according to Austins meaning who herein ioineth with the Scriptures Christ then lyâ—…ing in soule with perfect obedience and patience and assuredly knowing God to be his God his Father complaineth that he was left or forsaken that is either not deliuered from his troubles afflictions but left in sinners hands to do their pleasure with him or deuested of his power and left through weaknesse vnto death which should for a season seuer his soule from his bodie or lastly lest in this shame of the crosse anguish of body without any open or sensible shew or signe of Gods fauour towards him or care for him All these kindes of forsaking the learned and ancient Fathers acknowledge in Christ on the crosse and other forsaking of the soule they admit none howsoeuer you falsly pretend their full agreement Come now to your conclusion if you could euince that Christes soule was vtterly forsaken of God and depriued of life which you can neuer and to offer it will conuince you of hainous and wilfull heresie and blasphemie yet can you conclude no more but the death of the soule in this life which is either ignorance or contempt of God Hell paines you cannot inferre nor the torments of the damned which are the second death and so your great flourish out of Austen for the death of Christes soule is but a â—…aw And the Reader may see with what vnderstanding and conscience you read and alleage the Fathers that where you acknowledge e Defenc. pag. 142. li. 12. they doe denie this phrase generally that Christ died in soule yet you boldly and lewdly affirme the next line before they f li. 11. grant the thing in effect as if they denied that in wordes which indeed they knew to be a part of the Christian faith and were like you who shift and lie for life to support your owne Deuices But in all these shewes of yours the aduised Reader shall finde nothing but a carelesse and senselesse resolution to saie anie thing rather then to admit a trueth or to relent from the least of your conceits whereof he may haue a full proofe in your words next following g Defenc pag. 142. li. 16. Let this be the answer touching all your Fathers and Councels which you bring abundantly heere and there about this point of the soules death A short answer indeede if it had either trueth or sense in it It is right a colts tricke when he will not or can not endure the loade to cast the whole packe off at once That they generally deny the death of Christes soule you grant and with a brazen face and barren head you adde they meane otherwise they deny not the thing but onely the phrase What is this but to suppâ—… vp the trueth with a sadde countenance and to belch foorth your shame with open mouth had you examined their places your shifts sleights and vntrueths would haue loaden a carrect you haue better now prouided for your selfe with belying them all at once you haue incurred but one inconuenience But like is your Defence to your cause it entred first with aduantage of phrases and so it will end with a wind-mill of wordes Well that the Christian Reader may perceaue how auncient and vniuersally consented and confirmed by the church of Christ this truth hath beene which I teach that Christ died no death for our redemption but the death of the body onely to those Fathers which you say are abundantly brought by me already I will adde others that though there be no care nor conscience in you yet all men in whom there is any sense may see your deuice of the death of Christes soule and of hell paines and the most vehement torments of the damned suffered by him to be not onely a falsitie repugnant to the Scriptures but a noueltie against the maine consent and confession of all antiquitie If their testimonies be long and many thou wilt bâ—…are with me Christian Reader I hope the expence of a little paper to me or paine to thee is not so deare as the cause it selfe both for thy direction and for my discharge First then thou shalt heare that Christ died in bodie alone which is my assertion and withall that Christ died not in soule which is their conceit contradicted by all the Fathers and in the end we will shortly view whether these Fathers crosse their new found redemption in words oâ—… matter The places I thinke good to repeate in Latine or Grecke as much as shall need which otherwise I refraine of purpose to decrease the volume least it should be too great that the Reader should ncither distrust my translating nor make long search for the wordes themselues in ech Writer if happily he desire to see them Tertullian prouing the resurrection of our bodies by Christs example saith h Tertull. de Resurrect carmis ca. 48. Sine dubio si mortuum sisepultum audis secundum scripturas NON ALIAS QVAM IN CARNF aequâ—… resuscitatum in carne conced â—…ipsum enim quod â—…idit in mortem quod iacuit iâ—…sepulchro hoc resurrexit non tam Christus in carne quà m caro Christi Without Christ died no death of the soule by the iudgement of all the Fathers question if thou heare that CHRIST DIED that he was buried according to the Scriptures NONE OTHERWISE THEN in the flesh thou wilt grant that he was likewise raised in the flesh For that very thing which fell by death which lay in the graue that surely rose not so much Christ in the flesh as the flesh of Christ. And in the same place Dominus i Ibidem quanquam animam circumferret trepidantem vsque ad mortem sed non cadentem PER MORTEM The Lord though he caried about a soule fearing vnto death YET NOT FALLING BY DEATH Origen k Origen li. 5. in ca. 5. epist. ad Romanos By sinne saith Paul came death that death no doubt whereof the Prophet saith the soule that sinneth the same shall die whereof a man may iustly call this bodily death a shadow For whither soeuer that pierceth of force this followeth as a shadow doth the bodie If a man obiect that our Sauiour did no sinne neither was there in him the death of the soule by reason of any sinne and yet he sustained a corporall death we will answere him that where Christ owed this death to none nor was obnoxious to it yet for â—…ur saluation of his owne accord and by no necessitie he vndertooke this so aboue called shadow of death l Ibidem This common death then he did vndergoe but that death of sinne which raigned ouer all others he did not admit Athanasius m Athanas. contra Arianos oratione 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What els was that which was crucified but the bodie of Christ And againe Christs n Ibidem resurrection could not be without death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how could
resurrection and Tertullian nameth the law either threatning Adam if he sinned or the Law of Moses punishing sinne committed by men either of which stretcheth farder then the separation of the soule from the body As for the law of our nature which you say is to die and no more you talke thereof as if you were rather a prophane Philosopher then anie piece of a Diuine since this law was laid on our nature for sinne and forceth as well our soules to hell if we be not thence redeemed by Christ as our bodies to the graue That in death the whole man is dissolued the soule separated from the body and the bodie left voide of sense and life what is this to your purpose will this conclude that the soule in heauen or in paradise being not onely in rest but in ioy feeleth still the sting of death which she felt at her parting from her body before she tasted the life to come Will you continue the power and sense of death euen in heauen because the soule assured of Gods goodnesse and promise expecteth her body to be partaker of the same blisse with her and to receaue the crowne of righteousnesse laide vp in store for all that loue Christes comming or if you be so venturous in fauour of your owne conceits that you will mingle darkenesse with light death with life and the feare of hell with the ioy of heauen thinke you to finde any man so vnwise as to tread your steppes in these vnchristian deuices Chrysostome and Basil likewise with the rest of the Greekes may be noted how they yeeld Hades to the soules of the godly and iust men deceased remaining in ioyes If you speake of the time afore Christes comming and take Hades for places vnder the earth you may chance to finde some such thing in Chrysostome and Basil but that either of them after Christs resurrection yeeldeth Hades to the soules of the blessed is a manifest vntrueth And since I haue handled these places before I shall not need to repeate them againe Also Ambrose is to be considered who right according to all the rest saith Soules departed from their bodies did goe to Hades that is to an inuisible place which in Latin we call Infernum Could you alleage the Fathers wordes rightly you might happely sometimes vnderstand them but alwaies peruerting them as you doe what maruell if alwaies you misse their meaning Ambrose doth not there deliuer either his owne opinion or the perswasion of any Christians but speaketh of Heathen Philosophers who knew nothing of our saluation by Christ and of them saith Satis fuerat dixisse illis quod liberatae animae de corporibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peterent idest locum qui non videtur quem locum Latine infernum dicimus It had beene enough for them being Pagans to haue said that the soules seuered from their bodies went to Aides that is to a place vnseene which in Latine we call Infernus hell If you be a Pagan we looke for none other confession at your handes he that is ignorant of the faith must needs be ignorant of the trueth but if you be a Christian you may not say as the Pagans did that the soules of the godly who are with Christ goe to Hades or Infernus Ambrose himselfe will tell you so much In Inferno semper est qui non ascendit ad Christum He that ascendeth not to Christ is alwaies in hell As for Christes descending he saith Dominus in Infernum descendit vt illi qui in Infernis erant a perpetuis vinculis soluerentur The Lord descended to hell that they which were in places below might be loosed from perpetuall chaines You haue found out the death of the soule in heauen can you finde vs there perpetuall chaines also And Ierom Infernus is a place where the soules are included either in rest or paines It is no newes for him that hath no sense of trueth to haue no shame of falshood If Ieâ—…om were not plaine enough that he hath no such wordes or meaning as to bestow the soules of the saints in Inferno after Christs resurrection you might be borne with but when expresly he voucheth and prooueth the contrarie what can be in you but precise impudence to outface your Reader with Ieroms name against Ieroms most manifest assertion Porro quòd sancti post resurrectionem Christine nequaquam teneantur in Inferno testatur Apostolus dicens Melius est dissolui esse cum Christo. Qui autem cum Christo est vtique non tenetur in Inferno That the Saints saith Ierom are not after Christes resurrection detained in Infernus the Apostle witnesseth saying it is better to be dissolued and to be with Christ. Now he that is with Christ surely is not held in Infernus And againe Quid simile Infernus regna caelorum what likenesse or neerenesse hath Infernus to the kingdome of heauen and this the situation of Infernus euery where vrged by Ierom will prooue Simul discimus quod infernus sub terra sit dicente scriptura vsque ad fundamenta Laci Withall saith he we learne that Infernus is vnder the earth the Scripture saying euen vnto the bottom of the lake And againe Inferiora terrarum infernus accipitur ad quem Dominus noster saluatorque descendit The lower parts of the earth are taken for Infernus to which our Lord and Sauiour descended Quod autem Infernus in inferiore parte terrae sit Psalmista testatur And that Infernus is in the lower part of the earth the Psalmist testiâ—…ieth saying The earth opened and swallowed Dathan and couered the congregation of Abiram And in an other place we reade let death come vpon them and let them descend aliue to Infernus If you will place the soules of the Saints deceased in Christ below in the earth then may you haue some hold in Ierom that they are yet in Infernus but if that be repugnant to the Scriptures to the Fathers to Ieroms expresse words and euen to your owne positions why vse you or rather so openly abuse you Ieroms speech against so maine and manifest a trueth not distinguishing the time whereof he spake but confounding the old and new Testament together to giue place to your lame collections Ruffinus vpon Descendit ad Inferna giueth this sense Descendit in mortem He submitted vnto death If death had none other sense nor force but the death of the bodie your saying were somewhat but since death for sinne raigneth aswell in hell ouer the Soule as in the graue ouer the body the name of death doth not exclude Christes descent to hell and so much Ruffinus words will easily conuince Eousque ille miserando descendit vsque quo tu peccando deiectus es So farre Christ of mercy descended how farre thou by sinning wast deâ—…ected Now if we by sinning were in danger of none
where Christ suffered for vs besides the torments of the next world where Christ neither did nor could suffer any thing Cyprians words are far weaker for your purpose wider fro your matter He saith Christ was called sinne and a curse pro similitudine poenae non culpae for the likenesse of punishment not of fault LIKE is farre lesse then the same If therefore Christs punishment were but like there is no necessitie it should be the same Againe when Cyprian nameth the likenesse of our punishment suffered by Christ on the crosse he meaneth the punishment of sinne that God inflicted on Adam and all his of-spring in this life where Christ suffered for vs as sorrow shame reproch paine and death which were the punishments that God laid on Adams transgression in this life The death of the Soule Adam pulled on him selfe by sinning that Christ suffered not the other God inflicted with his owne mouth and by them accursed and punished sinne in this world reseruing his terrible and eternall iudgements which are the paines of hell to an other time and place when the bodies of the wicked should be altered and abled to endure those intolerable and euerlasting torments threatned but not executed in this world The first kind of punishment due to all men in this life for sinne Cyprian saw and knew full well and by the Scriptures found that to be in Christ on the Crosse the paines of hell Cyprian knew not much lesse could he be sure that Christ suffered them since no such thing is mentioned in the Scriptures Let then the Reader iudge whether Cyprian were likely to speake of that which he knew and read or rashly to pronounce that to be like which he neither knew nor read But if Cyprian bee the fittest man to declare his owne meaning Cyprian euen in that place speaketh directly against your supposed paines of hell suffered in the soule of Christ on the Crosse. Admiror te cruci inter damnatos affixum iam nec tristem nec pauidum sed suppliciorum victorem eleuatis manibus triumphantem de Amelec I admire thee ô Lord being once fastned to the Crosse amidst the condemned theeues to bee now neither sorrowfull nor fearefull but despising the punishments laid on thee with thine hands lifted vp to triumph ouer Amelec the enemies of Gods people If Christ once fastned to the Crosse had neither sorrow nor feare but a neglect of his paines and a ioyfull triumph ouer all his foes I trust hee felt not the paines of hell which were very easie if they brought with them neither sorrow nor feare but rather contempt and triumph Christ feared before in the garden you will say and for feare or paine did sweate bloud That Cyprian remembreth and explaineth wherein you shall see the difference betwixt his iudgement and yours of Christs sufferings Thou diddest Lord saith he professe before thine Apostles thy selfe to be sorrowfull vnto death and for exceeding griefe didst power foorth a bloudie sweate Hearing this in the gospel I was vtterly abashed For who will not feare if be feare whom all things feare His answere I wil set downe in Latine though it will be the longer as well to let the Reader heare Cyprians resolution in his owne words which many will desire and to discharge my selfe from all quarels of mistranslating whiles I sometimes seeke to make that plaine to the simple which in the text is more darke and obscure as for diuers other respects which I will after mention when Cyprians minde is fully knowen His words are Sed metus ille infirmitatis humanae communem exprimebat affectum generalitatem omnium in carne viuentium hoc dolore vrgeri dissolutionem corporeae spiritualisque naturae hac molestia non posse carere hanc poenam vniuersae successioni Adam sine exceptione impositam vt difficultas extremi transit us timeretur Hanc nemo anxietatem euasit nemo egrediente anima sine amaritudine expirauit But that feare of thine o Lord did expresse the common affection of mans infirmitie and the generall state of all liuing in the flesh to be pressed with this sorrow and that the separation of body and soule can not be free from this griefe but this punishment is laide on all Adams posteritie without exception that the difficultie of departing this life should be feared this wofulnesse no man euer escaped neither did euer any man breath out his soule without bitternesse Here you may learne first whence Ambrose who was a great follower of Cyprian tooke his words of humane infirmitie and affection and what hee meant by them Secondly that this is a punishment which you denie laide by God himselfe on all mankinde to feare and feele death separating the soule from the body Thirdly from this was no man euer exempted but euen Christ himselfe though he were free from that necessitie yet would hee be partaker of this our infirmitie Fourthly that where on the crosse Christ neither feared nor sorrowed but shewed him selfe terrible to his persecutors and a conquerour of all their malice and a triumpher ouer all their iniuries yet to his Disciples in the garden hee opened his affection incident to our nature thereby to confirme himselfe to bee a true man by his taking as well our infirmities as our flesh Lastly out of Cyprian in that Sermon you may learne that to Christ the sight of God his Father could not bee formidable that it was his Fathers will the sacrifice of his flesh should begin with feare and sorrow that hee sorrowed to heale our weaknesse and feared to make vs secure by repressing those infirmities in his owne person to cure them in vs for euer after All these and many moe good lessons you cleane ouerslip in Cyprian and broching a new doctrine quite contrarie to his you lay violent hands on one poore word in that whole treatie which yet maketh nothing for you and as though you had performed a worthy worke grossely to mistake the like for the same you muster Cyprian as a maintainer of your new made hell Say as Fulgentius saith and wee aske no more Quicquid fuit infirmitatis animae sine peccato suscepit pertulit Christ tooke vpon him and suffered whatsoeuer infirmitie may bee in the soule without sinne I hope you will your selfe accept the condition which you offer to others and I require no more But what is there in these words on which you so stoutly stand and so confidently crake that helpeth your deuice forward Grant them absolutely and what conclude you The griefe of hell paines suffered from the immediate hand of God is an infirmitie of the soule you must say if you will say any thing towards the matter you haue in hand But who euer said so that knew his left hand from his right What passing dulnesse and surpassing drowsinesse is this to make the suffering of hell paines from the immediate hand of
saith of their sinnes as he doth of their death that God turneth them and all things else to the good of those that loue him Touching Gods fatherly Anger against the sinnes of the faithfull for their amendment which Musculus mentioneth He doth not say as you doe it is no Anger neither doe I defend any other kinde of Anger in God then such as a Religious and wise Father in some sort resembleth when he persueth the wickednes of his vnruly sonne Whose person though he fauour as being his Sonne and by chastisement seeke to reforme yet is he or ought he to be not in words or lookes onely but inwardly and truely displeased and offended with the lewdnesse of his Sonne And though loue doe temper the correction that he meane not to kill or ouerthrow his owne flesh and blood yet the zealous Father spareth not to make his Sonne throughly smart till he confesse mislike and leaue his former loosenesse and frame himselfe obediently to his Fathers will Doth not this Father as much hate the vices as he loueth the person and seeketh the welfare of his Sonne And since his Sonne will not be otherwise recalled may not the sharp correction which the Father vseth to represse the vnbridled and vntamed appetites of his licentious child be called punishment The Scriptures so speake and so doe the Fathers as also the later writers onely this fabler hath found out a new faith and new phrases of Gods improper wrath and vntrue punishment of sinne which God vseth toward his children that prouoke him with their impuritie and iniquitie It may not be said properly that Gods Iustice leadeth him to inflict these things on vs as you affirme but his holinesse and loue Your mouth belike is the measure of proper speeches If you intend that not onely Iustice but also Loue did and doth lead God to inflict these things on vs you say the same that I affirme but if you meane as you must if you will crosse my position that Loue without Iustice did and doth lead God to inflict these things on vs then speake you both absurdly and wickedly For the Scriptures ascribe Iustice and Iudgement to God in chastening his Church and punishing the sinnes of his seruants as well as they doe Loue and holinesse When the Prophet told Roboham and the Princes of Iuda that they had left God and therefore God would leaue them in the hands of Shishak the King of Egypt the King and Princes humbled themselues and said the Lord is iust When Ierusalem was burnt and her people caried captiue to Babilon the Prophet lamenting her miserie saith the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions and teacheth her to say Iust is the Lord for I haue rebelled against his mouth Daniel at the time when God would deliuer his people from that Captiuitie maketh confession of his and their sinnes and saith All Israell haue transgressed thy law and departed from hearkning to thy voice Therefore the curse is powred vpon vs because we haue sinned against him And the Lord hath watched ouer this euill and brought it vpon vs because the Lord our God is iust in all that he doth for we would not heare his voice The Leuites after their returne making confession of their sinnes vnto God mentioning their afflictions doe adde And thou Lord are iust in all that is come vpon vs because thou hast kep t thy truth and we haue done wickedly The Apostles confesse the like after Christs comming If our iniquitie saith Paul commend the Iustice of God what shall we say Is God vniust in punishing God forbid Very plainly the same Apostle denounceth Gods iustice and vengeance to all Christians that wrong their brethren You know saith he what Commandements we gaue you by the Lord Iesus that no man oppresse or defraud his brother for the Lord is the Auenger of all such things as we foretold and protested vnto you And to the Colossians He that doth wrong shall receaue at Gods hand for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons The recompence of a mans hands that is works shall God giue vnto him either in this life if he repent or in the next if he persist Lo saith Salomon the righteous are repayed on earth he meaneth the euill which they haue done to others how then the wicked and the sinner For here in this life is the time that iudgement beginneth at the house of God If it first begin with vs saith Peter what shall be the end of them who obey not the Gospell of God Howsoeuer you tattle that God vtterly forgetteth his Iustice in afflicting his Church the Scriptures teach vs that Iudgement beginneth here at the house of God for an example of the iust iudgement of God against the wicked and that the very righteous are repayed on earth the wrongs which they do to others God by his Apostle openly professing himselfe to be the Auenger of such beleeuers as wrong or defraud their brethren Now whether there may be Iudgement Requitall and Reuenge in this life from God against euill without some admixture of his iustice though he purpose not to destroy the penitent I leaue it to the Christian Reader to consider Hath not Christ then borne the burden of our sinnes to free vs from all punishment Christ hath not presently and generally freed vs and euery part of vs from all corruption and affliction of sinne he will doe it at his appointed time when the day of our redemption commeth In the meane time our inward man is freed though our outward man dayly perish For Christ must raigne till he haue put all his and our enemies vnder his feete The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death Then shall be the end of sinne death and corruption in all his and not before though we be alreadie redeemed by Christ from it in Gods purpose and promise which shall then bee fully performed and in part whereof we presently haue an assurance in that our soules are renewed in this life by grace and receiued in the next to a blessed rest and comfort till that day rise when Christ will set a crowne of righteousnesse on them all that loue his comming Againe we are presently freed from all that which is solely the punishment of sinne and hath no farder or other profit or vse in it then onely to punish and reuenge sinne And such are none of these things whereof wee speake For God in them all hath so tempered a taste of his iustice with his manifold and great mercies that it is not expedient for vs as yet to be wholly freed from them This respect preuaileth so farre with God that whiles the world must dure hee hath subiected his children to the capitall and penall lawes not of Christian Magistrates onely but euen of infidels also for that without discipline
the exceeding loue and admirable honor wherewith God accepted and aduanced the death of his Sonne for mans saluation seeme to any sober man verie wrath true vengeance or the proper punishment of sinne prouided and reserued for reprobate men and angels It was not for correction you say What then ergo for vengeance Who being in his right wits would so reason God afflicteth his Saints often times for probation for perfection for coronation as the Scriptures auouch and not for correction May a man thence conclude by your Logick that these afflictions of the Godly are true punishment and proper vengeance Your selfe most withstand it Why then since Christes afflictions had in them a cleere illustration of Gods wisdome power and loue towards man somewhat blemished and obscured in mans fall by Satans craft and a full recompence to his holinesse and iustice neglected and irritated by mans vnrighteousnesse besides the obedience sufficience and preualence of his Sonne thereby declared why should I say those afflictions of Christ great and small during his life and at his death seeme to any man that is well aduised the true wrath proper vengeance and right punishment that was prepared for sinners Yea since the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne must be common to sinfull men with the sinfull Angels in as much as they both sinned and shall both receaue the due wages of sinne how can the corporall afflictions of this life wherein the diuels can not partake with men be called the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne And who but you hearing our Sauiour pronounce that euerlasting fire is the full payment and proper punishment of wicked and accursed men and Angels would labour with such loose and lewd collections to bring Christ Iesus within the compasse of the full punishment and proper vengeance due to sinne Wherefore take backe your riotous and irreligious termes As they are not prooued by any Scripture so are they not to be suffered in Christian Religion because they are but cloudes to cloke the fantasticall frame of your new hell In the sharpnesse of the punishment exacted by God on the manhood of his owne Sonne for our sinnes though farre different from that which the wicked doe and shall feele and which the Scriptures call the wrath to come wherein the diuels shall haue their portion euen in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone God would haue vs learne how much he detesteth our sinnes how easie all the plagues which we suffer in this life are in respect of that we deserue how infinite the loue and mercy of God was towards vs to lay the burden which we could not haue borne on the shoulders of his onely Sonne who for his dignitie innocencie and euery way sufficiencie was able to quench that wrath that euerlastingly and intolerably would haue burnt against vs to our finall and perpetuall destruction of body and soule For if Gods owne Sonne though he did recompence our sinnes with his infinite humilitie obedience and sanctitie was yet pursued vnto death in most painefull and reprochfull manner for our sakes before we could be quited from the guilt and load of our sinnes had we appeared in the iust iudgement of God to receaue the reward of our manifold iniquities what could haue beene the end thereof but a most dreadfull damnation of body and soule to hell fire for euer with the desperate and damned spirits This God would haue vs obserue in the death of his Sonne though there be many other points of Gods wisedome power and loue towards Christ himselfe which the Scriptures inclose in the Crosse of Christ. That then Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes appeared in the Crosse of Christ I doe not deny speaking of wrath after the manner of the Sacred Scriptures But that any wrath or vengeance proper to the wicked was therein offered or executed on Christ or that he suffered the iust and full punishment allotted to others for sinne Saue that his sufferings were in his person the full price of our Redemption I meane a most sufficient satisfaction and recompence for all the sinnes of the world I find no mention made thereof in all the Scriptures nor see any iust cause or proofe thereof alleaged by you in all your writings For since you will not endure that any thing executed on the godly shall be truely called wrath it is euident that the wrath which you imagine Christ suffered must be proper to the wicked before it can be rightly called wrath because the godly feele no part of Gods wrath litle nor great as you suppose Now that Christ suffered the wrath of God prouided for the sinnes of the wicked only and no way common to the godly this is both a false and a wicked proposition of yours though you euery where vrge it you no where prooue it but boldly as your fashion is affirming it you thinke the world bound to embrace it I find by the Scriptures that the wrath which Christ suffered in Soule and Body differed from that which is proper to the wicked as well in the Nature and measure of the paines as in the purpose of the punisher and inward peace of the sufferer and in all the consequents of the paines themselues In this world the wicked find subtraction of all grace and fauour confusion and desperation in the world to come exclusion from glorie Malediction and damnation wholy and euerlastingly light on them none of which may be transferred to Christ without intolerable blasphemie Yet paine you thinke Christ suffered and more then paine the wicked and damned doe not suffer Were that true which is most false that the damned suffer no more then pain though indeed in hell cuery thing doth paine them yet all paines are not of the same nature and kind and no paines felt in this life come neere the paines of hell whereof this mortall life and flesh is not capable The paine of fire we see doth presently cut of this life and some diseases so much heate the body that they doe the like and yet the paine and force of this naturall fire or of any sicknesse is nothing comparable to the fury of hell fire for which the bodies of the wicked must be made immortall before they can endure it All aches and agues doe paine the body all feares and sorrowes afflict the soule and spirit of man Shall we thence conclude that all men at all times when they are pained or grieued suffer the paines of hell because it is paine which the damned doe suffer It is more then prophane abusing and deluding the terrible iudgements of God against sinne to suppose that all paines of body and soule are hell paines in nature and kind which you wrap vnder the fold of proper wrath and right punishment of sinne because they are paines Wherefore they must either be the selfe same paines that God in his iust and fierce wrath inflicted on the damned or you
doth directly inferre that either we were not begotten and conceiued in sinne which is an euident heresie repugnant to Dauids wordes or els the vntimely fruites and scapes of women haue reasonable soules at the very instant of their conception when sinne is found in them by Dauids words which is this grosse absurd and false conceite that now you would shunne If you flie for helpe to actuall sinne haue children actuall sinne in their mothers wombes or as soone as they haue reasonable soules Or is actuall sinne traduced and inherited from Adam or spake I of actuall sinne when I said we inherite pollution from Adams flesh before the soule commeth Will you sticke to it and say originall pollution is no sinne Dauid conuinceth you who saith he was begotten in sinnes and conceaued in iniquitie and Paul affirmeth that death went ouer all men infants not excepted for so much as all men haue sinned and euen ouer them also who sinned not after the likenesse of Adams transgression that is who did not commit sinne as Adam did actually and voluntarily but naturally inherited sinne from Adam which dwelleth in them from the houre of their conception to the time of their dissolution and worketh the euill in them that they would not leading them captiue to the law of sinne which is in their members But how could Dauid say he was conceiued in sinne when at the time of his conception he had neither bodie nor soule Howsoeuer mans reason iudge thereof which yet often giueth the name of the whole to a part and the titles of things represented to their images with God nothing is more frequent than to call those things which are not as though they were because he not only made all things of nothing but quickeneth the dead and hath things past and to come present before him Leui is sayd by the Scripture to haue payed tithes to Melchisedech by Abraham as being then in Abrahams loines when Leuies grandfather was not yet borne So God by his Prophet spake to Cyrus many yeeres before Cyrus was borne calling him his anointed and saying to him by name thou art my shepheard So certaine is the counsell of God and his purpose so immutable that he speaketh in the Scriptures of things to come as if they were past or present Out of this infallible decree of God Dauid and Iob call that seed which was prepared to be the matter of their bodies by the names of themselues because it could not be altered what God had appointed But the void conceptions of women which miscarie before the bodie be framed neuer had either life or soule and so neither name nor kinde but perish as other superfluous burdens and repletions of the bodie which God hath appointed to no vse saue to ease the bodie In satisfaction for sinne you runne the same course that you do in the rest for neither vnderstanding my words nor almost any mans els rightly you fight with your owne fansies as if they were parts of my faith I sayd the Scripture acknowledgeth no satisfaction for sinne but by death I did and do so say what then Still we must note that by death you meane onlie the bodilie death In Christes person I alwayes meane by the death which he suffered the death of the bodie though you would include the death of the soule which I do not In the wicked I take death for all kinds of death corporall spirituall and eternall What can you hence distill Then surely the wicked should satisfie easily for their sinnes Farre be it from me to vtter such a sentence Doe the wicked with any kinde of death satisfie for their sinnes or is their condemnation to hell paines therefore eternall because by no death they can satisfie for their sinnes Were the iustice of God once satisfied by any thing the wicked could suffer their torments should cease but their punishments euerlastingly continue for that no satisfaction can be made to God by them suffer they neuer so much or neuer so long Whose follie then is it to pronounce that the wicked may satisfie for their sinnes mine or yours I sayd no such word I directly auouched the contrary The paines of hell haue neither worth nor weight sufficient in themselues to satisfie the anger or to procure the fauor of God Satisfaction for sinne I ascribe to none but onlie to Christ and in him to no death but onlie to that of his body Will it thence follow the Scripture acknowledgeth no satisfaction but by some kind of death ergo the wicked may satisfie for their sinnes by the deaths which they suffer Be it farre from all wise men to make such consequents and from all Christian men to make such conclusions The antecedent in effect is confessed by your selfe The Scriptures you say do shew indeed that Christ should not satisfie without death I sayd the same By satisfaction I meant full satisfaction when no more could be exacted as the word importeth and not the concurrents or precedents to satisfaction when the chiefest is vnpayed Why then doth your absurd and leud conclusion folow more vpon my words than vpon your owne My proofs are not good with those you finde fault If yours were no worse they would go more currantly The Apostle sayth Christ is the Mediator of the new Testament that through death which was for the redemption of transgressions we might receiue the promise Heere death is auouched to be the redemption which is all one with satisfaction for sinne for wherewith we are redeemed therewith God is satisfied Christes bodily death meerely and alone you say without any thing else together therewith which is my intent is not heere mentioned You will not tell where your shoo wringeth Death was for the redemption or satisfaction for sin sayth the Scripture Now the death of Christes bodie or of his soule or of both must here be contained The death of Christes soule you dare not openly professe and therefore all this while you carrie it couertly vnder the sufferings of Christes soule But you must come plainly to it for these assertions of the Apostle Death was the redemption of our transgressions and we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne will make this to be the question as I first set it whether the death of Christes soule or the death of the damned which is the true paines of hell be a necessary part of Christs satisfaction and our Redemption Other sufferings of the Soule are meere shifts to harbor your folly if you striue in words or your impietie if you striue indeede for the death of Christs Soule as requisite by the Scriptures to our Saluation That Christ did not die the death of the Soule I doe not prooue there is no cause I should it is your assertion that he did and must be prooued by you which you be so farre from comming neere that you purposely
himselfe you make him say the soule is sufficient by it selfe to do the lesse for it is able of it selfe only to thinke to will to desire to dispose Where the word solummodo ONLY which is added to the Verbes following you cut from them with a point and ioyne it to the Pronoune precedent saying it is able of it selfe only meaning without the body thereby to exclude the bodie from all communion and impression of the thoughts which Tertullian before did impart to the bodie And thus by wresting Tertullians words you make him câ—…ntrarie to himselfe because he should not seeme contrarie to you which is the couâ—…se of your vnlearned skill vsed euery where by you when any thing standeth in your way Otherwise Tertullians words are plaine enough after his maner and no way repugnant to that which went before but haue in them rather an exposition what seruice and subâ—…ction the bodie yeeldeth to the soule in sinne without which the soule can accomplish no sinne For though desire cogitation and will are in the soulâ—… as her owne and come from the soule to begin euery sinne yet she can perfâ—… no sinne without her bodie Likewiâ—… your colâ—…ection out of Tertullian that the soule now without the flesh receiuâ—…th iâ—…gement for such actions as of it selfe it was sufficient to doe hath neither any trueth in it nor concordance with your authors sense or words for Tertullian confidently pronounceth that the iudgement of God must be beleeued to be FVLL FINALI and PERPETVALL none of which agree to the iudgement that you pretend for the actions of the soule alone without the bodie It is NOT FVLL because the one halfe of man is absent it is NOT FINALL because an other iudgement and sentence shall follow after it is NOT PERPETVALL because it dureth but till the resurrection when both soule and bodie shall be cast into euerlasting fire it is NOT GENERALL because such of the wicked as liue when Christ shall come to iudge the quicke and dead shall not haue their soules punished apart from their bodies This doctrine therefore is verie false that sinnes mâ—…erely spirituall as you terme them namely Heresies Turcisme and Atheisme shall not be punished in or after the last iudgement when the bodie shall be reunited to the Soule because their punishment the soule alone must suffer since she alone committed them as you say without any consent or communion of her bodie Neither doth Tertullian call this punishment of the soule without the bodie simplie or absolutely IVDGEMENT but the TASTE or SHEVV of iudgement Hilarie saith rightly of it The day of iudgement is the repaying of eternall ioy or paine The time of death in the meane space hath euery one tied to his state dum ad iudicium vnumquemque aut Abraham reseruat aut poena Whiles either Paradise or punishment keepeth euery man for iudgement So Tertullian Cur non putes animam puniri foueri in inferis sub expectatione vtriusque iudicij in quadam vsurpatione candida eius Why shouldest thou not thinke the Soule to be comforted and punished below in the earth vnder the expectation of either iudgement of eternall happinesse or cursednesse in a kind of vsurping and foreshewing thereof That Tertullian here calleth degustans iudicium a foretasting of iudgement but no full finall perpetuall or generall sentence which are the properties of Gods iust iudgement against all sinnes of thoughts words or deeds Tertullian confesseth that the Soule doth not diuide all her works with the ministerie of the flesh and that the Diuine censure doth pursue the onely thoughts and bare Wills of men And therefore he saith Sensus delictorum etiam sine affectibus imputari solent anime The very purposes or desires of sinne without their effects are imputed vnto the Soule When Tertullian speaketh of sinne committed by the Soule alone without the Body or the helpe thereof he meaneth without any EXTERNALL PART of the Bodie concurring thereto as in outward facts when hands or feete or other members of the Body are imployed to bring the sinne to a sensible act and effect Take his owne example in both these places Qui viderit ad concupiscendum iam adulterauit in corde He that seeth a woman to desire her hath committed adulterie in his hart Is any man so childish as to thinke the Soule can see or desire a woman without corporall sense or concupiscence There is then in that case plainly the concurrence of the eyes and affections which are bodily but yet because the Act is not accomplished the sinne remayneth in the hart alone and proceedeth not vnto the DEEDE And so diuiding sinnes into thoughts words and deeds as Saint Austen and other Diuines doe when words and deeds are forborne they often say that men sinne in thoughts alone but this doth not exclude the inward coniunction and communion of the Soule with the Body in sinne which is denied to be corporall because it is not open to the sense Notwithstanding the powers of the Soule vsed therein are permixed with the spirits of the Body which are corporall in comparison of the Soule though spirituall in respect of the grossenes of the flesh in that they are aeriall and approch the nature and purenes of ayre to which the word spirit is vsually applyed So that the diuerse taking of the Body sometimes for the outward masse of flesh subiected to sense sometimes for the inward powers of life and sense tempered with the body causeth this difference of speech in Tertullian and the rest of the fathers who all concurre in this that except the body haue life and sense the Soule can commit no actuall sinne For we must not onely be liuing but awaked and aduised before wee can voluntarily runne into sinne Of sleepe which bereaueth vs of sense I haue spoken before of death which taketh life from vs it is also certaine that thereby sinne ceaseth in vs. He that is dead is freed from sinne saith the Apostle that is sinneth no more so Chrysostome expoundeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is deliuered from sinning any more And Ierom. Mortuus omnino non peccat The dead doth by no meanes sinne Ambrose Impius si moriatur peccare desinit The wicked when he dieth ceaseth to sinne Epiphanius In the next world after a man is dead there is no righteousnesse nor repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any workes of sinne For as Hilarie obserueth Decedentes de vita simul de iure decedimus voluntatis When we depart this life we are withall cut off from all libertie of Will Theophylact. The Apostle speaketh thus of euery man For he that is departed from this life is iustified from sinne to wit he is loosed and deliuered from it Our new writers affirme no lesse Bullinger This is a generall Rule the dead doth not sinne at all yea he
can not sinne Peter Martyr vpon the same place The dead cease from their euill actions in which before they liued Caluine The Apostle reasoneth from the proprietie of death which abolisheth all the actions of this life Beza The Apostle speaketh of the effect of death which maketh vs when we are dead necessarily to cease from the actions of this life and consequently from sinne So that leroms conclusion is very true The dead are able to adde nothing to that which they brought with them out of this life For neither can they doe well nor sinne neither encrease vertues nor vices If then the Soule can not sinne except the body haue life and sense for neither in death nor sleepe men doe sinne without question the body must concurre to the committing of all sinne and the action is common to both And if not onely life and sense be required in the body but intelligence and remembrance to discerne good from euill must remaine vnperished before the Soule can sinne for otherwise Insants mad men and others stroken with Lethargies Epilepsies and Apoplexies should doe nothing but sinne by continuall omitting of good if not committing of euill and these naturall infirmities or violent distempers of the braines come from the body and ouerwhelme the actions of reason and memorie how can the body bee excluded from the communion of all sinne whose parts and spirits if they bee inflamed or obstructed doe excuse men from sinne by hindering the iudgement of good and euill And where no sinne is committed but that which is either embraced with loue and delight or else inforced with feare and dislike and all these haue their sensible impressions and motions in the heart how should the body bee free from any sinne which hath his manifest delectation and contentation in euery sinne bee it neuer so inward and spirituall Howsoeuer then your vnlearned and vnbridled humour pronounce this Doctrine to bee exceeding vntrue and hurtfull and more then strange and euen hereticall it is a faire plaine and Christian trueth that all sinne in man is common to body and Soule and that as both parts do ioyne in the committing of each sinne so shall both bee coupled in the punishment of each sinne though the Soule as shee first beginneth and most affecteth sinne whether by her sense or vnderstanding so shall shee first taste and most feele the iust iudgement of God against sinne Lastly you contradict your selfe For you graunt that the Soule hath some sufferings in this life and the next which come not by the body I graunt it indeede and therefore your impudencie is the more who by adding onely to my former words would make mee say the contrarie I suppose you denied before the Soules punishment without the body Where and what are my words that make the deniall You and your friends haue skanned them often and neere enough shew them or else your supposing will prooue by your leaue but a shamelesse inforcing The strongest words that I haue sounding that way are these The iustice of God both temporally and eternally punisheth the Soule by the body Which words are apparently sound and true and therefore you could not falsifie them but by putting onely of your owne vnto them which was no part of my speech nor intent Seeing now you graunt it therefore it followeth by your owne words that the wicked sinned meerely in and by their Soules It is a world to heare a man conclude so much and conceiue so little For first though the Soule bee punished without the body yet is that not the full punishment of sinne which is and must bee eternall for want of the body and therefore this reason is rightly returned on your owne head For if the body as you say doe not sinne at all then should the Soule euerlastingly bee punished without the body But that is expresse heresie gainesaying the resurrection and condemnation of the body to euerlasting fire Since then the punishment of the Soule is not full without the body it is a necessarie point of Christian truth that the body did sinne as well as the Soule otherwise it should vniustly be punished together with the Soule Againe what if the body before Iudgement bee not punished in the same place nor with the same paine that the Soule is is that a consequent the body is free from all punishment of sinne As though priuation of life corruption to dust subiection to the curse and obligation to eternall fire were no punishments which are allotted to the body for the time till the day of generall resurrection and iudgement Wherefore this reason also recuyleth vpon you For if the bodies of the wicked when they bee seuered from their Soules are not exempted from some punishment of sinne that rather inferreth the body was partner with the Soule in sinne then vtterly innocent as you would haue it How sound this is I wot not where you yeelde none other reall and positiue punishment now to the Damned but remorse and remembrance of sinne onely as it seemeth What talke you of soundnesse till you shew your selfe to haue more sense in matters of Religion To repeate all the paines which the damned doe suffer would trouble your wits and if I could doe it to what purpose were it I said the Soule seuered from her Body was punished in hell with the remembrance of sinne gnawing the conscience losse of Gods fauour afflicting the mind besides the paine of fire which torment is vnspeakable Your eyes did not serue you to see those words besides the paine of fire You vouch I yeeld no punishment to the damned now but remorse and remembrance of sinne ONLY Let your discrete Readeriudge what dealing this is and how well you deserue to be beleeued vpon your word The fire of hell you will say is no reall nor positiue punishment The triall of that will cost you deere you were best forbeare your dreames till you bring your proofes You would haue if I ghesse right at your meaning immediate paine from the hand of God tormenting Soules in hell but when you prooue that God is not able as well with meanes to punish the Soules of the wicked as without meanes and that the fire of hell so often threatned in the Scriptures is but a figure of speech to make vs afraid we wil harken after your new reall and positiue punishments which you so highly esteem because they are deuised by your selfe In saying that Christ was not free from some proper punishments to his Soule as sorow and feare in his Agonie If you meane as you speake then it followeth euidently from your owne words that Christ suffered proper punishment in his Soule from the very wrath of God which in a word is the granting of our whole Question He that will follow you in your fansies and follies shall haue some what to doe That sorrow and feare for what causes
which he so much denieth The death of the body which the godly doe suffer is to this day an euill of it selfe and the punishment of sinne but God of his mercie towards his hath giuen such grace not to death but to their faith that by suffering death patiently they shal be the more plentifully rewarded But as no wise man will say the Law is euill when the wicked abuse it to kindle their lusts so may no sober man say that the death of the faithfull is good in it selfe though by Gods goodnesse it bee made to them a triall of their patience and a passage to a better life You say the nature of death is changed and not to the faithfull any longer an euill or part of the punishment and curse which was laide oâ—… sinne S. Austen saith the contrarie It is still an euill as it was and the nature thereof is not changed though the vse thereof be changed by faith and the consequents altered by Gods goodnesse Now things must bee esteemed by their nature and not by their vse as Austen teacheth For euill men vse good things euilly yet that maketh not good to bee euill because their vse is inuerted and euen so saith Austen good men haue a good vse of death which is euill yet that maketh not the death which they suffer to be good in it selfe or in nature to bee such as by Gods fauour it is to them When the death therefore of the faithfull is said by Saint Austen or any others to be good they meane the vse and not the nature thereof and when they say it is euill or a curse they meane the nature and not the vse For touching the nature thereof the Apostle who must be heard saith fully and resolutely Death is an enemie that must be destroyed euen in the godly And touching the vse thereof the same Apostle saith To mee Christ is life and to die is gaine Against this you neither doe nor can bring ought besides waste words and places either not vnderstood of you or wrested by you as spoken of the nature of death when they meane the vse of death which the faithfull haue by Gods abundant blessing Your selfe doe say The vengeance of the Law once executed on the suertie can no more in Gods iustice be executed on vs. In the vengeance of the law is comprised corporall spirituall and eternall death The whole Christ neither did nor could taste and bee a Sauiour A part he therefore tasted which was the death of his body and thereby freed vs from the rest which was due to our sinnes From the death of the body he hath not as yet wholly deliuered vs but hee will and in the meane time hee hath broken the linckes of death whereby those three were coupled together first in his owne person who suffered the first kinde of death and neither of the other and by vertue thereof hath done the like in all his Saints leauing their bodies for a season vnto death as his was that he may raise them after with greater power and glorie then if they had neuer died What doeth this hinder but death may truely bee called a Curse as in Christ so in his members and though execution of vengeance be restrained from vs yet imitation of Christ is not excluded neither is the generall sentence pronounced against the sinne of all mankinde To dust thou shalt returne reuoked but by the resurrection from the dead how then was it vengeance on Christ if it were due to mans nature Death was due to mans nature for sinne and consequently not due to Christ that had not sinned When therefore it was laide on him that deserued it not it must be taken as the wages of our sinne in his person and so was a wound to him though a medicine to vs because hee was wounded for our transgressions and wee were healed by his stripes Our publike doctrine in England set foorth by Master Nowel confirmeth as much To the faithfull death is now not a destruction but a changing of life and a very sure and short passage to heauen Euery thing that is licensed or liked as profitable to bee publikely read or taught is not by and by authorised in all things nor made the publike doctrine of this Realme You would faine oppose Master Nowel to Saint Austen who if hee were liuing would giue you no thanks therefore Saint Austens Faith hath beene allowed and receiued by all Synods and Councels since his time and by the whole Church of Christ as fit to guide and leade not onely learners but makers of Catechismes and therefore the match if they were repugnant is somewhat vnequall but indeede you haue neede to bee taught how to vnderstand your Catechisme That death is a destruction to the godly can you tell who saith so except it bee your selfe That it is a changing of life and short passage to heauen if you meane to the soules of the faithfull as the Caâ—…echisme doth no man doubteth thereof if you meane to their bodies that they by death change life and so haue a short passage to heauen it is a notable falsitie and heresie gainsaying the verie grounds of the Christian faith For priuation of sense and corruption to dust is no life much lesse an heauen except you will multiplie heauens as you do helles without reason or trueth It is most true which the Catechisine intendeth that death is this to the souls of the faithful but not to their bodies as yet till the generall day of resurrection and then the destruction of death in their bodies shall bring them to the full possession of heauenly glory prouided both for soule and bodie till that time their bodies lie vnder the dominion or power of death which is not yet destroied in euery part of vs because of sinne dwelling in our bodies though it throughly be conquered in the person of Christ and shall be likewise in vs at his appointed time As little to the purpose is that which you cite next out of the Catechisme that Death which before was a punishment is now become a vantage For he meaneth that death before had nothing in it nor after it but punishment and so was wholly and onely punishment which now by Christ is altered and made an aduantage to vs as well in respect of the manifold miseries and offences of this life from which we are deliuered as in regard of the felicitie and securitie which the soules of the Saints decâ—…ased enioy but this is nothing to their bodies which lie depriued of life and corrupted to dust till the finall restitution Neither is this a comparison with our condition before sinne in which we were created when soule and bodie should iointly haue beene translated to the kingdome of heauen without any sense or touch of death if we had stood fast in obedience but this noteth what death is after sinne committed without Christ and rightly saith that when
of this iudgment Christ before expressed when he said and I if I were exalted to the Crosse will draw all men vnto me And after when rising from his feruent praier he said z Marke 14. Behold the sonne of man is deliuered into the hands of sinners As also to the Iewes that came to apprehend him a Luke 22. This is your verie hower and the power of darkenes as likewise to Peter when he b Iohn 18. drew his sword and smote the high Priests seruant and cutt of his right eare put vp thy sword into thy sneath b Iohn 18. shall I not drinke of the cup saith Christ which the Father hath giuen me The fruit of this Iudgment is euerie where specified in the Scriptures c 1. Pet. 2. Christ bare our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree by whose stripes ye were healed that being deliuered from sinne wee should liue to righteousnes What need you then so curiously question Against whom or in what cause sate God in iudgment now when Christ was thus astonished and agonized God sate in iudgment to receaue satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect at the hands of his owne Sonne by his humilitie and obedience vnto death d Defenc. pag. 93. li. 3. Of necessitte it must be one of these three wayes First Gods maiestie and great iustice now at this time might sit in iudgment against vs and so consequently yea chiefly against Christ himselfe as our Ransomepaier Suertie in our steed e li. 16. Secondly God might be considered now as iudging Satan the Prince of this world f Pa. 94. li. 40. Thirdly Gods matestie iustice may be considered sitting in iudgment meerely against sinfullmen You be copious where you neede not and carelesse where most cause is you should be circumspect to make an idle shew of small skill you bring here a TRIPLE iudgment of God First against vs and Christ our suertie Secondly against Satan Thirdly against sinnefull men which were either elect or reprobate as though one and the same iudgment of God for mans Redemption did not concerne all three to witt Christ as the Redeemer Gods iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Satan Satan as the accuser the Elect as the ransomed leauing the reprobate in their sinnes through their vnbeliefe vnto the dreadfull day of vengeance In that the Redeemer was by this iudgment receaued and allowed to make satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect Satan was excluded from all place and power to accuse them for sinne or to raigne ouer them by sinne and the purgation of their sinnes which should beleeue in Christ being made by the Person of the Sauiour they were reconciled to God by the death of Christ and discharged from the wrath to come the anger of god remaining on such as by faith obeied not the sonne of God Saue therfore your fruitlesse paines in the rest and shew why the beholding of Gods power and iustice now sitting in iudgment to redeeme the world and to receaue recompence from the person of Christ for the sinnes of men might not breed a religious feare and trembling in the humane nature of Christ. g Defenc. pag. 93. li. If you meane that thus Christ with submission beholding his Father in iudgement at this time was cast into this agonie it is the verie trewth and the same which we maintaine You take this for a shew to build your fansies on but as your maner is you abuse trewthes to serue your turnes Let it stand for good that Christ now beheld his Father Christ might beholde the power of his Fathers wrath against sinne and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked sitting in iudgment to require recompence for the sinnes of the faithfull what followeth that God awarded the selfe same vengeance against the person of Christ that we had deserued and should haue suffered if we had not beene redeemed This is a false hereticall and blasphemous conclusion no way coherent to the premisses and no way consonant to the Scriptures For then finall destruction desperation confusion and euerlasting damnation of soule and bodie to hell fire which without question were the wages of our sinnes as we may see by their example that are not clensed from sinne by the bloud of Christ must without reseruation or remedie haue lighted on the person of Christ. If that vengeance of sinne which was due to vs could by no iustice be inflicted on the person of the sonne of God no not if he had borne the sinnes of the whole world how then could the doubt or feare of his punishment on himselfe cast him into this agony you will release him of the circumstance but tie him to the substance of the selfe same pains which the damned endure When you sitt in iudgement on Christ shew your wicked and witles conceits as much as you list but the father to whom of right it appertained sitting in iudgment to receaue 〈◊〉 from the person of his sonne who was most willing thereto ne did ne could by iustice determine any thing against his owne sonne that should either derogate from the person of Christ or abrogate the loue which God professed and pronounced so often from heauen towards him God might haue condemned vs that most iustly deserued it but to adiudge the same condemnation to his owne Sonne was simply impossible to the Iustice holines trueth and loue of God For so the vnion of Christes person must either be dissolued which god hath faithfully sworne and mightily wrought or els the second person in Trinitie must haue tasted of the same vengeance with the damned and with the Diuells which is a blasphemie that the Diuell neuer drempt nor durst to broche h Defenc pag. 93. li. 8. This 〈◊〉 not but that Christ had recall paines inflicted from the Father as from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against vs in him who were thus acquited by him Not denying is a slender proofe of that which you should with most infallible certaintie conclude 〈◊〉 you did a 〈◊〉 If Christes manhood might and did righteously and iustly seare and tremble at the glorie power and maiestie of God sitting now in iudgement to proportion the price that should be payed for mans ransome how doth that 〈◊〉 the reall paines of the damned were inflicted on the soule of Christ at that instant except in madde mens conceits which respect more their pangs than their proofs and preferre their willes before the wisdome of Gods spirit or witnesse of mans reason All iudgement against sinne you will say tendeth vnto condemnation No iudgement against the Sonne of God could proceed vnto damnation for what or whose sinnes soeuer And therefore to me and to all that obserue the words of the Holy Ghost it is a cleerer case than the Sunne-shining at noone day that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in
z Defenc. pag. 134. li. 33. Eternall continuance in hell paines is not of the essence or nature of hell tormâ—…nts So haue you said page 12. though page 53. as you often quote it there is no such thing but euen there also haue I shewed that this you say out of your owne braine the Scriptures affirme no such thing Secondly I answered you that the horror of the paines of the damnâ—…d did admit no ioy for in hell I hope there is no ioy Christ then by your owne doctrine hauing constant continual exceeding generall ioy was neither in the true paines nor in the true terrors of hell vnlesse in defence of your deuices you will now make your new heauen and your new hell to be all one For ioy in the holy Ghost you directly make to be the substance of heauenly bliâ—…ie Now if in Christ and all his members you put at one and the same time the true terrors of hell and the true ioy of the holy Ghost what misse you of mixing heauen and hell at one instant in Christ and all the faithfull A third replie I gaue in that very place to this obiection which you say I neither doe nor can answere and that was a Serm. pag. 135. li. 3. since it is no where witnessed in the Scriptures that Christ suffered the paines of hell why striue you to establish a meere conceit of men neither written nor spoken before our age All these are no answeres with you and only because you haue deuiced a new hell from the immediate hand of God with which you delude as your maner is all that the Scriptures speake of the paines of the damned But glory not in your deuice to inuent a new faith it is as much sinne as to renounce the true Christian faith which indeed is auncient and in substance as old as the Scriptures since they serue to testifie from the beginning Gods blessed will and promise of saluation vnto man through the death of Christ which God first named the Serpents biting the heele of the womans â—…eed b Defenc. pag. 135. li. After this you set vâ—…hemently against my last argument that Christ suffered not in some sort the death of the soule first if we should speake strictly after the manner of death in the bodie then no man is so mad or foolish as to say that any mans soule can die at all that is want life and sense as a dead bodie doth You be come now to the vpshot of all your defence and doctrin whether the Scriptures do any where teach that Christ died the death of the soule or the second death for our redmption and here shall we find nothing but an heape of words broched out of your braines and so tempered with your conceits that when you haue all said you say nothing with any substance or shew of holy Scripture You disclaime that the soule is at any time deuoide of life and sense as dead bodies are as if that were ought to your purpose but yet the death of the soule hath a resemblance and concordance with the death of the bodie as spirituall things may haue with corporall And therefore as the bodie being once dead wanteth all sense and motion which are the parts or effects of life from the soule quickning the bodie so the soule being dead to God who is her life hath no sense nor motion of Gods grace in this life nor sight nor hope of glory in the life to come but destitute of the one here on earth which is grace hath no desire nor feeling of God and in the next world depriued of all possibilitie of glory is subiected to eternall and intolerable miserie from the presence of God d Defenc. pag. 135. li. 24. Such a death as immortall soules are subiect vnto is Gods separation from them this is two fold the first death and the second death as the Scripture speaketh The first is the separation of them from Gods grace which is in this life by sinne raigning in them The soule loaden with sinne in this life is not vtterly dead so long as it retaineth any sense or motion of Gods grace So that sorow for sinne ioyned with any desire of true repentance is a plaine signe of life in the soule though sorrow for sinne without hope be plaine despaire and death of the soule And therefore the soule of man finding the danger of sinne and desiring to be deliuered from it yet liueth whiles she apprehendeth affecteth or seeketh the grace of God but if she want all sense of God by faith and motion to God by hope and desire she is wholy dead to God that is void of the life of God which is deriued from God vnto the soules of men As for the second death of the soule the Scriptures indeed speake thereof but you erre groslely in this second death the execution whereof alwayes followeth the first death as well of the bodie as of the soule though the guiltinesse and condemnation thereof by a mans owne conscience may be found heere in this life And therefore the second death by the open and euident wordes of the holy Ghost is called the d Reuel 20. lake of fire or the e 19. 21. lake burning with fire and brimstone which is not in this life And consequently your next collection that the second death is Gods leauing them in the feeling of the most sharpe and most vehement paines inflicted by Gods iustice for sinne is as false as it is defectiue not agreeing in one word with the tenor of the sacred Scriptures which you pretend to follow f Defenc. pag. 1â—…5 li. 30. This last kind of death is so called and named in many places of Scripture The second death is expresly named but in foure places of the Scripture The first g Reuel 2. v. 11 Be thou faithfull to death and I will giue thee the crowne of life He that ouercommeth the first death shall not be hurt of the second death The second h Reuel 20. v. 6 blessed and holy is he that hath part in first resurrection of the soule vnto the life of grace on such THE SECOND DEATH hath no power The third i Ibid. v. 14. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH The fourth k Reuel 21. v. 8 The fearefull vnbeleeuing the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liers shall haue their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH Saue in these places the second death is neuer expresly named in the Scriptures and in these most apparantly the second death followeth after the death of the bodie and is euerlasting And neither on Christ who is the first resurrection vnto grace and the second resurrection vnto glorie nor on any of his members hath the second death any power by the plaine words of Saint Iohn
So that all your platforme is quite ouerthrowen by the direct words of the Apostle freeing Christ and all his elect euen in this life from all power of the second death And therefore you set your selfe in this section euidently to confront the holy Ghost when you seeke to proue that Christ suffered the second death of the soule as the Scripture speaketh And besides the Scriptures if you talke of second deaths you may as well tell vs tales of a new world as of an other word without the witnesse of Gods spirit But you haue found out many places of Scripture where this last kinde of death is so called and named Eight you quote by the side in your margine but take not the paines to discusse one of them onely you pronounce after your stately manner that those places of Scripture prooue that which you meane to bee the death of the soule Now what if not one of them speake any such thing is not your Reader sure to find you a true man of your word when you quote eight places and not one of them to your purpose but this is your perpetuall course to mistake and misuse Scriptures at your pleasure and then to say you haue soundly prooued it On the contrary I affirme that none of these places intend any such thing as you imagine of your terrestiall and temporall hell but they exactly conclude against you that damnation is eternall and no death of the soule which is not euerlasting is expressed or intended in any of those Scriptures or in any other that you or your friends are able to picke out And though it may suffice me as well to say nay as you to say yea yet for the Readers better resolution I will not bee grieued to run through all these places as much as shal be needfull The first is l Ezech. 18. ver 4. the soule that â—…inneth it shall die These words may signifie either subtraction of grace in this life which is consequent to sinne in the wicked or exclusion Eight places of Scripture abused for the temporall death of Christs soulâ—… from glory in the next world which is the iust and full wages of sinne But that euery soule which sinneth hath felt or shall feele in this life your temporall hell or the pains of the damned this is a grosse error to be fathered on those words and repugnant not onely to the trueth of this text but euen to the sense and experience of all the Godly and such as your selfe dare not auouch since you qualifie your conceit in that behalfe with these words that m Defenc. pag. 134. li. 15. some in some measure are conformed with Christ in these his sufferings But if God by Ezechiel ment your earthly hell then absolutely all men children not excepted must feele in this life paines equall with the damned for so much as they haue sinned and deserued euerlasting damnation The second is the commination that God made to Adam n Genes 2. ver 17. Whensoeuer thou â—…atest thereof thou shalt die the death or surely thou shalt die Here are all sorts of deaths threatned but not to be executed either on all men nor in this present life God reseruing to himselfe power and libertie to dispose of all mens soules according to his determinate counsell though they should all be guiltie and liable to all kinds of death by vertue of those words vpon the transgression of the first man This exposition the Apostle giueth when he saith o Rom. 5. The offence of one came on all men to condemnation which is the verifying of these words that all men died in Adam to wit were subiect to death not onely by dying the death of the bodie which is appointed for all men but to the guiltinesse of euerlasting death not executed on all though deserued by all The third which is the p Rom. 6. Apostles conclusion is either generally ment of all kinds of death which came in by sinne as the rewards and punishments thereof and then it is nothing to your intention or else it expresseth the full wages of sinne to be euerlasting death by opposition to eternall life mentioned in the next wordes following For eternall life is the gift of God as eternall death is the wages that is bothe the desert and repayment of sinne Take which you will either the generall or speciall construction of death it is no way pertinent to your purpose Lesse is the fourth that the Apostles were the q 2. Cor. 2. vers 16. sauour of death vnto death in them that perished as they were the sauour of life vnto life in them that were saued For the preaching of the Gospell which the Apostle meaneth in that place doeth not proclaime a terrestiall or temporall heauen to them that beleeue in Christ but life eternall and consequently neither doth it denounce a temporall death to them which refuse Christ but euerlasting death And therefore there can be nothing more absurd then to conuert these places to the proofe of your temporall hell for so you should doe the reprobate a very good turne if you could shew that the death threatned them for not beleeuing in Christ were to dure but for a time or in this life only where your new found hell hath power and place and no where else With like successe you note for your fifth that the r 2 Cor. 3. vers 7. ministration of death was glorious the Apostle so calling the law because it denounced death not temporall but eternall to all transgessours So that if the full wages of sinne be eternall death by the word of God then did the law not denounce a temporall death due to all men by course of nature be they good or bad though euen that at first entered as a part of the punishment of sinne but euerlasting death which is the second death is reserued as S. Iohn writeth for all sorts of sinners and liers Saint Iames is the sixth who sayth s Iames 5. He that conuerteth a sinner erring from the trueth shall saue a soule from death If a man conuerted shall be saued from your temporall hell which you here would intend by the death of the soule then much more the Conuerter and he that neuer erred from the trueth shall be free from your hell and consequently Christ was most free who was trueth it selfe and neuer erred But as trueth is the way to euerlasting life and freeth men from all bondage of sinne and Satan so errour and infidelitie haue another maner of death than your terrestiall hell which you make common to Christ and some of his members and he that is conuerted from errour or sinne shall be saued from euerlasting perdition which indeed is the death of the soule depriuing it of all blisse and ioy for euer The seuenth and eigth you take out of Saint Iohn who sayth t 1. Ioh. 5. vers 16 17. There is sinne vnto
death for which we must not pray But whosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not that sinne and so neither Christ who was the true Sonne of God nor any of his chosen who are the children of God by adoption can sinne that sinne nor die that death because he that is begotten of God liueth by God who is eternall life to all that know him and cleaue vnto him without separation If then the sinnes of the Elect be not vnto death but such as we in pietie may and in charitie must pray for consequently the death of the soule here meant by Saint Iohn is such as is not incident to any of the sonnes of God and so not the temporall hell which you communicate to Christ and his members Heere are your eight places of Scriptures proouing as you pretend the second death of the soule which you ascribe to Christ in euery one of which saue the first and second there can be no question but euerlasting damnation is intended and in those two the guiltinesse of eternall death which is due to sinne may be comprised in the name of death which the Apostle iustifieth when he sayth t Rom. 5. v. 12. The offence of one came on all men vnto condemnation which is in effect that he sayd before Death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned But that any of these intend your temporall hell brought into this life not by snares and feares working on the soules of men but by substance and essence and not eternall death in hell fire with the Diuell and his Angels you nor all your adherents shall euer be able by any ground of holy Scripture to make it appeare And therefore your presuming it vpon the bare shew of places concluding no such thing is a pestilent intrusion vpon the word of God whiles you sticke not to couple your conceits which are false and erroneous with his vndoubted and vndefiled trueth x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 31. First ordinarily and commonly it belongeth only to the damned wherewithall are the ordinarie accidents and concomitants desperation induration vtter darknesse c. with perpetuitie of punishment and that locally in HELL Generally and truely the Scriptures neuer vse the name of the second death but for the lake burning with euerlasting fire into which the Diuell and all the Reprobate shall be cast and whatsoeuer you otherwise pretend is your owne absurd deuice without the Scriptures and against the Scriptures to keepe your doctrine from open derision and detestation And since your selfe acknowledge that this is the ordinarie and vsuall doctrine of the Scriptures it shal be needfull for your Reader to hold you to that till you fully proue your extraordinarie deuice by the same Scriptures by which the other is euidenly confirmed and so much openly confessed by you y Defenc. pag. 135. li. 36. In this sense the Fathers generally do take it where they denie that Christ suffered the death of the soule and so do we If your cause haue so little holde in the Scriptures it hath lesse in the Fathers who in the necessarie worke of our redemption thought it sacriledge to say any thing that was not apparently proued by the Scriptures And as you light not on a true word when you come to deliuer vs the mysteries of your new hell so this is patently false that the Fathers generally take the death of the soule for eternall damnation only when they denie that Christ died the death of the soule They speake as the Scriptures leade them and confessing two deaths of the soule as the Scriptures doe which are sinne excluding all grace and the wages of sinne euen euerlasting damnation they generally denie that Christ died any death of the soule and haue for confirmation of their doctrine therein the whole course of the sacred Scriptures concurring with them x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 37. Secondly the death of the soule or the second death may be extraordinarily and singularly considered namely to imply no more but simply the very nature and essence of it You broach two apparent and euident vntrueths which you make the whole foundation of your presumptuous errour First that either Christ or his Elect in this life did or do suffer the very nature and essence of the second death Next that the Scriptures do singularly and extraordinarily reserue that kinde of second death for Christ and his members Shew either of these by the word of God before you make them grounds of your doctrine or els any meane Reader may soone conceiue you meane to teach no trueth confirmed in the Scriptures but a bolde and false deuice of your owne which you would extraordinarily intrude vpon the word of God a Defenc. pag. 136. li. 5. This is a death to the soule as before we haue shewed according to this sense the Scriptures and Fathers before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. When you glaunced before at the death of Christes soule you prayed vs to haue patience When the Defender shouâ—…d proue the death of Christs soule he sayeth bee hâ—…th proued it already till you came to the place where we should receiue a reasonable satisfaction and now you are come to the place where you should make iust and full proofe thereof you send vs backe againe and say you haue shewed it before What meaneth this doubling and deceiuing of your Reader but that you would seeme to haue many proofs when indeed you haue none and therefore you post vs to and fro to seeke for that we shall neuer finde In the 113. Page of this Defence you went about by your miserable misconstruing of certaine wordes vsed by some of the Fathers to enforce a shew of a death on the soule of Christ but against the haire as there I haue proued and therefore stand not on your former vnfortunate aduentures but either heere make proofe by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or leaue prating and publishing it so confidently as you and your adherents do for the chiefe part of mans redemption The Scriptures and Fathers you say before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. Is this all you haue to say for the death of Christes soule that the Scriptures and Fathers may be vnderstood not to denie it The Scriptures must affirme it before you can make it any point of Christian religion or part of our reconciliation to God b Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and not by not denying If that be your course to put any thing to the Creed which you list to say the Scriptures doe not denie you may quickly haue a large Creed containing all things which the Scriptures abused with your figures and wrested to your fansies shall not in expresse words as you thinke denie c Defenc. pag. 136. li. 9. Moreouer let it be obserued that if we had no proofes at all
death haue had place in him if he had not had a mortall bodie And againe o Idem de incarnat verbâ—… Death of it selfe could not appeare but in the bodie and therefore Christ put on a bodie that finding death in his bodie he might abolish it Ambrose p Ambros. de fide ad Gratianum li. 3. ca. 5. Who is he that would haue vs partakers of his flesh and bloud Surely the Sonne of God Quomodo nisi per carnem particeps factus est noster aut PER QVAM NISI CORPORIS MORTEM mortis vincula dissoluit IN QVO NISI IN CORPORE expiaâ—…t peccata populi IN QVO PASSVS EST NISI IN CORPORE Sicut supra diximus Christo secundum carnem passo How was he made our Partner but by flesh and by what death other than the death of his bodie did he dissolue the bands of death WHEREIN BVT IN HIS BODIE did he expiate the sinnes of the people WHEREIN BVT IN HIS BODIE did he suffer As wee sayd before Christ suffered in the flesh Chrysostom q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r We died a double death therefore we must looke for a double resurrection Christ died but one kind of death therefore herose but one kind of resurrection Adam died body and soule he died to sinne and to nature In what day soeuer ye eat of the tree said God ye shall die the death That very day Adam did not die in which he did eat but he then died to sinne and long after to nature The first is the death of the soule the other is the death of the body For the death of the soule is sinne or euerlasting punishment To vs men there is a double death and therefore we must haue a double resurrection To Christ there was but one kinde of death for he sinned not and that one kinde of death was for vs. He owed no kind of death for he was not subiect to sinne and so not to death Therefore he as free from sinne rose but one 〈◊〉 We as gâ—…e of sinne die a double death and so must haue a double resurrection This Sermon whence these words are taken thought it be not amongst Chrysostomes printed Volumes yet besides that it was published in print by FRONTO DVCâ—…VS it is found in the written Greeke copie of Chrysostom lying in New Colledge Librarie in Oxford whence these words are taken little differing from the printed copie Out of Augustine though much be sayd and much more might be yet thinke I not meet to omit some places as well for the cleerenesse as the rarenesse of them some of them being sufficiently witnessed vnto vs by others though they be not found at this day among his printed works And first of those that are found s August de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 ca. 3. Vtrique rei nosâ—… id est animae corpori medicina resurrectione opus crat Mors animae impiet as est mors corporis corruptibilitas Sicut enim anima Dco deserente sic corpus anima deserente nâ—…ur vnde illâ—… sit insipiens hoc exanime Huic ergo DVPLAE MORTI NOSTRAE Salâ—…or impendit SIMPLAM SVAM adfâ—…ciendam vtramque resuscitationem nostram in Sacramento exemplo praeposuit proposuit VNAM SVAM Neque enim fuit peccator aut impâ—… vt et tanquam spiritu mortuo in interiori homine renouari opus esset sed Indutus carne mortali EA SOLA MORIENS EA SOLA RESVRGENS EA SOLA NOBIS ad vtrumque concinuit cùm in ea fieret interioris hominis sacramentum 〈◊〉 exemplum Either part of vs that is both soule and body needed curing and raising The death of the soule is impictie and the death of the bodie corruptibilitie As the soule dieth when God for saketh her so the bodie dieth when the soule for saketh it whereupon the one is soolish the other senselesse To this double death of ours our Sauiour applied his single death and to make a double resurrection in vs he preferred and proposed his one kind of death for a Sacrament and for a Precedent for he was no sinner or wicked person that he should need any renewing as one dead in spirit but putting on mortall flesh and dying in that ALONE and rising in that ALONE he fitted that ALONE to both our deaths placing therein a Sacrament for our inward man and an example for our outward So againe t Idem contra 〈◊〉 Arianum ca. 16. ca. 18. Sensit mortem Christus sicut omnes sentiunt qui moriâ—…nte carne mentibus viuunt c. Credo mortuum esse filium Dei illa quae secundum naturam generalis est cunctis non illa quae specialis est malis Christ selt death as all feele it who dying in the flesh liue in their spirits I beleeue the Sonne of God died that death which by Nature is common to all not that which is proper to euill men The words which the second Councell of Hispalis doth cite out of S. Austins writing against Maximinus are woorth the hearing though they be not now in his printed works as many other things are not which Bede and others alleage out of him u Concilium Hispalens 2. ca. 13. ex August aduersus Maximinum Vbi resurgit nisi in eo quod potuit cadere Vbi resurrexit nisi in eo vbi mortuus Quaere mortem in verbo nunquam esse potuit QVAERE MORTâ—…M IN ANIMA NVNQVAM IBI FVIT Quaere mortem in carne planè ibi fuit Et paulò pòst Quid miraris Nec mortua est anima nec verbum mortuum est CARO TANTVM MORTVA EST. Where was Christ raised but in that which might fall Wherein did he rise but in that wherein he died Seeke for death in his deitie it could neuer be there Seeke for death in his SOVLE IT NEVER VVAS THERE Seeke for death in his flesh there was it indeed And a little after Why doest thou maruell Neither was Christes soule dead nor his Godhead ONLY HIS FLESH DIED Neither want the same words in effect in his printed Sermons x In Iohannem tractat 47. Hoc suscitabatur quod mâ—…ur Nam verbum non est mortuum anima illa non est mortua That was raised in Christ which died The Deitie died not yea his soule died not y Ibidem Quid fecit mors nisi corpus ab anima separauit in morte sola caro est a Iudaeis occisa What did death in Christ more than seuer his bodie from his soule in death his flesh only was killed of the Iewes The councell it selfe adding of their own saith z Concilium Hispalens 2. ca. 13 Prophetia quoque in psalmis passionem Christi in carne sola sic asserit Foderunt manus meas pedes meos dinumer auerunt omnia 〈◊〉 Vbi non deitatis sed tantum
thing so to thinke Ambrose confesseth the same Expers peccati Christus cum ad Tartari ima descenderet vinctas peccato animas mortis dominatione destructa é fâ—…ucibus Diaboli reuocauit ad vitam Christ free from sinne when he descended to the lowest pit of hell recalled to life out of the diuels iawes the soules that were bound with sinne destroying the Dominion of death And so doth Ierom. Infernus locus suppliciorum atque cruciatuum est in quo videtur diues purpuratus ad quem descendit dominus vt vinctos de Carcere din itteret Infernus is the place of punishments and torments in which the rich man clothed with purple was seene and to which the Lord descended to dimisse such as were bound out of prison These I trust were no Heretikes but if need were and I would vse that aduantage against you which you insisting on Tertullians error seeke against me they would doe little lesse then prooue you to be a refuser and peruerter of the faith receiued in the Church of Christ and professed not by them onely but by all those Fathers whom I formerly cited as concurring in this cause with them But I smile at your follie and remit your reproches to the Readers impartiall Censure Athanasius also saying where humane soules were held by death there Christ brought his humane soule meaneth nothing else but that his soule came vnder the same condition of death as other humane soules did not that he went to the place of the damned Neither must he be vnderstood after your partiall translation when you say ex orco out of hell himselfe saith ex Hadou out of the power of death You set your selfe to outface all the places which I brought out of the Fathers for Christs descent to hell and as you played your part in wrenching wrying the words of Tertullian Austin from their rightsense so you continue in all the rest with like successe thinking it enough for you to say the word though it be neuer so false and farre from the Fathers meaning As first in Athanasius wordes what double punishment was that I pray which God threatned to Adam for sinne in saying to the earthly part earth thou art to earth shalt thou returne and to the soule thou shalt die the death for those are Athanasius words and what be the two places to which man after his dissolution was condemned Did God threaten nothing to Adam but the dissolution of bodie and soule or did he threaten the death of the soule also after this life which properly noteth hell besides the death of the bodie I trust you be not so senselesse as to say that God for sinne threatened no more to Adam and his posteritie but onely a bodily death for so could none of Adams off-spring by that sentence be adiudged to hell which yet we find daily performed by Gods iustice Then the death of mans soule threatened by God for sinne and meant by Athanasius in those words which you would elude was the place of perpetuall torments where the soule of man was truly held in death and not the condition of the soule seuered from the bodie without respect of any consequent miserie Therefore your maine foundation is euidently false that Athanasius by the death of mans soule meaneth nothing els but the soules being apart from the bodie without regard of punishment following but in expresse words he noteth the place Vbi tencbatur anima humana in morte where the soule of man was held captiue in death which spite of your heart must needes be hell Againe according to the double death threatned for sinne Athanasius saith â—… Homo in duas partes discerpitur vt ad duo loca discedat condemnatur Man dying is distracted in two parts and CONDEMNED TO TWO PLACES Now in your diuinitie is any man condemned to heauen or to Paradise you must find vs then two places of condemnation whither either part of man dissolued was adiudged as his bodie to the graue his soule to hades So saith Athanasius in expresse words If you can shew me another place of condemnation well you may say that a man is diuided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into three places and that being reuoked out of two places he remaineth bound in the third but if you can shew none other place of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the graue and Hades from which man is perfectly freed Christ deliuering vs how say you then that God is not reconciled vnto mankind If then Hades bee a place of condemnation â—…or sinne where the soule of man was bound till it was freed by Christ 〈◊〉 certainely Hades with Athanasius is neither Paradise nor heauen but onely hell Againe if by death raigning in the soule of man Athanasius intended nothing but the condition of death common to good and bad and euen to Christ himselfe how could hâ—… say of Christ that he was then and there inuiolus a morte not subâ—…ect to death or that he brake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bands of the soules detained in hades Hath heauen or Paradise any bands that must be broken And as for you last conceit that Hades being enemie and opposite to the immortalitie and resurrection of mens persons cannot by any means be hell for in hell shal be immortality resurrection as well as in heauen it is so like to the rest of your diuinitic that I doc not ouer much maruaile at it If hades be enemie and opposite to immortalitie as you confesse out of Athanasius then Hades is neither heauen nor Paradise for they are both places of immortalitie there is no death but life in either of them And though you cunningly shift handes and change mens persons for mens soulâ—…s of which Athanasius speaketh when he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where mans soule was held in death there Christ presented his humane soule to breake the chaines of death euen in hades yet that immortality is as well in hell as in heauen is a phrase of your owne framing to put all trueth and faith out of ioint The Scriptures teach most truely that God alone hath immortality It then you haue found vs a new immortalitie in hell you haue found vs a new God also And what is immortalitie but without all death since then in hâ—…ll there is nothing but death that eternall as well of soule as of body your deuices are very delâ—…cate in euerlasting death to finde no death But dally not thus with the grounds of Religion least God doe not dally with you if by your assertion the deliuerance from death and immortalitie which Christ brought to his elect be none other then such as men in hell shall haue pray God your braines be not as much crazed as your faith is And as for your interpreting Athanasius words and gessing at his meaning when we vse madde men to
serueth For that a vast and deepe gulfe in the earth should be nothing els but an abolishing of any visible creatures hence or that this should be the most proper sense of Sheol and your vast and deepe gulfe a resemblance thereof this hath neither top nor toe If Sheol be properly nothing but a priuation how can it be a vast and deepe gulfe in the earth or what proportion or similitude hath the one with the other These are therefore nothing but your fictions imagined of your owne braine to delude the Scriptures and to auoide the lower Sheol indeed which is the place of torment for the damned How Capernaum was exalted to heauen whether in her owne proud conceit after the example of the king of Babylon of whom Esaie speaketh or whether Christ ment that by reason of his often preaching and working miracles amongst them the kingdome of God was in the midst of them but not receaued nor regarded by them which some thinke to be the meaning of this place I stand indifferent so long as we keepe Sheol opposite to heauen I meane not to the clouds nor to the skies as you would shift the matter but to the place aboue where the way of life is and the brightnesse of Gods glorie that thereby we may conceaue in the lower sheol darknesse and death for euer euen as in the higher sheol both are for the time The way of life saith Salomon is on high neither in the clouds nor starres but in the seat of the blessed euen in heauen to him that declineth Sheol below Where speaking of eternall life since bodily life is heere on earth he warneth vs that eternall death is in sheol below The rest of your stuffe is not woorth the sticking at For what if God by Ieremie threatned Babylon that though her walles were thicke and her gates high the one should be broken and the other burned and though she should mount vp to heauen by raising her walles neuer so high yet her destroyers should come from God Doth this being spoken of the walles and gates which should be razed prooue that her walles and gates should descend to Sheol Where hath the prophet any such words of the walles gates or buildings of Babylon And for you to expound Sheol by what you list is a larger commission then I know any you haue I haue no doubt but walles and gates cannot reach vnto the clouds much lesse to the starres and therefore heauen applied to them standeth for that which riseth on high in the aire but that the pride of the king of Babel lifted it selfe aboue the clouds and starres I haue prooued by the plaine report of the Prophet against which no exception can be taken Next let vs view the Corinthians O death where is thy victorie ô hades ô destruction or ô power of death where is thy sting Heere it is referred to the destruction of the whole and intire persons of men taken away by death out of this world What is now become of your world of soules which you so often vrged as properly signified by hades What is become of your vast and deepe gulfe in the earth which sheol and hades did import as yon told vs but euen now Nay what is become of your destruction of stones and their descending to Hades which you said was threatned to Capernaum Are all these out of date and in euerie new place must you be forced to frame vs a new Hades You will rest somewhere at last if it be possible for your vnquiet head to haue or like any rest Well now then hades is the destruction of the whole person of man taken out of this world by death And why should not hades heere be taken for hell The whole scope and drift of the Apostle heere is to speake of the resurrection of the bodie and you graunt it What then The Saints receauing their bodies endued with immortalitie may they not reioice in their deliuerance from corruption and insult as hauing then the full victorie ouer hell and death Our full deliuerance from hell and from Satan is obtained in this life as it is written we being deliuered from our enemies and from the handes of all that hate vs. We are so deliuered from their hands or power which is all one that we shall not need to feare them but we are not yet actually freed from their snares since we daily must pray not to be ledde or left into temptation neither are all our enemies yet fully destroied since as the Apostle saith the last enemie that shall be destroied is death If all Christes enemies were put vnder his and our feete he should no longer raigne as Redeemer and Sauiour of his Church for he must raigne till he hath put all his enemies vnder his feete and then shall deliuer vp the kingdome to God euen the Father which is not before the end And yet were all things granted which you intend it helpeth you not one whit for may not the saints giue thankes for all euen then when all is fully finished though part be before perfourmed And may they not iustly reioice against all the power of Satan I meane sinne hell and death when the last enemie is in sight conquered though they be formerly freed from sinne and fully deliuered from the danger and feare of hell Your speech is very bad and scandalous where you say the bodies of the Saints lying in their graues are in the diuels walke For then the graues where bodies lie senselesse are a part of hell properly taken You told vs euen now that the aire on high was the place of diuels thinke you much that vpon occasion I should say the graues vnder the earth are within Satans walke The booke of Iob saith Satan compasseth the earth and walketh in it And Peter confirmeth the same saying He walketh about seeking whom he may deuoure So that the diuels walke for all your saying is farre larger then hell And if our Lord and master most truely said of the woman which was crooked and could not lift vp herselfe in any wise that Satan had bound that daughter of Abraham lo eighteene yeeres may not the dead bodies of Abrahams children be in Satans walk as well as their liuing bodies be in Satans bands And you that be so curious in other mens speeches doe you looke to your owne Doe not you defend that the soules of the blessed in heauen may be said to be in inferno and vnder the power of death whereof the Diuell hath the rule by the Apostles doctrine we being heere truely iustified by Gods grace are fully freed and deliuered from all the power of our enemies Are we so fully freed that we can neither sinne nor die or are sinne and death no parts of Satans power When I speake of a full conquest ouer hell and death in both parts of man soule and
which will not suffer you to be tempted aboue that you be able but will giue the issue with the tentation that you may be able to beare it Yea to his enimies God mitigateth the heauinesse of his hand at first and giueth them time and place to amend before he destroyeth them I gaue her space to repent saith Christ but she repented not and therefore when the measure of their sinnes waxeth full God repaieth them the fulnes of vengeance which is puuishment proportioned to their sinnes and this is the due and proper punishments of those that are wilfull and doe not repent their wickednesse The paines of the godly are partly remembrances to cause repentance partly Chasticements to humble vs and mortifie sinne in vs but these whatsoeuer they be yea though death it selfe are improperly called punishments Here you touch after your loose maner the purpose of God in afflicting his seruants which you say is to reforme them but in no wise to punish them If God had none other meaning in afflicting the faithfull but to reforme their sins nor none other meanes to doe that but by paines your speech had some truth but because God hath diuers purposes in so doing and diuers waies without paines to amend his children this that here you bring as the rest else-where is a blind groping besides the truth and a bold presuming that you are in the truth God many times lodeth the best and chiefest of his Saintes with oftner and greater troubles then he doth the meaner sort not because their sinnes are more then others or they neede more amendment then the rest but to TRIE their faith as in Abraham and Iob or to shew the perfection of his grace as in Paul or to prepare them to glory as in Lazarus or to conforme them to Christ whose steps they must follow and often to declare his iustice as he did in striking Dauids child when the sinne was both repented and pardoned in the Father In the sicknesse and death of which child as of all other infants regenerate by Baptisme there neither was nor can be any vse of Repentance humiliation or mortification for themselues and consequently by your owne diuision since to them it can be NO CORRECTION it must in them be a punishment of sinne not actually committed by them but naturally deriued to them by the guilt and corruption of their Parents Yea the generall paine laid on Adam and all mankinde as dissolution by death priuation of originall light and grace corruption of sinne infection of soule which declare vs all to be the children of wrath by nature were they corrections or punishments of Adams sinne since after death there is no repentance nor amendment of life and the rest are neither barres to sinne nor retraits from sinne but either parts effects or causes of sinne which sticke so fast and beare such rule in many euen of the elect that no gentle or fatherly admonitions reprehensions or comminations will preuaile with them but they must be ouerruled and wearied with sharp and pearcing scourges before they will see or forsake the loathsomnesse of their sinne Wherein though it be a great fauour of God rather to persue them with all temporall plagues vnto their conuersion then to let them run headlong to euerlasting perdition yet the meanes which he vseth are mixed with iustice and mercie and are rightly beleeued to be punishments fully deserued by their sinnes though not fully proportioned to their sinnes the iust and full wages whereof in sinfull men can be none other but death corporall spirituall and eternall So that your diuision all paine from God is either correction or punishment and your position no paine in the godly is punishment are not onely friuolous and false but repugnant each to the other for so much as paine commeth from God for probation of faith perfection of grace assurance of saluation encouraging of others by example as well as for correction and death and correction in Infants where correction hath no place must by your owne partition be a punishment of sinne inflicted on the first Man and all his posteritie The which because we all inherite from our Parents and had it in vs at our birth when there was no vse of correction for vs it was then in vs all and so still remaineth a punishment of our first Parents sinne though by the grace and price of Christs death we are and shall be freed from it But come to your purpose and apply this to Christ for thither you bend and thereat you shoote is your diuision true in the sufferings of Christ then since by your owne assertion chastisements and remembrances which are the branches that you make of Correction belonged nothing at all to Christ and indeede there could be no cause to correct any sinfull corruption or affection in him where no sinne was it is a plaine confession that the bodily death and paines which Christ suffered on the Crosse were the punishment of our sinnes in his body and consequently a part of that curse which was imposed on the first mans sinne which you so stifly denied in your Treatise where you said Therefore Christs dying simply as the godly die that is a bodily death may in no sort be called a curse or cursed And if to shift of this contradiction and confession of the truth of my answere to the place of S. Paule Christ was made a curse for vs you referre these words as the godly doe not to the same kinde of death which is bodily in both but to the same cause of death which was different in Christ and his members Remember good Sir the words are not mine but your owne I put many differences betwixt the death of Christ and his Saints as namely the cause the manner and force of his death which I haue touched before but the kind of death which was bodily and not Ghostly is all one in Christ and the godly For Christ died not the death of the Soule no more doe the godly when they depart this life albeit they may oftentimes whiles here they liue draw neere to the death of the Soule by sinning which Christ could not And if you begin now to be better aduised I am not displeased with it it shall suffice that mine answere did and doth stand true that Christ in suffering bodyly paines and death for vs suffered a part of the same punishment and curse which was laid on all mankind for the sinne of Adam We must note especially that to suffer as the godly doe Chasticements and corrections is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath nor the punishment of sinne except it be in a very improper speech To suffer the true punishment satisfaction proper payment and wages of sinne onely that is to suffer properly and truely the wrath of God now then seeing the paines which Christ for vs did feele were indeede properly the
punishment and payment and vengeance for sinne such as the godly doe in no wise suffer Christ onely hauing wholy suffered that for vs all Therefore indeede his sufferings proceded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods meere Iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences Thou hast in these words Christian Reader the bulwarke of this mans cause concluding that Christ suffered the MEERE IVSTICE PROPER VVRATH and very CVRSE of God for sinne The frame of his reason if I vnderstand it as who vnderstandeth his mysteries but himselfe is this All paine in man is from God either as correction of sinne or as punishment for sinne In Christ there was no ‖ cause and so no neede of ‖ correction his sufferings therefore were the punishments of sinne They were punishments for sinne Ergo they were the true punishment proper payment wages and vengeance of sinne which proceeded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods mâ—…ere iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences His termes of TRVE PROPER and MEERE ioyned to the PVNISHMENT VVRATH and IVSTICE of God are not warranted by any Scripture much lesse referred to the sufferings of Christ nor so much as prooued by any testimony defined with any certaintie directed by any part or expounded by any meanes but onely proiected as Ridles and laberinthes to weary the wise to angle the simple and to refuge himselfe when he shall be pressed with the falsitie and impietie of his assertions Least therefore we wrangle about words in vaine which is his desire and deuise that he may seeme to say somewhat and carry the Reader into a forest of strange and vnknowen phrases where he shall hardly discerne what either side saith I thâ—…nke it needefull first to declare what the Scriptures meane by the wages of sinne and wrath of God and so to trie in what sense and with what truth his termes may be added to them and applyed to the sufferings of Christ. The wages of sinne is death saith S. Paul God himselfe foretold Adam it should be so Whensoeuer thou catest of the forbidden tree thou shalt die the death Then how many kinds of death are by God threatned and inflicted on sinners so many parts must the wages of sinne containe Now those are three the death of the Soule in this life which I call spirituall the death of the body leauing this life which I call corporall and the death of both in the next world which I call eternall For as man had two parts by which he did liue Soule and body and two places wherein he might liue if he obeyed God earth for a time and heauen for euer so disobedience depriued either part of man in either place of the life which he should haue enioyed and subiected him to the feares griefes and paines of death both here and in hell for euer The life of the body is the vnion of the Soule with the body the effects whereof are sense and motion to discerne obtaine and performe that which is needfull or healthfull for the body And as the presence of the Soule bringeth life to the body so the departing of the Soule taketh life from the body and leaueth it dead that is voide of all action motion and sense as to euery mans eyes is apparent in dead bodies The Soule therefore in the Scriptures is vsually taken for the life of the body which proceedeth from the Soule and is maintained by the Soule And these phrases to seeke a mans Soule tolay downe his owne Soule or to giue it for another to powre out his Soule vnto death with such like doe properly expresse the death of the body quickned by the Soule because men loose or leaue this life when they loose or leaue their Soules And where God threatned death to Adam euen the very same day in which he should transgresse we must not thinke that God either delayed the punishment longer or extended it farder then his words at first imported When therefore the very same day that they sinned God said to the woman increasing I will increase thy sorrow and to the man In sorrow shalt thou eate all the daies of thy life we must acknowledge that from that time forward death began to take hold and worke on both their bodies though not by present separation of the Soule from the body for Adam liued after that 930. yeeres yet by mortalitie mutabilitie miserie and namely by sorrow and paine as the instruments and agents of death Worldly sorrow causeth death as Paul witnesseth and a broken hart saith Salomon drieth the bones yea sorrow hath slaine maxy And were it not so written yet experience and nature teacheth vs that griefe of mind and paine of body where they continue or increase consume the flesh and hasten death so that when God the same day that they sinned subiected them to sorrow and paine which before they felt not He made way for death that it might continually worke in them and â—…ken them till they returned to dust The tiâ—…e of this life saith Austâ—…n is nothing elsâ—… but a race to death and truely after a mâ—…n begiâ—…th to be in this bâ—…dy he is in death The life of the soule is not her vnderstanding and will which she can neuer lose no not in hell but onely the trueth and graâ—…e of God by whose spirit she receiueth the light of faith to direct her and the strength of loue to stirre and iâ—…cite her in tâ—…is life to beholde desire and embrace the holinesse and goodnesse of Gods blessed will and promise for her euerlasting happinesse which with patience and comfort of the Holy ghost she expecteth till Gods appointed time do come The lacke or losse of this inward sense and motion of Gods spirit which only can quicken the soule is the death of the soule depriued of her life which is God and left to herselfe in blindnesse and hardnesse of heart and giuen ouer vnto a reprobaâ—…e minde and vile affections to worke wickednesse euen with greedinesse till contempt of Gods will and desperation of his mercy doe fearefully end her miserable time in this life and violently draw her from hence to see and suffer the terrible iudgements of God prouided for sinne in another world Life euerlasting is the perfect and perpetuall vision and fruition of Gods glorious presence in the heauens where vnspeakable light and honour ioy and bliâ—…e shall compasse and replenish bodie and soule in the fellowship of Christ and his elect angels for euer The exclusion and reiection of the wicked from this heauenly fâ—…licity together with the shame and confusion of sinne wounding and stinging the conscience without ease or rest and the dreadfull horror of hell the place of darknesse and diuels hauing in it continuall flames of intolerable and vnquenchable fire eternallie tormenting the soules and bodies of the damned the Scriptures call the sâ—…cond death
bodilie death which God had irreuocably pronounced and executed on Adam and his ofspring by returning him and them to the earth for manie thousand yeeres before Christ came but rather in that to partake with vs that he might saue vs from the rest which in all the wicked did accompany this death and in the end to raise vs againe to a better life lest we should faint vnder the hand of God who fastneth vs to the afflictions of this life by the example and fellowship of Christs sufferings For if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him and we must first die in Adam before we can be quickned againe in Christ. They are now profitable for vs you will say and so rather helpe vs than hurt vs in this corruption of sinne with which we are compassed I doubt not thereof and so were they from the first instant that they were imposed on Adam but how came this corruption of our nature if not as a punishment of sinne in Adam and consequently the remedies thereof do also witnesse Gods displeasure against sinne though they be farre more holesome for vs than to rot in the sores of our inward corruption Can any man doubt but God was and is able to cleere vs though neuer so corrupt from the infection and dominion of sinne by the working of his Spirit more mightilie and casilie than by troubles and griefs if it had so seemed good to his wisdome and iustice And had he determined to shew vs onlie loue without all regard to his iustice how readie was it for him in Christ to haue released as well all corporall and temporall affliction to his elect as he did spirituall and eternall But he resolued otherwise in his most wise counsell for the conseruation of his iustice and so now healeth our corruption with the salue of affliction to let vs haue continually presented before our eyes and impressed in our bodies what our sinne at first did and still doth deserue though he neuer withdrew his mercie from vs which in the end shall most abundantly recompense all Wherefore it is no reason that because troubles are profitable or necessarie for our corrupt state therefore they are not effects of Gods displeasure against sinne yea rather because God could haue otherwise cured sinne in vs and would not but by perpetuall affliction it is an argument that God so hated sinne in our first parents that he would haue the verie remembring curing thereof to be alwayes in this life painfull and grieuous to our outward man though he would also comfort vs in Christ whiles heere we liue and heereafter crowne vs with glorie for Christes sake Neither is this a question of words whether they be proper or improper in the Scriptures but a point of doctrine necessarie to be receiued of all men that the corruption and dissolution of our nature and life in this world doth manifest the exceeding hatred that naturallie God hath of sinne who rewarded it in all mankinde so seuerely that he spared neither the bodies soules states nor liues of his elect from sensible signes of his detesting sinne in them though for his sonnes sake in whom they were beloued and adopted he would by his wonderfull power rather further than indanger their saluation euen by those maladies and corrosiues of sinne This sheweth the greatnesse of Gods power and goodnesse of his mercie towards vs but this altereth not the iudgement which God pronounced and punishment which he inflicted on Adam and all his ofspring for sinne The corruption and infection of sinne which naturally and continually dwelleth in all the godly called by Diuines concupiscence is it no punishment of sinne because the guilt thereof is remitted in Baptisme and now it is left in vs to humble vs and awake vs to call for grace and to resist sinne that striuing with it we see not only the danger of sinne assaulting vs but the Spirit of God assisting vs and bountie of God rewarding vs The actuall sinnes of the faithfull shall we thinke them no sinnes but fauors from God because by them God worketh repentance submission conuersion yea faith zeale ioy and thanksgiuing in his elect God worketh sayth Austen all things for the good of those that loue him and so farre forth vtterly all things that if any of them stray and for sake the right way euen that God turneth to their good because they returne more humble and better taught The like I say of death and other miseries of mans life pronounced first by Gods mouth and still inflicted by Gods hand They are as they were degrees or effects of Gods anger against sinne in Adam pursuing him and all his posteritie for the confirmation of his iustice though by Gods mercie towards his they now serue as they did euen at the first in Gods children to represse sinne to worke repentance to raise confidence in God and contempt of all earthly things and to exercise the graces of Gods Spirit giuen them as patience obedience and such like and to giue them assurance of a better life The Church of Christ euer was and is of the same minde with me that the death of the bodie with her seeds and fruits in this life first entred and still remaineth as a PVNISHMENT of sin Men shunned saith Austen the death of the flesh rather than the death of the spirit that is the punishment rather than the cause of the punishment We came vnto death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death was the sacrifice for sinne Theodoret speaking of the separation of bodie and soule wherby that which is mort all sustaineth death the soule remaining free from death as being immortall asketh his aduersarie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doest thou not thinke death to be a punishment Who answering The Diuine Scripture teacheth so much Theodoret inferreth Is death then the punishment of sinners The other yeelding that this is granted of all men Theodoret concludeth Why then since both the soule and bodie sinned doth the bodie alone sustaine the punishment of death Fulgentius Nisi praecessisset in peccato mors animae nunquam corporis mors in supplicio sequeretur Except the death of the soule had gone before by sinne the death of the bodie had neuer followed after as a punishment And therefore of our flesh he sayth Nascitur cum poena mortis pollutione peccati It is borne with the punishment of death and pollution of sinne And of yoong children By what iustice is an infant subiected to the wages of sinne if there be no vncleannesse of sinne in him or how do we see him strooken with death if he felt not the sting thereof which is sinne Maxentius in the confession of his faith We beleeue sayth he that not only the death of
or amended then was he not punished for correction On the other side much lesse did God purpose to destroy Christs person being his owne and onely Sonne as he doth the wicked whose bodies and soules he will destroy in hell and consequently Christ was not punished to destruction That is proper to the reprobate whose persons God hateth and leaueth in their sinnes that they may prouoke his iust wrath to their vtter destruction Then was Christ neither punished as the godly are for amendment nor as the wicked are for vengeance and so your partition is false and defectiue and all your collections grounded thereon are like the foundation that is voide of all strength and trueth What then was Gods purpose in punishing Christ for our sinnes euen that which you alwayes passe by with deafe and dull eares though it be often repeated and vrged vnto you because you will not be turned from the trade of your hellish paines Why God would not haue man redeemed but by the death and passion that I call the punishment of Christ Iesus the Scriptures yeeld many causes though of Gods will no cause may be required some respecting God himselfe some concerning Christ and some regarding vs. Touching God the crosse of Christ doth commend his wisdome shew his power manifest his loue content his holines preserue his iustice Christ crucisied as Paul sayth is the power of God and the wisdome of God to them that are saued howsoeuer the crosse of Christ seeme foolishnesse and weakenesse to them that perish Then to controle the carnall wisdome of the world and to confound the pride and strength of Satan and his members God would vse the basenesse and feeblenesse of the Crosse in sauing his elect Also to witnesse his loue towards vs he decreed the same So God loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling sauour vnto God With which Sacrifice the holinesse of God resteth so well pleased that he accepteth vs as holy and sanctified by the oblation of the bodie of Iesus Christ once made The vpholding of Gods Iustice by the death of Christ is often specified in the Scriptures By a man came death and by a man the resurrection from the dead Him that knew no sinne God made sinne for vs to wit a sacrifice for sinne that wee should be made the righteousnesse of God in him Therefore it was expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole Nation perished not He was wounded for our transgressions and by his stripes are wee healed The Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of vs all And where a Testament is there must be the death of the Testator for a Testament is confirmed when men are dead So that by the Scriptures themselues God decreed the Crosse of Christ in mans redemption to reueale his wisdome power and loue to the world and wholly to satisfie his holinesse and iustice which were thorowly displeased and prouoked with mans disobedience but as thorowly recompensed and appeased by the submission and obedience of Christ. As for Christ himselfe it is euident by the Scriptures that his enduring the crosse declared his obedience patience humilitie charitie perfection and power in more effectuall maner than without it he could haue done For therein he emptied and humbled himselfe and became obedient vnto death euen to the death of the crosse When hee was reuiled he reuiled not againe when he suffered he threatned not He was oppressed and afflicted yet did he not open his mouth For so he loued vs that he gaue himselfe for vs and greater loue than this hath no man to bestow his life for his friends But God setteth out his loue towards vs that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. Once then he suffered the iust for the vniust that he might bring vs to God and being consummate through affliction was made the Prince of our Saluation For in that he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted and became a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people And therefore he died and rose againe that he might be Lord of the dead and the liuing and through death destroy him that had power of death euen the diuell On our behalfe it was not needlesse that Christ should die the death of the crosse For besides that we are bought with a price lest we should be our owne euen with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe vnspotted and vndefiled and reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne which couenant is irreuocable being sealed with his bloud by his crosse Christ left vs an example how we should follow his steps and be partakers of his sufferings that when his glorie shall appeare we may be glad and reioyce For it is a true saying if we be dead with him we shall liue with him if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him We are buried then by Baptisme into his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorie of his Father so we should also walke in newnesse of life knowing this that our olde man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroyed that hencefoorth we should not serue sinne He died for all that they which liue should not hencefoorth liue vnto themselues but to him which died for them and rose againe Infinite are the places of Scripture witnessing the causes effects and fruits of Christs death on the Crosse all which this Dreamer must denie or delude before he can defend that Gods purpose in Christes sufferings was only to punish our sinne lying on him For if Gods purposes in appointing Christes Crosse were so acceptable to the Father so honourable to the Sonne and so profitable for man as the Scriptures mention with what face can it be said that God punished his Sonne only for vengeance or that whatsoeuer Christ suffered all his life long specially at his death was verie wrath and vengeance from God properly taken Christ suffered the same things here on earth which the godly likewise do in this life as appeareth by the history of his death and passion and other paines or deaths in Christ the Scriptures doe not specifie Gods counsell in decreeing the Crosse of Christ for mans redemption considering the true desert of our sinne and terrible vengeance prouided for others was varie fauourable and fatherly not ouerpressing the patience of Christes humane nature nor wearying his obedience and had in it farre more gracious and glorious intents and euents than our afflictions can or ought any way to match or approch If then Gods fauour to his elect make their sufferings in this life no wrath nor vengeance nor so much as punishments why should
no sinnes but onely such as Adam did and we still doe commit ioyntly with Soule and body though most properly in the soule the body being her Instrument or accessarie to follow her direction and will And would you wrie and wrangle neuer so much from sinnes common to Soule and Body most proportionably followeth punishment likewise common to Soule and Body though in that common punishment the Soule perceiueth and feeleth greater and grieuouser hurt and smart then the body can doe If now you adde a farder meaning then you there expressed your reason remaineth as weake as it was at first and your new meaning must haue a new answere For which I must pray the Reader to stay till we haue more fully examined Adams fact where you first began and wherein you would seeme to haue some great aduantage Howbeit if you marke well either your own purpose which you offer to prooue or your Assumption which you bring for proofe thereof or my words depending thereon you will haue but a cold suite of all this hoate challenge Your purpose was to prooue that Christs sufferings for sinne must be proper to the Soule and not with from or by the Body which you reiect as common to vs with beasts The reason which you brought for it was that Adam first we euer since so sinned that is MOST PROPERLY in our Soules our Bodies being but the Instruments of our Soules to follow the Soules direction and will Now because your wonted phrase MOST PROPERLY is so loosely set in your assumption that a Man can not tell whether you meane most properly in the Soule together with the Body being the Instrument of the Soule as your words lye or else most properly in the Soule without and besides the Body which is it that you intend must conclude before you can thence inferre the proper sufferings of Christs soule without and besides his body I asked you which of these twaine you ment If the former then Adam first and we euer since committed sinne ioyntly with Soule and Body the Soule being the Principall and the Body her Instrument and accessarie This I said was most true but repugnant to your purpose as I before haue shewed But if you ment OTHERVVISE that Adam transgressed the Commandement of God MOST PROPERLY in his Soule without his Body concurring to the same transgression which is more pertinent to your purpose then you contradicted the fact of Adam and Gods precept both which doe plainly witnesse that Adam disobeyed as well by Body as by Soule If you will needs examine my words vpon this your intention and assumption I am well content That Adam sinned in soule and bodie I say is most true There is my full resolution Against this I neuer goe But if you meant OTHERVVISE that Adam brake the commandement of God not by his body properly but by his soule only as your words most properly might intend then your assumption was a manifest contradiction to the fact of Adam and to the precept of God That the bodie alone without the soule doth or can commit actuall sinne which hath neither life sense motion nor action without the soule is a position so absurd and false that I thought it not woorth the mentioning I asked you then whether you meant that Adam brake the commandement not by his bodie properly as by an instrument to his soule which is proper to the bodie as your selfe confesse but by his soule without his bodie that is by his soule onely For what is by the soule and not by the bodie but by the soule onely I asking you that question of your meaning you as eclipsed of your wits suppose that I say Adam sinned onlie by his bodie and not by his soule as if Adam when he sinned were a body without a soule or his bodie did any thing without the direction and operation of his soule This is therefore a verie foolish dotage of yours to dreame that I defend Adam sinned by his bodie without his soule when I prooue and inferre by Adams fact and Gods precept that Adam transgressed not by his soule only but by his bodie also euen as in murder theft and adulterie these facts men commit by their bodies as instruments and not by their soules alone or without their bodies For can men commit these facts without their bodies or are their bodies requisite as well as their soules before they can commit these facts Adam was as well forbidden â—…o desire or like that fruit as to eat it which you denie To proue that Adam sinned not onely by his soule but also by his bodie I brought the words of Gods precept Thou shalt not eat thereof Which commandement since Adam wholly transgressed the words had more in them than the prohibition of desiring or liking and Adams sinne reached farder than to liking or lust euen to the complete fact whereby the commandement of God was thorowly in euerie part of man broken which could not be done without the ioynt actions of Adams bodie Wherefore take backe the heresie of the Pharisees to your â—…elfe and bestow it among your friends that haue lent you their labours in this Defence I am not to seeke that Gods law is transgressed as well with heart and tongue as with hand and deed Howbeit I distinguish facts from words and thoughts and auouch that FACTS can not be performed without the bodie And yet are there speciall reasons which you see not why the wisdome of God would not giue this commandement without euident mention of an outward fact For the breaking of this precept was the transgression that should subiect Adam and all his posteritie to the dominion of sinne and death in euerie part of bodie and soule Wherefore God would not haue the first sinne to be secret within the soule alone that all Adams of-spring should openly behold and confesse the wickednesse vnworthinesse and vnthankfulnesse of their first parents that so lightly regarded and presently transgressed the charge and precept that God gaue vnto them Secondly since Adams cariage in this case should be the retaining or loosing of all Gods graces and blessings for him and his children bestowed on man in his first creation the transgression must reach to all the senses and faculties of bodie and soule that should infect and corrupt all the parts and powers of bodie and soule Thirdly the first sinne was to extend as well to bodie as to soule lest the soule sinning should be adiudged to euerlasting death and the bodie not sinning reserued for eternall life and so man be diuided contrarie to his creation the one part in hell and the other in heauen which was vtterly impossible And if Adam after liking had yet remembred Gods precept and threat and so refrained the eating of the forbidden fruit it would trouble your wits to make a true answer whether Adam had obeyed or transgressed the commandement But it sufficeth for my purpose that Adam sinned ioyntly
flat falsity and impiety only the generall words that Christ suffered Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes may be tolerated because the Scriptures vse to call the bitternesse of affliction in whom soeuer the wrath of God by reason it riseth not simply out of Gods fauour and bountie but is permixed with his Iustice that the transitorie and tolerable smart of our sinnes may euen in this life when we feele it and faint vnder it commend vnto vs the wonderfull grace of God that hath for Christs sake released vs of those euerlasting and vnspeakable Torments which our sinnes iustly deserued the Reprobate fully feare and the damned by experience most dreadfully doe feele p Defenc. pag. 90. li. 8. You bring a Reason against this that God spiritually punisheth no man but for his owne vncleannesse which is a thing meerely vntrue Out of two Pages in my Sermons against the death of Christs Soule you piked two words where I call the death of the Soule spirituall punishment and because to auoyde tediousnesse I repeat not in euery line the same words you neglect that purposely in that Section I entreate of the death of the Soule that eighteene times in those two Pages I name the life and death of the Soule that ouer right those very words which you bring I set this Note in the Margine the Death of Christs Soule could neither proceede from God nor be acceptable vnto God as the summe of that which I intended to prooue in that place that my Conclusion immediatly vrged vpon these words is this q Serm. pag. 103. li. 1. Christ then might not suffer the inward or euerlasting death of the Soule All this I say you neglect and ouer-skip many sound and sure reasons in those two sides against the death of Christs Soule and carpe at two poore words where I vse spirituall punishment for the death of the Soule But take the words in their right sense for the death of the Soule whereof I reason in that place and then see what you and all your Adherents can say against them Eternall or spirituall death which seuereth the Soule from all grace and glory God layeth on none for an others fault because God neuer reiecteth or condemneth any Man but vpon his owne desert Punish one for another by affliction of Bodie or Mind he may because he can restore and recompence when he seeth his Time though no Man Christ Iesus excepted can want sinne whiles here he liueth which God may iustly punish when and in what respect he will r Defenc. pag. 90. li. 13. But I pray you shew me this mysterie how it is that God cannot punish spiritually where there is no sinne inherent but can and may corporally where there is none Though there lie no Children of Adam in whom there was not sinne either naturally cleauing to tâ—…em or voluntarily committed by them yet Infants after Baptisme by which Originall sinne and corruption in them is pardoned are said by better Diuines then you or I to haue no sinne and to be often punished corporally for other mens faultes Saint Austen asserteth both s August Epist 28. Quis nonit quid paruulis de quorum cruciatibus dâ—…ritia maiorum contunditur aut exercetur fides aut misericordia probatur Quis inquam nouit quid ipsis paruulis in secreto indicâ—…orum suorum bonae compensationis reseruat Deus quoniam quanquam nihil rectè fecerint tamen nec peccantes aliquid ista perpessi sunt Who can tell what good Recompence God reserueth in the secrecie of his Iudgements for those Infants by whose paines or Torments the hardnesse of their Parents or friends is repressed or their Faith exercised or their pittie prooued because though the Children did no good Acts yet neither suffered they those things for any sinne of theirs Neither doth the Church in vaine recommend those Infants to be honored as Martyrs which were slaine by Herode when he sought to kill the Lord Iesus Christ. Zanchius sayth the like Of t Zanchius iâ—… tractitionibus Theologicis de 2. praecepto pa. 340. the punishments pertayning to this present life by which we are visited of the Lord either in our outward goods or in our bodies it is a cleere case that God verie often doth visite the sinnes of the Fathers vpon the children But in the death of the soule which is the spirituall punishment that I ment God himselfe sayth u Ezech. 18. The soule that sinneth euen that shall die the sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the father but the wickednesse of the wicked shall be vpon himselfe Saint Austen maketh the difference that I spake of x August â—…pist 75. Neque enim haec corporalis est poena qualegimus quosdam contemptores Dei cum suis omnibus qui eiusdem impietatis participes non fuerant pariter infectos Tunc quidem ad terrorem viuentium mortalia corpora perimebantur quando que vtique moritura spirâ—…tualis autem pâ—…na animas obligat de quibus dictum est anima quae peccauerit ipsa morietur This is no corpor all punishment in which we reade some despisers of God haue beene wrapped with all theirs that were not partakers of the same iniquitie for then to the terror of the liuing mortall bodies were slaine which at one time or an other must haue died But a spiritual punishment bindâ—…th soules of whom it is said the soule that sinneth that soule shall die Neither shall you euer be able to shew that one soule was slaine for an others fault as mens bodies often haue beene except they both did communicate in sinne which was the cause of their common destruction y Defenc pag. 90. li. 16. All the rest of your assertions Pag. 101. 102. 103. 105. 266. 94. are of this suite I like your wit that you can make short worke and when you can not answer to saie the things be of like sute But refell the reasons brought in these pages against the death of the soule and you will finde a warmer suite then you are ware of I need not repeate them if it please the Reader to peruse them let him iudge in Gods name whether it were weakenesse in you or in them that made you ouerslip them z Defene pag. 90. li. 17. By this one reason I weakened all yours but you could passâ—… that ouer aâ—…swearing vnto it not a word By what authoritie must euerie trifle of yours be tediously discusâ—…ed when you leape ouer sixe leaues at a iumpe least you should entangle your selfe with more then you could well discharge It was belike some worthie reason that I durst not so much as offer a word about it let vs heare it in Gods name a Ibid. li. 18. If Christs body hanging on the crosse and held by death in the graue was punished by God where yet hee found no sinne and which he still intirely loued and was neuer separated from then so he
desert of sinne the whole masse of mankind was condemned If the Christian faith permit vs to say that we were condemned before we were redeemed since we could not be redeemed but from condemnation how much more lawfull is it for me to say that euerlasting death was deserued by vs and prepared for vs without Christ since the reward of sinne was first prouided for the diuell and his angels before man fell through his inticements and was neuer since vnprepared d Defenc. pag. 9â—… li. 〈◊〉 The truth is he could not by any meanes pray against that or decline that onely vnlesse he were for the time in some astonishment and perturbation of his senses which by the infinitenesse of that paine he well might be yea he could not but be as is afore shewed to haue hapned in Moses and Paul There is as much truth in this as in the rest of your deuices Here are errors as thicke as hops shuffled in vpon your bare word the proofe whereof you bring after at leasure about latter Lammas 1. That Christ felt infinite painâ—…s of hell which you before named all the whole paines which our sinnes deserued 2. That by the infinitenesse of that paine he could not but be in some astonishment and perturbation of his senses which though here you mitigate with some yet afterward you straine it aboue the extreamest degree of astonishment that might be Your words are e Defenc. pag. 128. li 26. Therefore no maruaile though this astonishment in Christ were farre greater then is to be seene in any man that euer was or shall be Wherein you keepe the Sauiour of the world as long and as often as pleaseth yourselfe 3. That against these paines he could not by any meanes pray onely vnlesse he were thus astonished 4. That Paul in his Epistle to the Romanes expressing his affection for the Iewes was likewise astonished and amazed as not knowing what he said f Defenc. pag. 99 li. 8. This is the very point of our Defence affirme this and you affirme with vs all that we hold and professe When I am out of my wits I may chaunce to hold these conceits with you otherwise so long as God giueth me grace to be soberly minded and well aduised I will see other manner of warrant for all these weafes and straies then you yet shew before I affirme them or professe them g Defenc pag. 99. li. 9. Otherwise if you meane that Christ praied intentiuely to haue the whole and intire cup of eternall malediction and death passe from him which both the elect deserue and the reprobate sustaine that as it is pâ—…ssing strange doctrine so is it simply impossible For he could not intentiuely pray against that nor feare that which he perfitly knew concerned him not at all and by no meanes could euer possibly come nâ—…are him I premonished the Reader that I would there repeate the diuers iudgements of diuers men and so farre admitte them as they might accord with the Christian faith To this opinion of some men that Christ was in his agonie stroken with a feare of eternall death and so might pray against it I gaue two expositions how those words might be tolerated in Christian Religion without apparent impietie The one that h Sermo pag. 23. li. 21. Christ had no neede to pray for himselfe against that cuppe of eternall death but ONLIE FOR VS who then suffered with him in him The other that if we would conioine Christs person with ours feare must there be taken for a shunning and declining of that cup which he i Ibid. pag. 24. li. 10. religiously disliked For k Ibid. pag. 23. li. 29. touching himselfe albeit the innocencie of his cause the holinesse of his life the merite of his obedience the abundance of his spirite the loue of his father and vnity of his person did most sufficiently guard him from all danger and doubt of eternall death yet to shew the perfection of his humility he would not suffer his humane nature to require it on right but prostrate on the earth besought his father that cuppe might passe from him and was heard in that he shunned or auoided I repeate the selfe same words which then I vsed to lett the Reader see that I shift not hands nor change not mindes as there is no cause I should but that this Broker neglecting my manifest limitations to other mens opinions and euident speache as also suppressing my purpose would haue the world beleeue that I graunt Christ doubted and feared eternall death to come on his owne person Which in the maze that you put him in sir defensor might well be since you auouch hee knew not what he praied or els he sinned in praying against the resolute and knowen will of God but by my positions it is impossible that any distrustfull feare of hell or eternall death should fall on the soule of Christ for the reasons there shortly but sufficiently collected by me And this is your idle course throughout your Booke to catch at a word and neuer to regard what goeth before or after be it neuer so plaine and perspicuous to recall your misconstruing my speach Omitte then your wanton rouing or malitious swaruing from my meaning and saying and refute either of these limitations if you can And first least any man thinke I limite other mens words without iust cause I ment herein the words of the Catechisme which you would faine pull into your packe as also of some other writers whose sayings so long as they might be salued with any good construction I thought not fitte to repell as intolerable in Christs Church The Catechisme saieth l Nowels Catechisme Greeke and Latine pag. 281. Christum non communi modo morte in hominum conspectu mulctatum sed et aeternae mortis horrore perfusum fuisse horribiles formidines atque acerbissimos animi dolores pro nobis perpessum et perfunctum esse Peccatoribus enim quorum hic quasi personam Christ us sustinuit non praesentis modo sed futurae etiam aeternaeque mortis dolores atque cruciatus debentur Christ not onely died our common death in the sight of men but was also perfused The Translator of the Catechisme into Greeke allowed as well as the Latin saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agonized with the horror of eternall death suffered and felt for vs horrible feares and most bitter sorowes of mind For to sinners whose person in some sort Christ here sustained were due the sorowes and torments not of this present death onely but also of future and eternall death Of the paines of the damned really inflicted in the garden on Christs soule by the immediate hand of God and of Christs extreame astonishment for the present Torments therof the writer of the Catechisme knew nothing these deuices of yours are later then the making of that Booke but he speaketh of Christes fearing the infinite wrath of God against
vpon him he might and did iustly feare the power of Gods wrath prouoked with our sinnes which though he were assured could not rage on him vnto condemnation yet God had infinite meanes to presse and punish the humane nature of Christ aboue that it was able to beare And therefore except Christ would contemne the wrath of his father which were impious he was withall possible feare and trembling to deprecate his fathers anger against our sinnes knowing that God would at his most ardent and most suppliant praier both pardon vs and proportion that paine according to the weaknesse of our flesh which he bare about him that neither his obedience nor patience should be ouerwhelmed nor endangered but onely prooued and tried that in all things Christ might shew himselfe a patterne of perfection as well by patience in affliction as by innocencie of life And this feare the more vehement in Christ the more pleasing to God since it proceeded neither from infidelitie nor distrust but from pietie confessing the greatnesse and iustnesse of Gods anger against our wickednesse and vnwoorthinesse and from charitie putting his holy and harmelesse person in the gappe betweene vs and God least the wrathfull displeasure of God lighting on vs should vtterly consume vs. A third cause concurring with the rest of Christes feares in the Garden against Christ might feare the sting of death as horrible to mans nature which he praied might be the naturall abhorring of death which his manhood then had and shewed in priuate because he neither despised that punishment of God laide vpon our sinne which indeed is and ought to be displeasant to mans nature in that it was inflicted on vs for disobedience neither would he suffer his soule or flesh to struggle and striue with death as ours doe when sense and life beginnes to faile in the eies of his persecutors to whom by the present and quiet breathing out of his soule in their sight he would declare himselfe to be the disposer and ruler of death and so more then a man though as a man hee were content to die for our sakes And this kinde of feare verie learned and well redde Diuines agree might be the cause of Christes prayer in the garden to haue the Cuppe passe from him not that he was then amazed and in that astonishment praied against the knowen will of God as you imagine and on that foundation build your conceit of hell paines to be then suffered in the soule of Christ which you thinke excluded both reason and memorie from Christ but that he therein accorded with his fathers will who would haue that Cuppe hatefull and horrible by nature though faith and obedience should ouerrule the feare and sting of death in our flesh and Gods will be preferred before the naturall dislike which he would haue vs to feele of death k Zanchius de tribus 〈◊〉 part 2. li. 3. cap 9. As touching Christes diuine Nature saith Zanchius there was alwaies one and the same will of the Father and the Sonne concerning his death and passion Yea as Christ was man he was alwaies obedient to his Father and therefore he saide I alwaies doe the things which please him What meaning then hath Quod deprecatur mortem calicem that he praieth to be freed from death and from the Cuppe Naturaliter quâ homo expauescebat exhorrescebat fugiebatque mortem Naturally as a man Christ feared abhorred and shunned death his naturall horror of death he called his will when he said Not my will be done to witte this naturall will which I haue as a man Yet neither doth this will of Christ resist his Fathers will for the Father would haue Christ to be like vs in all things sinne excepted and to that end would haue him made Man Therefore when Christ did naturally shunne and desire to escape death he did not contradict his Fathers will because the Father would haue this naturall horror and feare of death to be in Christ as a punishment of our sinnes Wherefore it is altogether false that Christes will in this was diuers from his Fathers will For we haue concluded that this naturall horror of death which Christ called his will was not repugnant to the will of his Father whereby he would haue Christ subiect to this horror If in respect of the same end the Father had beene willing Christ should die and Christ had beene vnwilling or had neuer so little refused then their willes had beene indeed repugnant But in reference to the same end that is to our saluation Christ alwaies had the same will that his Father had For in regard of our saluation Christs will was euer the same and constant but in respect of his humane Nature he neuer put off this affection wherein he was like vs and whereby we naturally flie death By the iudgement of this learned writer the varietie of willes in Christ the one naturally shunning death as in a man like vs the other accepting and desiring it for our saluation was no contrarietie either in it selfe or to the will of God but God himselfe would haue the sting of our common and vsuall death to be grieuous vnto him because it was the punishment of our sinne in Adam and yet obedience to counteruaile that naturall detestation of death when God for his glorie calleth vs to that triall as he did his Sonne in that case The like limitations of Christes prayer in the Garden if it were possible let this cup passe from me other ancient writers deliuered before Zanchius who obserue this expresse condition out of Christes prayer That if it were possible to stand with Gods will and our saluation then Christ prayed the cuppe might passe from him and not otherwise l Orig. in Math. tract 35. Christ taking vnto him sayth Origen the nature of mans flesh retained all the properties thereof according to which he prayed in this place the cuppe might passe from him It is the propertie of euery faithfull man first to be vnwilling to suffer any paine specially that tendeth to death because he is a man and hath flesh but if God so will then to be content euen against that will of his owne because he is faithfull There is also another Exposition of this place which is this If it be possible that all those good things may come to effect without my passion which otherwise shall come by my death then let this passion passe from me that both the world may be saued and the Iewes not perish by putting me to death So Bede m Beâ—…a in 14. ca. 〈◊〉 If death may die without my death in the flesh let this cuppe sayth Christ passe from me but because this will not otherwise be thy will be done not mine And Euthymius n Euthymius in Matth. cap. 26. As a man Christ sayd If it be possible that is so farre as is possible And in saying Yet not as I will but as thou wilt he
crucifixi corporis iniuria intelligitur Sola in Christo materia carnis mortis fragilitate defuncta spem resurrectionis expectabat The prophesie in the Psalmes auouch the passion of Christ in the flesh only when it saith they pearced my hands and my feet and numbred all my bones Where not the iniurie of his deity but of his body is percâ—…aued in Christ the matter only of his flesh yeelding to the srailty of death expected resurrection Petrus quoque Apostolus Christi supplicium sic praedicat in solo corpore consummatum a Ibidem qui peccata inquit nostra pertulit in corpore suo super lignum Peter also the Apostle preacheth the passion of Christ to haue beene performed ONLY IN HIS BODY when he saith Christ bare our sinnes in his body on the tree And againe b Ibidem Sola caro crucis exitium sensit sola caro lanceam pertulit sola sanguine aqua manauit Ipsa sola mortua ipsa sola in sepulchro posita ipsa sola tertio dic resuscitata Only the flesh of Christ tasted the sharpnesse of the Crosse only the flesh endured the speare only the flesh yeelded forth bloud and water That only died that only lay in the graue that ONLY ROSE AGAINE And assuring themselues this to be the Christian faith confirmed in the old and new testament they say c Ibidem Ecce pronunciata est passio corporis Christi ex lege Prophetis Cuius quidem fidei verit as tam est efficax vt eam nec tyranni sua potuerint crudelitate confundere nec haereticorum subdola circumâ—… to pessumdare nâ—…c hypocritarum diminuere fallax simulatio The passion of the body of Christ is prooued by the law and the Prophets The trueth of which faith is so forcible that neither tyrants with their â—…rucltie could confound it nor Heretickes with their crafty deuices euert it nor Hypocrites with their false dissembling diminish it Theodoret. d Theodoret. Dialogo 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how could the soule of our Sauiour hauing an immortall nature and not touched with the least spot of sinne be possibly taken with the hooke of death Cyril e Cyril de recta fide ad Râ—… li. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we conceaue Christ to be God incarnate and suffering in his owne flesh the death of his flesh alone sufficeth for the redemption of the world Fulgentius f Fulgentius aâ—… I 〈◊〉 li. 3. ca. 7. Quis ignoret Christum nec in diuinitate sed IN SOLO CORPORE MORTVVM sepultum Who can be ignorant that Christ was dead and buried not in his deity but in his body only Cum sola caro moreretur resuscitaretur in Christo filius Dei dicitur mortuus Idem Christus secundum solam carnem mortuus secundum solam animam ad insernum descendit When the flesh onely died and was raised againe in Christ the Sonne of God is said to haue died The same Christ died in his flesh onely and descended into hell in his soule ONELY g Idem ca. 5. Moriente carne non solum Dietas sed nec anima Christi potest ostendi commortua The flesh dying not onely the dietie but the soule of Christ cannot be shewed to haue bene also dead The same Father and fifteene other Bishops of Africa make this confession of their faith h Mors silij Dei quam sola carne suscepit vtramque in nobis mortem animae scilicet carnisque destruxit The death of the Sonne of God which he SVFFERED IN HIS FLESH ALONE destroyed in vs both our deaths to wit the death of soule body This confession Gregory followed when he said i Gregorius in 〈◊〉 li. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solumpro nobis mortem carnis suscepit Christ vndertooke for vs the only death of the flesh And againe comming to vs who were iâ—… the death of spirit and flesh Christ brought his owne death to vs and loosed both our deaths His sâ—…le death 〈◊〉 applied to our double death and dying vanquished our double death Vigius k Secundum proprietatem naturae sola carâ—… mortâ—…m sâ—…t sola caro sepulturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ergo 〈◊〉 dominum iacuisse in sepulchro sâ—…d in sola carne Dominum d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the propriety of nature onely the 〈◊〉 of Christ 〈◊〉 death onely the â—…sh was buried Therefore we say the Lord lay in the grâ—…ue but in flesh alone and descended into hell but in SOVIE Aâ—…ONE Bede treadeth iust in their steps l 〈◊〉 in ca. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc 〈◊〉 quod mâ—…atur Nam verbum 〈◊〉 non potuit 〈◊〉 anima illa mortua â—…it Caro tantum mortua est resurrexit tertia 〈◊〉 That was raised which died the Godhead could not die his soule was not dead onely his flesh died and râ—…se againe And againe m Idem Homiâ—… 4. in 〈◊〉 Veniens adnos qui in morte carnis spiritus eramus vnam suam id est carnis mortem pertulit duas nostras absoluit simplam suam nostrae duplâ—… coâ—…t dulpam nostram subegit Christ comming to vs that were in death of bodie and spirit suffered onely one death that is the death of the flesh and freed both our deaths â—…ee applied his one death to our double death and vanquished them both Albinus n Quid significat morte morieris duplicem mortem â—…ominis designat animae videlicit corpâ—…s Animae mors est dum proptâ—…r peccatum quodlibâ—…t animam dâ—…t Deus Corporis â—…rs est dum propter necessitatem quamlibet corpus descritur â—…b anima Et hanc duplâ—…m Christus sua 〈◊〉 destruxit Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ad tempus anima vero nunquam qui nunquam peccauit What is ment â—…y this tâ—…ou shalâ—…â—…e the death it noteth a double death in man to wit of soule and body The death of the soule is when for any sinne God forsaketh it the death of the 〈◊〉 is wâ—…en for any necessitie the bodie is depriued of the soule This double death of 〈◊〉 Christ destroyed with his single death for hee died onely in 〈◊〉 for a time but in soule he neuer died who neuer sinned This continued without change to Bernards time who saith of Christ o Ex duaâ—…s 〈◊〉 nostris cum aâ—…ra nobis in cuâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reputaretur susâ—…ns pâ—…am nesâ—…ns culpam dum sponâ—…é TANTVMâ—…N CORPORE MORITVR vitam nobis 〈◊〉 promâ—…ur Of our two deaths where one was the desert of 〈◊〉 the other the dâ—…e of punishment Christs taking our punishment but 〈◊〉 from sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dieth willingly and ONELY IN 〈◊〉 hee meâ—…h â—…or vs life and 〈◊〉 I haue bene the longer good Reader in alleaging these fathers to assure thee that I deliuer no doctrine touching our redemption but â—…uch as the whole Church of Christ in the best purest times professed to
other but a bodily death then Christ descended onely to the graue but if the desert of our sinne tied vs as guiltie to the torments of hell then Christ by Ruffinus confession so farre descended how farre we were by Gods iustice deiected that is to the place of condemnation for sinne And therefore Ruffinus doth not onely knit these speaches together in the person of Christ as expounding one the other Eduxisti de Inferno animam meam de abysso terrae â—…erum adduxisti me thou hast brought my soule from Infernus and hast brought me backe againe from the deepe of the earth But of the diuell he saith Qui mortis habebat imperium disruptis Inferni claustris velut de profundo tractus traditur he that had Rule of death was drawen as it were out of the deepe the cloysters of Infernus being broken open The place where the diuell was and whence he was drawen when he was spoyled and triumphed by Christ was not the separation of the Soule from the Body which the diuel hath not but it was the deepe of hell which here is called Infernus So that it is certaine by all the Fathers generally First that Hades and Sheol are taken for the state of death common to the Soules of good and bad Secondly Christ went not into hell the place of the damned as you hold but to the habitation of the blessed deceased If I haue not conuinced both these collections to be false by the manifest Testimonies of the Fathers for out of them you gather these obseruations then I desire no mans consent to any thing that I haue sayd but if you grosly mistake and misuse all the Fathers names and speeches then I trust the Reader will better consider what credit is to be giuen to your certainties and giue me leaue to be shorter in slipping ouer your idle presumptuous vaine crafts and false collections which are almost all that is behinde A taste whereof if he will take let him heare these bragges of yours following Thus your vaine boasting of all the Fathers is but a bubble So that if you consent as you say to be tried by all the Fathers Greeke and Latine they quite ouerthrow you notwithstanding your great words If your vaine and shamelesse boasting were not by this time well knowen I would giue some fresh assault to these bulwarks of falsitie and insolenâ—… but the proofs being euident and precedent which I leaue to the Readers indifferent iudgement I will ouerskip this and a great deale more of the same kind as the bubbles or your vanitie and if ought be said to any purpose I will refute that otherwâ—…e I will bestow no more paper and incke on your wandring and wilde conceits Only Austen doubtingly and waueringly differeth from all the rest for thus he saith I confesse I haue not yet found that Inferi are named where the iust mens soules are at peace You might haue done well to haue learned of Austen this sober and modest course not by vaunting and outfacing but by plaine and faire confessing to shew the ground of your opinion as Austen doth of his Wherein he differeth not from all the rest as you confidently yet most iniuriously report of him but in this hee exactly and resolutely consenteth with them all Tertullians errour still excepted that after Christs resurrection Deinceps boni fideles prorsus Inferos nesciunt Good Christians dying come not to Inferi at all And as for the former opinion that the godly deceased before Christes death went ad Inferos to places below in the earth though not to torments which is the stone that still you stumble at and make it the very heart of all your defence deceitfully applying that to the time since Christes resurrection which the Fathers euer intended and expressed to pertaine to the time before Christes comming S. Austen though he yeeld so farre to former writers as to say If it may seeme tâ—… be beleeued without absurditie yet he euery where professeth he could finde no such vse of the word Inferi in any place of the sacred Scriptures and that Abrahams bosome where the Saints did rest before Christs death was a part or skirt of hell he vtterly refuseth that as no way consonant to the wordes of Christ in the Gospell And therefore when he proposeth the other opinion with a condition if it may be beleeued without absurditie euen there he retaineth his owne resolution that Abrahams bosome was in locis à tormentis impiorum remotissimis in places most remote from the torments of the wicked and to beleeue otherwise were an absurditie as he concludeth in his 99. Epistle Against Austin you obiect First that surely the auncients named the places for all deceased good and badde Inferos as they named the world where both wicked and good doe liue Superos Secondly that Austen if hee had well marked it might haue found euen this which he saith he found not in the Latin translation of the Scripture What man is there that shall deliuer his soule from the hand of inferi that is death Where the soule being takeâ—… properly for the soule then Inferi is found applied to iust mens soules deceased as well as to the wicked which Augustine might haue obserued Were you masking this might make mirth but being in earnest it is more then idle What if Arnobius in respect of hell being in the earth beneath vs call vs that liue on earth superos those aboue is that a proofe that the godly deceased are called inferi who knoweth not that infra supra are differences of place which in diuers respects may be diuersly varied To those that are in heauen we are Inferi that is beneath them and in that reference to heauen which is aboue vs Augustine himselfe doubteth not to call the earth Infernum Ad hoc infernum missus est filius Dei nascendo ad illud inferius moriendo To this earth below was the Sonne of God sent when he was borne to that other place beneath vs when he died But if no speciall comparison of place bee expressed then Superi Inferi the Saints aboue and the spirits beneath are generally so called in regard of vs who dwell on earth and speake on earth are by position of place in the middest that is lower then the highest and higher then the lowest And because vnder vs there are none liuing but those in hell therefore Inferi whom the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are spirits vnder the earth whether men or diuels As for that other obiection out of the Psalmes it is not onely a bubble soone blowen away but a bable not worth the bringing The translation of Tremelius and Iunius to whom you most appeale for these matters hath eripiat seipsum à sepulchro shall he saue himselfe from the graue that is can hee keepe himselfe that he shall not die and where you
vs. 132. 133 How Christ shall the second time appeare without sinne 27 How far Christs sufferings must be extended 343 How Christs soule was in his Fathers hands 549 How Christ was in Paradise the day of his death 549 How Christ was like vs in all things sinne excepted 86 How Christ might feare and yet be freed from it 486. â—…87 How Christ loosed the sorrowes of death 624 How Christ must rise from the dead 627 What Christ discerned in all his sufferings 317 What Christ vndertooke for vs. 324 What things Christ inwardly beheld in the garden 387 Why Christ might dislike the death of the body 398 The ioynt sufferings of Christ in his bodily death most auaileable for our saluation 68 Euery thing in Christ was meritorious but not satisfactorie for sinne 179. 180 Both body and soule must suffer in Christ. 130. 131 Christs bodily death part of the punishment of our sinnes 11 By Christs corporal punishment we are freed from spirituall and eternall 222. 223 Christs blood could not be shed but by Satan and his instâ—…uments 231 Christs recompence for the wrong receaued at Satans hands 232 Christs suffering without the gate of the city 113. 114 Christs death was most iust with God in respect of his will to saue vs. 262. 263 Christs death not exacted as a debt but â—…eceaued as a voluntarie sacrifice 264 Christs doings aboue mans reason 310 The nature measure and purpose of Christs sufferings 332 The paines of Christs soule as of his body were equall to the strength of his patience 334 Christs faith did not faile in the sharpest of his paines 335 All Christs sufferings were righteous and holie 344. 438 Christs words Iohn 12. auouch not contraries 482. are expounded 483 Christs senses were not ouerwhelmed with feare and sorrow 477 Christs feares and sorrowes not like the reprobates 448. 449. 450 We must not increase Christs sufferings at our pleasure 478 Christs passió did not kil his soul but his body 528 Christs conquest secureth our soules seuered from our bodies 670 Christs Soule was not tormented with Gods immediat hand 34 Christs Soule suffered but died not for vs. 133 Christ soule suffered by all her powers but not the death of the Soule 136. 137. 140 Christs Soule chiefe patient in paine and agent in merit 179 Christs Soule could not merit if it wanted vnderstanding and will 480 Christs Soule in her greatest paines did most shew the life of patience and obedience to God 524 Christs Soule was passible but died not 533 Christs Soule was not fastned to hell three daies 551 Christs Soule was in glory before his Body 669 Christs Soule liuing by grace could no way be dead 523 Neither Scriptures nor Fathers vnderstâ—…nd Christs Soule by his Body 426. 427 Christs Soule was not crucified through infirmity 510 Christâ—… Soule was not vnder the dominion of death 650 What wee must beware in the sufferings of Christs Soule 536 Many writers teach the sufferings of Christs Soule without the paines of hell 536 Why Christs Soule and not his Body was to conquere hell 668 It is not against the faith that Christes Soule should conquere hell 622 Christs manâ—…ood praied for that with all humilitie which hiâ—… person by â—…ight might haue chalenged 378 Christâ—… manhood might feare the glory of Gods iudgement 380 Christs manhood miâ—…ht feare the power of Gods wrath against our sinnes which he was to beare 380 Christs manhood might feare the sting of death as horrible to mans nature 381 Christs manhoode was to conquere hell 667. though by power of his Godhead 670 Christs flesh found no ease in death though his Soule were full of hope 424 Christs flesh was weake though his Spirite was willing 508 Christs flâ—…sh could not putrifie 623 Christs praier in the Garden was well aduised 397 Christâ—… praier was no maze 4â—…7 Christs praier was not against his Fathers will 397. 465. 466. 470. 471. 472 Christs praier was full of faith 474. 475 Christs praier was with condition and reseruation of Gods will 382 Compassion and pittie are alwaies painfull 27 Compassion is affliction though it be a vertue 438 Christ more compassiâ—…nate then Moses or Paul 359 Christs complaint on the Crosse. 409 How many senses it may beare 418. 420. 421 The first sense 416 The second sense 418 The third sense 421 The fourth sense 430 The fift sense 432 The sixt sense 433 The Saints compâ—…aint in their afflications 418 The euent of Christs coâ—…plaint on the Crosse. 419 No shame for Christ to complaine on the Crosse as he did 420 Leo maketh Christs complaint on the Crosse an instruction no lamentation 432 We were conceaued in sin before we were quickned with life 173 Mans flesh is defiled in conception before the soule is created and infused 174. 175 None can be euerlastingly condemned for anothers fault 363 Christs conquest ouer hell and death 667 was ordered most to Satâ—…ns shame 669 Contradictions obiected by the Defender are easily answered 69 Contradictions in the Defender 320 A shamefull contradiction of the Defender 423 The words of the Creed examined 648 How long this clause of Christs descent to hell hath beene in the Creede 653. 654 Hades in the Creede muâ—…t signifie hell 649 Hell in the Creede is no new translation 652 The Creede continued from the Apostles times 664 Twelue parts of the Creede â—…64 What Crâ—…sse of Christ it was that Paul so much reoiyced in 73. 74 75 How the Fathers and new writers expound that place 76. 77 How farre the Crosse of Christ extendeth it selfe by the Scriptures 79 We reioyce in the effects of Christs Crosse. 81 Christ was not voâ—…de of all comfort on the Crossâ—… 410. 411 What comfort Christ had on the Crosse. 412 The death of the Crosse the greatest exâ—…anition of Christ. 433 Christs Soule was not Crucified through infirmitie 501 Figuratiuely the Soule may be said to be Crucified 80 What Cup Christ dranke of 373 What Christ meant by the houre and Cup of his Passion 443 Christ and his members must drinke of one and the same Cup. 353 What part of the Curse Christ bare for our sinnes 234. 235 Hanging on a tree was not the whole Curse of the Law 236 A double Curse of sinne 236 Two kindes oâ—… Câ—…rses in the Law 239 The bodily death which Châ—…ist suffered was the Curse which he sustained 240 Cursing and blâ—…ssing compared doe manifest each the other 249 What is true Cursing and blessing from God 250 How Christ was made a Curse for vs. 257 Christs death was a kinde of Curse 259 Christ vndertooke to satisfie but not to suffer our Curse 260 The Curse for sinne is triple 266 Cyprian wrested by the Defender 274 D D Amnation What paines are essentiall to it 37. 39 The horror of Gods iudgements not neere the paines of the Damned 227 The Godly in this life feele not the paines of the damned 320 Sharper paines are reserued for the damned then now they feele 334 Christ was not