displeased Samuel when they said give us a King to judge us and Samuel prayed unto the Lord 1. Sam. 8.4 5. This unseasonable ill aboding desire did displease the Lord unto whom they prayed as much as it did Samuel And yet so far is he from forcing obedience by irresistible coaction that hee perswades Samuel to descend to their importunat suit but first to make protestation against it Now therefore hearken to their voice howbeit yet protest solemnely unto them and shew the manner of the King that shall raigne over them ver 9. This protestation against their petition and his patheticall forewarning of them what hard usage they should find under the King whom they would choose are set down at full from the 10. of this Chap. unto the 19. Neverthelesse the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said Nay but we will have a King to rule over us that we may be like all Nations and that our King may judge us and goe out before us and fight our battels And so after Samuel had rehearsed their resolution in the eares of the Lord their present King notwithstanding the protestation and their forewarning concerning their future Kings manner of government they are permitted for the hardnesse of their hearts to goe to a free Election of a new King Yet the calamities and oppressions which Samuel forewarnes would follow upon this their not approved Election was scarce so much as verified in the daies of Saul of David or Solomon never exactly fulfilled by any King of their owne nomination or by any King imposed upon them untill they solemnely and openly disclaime their Native King that very God whom Samuel in all this businesse had consulted and cryed We have no King but Caesar After this nomination of Caesar for their King whatsoever calamities foretold by Samuel were in any part verified by their owne unruly Kings were most exactly accomplisht by the race of Caesars unto whom they solemnely dedicated that allegiance which was due to Iesus their ancient Lord and King At the same time and not before were the words of the Lord unto Samuel Chap. 8.7 8. exactly fulfilled The Lord said unto Samuel hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not raigne over them According to all the works which they have done since I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods so do they also unto thee But of the fulfilling of this prophecy both according to the literall sense and prefigurations or matter of fact and how the Priests and Scribes with their projects against our Saviour did bring Iacobs dying curse or ominous predictions against Simeon and Levi upon themselves and their posterity more hath been said in the Commentaries of the first Book of the Creed then I now exactly remember more at least then I will trouble the Reader with a repetition of what he may find there published CHAP. XXVII Of such repentance as Judas found of his casting downe the thirty pieces of silver in the Temple and of the difficulties or varietie of opinions by which of the Prophets it was foretold 1 ONe historicall relation concerning Iudas and his fearefull end there is which is by S. Matthew who of all the foure Evangelists citeth the testimonie of the Prophecie wherein part of it was foretold left somewhat ambiguous for the circumstances of time wherein it happened Some perhaps would at the first sight conceive from St. Matthews words that Iudas did cast downe the hire of his treason in the Temple immediatly after the chief Priests and Elders had bound our Saviour and led him to Pontius Pilat the Governour But if wee consider other circumstances of time related by S. Iohn and S. Luke it is farre more probable that Iudas was not touched with sorrow or grief whether of mind or of body or of both untill our Saviour was sentenced to the death of the Crosse by Pontius Pilat For the first thing which the chief Priests and Elders did after they themselves had past sentence on our Saviour was the delivery of him to the Secular power and their importunat sollicitation of Pilat to put their sentence in execution It was a memorable document of deadly hypocrisie in the Priests and Elders that
exclamation Whether he first said I am a thirst and then cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken mee Or first cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and then said I am athirst I will not dispute because I cannot determine The later of the two seemeth to mee more probable However neither his speech nor exclamation intimate any touch of impatience much lesse of despaire but onely a desire to give the world notice that this 22. Psalme was specially meant of him and that all which was meant of him concerning his humiliation or indignities done unto him upon the Crosse were now fulfilled and that there remained one or two sayings of the same or some other Psalmist to bee fulfilled before his death especially by receiving the vinegar For when hee had received it saith S Iohn he said Consummatum est It is finished as if he had said Now my sufferings and indignities are at an end Yet besides the bodily thirst wherewith hee was at the ninth houre more deepely touched then with hunger in the wildernesse there was a thirsty desire of his soule to be dissolved from the body and to be with his Father And in this his last extremity that other complaint of David was most exactly fulfilled I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soule thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Heare mee speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that goe downe into the pit I remember the dayes of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on all the works of thy hands Psalm 143.6 7. David was delivered from the pit which he feared but our Saviour was speedily heard for that he prayed which was that his body might goe unto the grave and his soule and spirit unto his Father And albeit S. Iohn instructeth us that after he had received the vinegar and said It is finished he gave up the Ghost Yet S. Matthew and S. Mark tell us that hee cried againe with a loud voice and so gave up the Ghost The articulation of this loud voice or cry is registred onely by S. Luke 23.46 And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice hee said Father into thine hands I commend my spirit And having said thus hee gave up the Ghost And in this cry or speech another Scripture or prayer of David was exactly fulfilled Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength Into thine hands I commend my Spirit Psalm 31.4 5. But how was this fulfilled in him Surely as the Prophet or the Holy Ghost by whom hee spake did meane it How then was it meant of him Not meerely Prophetically but typically of the Psalmist and more really and punctually of him The Psalmist in his owne person or as acting his owne part did commend his Spirit to God his Redeemer in hope to be redeemed from death or danger of body intended against him The Redeemer of Mankind using the same words desired bodily death or dissolution of body and soule commending his soule or spirit by a dying wish into his Fathers hands 9. The 143. Psalme as the inscription of the Septuagint informeth us was composed by David when his Sonne Absalom with his complices did pursue him and the sixth verse I stretch out my hands c. is signed with a Selah a note or character as I take it not of musick onely but of some greater mystery to be fulfilled The mysterie in this particular was this that as David after hee had in his owne person prayed for deliverance and was heard so was the Sonne of David instantly after hee had received the vinegar delivered from the torments of death or bodily paines When Iesus therefore had received the vinegar saith S. Iohn hee said It is finished and hee bowed his head and gave up the Ghost 19.30 If we consider either the 143. Psalme or the 31. as literally meant of David there is no intimation of any distraction of mind in him much lesse was there any inclination to any distraction discontent or distrust in JESUS the Sonne of GOD in whom whatsoever was commendably acted by David in his distresse was most punctually and exquisitely fulfilled of this our blessed Saviour in all his sufferings His memory was most fresh and his patience most remarkable when his mortall spirits were expiring 10. That ejaculation Psalm 31.6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit was saith Maldonat meant of Christ in another sense then it was of David rather fulfilled of Christ in a more exquisite sense then it had been verified of David David according to the literall and historicall sense being in distresse commends the tuition or safety of his soule unto God directing his prayer for speedy deliverance from that bodily danger wherewith hee was beset unto Adonai Iehova unto the Lord of truth or the Lord God his Redeemer Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength c. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord of truth Psal 31.4 5. The Lord God Redeemer of mankind directs his prayer unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit after hee had suffered all the disgraces paines and tortures whereof any mortall body was ever capable This delivery or surrender of his life and soule vivâ voce at the very moment or point of death into his Fathers hands did move the heathen Centurion to say Of a truth this man was the Son of God Mar. 15.39 When the Centurion saith S. Luke saw what was done he glorified God saying Certainely this was a righteous man Luk. 23.47 This is in effect the very same which S. Mark saith For in that the Centurion did acknowledge him for a righteous man he did necessarily in his heart acknowledge him to bee the Sonne of God because hee had so profest of himself That righteousnesse which the Centurion ascribeth unto him was the truth of his confession before Pilat when hee was examined upon this interrogatory Art thou then the Sonne of God now more fully proved and declared unto the world by the strange maner of his death 11. The confession of this heathen man was more Christian then the questions which some Schoolemen have moved upon the delivery of his soule vivâ voce into his Fathers hands For so some have questioned whether he were homicida sui or made away himself by actuall dissolution of his soule from his body before the violence and cruelty of the tortures whereto his Enemies put him could by course of nature work this divorce Surely if hee did any way prevent the death intended against him by the Jews or shortned his owne naturall life though but for a moment they had not been so true and proper murderers of him as the Apostle intimateth and we Christians beleeve they were For albeit Abimelech had received a deadly incurable wound by the
was to be broken Exodus 12.46 Numb 9.12 Nor should that which David spake of himself but of himself as he was the type of Christ when he was in some perill of breaking his leggs or armes or some better joynts have found its accomplishment in the circumstance of our Saviours death These things were done saith S. Iohn that the Scripture might be fulfilled A bone of him shall not be broken Iohn 19.36 This allegation of S. Iohn if my observation faile not referrs as literally and properly to that saying of David Psal 34.20 when he was driven by Saul into the cave of Adullam as unto the rite of the Paschal Lamb before cited He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken This was not a meere historicall narration but a speech typically propheticall that is first verifyed of David and afterwards to be more exactly accomplished in the Son of David Of the same rank was that which followeth Evill shall stay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate The Lord redeemeth the soule of his Servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate verse 21 22. The truth of this observation was never so punctually proved or exemplifyed as in the death of the two Malefactors which were crucifyed with our Saviour Though neither of them had any interest in the former promise He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken yet the soule of the one who trusted in the Lord was instantly redeemed and taken up into Paradise by him the soule of the other which did hate and revile him was to say no worse left desolate 8. Again the law concerning the taking down of such as were hanged on a tree though not strangled before the night went over them had not been accomplished in our Saviour unlesse the day wherein he dyed had been the preparation to the great Sabbath For it was not the zeale of the Jews unto the due observation of this law but feare of polluting this great Sabbath which mooved them to become petitioners unto Pilat that the bodies of all that were then crucifyed might be taken downe and carryed away before the beginning of the Sabbath which was in the twilight following The law which out of this feare they occasioned to be observed and fulfilled is extant Deuteron 21.22 23. And if a man have committed a sinne worthy of death and be be to be put to death and thou hang him on a tree his body shall not remaine upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance That this law had a speciall reference or pre-aspect unto our Saviours death upon the crosse S. Paul hath taught us Galat. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Lastly however the Centurion and the Souldiers apprehended no necessity of breaking our Saviours legs as being perswaded that he had been a good while dead and fit to be buryed Yet one of them to make all as we say sure pierced his side while he was yet hanging upon the crosse with a speare striking him as by the posture of his body is probable under the short ribbs through his very heart otherwise he might have broken one or more of his bones And this as S. Iohn instructs us was done that another Scripture might be fulfilled And they shall look on him whom they have pierced Iohn 19.37 The prophecy which by this accident was exactly fulfilled we have Zachar. 12.8 9 c. In that day shall the Lord defend the Inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angell of the Lord before them And it shall come to passe in that day that I will seek to destroy all the Nations that come against Ierusalem And I will poure upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the Spirit of Grace and supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne c. 9. This sacred passage lieth punctually under that line or rule for interpreting sacred oracles which in these commentaries hath been oft heretofore mentioned that is it is a passage which cannot be literally verifyed of any person besides God himself nor could it have been fulfilled in God himself otherwise then as he was incarnate made subject to death and violent percussion after death But whether this passage either according to the literall sense of the Prophet or to the intention of S. Iohn in avouching the fulfilling of it amount to any more then hath been said or in particular to inferre that reall communication of properties between the divine and humane nature of Christ which some of the most learned in the Lutheran Church would from this place in speciall presse upon us is a disquisition more proper to the Article of the holy Catholique Church then to this Treatise of the Humiliation of the Sonne of God That humiliation as I conceive did expire with his death or at least when he was taken downe from the crosse after his sacred sides had been so pierced as S. Iohn relates by that rude Roman Souldier whose name by unwritten tradition was Longius but a name as I suppose mistaken for the weapon wherewith he pierced him which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Conclusion of this Treatise IT followeth in the Apostles Creed that he was buried that he descended into hell In what sense soever we take this word buried the historicall truth of it is most punctually recorded by the Evangelists The onely quaere which this article or this part of the article will admit is whether by his buriall we are to understand the interring or depositure of his body in the monument or rather his imbalming by Ioseph or Nicodemus who did accomplish that work which the good woman before his death did foresignify or begin by pouring out that precious ointment on his head This quaere hath been long agoe proposed by some learned men in the French and German Churches who seem to deny the locall descension of his soule into hell either into the place of the damned or into Limbum patrum But this truth they have denyed or questioned with better moderation and discretion then such of our Native English as either have questioned or opposed our Churches meaning in this Article For by his descending into hell these men would have us understand the interring or depositure of his body in the monument or sepulchre wherein no man had been laid before being before imbalmed as the manner of the Iews was to bury Iohn 19 40. But for pleading one way or other