power and steadfast fauour of God for their perpetuall defence and eternall recompence So that in all thinges wee are more then conquerours through him that loued vs and gaue himselfe for vs who will tread downe Satan vnder our feete that God may bee all in all Uerie mightie then is the power of Christes death by whose BLOVD the Saintes OVER COME the greate Dragon that olde Serpent called the Diuell and his ouerthrow prooueth all the enemies of mans saluation to bee vanquished and impediments remooued since he was the first perswader and procurer and is the Prince and ruler of them all We haue seene the power of Christs death in subduing sin and Satan as likewise in ending abolishing the curse of the lawe which obliged man for his vncleannesse and vnrighteousnesse to euerlasting condemnation and find that hee which bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree did in that mortall part which hee tooke of vs crucifie as well the flesh and sinne of man as the curse and death that raigned ouer man and so much hee performed in the bodie of his flesh through death by which hee reconciled vs vnto God to make vs holie and blamelesse in his sight let vs nowe see whether the death of the spirite and the curse of the soule will anie thing helpe the woorke of our redemption or whether the death of Christes bodie doe not more fullie demonstrate the mercies of God and merits of Christ then if the paines of hell had beene ioyned with it And where some men thinke it woulde much commende the TRVTH POVVER and IVSTICE of God and more amplie declare the OBEDIENCE PATIENCE and LOVE of Christ if hee refused not the verie torments of hell for our sakes shunning no part of the burthen that pressed vs I must confesse I am rather of a contrarie minde that the bodilie death of Christ on the crosse doth more plainlie expresse the vertues of God and Christ his sonne then if the terror and horror of hell were therewith coupled And first for the TRVTH of god his threatning Adam in this wise Thou shalt die the death or thou shalt certainely die was truelie performed in the bodie of Christ in the soule of Christ it could not without sinne or damnation neither of which with anie truth can be ascribed vnto Christ. That the mouth of God lied or the soule of Christ died is a choâ—se so hard that I wish all men that haue anie care of Christian religion to refraine either Next touching the POVVER of God the weaker the instrument which God vseth to ouerthrowe his enemies the greater is both his glory and their shame Then for flesh which was the feeblest part of Christ after it was deade and voide of all hope in shew to rise againe into a blessed and heauenlie life and to foile both death and Satan by recouering it selfe into the full possession and all his members into the ioyfull expectation of euerlasting glorie was farre a mightier conquest then for his soule with much adoe at length to escape and resist the assaultes of hell From the depth of hell here on earth manie sinnefull soules haue by grace struggeled and cléered themselues from the graue neuer rose none into an immortall incorruptible life before the flesh of Christ. Déeper in desperation and al other temptations of hel haue others been that yet were saued then anie man dare affirme of Christ déeper in death without corruption then the bodie of Christ neuer was nor euer shall be anie of the sonnes of men It was therefore an harder thing for the bodie of Christ past all sense to rise from death to immortalitie then for his soule voide of sinne and full of grace to repell the force of Satan and yet to repell it sheweth greater power then to suffer it to conquere it sheweth greatest of all But to beare the burden of Gods wrath due to our sinnes and to frée vs from it néeded greater strength they will saie then Christes flesh could haue To support and auert Gods iust indignation from vs the humane bodie or soule of Christ of themselues were not able but the DIGNITIE and VNITIE of his person must be placed in the gap to quench the flame of Gods iust vengeaÌ„ce against our sinnes which was euerlasting destruction both of bodie and soule yet for so much as the sincerity and sanctitie of Christes soule personallie ioyned quickened and blessed with the perpetual vnion communion and fruition of his deitie could feele no want of grace no lacke of spirit no losse of fauour with God in which thinges consist the inwarde death and curse of the soule the wrath of God was executed on the flesh of his sonne which hee tooke of purpose from Adam that the rein he might beare the sinne and curse of Adam and so by his death might satisfie the sentence and pacifie the displeasure of God against our vnrighteousnesse And this is more agréeable to Gods iustice then if Christs soule had suffered the death and curse of the soule For to take life from the soule must be Gods proper and peculiar action No creature can giue the grace or spirit of God to the soule of man which is the life of the soule but onelie God Therefore no creature can take it from the soule but God alone that GIVETH it must TAKE IT AVVAY Since then Christ might suffer nothing iustlie but as the iust for the vniust that is willinglie but vniustlie his death must come by the handes of the wicked who might wrongfullie take his life from him but not touch his soule and not by the immediate hande of GOD who will doe no wrong and can kill the soule I haue sinned saith Iudas in betraying the INNOCENT bloud You denied the HOLIE AND IVST and killed the Lorde of life saith Peter to the Iewes warning them howe great a sinne they had committed in putting Christ to death If hee were an INNOCENT and deserued no punishment if hee were HOLIE and IVST and could not bee persecuted or put to death without haynous impietie and iniurie wee may doe well to remember that the death of his soule had beene a farre greater wrong then the death of his bodie was And therefore if the iustice of God would not farther interpose it selfe in killing his bodie then by deliuering him into the handes of the wicked permitting them to shed his blond which hee woulde accept for the sinnes of the worlde much lesse woulde God with his owne mouth accurse or with his owne hande slea the soule of his sonne whome hee sent to restore and quicken those that were accursed and dead in their sinnes Againe corporallie or temporallie God punisheth one for anothers fault bicause he can recompence them eternally that thereby repent and turne from their sinnes but eternally or spiritually he punisheth no man but for his owne vncleannes either naturally sticking in him or
pono pro ouibus meis I lay down my LIFE for my sheep Diligit me pater quia pono animaÌ„ meaÌ„ vt iteruÌ„ sumaÌ„ eam My father loueth me because I lay downe my life to take it againe And indéed that phrase PONTRE ANIMAM in the Scriptures doth alwaies note a voluntary yeelding of the life which is A LAYING ASIDE OF THE SOVLE for y e loue of others as where Peter saith Ponam animam meaÌ„ pro te he did not meane he would go to hel for his master there was no cause nor néede thereof but I wil lay down MY LIFE for thee And when S. Iohn telleth vs Quoniam ille animaÌ„ suaÌ„ posuit pro nobis nos debemus animas ponere pro fratribus hee doth not charge vs to hazard our soules by sin or hel for others but insomuch as Christ gaue HIS LIFE for vs wee ought to GIVE OVR LIVES for our brethren So that for Christ to LAY ASIDE HIS SOVLE or to POVRE IT OVT VNTO DEATH was not to suffer hell paines for our sakes but to die for our sins al those places are rather coherent theÌ„ dissident to the rest of y e scriptures which I alleaged And yet because the ancient fathers some times saie that Christ gaue his soule for our soules as hee did his flesh for our flesh the scriptures often affirme hee gaue himselfe I will come to the third effect of Christs crosse which is the MIGHTY POVVER OF HIS DEATH and there examine what part of Christ died for our sinnes and howe by his death the guilt of sinne the curse of the lawe the sting of death and the strength of Satan are not onelie weakened and wasted but extinguished and abolished that they shal neuer preuaile against him or his elect That the Sonne of God loued vs gaue himselfe for vs making the purgatioÌ„ of our sinnes in his own person by the sacrifice of himself to put away sinne is a case so cléere that it néed not to be prooued much lesse may be doubted without apparant subuersion of the christian faith but whether Christ suffered the death of the whole man his soule tasting for the time an inwarde and spirituall death in satisfaction of our sinnes as his flesh did an externall corporall dissolution of nature this by some men is questioned in our daies That for our sakes he humbled himself was obedient vnto death euen the death of y e crosse is out of al doubt the Euangelists describe the maner of his death the apostles the cause to wit the REDEMPTION of our sins the CONFIRMATION of the new testament the RECONCILIATION of man to God the DESTRVCTION of him that was ruler of death the IMITATION of his obedience who suffered for vs leauing an exaÌ„ple y t we should follow his steps Al this he performed with y e death of his flesh the Scriptures no where mentioning anie other kinde of death that I can read Where a testament is there must be the death of him that made the testament r For the testameÌ„t is confirmed when men are dead Christ is the mediator of the new Testament that through death which was for the redemption of the trespasses in the former Testament they which are called might receiue the promise of eternall inheritance This plainelie expresseth the death of the bodie For God forbid mens Testaments should be frustrate till their soules haue tasted the second death but from the death of the bodie all testaments take their force Wherefore the new testament is confirmed by the bodilie death of Christ and there neede no paines of hell before it can be good You y â— in times past were strangers and enemies in mind by euill works hath he nowe reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to make you holie vndefiled and faultlesse before him Paul thought it not enough to saie Wee were reconciled vnto God by the death of his sonne but that death he addeth was IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH to exclude all supposals of the death of the soule since THE BLOVD OF CHRISTS CROSSE did PACIFY thinges in earth and in heauen For so much as the children were partakers of flesh and bloud hee also did therein partake with them that through death hee might destroy him that had power of death euen the deuill The death of the spirit maie bee without fâ—esh and bloud as we see in the Deuils who are dead in spirite But Christ tooke flesh and bloud that by the death of his flesh hee might destroie the deuill that insulted and raigned ouer the weakenesse of mans flesh Wee are buried with Christ by baptisme into his death and if we bee grafted with him into the similitude of his death we shalbe likewise into his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might bee destroied that henceforth wee shoulde not serue sinne for hee that is dead is freed from sinne So manie wordes so manie reasons to prooue that Christ died not for vs the death of the soule but onelie of the bodie Wee are buried with him by Baptisme his bodie not his soule was buried Wee are grafted into the similitude of his death not the soule but sinne dieth in vs when we are grafted into Christ for hee quickeneth our spirits Our olde man was crucified with him his soule was not crucified but his flesh that the body of sinne might be destroied by the death of the soule the body of sinne is strengthned and encreased That henceforth we should not serue sinne they must needes serue sinne whose soules are deade with sinne He that is dead is freed from sinne but he that is deade in spirit is subiected to the force furie of sinne The death of Christ then is mentioned no where in the Scriptures but the verie words or circumstances doe cléerely confirme that they speake of the death which he suffered for vs on the crosse IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH That Christ did or could suffer the death of the soule is a position far from the words but farther from the groundes of the sacred scriptures For in God there is no death and without God there is no life of the soule So that it is neither possible for the soule ioyned with God to die nor for the soule separated from God to liue Then if Christs soule were at anie time deade it lost all coniunction and communion with God and consequentlie the personall vnion of God and man in Christ was for that time dissolued and the grace and presence of Gods spirit were vtterlie taken from him and so during that space there coulde bee in Christ neither obedience humility patieÌ„ce holines nor loue which are the fruits of Gods spirit yea the soule of Christ if it were but for an houre depriued of Gods grace and spirit must néedes for that time be subiected to all
sinne and wickednesse which the diuel himselfe dare not auouch of the soule of Christ. Men maie doe well therefore to beware how they venture vnaduisedlie to saie that Christ suffered the death of the soule for howsoeuer they may frame vnto themselues a new kind of death in the soule of Christ as they thinke far from these absurdities and blasphemies yet both scriptures fathers mightilie contradict that loose if not lewde assertion With thee is the fountaine of life saith Dauid to God Then if the soule of Christ were alwaies ioined with God or so much as in Gods fauor it must needs haue life for in Gods fauour there is life Yea the presence of Gods spirit giueth life Spiritus est qui viuiâ—icat it is the spirit y t quickneth saith our Sauiour and Paul citeth the same words Where then THE SPIRIT OF GOD is there is LIFE and consequently the soule y t is dead is depriued of Gods spirit Now from whom the spirit of God is departed in him must néeds want al the fruits of Gods spirit and so the soule that is dead is excluded from all godlinesse and vertue For these are not onelie signes but effectes of Gods spirit working in the soule of man And since between righteousnes and vnrighteousnes there is no middle the soule of man wanting light truth and sanctitie of force must be filled with darkenes error iniquity which to surmise in the soule of Christ is the hight of all impietie As manie as are led by the spirit of God they are the sonnes of God If Christes soule wanted at anie time the spirit of God he was not the sonne of God If he euer and alwaies had the spirit of life dwelling in him his soule coulde at no time be dead For the spirite is life through righteousnesse But whie seeke we proofes that Christes soule could not die since he himselfe is the AVTHOR and GIVER OF LIFE I am the waie the truth and THE LIFE saith our Sauiour He that beleeueth in me hath euerlasting life I am the resurrection and the life hee that beleeueth in mee though hee were dead he shall liue And hee that liueth and beleeueth in me shal neuer die If the soule of him that beleeueth in Christ shal neuer die how could Christ himself at anie time die in soule Christ is our life howe then shall we be sure neuer to die if the fountaine of our life in Christes person might for the time bee dried vp with death shall we haue fuller or perfiter fruition of life then Christ Iesus our heade who giueth life to all his sheepe but he had so plentifull perpetuall and personall possession of life not onelie for himselfe but for vs all that the Apostle saith the first Adam was made a liuing soule the last Adam was made a quickening spirit that is not only to haue life in himself but to giue life to others Could hee then at anie time be a deade soule whome the holy ghost affirmeth to be made a QVICKENING SPIRIT could he giue that to others which himselfe did lacke or loose that which he once had I know to giue life is proper to God and for that cause the soule of Christ could not haue that power by creation but by coniunction with his godhead and in that respect was the receptacle whereby the life and grace of his diuine nature was deriued into his humane with such abundance and assurance that of his fulnes we al haue receaued insomuch that the words which he spake were spirit and life and the flesh which he tooke was the bread of life yea the body of Christ dying did not only resist and represse the force of death but rising againe destroied death restored life to the world If the temple of his bodie were stronger then death what was the sanctuarie of his soule I wish therfore all men that professe themselues christiaÌ„s to be soberlie minded and with the learned and auncient fathers to acknowledge that there is not mentioned in the scriptures anie death of the soule besides SINNE eternall DAMNATION neither of the which with anie moderation or mitigation can be attributed to Christ without shamefull blasphemie Anima peccans ipsa morietur The soule that sinneth that soule shall die In these wordes are both deaths of the soule expressed the first voluntarie when for the delights of sinne wee refuse the preceptes of God the other necessarie when God by his iustice withdraweth his presence from vs and executeth his VENGEANCE on vs that neuer shall haue end That sinne is a death of the soule cannot be denied Let the dead bury their dead saith Christ to one of his disciples follow thou me Which must néedes be meant of such as are liuing in body dead in soule as Paule speaketh of wanton widowes she which liueth in pleasure is dead whiles shee liueth These the scripture calleth DEAD IN SINNE When we were dead by sinnes God quickened vs together with Christ. And again You which were dead in sinnes hath he quickened together with Christ forgiuing you all your trespasses From this death I make no doubt but all christian men with heart and voice will cléerelie discharge the VNSPOTTED and VNDEFILED Lambe of God who did no sinne neither was there any guile found in his mouth The other kinde of the death of the soule which is damnation must be farther from Christ then euer was sinne For not onelie Christes innocency should bee vniustlie condemned which were altogether repugnant to Gods righteousnesse but the sonne of God wronged and mans saluation wholy subuerted Nothing might befall the humane nature of Christ which was vnfitting for his diuine both being ioined in one person And if our Sauiour were condemned to hell which way shall we thinke to scape the iust and fearefull iudgement of God for our manifold and grieuous sinnes he was indéed condemned by man that gaue wrongfull sentence of death against him but hee was acquited of God And because hee humbled himselfe to the death of the crosse God highly exalted him and gaue him a name aboue all names as well in witnesse of his innocencie as in reward of his humility Yea the holie ghost which euidently recordeth Christes assurance confidence and reioicing in God as hee hung on the crosse cleane excludeth all suspicion that he suffered the death of the soule For the soule in this life can haue no fuller nor faster coherence with God then Christ had And since God is the true life of the soule the inseparable coÌ„iunction of Christes soule with God proueth a continuall perswasion and fruition of eternal life which by no meanes admitteth anie danger or doubt much lesse anie sence or sufferance of the second death being the iust wages of sinne whereby the wicked are euerlastinglie punished Certe aâ—ima Christi non solum immortalis
sepulchrum corrumpendam perduceret animam inferno torquendam protinus manciparet Vt autem peccator fuisset gratuito munere liberatus factum est vt mortens corporis quam à Deo iusto peccator homo pertulerat iusté Deifilius a peccatore pateretur iniuste ad sepulchrum perveniret caro iusti quousque fuerat caro deuoluta peccati vsque ad infernum descenderet anima saluatoris vbi peccatimerito torquebatur anima peccatoris Hoc autem ideo factum est vt per morientem temporaliter carnem iusti donaretur vita aeterna carni per descendentem ad infernum animam iusti dolores soluerentur inferni It remained for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumed of God without sinne shoulde thither descend whither man seuered from God fell by desert of sinne that is vnto hell where the soule of the sinner was woont to bee tormented and to the graue where the flesh of the sinner was woont to bee corrupted yet so that neither Christes flesh shoulde bee corrupted in the graue nor his soule bee tormented with the paines of hell because the soule free from sinne was not to be subiected to that punishment nor flesh cleane from the contagion of sinne shoulde suffer corruption In so much as man sinning deserued by punishment to bee seuered from himselfe who by his transgression woulde needes bee seuered from God therefore it was appointed that the death of the sinner should bring his sinfull flesh to the graue there to rotte and presentlie should send his soule to hell there to be tormented But when the sinner by the gift of Gods grace was to bee deliuered it was prouided that the sonne of God should vniustlie suffer at the hands of sinners the death of the bodie which sinfull man had iustlie beene wrapped in by the iustice of God and the flesh of the iust should come to the graue whither sinfull flesh was tumbled and that the SOVLE OF OVR SAVIOVR SHOVLD DESCEND TO HELL VVHERE THE SINFVLL SOVLâ— VVAS TORMENTED FOR THE REVVARD OF SINNE This was therefore done that by the flesh of the iust temporally dying eternall life might be giuen to our flesh and by the soule of the iust descending to hell the torments of hell might be abolished Out of Fulgentius I obserue two things which if it please men to marke they shall cleare themselues from all absurdities touching Christs descent to hell The first is THE PLACE VVHITHER he desended the next is THE CAVSE VVHY he descended The place whither hee descended was hell whither the soule of man sinning against God was adiudged for the wages of his transgâ—ession The cause of his descent was to free all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the ende thereof from comming thither And in both these the Scriptures and fathers doe fullie concurre though some auncient writers doe swarue and striue about Christes deliuering some from hell that were there at the time of his descent as they suppose Which varietie and vncertaintie of opinions concerning the state of the deade before Christes comming hath verie much entangled this question and induced manie men of learning and iudgement otherwise to reiect Christs descent to hell as a fable or to wrest it to an other sense with newe founde expositions Howbeit I see no cause but the doctrine of the Scriptures confessed by all the fathers may stande verie cleare whatsoeuer we resolue of this other assertion touching the state of the righteous departed this life before Christs death I will therefore shortly discusse both the place and the cause and so draw to an end As for the place whither Christ descended the Church of Rome gréedily hunteth after it to heare of her Purgatorie hoping whence the soules of the righteous were by Christ deliuered there to make a stand for soules not perfectlie confessed and absolued in this life that she maie set to sale her praiers and pardons But if shee follow Christ descending her deuotion must reach to the place and paines of the damned for thither Christ descended And so by their leaues both Scriptures and fathers auouch First the wordes are plaine and must bee proper as well in the Canon as in the Créed Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell and he descended into hell Againe the kingdom of Satan consisteth of these three SINNE DEATH and HELL SINNE RAIGNING whiles the bodie and soule are ioined togither DEATH SEVERING them both and TVRNING the bodie to earth HELL RECEIVING and TORMENTING the soule till the daie of iudgement when bodie and soule shall for euer bee cast into hell fire If these three bee not abolished by Christ Satans kingdome is not destroyed by Christ and speciallie if hell bee not vanquished no part of our saluation is performed The woorke of sinne is sweete if the wages were not sower which is hell fire To raise our bodies from death is no fauour if Hell bee not ouerthrowen it were more easie for them to lie in dust then to burne in hell Howe hath Christ restored vs to Heauen if hee haue not yet freed vs from Hell Or brought vs to God if he haue not yet taken vs from Satan Wherefore either Hell must bee destroyed or wee are no waie redeemed And in all these when I speake of Hell I speake of the place of the damned For if the feare of damnation continue what hope of saluation can wee conceiue But the Apostle saieth plainlie that Christ through death DESTROIED HIM that had power of death euen the DIVELL and DELIVERED ALL them which for feare of death were all their life time subiect to seruitude If the DIVELL bee DESTROIED then Hell is fullie conquered for whiles that retaineth force against the faithfull the Diuell is in the height of his kingdome Neither is death to bee feared at all but in respect of hell following after death If then all the Saintes heere on earth be DELIVERED FROM THE FEARE OF DEATH and from the handes of all that hate them to serue God without feare all the dayes of their life in holinesse and righteousnesse before him it is euident that hell is spoyled of all right and claime to the members of Christ by reason our heade beeing there in our names and for our sinnes brake the strength of hell abolished the power and loosed the sorrowes and paines thereof that they shoulde not take holde on him nor euer after on anie of his For as hee suffered and died not for his owne sake but for ours so hee descended and loosed the sorrowes of death and hell not as prouided for him but for vs. And since to our sinnes was due damnation and no lesser or easier punishment it was requisite that Christ shoulde thither descende and by dissoluing the wages of our sinne in his owne person thence deliuer vs though not there tormented yet thither adiudged and so release vs not as beeing there but from comming thither
and moste sufficient reasons there are why Christ neither did nor might die the death of the soule thou hast good Reader before in the Treatise it selfe if this fumbler either will skippe them or can not answere them I must not repeate them as often as hee will neglect them Yet to ease thee of going backe I will here giue thee the effect thereof The life and death of the soule is in manie hundred places learnedlie and trulie vouched and prooued by Saint Austen Mori carni tuae est amittere vitam suam mori animae tuae est amittere vitam suam Vita carnis tuae anima tua vitae animae tuae Deus tuus Quomodo moritur caro amissa anima quae vita eius est sic moritur anima amisso Deo qui vita est eius For thy bodie to die is to loose his life and for thy soule to die is to loose her life The life of thy bodie is thy soule The life of thy soule is thy God As the bodie dieth when the soule is departed which is his life so the soule dieth when God is departed which is her life And againe Quomodo ergo mortua est anima de qua viuit corpus Audi ergo disce corpus hominis creatura Dei est anima hominis creatura dei est De anima deus viuificat carnem ipsam autem animam viuificat de seipso non de seipsa Vita ergo corporis anima est vita animae Deus est moritur corpus cum recedit anima moritur ergo anima si recedit Deus Carnem iacentem sine anima vides animam miseram sine Deo videre non potes Crede ergo adhibe oculos fidei How dieth the soule then by which the bodie liueth Hearken and learne The bodie of man is the creature of God so is the soule By the soule God giueth life to the flesh but the soule her selfe God quickeneth by himselfe and not by herselfe The life of the bodie then is the soule the life of the soule is God The bodie dieth when the soule departeth ergo the soule dieth if God depart from her Thou seest the flesh lying dead without a soule and canst thou not see the soule wretched without God Beleeue then and open the eies of faith And speaking of the particular consequents to the life and death of the soule the same father saith Quomodo cum anima est in corpore praestat illi vigorem decorem mobilitatem Sic cum vita eius Deus est in ipsa praestat illi sapientiam pietatem iustitiam charitatem veniente itaque verbo audientibus infuso resurgit anima à morte sua ad vitam suam hoc est ab iniquitate ab insipientia ab impietate ad Deum suum qui est illi sapientia iustitia charitas As when the soule is in the bodie shee giueth vigour comelinesse and motion to the bodie so when God her life is in the soule he giueth her wisedome pietie righteousnesse and charitie The worde of God then sounding and infused to the hearers the soule riseth from her death to her life that is from iniquitie follie and impietie to her God who is to her wisedome righteousnesse and charitie If this were not plaine inough the Scriptures themselues are so euident that no man can mistake the life of the soule except hee will purposelie blinde himselfe least hee shoulde come to the knowledge of the truth For the sonne of God is life and comming down from heauen gaue life to the world quickning whom hee would with the waters of life that is by the spirite of life yea whosoeuer beleeueth and abideth in him hath life and beareth fruite in him For the iust shall liue by faith and he that dwelleth in loue dwelleth in God and God in him for God is loue So that not onely Christ is our life and he that hath the sonne hath life but with him and in him alwaies was and alwaies will bee the fountaine of life which neuer did nor can drie vp how then could Christ die the death of the soule whose soule was personallie vnited vnto the worde that was life in it selfe And if the grace and spirite of God in vs make vs liue by God and in God if faith and loue knitte men to the life of God howe coulde the soule of Christ alwaies full of grace and truth alwaies full of faith and loue and of the holie Ghost bee deade But this Refuter meaneth another death of the soule What his meaning is is not materiall but whether hee meane truth or no. If he wil frame vs a monster in christian religion what haue I to do with that but to detest it There is another death after this life mentioned both in scriptures and fathers which is the second death But I hope this Confuter will eate and sléepe vpon the cause before hee wrappe our Sauiour within euerlasting damnation That is a death in déed from which God blesse and saue vs all They must néedes bee good Christians that labour to bring Christes soule within the compasse of the second death Haec mortalitas est vmbra mortis vera mors est damnatio cum Diabolo Our death is here but a shadow of death the true death indeede is damnation with the diuell saith Austen And againe Quid est istamors Est relictio corporis depositio sarcinae grauis mors secunda mors aeterna mors gehennarum mors damnationis cum Diabolo ipsa est vera mors What is this death It is the leauing of the bodie and the laying downe of an heauier burthen for the second death the death that is eternall the death of hell the death of condemnation with the Diuell that is the true death Which of these two deathes of the soules you will haue the soule of Christ subiected vnto you must tell vs Sir Refuter if you will néedes haue him die the death of the soule and the choise is so good that take which you will you inâ—ur hainous and horrible blasphemie I wish you to bee better aduised then to procéede to the defence of so wilfull a frensie As for new deaths of the soule you haue no commission to inuent anie shewe what scripture or Father spake it before you or you must giue the godlie leaue to thinke you no fit founder of a newe faith S. Austen was of opinion that no Christian durst auouch that Christ died the death of the soule Nam quod Iesus anima mortificatus fuerat quis audcat dicere cum mors animae non sit nisi peccatum a quo ille omnino immunis fuit That Christ was dead in soule VVHO DARES AFFIRME IT whereas the death of the soule in this life is nothing but sinne from which hee was altogether free you not onelie auouch it but you thinke no man sober that will not consent to it
The effect of certaine Sermons TOVCHING THE FVLL REDEMPTION of mankind by the death and bloud of CHRIST IESVS WHEREIN Besides the merite of Christs suffering the manner of his offering the power of his death the comfort of his Crosse the glorie of his resurrection Are handled What paines Christ suffered in his soule on the Crosse Together With the place and purpose of his descent to hel after death Preached at Paules Crosse and else where in London by the right Reuerend Father Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester With a conclusion to the Reader for the cleering of certaine obiections made against the said doctrine 1. Corinth 3. I esteeme not to knowe any thing saue Christ Iesus and him crucified Athanasius de Incarnatione verbi dei Therefore the sonne of God tooke to him a bodie that might die that enduing it with a reasonable soule it might suffice for a full satisfaction to Death for all Imprinted at London by Peter Short for Walter Burre and are to be sold in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Flower deluce 1599. To the Christian Reader IT is some time since good Christian Reader that lying in London and preaching at Paules Crosse as the feast of Easter drawing neer did admonish mee I made choice to speake of the redemption of mankinde by the death and bloud of Christ Iesus And because that Citie then had and yet hath as manie learned and religious preachers so some conceited and too much addicted to nouelties who spared not in their Catechisings and readings to vrge the suffering of the verie paines of hell in the soul of Christ on the crosse as the chiefest part and maine ground of our Redemption by Christ I finding how fast that opinion had increased since it was first deuised and doubting where it would end thought it my dutie publikelie to warne them that were forward in defending this fansie to take heed how farre they waded in that late sprong speculation For as these words of Dauid The sorrowes of hell besieged me and these of Ionas Out of the belly of hel I cried thou heardest my voice may be tolerablie applied to Christ if they be metaphorically interpreted of Christ as the scriptures meane them in Dauid and Ionas so if wee grow from the figuratiue vse of the worde HELL to the proper signification thereof and rise from the degrees of sorrowes and feares which pursue the Saints in this life to the highest sense and suffering of ALL and THE VERIE SAME paines and punishments which the damned do and shall endure for euer freeing Christ from nothing but from the place and continuance of hell vve make not a curious and superfluous but an erroneous and daungerous addition to the mysterie of our Saluation The better to slacke their inconsiderate heate I laboured to prooue these foure pointes vnto them First that it was no where recorded in the holie Scriptures nor iustlie to bee concluded by the Scriptures that Christ suffered the true paines of hell and so the Consciences of the faythfull coulde not iustlie bee forced to the necessarie beleeuing of anie such strange assertion Secondlie that as the Scriptures describe to vs the paines of the damned and of hell there are manie terrors and torments which without euident impietie cannot be ascribed to the Sonne of God as namely extreame Darkenesse Desperation Confusion vtter separation reiection and exclusion from the grace fauour and kingdome of God remembrance of sinne gnawing the conscience horrour of Diuels tormented and tormenting and flame of fire intolerablie burning both bodie and soule Thirdlie that the death and bloud of Christ Iesus were euidentlie frequentlie constantlie set downe in the writinges of the Apostles as the sufficient price of our Redemption and true meane of our reconciliation to God and the verie same proposed in the figures resembled in the sacrifices of the Lawe and sealed with the Sacraments of the new Testament as the verie grounde worke of our saluation by Christ and so haue beene receaued and beleeued in the Church of God fourteene hundred yeares before anie man euer made mention of hell paines to bee suffered in the soule of Christ. Lastlie where the Scriptures are plaine and pregnant that Christ DIED for our sinnes and by his DEATH destroied him that had power of death euen the Diuell and reconciled vs when we were strangers and enemies IN THE BODIE OF HIS FLESH THROVGH DEATH for wee are reconciled to God by the DEATH of his sonne and sanctified by THE OFFERING OF THE BODIE of Iesus Christ once who himselfe bare our sinnes in his BODIE on the Tree where hee was put to death concerning the FLESH Besides that the holie Ghost in these places by expresse wordes nameth the bodilie death of Christ as the meane of our redemption and reconciliation to God no considerate diuine might affirme or imagine Christ suffered the Death of the soule for so much as the Death of the soule must exclude Christ from the grace spirit and life of God and leaue in him neither faith hope nor loue sanctitie nor innocencie which God forbid anie Christian man shoulde so much as dreame Wee shoulde therefore do well to reuerence the manifest wordes of Gods Spirit in so high a pointe of Religion and suffer our selues as schollers to bee taught by the leader into all trueth what to beleeue and confesse in the mystery of our redemption and not to controle or correct the doctrine so cleerelie deliuered in the Scriptures so consonantlie retained of all learned and vnlearned in the Church of Christ for so many hundred yeares And if anie man to maintaine his deuise woulde inuent a newe hell and another death of the soule then either scriptures or fathers euer heard or spake of they shoulde keepe their inuentions to themselues it sufficed me to beleeue what I read and consequently not to beleeue what I did not read in the word of God which is and ought to be the foundation of our faith Thus farre I purposed when I first entered by Gods grace to proceede in this cause according to y e simple vnderstanding wherwith god hath endued me for the good of his Church The article of the Creed Christ DESCENDED INTO HELL I meant not to meddle with choosing rather to leaue y t vntouched then to presse any sense as a point of faith for vvhich I had not so full and faire warrant as for the redemption of man by the death and blood of Christ Iesus but the vehemencie of some contradicting that I taught and the importunitie of others requesting to knowe what they might safelie beleeue of that article made mee to alter my minde For whē some vrged others doubted that if Christ did not suffer the paines of hell whiles he hung on the Crosse that part of the Creed was added in vaine and the wordes of Dauid Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell applied by Peter vnto Christ in
like manner shalt thou finde all the passions of our flesh to haue beene stirred in Christ but without sinne that beeing stirred they might be repressed by the power of the godheade dwelling in him and our nature by that meanes reduced to a better temper Ambrose in other wordes saieth as much Sequestrata deloctatione diuinitatis aeternae taedio meae infirmitatis afficitur Suscepit enim tristitiam meam vt mihi suam laetitiam largiretur vestigijs nostris descendit vsque admortis aerumnam vt nos suis vestigijs reuocaret advitam Debuit ergo dolorem suscipere vt vinceret tristitiam non excluderet nos disceremus in Christo quemadmodum futurae mortis maestitiam vinceremus And so he concludeth Hic alto operatur effectu vt quia in carne sua peccata nostra perimebat maerorem quoque animae nostrae suae animae maerore aboleret Laying aside the delight of his aeternall deitie Christ is affected with the tediousnesse of my infirmity and deiected himselfe to feele the griefe of death as we doe that by following his steps he might reduce vs to life hee was therefore to admit sorrowe that he might conquer sorrowe and not keepe it off and wee to learne in Christ howe we should ouercome the feare of death approching In his agonie hee wrought with a deepe effect that because in his flesh hee killed our sinnes he might also with the sorrow of his soule extinguish the sorrowe of our soules So the sorrowe and feare of death which it pleased our sauiour to féele in our nature came not for want of strength but of purpose to quench and abolish those affections and passions in vs that the faithfull for euer might bee fréed from them through his grace working in their hearts And therefore we haue no cause to excuse much lesse to reproch Christes weakenesse but rather to admire his power and praise his mercie that woulde submit himselfe to these infirmities of our nature thereby to cure them in vs and to strengthen vs against them and to make vs partakers of his wonderfull courage and patience the steps wherof we may dailie find not in martyrs onelie but in all his members when they are tried with anie kinde of outwarde or inward affliction Howbeit I may not omit how great an ouersight it is to conclude that Christ if he feared death in his agony was far fâ—ebler then martyrs which ioifullie die yea then malefactors which oftentimes go to their death verie resolutely The desratenesse of the wicked which haue neither feare nor care of God till they féele the force of his wrath in hell fire is no fit comparison for the sonne of God no more then the sinke of sinne is to swéeten the fountaine of grace I will therefore skippe that ouer with silence But if death bee not fearefull to the seruants of Christ as indéede it is not they are the more bound to their Lord and master who in his owne person to make the waie easie for them with the losse of his life disarmed death for euer and brake the chaines in sunder wherewith death and hell were coupled together For Christ was the first that by seuering death from the terror and power of hell made the stroke of death contemptible to all the godlie which otherwise was and would haue béene the harbinger of hell So that when death presented it selfe to the sight of our sauiour purposing to redeeme the world it came so fast clasped with hell that none but the sonne of God could dissolue the band wherewith they were linked And therfore Christ had far greater cause then anie of his members to feare and with earnest praier to decline the â—aile of death which did wound both bodie and soule with euerlasting destruction if he did not take awaie the sting thereof and by his sundring the one from the other which was the hope of all his saints before he died and faith of al the godlie since death was and is to all beléeuers no cause of feare but rest from their labors and passage to a better life The feare then which Christ had and shewed of death was either the curing of our infirmities in his flesh or the breaking the knot betwixt death and hell which none but he was able to doe or the mitigating of Gods anger which might be executed on his bodie or lastlie the desire hee had to continue the féeling and enioying of Gods presence and coherence with bodie and soule in the vnitie of his person and if in anie of these wee charge Christ with nicenesse wee knowe not what we saie except we will bee guiltie in a worse issue which I perswade my selfe was no part of their meaning that first broched this matter The last cause of Christs agony might be the sanctifying of himselfe to praie for trangressors and the voluntarie dedicating of his bloud to bee shed for the redemption of mankind for where some coniecture Christ did sweate bloud for feare Hilarie plainâ—lie denieth it and saieth Sudoremnemo audebit infirmitati deputare quia contra naturam est sudare sanguinem nec infirmitas est quod pot estas non secundum naturae consuetudinem gessit No man shoulde dare attribute Christs bloudy sweate to infirmitie because it is against nature to sweat bloud and can bee no weakenes which power did aboue the course of nature Austen maketh it a signification of the martyrs bloud that should willinglie bee shedde throughout the church for the testimonie of the trueth Ideo toto corpore sanguineÌ„ sudaâ—it quia in corpore suo id est Ecclesia Martyrum sanguinem ostendit Christ sweat bloud along all his bodie to this ende that he might shew the bloud of martyrs in his bodie which is the church Prosper agréeth with S. Augustine in iudgement and saith Oranscum sudore sanguineo dominus Iesus significabat de toto corpore quod est Ecclesia emanaturas martyrum passiones The Lorde Iesus praying with a bloudy sweat signified the sufferings of the martyrs that should be in his whole body which is the church Bede thereby noteth that Christes praier made for his Apostles was hearde and that by his bloud he should not onelie redresse the frailtie of his disciples but quicken the whole earth being dead in their sinnes Nemo sudorem hunc infirmitati deputet sed intelligat per irrigatam sacratamque eius sanguine terram non sibi qui nouerat sed nobis apertè declaratum quod effectum suae precis iam obtineret vt fidem discipulorum quam terrena adhuc fragilitas arguebat suo sanguine purgaret quicquidilla scandali de eius morte pertulisset hoc toruÌ„ ipse moriendo deleret immo vniuer sum latè terrarum orbem pâ—ccatis mortuum sua innoxia morte caelestem resuscitaret ad vitam Let no man attribute Christs bloudie sweat to infirmitie but rather learne that by sprinkling and hallowing the
him alone in the power of his pursuers vntill he died Vt homo loquitur meos circumferens metus quod in periculis positi a domino deseri nos putamus Christ speaketh as a man saith Ambrose bearing about him my feares for y t we when we are in danger think our selues forsaken of God Ne mireris querimonias derelicti cum scandalum crucis videas Maruaile not at Christes complaint that he was forsaken when as thou seest how he was vsed on the crosse Derelictus est Christus pro parte carnis Christ was forsaken in his passion as touching his flesh A third is that Christs godhead together with his humane soule were then departing from his bodie and leauing it vnto death Tertullian Deus Filium dereliquit cum hominem eius tradidit in mortē Ita relinqui a patre fuit mori filio God forsooke his sonne in that he deliuered his humanity vnto death So for the sonne to die was to be forsaken of his father Hilarie Habes conquerentem se esse relictum ad mortem quia homo est vt intelligentia nostra sit homo mortuus deus regnans Thou heardest Christ complaine that hee was left vnto death that we should conceiue he died as a man he raigned as a God And againe Clamor ad deum corporis vox est recedentis a se verbi dei contestata dissidium relinquitur quia erat homo etiam morte peragendus Christes complaint vnto God that hee was forsaken is the voice of his body testifying the separation of the diuine nature from it for a time He is forsaken because he was a man to be consummated by his death Epiphanius saith hee spake these words When he saw his deitie with his soule readie to depart from the person of his humanity to forsake his body A fourth is that where God for sin had refused and forsaken man euen from the fall of Adam Christ nowe exalted on the tree reconciled mankind vnto God and slue hatred making peace by his prayer betwixt God man Cyril whē Adam transgressed the diuine commaundement mans nature was after a sort forsaken of God and therby subiected to a curse and death These words of Christ therfore Erant soluentis manifesté derelictionem quae nobis acciderat quasi placantis in hoc patrē c. Were the manifest remouing of that derelictiō which fel on vs and as it were an appeasing his father and procuring his fauor towards vs as towards himself Basil Dicit haec dominus primitiae humanae naturae pro vniuersa The lord speaketh these words for all mankind as being the first fruits of mās nature Otherwise of his own person it is true that Athanasius saith Neque enim à patre derelinqui potuit quia semper est in patre antequam hanc vocem ederet post quam edidisset Ecce enim dicente cur me dereliquisti ostendit pater sevt semper antea ita tum quoque in filio fuisse He could not be forsaken of his father who was alwaies in his father both before and after he spake these words Behold as hee vttered these words why hast thou forsaken me the father shewed himselfe to be euen then in his sonne as he was at all times before For the earth feeling the weight of her Lord straight wayes trembled the vaile rent the Sunne darkened the stones claue the dead rose The fift that Christ putteth vs in mind by these wordes to acknowledge the cause why God doth often not heare our prayers but in refusing our desires prouideth better for vs then if we had our wils Vox ista quare me dereliquisti doctrina est nō querela Nam cum in Christo dei hominis vna sit persona nec ab eopotuerit relinqui à quo non poterat separari pro nabis trepidis infirmis interrogat curcaro pati metuens exaudita non fuerit This speach saith Leo My God my God why hast thou forsaken me is an instruction and no complaint For where in Christ there is but one person of God and man and he could not be forsaken of God from whom he could not bee separated he asketh the question for vs that are fearefull weak why flesh fearing to suffer is not heard Vnde ipsa vox non exanditi magni est expositio sacramenti quod nihil humano generi conferret redemptoris potostas si quod petebat nostra obtineret infirmitas The verie wordes of him that was not heard open to vs a great mysterie to witte that the power of the redeemer coulde doe mankinde no good if our infirmitie might obtaine what it woulde aske Origen sayth In respect of that in which consisted the inuisible forme of God Christ was forsaken of his father where hee tooke the shape of a seruant and came to the death of the Crosse which amongst men was most shamefull So that for Christ to become man and to suffer on the Crosse was to bee forsaken of God in comparison of that glorie which hée had with his Father before all worldes The last exposition is that when the Iewes reproched Christ on the Crosse as reiected of God he with a loud voice that all might hear sang or cited the beginning of the 21. Psalme wherein it was by the Prophet Dauid foreshewed that the true Messias and sauiour of the worlde should suffer all those wronges and shames which they had heaped on him and thereby taught them that they had gathered themselues togither to do whatsoeuer the hand and counsaile of God had determined before to be done The Lord saith Ierom hanging on the Crosse vseth this verse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me by which wee perceiue that in the Crosse he sang the whole Psalme as directly pertaining to his passiō Christ spake these words saith Chrysostom that the Iewes might know hee honoured his father to the last breath and that God was not his enemie as they obiected for which cause he vsed the Prophet Dauids words to verifie or fulfill the scripture of the old testament All these interpretations are sound and stand well with the rules of christian pietie without dishonouring the person or disturbing the faith of Christ therfore I cannot but maruel what reason our late writers had to refuse them all and deuise another exposition of their owne which imploieth not onlie desperation in Christs soule if wee presse the wordes and the dissolution of Christes person but an euident contradiction to all that Christ did or saide on the crosse or in iudgement after the Iewes had once laide handes on him For if these words be referred to the soule of Christ and unport a generall and true dereliction which must be supposed before the paines of hell can thence be concluded Christ féeling and confessing himselfe to bee forsaken of God coulde haue neither faith nor
PROPITIATE the Iudge It doth SEALE THE COVENANT of mercie grace glorie betwixt God man It doth CONCLVDE and bind the diuell what more can be required I verily cannot coÌ„iecture If the blood of Christ performe al these things for vs more we can not aske or expect why shrinke we from it as vnable to saue vs except it be supplied with the paines of hell Whether I affirme any thing of mine owne or deliuer you that which is plainly taught in y e scriptures iudge you Ye were REDEEMED saith Peter by the pretious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe vnspotred and vndefiled Christ by his own bloud saith Paul entered once into the holy place OBTAINING eternall REDEMPTION The bloud of Iesus Christ CLENSETH VS froÌ„ all our sinnes He WASHED vs from our sinnes in his bloud Beeing now IVSTIFIED by his bloud we shall bee saued from wrath through him Iesus suffered that hee might sanctifie the people with his bloud By Christ then wee haue redemption through his bloud euen the remission of sinnes and nowe in Christ Iesus yee which once were farre off are made neere by the bloud of Christ. For it hath pleased the Father by him to reconcile all thinges vnto himselfe And to pacifie through the bloud of his Crosse both thinges in earth and things in heauen Whome God hath purposed to bee a Reconciliation through fayth in his bloud And therefore the new testament is sealed with Christes bloud This is saith hee my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for manie for the remission of sinnes Yee are come to Iesus the mediatour of the newe Testament saith Paul to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then that of Abell For Abels bloud cried for vengeance but Christs bloud speaketh for mercie and grace And for that cause Paul calleth it The bloud of the euerlasting Testament For this is the Testament that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes sayeth the Lorde I will put my lawes in their minde and in their heart I will write them and I will bee their God and they shall bee my people I will be mercifull to their vnrighteousnesse and I will remember their sinnes and iniquities no more This testament of mercie grace and glorie is confirmed by the death of Christ and sealed with his bloud which if we weaken or frustrate with our inuentions or additions wee must looke for that fearefull iudgement which the Apostle threatneth He that despiseth Moses lawe dieth without mercie vnder two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shal he be worthie which treadeth vnder foote the sonne of God and counteth vnholie the bloud of the Testament wherewith he was sanctified and reprocheth the spirite of grace The wrong that is offered to the bloud of the newe Testament treadeth vnder foote the sonne of God and reprocheth the spirit of grace Now howe can we more vnsanctifie the bloud of the Testament then to make it so vnprecious that it cannot redeeme vs without the paines of hell or to set vp another price for which we haue no expresse record against or aboue the bloud of Christ by which we are cleansed from our sinnes and reconciled to God I knowe they will and must answere the paines of hell are contained in the bloud of Christ for so much as he suffered the one in â—heir imagination when hee shed the other Could they prooue by expresse and infallible testimonies which they cannot do that Christ suffered in soul the paines of the damned they had some reason to comprise the one within the other but no such thing being warranted or witnessed in the scriptures they must take héed that they do not elude rather then expound the words of the holie ghost with a perpetuall Synecdoche which shall frustrate the very force of all those euident and vehement speeches For it is strange to mee first that without iust proofe any such thing should be ioined to the bloud of Christ to helpe the price thereof Next that the holie ghost should alwayes vrge the one and as if were continuallie forget the other Thirdlie the things which are named in the Scriptures as they were the last so are they the chiefest parts of Christs sufferings the rest being vnderstood as antecedent to them and not eminent aboue them Nowe the CROSSE BLOVD and DEATH oâ— Christ are euerie where mentioned in the scriptures as the verie ground worke and pillars of our redemption Lastlie the bodie of Christ wounded and his bloud shed for the remission of sinnes are the seales that confirme and ratifie the new testament and therefore they giue chiefest power and strength to the whole couenant as appeareth by the Sacraments which import vnto vs not the paines of hell but the death and bloud of Christ as the right and true meanes of our redemption Know ye not saith Paule that all we which haue beene baptised into Iesus Christ haue beene baptised into his death Wee are buried then with him by baptisme into his death And speaking of the Lords Supper he saith As often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke this cuppe ye shewe the Lords death vntill he come The cuppe of blessing which wee blesse is it not the communion of Christes blood The bread which we breake is it not the communion of Christs bodie By these we are grafted into Christ by these wee are quickned nourished into life euerlasting And these propose vnto vs no inuisible paines of hell but the bodie of Christ wounded and his bloud shed for the remitting of our sinnes â—ow vniting vs vnto Christ that we may be members of his bodie of his flesh and of his bones Yea what an vnthankefull part were it for the captiues that are inlarged to chalenge the ransome which was paide for their fréedome as defectiue when the aduersarie from whom we were bought receyued it by the rule of Gods iustice as a price most sufficient for vs all that were deliuered F I will redeeme them from the power of hell I will ransome them from death saith God by his Prophet g you were bought with a PRICE saith Paul The price then which Christ paid must be fully worth the thing redéemed For since it pleased God not by force to take vs from Satan but with a price to buie vs out of his hands it were dishonour to God and a kinde of reproch to giue lesse for vs then might counteruaile vs. And therefore let vs rest assured that the price which Christ payed for vs was of farre greater value then we were not onelie in the vpright iudgement of God but euen in the malicious and furious desire of Satan who thirsted after the bloud of the sonne of God with greedier â—awes then after all the worlde besydes and tryumphed more in bringing him to a shamefull death then in
obtained And noting the remedie prouided for vs in the bodilie death of Christ he saith Vitae mediator ostendens quam non sit mors timenda quae per humanam conditionem iam euadi non potest sed potius impietas quae per fidem cauerâ— potest occurrit nobis AD FINEM QVO venimus sed NON QVA VENIMVS Nos enim ad mortem per peccatum venimus ille per iustitiam ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato The Mediatour of life Christ Iesus to shewe vs that death is not to bee feared which by humane condition can nowe not bee escaped but rather impietie which by fayth may be auoyded mette vs in the ende whither wee were come but not in the way by which we came For we came by sinne to death but hee by righteousnesse and so where our death is the punishment of sinne his death is the sacrifice for sinne And therefore the death which Christ suffered in his bodie on the Crosse did purge abolish and extinguish all our sinnes whereby the power of satan iustly detained vs to abide the punishment of our transgressions Quia viuum spiritu mortuus spiritu non inuasit quoquo modo auidus mortis humanae conuertit se ad faciendam mortem quaÌ„ potuit PERMISSVS EST IN ILLVD QVOD EX NOBIS MORTALE vinus mediator acceperat Et vbi potuit aliquid facere ibi omni ex parte deuictus est vnde accepit exterius potestatem dominicae carnis occidendâ—e inde interior eius potestas quâ nos tenebat occisa est Factum est enim vt vincula peccatorum multorum IN MVLTIS MORTIBVS PER VNIVS VNAM MORTEM quam peccatum nullum praecesserat soluerentur Ita Diabolus hominem in ipsa morte CARNIS amisit Because the Diuell deade in spirite coulde not inuade Christ liuing in spirite as most desirous to kill man hee fastened on that death which hee coulde compasse and was suffered to kill that mortall bodie which the liuing Mediatour tooke from mankinde and where he could doe anie thing euen there was hee euerie waie conquered and whence hee receyued outwardlie power to kill the Lords bodie thence was his inwarde power whereby hee helde vs ouerthrowne By which it came to passe that the chaines of manie sinnes deseruing manie deathes were loosed by the one death of one in whome was no sinne So the Diuell lost man BY THE VERIE DEATH OF Christs FLESH Yea the death of Christ should leade vs patientlie to suffer the same death for him which hee suffered for vs. Hactenus morerentur ad Christi gratiam pertinentes quatenus pro illis ipse mortuus est Christus CARNIS TANTVM MORTE NON SPIRITVS So farre shoulde they which belong to the grace of Christ die as Christ died for them that is the DEATH OF THE BODIE ONELIE AND NOT OF THE SPIRIT And by that death of his bodie he fréed vs from both SOLIVS CORPORIS MORTEM Dei silius pro nobis accepit per quam à nobis dominationem peccati poenam aeternae punitionis exclusit The death OF THE BODIE ONLIE THE SONNE OF GOD SVFFERED FOR VS by which he deliuered vs both from the dominion of sin and from eternall damnation Cyrillus teacheth the same doctrine Si intelligatur Deus incarnatus propria carne passus parua est erga ipsum omnis creatura sufficit ad redemptionem mundâ— VNIVS CARNIS MORS If wee vnderstand Christ to bee God incarnate and to haue suffered in his owne flesh of small value in respect of him are all creatures and sufficient to redeeme the worlde is the DEATH OF HIS ONELY FLESH And likewise Gregorie Nos quia mente a Deo recessimus carne ad puluerem redimus poena duplae mortis astringimur Sed venit ad nos qui SOLA CARNE PRO NOBIS MORERETVR ET SIMPLAM SVAM DVPLAE NOSTRAE iungeret nos AB VTRAQVE MORTE liberaret Because in heart wee were departed from God and in flesh returning to dust wee are tied to the punishment OF A DOVBLE DEATH But Christ came vnto vs which DIED IN THE FLESH ONLY FOR VS and ioyning HIS ONE KINDE OF DEATH TO BOTH OVRS DELIVERED VS FROM BOTH And more at large the same father debating the same matter Vmbra mortis mors carnis accipitur quia sicut vera mors est qua anima separatur á Deo ita vmbra mortis est qua caro separatur ab anima Quos enim constat NON SPIRITV SED SOLA CARNE MORI nequaquam se vera morte sed vmbra mortis dicunt operiri Quid est ergo quod beatus Iob postulat vmbram mortis nisi quod ad delenda peccata ante Dei oculos Dei hominum Mediatorem requirit qui SOLAM PRO NOBIS MORTEM CARNIS susciperet veram mortem delinquentium per vmbram suae mortis deleret Ad nos quippe venit qui IN MORTE SPIRITVS CARNISQVE TENEBAMVR VNAM ad nos suaÌ„ morteÌ„ detulit DVAS NOSTRAS quas reperit solâ—it SI ENIM IPSE VTRAMQVE SVSCIPERET NOS A NVLLA LIBERARET sed VNAM misericorditer accepit IVSTE VTRAM QVE damnauit SIMPLAM SVAM DVPLAE NOSTRAE coÌ„tulit DVPLAM NOSTRAM MORIENS SVBEGIT Qui ergo SOLAM PRO NOBIS MORTEM CARNIS SVSCEPIT vmbraÌ„ mortis pertulit a dei oculis culpam quam fecimus abscondit The shadow of death is takeÌ„ for the death of the bodie for that as it is the true death whereby the soule is separated from God so it is but the shadow of death whereby the bodie is separated from the soule For they which assuredly die NOT THE DEATH OF THE SPIRIT BVT ONLY OF THE FLESH they doe not say they are couered with the true death but with the shadow of death To what end then doth blessed Iob aske for the shadow of death but that to wipe away sinne out of Gods sight hee seeketh for the Mediator of God man who should vndertake FOR VS THE DEATH OF THE BODIE ONLY and by the shadow of his death might extinguish the true death of sinners Hee came to v that WERE SVBIECT BOTH TO THE DEATH OF THE SPIRIT AND OF THE FLESH and by HIS SINGLE DEATH HE LOOSED BOTH OVR DEATHS If he should haue SVFFERED BOTH HE COVLD HAVE DELIVERED VS FROM NEITHER But he mercifully VNDERTOOKE ONE OF THEM and iustlie CONDEMNED BOTH He ioyned HIS SINGLE DEATH TO OVR DOVBLE DEATH and dying CONQVERED BOTH OVR DEATHS He then which for vs TOOKE VPON HIM ONLY THE DEATH OF THE BODY suffered the shadow of death and hid from Gods eies the sinne which we had committed Bernard likwise Cum gemina morte secundum vtramque naturam homo damnatus fuisset altera quidem spiritali voluntaria altera corporali necessaria vtrique deus homo
VNA SVA CORPORALI ac voluntaria benigne potenter occurrit ILLAQVE SVA VNA NOSTRAM VTRAMQVE DAMNAVIT Where man was condemned vnto a double death to witte in either part of his nature the one death spirituall and voluntarie the other corporall and necessarie God beeing made man did mightilie and mercifullie release both our Deathes with his ONE CORPORALL and voluntarie Death and with THAT ONE DEATH OF HIS DESTROYED BOTH OVRS And so concludeth Dum sponte tantum in corpore moritur vitam nobis iustitiam promeretur VVhiles Christ dyed willinglie and ONELY in his BODY he merited for vs both righteousnesse and life I hope to all men learned or well aduised it will séeme no Iesuiticall phrensie but rather christian catholike doctrine that the son of God dying for our sinnes suffered NOT THE DEATH OF THE SOVLE but ONLIE OF THE BODIE by the hands of the Iewes and by the bodily bloudie sacrifice of himself did not only redeeme clense both our souls bodies but destroied sin death purging our transgressions by the merit of his obedience swalowing vp death by power y t of his life And howsoeuer the scriptures sometimes affirme that hee gaue himselfe a ransome for all men and the Fathers likewise teach that hee gaue his flesh for our flesh and his soule for our soules yet neither Scriptures nor Fathers haue anie meaning either to subiect Christ to the death of the soule which assertion they abhorre as wicked or to diminish the force or fruit of his bodily death which they extoll as most sufficient but to expresse that in the death of his flesh on the crosse his soule did suffer the sense of paine and smart of death which parted the bodie and soule in sunder and so ioyntlie with the bodie and seuerallie by it selfe the soule of Christ had not onely temptations afflictions and passions but euen endured the naturall sting and sharpenesse of death to which he submitted his soule that he might haue the feeling of our infirmities and in all things bee tempted as wee are but still without sinne How Christ gaue himselfe wholy for vs we maie learne out of Bernard Sicut TOTVM HOMINEM saluâ—m fecit sic DE TOTO SE HOSTIAM fecit salutarem corpus exponens tantis supplicijs iniurijs animam vero geminae cuiusdam humanissimae compassionis affectui inde super moerore inconsolabili sanctarum foeminarum inde super desperatione dispersione discipulorum In his quatuor crux domiâ— mea fuit As Christ saued the VVHOLE MAN so of HIMSELFE WHOLIE hee made a wholesome sacrifice yeelding his bodie to so great torments and wrongs and his soule to the feeling of a double most tender compassion on the one side for the vncomfortable greefe of the holie women on the other side for the desperation and dispersion of his disciples In these foure consisted the crosse of Christ. Since then the death of Christ did both affect and afflict his soule and his bodie iustlie might Irenaeus say The Lord bought vs with his owne bloud and gaue his soule for our soules and his flesh for our flesh For in dying hee layde downe his soule not onelie to sorrowe gréefe and paine but euen to the bitter diuorce of death that brake the communion of bodie and soule Sicut TOTVS SEMETIPSVM tradidit TOTVS HOMO SEMETIPSVM OBTVLIT ita totus homo ANIMAM SVAM POSVIT cuÌ„ anima in cruce moriente carne discessit As WHOLE Christ gaue HIM SELFE saith Fulgentius and the WHOLE MAN OFFERED HIMSELFE so the whole man LAYD DOWNE HIS SOVLE wheÌ„ the flesh dying on the crosse the soule departed So that Christ yéelded his soule for our soules to the susception of sorrow prepossion of paine and dissolution of nature but vnto the death of the soule he did neither offer nor yéelde himselfe since that is a separation from God and exclusion from grace from which it was vtterlie impossible the soule of Christ could either willingly or forceablie for an houre be remoued yea where you find the suffering of his soule witnessed there shall you see the DEATH OF HIS FLESH ONELIE to be auouched Quia TOTVM HOMINEM deus ille suscepit ideo TOTIVS HOMINIS in se passiones in veritate monstrauit ammam quidem rationalem habens quicquid fuit infirmitatis animae sine peccato suscepit pertulit vt dum humanae animae passiones in anima quam accepit vinceret nostras quoque animas ab infirmitatibus liberaret Carnem quoque humanam accipiens in eiusdem veritate carnis veritatem voluntariae habuit passionis vt IN CARNE MORTVVS TOTAM in se HOMINIS OCCIDERET MORTEM Because the sonne of God tooke vnto him the WHOLE NATVRE of man therefore he shewed in himselfe the sufferings OF THE VVHOLE MAN and hauing a reasonable soule he tooke vpon him and endured all the infirmities of the soule but without sinne that whiles in the soule which he tooke hee conquered the passions of mans soule he might free our soules also from infirmities Taking likewise mans flesh in the truth of the same flesh he suffered a true and voluntarie passion that DYING IN THE FLESH hee might kill in his person the WHOLE DEATH dew to man Christ endured the passions of the whole man hauing neither bodie nor soule frée from suffering but yet he died ONLY in the FLESH and thereby he killed the WHOLE DEATH inflicted on the body and soule of man Quis ignorat Christum IN SOLO CORPORE MORTVVM sepultuÌ„ Who is ignoraÌ„t that Christ in BODY ONLY DIED and was buried And againe Sicut in MORTE SOLIVS CARNIS immortalis fuit sic in passionibus totius hominis impassibilis omnino permansit The godheade of Christ was immortall when ONELY HIS BODY DIED and impassible when the whole man suffered Moriente carne non solum deitas sed NEC ANIMA CHRISTI POTEST OSTENDI COMMORTVA When Christs bodie died not onelie his deitie but his SOVLE CANNOT BE SHEWED TO HAVE BEEN PARTAKER OF DEATH Wherefore I easilie admitte the wordes of Nazianzene to be true that euerie part in man is sanctified by the like in Christ our condemned flesh by his flesh our soule by his soule our vnderstanding by his vnderstanding yea I dislike not the wordes of Cyrill Carnem suam in redemptionis pretium pro omnium carne dependit animam suam similiter pro omnium anima redemptionis pretium constituit quamuis iterum reuixerit vita secundum naturam existens Christ yeelded his flesh as a ransome for the flesh of all men and made his soule likewise a price to redeeme the soules of all though he were restored againe to life as beeing life by nature so long as we abuse not his wordes to maintaine our fansies impugning his generall and setled doctrine that sufficient for the redeÌ„ption of the
world is the DEATH OF HIS FLESH ONLY nor thereby take occasion to defend that his bloud is not able to iustifie or sanctifie the beléeuers Sanguine suo hoc est SVAE CARNIS SANGVINE iustificat omnes in se credentes With his bloud that is with THE BLOVD OF HIS FLESH he iustifieth all that beleeue in him SI NON ALIO MODO SALVANDVS ERAT mundus nisi in SANGVINE ET CORPORE morti VTILITER derelicto quo pacto non necessarius verbo incarnationis modus vt iustificet in saÌ„guine suo credeÌ„tes in se conciliet patri per morteÌ„ sui corporis If the world MIGHT NONE OTHER VVAY BE SAVED but by Christes leauing his BODIE AND BLOVD VNTO DEATH for our good howe was not the taking of flesh necessarie for the sonne of God that by his bloud hee might iustifie such as beleeued in him and BY THE DEATH OF HIS BODIE reconcile them to God his father Quomodo sanguis communis hominis nos sanctos efficeret sed sanctificauit sanguis Christi Deus igitur non simpliciter homo deus enim erat in carne SVO SANGVINE nos purificans How could the bloud of a common man make vs holie BVT THE BLOVD OF CHRIST DID SANCTIFIE VS He was therefore God and not simplie a man For he was God in FLESH THAT CLENSED VS VVITH HIS BLOVD When the ancient fathers affirme that Christ died for vs THE DEATH OF THE BODY ONLY and that the BLOVD OF HIS FLESH doth saue and sanctifie the beleeuers we must not like children imagine they speake of insensible flesh or that in those wordes they exclude the vnion operation or passion of the soule whiles Christes bodie suffered and died that were to make Christ a stocke not a man and to giue him carrion and not humane flesh quickened and coupled with life and soule but in the death of his bodie shedding of his bloud they include all those afflictions and passions of the soule which naturally necessarily follow paine accompany death For these sufferings of Christs soule confirme his obedience witnes his patience only their intent is by all meanes to frée Christ from THE DEATH OF THE SOVLE and then to propose the death which hee suffered in the bodie of his flesh on the crosse with all painefull but no sinneful câ—â—comitants and consequents as the propitiation for our sinnes redemption of our soules and reconciliation vnto God by which al y e aduersaries of our saluation the law sinne death and Satan are vtterlie conquered and abolished And thus farre forth they haue the scriptures expresselie concurring with them The bloud of Iesus Christ his sonne clenseth vs from all sinne It must clense then our soules as wel as our bodies for they are the chiefe agents in sin Much more shall the bloud of Christ purge your consciences from dead works Conscience is a part of the soule not of the bodie Thou hast redeemed vs to God by thy bloud saie the saintes in heauen whose bodies lie in the dust of the earth Redemption remission of sinnes iustification sanctification and such like effectes of the bloud of Christ are PRINCIPALLY and PRIMARILY in the soule and by consequent in the bodie And therefore there can be no question but the bodilie death of Christ is the redemption of our soules as well as of our bodies in as much as the whole maÌ„ in Christ died the death of the crosse to redéeme the whole man in vs both partes in him ioyntlie féeling but with admirable patience enduring the bitter and sharpe paines antecedent and annexed to the death of his bodie Cum caro in doloribus est in poenis profecto anima tunc habet maximum agonem patientiae When the flesh is in anguish and paine saith Austen then the soule certainly hath the greatest triall of patience For the soule is so created and ordained that shee feeleth the pleasure and paine of her bodie and howsoeuer the flesh bee subiected to violence the sence and grieuance thereof is in the soule both in this life and in the next As the bodilie death of Christ paieth the price of our redemption so it remoueth all the impediments of our saluation which are manie and mightilie linked together For by the CORRVPTION of nature descending from our parents and dwelling within vs wee are solde vnder sinne fulfilling the will of the flesh and louing pleasures more then God whereby we neglect and breake the LAVV of God and so incurre the CVRSE pronounced against the transgressours of the law and by that obligation are liable to ETERNAL DEATH This is the chaine of originall infection actuall transgression legall malediction and eternal damnation which draweth vs from God and bindeth vs as prisoners and captiues to death and hell If then the DEATH of Christ suffered IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH loosed euery linke of this chaine and not onelie cleered vs from all these enemies and exactors but reconciled vs to God and made peace for vs by the bloud of his crosse it is a wrong to the death bloud of Christ either to disable theÌ„ as not sufficient to redéem vs or to supplie them with anie better or other addition which the holie ghost doth not mention Examine these particularlie and see whether the power of Christes death doe not perfectlie dissolue them all Our olde man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might bee destroied that henceforth we should not serue sinne Let not sinne raigne therefore in your mortall bodie saieth the Apostle that you should obey it in the lustes thereof The force and strength of originall sinne and corruption in all the faithfull is crucified and dead with Christ except they reuiue it by voluntarie obeying the lustes thereof For they which are Christes haue crucified the flesh with the affections and lustes by reason not onelie the guilt but also the life and power of sinne died in Christes flesh when it was crucified So that sinne nowe hath no dominion ouer them because they are not vnder the lawe but vnder grace And likewise for actuall sinne by Christ we haue redemption through his bloud that is the forgiuenes of sinnes For God hath proposed him to be a reconciliation through faith in his bloud by the forgiuenesse of the sinnes that are passed through the patience of God The bloud therefore of Christ Iesus his sonne clenseth vs from all sinne since he is the mediator of the new Testament whose death was for the redemption of the transgressions that were in the former testament If the death of Christ on the crosse and the shedding of his bloud were the iust and full redemption of all our sinnes then apparentlie it eased and ended the curse which the lawe inflictedâ— for sinne For where he is accursed that continueth not in al things written in the book OF
voluntarily committed by him Christ then beeing frée from all sinne might not suffer the inwarde or euerlasting death of the soule but corporall and temporall reproch and paine which God might and did recompence with eternall ioye and glorie Thirdlie that soule which sinneth that soule shall die This is the setled rule of Gods iustice and therefore Christs soule which sinned not could by no iustice die the death of the soule To laie down his life for vs was loue and thankes with God but willinglie to separate himselfe from God for vs was no waie to reconcile God to vs or to bring vs to God He must therefore cleaue fast to God in soule whose death shall bee pretious in Gods sight as was Christs If the soule bee seuered from God the death of the bodie is detestable in his eies as beeing the wages of sinne and therefore no more acceptable to GOD then sinne it selfe but where the soule hating the infection of sinne and loathing the infirmitie of the flesh resigneth it vnto death for Gods glorie and the good of others And in this respect the death of the bodie maie bee a sacrifice vnto God but not except the soule doe liue and cleaue to God without separation Then hatefull to GOD was the death of Christ if his soule were first hated or accursed if that were beloued and blessed of God it coulde not choose but liue for God is not the God of the deade but of the liuing So that the death of Christes bodie on the Crosse was by no iustice an acceptable sacrifice vnto God if his soule were first deade But his death was so precious in Gods sight that in the bodie of his flesh through death he reconciled vs vnto God his soule was therefore aliue and in fauour with God yea so abundantly blessed and highly accepted for the holines humilitie and obedience thereof that God was pacified and pleased and we all sanctified with THE OBLATION OF THE BODY of Iesus on the altar of the crosse Lastlie the flesh of Christ by Gods iustice must bee as able to purge vs from sinne as Adams was to poyson vs with sinne But the flesh of Adam infected all his posteritie with sinne and death ergo the flesh of Christ must haue as much force to clense and quicken the faithfull both in this life and the next Of this iustice Paul speaketh when he saith since by man came death by man must come the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die euen so in Christ shal al be made aliue The first Adam WAS THE FIGVRE of the second Adam that where sinne abounded there grace might abound much more As then by one mans disobedience manie were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many bee made righteous The obedience of Christ which here Paule mentioneth is his obedience vnto death euen to the death of the crosse and the righteousnesse of the faithfull is the forgiuenes of their sinnes through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus I wil not here dispute whether the soule be created and infunded or else traduâ—ed from Adam as well as the flesh I meane not with curious or superfluous questions to busie mens heades that which the scriptures deliuer touching the deriuation of sinne and death from our first parents I may safelie teach and you must necessarily beléeue That we were fashioned in iniquitie and conceaued in sinne the words of Dauid doe exactlie witnesse and no maruaile For who can make that to bee cleane which commeth from the vncleane yea sinne cleaueth so fast vnto our flesh that when the eies of our heart are lightened and the spirit of our minde is renued so that the inwarde man delighteth in the law of God EVEN THEN haue we an other law in our members rebelling against the lawe of our minde and leading vs captiue vnto the lawe of sinne the one so contrarie to the other that we cannot doe the things which we would by reason the affection or liking of the flesh cannot be subiect to the lawe of God This fight betwixt the flesh and the spirit is so durable that it cannot bee dissolued but onelie by death Though Christ bee in vs and the spirit liue for righteousnesse sake yet sinne so dwelleth in vs that is in our â— mortall bodies that whiles we liue in minde we serue the law of God but in our flesh the lawe of sinne From Adams flesh wee deriue this infection of sinne that sticketh so fast vnto vs after we are regenerate and new borne againe of water and the holie ghost and this is the roote and nurse of all sinne and the cause of death to al men If Christ be in you the bodie is dead because of sinne From Christes flesh then we must receiue the purgation of sinne both inherent in vs and committed by vs or else Adams flesh is stronger to wound vs then Christs is to heale vs which is repugnant to the iustice of God by which the grace of God must bee farre mightier vnto saluation in the bodie of Christ then the force of sinne was vnto condemnation in the bodie of Adam vnlesse wee make sinne of more power to kill then God is to quicken which is to exalt the diuell aboue God and his sonne For God was in Christ reconciling the worlde to himselfe by whose bloud the partition wal is broken down and hatred abrogated through his flesh that wee might bee reconciled vnto God in one bodie by his crosse But the death of the bodie they will saie hath no proportion to the death of the soule and therefore the one cannot in iustice excuse the other There is farre greater distance betwixt the sonne of God and the sonnes of men then betwixt the bodies and soules of men These differ as creatures and both inferiour vnto the angels but there is the excellencie of the Creator aboue the creature which is simplie infinite Whatsoeuer therefore it pleased the sonne of God to suffer for our sakes it was most sufficient for our redemption howbeit to demonstrate his loue hee would be partaker of our infirmitie and mortality least we should loath our condition or grudge at the chastisement of our sinnes but if we set a side the dignitie and vnitie of his person then is no waie the death of the soule or the paines of hell which they imagine Christ suffered proportionable in exact iustice to the true wages of our sinne For what equiualence hath one soule with all the soules of the Saints or one daies anguish which Christ felt in soule as they suppose with that euerlasting fire which wee shoulde haue suffered in bodie and soule for euer set aside I saie the respect of the person which suffered for vs and in the rest they shall neuer bee able to prooue anie proportion of iustice diuine or humane But as
I haue fullie shewed before the worthinesse of the person is the surest ground of our saluation and chiefest weight of our redemption and therefore his death is of infinite force and his bloude of infinite price euen as his person is For since all mens actions are and ought to bee esteemed according to the giftes which they haue and place which they holde from GOD whie shoulde not the death and bloud of Christ bee valued in Gods iustice according to the height and worth of his person and if in all thinges wee receaue honour not due to our fleshe wherein wee partake with Beastes but fitte for the soule wherein wee communicate with Angels howe seemeth it strange in our eyes that the dooinges and sufferinges of Christ Iesus which hath the natures of God and man in a surer and nearer coniunction then wee haue our soules and bodies shoulde not bee reckned and accepted in GODS iustice as the ACTIONS and PASSIONS of HIS OVVNE SONNE and haue their value from the diuiner and worthier parte of Christ As the death of Christes flesh ONELIE doth more expresse the TRVETH POVVER AND IVSTICE of God then if the death of the soule had beene ioyned with it so the same setteth forth Christes merites namelie his OBEDIENCE PATIENCE and LOVE in farre better sorte then if wee adde vnto it the death of the spirite which is the rewarde of all the reprobate and damned For what a man vnwillinglie suffereth that sheweth neyther obedience nor patience Obedience hath readinesse and patience if it bee perfect hath gladnesse both haus willingnesse If then wee bee forced against our willes to endure that which wee woulde gladlie auoide it is violence it is neither obedience nor patience and consequentlie it hath neither merits nor thankes with GOD. The death then of the soule which is a separation from the fauour and grace of God did Christ suffer it willinglie or vnwillinglie if willinglie there coulde bee no greater neglect of GOD then to bee willing to bee separated from God It were disobedience and insolence in the highest degree to be glad and forwarde to forsake God or to bee forsaken of him Christ therefore must not bee willing to suffer the death of the soule least wee wrap him within the compasse of contemning and reiecting the grace and fauour of GOD which are sinnefull enormities Was hee vnwilling to suffer it then coulde hee bee neither obedient nor patient in suffering it All vertue is voluntarie compulsion hath no merite God loueth a cheerefull giuer and sufferer Hee that murmureth in heart rebelleth though hee holde still his tongue So likewise I must aske if Christ suffered the death of the soule did hee suffer it iustlie or vniustlie if vniustlie God could not be the sole and immediate agent in imposing it and besides God no creature canne bereaue the soule of life Did hee suffer it iustlie then must hee be voide of all vertue for nothing but sinne deserueth the death of the soule Obedience and patience merite thankes with God and cannot wante the blessing of God where the death of the soule is the greatest curse that God inflicteth heere on earth And where they thinke it woulde greatelie increase the loue of Christ towardes vs if hee vouchsafed to taste the death of the soule for our sakes I replie that supposition woulde make Christ a sinner if not a lyar which God forbid shoulde once enter our thoughtes For â—irst Christ saieth Greater loue then this hath no man that one should laie downe his life for his friendes But God commendeth his loue towards vs that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. If it be loue for a man to loose his soule for his friend then is there found a greater loue then Christ euer knew for he saith there is no greater loue theÌ„ for a maÌ„ to laie downe his life And the Apostle applying it to Christ saith The height of Gods loue was this that Christ died for sinners that is for his enemies not for his friendes sinne beeing enmitie to God and sinners enemies to the holinesse of his will and glory of his kingdome This loue of Christ by which he died for vs we reiect as little worth vnlesse hee endured the losse of Gods fauour for vs which I take to bee sinne and not loue For loue is due first and aboue all to God then to men this order of loue if we breake it is no charitie it is iniquitie What doe all wicked ones but preferre the loue of themselues or of others before the loue of God to loue men so well that wee waxe willing to forsake the fauour and fellowship of God is transgression against God and not compassion towards men and therefore wee maie not bring the sonne of God within the listes of this loue no not for an houre by reason the loue of God afore all others may not faile in the hart of Christ not for a moment bee it neuer so short For our loue then he tooke flesh when he was God which was infinite humilitie and gaue his life for his enemies which was exceeding charitie and in the course thereof referred himself wholie to the wil and pleasure of God which was exact obedience willinglie but wrongfullie suffering whatsoeuer the malice of Satan and rage of the wicked contriued against him the wise and gracious counsell of God so turning the mischiefe of the diuell and his members to the generall good of mankind that Christes innocent and righteous bloud being furiously and vniustly shed by the hands of his enemies became the true sacrifice for sinne and the full price of mans redemption Farther then this if we will force the sonne of God with our fancies as namelie to the death or curse of the soule wee doe not onelie diminish the strength of his loue towardes God but we debase the price of his bloud and make it rather detestable then acceptable in Gods sight For nothing can please God but that which is RIGHTEOVS INNOCENT HOLIE VNDEPILED And in a dead or cursed soule what place leaue we for these giftes and graces of the holie Ghost Since then our high Priest must be holie harmelesse vndefiled and separate from sinners before his sacrifice coulde bee accepted the soule of Christ must necessarilie bee replenished with all goodnesse and embraced with all fauour before the death of his bodie could be an offering of a sweete sauour vnto God and so the power of Christes death is no whitte encreased but altogither weakened if wee conioyne it with the death of the soule The death of the soule then doth not encrease the obedience patience and loue of Christ towardes vs but doth rather decrease and endanger all the vertues of our Sauiour For if Christ suffered the death of the soule which is Gods immediate action since God will offer his owne sonne neither violence nor wrong wee must confesse that Christ deserued the death
then descended Next that neither paradise nor Abrahams bosome which was the receptacle for y e soules of all the sonnes of Abraham that held the faith and did the works of Abraham was anie part or member of hell So that CHRISTS DESCENDING INTO HELL cannot be expounded of his conuersing with the spirites of the iust and perfect men after his death nor of his enduring the state of the deade since the place where their soules doe rest after death is no where in the scriptures called HELL or SHEOL or as S. Austen speaketh INFERI And this I take to be so cleere that neither Iewish Rabbines with their grammaticall obseruations nor Gréeke poets with their fantasticall imaginations may be suffered to contradict it Howe easie it is to wrangle with the words NEPHESH SHEOL and HADES a meane scholar maie soon perceiue but I hold it no sound course to fetch the explication of the mysteries of christian religion either from such impudent impugners of it as were the Rabbines or from such ignorant deluders of it as were the prophane poets who talke euerie where of heauen and hell according to the false and lewde perswasion of their own hearts And therfore they may spare their paines that promise vs so manie thousand deponentes both Iewish and heathen that Sheol and Hades do not signifie hell It wil trouble them more then they thinke to bring vs but one good proofe out of the scripture that the soules of the righteous before Christs comming were in Sheol or Hades and till they doe I rest on Saint Austens collection out of the wordes of Christ that Abrahams bosome is no péece nor part of Hades or Inferi which the hebrew calleth Sheol as being deuided from it with a mightie distance and that the soules of the iust departing this life before Christs death were CARIED VP BY THE ANGELS INTO ABRAHAMS BOSOME So that as yet wee haue not the true meaning of these words of our creed he was CRVCIFIED DEAD BVRIED HE DESCENDED INTO HEL neither doeth anie of the precedent opinions come nére the plaine and true exposition thereof For in my iudgement they must haue a sense both DIFFERENT in matter and CONSEQVENT in order euen as they lie before we can rightlie vnderstand thē First he must be DEAD then BVRIED in body which was laid in y e earth lastlie the soule after it was seuered by death from the bodie DESCENDED INTO HEL this third point he descended into hell must neither be ALLEGORIZED which in matters of faith is verie dangerous so long as the proper sense containeth a truth nor CONFOVNDED VVITH THE FORMER for so the Créed shal not shortly touch mysteries of religion but darckly trouble vs with phrases of variation And therefore for my part I retaine in expounding this Article 3. things DISTINCTION of matter CONSEQVENCE of order PROPRIETY of words and those thrée considered the sense of the Article maie must be that Christ after his BODY was BVRIED in SOVLE DESCENDED VNTO that place which the scripture properly calleth HEL this sense I find to be so far from any falsity or absurdity that it is more honorable to Christ and more comfortable to christians then any of the rest that we haue yet examined Which that you may the better perceiue giue me leaue somewhat farther to repeat the fruit and force of his glorious resurrection Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept not that neuer none before Christ was restored from the deade to liue héere on earth but though many were so reuiued againe yet from the foundation of the worlde not one was euer raised vnto a blessed and immortall life before Christ. Elias raised the widow of Sareptas sonne Elizeus the Sunamites Christ himselfe restored to life the daughter of Iairus the widowes onlie sonne of Naim and Lazarus yet all these after their returne to life were still subiect to sinne and death as they were before but he whom the scripture nameth the first begotten of the dead was indéede the first that euer rose from the deade into an happy and heauenly life For where man here on earth is beset with thrée dangers with SINNE during life with DEATH shortning life with HEL tormenting after life the iust vengeance of sinne deliuering the body to death the soule to hel the resurrection of Christ being the ful conquest of all his our enemies that impugne either his glory or our safety must ouerthrowe sinne death hel not in his own person onlie to whom no such thing was due but in our stéed for our good y t we might bee likewise fréed from the power of those foes and as members be ioyned vnto our head wholy without any hinderance euerlastingly without anie disturbance and ioyfully without any gréeuance Wherfore Christ rising into a SPIRITVAL IMMORTAL CELESTIAL life fréed vs from the dominion of sinne feare of death and fury of Satan and by quickening vs raising vs vp and setting vs together with himselfe in heauenly places hath not only giuen vs the victorie against sinne and death but euen trodden down Satan vnder our féet Of Christs conquest against sinne death I shall not néed to say much things not impugned require lesse paines to be defended his conquest ouerhel as in himself it shewed most power purchased most honor so from vs it deserueth greatest thanks as bringing vs greatest comfort that though sinne remaine death preuaile against our bodies there is yet no cause to feare or doubt the fulnesse and surenesse of our redemption since the strength of hell is altogether conquered abolished from the faithfull which before was the very sting of sinne and death As therfore Christ was deliuered to death for our sinnes and is risen againe for our iustification so by MERCY REMITTING and GRACE REPRESSING he pareth the branches and drieth the roote of sinne till the bodie of sinne and death turning to dust withering in the graue be restored againe after Christs example to perpetuall celestial life and blisse Insomuch that by lamenting sinne past and resisting sinne to come sin daily dieth in vs and the inward man of the heart being lightened and renewed by grace doth daily more and more by desire and delight of heauenly thinges aspire to the imitation and participation of Christes resurrection The force of sinne then being quenched by Christes dying vnto sinne and his rising againe vnto righteousnesse the power of death is abolished by the pardoning and decreasing of our sinnes that being nowe the passage to glorie for all repenters which before was the gate to hell for all transgressors In his owne person Christ shewed his conquest ouer death not by kéeping his flesh from death which he could easilie haue done but by sauing it from rotting in the sepulchre and by raising it againe into an immortall and glorious state that death being swallowed vp
Touching the place Thaddaeus one of the seuentie taught as wee heard out of Eusebius that Christ descended into hell and brake the wall that was neuer before broken From the deade manie rose before Christes death and therefore the partition betwixt death and life was often broken by others before Christes resurrection but from hell neuer returned anie but onelye Christ by reason that wall was neuer broken but by the Sonne of GOD. Athanasius in like sorte In suae ad nostri similitudinem forma nostram inibi depingens mortem vt in ea resurrectionem pro nobis concinnaret ex sepulchro quidē corpus animam vero ex ORCO reducem faceret vt in morte mortem dissolueret per exhibitionem animae per sepulchrum corporis in sepulchro corruptionem aboleret ex orco verò sepulchro immortalitatem incorruptionem ostendit in forma nobis consimili viam nostram emensus nostramque detentionem relaxans hoc ipsum eximij miraculi fuit In his likenesse to our nature Christe accomplishing our death that in the same hee might perform his resurrection for vs ' brought his BODIE OVT OF THE GRAVE his SOVLE OVT OF HEL that in death he might dissolue death by presenting his soule there and by the buriall of his bodie he might abolish corruption in the graue So that euen from hell and from the graue hee shewed immortalitie of the soule and incorruption of the body treading the verie way that we should haue trod in the likenesse of our nature and releasing of our detention And this was a marueilous wonder When Athanasius saith that Christ in his humane nature trodde the verie same way of death that wee should haue done his bodie and soule going to those very places whither ours should haue gone he doth not mean the place of rest where y e soules of the righteous were before Christs comming but the place whither the souls of men were condemned for the sin of their first father which is not Paradise nor Abrahams bosome but the place of the damned where the true death of the soule and wages of sin are by Gods iustice inflicted Heare his owne words Vbi corruptum fuerat humanum corpus eó suum corpus protecit Iesus vbitenebatur anima humana in morte ibi exhibuit humanam suam animam vt ipse inuictus à morte tanquam hominem se praesentem ostenderet solueret catenas mortis vt Deus vt vbi seminata fuerat corruptio inde exoriretur incorruptibilitas VBI REGNAVERAT MORS IN FORMA HVMANAE ANIMAE ibi ipse ille mortalis praesens immortalitatem exhiberet atque ita NOS PARTICIPES redderet suae incorruptibilitatis immortalitatis per spem resurrectionis ex mortuis Where the bodie of man vsed to rot thither Iesus cast his body and VVHERE THE SOVLE OF MAN VVAS HELD IN DEATH there did he exhibite his humane soule that hee being in no wise to bee conquered by death might both shewe himselfe there present as man and yet break the chaines of death as God that where corruption was sowed thence incorruption might rise euen from the graue where death raigned ouer mens soules which must néedes be in hell there he being present as a mortall man might demonstrate his immortalitie and so make vs partakers of his incorruption in flesh and immortalitie in soule by the hope of resurrection from the dead And because Hilarius and Fulgentius doe so fullie concurre with Athanasius that if we trulie conceiue the one we shall easilie vnderstand the other you shall see the same doctrine which the other two follow more fullie deliuered by Athanasius Quide Adae inobedientia quaestionem habuit indicioque peracto duplicem paenam in sententia sua complexus erat dum rei terrestri italoquitur Terraes in terram reuerteris at que ita pro decreto domini corpus in terram abscedit animae dixit morte morieris atque hinc est quod homo in duas partes discerpitur et vt ad duo loca discedat condemnatur Ac proinde upos fuit illo ipso iudice qui hoc decretū tulerat vt ipse per se sententiā solueret sub specie condēnati incondēnatū se sincerūque a peccatis ostēdens vt hominem deo reconciliaret hominemque totum in libertatem vindicaret I am si mihi alium locum condemnationis praeter hos duos ostendere potestis merito hominem dixeritis tripliciter diuidi Quod si tertium aliquem locum ostender◠non potestis PRAETER SEPVLCHRVM ET INFERNVM ex quibus plané ereptus est homo Christo assertore per suam speciem cum nostri similitudine congruentem cur igitur dicitis deum nondum propitiatum esse Hee that examined Adams disobedience and in the ende of his iudgement comprised in his sentence against Adam a double punishment speaking thus to the terrestriall part of man earth thou art aad to earth shalt thou returne and according to this decree the Lords body was laid in earth euen he said to the soule thou shalt die the death and thereupon man dying is distracted in two partes and condemned to two places Insomuch that it was requisite the verie same iudge which pronounced this decree should by himselfe dissolue this sentence in the shew of a man condemned but yet prouing him selfe to be vncondemned and cleere from sinne that he might reconcile man to God and reduce the whole man to libertie Nowe if you can name me any other place whereto man was condemned besides these two rightly may you thinke man after death is to be deuided into three places but if you can shewe me no third place besides the graue for the bodie and hell for the soule from both which man is fullie freed Christ deliuering him with like parts of himselfe answerable to our nature how say you then that God is not yet satisfied The whole man in Adam was in such sort condemned for sinne that his bodie returned to corruption in the earth and his soule departed to tormentes in hell which is the death of the soule after this life To the verie same places whither man was condemned in the same partes of our nature the sonne of GOD vouchsafed to descende that by the lying of his bodie in the earth our bodies might at the last daie bee raised out of the earth and by the presence of his soule in hell on which the force of hell coulde not fasten our soules might for euer be deliuered from comming thither This condemnation of the bodie to the graue and of the soule to hell for sinne is that law of humane necessity which Hilary speaketh of wherto the Lord Iesus submitted himself not that his flesh should sée corruption or his soule tast of dānatiō but y t by the presence of his body in the graue of his soule in hell he might shew himselfe inuincible to both
faithfull before and after Christs comming that in this life they should be secured in the next saued from him that had the power of death and from the gates of hell Fulgentius teacheth this doctrine as Catholicke Sicut mortuus pro nobis omnes nos sibi commori fecit sic solutis doloribus inferni omnes fideles ab ysdem doloribus liberauit As Christ dying for vs made vs all to die with him so dissoluing the paines of hell he DELIVERED ALL THE FAITHFVLL from the same As all the godlie that euer were are or shall be died in Christes flesh vnto sinne so all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the end therof were deliuered from the paines of hell by the presence and power of Christs soule breaking the strength and loosing the sorrowes of death euen in hell And therefore hee saith Christ called himselfe free among the dead vt ostenderet animam suam à peccato liberam in infernum pro NOBIS PECCATORIBVS DESCENDISSE to shew that his soule clecre froÌ„ sinne descended into hel FOR VS SINNERS So that Christ descended to hell FOR ALL THE FAITHFVL and FOR VS SINNERS to deliuer them and vs from the sorrowes of the second death and not for certaine whom he found in hell when he came thither Hilarius ioyneth in the same confession that Christ killing death in hell confirmed the faith OF OVR HOPE with his resurrection and breaking the gates of hell purchased a people that shoulde inherite with him Athanasius euerie where treadeth the same steppes teaching vs that Christ perfited his resurrection FOR VS and out of hell and the graue brought immortalitie and incorruption releasing OVR DETENTION And againe Christ brake the chaines of death as God that where death raigned ouer mens soules there he being present as a man might demonstrate immortalitie in his soule and so MAKE VS PARTAKERS of his incorruption And lastlie where death both of soule and bodie was inflicted on man for sinne the one in the graue the other in hell hee that gaue the iudgement dissolued the sentence in his owne person vnder the shewe of a man condemned but in deede vncondemned and free from sinne that hee might reconcile MAN to God and bring THE VVHOLE MAN into libertie FROM THE GRAVE THEN AND FROM HEL MAN VVAS FREED CHRIST DELIVERING HIM And least it should séeme strange that our soules were deliuered from hel â—y Christs descent thither where they neuer were S. Austen expounding Dauids words Thou hast deliuered my soule froÌ„ the nethermost hell sheweth that men may bee deliuered as well from DANGERS CONSEQVENT as PRESENT and as well from that which is DESERVED as from that which is INFLICTED And first y t Christ deliuered OVR SOVLES from hell by his comming thither though we were not there his words are plaine Est aliud infernum inferius quò eunt mortui vnde voluit deus eruere ANIMAS NOSTRAS etiam illuc mittendo filium suum Propterea vox eius est in illo psalmo non quoquam homine conijciente sed Apostolo exponente vbi ait quoniaÌ„ non dereliquisti animam meaÌ„ in inferno Ergo aut ipsius vox est hic et eruisti animaÌ„ meane ab inferno inferiori aut nostra vox est per ipsum christuÌ„ dominuÌ„ nostruÌ„ quia ideo ille peruenit vsque ad infernuÌ„ ne NOS REMANEREMVS in inferno There is a lower hel whither y e dead go wheÌ„ce it pleased God to deliuer OVR SOVLES by sending his son thither Therfore those are Christs words in y e psalme not by maÌ„s coniecture but by the Apostles exposition where he saith y â— hast not left my soule in hel So y t this verse Thou hast deliuered my soule froÌ„ the nethermost hel is either the voice of Christ in this psalm or it is our voice in the person of Christ our Lord because he therefore went to hell LEAST VVE SHOVLD ABIDE for euer IN HEL And to proue this speach to be vsuall y t we are deliuered from the dangers places in which we neuer were but should haue bin if wee had not bin saued thence hee addeth Recte dicis medico liberasti me ab agritudine non in quaiaÌ„ eras sed in qua futurus eras Mittendus erat quis in carcerem venit alius defendit eum gratias agens quid dicit eruisti animam meam de carcere Suspendendus erat debitor solutum est debitum pro eo liberatus dicitur de suspendio In his omnibus non orant sed quia talibus meritis agebantur vt nisi subuentum esset ibi essent inde se recte dicunt liberari quò per liberatores suos non sunt permissi perduci Thou sayest rightlie to thy physitiaÌ„ you haue deliuered me froÌ„ this sicknes not in which thou wast but into which thou wast like to fall A man is about to be cast into prison another commeth and rescueth him What saith he when he giueth thanks you deliuered me out of prison A debtor was in danger to be hanged the debt is paid for him he is said to be deliuered from hanging In all these things they were not but because such were their desertes that vnlesse they had beene holpen they had fallen into them THEY RIGHTLY MAY SAY THEY VVERE DELIVERED thence VVHITHER THEY VVERE NOT SVFFERED TO COME by those that deliuered them Tertullian declining to Montanisme in his booke de anima and defending the soules of al the faithful after Christs comming to be kept apud Inferos in the region of hell till the daie of iudgement saue of martyrs to whome onely he opened Paradise confessâ—th the other side which in deed were true christians made this obiection against him Sed in hoc inquiunt Christus inferos adijt ne nos adiremus Caeterum quod discrimen ethnicorum christianorum ficarcer mortuis idem But to this end they say Christ went to hell that we should not come thither For what difference between the Ethnickes and Christians if after death they be both in one prison So that in all ages this doctrine was preserued in the church which the scriptures doe warrant that Christ by his death destroied the deuil and deliuered all the godlie from the feare not of the first death which they cannot auoide and néed not to feare but of the second death in hell which is iustlie to be feared and can no way be preuented but by the power of that redemption which we haue in Christ Iesus But all the fathers with one consent affirme that Christ deliuered the soules of the patriarks prophets out of hel at his comming thither and so spoiled Satan of those y t were in his present possession The doctrin of Christs descending into hel to saue al his meÌ„bers from coÌ„ming thither must not be confounded with this disputation whether y e soules of the prophets
idem verus homo fieret morteÌ„ gustare non posset Et ideÌ„ homo qui mortem gustauit siverus deus vita aeterna non esset morteÌ„ vincere non valeret Excepto illo qui sic homo est vt idem sit deus quis est homo qui destruxerit mortem aut quis eruet animam suaÌ„ de manu inferi mors autem filij dei quam SOLA CARNE suscepit VTRAMQVE IN NOBIS MORTEM animae scilicet carnisque destruxit resurrectio carnis eius gratiam nobis spiritualis corporalis resurrectionis attribuit vt prius iustificati per fidem mortis resurrectionis filij dei resuscitemur ab infidelitatis morte post primam resurrectionem scilicet animarum quae nobis in fide collocata est etiam istacarne in qua nunc vistimus resurgamus nunquam denuo morituri The true and liuing God yea the God that is truth it self and life euerlasting if he were not also true man could not haue tasted death and that man which tasted death except he had beene likewise the true God and eternall life hee could not haue conquered death Sauing he that was both God and man what man could haue destroied death or deliuered his own soule from the power of hell But the death of the sonne of God VVHICH HE SVFFERED IN HIS FLESH ONELIE destroied both deaths in vs as well of soule as bodie and the resurrection of his flesh gaue vs the grace both of a spirituall and corporall resurrection that being first iustified by faith in the death and resurrection of the sonne of God we might bee raised from the death of infidelitie and after the first resurrection which is of the soule from sinne giuen vs by faith we may also rise in this flesh in which we now liue neuer to die anie more Cum SOLA MORERETVR ET RESVSCITARETVR IN CHRISTO propter vnitatem personae dei hominis filius dei dicitur mortuus Totum igitur HOMINEM cum suis infirmitatibus sine peccato dei filius accepit in tota traditus idem Christus SECVNDVM SOLAM CARNEM MORTVVS Totus Christus secundum solam animam ad infernum descendit Humanitas ergo vera filij dei nec tota fuit in sepulchro nec tota in inferno sed in sepulchro secundum carnem Christus mortuus iacuit secundum animam ad infernum Christus descendit Secundum diuinitatem vero suam quae nec loco tenetur nec fine concluditur totus fuit in sepulchro cum carne totus in inferno cum anima Aciper hoc plenus fuit vbique Christus quia non est deus ab humanitate quam susceperat separatus qui in anima fuit vt solutis infernidolosuus AB INFERNO VICTRIX REDIRET in carne suafuit vt celeri resurrectione corrumpi non posset Whereas ONELIE THE FLESH died and was raised againe in Christ yet for the vnitie of the person being God and man the sonne of God is said to haue died The whole nature of man then with our infirmities the sonne of God tooke vnto him for our sakes but without sinne in the whole nature the same Christ beeing deliuered DIED ACCORDING TO THE FLESH ONLY and whole Christ descended into hell according to the soule onlie So that the true manhood of the sonne of God was neither wholie in the sepulchre nor wholie in hell but in the sepulchre Christ lay dead in his true flesh and in his soule Christ descended into hell But as touching his diuinitie which is neither comprehended in place nor measured with end whole Christ was in the graue with his flesh and whole Christ in hell with his soule And thereby whole Christ was euery where because his Godhead was not seuered from his manhood but was with his soule that dissoluing the sorrowes of hell it might returne conquerour from hell and with his flesh that speedilie rising it might not see corruption The darke places of Peter that Christ by his spirit preached vnto the spirites that are now in prison which in the daies of Noe were disobedient whiles the Arke was preparing and likewise that the Gospell was preached vnto the dead I omit as nothing pertinent to Christs descent to hell the first being verified in the time and by the mouth of Noe and the second performed by the preaching of the Apostles as Saint Austen long since obserued who saith of the first Considera ne fortè totum illud quod de conclusis incarcere spiritibus qui in diebus Noe non crediderant Petrus Apostolus dicit omnino ad inferos non pertineat sed ad illa potius tempora quorum formam ad haec tempora transtulit Take heede least happily all that which Peter speaketh of spirits closed in prison which beleeued not in the daies of Noe doe not at all pertaine to hell but rather to those times which Peter compareth with our age and of the second Quod Petrus dicit propter hoc mortuis Euangelizatum est vt iudicentur secundum homines in carne vinant autem secundum deum spiritu non cogit apud inferos intelligi Propterea ènim in hac vita mortuis Euangelizatum est idest infidelibus iniquis vt cum crediderint iudicentur secundum homines in carne hoc est in diuersis tribulationibus in ipsa morte carnis That which Peter saieth to this purpose was the Gospel preached vnto the deade that they might bee iudged according to men in the flesh but liue according to God in the spirit hath no necessitie to be applied to hell For the Gospel is preached in this life to the dead that is to the infidels and sinners that when they beleeue they might be iudged in the flesh after the maner of men by diuerse troubles and euen by the death of the flesh This I repeate the rather because some late writers haue borrowed Saint Austens exposition and suppressed Saint Austens name as if they were the first that euer looked into the truth of these places Other reasons there are but they are not worth the ripping vp I will therfore trouble you no further To the father that spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all to the sonne that laide downe his life for vs and redeemed vs with his precious bloud to the holie Ghost which sealeth the sufferings and comforts of Christ in our harts euen to the king euerlasting immortal inuisible and God onelie wise be honour and glorie for euer and euer Amen The Conclusion to the Reader for the cleering of certaine obiections made against the doctrine before handled I Promised thee Christian reader in y e preface of this booke to giue thée a taâ—â— in the conclusion how rashly weakly the doctrine which thou hast now read was confuted before it was printed by one that professeth He could not forbeare but imploy his talent to cleare the
CVRSE is powred vpon vs written in the law of Moses because of our sinnes Ierusalem and thy people are a REPROCH to all about vs. If the scriptures were not cleare that shame and reproch is a chiefe part of Gods curse against sinne howe manie wise men and good men choose death before shame What generous nature doth not more decline slandering then wounding In common reason to which you appeale howe can it bee lesse wrong or griefe to whippe the soule with reproches then the bodie with scourges Uerily our Sauiour who best knoweth the waight of both giueth like reward to both Blessed are you when men reuile you and speake all maner of euill against you for my sake falselie reioice and be glad for great is your reward in heauen As you shuffle with the shame which our Sauiour suffered on the Crosse so you doe with his death affirming that Death may in no sort heere be called a curse because death to the godlie is no curse properlie nor punishment of sinne but a benefite and aduantage You are too yoong a Doctor to controll Saint Austen whose wordes I haue alledged in the Treatise at large His resolution is that when Paule saieth Christ was made a curse for vs he meant Christ died for vs. Idem est mortuus quod maledictus quoniam mors ipsa ex maledicto est It is all one to saie Christ died for vs and hee was accursed for vs because death came from the curse This you denie for that the godlie after death goe to heauen which is rather a benefite then a curse to them Good Sir it is no benefite of death it selfe but Christes blessing after death that departing this life wee goe to heauen Did you incourage men to die since of force for sinne dwelling in their bodies they must die it were well said that death is rest from their labours and an entrance into blisse for so Christ hath prouided for his when they goe hence but if you will reason what death is in it selfe you must resolue it to be a part of Gods curse inflicted on Adam for sinne and from him naturallie deriued to all his posterity from which though our soules be exempted and our bodies shall be restored yet it remaineth to this day a part of Adams punishment which can not bee auoided though it must not bee feared because Christ hath ouerthrowne the force and feare therof with his death By one man saith Paul meaning Adam sinne entred into the world and by sin death I hope it entered not as a blessing God doâ—h not vse to blesse sinne but it entered as a part of the wages of sinne or curse for sinne and so it doth and shall continue to the ende The last enemie that shall be destroied saith Paul is death when this mortall hath put on immortalitie then is death swallowed vp in victorie till then the sting of death is sinne If the death of the bodie be an enemie and must be destroied by Christs second comming then is it no blessing for those shall increase when hee appeareth in glorie If Christ be in you saith Paul the spirit is life for righteousnes sake the bodie is deade because of sinne If sinne bee the cause of death yet seazing on our bodies it can bee no blessing that riseth from so badde a cause neither could the resurrection of our bodies which Christ hath promised and we expect at the last day bee so great a ioy as it is if the corruption of our bodies in the meane time were a blessing Gods blessings be not contrarie one to the other S. Austen learnedlie resolueth this question in this sort Boni benè moriuntur quamuis mors sit malum The godlie die well though death be euill Mors hominis ex poena peccati est quia ex peccato factum est vt moriatur The death of mans body commeth from the punishment of sinne because sinne brought it to passe that man dieth This conclusion in exact wordes Prosper collecteth out of saint Austen Mors etiam pâ—orum poena peccati est The corporall death euen of the godlie is the punishment of sinne This collection to bee true S. Austen himselfe confirmeth Si vero quom mouet cur velipsam patiantur si ipsa poenapeccati est quorum per gratiam reatus aboletur tam ista quaestio in alio nostro opere quod inscripsimus de Baptismo paruulorum tractata ac soluta est If it moue any man why they whose sinne is abolished by grace doe yet suffer the death of the bodie if that death bee a punishment of sinne that Question I haue handled and resolued in another worke of mine intituled of the baptisme of infants The effect of his resolution here is this Per ineffabilem dei misericordiam ipsa poena vitiorum transit in arma virtâ—tis sit merituÌ„ iusti etiam suppliciuÌ„ peccatoris NON QVIA MORS BONVM ALIQVOD FACTA EST QVAE ANTEA MALVM FVIT sed tantam deus fidei praestitit gratiam vt mors instrumentum fieret per quod transiretur in vitam By the vnspeakeable mercie of God the verie wages of vice becommeth an instrument of vertue and the punishment of a sinner is made the merite of the righteous not that death VVHICH BEFORE VVAS EVILL IS NOVV BECOME ANIE GOOD THING but God hath shewed so great fauour to our faith that death is the waie or meane by which wee shall passe to life And so concludeth that Pie fideliterque tolerando auget meritum patientiae non aufert vocabulum poenae By induring the death of the bodie religiouslie and faithfullie the merite of patience is increased but the name of the punishment is not altered And if death were nowe no part of the punishment of our sinnes but a gaine to the godlie as you woulde haue it by what meanes I praie you came it so to bee Not by the resurrection of Christ conquering death and changing the nature of it Then till Christ was risen death was a punishment to the faithfull themselues and consequentlie when Christ died for our sinnes hee tooke vpon him a part of our curse which after he turned as you saie into a blessing Primus parens propter transgressionem mortis poenam intulit verum superceniens Christus haec omnia abstulit Neque enim mors vltra mors est sed nomen tantum habet mortis Our first parent by his transgression brought in the punishment of death But Christ comming after tooke all away For death is no longer death but hath onelie the name of death Ipsam mortem quamuis esset poena peccati pro nobis tamen sine peccato Christus per soluit Death it selfe saieth Austen though it were the punishment of sinne yet Christ that was without sinne vndertooke it for our sakes And so for anie thing you haue yet said or shall euer be able to say
other manner of purchases then the due paiment of mans debt Howe coulde that bee due vnto the lawe which ouerthrew the law Sinners such as we are were to die by the lawe but that the sonne of God should die for vs what lawe did or coulde require that at his handes you shall doe well therefore to leaue these â—angerous discourses and learne to saie with the scripture and fathers that loue not lawe desire not debt mercy not necessity brought the sonne of God from his throne in heauen to his crosse on earth Such was the sentence of the lawe you will saie that without death he could not redeeme vs. Naie such was his loue you should saie that euen with his death hee would redeeme vs. Cum posset nobis etiam non moriendo succurrere subuenire tamen moriendo hominibus voluit quia nos videlicet minus amasset nisi vulnera nostra susciperet nec vim suae dilectionis nobis ostenderet nisi hoc quod a nobis tolleret ad tempus ipse sustineret Passibiles quippe mortalesque nos reperit qui nos existere fecit ex nihilo reuocare etiam sine sua morte potuit à passione Sed vt quanta esset virtus Compassionis ostenderet fieri pro nobis dignatus est quod esse nos voluit vt in semetipso temporaliter mortem susciperet quam á nobis in perpetuum fugaret Christ when he might haue succoured vs without dying woulde rather helpe man by dying saieth Gregorie because he had loued vs lesse if he had not taken to himselfe our woundes neither had hee shewed vs the strength of his loue vnlesse hee had for a tyme sustayned that from which he deliuered vs. Hee founde vs miserable and mortall yet hee that made vs of nothing might haue recalled vs from our miserie without his owne death But that hee might declare howe greate the vertue of Compassion is hee vouchsafed to bee that which hee appointed vs to bee that receauing a temporall death in himselfe hee might chase it from vs for euer Those saieth Austen that aske did GOD so want meanes to deliuer men from the miserie of this mortalitie that hee woulde haue his onelie begotten sonne to bee made a mortall man and to suffer death It is not enough so to refute that wee shewe this waie to be good and agreeable to the diuine excellencie whereby God vouchsafed to deliuer vs by the Mediatour of God and man Christ Iesus verum etiam vt ostendamus NON ALIVM MODVM POSSIBILEM DEO DEFVISSE cuius potestati cuncta aequaliter sub iacent sed sanandae nostrae miseriae conuenientiorem alium modum non fuisse nec esse oportuisse but also that wee shewe God VVANTED NOT OTHER MEANES to whose power all thinges are subiect but that neither there was nor coulde bee a more conuenient way to heale our misery For what was so needefull to raise vp our hope and to free mens mindes from despairing immortalitie being alreadie deiected by the condition of their mortalitie as to make euident shewe vnto vs how much God esteemed vs and how much hee loued vs whereof what plainer or perfiter proofe could be made then that the sonne of God remaining that he was would take from vs for vs that which he was not and vouchsafe to be amongst vs and first without anie deserte of his to beare our miseries and vpon vs then beleeuing how greatly God loued vs and hoping where afore wee despaired to bestowe without all merit of ours yea when wee deserued euill at his handes the giftes of his grace with bounty no way prouoked by vs. And so Ambrose By one mans death the world was redeemed Christ might if hee woulde haue refrained from death but hee neither refused death as vnprofitable neither could he haue saued vs any better waie then by dying So that no legall necessitie much lesse Iudiciall seueritie brought Christ to his Crosse but to teach vs obedience to God by his example to demonstrato his loue to vs by refusing nothing for our sakes and to declare his owne power whose weakenesse was stronger then all his and our enemies and to strengthen our patience and giue vs comfort in all the troubles of this life he chose the paynefull and shamefull death of the Crosse and there shewed so perfitte a patterne of obedience innocence patience that the Angels themselues did admire it So farre you make Christ suertie for vs that in taking our person on him hee became by our sinne sinnefull defiled hatefull and accoursed Similitudes if you sucke nothing from them but that which is agreeable to y e truth in teaching may be tolerated in concluding they wil halt That Christ is a suerty we find it once mentioned in the scriptures but not to y e law to pay our debtes but of a better testament euen of the new couenant of grace established in his bloud wherof he is also the mediator priest Now he died for vs not as a suerty bound to y e law but as a mediator to God for vs he interposed himself of his own accord to yeeld such recompence vnto his father as hee should be pleased to accept for vs. If you wil needs vse similitudes vse rather the similitude of a mediator and Redeemer which the scriptures often call him then of a suerty therby to bind him not onely to suffer the paines of hell in our stéede but also to defile him with our sinnes and make him hatefull to God by our curse No similitudes can prooue Christ in taking our person on him to be SINNEFVLL DEFILED HATEFVL and ACCVRSED and therfore your vncleane mouth and vncleaner heart that thus speake and thinke of the sonne of God are worthier of castigation then of refutation I know you will pretend the Apostles wordes God made him sinne for vs that knewe no sinne but howsoeuer some late writers turne sinne into sinner and thence giue cause of these and the like speaches the church of God from the beginning hath warilie declined such irreuerent wordes and yet plainelie confesse the truth That God MADE HIM SINNE hath two good and approoued senses one that he made him a sacrifice for sinne and so the clenser of sinne and no waie defiled by our sinne the other that he punished our sinnes in him and vsed him as hee doth sinners They that know saith Austen the scriptures of the olde testament acknowledge this that I saie Not once but often and verie often it is found Sacrifices for sinnes are called sinnes Then him that knewe no sinne God made sinne for vs that is a sacrifice for sinne Christ was made sinne in that he was offered to abolish sinne And againe peccatum vocabatur in lege sacrificium pro peccato assidue lex hoc commemorat non semel non iterum sed saepissime Tale peccatum erat Christus Peccatum non habebat peccatum erat peccatum erat
from the life of God of which death the Diuell is sayde to haue the power and execution Therefore in the former place death signifieth so to euen the death of the soule that is the torments and sorrowes due to the damned and consequently Christ suffered the death of the soule And because this reason will seeme altogether vnreasonable and harsh in the eares of some to saie the least of it let them soberlie consider it and it is most true and euident Or if this will not perswade men to beleeue that Christ died the death of the soule men liuing being surprised with grieuous sorrowes and paines will saie as Terence witnesseth occidi perij interij they die they perish So likewise the death of the soule sometimes maie bee vnderstoode and that most sitlie for the paines and sufferinges of Gods wrath which alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God And if Terence bee not authoritie sufficient Saint Peter against whome lieth no exception saith that Christ in his suffering for vs was done to death in the flesh but made aliue by the spirite And in the Scripture whensoeuer the fleshe and the spirite are opposed togither the flesh is alwayes Christes whole humanitie I saie not his bodie onelie but his soule also From hence nowe it followeth that Christes soule also died and was crucified according to the death and crucifying which soules are subiect vnto and capable of I haue Christian Reader neither peruerted the reasons nor pared the authorities on which this Confuter groundeth his conclusion that Christ died the death of the soule and that Christs soule was also crucified as well as his bodie I haue onelie sette them togither that thou maiest with one view behold both the deepnes and soundnesse of this vpstart writer and in thy secrete and vpright iudgement is it not patience enough to heare and endure a two legged creature to talke in this sort without all learning religion or discretion controlling all the fathers as fooles for thinking otherwise then hee doth commaunding the Scriptures pretor-like to serue his ignorant and lewd assertions and estéeming none to be sober or considerate except they confesse his shamefull absurdities to bee most true and euident But I haue not learned nor vsed to giue reuiling spéeches the Lorde reprooue his follie Though it bee not worth the answering yet for their sakes that bee simple I will not refuse to speake to it and to let them see what difference there is betwixt truth and errour Your maine reason Sir Refuter is this in these wordes of the Apostle Christ through death abolished the diuell that had power of death This worde DEATH say you hath the same meaning in both places the proofe you make for it is this verie fond it were to take it here otherwise Your assumption is but death in the latter place questionlesse signifieth the death of the soule Therefore Christ died the death of the soule It were as easie for mee to saie it is not so as for you to saie it is so but that course which you holde is but prating of euerie thing it is no proouing of anie thing Howe manie kinds of death there are wee shall better learne by the graue father Saint Austen then by the young louers in Terence Dicitur mors prima dicitur secunda Primae mortis duae sunt partes vna qua peccatrix anima per culpam discessit a creatore suo altera qua indicante Deo exclusa est per poenam à corpore suo Mors autem secunda ipsa est corporis animae punitio sempiterna There is a first death and a second Death Of the first death there be two parts one when the sinfull soule by offending departed from her Creator the other whereby the soule for her punishment was excluded from her bodie by Gods iustice The second death is the euerlasting torment of bodie and soule The same partes and kindes of death are often repeated by him in his 13. booke de ciuitate Dei as namelie Mors animae fit cum eam deserit Deus sicut corporis cum id deserit anima Ergo vtriusque rei id est totius hominis mors est cum anima à Deo deserta deserit corpus Ita enim nec ipsa vixit ex deo nec corpus ex ipsa Huiusmodi autem totius hominis mortem illa sequitur quam secundam mortem diuinorum eloquiorum appellat authoritas Nam illa poena vltima sempiterna recte mors animae dicitur The death of the soule is when God forsaketh her as the death of the bodie is when the soule forsaketh the bodie So y e death of both that is of the whole man is when the soule forsaken of God forsaketh her bodie For so neither she liueth by God nor the bodie by her This death of the whole man that other death followeth which the diuine scriptures call the second death for that last and euerlasting punishment is rightlie called the death of the soule Here are thrée kinds of death sinne which separateth vs from God bodilie death which separateth the soule from the body and eternall damnation which tormenteth body and soule for euer In the Apostles words to the Hebrues that Christ through death abolished y e diuell that had power of death you wil by no meanes haue the death of the bodie intended that is a benefite and gaine to the godlie Then of sinne and eternall damnation the diuell must be said to haue power and indeede so he hath For hee is the perswader and leader to sinne and the executioner and tormentor in damnation And so by your diuinitie Christ must sinne and be euerlastinglie condemned to hell fire before he can abolish the Diuell that hath power of both these For he must abolish him by the same kind of death whereof hee hath power Looke Sir Refuter what an wholsome exposition of the Apostles words you haue made vs which the diuell himselfe durst not aduenture it is so blasphemous God forbid you will say this should be anie part of your meaning But if such bee your ignorant rashnesse that you will so expound scriptures as these consequents shall necessarie followe you must leaue writing and fall to learning an other while till you be able to foresée what may iustly be inferred vpon your positions Deaths of the soule there are none mentioned in anie Scripture or father but sinne and eternall damnation Leaue the patheticall hyperbolicall metaphoricall phrases of Terence to boies in the Grammer schoole speake at least like a diuine though you bee none If your cause bee so holie a truth as you talke of it hath both foundation and approbation in the Scriptures You shall not neede to runne to heathen Poets to prooue that the Sauiour of the worlde died the death of the soule What the death of the soule is what consequentes it hath and what maine
But you did well to prophesie of this conceite of yours that it woulde seeme harsh and altogether vnreasonable in the eares of some to◠saie the least of it In the eares of all that bee wise and learned it will sound worse for it is a flat repugnancie not only to all the Fathere but euen to the christian faith that Christ died as well in soule as in bodie and as meane a man as I am I thinke I shall bee able to make that good which I saie For if the soule of Christ were alwaies perfectlie vnited vnto life fullie possessed of life and aboundantly able to giue life tell me I praie you howe it maie stande with the trueth of the scriptures that the same soule was for anie time deade you may euen as well defende that Christ sinned as that his soule died for the death of the soule is sinne in this life and damnation in the next Certe anima Christi nulla mortificata peccato vel damnatione punita est quibus duabus causis mors animae intelligi potest Surelie the soule of Christ was deade with no sinne nor punished with any damnation which are the two waies that the death of the soule may bee possibly conceaued The death of the soule say you may be vnderstood that most fitly for the paines and sufferings of Gods wrath which alwaies as company them that are separated from the grace and loue of God This death of the soule yee affirme Christ suffered yet hee himselfe neuer separated but most intirely beloued yea most holie most innocent and most blessed You contradict Sir Refuter not onlie the scriptures and fathers but euen your selfe in one and the same sentence and reele like a man whose braines are not steadie Secundum scripturas triplicem esse mortem accepimus Vna est cum morimur peccato deo viuimus Beata mors quae a mortali nos separat immortali conseruat Alia mors est vitae excessus cum anima nexu corporis liberatur Tertia mors est de qua dictum est anima quae peccauerit ipsa morietur Ea morte non solum caro sed etiam anima moritur haec mors non est perfunctio huius vitae sed lapsus erroris By the scriptures saith Ambrose we learne there is a triple death One when we die to sinne and liue to God This is a blessed death which seuereth vs from that which is mortall and ioineth vs to that which is immortall The second is the departure out of this life when the soule is deliuered from the bandes of her bodie The thirde death is that of which it is written the soule that sinneth shall die this death dieth not onelie the flesh but the soule also for it is not the ending of this life but the running into errour The first is the life of the soule and the death of sinne which is SPIRITVALL The second is the ceasing of this life which is NATVRALL the thirde is not onelie sinne but destruction which is PENALL Which of these agreeth to Christ Ambrose himselfe will tell you Quid est Christus nisi mors corporis spiritus vitae What is Christ but the death of the bodie and the Spirit of life Then Christ died not the death of the soule for the spirit of life cannot die vnlesse you will make life it selfe to bee death Yea they which in this worlde die the death of the soule are separated from Christ for did they abide in him they shoulde abide in life he is the waie the truth and not onelie liuing but life it selfe This testimonie our Sauiour giueth of himselfe Verilie verilie I saie vnto you hee that beleeueth in mee hath eternall life If they cannot die the death of the soule which beleeue in Christ howe mush lesse can Christ himselfe die that death And heere Sir Refuter you broch so grosse and palpable an errour that women and children will deride you For if the tormentes of hell and paines of the damned do alwayes accompany them that are separated from the grace and loue of God howe manie hundred thousand thousandes of all sortes sexes and ages in all kingdomes and countries shoulde bee disturbed distracted and confounded in all the powers of their soules and senses of their bodie where are the riches of Gods bounteousnesse patience and long suffering which the Apostle so highlie commendeth as leading vnto repentance How could Abraham with anie truth saie to the rich man in hell Sonne remember thou in thy life time receauedst thy good thinges and Lazarus paines where if your position be true the paines of Lazarus coulde not bee comparable to the tormentes and paines that ALVVAIES ACCOMPANIE the wicked I assure thee christian Reader a man could not with fewer and foolisher wordes then these more crosse the whole tenor of the scriptures For the wicked here in this life abound with all wealth ease and prosperitie insomuch that manie of the godlie haue beene and still are offended with it Reade the 72. Psalme and see whether these intolerable and horrible feares sorrowes paines and tormentes of hell and the damned do alwaies accompanie them heere in this life My feete were almost gone saith Dauid when I sawe the peace of the wicked There are no bands in their death they are Iustie and strong they are not in trouble nor plagued with other men their eies stand out for fastnesse they haue more then their heart can wish Lo these are the wicked yet PROSPER THEY ALVVAIE and increase in riches This was too hard for me till I went into the sanctuarie of God then I vnderstood their ende So that God with much patience suffereth the vessels of wrath prepared vnto destruction who according to their harde and impenitent hearts heape vp wrath vpon themselues against the daie of the declaration of the iust iudgement of God whose suddaine destruction is then nearest when they shal say peace and safety And what maruell you crosse the scriptures in confounding the wrath of God to come with the wrath of God present in this life when you doe not see your owne wordes to be contrarie one to the other For if Christ died the death of the soule which is an alienation from the life of God howe was he neuer separated but alwaies intirely beloued and most blessed If hee were neuer separated from the life of God howe came he to die the death of the soule which must néeds be a separatiō for the time from God vnlesse you can match light and darkenesse death and life together and make the one to be the other and both to cleaue to God himselfe But what cannot you do that can make the paines of the damned and torments of hell the onlie true and perfectlie accepted sacrifice to God These are your words Such a sorrow indeed of a broken and contrite heart is the only true and perfectly accepted
For that which fell that rose againe that which fell not needed not rise Hee rose then according to the flesh which being dead did rise againe Ergo also he died in our nature which he tooke vnto him and suffered in the body which he tooke that we might beleeue he tooke a true bodie To the vnbeleeuer asking Shall I beleeue God in flesh God borne of a woman God crucified whipped dead wounded buried Austen answereth thy God remaineth vnchangeable feare not he perisheth not Christ was borne of a woman but in his flâ—sh Hee was an infant but in his flesh Hee sucked increased was nourished and grewe in age but in his flesh Wearied he slept but in his flesh Hee hungred and thirsted but in his flesh He was taken bound whipped mocked yea he was CRVCIFIED AND KILLED BVT IN HIS FLESH Why art thou afraid The word which was God remaineth for euer He that despiseth this humblenes of God wil neuer be cured from the deadly swelling of pride The Lord Iesus therefore by his flesh gaue hope to our flesh To be borne and to die were here on earth common to liue for euer was not here Christ found here our earthlie wares which were vilde and brought with him his heauenlie which were strange If thou feare his death loue his resurrection He came to the place of our pilgrimage to take that which aboundeth here eueÌ„ mocks whippes blowes spittings in his face reproches hanging the crosse and death These things abound in our region to this entertainment hee came What hath he giuen thee here Instruction exhortation and remission of sinnes What hath he promised thee O mortall man that thou shalt liue for euer Doest thou not beleeue it Beleeue it I say beleeue it It is more that he hath alreadie done then that hee hath promised It is more incredible that the eternall died then that the mortall shall liue for euer If God died for man shall not man liue with God But can God die Hee tooke from thee wherein to die for thee THERE COVLD NOT DIE BVT FLESH THERE COVLD NOT DIE BVT A MORTALL BODIE Hee clothed himselfe with that wherein hee might die for thee hee will clothe thee wherin thou shalt liue with him In that part Christ died in which thou shalt die in that part Christ rose in which thou shalt rise Thou wilt pardon mee Christian Reader if among so much lothsome stuffe of reprobate horrors damned paines and hellish torments as this Confuter hath heaped together I solace my selfe sometimes with the longer comfort of sounde and sweete doctrine so sincerelie and sensiblie deliuered by the learned and auncient Fathers I will alledge one place more wherein thou shalt see the full consent of prouinciall and generall Councels not to bee gainesaide by anie man that will beare the name of a Christian and so shutte vp this point Cyrill writing to Nestorius to stay and suppresse that false doctrine which hee beganne then to spreade teacheth vs verie plainelie howe the sonne of God is saide in the Scriptures to SVFFER DIE AND RISE AGAINE for vs and our saluation So wee saie the sonne of God suffered and rose againe not that the sonne of GOD suffered in his owne nature either the stripes or the boaring of the nailes or the rest of the woundes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Deitie coulde not suffer by reason it is no bodilie substance but because THAT BODIE which hee made his owne suffered these things himselfe is saide to suffer these things for vs. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that coulde not suffer was then in his bodie which suffered After the same manner wee thinke of his dying The sonne of God is by nature immortall incorruptible life and the giuer of life but because the bodie which was his owne tasted death for all by the fauour of God as Paule speaketh hee himselfe is saide to haue suffered death for vs not that hee had experience of death as touching his owne nature it were a madnesse so to thinke or say but for that as I saide euen nowe his flesh tasted death So his flesh rising againe it is called his Resurrection not that hee fell to corruption God forbidde but that his bodie rose againe When this stayed not the frenzie of Nestorius the heretike but that hee replied in swelling woordes Cyrill called a Councell at Alexandria and there with one consent they approoued the trueth and sent it vnto Nestorius to bee confessed in these woordes amongst others If anie man doe not confesse that the Sonne of GOD suffered in his fleshe was crucified in his flesh and tasted death in his flesh let him bee accursed Dilating this and the rest of their Articles in their Synodall Epistle sent to Nestorius they saie Wee confesse that the onelie begotten God euen the sonne borne of God his father though hee were impassible in his owne nature yet suffered hee in his flesh for vs according to the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was in his bodie that was crucified accounting the sufferings of his owne flesh as proper vnto him though he were without suffering and by the grace of God tasted death for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he gaue his owne bodie vnto death This doctrine came to bee scanned in the third generall Councell helde at Ephesus and being there deliberatelie read was woâ—de for worde allowed of the whole Councell as agréeable to the Scriptures and the Nicene fathers The like approbation it had not onelie in the Councell of Constantinople vnder Fluuianus but in the great councell of Chalcedon where the proceedings of both these Councels were a fresh examined and the former woordes of Cyrill repeaâ—ed and confirmed with the ful consent of that general Councel as most â—ound and catholike So that he shall ill deserue the name of a christian that after so manie fathers and Councels both Prouinciall and Generall will begin to teach vs a new faith and tell vs that the Scriptures meane Christ was crucified and died as wel in his soule as in his bodie since the whole Church with one assent hath euer so conceiued and expounded the Scriptures that Christes crucifying and dying must bee referred to his bodie and consequentlie that the ioynt sufferings of Christ the soule feeling what the bodie suffered were most auailable for our redemption For when they ascribe the crucifying and death of Christ to his bodie they doe not exclude the soule from the sense and feeling of the paine which is a naturall consequent to the coniunction with her bodie but they shew what part of Christs manhoode suffered the crosse and death that the Scriptures so much speake of and whereby wee are redeemed and reconciled vnto GOD. One place repeated in the Councell of Ephesus maie serue in steede of manie to declare their meaning Howe can the Creator of all thnges who is neither visible palpable nor mutable sustaine the Crosse
be these wicked fancies either to the Créede or to Christian Religion Séeing therefore your Gréeke Poets with one consent make HADES to be a god below vnder the earth and put vnder his power as well the Elisian fields and seates for the iust soules as the prisons and dungeons for the vniust and this fantasticall conceite of Socrates touching a speciall place for himselfe and such Philosophers as hee was together with Swannes beasts trees flowers fruites as it was singular and secret to himselfe so it was most absurd and wicked you may by no meanes bring your Classicall writers that were Pagans to expounde the Créede much lesse must you binde the holy Ghost in the new Testament to vse the word HADES as the infidels did since the holy Ghost onely knoweth and speaketh trueth and their imaginations of the dead or as you speake of the world of soules was not onely false and foolish but impious and blasphemous And yet if you doe admit them to bée interpreters of the Créede which I vtterlie refuse for the causes I haue tolde you they make directly against you For HADES with them was the Ruler or place of soules that were beneath vnder the earth were they in rest or in paine and that Christian Religion will assure you must néedes be hell howsoeuer to beare out your broken matter you beginne halfe to doubt where hell is The authenticke authors of the Greeke tongue vsed hades for the place of the blessed soules you say and not properlie for hell So Leonidas cheered vp his men not to feare such a blessed death to suppe in hell had beene a colde comfort vnto them You reade nothing your selfe belike that you hit nothing right In Plutarch whome you alleage this is no comfort giuen by Leonidas but hée séeing the Persians now in sight as his men were dining and in number so infinite aboue his who were but an handfull willeth them to make short and saith So dine as men that must suppe in HADES that is care not for meate since death is so neere but prepare to fight for your Countrey It sheweth a resolution to dye but no consolation after death more than they knew before which was that in HADES were places as well for the good to rest as for the bad to bée punished but both were below vnder earth and in Plutoes kingdome as the Gentiles supposed Neither did Homer meane to make a new heauen for such as Achilles slue but to send them to the place where hée thought all soules did abide and therefore hée put Achilles soule in Plutoes region vnder the earth as well as the rest of the Grecians and Troians that died in that Battaile And because your Proctor will néedes haue the words that Achilles spirite spake to Vlisses at his descent to hell to bee a dictionarie for hades what place it is against which if the Creede had gone it had been a skoffe to all Hellas and had hindered all the proceeding of the Gospell Let vs sée whether his owne dictionarie will not returne all his allegations vppon his owne head If HADES in the Créede must bee the same place where Achilles spirite was whither Vlisses descended and where he saw and spake with so many Ghostes then apparantly HADES must bée the Poets HELL At Vlisses entrance Homer telling how the soules came about him saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soules flocked together out of Erebus now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the very place where the Poets place Cerberus and whence the same Poet saith Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was sent to fetch from Erebus the dogge of HATEFVLL HADES Againe Vlisses mother asking him how hee came to that place saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sonne how camest thou vnder this darke mist Of Aiax Ghost who would not for anger speake to Vlisses Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee went away to other soules in Erebus There Vlisses saith hée saw Sisyphus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suffering grieuous torments as also Titius and Tantalus to endure the like There he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hercules strength a Ghost for hee himselfe was in ioye with the immortall Gods There Achilles spirite tooke so small comfort that when Vlisses said There is none happier then thou Achilles before whiles thou liuedst wee honoured thee as a God and now art thou a great commaunder among the Dead bee not therefore so fadde hée replied Praise not death to mee Vlisses I had rather serue any poore man on earth as his drudge though hee were scant able to liue then to raigne here ouer all the dead If the place bee darke and déepe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Cerberus bée there which the Poets make the very kéeper of hell if there bée grieuous and cruell punishmentes for such as deserue them if the best haue there so little ioye of the place as Homer maketh Achilles ghost here to confesse what place can this bée but that hell which all the Poets acknowledge though in some part thereof there hée worse punishmentes then in other This is not that Tartarus you will saye which the Poets make the â—ayle and Prison for the wicked What is that to the purpose if some punishmentes in hell bée worse than other Looke to those whome the Poets place without the dungeon and sée whether they bée in heauen or no And because you and your friends talke so much of the worlde of Soules and of heauen to bée found in HADES and INFERI and your selfe bring Virgill as one of your Classicall authors to proue this matter Who though hee were a Poet and fayned many things yet hee spake you say familiarlie and after the vulgar vse and for the substance of the matter vttered touching heauen and hell the opinion of the worlde then I must pray the Readers leaue and patience whiles I follow you in your owne fantasticall deuise though against mine owne liking to let the simple sée what your world of soules and your heauen is euen in those very writers which you produce for this purpose and whether they bée fitte things to bée Presidents for the Créede or no. In Plutoes kingdome vnder earth whether Aeneas went to sée his Father Anchises Virgil your authenticke author maketh besides Tartarus and your goodly Elisian fields the eternall habitation as you call it of the blessed many lodgings As first for sicknes care weeping pouertie labour warres discord dreames and death besides for Centaures Briareus Hidra Chimera Gorgon Harpies and Gerion and sundrie other monsters There wander the Ghosts whose bodies are not buried a hundred yeare before they can get ouer the foule and silthie riuer of Styx The other side of Styx is kept by Cerberus the Dogge with thrée heads where first are placed the soules of infants weeping and crying then such as were vniustly condemned to death