and angels And from this holinesse of his our holinesse is deriued and springs as a fruit as the corruption in Adams posteritie is deriued from the corruption of Adam Christ saith For their sakes sanctifie I my selfe that they also may be sanctified through the truth Cyril saith As God he giues himselfe the spirit as man he receiues it which he doth not for himselfe but for vs that the grace of sanctification out of him and in him first receiued might passe to all mankind Againe he saith that the bodie of our Lord being sanctified by the vertue of the Word ioyned to it is made so effectuall for mystical benediction that it can send forth his sanctification into vs. Lastly Christ is our Redemption or life on this manner In the person of the Mediatour beeing one and the same there is a double life one vncreated and essentiall agreeing to Christ as he is God And this life is not giuē to vs at all saue in respect of the efficacie thereof For in god we liue mooue and haue our beeing The other is the created life of the manhood and it is either naturall or spiritual Naturall is that wherewith he liued in the estate of humiliation by ordinary means as all other men doe Spirituall is that whereby he nowe especially liueth in the estate of exaltation and glorie And this life he liueth not onely for himselfe but also for vs that we beeing partakers thereof may liue togither with him Thus the ancient church hath taught the flesh of Christ vnited to the Word is made quickening flesh that it might further quicken them with spirituall life that are vnited to it The next question is in what estate Christ is our Gaine The estate of Christ is twofolde the estate of humiliation from his birth to his death and the estate of exaltation in his resurrection ascension and his sitting at the right hand of god In the first estate he works and procures our gaine Christ lying basely in the manger and crucified ignominiously on the crosse gained our deliuerance from hell and a right to life euerlasting In the second estate he communicats to vs the gaine before named and by degrees puts vs in prossession of it And for this ende he nowe sits at the right hand of God and makes request for vs. The vse of this doctrine that Christ is our gaine is manifold First it sheweth that we in our selues are poore and altogither destitute of all spirituall good things For to this ende is Christ our gaine that he may supplie our want fill them with graces that are otherwise emptie and euen hunger starued Secondly it teacheth that men doe in vaine seeke for so much as the least droppe of goodnes out of Christ who alone is the storehouse of all good things Heauen and earth men and angels and all things are but as nothing to vs if by them we seeke to inioy any thing out to Christ yea God is no god to vs without Christ. Thirdly we learne to detest the Treasurie which the Church of Rome maintaines and magnifies It is as it were a chest in which is contained not onely the ouerplus of the merits of Christ but also of martyrs and Saints to be dispensed in pardons at the Popes pleasure But Christ is alone our full and perfect gaine and therefore in himselfe there is an al-sufficient Treasurie of the church and as Paul saith in him we are complete As for the merits of martyrs and Saints they bring no aduantage to the people of God but are indeed matter for the dounghill Fourthly if Christ be our treasure and gain our hearts must be set on him Our mindes vse to be vpon our pennie and we hunger after gaine let vs therefore hunger after Christ he is out pennie and he is our gaine Nay we must aboue all pleasures honours profits loue him and reioice in him yea we should be swallowed vp with loue of him Lastly here is matter of cōfort In the losse of goods and friendes and all calamities of this life we may not be dismayed all the losses of this life are but pettie losses so long as we haue Christ for our gaine Nothing can be wanting vnto vs in the middest of all our losses and miseries so long as we receiue of his fulnesse who is the fountaine of goodnes neuer dried vp To proceed further the second part of the comparison Christ is my gaine is amplified by a gradatiō on this manner I esteeme the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord an excellent thing I desire to gaine Christ I desire to be foūd in Christ. Of these in order By the knowledge of Christ we are to vnderstand the doctrine of the gospell or the doctrine of the person offices of Christ cōceiued known of vs. To this knowledge an excellency is ascribed of which I will speake a little This excellencie appeares partly in the matter and contents partly in the effects thereof Touching the matter it is ful of excellent mysteries which Paul reduceth to fixe heads in his epistle to Timothie The first is the Incarnation of the sonne of God in these wordes God made manifest in the flesh And here two wōders offer themselues to be considered the first whereas Adams flesh and Adams sinne are inseparably ioyned togither in respect of all that nature can doe yet did the sonne of God take vnto him mans nature and flesh without mans sinne because he was conceiued of a virgin by the operation of the holy ghost whereas if he had beene cōceiued by naturall generation he had with Adams flesh taken Adams corruption The other wonder in the Incarnation of Christ is that the flesh of man is vnited to the person of the sonne of God thence hath his subsistance otherwise hauing no subsistance of his owne The like example is not to be found in the world againe sauing that we haue some resemblance thereof in the plant called Miscelto which hath no roote of his own but grows as a branch of the oake or some other tree and hath his life and sappe from the roote thereof The second mysterie in the knowledge of Christ is the Iustification of Christ in these wordes iustified in the spirit and it was on this manner Christ made man became our Suretie and was subiect to the law for vs. Hereupon our sinnes were imputed to him and the punishment due thereto laid vpon him that is the first death with the paines of the secōd yea further death in the graue had dominion ouer him After all this by his spirit or power of the godhead he raised himselfe from death and therby acquit himselfe of our sinnes and this acquitall or absolution is his iustification whereby he declareth himselfe to be a Sauiour perfectly righteous For if he had not satisfied the wrath of God to the full and brought perfect righteousnes he had neuer risen againe considering he was iudged and
but by Adams disobedience imputed to vs are we made sinners therefore we are made iust by the obedience of Christ imputed Bernard vsed this reason Whome saith he another mans fault defiled another mans water washed Yet in calling it another mans fault I doe not denie it to be ours otherwise it could not defile vs. But it is another mans because we all not knowing of it sinned in Adam It is ours because we haue sinned though in an other and it is imputed to vs by the iust iudgement of God though it be secret Yet that thou maist not complaine ô man against the disobedience of Adam there is giuen thee the obedience of Christ that beeing sould for naught thou maist be redeemed for naught Again the doctrine of imputed iustice he teacheth expresly saying Al are dead that the satisfaction of one might be imputed to all as he alone bare the sinnes of all Againe Death is put to flight by the death of Christ and the righteousnes of Christ is imputed to vs. Fourthly Paul saith Christ is made vnto vs of God iustice that is iustice imputed for in the next words he saith he is made our sanctification that is our iustice not imputed but inherent Fiftly as Christ was made sinne so are we made the iustice of God but Christ was made our sin not by any conueiance of any corruption into his most holy heart but by imputation We therefore are made the iustice of God by like imputation And least any man should yet surmise that this iustice is not imputed but infused into vs Paul saith We are made the iustice of God IN HIM that is in Christ. Hence it followeth manifestly that there is no vertue or worke within vs which iustifieth before God and that our iustice whereby we are iust in the fight of God and accepted to life eternall is out of vs placed in Christ. Thus much haue the Fathers obserued vpon this text of Paul Augustine saith that Christ was made sinne that we might be made iustice not our iustice but Gods iustice neither in vs but in him as he declared sinne not to be his but ours not placed in him but in vs. Hierome saith Christ being offered for vs tooke the name of sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him not ours nor in vs. In the same manner speake Theophilact Anselme Sedulius presbyter and others Lastly mā considered as a creature before his fall owed vnto God the fulfilling of the lawe which as a certaine tribute was daily to be paid vnto him After the fall he doubled his debt because he then became debter to God of a satisfaction due for the breach of the lawe Now the not paiment of this double debt is our vnrighteousnes But where may we find a sufficient paiment for this debt We our selues by our sinnes daily increase the said debt And our owne workes though proceeding of faith are no conuenient paiment because we cannot by one debt paie an other And if we shall search through heauen and earth there is nothing to be found that may stand for paiment with God but the obedience of the Redeemer which he hath presented and laid downe before the throne of the Almightie as an endlesse treasure to make paiment in our behalfe And because the said obedience is a satisfaction for our vnrighteousnes it is also our iustice in the acceptation of God By these and other reasons it appeares that nothing can absolue vs before God and procure the right of eternall life but the onely obedience of the Mediator Christ God and man that without any vertue or worke of ours Hence it followes that the present Church of Rome corrnpts the article of iustification by mingling things togither which can no more be compounded and mingled togither then fire and water namely the iustice of the gospell with the iustice of the law For it makes a double iustification the first containes two parts pardon of sinne by the death of Christ and the infused habit of charitie The second is by workes which they say do meritoriously increase the first iustification and procure eternall life Here we see the soueraigne medicine of the Gospel namely remission of sinnes tempered with the poison of the lawe For though vertues and workes prescribed in the lawe haue their place as good giftes God in our liues and cōuersations yet whē they are set vp higher and brought within the circle of iustification as meritorious causes they are put quite out of their place and are no better then poison and hereupon are tearmed of Paul losse and dongue But such as desire to be tearmed Catholickes alleadge for themselues against vs that the obedience of Christ that is the righteousnesse of an other cannot possibly be our righteousnesse I aunswer that the iustice of another may be our iustice if it be really made ours And this is true in Christ. For when we begin to beleeue in him though our persons remaine euermore distinct and vnconfounded yet are we made one with him and according to the tenour of the Euangelicall couenant are we giuen to him and he to vs so as we may truely say Christ is mine as we can truly say this house or this land is mine Now if Christ be ours then also his obedience is not onely his but ours also his because it is in him ours because with him it is giuen vs of God Againe they alleadge That when Paul refuseth the righteousnesse of the lawe he means nothing els but the workes of the lawe that are perfourmed by the strength of nature and that he doth not exclude the workes of Grace I answer it is false for he speakes of himselfe in the time present when he was a Christian Apostle and therefore he excludes all righteousnes of his own which he had by the law euen when he was an Apostle And the obiection Rom. 6. 1. what then shall we sinne that grace may abound cannot be inferred vpon iustification by workes of grace but vpon a iustification by the obedience of Christ imputed to vs without all workes of our owne Againe that we are iustified not by the iustice of the lawe but by the iustice of faith here is the foundation of our comfort For hereupon if we be tempted in the time of this life we may oppose against the tempter this our iustice If Satan plead against vs that we are sinners and therefore subiect to eternall damnation let vs answere him that the obedience of Christ hath freed vs from this damnation If he plead further that we neuer fulfilled the lawe and consequently that we haue no right to eternal life we must answer him that Christ fulfilled the lawe for vs. If he shall vexe and vpbraid vs with the consideration of our manifold wants and corruptions let vs tell him that so long as we turne vnto God from all our euill waies bewaile our corrupttions and beleeue
losse of all his workes and vertues whatsoeuer in the cause of his owne iustification Nowe then if this doctrine be so certaine and infallible as it is thē also must we be setled in this point without doubting that the present church of Rome erreth grieuously in that it magnifieth the merit of workes Yea in this regard it reuerseth the very foundation of true religion For if they make aduantage in the matter of saluation by their workes Christ must needes vpon infallible certentie be their losse because Paul makes all workes losse that Christ may be aduantage Therefore farre be it from vs all to haue any dealing or contract of societie with that church least we be partakers of her dangerous and fearefull losses Againe in that all vertues workes of grace are but losses for Christ. We must not onely in our first conuersion but euer afterward though we be iustified and sanctified euen in the pang of death by meere faith rest on the meere mercie of God and apprehend naked Christ that is Christ seuered in the case of saluation from all respect of all vertues and workes whatsoeuer For there is nothing that may be opposed to the seuere iudgement of God but meere Christ. If we doe presume to oppose any of our doings to the sentence of the law hell death condemnation we are sure to goe by the losses Thus much of the certentie of Pauls losses now follows the necessitie of thē They are necessarie in as much as without thē no man can haue part in Christ. For the merit of our vertues and good workes and the grace of God in Christ can not stand together yea they are cōtrarie as fire and water and one ouerthroweth the other in the cause of iustification and saluation Paul to signifie this contrarietie saith If Election be of grace it is not of workes and if it be of workes it is not of grace And againe If ye be iustified by the law ye are abolished from Christ. And to the same purpose Ambrose saith Grace is wholly receiued or wholly lost and Augustine It is no way grace that is not freely giuen euery way Hence it followes that the present religion of the church of Rome abolisheth Christ in as much as it maintaines and magnifies the merit of good workes And this may be gathered by the very doctrine of that church For it teacheth that men must be saued by their praiers fastings almes pilgrimages buildings of churches chappels bridges c. What then shall the passion of Christ doe whereto serues it They answer that it frees vs from death and giues to our works the merit of eternall life and makes them meritoriously to increase our iustification Hence it followes that Christ is no more but the first cause of our saluation and that we our selues are secondarie causes vnder him and with him And thus he is made of a Sauiour no Sauiour For either he must be a full and perfect Sauiour in himselfe or no Sauiour Secondly by the former necessitie we learne that whosoeuer will be saued by the merit of Christ must come vnto him without vertues or workes of his owne not carrying in heart so much as the least confidence in them esteeming himselfe to be a most vile wretched and miserable sinner as the Publican did who praied Lord be mercifull to me a sinner Hitherto of Pauls losses now follows the second part of the comparison touching Pauls gaine But Christ is my gaine A sentence to be remembred and to be written in the tables of our heart for euer And the reason thereof is manifest Christ our Mediatour God and man is the onely Fountaine of all good things that are or can be thought on whether spirituall or temporall Saint Iohn saith Of his fulnes we receiue grace for grace Againe Paul saith In him al the treasures of knowledge and wisdome are hidde and Ye are complete in him And he calls Christ our Ransome or counterprice And as he makes Adam the roote of all euill in mankinde so makes he Christ the roote of all grace and goodnes For the better clearing of this doctrine two points are to be handled When Christ is our gaine and how Touching the time when I set downe three things He is our gaine in this life he is our gaine in death and he is our gaine after death To returne to the first He is our gaine in life if we turne from our euill waies and beleeue in him in as much as he hath gained for vs many benefits which I will reduce to tenne heads The first is pardon of sinne without tearme of time whether past present or to come Yet must we here remēber that pardon of sinne is not giuen absolutely whether men repent or no but vpon condition of repentance The second is the imputation of Christs obedience in fulfilling the law for our iustification before God From the former benefit ariseth our freedome from hell and from the law in respect of the curse thereof and from the second ariseth a Right to eternall life whereof the possession is reserued to the life to come The third is our Adoption whereby we are the children of God and brethren of Christ. And hence haue we a Right of lordship or dominion ouer the whole world and all things contained therein whether in heauen or in earth which right was lost by Adam and is now restored by Christ. Indeede wicked men and infidels haue and vse the things of this life at their wills and that by Gods permission but yet they receiue and inioy them no otherwise then children of traytours doe the goods of their parents who peraduenture are suffered to take benefite of some part of them for the preseruing of their liues though title and interest to them be not restored The fourth is the ministerie that is the presence aide and protection of the good angels The fifth gaine or benefit is that all the miseries and calamities of this life cease to be curses and are made blessings beeing turned to the good of them that are to be saued by Christ. The sixth is the mortification of originall sinne with all the parts thereof by the vertue of the death of Christ. The 7. is a spirituall life whereby we liue not but Christ liues in vs making vs partakers of his Annointing and thereby inabling vs to liue as Prophets Priests kings Prophets to teach and make confession of our faith in Christ Priests to dedicate and present our bodies and soules to God for the seruice of his maiestie Kings to beare rule and dominion ouer the corruptions and lusts of our hearts The eight gaine is that Christ presents all our praiers and good workes to his Father in his owne name and thus by his own Intercession makes them acceptable vnto him The ninth gaine is the presence of his spirit For when Christ ascended he tooke with him our pawne namely our flesh and left with
saith It is eternall life to know thee the only God c. The knowledge of experience is to haue a sense and feeling of our inward fellowship with Christ and vpon often obseruation of his goodnesse to growe more and more in experience of his loue Nowe this knowledge is here meant and not the first which was before mentioned verse 8. And therefore Pauls desire is that he may grow more and more in holy experience of the endlesse loue of God and fellowship with Christ. The partes of this desired communion are two fellowshippe with Christ in his resurrection and fellowshippe with him in his death The former is expressed in these wordes and the vertue of his resurrection And for the better cōceiuing of it we are to consider what the resurrection of Christ is and what is the vertue thereof That the resurrection of Christ may be rightly conceiued fiue points are to be skanned The first touching the person of him that rose and that was Christ God and man Indeede properly the bodie alone did rise and not the soule or godhead yet by reason of the vnion of the two natures in the vnitie of one person whole Christ arose or God himselfe made man arose This commends vnto vs the excellencie of Christs resurrection and makes it to be the foundation vnto vs of our resurrection The second point is For whome he rose He rose not as a priuate person for himselfe alone but he rose in our roome stead and that for vs so as when he arose all the elect arose with him and in him Thus saith Paul that the Fphesians were raised togither with him His resurrection therefore was publike and this is the ground of our comfort The third point is When he arose He arose then when he lay in bondage vnder death that in the graue which is as it were the castle hold of death Whē Peter saith that God loosed the sorrowes of death he signifieth that Christ was made captiue for a time to the first death to the sorrows of the second Now in the midst of this captiuity bōdage he raised himself this argues that his resurrectiō is a ful victorie conquest ouer death and all our spirituall enemies The fourth point is That he rose by his own power as he saith of himselfe I haue power to lay downe my life and to take it vp againe If this had not bin though he had risen a thousand times by the power of another he had not beene a perfect Redeemer The last point is Wherein stāds the resurrection of Christ Answer it consistes in three actions of Christ. The first is the revniting of his bodie to his soule both which were seuered for a time though neither of them were seuered from the godhead The second action is the change of his naturall life which he led in the estate of humiliatiō into a heauenly and spirituall life without infirmities and not maintained by food as before For we finde not that after his resurrection he euer tooke meate for necessitie but onely vpon occasion to manifest the trueth of his manhood And this life he tooke vnto himselfe that he might conuey it to all that should beleeue in him The third action is his cōming forth of the graue whereby death it selfe did as it were acknowledge him to be a conquerour and that it had no title or interest in him These fiue things considered the article of Christs resurrection shall be rightly vnderstood Touching the vertue of Christs resurrectiō it is nothing els but the power of his god head or the power of his spirit whereby he raised himselfe mightily from death to life and that in our behalfe The excellencie of it may be known by the effects which be in number eight The first that by it he shewed himselfe to be the true and perfect Sauiour of the world For it was foretolde of the Messias that he should die rise againe Psal. 16. Matth. 12. And all this was accordingly accomplished by the vertue of Christs resurrection The second effect is that by it he shewed himselfe to be the true and naturall sonne of god Paul saith He was declared mightily to be the sonne of God by the spirit of holinesse in his rising from the dead The third effect is that by this vertue he declared himselfe to haue made a full and perfect satisfaction for the sinnes of the world For if he had not satisfied to the full he had not risen againe And Paul saith If Christ be not risen we are yet in our sinnes On the contrarie then seeing he is risen such as beleeue in him are not in their sinnes Againe Who shall condemne vs it is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen againe The fourth effect is iustification as Paul testifieth He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our iustification and that was on this māner When he was vpon the crosse he stood there in our roome hauing our sinnes imputed vnto him and when he rose from death he acquit and iustified himselfe from our sinnes and ceased to be any more a reputed sinner for vs and thus all that doe or shall beleeue in him are in him acquit absolued and iustified from all their sinnes If any demaund how they which liued in the time of the old Testament before the resurrection of Christ could be iustified thereby considering the effect must followe the cause I answer that they were iustified by the future resurrection of Christ which though it followed in time yet did the value vertue therof reach euē euen to the beginning of the world The fift effect is the conferring and bestowing of all such gifts and graces as he had merited procured for vs by his death and passion Thus Christ testifieth that the giuing of the spirit in large plentifull manner was reserued to the glorification of Christ which beganne in his resurrection And the preaching of Repentance and remission of sinnes is reserued till after his resurrection And S. Peter saith that the Elect are regenerate to a liuely hope by the resurrectiō of Christ. By reason of this bestowing of graces and gifts the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of a new and spirituall world which the holy Ghost calls the world to come in which shall be a new heauen and a new earth as Isai speaketh and a peculiar people of God zealous of good works keeping an eternall sabbath vnto God This one effect alone sufficiently declares the excellencie of this vertue of Christ. The sixth effect is viuification which is a raising of vs frō the death of sinne to newnes of life And the reason hereof is plaine For Christ in his resurrection put away his natural life which with our nature he receiued from Adam and tooke vnto him a spirituall life that he might communicate the saide life to all that beleeue in him Againe