neerer in soules to the right signification of bruizing than the mangling tearing and contusing of Christs body which he suffered from the violent rage of the Iewes Your other word of the very same nature keepe to your selfe When your proofs faile you in this you may not be suffered to roue at your pleasure and to reach after other words out of your own vnlearned skill to vouch they are of the very same nature Wherefore there is no cause why the coherence of Esaies wordes should be cut in sunder by your vnhandsome deuice of the peeces and powder of soules but as the first words in that sentence he was wounded for our transgressions and the last with his stripes we are healed are plainly referred to the punishments of Christes bodie so the middest he was bruized for our iniquities should haue the same relation and intention especially the Prophet foretelling the people what they should see in their Messias and how they should misiudge of him We sayth Esay did iudge him as plagued and smittâ—…n of God but he was wounded for our transgressions and bruized for our iniquities and with his stripes are we healed Neither is it any strange thing in the Scriptures to ioyne this very word which you talke so much of with wounding as with a word of the same nature and force For besides that Moses sayth None wounded with any bruizing or â—…utting of his secret parts shall enter into the Lords congregation Dauid saith to God Thou hast bruized Rahab as one that is wounded Where wounding bruizing are more properly lincked together as words of like force and effect than your breaking of soules into pieces or beating them to powder The verie same word is also vsed in the Scriptures to note the bruizing of mans bodie by sicknesse or of his estate by wrong and oppression Dauid in a grieuous sicknesse complaining that he felt nothing sound in his flesh nor any rest in his bones addeth I am weakned and bruized very much Bruize not the poore in the gate sayth Salomon that is oppresse not the poore in iudgement The children of the foolish shall be bruized that is oppressed in the gate and none shall deliuer them And when it is applied to the soule it may note that to be either wounded with sorrow oppressed with wrong or humbled with obedience but as for powder and pieces from which you would pull a iust proportion which nothing can answere but the paines of hell it is a sicke conceit of your owne braine it hath no deriuation either from the Prophets or Apostles words You did not meane that the soule might be properly broken in pieces but that thus it is neerer and better applied to the soule than to the bodie which was only pierced and boared thorow Then was your former opposition out of the Scripture very licentious and your conclusion as friuolous In that a bone of Christes was not broken you inferred that Esaies words He was broken for our sinnes could not be properly meant of Christes bodie flesh and bones as if there were no breaking of ioynts veines sinewes flesh or skinne but only of bones And yet as if the soule of Christ which is by nature altogether indiuisible might properly be broken in pieces you conclude the breaking of the bread can not properly belong to the bodie of Christ BVT TO THE SOVLE Had you denied the breaking of the bread properly to belong to either your words must haue beene It can belong properly neither to the bodie nor to the soule but you denie the one and auouch the other It can not belong properly to the body but to the soule Whether those words of yours doe not expresly import that the breaking of bread doth properly belong to the soule of Christ as to the trueth wherein they must be verified I leaue it to the iudgement of the discreet Reader Howbeit you denie not but broken applied to the soule of Christ is figuratiue And so you grant there was no cause you should take such exceptions as you did to the Apostles wordes This is my bodie which is broken for you For since it can not be verified of the soule but figuratiuely as you now confesse it may so be most iustly verified of Christes bodie without any sense of hell paines suffered in the soule of Christ. And if the consent of the English Latine and Greeke tongues may be trusted for the vse of a word breaking may properly be affirmed of Christes bodie which can not be of his soule for so much as his ioynts veines sinewes flesh and skinne were broken and torne in sunder though his bones were not And but that your fashion is to follow no man farder than your fansie leadeth you you might haue seene with what reuerence and conscience Master Beza that otherwise vpholdeth the sufferings of Christes soule referreth this word KLOMENON to the tearings and torments of Christes bodie being hereto led by the Apostles assertion By the word broken in Pauls wordes is designed the kindâ—… of Christes death because besides that the Lords bodie was torne bruized and euen broken with most bitter torments though his legges were not broken as the theeues were Christ breathing out his soule with a most violent death was as it were rent in two parts according to his humane Nature This word then hath a MARVELLOVS EXPRESSE SIGNIFICATION that the figure should fullie agree with the thing it selfe to wit that the breaking of the bread should represent to our minds the verie death of Christ. Peter Martyr hauing made your obiection that a bone of Christ was not broken resolueth But heereof I will not greatly contend for somuch as this breaking is by many Fathers referred to the body of Christ. With whom the wordes following doe make broken for you which indeed leadeth me to consent vnto them and to acknowledge a double breaking one in the bread another in the bodie of Christ. Bullinger sayth The bread is properlie sayd to be broken the bodie of man to be slaine howbeit in the Hebrue tongue to breake is to waste to kill and destroy And so the visible bread which in our sight is broken with our hands doth certeinly set before our eyes that bodie of Christ which was broken or done to death by vs or for vs. So Haymo q Christ himselfe brake the bread which he deliuered to his Disciples to shew that the breaking and suffering of his bodie came not but of his owne accord Which wordes he tooke out of Beda vpon the Gospels of Marke and Luke Before whom Prosper When the host is broken and the bloud is powred out into the mouthes of the faithfull what other thing is designed than the doing to death of the Lords bodie on the crosse and the shedding of the bloud out of his side And likewise Austen The table of thy spouse sayth he to the Church hath bread
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
Then notwithstanding your exception not worth a straw these are two maine grounds of the Christian faith that Christ dying descended to the decpe and rising ascended to heauen and hee that but doubteth in his heart of either of these by the apostles verdict emptieth and reuerseth Christs death and resurrection And did not this latter question who can descend to the deepe pertaine directly vnto Christ who onely of all men that euer were descended to the deepe of Hell and returned againe with safetie and glory we might not onely iustly doubt whoeâ—…er besides Christ descended to the deepe of the earth but our faith teacheth vs plainely â—…o denâ—…e that euer man Christ cxcepted did descend to the deepe supposing now that to signifie hell as you doe and yet doth not our faith frustrate the death of Christ but therein rather commend it and exalt it that neuer man was able to doe as he did that is dying and descending to subiect hell vnder his power and to deliuer all his from thence So that if the deepe heere doe signifie hell then is heere a plaine resolution of the Apostle that Christ dying descended to hell Now least you should take any pride in your peâ—…ting answere not worth a tagge of of a blew point the Reader shall see that all interpreters old and new and euen those on whom you would seeme most to relie haue with one consent comprised the person of Christ in these two questions and yeelded the Apostles answcre to be very extrauagant which God forbid vnlesse Christ were comprised as well in the questions as in the answeres Oecumenius The Apostle referreth these things to Christ. That is wauer not neither say in thy mind how did Christ descend from heauen or did Christ being dead rise from the deepe that is from the lowest places cast all such thoughts out of thy mind Theophylact. Stagger not saith the apostle neither doubtingly cast this in thy mind how Christ descended from heauen or how after death he rose from the deepe id est ex abditissimo profundissimo loco that is from the deepest and most hidden place Erasmus Who shall ascend to heauen that being spoken of the Law Paul interpreteth and applieth to Christ. For that is saith he to draw Christ from heauen Or who shall descend into the deepe that is who will beleeue the things that are spoken of hell except he see them this is sayth Paul to draw Christ backe from the dead as though he did not descend to hell or they desired that in their sight he would againe descend to hell Peter Martyr thus setteth the Apostles questions Who shall ascend to heauen to see whether God bee reconciled to vs by Christ or who shall descend downe into the deepe to see euerlasting death weakned and abolished by him that is by Christ Bucere The Apostle acknowledgeth in this question the deniall of Christ and that he draweth Christ downe from heauen which admitteth this doubt It is euident that the deepe is taken pro inferis for hell and in this sense the Apostle seemeth to haue vsed this word the deepe for hee addeth that is to bring Christ backe from the dead to wit to account his descent to hell to be void and his victorie ouer death and Gehenna Hyperiâ—…s Say not who shall descend into the deepe thou art eased of this trouble by Christs resurrection from the dead and from hell Gualtere Who shall descend to the deepe to see whether death be disarmed hell gates broken open the Diuels kingdome subuerted and we truely redeemed from all these doâ—… not they denie death to haue beene conquered by the merit and resurrection of Christ and therefore would haue him againe to die and to returne to hell to doe that once more which he hath alreadie performed Piscator The heart of him that beleeueth doth not descend by his thoughts to the deepe to trie whether victorie be obtained against eternall death For if he doubt of this he must also doubt whether Christ were dead ad inferos descender it and descended to hell Beza Because the law proposed heauen but vnder an impossible condition and threatned the deepe that is destruction for the offence to which we are all subiect whosoeuer cleaueth to the righteousnesse of the law of force is compelled to crie out who shall ascend to heauen or descena into the deepe to take me hence and lead me thither But contrariwise faith suggesteth that Christ is he which ascended to heauen to carrie vs thâ—…ther with him and descended into the depth of death to abolish him that had power of death Take which of these expositions you will it is euident in euery one of them that by the Christian faith both these impossible actions as man thinketh of ascending to heauen and descending to the deepe were performed for vs in the person of Christ and therefore now to doubt of either is to weaken eneruate the power of Christ who most perfectly hath accomplished both to saue vs from one and bring vs to the other And heere also by the deepe those whom you would seeme to follow vnderstand destruction and eternall death as all the rest doe from which Christ hath freed vs by descending and destroying them for vs. This I say the dead heere importeth the generall condition and state of all the dead as it is opposed to the state of the liuing Yea it is not vnlikely that the former word Abyssâ—… the deepe is vsed also heere by the Apostle to signifie not hell but euen this condition and state of death which is a gulfe bottomlesse neuer satisfied and vnrecouerable like as Sheôl in Hebrew doth likewise properly signifie You shew your selfe by your saying to haue little care what you say that not onely you crosse all Expositors without exception but euen the Scriptures themselues without any respect of trueth or touch of conscience For where the Apostle proposeth this last point Who shall descend to the deepe and returne againe as possible onely to Christ and to none else by your vntidie tale that the deepe heere signifieth the generall condition of the dead opposed to the liuing you make the apostle a weake reasoner or rather a plaine lyer For could Paul at this time be ignorant that Elias and Elizeus raised some from the generall condition of the dead that Christ restored three from death Peter did the like for Tabitha Is there not plaine testimonie giuen in the Scriptures that through faith the women receaued their dead raised to life If this were not onely possible but so vsuall as the Scriptures declare how could Paul make this actioÌ„ of descending to the deepe possible but only to Christ wherefore I say you must be better aduised or else you shew yourselfe in an open and impudent falshood to ruffle and reuell with the holy Ghost testifying that many haue gone to the condition
is grounded on Austin it is his collection not the text without him that serues your turne you and your friends will neuer be able to ouermatch Saint Austins obseruation that he neuer found in any place of Scripture Inferi which is the word that is vsed in Latin for sheol to be taken in any good sense and much lesse to make good proofe by the word of God that the condition or place in which the soules of the Saints are after death is called sheol or hades since as I haue sufficiently shewed Sheol is opposite to heauen and to euery part thereof as the lowest and woorst place of abode to the highest and best which things if you canne glew together you shall quit your selfe to bee your craftes master But first you must note that we goe not about to prooue sheol or hades to be heauen We neuer thought it the more is your iniurie when you haue nothing to reproouâ—… yet with bitter reproches to disgrace me as you doe and that euen for this your owne meere conceit What time of the day is it I pray you Sir that you awake so lately out of your deepe and drowsie maze or sleepe choose which you will that you now begin in sadnesse to disclaime that you euer said or ment Sheol was or could be heauen or any part thereof Is it so many moneths agone that positiuely and publikely you affirmed Sheol and Hades in the Scriptures to BE THE PLACE where the iust mens soules are after death Were the sections of your booke framed so farre a sunder and so verie strangers ech to other that you forget it was a resolute position of yours or of some of your friends for you euen in the verie last section and but in the other side of the leafe that THE CONDITION OR PLACE WHERE IVST MENS SOVLES ARE AFTER DEATH was SHEOL and HADES and that which argueth your notable stupidity or folly reiecting so violently the inuention of Limbus which supposed the soules of the righteous deceased before Christ to be in Sheol and Hades as well as the soules of the damned you now come to tell vs that Sheòl and Hades is the place as wel where the iust mens soules are after death as that where the damned are You talke of wittie reasons to solace your selfe withall if you could tell how in trueth this stuffe better deserueth to be tawed with tearmes then to be refuted with reason since it hath neither ground nor proofe nor so much as concordance with it selfe Consider a word of like vse in Latin Defuncti signifying the dead may be applied generally to the soules deceased Yet I hope notwithstanding Limbus may be easily auoided Are defuncti none other but the damned onely in hell the word is properly generall signifying them that are gone hence certainly so doth hades and sheol All these the Latin the Greâ—… and the Hebrew words are indifferent and common in themselues signifying indeed no positiue thing properly but a meere priuation of this life You shall doe well to consider that you know not what you say but as a man out of trueth and tune you fall from one absurdity to another and trole out positions that are meere priuations of all sense and vnderstanding that such words as onely note the priuation of this life or leauing this world are common to all deceased and departed hence this Children know We striue not for that and so defuncti importing such as haue ended the course of this life and are gone from hence may serue as well for those that are with Christ in rest and blisse as for the rest that are in the paines and torments of hell but what is this to Sheol or hades or to the place where the one or the other are Is the PLACE where soules departing hence are receaued no POSITIVE THING with you but a MEERE PRIVATION who euer said so that was not meerely depriued of his witts the places where soules after this life are disposed are Paradise or as you say heauen and hell Are heauen and hell and the states of soules there no positiue things but meere priuations of this life if this be the best way you haue to aâ—…oid Limbus in faith my reason will soone conuince you to want more then witte You speake not of places you will say but of conditions If you did so your error were groâ—…e enough but by your leaue looke on your owne words you speake of the PLACE WHERE IVST MENS SOVLES ARE AFTER DEATH as well as of the condition and would you now shift your hands of both and say you ment a meere priuation of this life you would faine conuey your selfe to your old castel of comfort which are empty words and phrases best fitting your wrangling humour but we must pray you to conuince the Creed and expound the Scriptures with more then meere priuations and idle obseruations or els to let them stand in their former trueth and strength Who knoweth not that such as haue ended this life may be called defuncti or mortui the deceased or dead in that their bodies lie now in corruption though their soules be in peace and rest with God but what is that to the place or state in which they are after death which the Scripture maketh to be positiue though such a phrase-founder as you are would haue it nothing els but priuatiue Of Enoch and Elias who were translated hence with their bodies liuing it cannot be said they are dead because no part of them was or is subiected to death and yet are they gone from hence to a more blessed and happie life But Sheol in the Scriptures as we haue seâ—…e by the common and constant consent of Iewish and Christian Grammarians and expositors is a place vnder earth opposed to heauen as the lowest to the highest aâ—…d the word of God doth exactly confirme that assertion of theirs Moses Iob Daniâ—… and Esay teach that Sheol is q below Now aboue and beneath are positions of places and not differences of priuations And so likewise Ioâ—… Dauid Esaie and Aâ—… vse Sheol or the place moâ—… opposite to heauen Now if heauen be a poâ—… place and state so is Sheol though either of them import a priuation of this earthly life Gods ordinance being such that this life shall end or change â—…efore men goe to heauen or hell It is then a weake and waterish collection that because both the graue and hell which in the Scriptures are comprised in the name of Sheol haue in them the priuation of this life therefore Sheol properly noteth a meâ—…re priuation of this life and nothing els vnlesse you nourish this secret error in your bosome that the soules deceased sleepe and so haue neither positiue nor sensible ioy or paine but a meere want of this world In effect they are all one with Thanatos death but that Thanatos belongeth properly to
bodie which is not performed before the bodie rise to glorie you turne it as if I professed our redemption from hell to be imperfect till the last day And when I mention with Saint Paul the redemption of our bodies from corruption which shall not be before the resurrection you would inferre thereupon if you could tell how that the bodies of the Saints remaine subiect to the power of hell to the curse of the law and to the claime of Satan Thus you runne on like a riotous spaniel chalenging vpon euery foote but finding nothing With like wit and trueth you inferre vpon my wordes where I say the death of the body was inflicted on mankind as part of the wages of sinne that therefore the godly must pay a part of their owne redemption and satisfaction for sinne and then Christ was not our onely and absolute redeemer But which way doth this follow can you tell punishment for sinne is in our persons neither redemption nor satisfaction for sinne in Christs person it was both Know you not the difference betwixt Christs person and ours But I say pa. 216. that the bodies of the dead Saints are in the possession of hell and in the handfact of hell In wresting and wrangling is all your grace Where some auncient writers seeme to say that Christ deliuered some of the Saints out of the present possession of hell all the defence I said that could any way be made out of the Scriptures to excuse this was to take hell improperly for the sting and wound of bodily death which Satan the ruler of hell procured to man by sinne For sinne death and corruption are the workes of the Diuell which Christ came to dissolue God made not death as the wiseman obserueth but created man without corruption and through the enuie of the Diuell came death into the world This then being one of the wounds which Satan through sinne gaue vnto our first father and all his ofspring this is not perfectly cured but with the resurrection of our bodies to eternall life though the poyson of this wound bee in the meane time allayed and the danger secured And thus whiles I seeke to mitigate other mens wordes and to extenuate the name and power of hell vnderstanding thereby nothing but the dissolution of mans life and corruption of mans bodie which Satan occasioned by sinne you make the Reader beleeue I take the name of hell properly for the power and right that hell hath ouer the bodies of the wicked and teach that the Saints are not deliuered from hell till their bodies rise from death which when you list you can find to bee refuted elswhere by me and therefore to be no part of my meaning heere How death is an enemie which must be destroyed aswell as sinne and hell we neede not your commentarie except it were stoared with better Diuinitie It hindreth the Saints you graunt from enioying their appointed felicitie yet as a peaceable and quiet stop Ascribe you this peace and quietnesse to their bodies voide of life and sense or to their soules staied from the full fruition of eternall glorie by that meanes And troe you the soules of the Saints be well and quietly content to lacke their appointed felicitie not at all to desire it or not earnestly to pray for it were plainly to loath it and not obediently to expect it Wherefore they exceedingly affect and instantly pray for the destruction of this enemie that keepeth their bodies in dishonour and corruption and hindereth their spirits from enioying that glorie which shal be reucaled in the last time which appeareth by their vehement prayer in the Reuelation how long O Lord holy and true doest thou not iudge and auenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Where they in heauen seeke not reuenge on them for whom they prayed in earth but they expresse their continuall and ardent desire for that day when they shall be wholy conformed to Christ their head And when they are willed to rest for a season they gladly submit themselues to the will and wisedome of God but meane while they hate death as an hinderer of that blisse and ioy which they so much loue and long for and shall no doubt reioyce exceedingly when this last enemie is swallowed vp in victorie as the rest were before But let death be an enemie which way you will how doth this conclude that Hades here 1. Corinth 15. in no sort signifieth hell The very text seemeth thus to expound it selfe saying where is thy sting O Hades the sting of death is sinne Where the later seemeth a direct exposition of the former noting these two wordes Hades and death as Synonymas for one thing being applied to men When you talke of the text of holy Scripture you should not leaue the wordes that are extant in all our printed copies retained and alleaged by the best and most of the Greeke Fathers as likewise of our new writers and cleane to the single conceite of some one man taking vpon him to correct all the printed copies that euer he saw and of his owne authoritie to alter the Originall I doe not therefore by your and his leaue admit this for Saint Pauls text since it is his priuate change of the wordes in the Greeke against all the copies that are either manu-scripts or printed at this day His owne confession is this Contrario ordine legunt hunc locum non modo Graeci omnes codices quos inspeximus sed etiam Syrus Arabs interpretes Not onely all the Greeke copies that we haue seene but the Syriack Arabick Interpreters read this place in a contrarie order that is they put these words ô Hades where is thy victorie in the last place which you set in the first and the other words ô death where is thy sting they set first which you will haue to be last Thus then stand the Apostles wordes cleane contrarie to that which you bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting O Hades wher is thy victorie And in this order doe Luther Erasmus Zuinglius Peter Martyr Caluine Bullingere Gualtere Aretius Hemmingius Hyperius Osiander Marlorate and I know not how many more both keepe and cite that text in Latin vbi tuus mors aculeus vbi tua Inferne victoria Where is thy sting O death where is thy victorie O hell And touching the Greeke copies and Fathers that are auncient and obserue the same order of the wordes for the Apostles text we haue Origen Athanasius Nazianzene Nyssene Epiphanius x Chrysostome x Oecumenius and though the translatours of x Theodoret and x Theophylact retaine the wordes of the old Latin Bible in this place for the text yet there is no likelihood that these two in their own tongue varied from the rest specially Theophylact who in his commenting
as you doe tending all to expresse one thing but seeke a little to shew vs what matter is contained in them you should soone see what labour you haue lost in this Carrecke of words which you haue newly brought vs home Your meere and simple death which you say is nothing els but the going asunder of the soule from the body hath of necessitie thus much in it It is the separation of the soule from the body which is the cause of life in the body It is the dissolution of the person which consisteth of body and soule It is the priuation of life which endeth with the departing of the soule It is the continuing of death since possibly there is no regresse from the priuation to the habite without the mightie hand of God working aboue nature For the soule departing neuer returneth till God commaund by whose word heauen and earth were made What now after death becommeth of both parts of man is no hard matter to conceaue Salomon saith Dust meaning flesh first made of dust returneth to earth as it was and the spirit to God that gaue it by him to be disposed and adiudged to ioy or paine as pleaseth him The body then goeth to corruption the soule receaueth iudgement where it shall remaine in hell or heauen till the bodie be restored againe which shall be at the last day Descending to hades after death cannot be verified of the whole person of man but in respect of the parts Referred to the body it is as much as buried and laide in the place where it shall putrifie and returne to dust Applied to the soule it must signifie the place to which the soule is caried which I say must be vnder earth since heauen is neuer called by that name nor expressed by that word either in the Scriptures or in any other sacred or prophane writers The power and dominion of death which you so much speake of is nothing else but Gods ordinance that from death there is no returne to life till hee appoint If then there be no dominion nor kingdome of death preuailing or ruling in heauen where the soules of the Saints are without their bodies then Christ in ascending to heauen descended not to Hades Againe with what trueth can you auouch Christes soule came vnder the full power and dominion of death since death had no power ouer the bodie or soule of Christ longer or farder then he himselfe would permit and his soule free from all bands and paines of death destroied the dominion and kingdome of death to which it was alwaies superiour and neuer subiect but onely that he might shew himselfe with greater power to be conquerer of death rather in rising from the dead then in declining the force of death as if he were not able after death and in death to dissolue the dominion and power of death Wherefore your exaggerating the power and dominion of death OVER THE SOVLE of Christ and that IN HEAVEN whither you graunt Christes soule went after death is not onely a vaine and idle flourish but a poisoned and pestilent doctrine if you take not heed to it since no power of death but Christes will to shew himselfe Lord of life and death either seuered his soule from his bodie or bestowed his soule in any place after death or detained him in the condition of death but he was free to die when he would and rise from death when he would which euerteth all power and dominion of death ouer him how much soeuer in wastefull wordes you auouch the contrarie Touching the proprietie of wordes that you say is as true as the rest For Hades hath no such natiue and proper sense as you talke of but exactly and directly when it is referred to a place and not to a person signifieth a place of darknesse where nothing can be seene as with one consent Heathen and Christian writers acknowledge And the word descending after death which you must applie to the soule ascending to heauen you childishly change into the fall of the person from lise to death or inconstantly varie you know not how to Christes submission when he died or his abasement by lying held and subdued so long time in death Where againe you incurre the same sands that you did before in affirming Christ was held and subdued of death for the time which is plainly false doctrine since he would abide that time in death least any should thinke him not truely dead but was neuer vnder the power and dominion of death And as for lying held in death that phrase is strangely referred to the soule of Christ which ascended to the third heauen with more honour and ioy then it receaued in this life heere on earth What Ruffine saith is not much to be regarded if we beleeue S. Ierom neither was Ruffines faith sound nor his authoritie any thing in the Church and yet were he woorth the respecting he maketh more against you then for you For first these wordes are not vsed as an exposition of Christs descent to Hades but Ruffine saith Diuina natura in mortem per carnem descendit non vt lege mortalium detinerâ—…tur a Morte sed vt per se resurrecturus ianuas mortis aperiret The diuine nature of Christ descended to death by his flesh not to be held of death after the law of mortall men but that rising of himselfe hee might open the gates of death Where he saith the diuine nature descended to death he speaketh not of the soule but of the godhead of Christ which words by your leaue require a sober interpretation and yet in respect of the diuine glory the phrase of descending vnto death signifieth Christes submission to die not his descent after death And withall he refelleth two of your fansies first that Christ was was not held of death which you say he was Secondly that he followed not heerein the lâ—…w of mans nature which you say he did And that Christes soule descended to hell by Ruffines opinion his wordes are plaine enough in many places He applieth that to Christ which Dauid saith Thou hast brought my soule out of hell and alleaging the place of Peter In his spirit Christ preached to them which were in prison heerein saith â—…e it is declared quid operâ—…â—…gerit in Inferno What Christ did in hell So that the lesse hold you take of Ruffine the better for you and your cause he will doe more harme then good If any thinke this to be somewhat figuratiue yet is it verely so familiar and easie to all people as that other word in the Creede is he sitteth at the right hand of God yea it is farre easier When you can diue deepe into your owne fansies you thinke them as familiar to all others as to your selfe If this were so easie and readie with the simpler sort as you make it me thinkes it should not so much trouble
religious Prince aswell to examine the Scriptures with all diligence as to shew the confession and resolution of Christs Church long before our times that all the world may see I maintaine none other grounds of Faith nor sense of Scripture than haue beene anciently constantly and continually professed and beleeued in the Church of Christ for these fifteene hundred yeeres till this our present Age and the same allowed and ratified by the publike lawes of this Realme which your Maiestie in your most Princely wisdome and courage professe to vpholde and continue God for his holy Names sake blesse your most sacred Maiestie and prosper all your vertuous and Christian cares that as in learning and wisdome in clemencie and pietie he hath made you the Mirrour of this Age so in peace and prosperitie in concord and vnitie in all happinesse and felicitie he may exalt you aboue all your neighbour Princes and hauing vnited the two Realmes of England and Scotland in one subiection vnder your Princely right and regiment he will knit the hearts and hands of both to honour and serue you loue and obey you and your royall issue after you to the worlds end Your Maiesties most humble subiect and seruant THO. WINTON THE CHIEFE RESOLVTIONS OF THIS Suruey THe cleerenes and fulnes of the Scriptures in the worke of our Redemption is exactly to be reuerenced so as no man ought to teach or beleeue any thing touching our redemption by Christ which is not expresly witnessed in the sacred Scriptures much lesse may we distrust the manifest words of the holy Ghost to be impertinent or vnsufficient in declaring the true price and meane of our redemption The maine ground of the Gospell which the Apostles preached the faithfull receiued wherein they continued and whereby they were saued was this That Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and was buried and rose the third day according to the Scriptures Since then we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne we must acknowledge none other death of Christ then that which he suffered in the bodie of his flesh after which he was buried and from which he rose the third day which death the Scriptures most apparently describe to be the death of Christs bodie If we were redeemed by the bloud of Christ and God proposed him to be a Reconciliation through faith in his bloud which was shed for the remission of sinnes we may not presume to appoint a new price of our redemption or new meane of our reconciliation since by the bloud of his crosse Christ hath pacified both the things in earth and things in heauen and the bloud of Iesus Christ cleanseth vs from all sinne The Scriptures doe no where teach nor mention the death of Christs Joule or the death of the damned which is the second death to be needfull for our redemption We must not therefore intrude our selues into Gods seat to ordâ—…ne a new course for mans redemption If the Spirit doe quicken and the iust liue by faith and he that abideth in loue abideth in God who is life it was vtterlie impossible but the soule of Christ in that abundance of Spirit euidence of Faith assurance of Hope and perfection of Loue which he alwayes retained should alwayes liue to God Life and death being opposed as priuatiues and so not to be found in one and the same subiect at one and the same time the soule of Christ alwayes liuing could neuer be dead Neither could a dead soule be pleasing to God who is whole life and therefore hateth death as contrarie to his nature when yet he was alwayes well pleased with Christ. Where some imagine extreame paine in Christs soule may be called the death of his soule that position is repugnant to the Scriptures for the greater the paine which the soule feeleth and endureth with innocencie confidence obedience and patience such as were all Christes sufferings the more the soule liueth and cleaueth to God for whose glorie it suffereth so much smart as appeareth in Martyrs whose soules do most liue in their greatest torments The late deuice of hell-paines in Christes passion is not only false but also superfluous for the true paines of hell neither are nor can be suffered in this life where by Gods ordinance extreame paine driueth the soule from the bodie much lesse can man or Angell endure them with obedience and patience as Christ did all his paines And what need was there of hell-paines in the crosse of Christ since God can by euery meanes or without meanes raise more paines in bodie or soule than any creature can endure Christs soule could not be strooken with any horrour of Gods displeasure against him since in his greatest anguish he professed God to be his God and his Father and by prayer preuailed for his persecutors as appeared after by their conuersion and gaue eternall life to the soule of the Thiefe hanging by him and beleeuing on him Now to giue life is more than to haue life and restore others to fauour he can not that himselfe is in displeasure Hell-fire which the damned and diuels do and shall suffer is a true and eternall fire prepared by the mightie hand of God to punish aswell spirits as bodies and this errour That the fire of hell was only an internall or spirituall fire in the soules and consciences of men was long since condemned in Origen by the Church of Christ. Reiection therefore desperation confusion horrour of damnation externall and eternall fire which are the torments of the damned and true paines of hell can not without blasphemie be ascribed to Christ. Christ therefore suffered neither the death of the soule nor the paines nor horrors os the damned or of hell Euery sinne is common to the whole man who is defiled euen with thoughts that be euill not only because the bodie is the Seat wherein and the instrument whereby the soule worketh but also for that the first infection of sinne commeth to the soule by the bodie and the first information and prouocation to sinne riseth from the senses and affections which are mooued with corporall spirits and all the parts and powers of the bodie attend the will with most readie subiection to haue each sinne which the soule conceiueth impressed on them and executed by them And therefore the suffering for sinne in the person of the Mediatour must be common both to bodie and soule in such sort that as in transgressing our soules are the principall Agents so in the suffering for sinne his soule was the principall Patient Christ would vse no power to assuage the force and violence of his paines though he wanted none as appeareth by his ouerthrowing them with a word that came to apprehend him but submitted himselfe to his Fathers will with greater obedience and patience than any man liuing could We may therefore safely beleeue That the iustice of God condemning sinne in Christes flesh proportioned the paines of his bodie in
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
members and vitall parts is so weake that they are not able to sustaine the force which bringeth great or most sharpe paine Which Chrysostome also confiâ—…meth Name fiâ—…e if thou wilt the sword or wilde beasts and if any thing be more grieuous than these yet are these scant a shadow to the torments of hell And these when they grow vehement are easiest and soonest dispatch men the body not sufficing to suffer a sharpe paine any long while Your hell paines then are not very sharpe which the wicked may suffer so many yeres in this life and not forsake either food or sleepe Yet Christ did feele you say Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne and that only you know though you câ—…n not expresse the maner or measure of his feeling it And it was discerned and conceiâ—…ed by Christ to be such and so did wound the soule properly yea chiefly though it were outwardly executed on his bodic The wrath and vengeance of God due to sinne and generally to all mankinde for sinne is spirituall corporall and eternall death with all the seeds and fruits of death that is the losse of all earthly and heauenly blessings in this life and the next and the depth of perpetuall miâ—…ery in body and soule here and in hell This is the true wages and full payment of sinne and though God of his bountie and patience do often remit to the wicked in this life a great part of this 〈◊〉 in things tempo all yet when he inflicteth on them the miseries and calaâ—…ities of this life he giueth them their due And as for spirituall and eternall death now and hereafter it is so proper and certaine to the reprobate that not one of them shall eâ—…cape eâ—…ther Spirituall death is blindnesse and hardnesse of heart working all vncleâ—…nnesse euen with greedinesse which sheweth men to be strangers from the life of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as past all sense and feeling of God Eternall death the Scripture calleth WRATH TO COME because no man suffereth the full force and waâ—…ght thereof in this life but as it is the second death so it followeth in men after the first death which â—…euereth the soule from the bodâ—…e Yee vipers broâ—…d sayd Iohn Baptist to the Pharises and Sadduâ—…s who hath taught you thus to flâ—…e from the wrath to come Iesus sayth Paul deliuereth vs from the wrath to come In this life the wicked may haue a fearefull expectation but no present execution of this iudgement there is a day of â—…rath euen the reuelation of the â—…st iudgement of God when euery man shall be rewarded according to his works and a violent fire shall dâ—…uoure the aduersaries This wrath by the Scriptures is reserued for the vessels of wrath for euer and shall be executed on them with indignation furie and fire not onely because the wrath of God against the wicked burneth lâ—…ke fire but for that it shall be powred on them with flaming and euerlasting fire The effects whereof are reiection malediction confusion desperation and such lâ—…ke which neuer accompanie saluation To say that Christ suffered this kinde of wrath which is the true and proper wages of sinne is horrible and hellish blasphemie which I hope no Christian man will aduenture From the spirituall death of the soule which is the wrath of God reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men and bringeth with it the losse of all grace and goodnesse in this life and consequently leaueth the pollution and dominion of sinne in the soule of man our Lord and master must be as free as from damnation the one being alwayes a necessary consequent to the other Displeasure and wrath against Christes person God neuer had nor could haue any Christ being his owne and only sonne and so deerely beloued that for his sake Gods most iust and most heauie wrath against the sinnes of all his elect did calme and asswage for Gods inward loue doth not admit contrarieties or changes as mans doth all Gods counsels wayes and wo kes being absolutely perfect and constant chiefly towards his owne sonne whom he naturally infinitly and euerlastingly loueth in the same degree that he doth himselfe and therefore no more possible there should be in god any displeasure or dislike conceiued of his sonne for bearing the sinnes of the world or for what cause soeuer than of himselfe And since the humane nature of Christ was by Gods owne wisdome will and worke ioyned into the vnitie of the person of his sonne and made one and the same Christ with his Godhead no cause nor course whatsoeuer could alter or diminish the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards the very manhood of Christ but as God did inseparably knit it to the person of his sonne so did he make it fully partaker of that infinite loue wherewith he embraced his sonne To confirme this to all the world God did often from heauen pronounce with his owne voice This is my beloued sonne in whom I am well pleased as he forespake by his Prophet Beholde mâ—…e elect in whom my soule delighteth This vnspeakable loue of God towards the person of his Sonne now being God and man is the chiefe ground of our election and redemption For wee were adopted through Iesus Christ and made accepted in his beloued by whom wee haue redemption through his blood euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace So that we were neither elected nor redeemed but by the infinite loue of God towards his sonne for whose â—…ake we were adopted to be the sonnes of God and to whose loue the fierce wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes did yeeld and giue place neither may he beare the name of a Christian man that otherwise teacheth or beleeueth of our election and redemption Now iudge thou Christian Reader whether it were wrath or loue in God towards his sonne that pardoned all our sinnes for his â—…ake and accepted the voluntarie sacrifice of his bodie and blood for the redemption of the world through whoâ—…e death we are reconciled to God and cleansed by his blood from all our sinnes Then as in God there neither was nor could be any displeasure against the person of his Sonne nor against any part thereof for what cause soeuer nor any chaunge or decrease of the loue which God with his own mouth professed from heauen towards Christ incarnate so could not Christ without plaine infidelitie conceaue or beleeue that God was inwardly displeased or angrie with â—…im no not when he presented him â—…elfe to God his Father vnder the burden of all our â—…innes knowing that neither sin from which he was â—…ee being the innocent and â—…mmaculate â—…amb of God noâ—… Gods most holy dislike or iust pursuite of sinne could diminish Gods fatherly affection and most constant loue to him For though he were not ignorant that God in his holinesse did hate
of Christ the perfection of whose confidence and patience hee would demonstrate to Angels and men and propose him a paterne to all the Sonnes of God how to humble themsâ—…lues vnder the mightie hand of God and accept his obedience vnto death as a most precâ—…ous and pleasing satisfaction and sacrifice for the sinnes of his elect and reward his humilitie with vnspeakeable honour in making him Lord and Iudge of all both men and Angels not onely to confound the pride and suppâ—…esse the power of Satan but to adiudge him to euerlasting torments with all the wicked and accursed Against the tenor and effect of this Christian confession which I referre to the iudgements of all that be learned rightly instructed in the sacred Scriptures I neuer speake any one word to my knowledge I cannot in euery sentence repeate euery circumstance nor of euery page make a paire of Indentures much lesse may I forsake the forme of holsome words deliuered in the Scriptures But the maine summe and scope of this doctrine being so fully declared and so often repeated by me I had no reason to feare the capacity or doubt the memorie of any heedfull Reader And howsoeuer some shallow trifler may picke out a word heere and there to carpe at yet are there so many cleere places to direct all doubts that no man needeth to stumble but he that will not or can not stand vpright For let the Christian Reader looke but to the marke at which I aime in euery place and remember these two rules that of three sorts of death which onely are mentioned in the Scriptures as the wages of sinne to wit corporall spirituall and eternall death I alwayes remoue the two last from the person of Christ by describing or naming the first which was his corporall death and in that I conteine the whole course and maner of his death that is the feares forrowâ—…s shames temptations derisions smarts and paines which the Scriptures record in the history of his death and all my words will prooue plaine and easie which this maâ—… thinketh so false in themselues so contrary to themselues Examine my words which he hath brought for examples of contradiction and falsity and see whether his labour be any more than meere nugation and vanitie Aâ—…ouching and prouing that Christ could not suffer eternall damnation which is the full wages of sinne nor the death of the soule which by the Scriptures must exclude Christ from the fauour and grace trueth and spirit of God and giuing the reasons why sinne could not preuaile vpon his person as it did vpon others I conclude What maruell then if sinne which should haue wrought in vs an eternal destruction both of bodie and soule could not farther preuaile in him that is to none other kinde of death but to the wounding of his flesh and shedding of his blood for the iust and full satisfaction of all our sinnes euen in the righteous and sincere iudgement of God In this I free Christ from eternall destruction or death of bodie and soule which was the wages of sinne in our persons but could not take holde on his as the difference there betwixt him and vs declareth I exempted him by proofs in the page precedent from the death of the soule which was the maine scope of that section and so leâ—…t him subiect onely to the third kinde of death which was corporall and might be suffered not onely without all taint of sinne losse of grace and change of Gods fauour but euen with great manifestation of Gods power and wisdome in his death and commendation of Christs obedience and patience vnto death That third kinde of death I doe not name but describe by the wounding of Christes flesh and shedding of his blood the rest of his paines and griefes that went bâ—…fore not being excluded as superfluous but continued and increased by that sharpe and â—…xtreame martyrdome which he endured on the crossâ—… as my caueat touching Christs Crosse did plainly admonish And since the whole maner of Christes dâ—…ath and shedding his blood expressed in the Scriptures is the thing that I alwayes intend and the word doth import when I name or touch the death of Christ all that he voluntarily or violently suffered when he yeelded himselfe to be put to death â—…s comprised in the mention of his death Besides that Christ by his bloody sweat in the garden beganne of his owne accord in some sort to effuse his blood for our sakes and safeties and the efore it could haue no iust reason to imagine that my words exclude his agonie and other passions of the soule mentioned in the Scriptures specially my very next words affirming that the same part might and did suffer in Christ which sinned in man to wit the soule though by no meanes it could receiue the same wages which we should haue receiued But I professe by the generall title of my Sermons the full redemption of mankinde by the death and blood of Christ and commend the jâ—…ce and fruit of his bodily death as most sufficient That indeed is very dangerous to your fansie who hold the ioynt sufferings of Christes soule from and by his body not properly to pertaine to mans redemption for that they are common to men with beasts and therefore labour to frustrate all the words of the Holy Ghost deliuered in the Scriptures as improper and impertinent to our saluation but to me there can be no danger in the trueth nor doubt of the fruit or force of those things which the spirit of God so often and euidently commendeth vnto vs in the â—…acred Scriptures as the price of our redemption and meanes of our reconciliation to God In Christ sayth Paul we haue redemption by his blood euen the remission of our sinnes Redemption by Christs blood you will and must gâ—…ant the Holy ghost doth directly auouch it but whether that redemption be full and most sufficient which is purchased by the blood of Christ you doe make some doubt or els you need not sticke at my words which import so much Of that if you doubt you must beare the name of some other sect and not of a Christian for no Christian may doubt whether the redemption which we haue by the blood of Christ be fâ—…ll and suffâ—…cient or no. To make Christ in part a Sauiour is to make him in part no Sauiour contrary to S Peter who sayth There is no saluation in any other If you will deâ—…iue our whole redemption from him but not from his blood shed for vs then giue you S. Iohn the lie who sayth The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne Clensing from all sinne is full and perfect redemption from sinne and sinne being fully remitted and purged there is no cause of breach betweene God and vs that should hinder our saluation Christ by his owne blood sayth Paul entred once into the holy place hauing purchased eternall
your selfe to haue lesse iudgement in mainteining it than you had in mistaking it but you haue stood too long on these irifles which I thinke to be true for you trifle indeed and neither in defence of your selfe nor disaduantage of me bring any thing that is materiall You come therefore to peruse how you haue ignorantly and purposely peruerted my reasons That the true sacrifice for sinne must be indeed BODILY BLOODY and DEAD we doubt not we vnfainedly and heartily embrace it The Patriarks beleeued it the Iewes sacrifices of beasts figured it the New Testament confirmeth it But what will follow then ergo Christes bodilie death only and meerely was the whole ransome and price of our sinne for we must note that this is the very question indeed this is the point of our controuersie When you can say nothing to support your errours you beginne to quarrell with the question as if you had or could prescribe me what I should preach of What I by warrant of holie Scripture receiued into the contents of Christs crosse and what I excluded from the same is euident by my words you may not come after and alter the question to your liking Into the Crosse of Christ I admitted whatsoeuer the Holie ghost witnesseth the Sonne of God suffered either on his crosse or going to his crosse My words are plaine the rest which went bâ—…fore not being excluded as superfluous but continued and increased by that sharpe and extreme martyrdome which he endured on the crosse And good reason had I so to doe for all the paines and griefes of bodie or minde which befell him betweene his last supper and his fastning to the crosse endured and augmented on the crosse and so by no meanes might be excluded from his crosse What things I then excluded from the crosse of Christ is as manifest by mine owne words which neither I can hide nor you may change These they are Some men in our dayes stretch the crosse of Christ a great deale farther to the death both of bodie and soule and vnto the whole paines of the damned in hell but vpon how iust grounds when you heare you mâ—…y iudge as you see cause Then shewing what might be tolerated if men could therewith be contented and that I neither refuted those which tooke hell paines hyperbolically for great and intolerable paines nor those that by hell paines vnderstood either a wrestling with the very powers of hell or trembling at the terrour of Gods vengeance prouoked by our sinnes so they put no distrust nor doubt in Christes soule of his owne saluation or our redemption but leaue him firme faith alwayes fixed on God I repeated againe what it was I impugned to wit that some men in our dayes will no nay but that Christ on the crosse suffered the selfe same paines in soule which the damned do in hell and endured euen the death of the soule Heere Sir is the question as I first proposed it I no where alter it noâ—… varie from it both these I meane the death of the soule and the selfe same paines which the damned in hell do suffer I excluded from the crosse of Christ and consequently from the worke of our redemption which I auouched to be perfect and full without either of those additions To this are all my proofs directed and from this by your leaue I may not suffer you to wander Your meere bodily sufferings without any proper sufferings of the soule take backe to your selfe I haue no such words nor make no such doubts the death of the soule and the selfe same paines which the damned doe suffer and we should haue suffered had we not beene redeemed which is the second death or the death of the damned are the things brought by me in question Wherefore howsoeuer you will vnderstand my meaning contrarie to my words because you would shroud your selfe vnder the couert of these wordes MEERE AND PROPER I must recall all my reasons to those two points to which I first intended them and whether I speake ambiguously or deceitfully or change my question or charge you vniustly that you slip from the question to certaine generall and doubtfull termes let the Reader in Gods name iudge My proofes to my purpose stand sound and good The true sacrifice for sinne by the Apostles Doctrine hath these three properties in it it must be BODILY BLOODY and DEADLIE that is it must haue the bodily and bloody death of the mediator who must be the Sonne of God This the Patriarkes beleeâ—…ed the Iewish sacrifices prefigured the new Testament confirmeth What followeth you aske Ergâ—… Christs bodily death onely and meerely was the whole ransome and price of sinne Without your termes of proper and meere you are no body My reason is in sight The death which the Mediator must dye for the sinnes of the world must be bodily and bloody The death of the soule in this life and the death of the damned after this life which are the paines of hell could not be bodily and bloody Therefore neither of them was the death which the Mediator must or did die for the sinnes of the world If he dyed neither of those then he died the death of the body onely for so much as the Scriptures mention no kinds of death but onely these three except it be by way of figuratiue speech Doe you now see what followeth then what is your answere If I meane that the MEERE bodily sufferings of Christ without any proper sufferings of his soule are the intire and whole Ransome for sinne then you affirme expreslie there is no peece of reason in these words You are a PROPER and MEERE Gentleman to spott out matters of this importance I conclude by the Apostles assertion that Christ for the sinnes of the world died neither the death of the soule nor the death of the daâ—…ed which is the paines of hell and second death but ONELY a BODILY death You reele too and fro and stumble first at bodily and then at onely and in the end say you know not what If I meane that Christes MEERE BODILY sufferings without any proper suâ—…ings of the soule were the whole ransom for sin then you see no reason in my words Thus much reason you may heare in my words that Christ died neither the death of the Soule nor the death of the damned but ONLY a BODILY death that is the death of the body and none other kind of death What say you to this This is not your Controâ—…ersie you say the very question indeede is as you haue set it Haue you a Commission when I haue proposed questions which I mind to impugne to come after me and new set my questions Acknowledge the death of the soule and the death of the damâ—…d which are the true paines of hell to be no part of Christs sufferings and we shall soone conclude that Christ died onely a bodily death
ambiguous and quarrellous The whole propitiatorie sacrifice are words as doubtfull as the other for since Christ was the Priest who by his eternall spirit offered himselfe vnspotted to God and gaue himselfe for vs to be an offering and sacrifice of a sweet smel vnto God his innocence and obedience chiefly rested in his soule thence sanctified his bodie which suffered death for the ransome of our sinnes Though then all things in Christ were holie and acceptable vnto God and so sacrifices most meritorious yet nothing did fully satisfie the iustice of God for sinne nor make a perfect reconciliation for vs with God but his obedience vnto death For that which must satisfie for sinne must be death other ransome for sinne God neither in his wisdome and counsell would nor in his trueth and iustice could accept after his will once determined and declared It was the first wages appointed and denounced by God to sinne In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death or certainly thou shalt die the doubling of the word noting the inflexibilitâ—…e of Gods counsell and iustice The Apostle witnesseth the same when he sayth The wages of sinne is death Then as sinne was irreuocabâ—…e rewarded with death so must it necessarily be redeemed by death Which rule stood so sure that when the Sonne of God would giue himselfe for vs to redeeme vs he could not do it by reason of Gods immutable counsell and decree but by death Wherefore the Apostle calleth him the Mediator of the New testament through death for the redemption of transgressions And where a testament is there MVST BE sayth he the death of the testator He contenteth not himselfe to say there was but there must be the death of the testator before we could be redeemed A necessitie not simplie binding Gods power but plainly declaring his counsell to be fixed and his will reuealed Since then Christ was to taste death for all men that through death he might destroy him which had power of death euen the diuell and deliuer vs who were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne the point which indeed wee both must stand on is what death Christ suffered to redeeme vs from sinne and to reconcile vs vnto God whether it were the death of the damned which is the second death or the death of the soule or as I auouch the death of the bodie only Other parts of Christes person and beames of his vertues and kinds of his sufferings are not to this quâ—…stion â—…arther than they commended and presented to God Christes death which must ransome our sinnes but the scope to which all the rest was referred and the â—…lose which consummated all the rest was death and therefore no sufferings of Christ were parts of the propitiatorie sacrifice which ransomed sinne but such as ended in death or tended to that sorrowfull shamefull and painfull death of Christ which by order of Gods iustice was appointed to satisfie for sinne The fulnesse of which satisfaction consisted in death and therefore the death and bloud of Christ though they were not the whole sacrifice yet were they the full and perfect ransome and price for sinne because without them the rest could not preuaile and to them all the rest was directed If then you will deale plainly as you pretend or not forget your duetie to God and his trueth you must leaue cauilling with the words of the Holy Ghost and go soberly to consider not whether any other sufferings but whether any other death of Christes be mentioned in the Scriptures to ransome our sinnes besides the death of his bodie If you finde any other there professe â—…t in Gods name if you finde none but only that described or mentioned in the Scriptures leaue snarling at the depth and bredth of those words which the Spirit of God hath authorized and learne rather to vnderstand them truely than vainly to oppose against them In sense and substance there is no difference betwixt these words the death bloud and crosse of Christ the crosse noting the tree whereon Christ died a reprochfull and cruell death for vs and his bloud expressing the maner of his death by sundrie sorts of shedding the same as by whipping piercing his head with thornes boaring his hands and feet to fasten him to the crosse and hanging him thereon three houres by the sorenesse of his wounds till his soule departed from his bodie To make these iarre one with the other which the holy Ghost had knit together is the signe of a busie but not of godly wit and howsoeuer you and your adherents can flourish with figures of Grammar you were best take heede that you turne not your eares from the trueth of God The bodily death which Christ died to ransome our sinnes the holy Ghost doth note sometimes by his Flesh sometimes by his Body sometimes by his Blood and sometimes by his Crosse and these either ioyned or seuered and sometimes also by his soule or life laide downe or powred out vnto death for vs. We finde them ioyned when Paul saith It pleased God by Christ to reconcile all things to himselfe and to pacifie by the BLOOD of his Crosse through him both things in earth and things in heauen And you which in times past were strangers and enemies hath he now reconciled in the BODY OF HIS FLESH through death Seuered are they when Peter saith You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a Lambe vndefiled Who by his owne blood saith the Apostle entered in once into the holyplace and obtained eternall Redemption And so when Iohn saith The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne As likewife Paul We haue Redemption through his blood euen the Remission of sinnes Of his body himselfe saith This is my body which is giuen for you and my flesh will I giue for the life of the world so are we sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Likewise of his soule by which the Scripture meaneth his life for that life wholy dependeth vpon the presence of the soule in the body My Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my soule or life The sonne of man came to giue his soule or life as a ransome for many And Esay foreshewed that Christ should diuide the spoyle of or with the mightie Because he powred out his soule vnto death which seuereth the soule from the body and so made it an offering for sinne by laying it downe of himselfe that death might seaze on his body This then being the maine foundation of the Gospel which the Apostle receiued that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures the Question still standeth as I first set it What death Christ died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scriptures and not what sufferings went before or what other things ioyned with his death which is
shall neuer inferre by phrases of your owne making which only serue to hide your owne meaning that Christ suffered the paines of hell As for Gods wrath against sinne it hath many degrees and parts by the verdict of holy Scripture though you will not heare thereof For as Gods blessings benefits when he first made man were of his heauenly goodnes richly prouided for man and plentifully powred on the body and soule of man as well for the leading of this life in plenty safety and delight as for the surer attaining of euerlasting ioy and blisse in an other place so when man by sinne fell from God by iustice God depriued him and his of all those earthly and bodily fauours and comforts no lesse then of the spirituall and inward gifts and graces of the mind by that meanes making way to his euerlasting and dreadfull Iudgements against sinne Now if these externall things bestowed on man in his first creation were iustly called and must be confessed in their kind to be the blessings and fauours of God afforded to all mankind when he made man and the whole world for his vse then out of question the taking them away from man and subiecting him by iustice to the contrary for sinne committed may as truly be named and must be beleeued to be the signes and effects of Gods displeasure against sinne which the Scripture nameth wrath And so God calleth either of them when he promiseth the one to the obseruers of his Law and threatneth the other to the breakers thereof who vseth not to promise or threaten words but deeds Neither hath it any reason because the reiecting of man from the greater and higher blessings of inward grace and eternall blisse was farre the sorer and sharper punishment of mans sinne that therefore the withdrawing of these should be no degree nor effect of Gods wrath against sinne no more then the losse of a legge or an arme should be counted no mayme because a man hath an head and an hart which are more principall parts of his body Wherefore though in comparison they may be iustly diminished and abased farre beneath the worthinesse of the rest of Gods blessings which are reserued for his Children in an other life yet can they not be denyed to be Gods blessings euen in this life and if to giue them to man when he was first made were the fauour and bountie of God towards man which no Christian may deny to take them from man for sinne must truely argue Gods displeasure against sinne not in improper speech as you gloze but in a lesse degree then those which bring with them perpetuall subuersion of Body and Soule And when the Scriptures meane to expresse the spirituall and eternall wrath of God they doe it not by proprietie of words as you pretend but by different circumstances either of the TIME after this life when no wrath is executed but that which is euerlasting as Christ deliuereth vs from the wrath to come and thou heapest vp wrath against the day of wrath which is the day of iudgement or of the PERSONS who are wicked and the vessels of wrath prepared to destruction and for whom is reserued the mist of darknesse for euer as for such things commeth the wrath of God on the Children of vnbeliefe or of the CONTINVANCE which neuer ceaseth as the wrath of God abideth on him that beleeueth not or of the HIGTH thereof when it is full as the wrath of God is come vpon them to the vttermost or of the CONTRARY when it is eternall life as God hath not appointed vs vnto wrath but to obtaine Saluation by Iesus Christ or of the CONSEQVENTS which are suddaine destruction and such like as kisse the Sonne least he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burne blessed are they that trust in him By these and such like particulars we may perceiue when the Scriptures speake of the one wrath and when of the other but otherwise the wordes are common to both as also the cause which is sinne O Lord saith Moses why doth thy wrath waxe hote against thy people turne from thy fierce wrath and desist from this euill towards thy People And againe I fell downe saith he fortie daies and fortie nights before the Lord because of all your sinnes which yee had sinned doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord and prouoking him For I was afraid of the wrath and indignation wherewith the Lord was kindled against you to destroy you and the Lord heard me at that time also Exceeding many are the places which teach vs that our iniquities auert the outward blessing of this life and that our sinnes hinder good things from vs Though God after that comfort his people when their warrefare is accomplished and they haue receaued sufficient Correction at the hands of God for all their sinnes Surely these warnings of the holy Ghost are not empty words or improper speeches but effectuall and faithfull instructions for the Church of God to learne them that God doth visite their sinnes when they forget to repent and obey though he spare them in comparison of that wrath which is effunded on the wicked And therefore the name of wrath is rightly and truely applyed in the Scriptures euen to those afflictions wherewith God scourgeth his owne Children for their negligence and impenitence though God haue an other and greater which is eternall wrath laid vp in store for the Reprobate who die without Repentance and Remission of their sinnes Howsoeuer the strife for words standeth wherein I confesse I may not be brought to disalow the tongue and pen of the holy Ghost it is most certaine that the Gospel reporteth of Christs sufferings nothing but what was common to him with his members euen in this life where he suffered The Apostles plainely prooue as much to wit that we haue fellowship and communion with Christs afflictions and are conformed to his death Now there is no communion but where the same things are common to both though the degrees may differ And you your selfe when it maketh for you can vrge that the Apostle speaking of Christs sufferings saith He was tempted in all things like to vs yet without sinne So that in my iudgement it is a most cleere case as well by the witnesse of Scripture as by your owne confession that all Christes sufferings were LIKE yea the SAME that ours are as being common to both and consequently if you any way vnderstand what belongeth to trueth or reason the sufferings of the godly must either bee wrath as well as Christes or if their bee not his were not since they were the same And so the godly must either in all their afflictions small and great suffer as Christ did the proper wrath of God and true paines of hell which you make equiualent or if the godly doe not so
to trouble the people with that Question and therefore I rested on a knowne and confessed principle of Christian truth and faith that we inherite pollution and death from Adams flesh without resoluing whence the Soule commeth which I did refraine before the multitude to speake of And since by the Scriptures the first Adam was a figure of the second the flesh of Christ giuen for vs must be as able to clense and quicken vs as Adams flesh was to defile and kill vs. To this reason you here pike many quarrels but in the end you slide it of as else where answered Your first quarrell is that I force what I promised to forbeare euen the difficultie whence the Soule of man is deriued As though the grounds of our Faith might be doubted because that Question in former times was vndecided That we deriue flesh from Adam and haue men for the Fathers of our bodies did neuer man yet that was in his right wits call in Question were he Christian or Heretick Iewe Turke or Pagan That likewise wee deriue with our flesh pollution and death from Adam the faith of Christ rightly grounded on the Scriptures doth not suffer vs to stagger at though whence our Soules are giuen vs some haue stood perplexed You thinke it much I should deliuer the one which is the pollution of our flesh professing not to determine the other and make it in me a kind of inconstancie to vrge the propagation of the flesh with her sequels of which no Christian may doubt because I thought it not fit to trouble the people with the deriuation of the Soule But so hath the Church of Christ alwaies done it hath cleerely confessed the deriuation of sinne and death from Adam and made it necessarie for all Christian men so to beleeue though some would not hastily or could not easily resolue the doubt whence the Soule commeth If our Soules arise in Generation from Adam as well as our flesh how can your reason be good by any possibilitie The conceit that our Soules are ingendred together with the seede of our bodies is so grosse and pestilent an error and so repugnant to all authoritie Humane and Diuine and so dissident from dayly experience that I had no cause to make that a Question in Religion or therein to refraine the audience of the people Ex nullo homine generantur Animae Soules are not generated from any man saith Ambrose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The principall facultie of the soule sayth Clemens Alexandrinus by which we haue discourse of reason is not engendered by proiection of seed Anima vtique nunquam ab homine gignentium originibus prebetur The soule neuer commeth from man in the generation of men sayth Hilarie Ierom vpon those words of Salomon the spirit of man after death returneth to God that gaue it writeth thus Ex quo satis ridendi sunt qui putant animas cum corporibus seri non à Deo sed à corporum parentibus generari Whereby they are worthy to be thorowly derided which thinke soules to be sowen together with bodies and not to be from God but to be generated by the parents of our bodies For since the flesh returneth to the earth and the spirit to God that gaue it IT IS MANIFEST that God is the Father of our soules and not Man And when Ruffinus professed he could not tell how the soule came to be ioyned with the body whether by propagation from Man or infusion from God Ierom replieth If the soule come by propagation then the soules of men which we grant are eternall and the bruit beasts which die with the bodie haue one condition And doest thou maruell that the Christian brethren are scandalized at thee when thou swearest thou knowest not that which the Churches of Christ confesse they know Theodoret in many places giueth the like testimonie The Church beleeuing the diuine Scriptures sayth the soule was and is created as well as the bodie not hauing any cause of her creation from naturall seed but from the Creatours will after the bodie once perfectly made The most diuine Moses writeth that Adams bodie was first made and afterward his soule inspired into him Againe in his lawes the same Prophet plainly teacheth vs that the bodie is first made and then the soule created and infused And blessed Iob spake thus to God Diddest thou not powre me forth like milke and thicken me like curds of cheese thou diddest clothe me with skinne and flesh and compact me with bones and sinewes And when by this Iob had shewed the frame of his bodie to be first made he addeth a thankesgiuing for his soule saying Life and mercie thou laydst with me and thy watchfulnesse preserued my spirit This confession touching the soule and bodie of man the Church hath learned from the diuine Scriptures The same reasons and resolutions he repeateth elsewhere in his fift sermon touching the nature of man Leo the great The Catholike faith doth constantly and truely preach that the soules of men were not before they were inspired into their bodies nec ab also incorporentur nisi ab opifice Deo neither are put into the bodie by any other workeman than God And Austen himselfe who to decline that difficultie how the soule commeth to be infected with originall sinne was the first that made this doubt whether the soule were created and infused or els deriued from the soule though not by the seed of the parents refuseth Tertullians opinion That the soule riseth from the seed of the bodie as peruerse and strange to the Church of Christ They sayth he which affirme soules to be drawen from the parents if they follow Tertullians opinion tooke them to be in some sort bodies corpulentis seminibus exoriri and to rise from the seed of the bodie quo quid peruersius dici potest than the which what can be sayd more peruerse Now in Austens rehearsall of heresies Tertullians assertion That the soule was a kind of bodie is excused as no heresie but his conceit That the state of the soule is propagated by traduction of seed is expresly put amongst his errours From these auncient Fathers swarue not the best of our new writers Bullinger All those other opinions haue beene refuted with sound reasons by the writers Ecclesiasticall and that receiued and auouched for the truest which teacheth the soule to be created of nothing and to be infunded into the bodie from God when the childe hath his perfect shape in his mothers womb And that we are not at this day otherwise created of God than by infunding the soule into the bodie first fashioned Iob is a most plentifull witnesse where he saith Thine hands o God haue made me and fashioned me wholly Didst thou not stroke me like milke and curd me like cheese with skinne and flesh thou coueredst me with bones and sinewes thou
conceale it and onely skirre at it here and there in SOME KIND OF SENSE Otherwise you offer nothing as yet to the Reader but the proper sufferings of the soule which I trust are not alwaies priuation of grace and exclusion from blisse For so the faithfull should neuer haue any proper sufferings of the Soule or else vtterly loose both the spirit and fauour of God which they neuer doe The other Authoritie which I cite In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death is not so sound you thinke For am I sure that death here is but the bodyly death onely and no more I no where say that death threatned in these words was onely the death of the body it is one of your rash and rude illations it is none of my assertions I knew that God gaue this Commandement and threatned this punishment as well to Adams posteritie as to his person Otherwise had this prohibition beene made to Adam alone neither could the woman haue beene within the compasse of it who was not then created when this precept was inioyned neither could Adams of-spring haue tasted of death as well as Adam if this penaltie had stretched no farder then to Adams person But he being the roote and stocke of all mankind as he receaued blessings by his creation which should be common to all that descended of him so by his transgression he lost them as well from his Issue as from himselfe and subiected them to the same death and condemnation that he did him selfe when he rebelled against God his Creator Death we see executed on all the children of Adam and therefore we may not doubt but death was threatned to them all before it was inflicted on them Howbeit the commination in this place is like to Gods thâ—…eats in all other places against the transgâ—…ssours of his Law It denounceth what shall â—…e due vnto all but it bindeth not God that he shall not haue power to release or mitigate what and to whom pleaseth him In death then here threatned I containe all kinds of death corporall spirituall and eternall either as expressed in the generall name of death which is common to them all or as consequent ech to other and coherent if by Gods goodnes and mercies in Christ Iesus they be not seuered Saint Austen learnedly and truely teacheth the same When it is asked what death God threatned to the first men if they transgressed the Commandement giuen them whether the death of the body or of the soule or of the whole man or that which is called the second death we must answere ALI When therefore God said to the first man what day soeuer yee eate thereof yee shall die the death that threatning contained what soeuer death there is euen vnto the last which is called the second death and after which there is none other If any man stand more strictly on the time and kinde of death when and which Adam should die by this Commination Saint Austen hath an other answere In that which was said yee shall die the death because it was not said deaths if we vnderstand that onely death whereby the soule is forsaken of her life which to her is God for she was not forsaken that she might forsake but she did first forsake that she might after be forsaken though I say we vnderstand that God denounceth this death when he said what day yee eate thereof yee shall die the death as if God had said what day yee forsake me by disobedience I will forsake you by iustice Surely in that death were the rest denounced which without Question were to follow For euen in that a disobedient motion rose in the flesh of the Soule disobeying for which they couered their priuie parts one death was perceaued wherein God forsooke the Soule And when the Soule forsooke the body now corrupted with time and wasted with age an other death was found by experience which God mentioned to Man when punishing sinne he said earth thou art and to earth shalt thou returne that by these two deaths that first death of the whole man might be accomplished which the second death at last doth follow except man be deliuered by the grace of God By Saint Austens iudgement concording with the Scriptures God threatned all kinds of death to the transgressor the death of the Soule the same houre to take place that he disobeyed the rest to follow in their order as next the death of the body and at last eternall death of body and soule if the grace of God by Iesus Christ did not release and free man from it That the death of the Soule tooke present hold vpon the disobeyers the Scripture giueth testimony sufficient when it noteth their shame feare and flight of Gods presence who before sinne was their delight ioy and blisse The death of the body was a long time differred in Adam euen nine hundred and thirtie yeeres before it did separate his Soule from his Body but it began presently to worke and shew his force in either of their bodies The sentence of mortalitie God called Death saith Theodoret. For after Gods sentence Adam euerie day expected or feared Death Beda saith the like That which God said In what day soeuer thou shalt eate thereof thou shalt die the Death was as if he had said Morti deputatus eris thou shalt be deputed or adiudged to death not that he should that very day die but be mortall Chrysostom imbraceth the same opinion In what dâ—…y soeuer yee shall eate of the tree yee shall die the Death But Adam liued still how then died he By the sentence of God and the nature of the thing it selfe For he that maketh him selfe subiect to punishment is vnder punâ—…shment sinonre tamen sententia If not by deede and execution yet by guiltinesse and sentence pronounced So that if we will rightly conceiue Gods commination to Adam we must so take the words of God as threatning Adam and his posteritie with all kinds of death to which they all should bee subiect as guiltie thereof and deseruing the same though hee would keepe to himselfe the dispencing and moderating thereof not binding himselâ—…e thereby but the offenders as euery supreame Iudge doth on earth after sentence giuen and before execution finished Else if wee â—…e God who is trueth it selfe to the rigour and tenor of those words without reseruing power to him to dispose of Adam and Adams of-spring at his pleasure and in the words Thou shalt die the death comprise the execution of all sorts of death which can not be reuoked then we conclude Adam and all his issue without remedie or mercie vnder all sorts of death that is vnder spirituall corporall and eternal death which is not onely an vtter ouerthrow to all Christian â—…eligion promising saluation in Iesus Christ but a mecre madnesse against all mankind deuoting them without exception or mitigation to eternall
destruction of body and soule Wee must therefore know that God truely and iustly threatned Adam and in him all mankind to be guiltie of all soâ—…ts of death and to bee thereto subiected as to their due if they transgressed against him but this commination neither included execution of all sorts of death on all mankind nor excluded pardon where pleased God onely thence may rightly bee gathered fiâ—…st that all Adaâ—… of spring should bee condemned and subiected to the guilt of all as deseruing all the one no lesse then the other Secondly that some of Adams issue should effectuall feele the sting of all which God allotted to the reprobate Thirdly that euen the elect as well as the reprobate should beare in themselues the monuments of this transgression by the corruption dissolution of their nature though the one should in this life bee reformed by the working of Gods spirit in them and the other bee restored after this life by the Resurrection from the dead All these wee finde performed by God in the trueth of his iudgements and therefore we may be sure they were intended at the time of his threatning And consequently this collection is very true that God threating Adam with these words Thou shalt die the death purposed if Adam transgressed that none of his posteritie should escape the death of their bodies to which God foorthwith punishing sinne irreuocably subiected Adam and all his children as Gods owne words declare when he said to Adam and in him to all men Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou returne The iudges reuenge then for sinne which we deserued and to which we were iustly condemned was temporall eternall death of the body and soule heere and in hell But this was not executed on all because some were freed by the fauour of God in Iesus Christ though none excused from a corporall death which prooueth my position the truer that God neuer released sinne to any no not to his owne Sonne without some kind of death It must not be forgotten that here you renounce all satisfaction for sinne in respect of merite as from Christes soule vtterly If you meane I vtterly renounce all satisfaction for sinne as from the death of Christs soule I easily graunt it and would gladly heare what you can say against it because the soule of Christ as I beleeue could not die the death of spirits But if you conceiue that Christes soule had neither part sense nor merit in the death of his body by which satisfaction for sinne was fully made it is the weamishnesse of your wit to mistake so much and vnderstand so little I attributed all sense of paine as well in death as other wise to the soule of Christ and the death of his body I communicated to his soule by reason it is a separation of the soule from the body not thereby to bee depriued of sense or grace which Christes soule could not be but therein to feele the paine and sting which the death of the body brought with it I tolde you but the leafe before out of Austen that the paine which is called bodily belongeth rather to the soule and that the paine of the flesh is only the offending or afflicting the soule by the flesh Wherefore I made the soule of Christ to be the principall agent in all his meriting and patient in all his suffering and though the soule of Christ could not pay the satisfaction for our sinnes by her death because shee could not die yet that is no impediment but the soule of Christ might haue and had the chiefest paine sense and merit in the death of Christes bodie by which the whole person made full satisfaction for the sinnes of the world And this is so farre from renouncing all merit of satisfaction from the soule of Christ as you conceiue that it ascribeth the whole power and force thereof to the obedience and patience of Christes soule and maketh the bodie the instrument ordeined of God to conuey paine vnto the soule and to lie dead when the soule is departed from it As for Bernards words which I alledge if you did or could tell how they crosse mine I would take the paines to reconcile them now you say they sute not with mine but awake out of your wonted maze and you shall see that I giue the chiefe place and part in the meritorious sacrifice vnto the soule of Christ which you dreame I doe not as also that you neither like nor allow of Bernards words For he declaring the cause and maner why and how Christes minde was afflicted in his passion sayth it was with a double affection of most humane compassion on the one side for the vncomfortable griefe of the holy women on the other for the desperation and dispersion of his disciples These causes you reiect as fond and absurd and now you would seeme to ioyne with Bernards words But you must say of him as you doe of Ambrose and pray that mens authorities may be omitted in this case for all the Fathers of Christes church are vtter strangers or enemies to your new doctrine That nothing may satisfie for sinne but death is not sound the Scriptures doe shewe indeede that Christ should not satisfie without death but they denie not that there are other parts of Christs satisfaction which differ from his death as his bloodshedding his shame his reproches his apprehension his buffeting and besides that pouertie hunger and wearines These doubtlesse yea all other sufferings of Christ what soeuer small or great are satisfactorie and meritorious That all Christes actions and passions were meritorious with God I haue no doubt but that all his sufferings as well naturall as voluntarie did euery one small or great satisfie for sinne This is a speech of yours which except it be well qualified hath in it an whole heape of absurdities and contrarieties For if the least and the first thing that Christ suffered either naturally or voluntarily did satisfie for sinne superfluous were all the rest to our redemption when God was once satisfied And so by his birth or circumcision you graunt a Supersedeas to all his life and death as needelesse to our redemption Then the which what can be more repugnant to the word of God and faith of Christ and euen to your selfe who by this meanes make your hell paines of no importance to our saluation By satisfaction you meane not full satisfaction but that which any way tendeth to satisfaction or is requisite before satisfaction can be made It is easie and often with you to abuse words though you talke much of their proprietie What is Satis in Latine whence to satisfie commeth but enough and what is enough for sinne but after which more is not requisite If then Christ satisfied that is did or paide enough for sinne by the first of his sufferings then all that followed as I inferred were more then enough and consequently
superfluous That you will say is the proper and strict signification of the word satisfie but you take it more largely For the abuse of words I will not greatly striue so you build thereon no impieties howbeit when I say that nothing might satisfie for sinne but death I take satisfaction properly for the last and full payment after which no more was due for sinne and that apparantly by the Scriptures was the death of Christ before which the rest was not sufficient and after which no more was required by the righteous will and counsell of God So that although the obedience and patience of Christ all his life long did tend to satisfaction and made way for satisfaction as his hunger wearinesse pouertie and such like yet none of these did satisfie for sinne or acquite vs from sinne by the verdict of the holy Scripture but Christ after all these must yeeld himselfe to suffer that kind of death which the iustice of God should appoint and ordaine before we could be freed from our sinnes His blood you thinke did wash vs from all our sinnes Because his blood was shed for vs euen vnto death therefore his bloodshed expresseth the manner of his death as likewise his apprehension buffeting reproches and shame which the Scripture describeth in the order of his death and therefore compriseth vnder the name of his death For by Christes death as I haue often said the Scripture meaneth that kind of death in all respects and circumstances which the Euangelists in their writings report Who will grant in proper speech that those are his death The name of Christs death in the Scriptures containeth all those things which were coincident and concurrent to that death which Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Neither shall we neede your figure Synecdoche by a part of Christs sufferings to vnderstand all that he felt or suffered from his mothers wombe that is a loose deuise of yours to make any thing of euery thing and so to confound the Scriptures that no man shall knowe either what to beleeue or what to beware For where S. Iohn saith the blood of Christ doth clense vs from all our sinnes by your Synecdoche you imagine that the wine which he dranke at his last Supper the water wherewith he washed his disciples feete the teares which he shed for Lazarus death the iourney which he tooke to Galilee the sleepe which he fetched in the ship the hunger which he sustained in the wildernesse and what not should doe the like since euery thing that befell our Sauiour small or great did satisfie for sinnes as well as his death and passion What els is this but to mayme and mangle the Scriptures which name the blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption and his death the meane of our reconciliation if euerie thing that Christ did or endured shall be of the same force and weight to satisfie for sinne that his bloud and death were His bloud you will say is not his death The shedding of his bloud vnto death which the Scripture intendeth by his bloud is a plaine description of his death This is my bloud sayd he which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And the rest which were appendants to his death expresse the maner of his death which the wisdome and iustice of God would haue to be full of violence iniurie reproch contempt shame and paine All which as they note the maner of his death so are they inclosed by the Scriptures in the name of his death and that I trust more properly being parts thereof than the naturall infirmities of his bodie as sleepe hunger and wearinesse or the voluntarie euents of his life as the rest of his actions and passions long before the houre came that he should be deliuered into the hands of sinfull men Why may not the proper sufferings of Christs Soule be as well admitted into the worke of Christs satisfaction although his SOVLE COVLD NOT PROPERLY DIE The sufferings of Christs Soule at the time of his death which the Scriptures mention we easily admit into the worke of his satisfaction for sinne but your satis-fiction of hell paines and of the death of Christs Soule we doe not admit because the holy Ghost so diligently describing the whole order and manner of Christs sufferings when he went to his death teacheth no such thing as you falsely collect from certaine words of his and chiefly from his bloody sweate whereof not knowing precisely the cause you surmise what best pleaseth your humor without all warrant of the word of God Prooue therefore by the Scriptures and not by your owne ghesses that Christs Soule suffered these things from the immediate hand of God which you suppose and we shall soone find a place for them in the worke of Christs satisfaction for sinne Till then giue me leaue to expound the Scriptures by themselues and not by your vnioynted and vntidie Commentaries confounding Christs life and death nature and will affections and punishments satisfaction and merits as if they were not different parts of our saluation to take our nature vpon him to worke all righteousnes in our names to suffer a shamefull and painfull death for our sinnes and to obtaine all spirituall and celestiall graces and comforts here and in heauen for vs. The first sinne committed by Adam and our continuall treading in his steps rest yet vndiscussed wherein we should not neede many words if you could or at least would rightly conceaue what is said and not ignorantly or purposely mistake and measure all things by your hastie humor To prooue that Christ must satisfie for sinne by the proper sufferings of his Soule and not with or by his body you brought this reason in your Treatise Whereby Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne by the same the second Adam Christ hath made satisfaction for our sinnes But Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne in our Soules our bodies being but the Instrument of the Soule and following the Soules direction and will Therefore Christ in his Soule most properly made satisfaction for vs In my Conclusion to your obiections I first denyed your Maior or former proposition For though the Soule of Adam as also our Soules quickly might and worthily did die for sinne and by sinne wherein they were the principall agents yet the Soule of Christ by no warrant of holy Scripture did or could die the death of Spirits and so could make no satisction for sin by her death Now by the Scriptures without death there was no satisfaction for sin and therefore the soule of Christ must satisfie for sinne by the death of her body not by any death proper to her selfe And so much the Scriptures auouch teaching vs that we haue redemption euen the remission of sinnes through his blood are reconciled to God
spoyler to be spoyled and for the wrongfull and spitefull inuasion that Satan made against his Lord and Master to loose all the Dominion and power that otherwise he claymed ouer Christs elect And so the Price of our Redemption whatsoeuer you trifle to the contrarie did not onely discharge the guilt of our sinnes and our debt to Gods iustice by Christs willing obedience to God euen vnto death but the furious and iniurious intermedling of Satan therewith so closeth his mouth that he seeth and knoweth our deliuerance and his destruction to be iust I am out of doubt that the Fathers doe but play with figures or if they meane indeede to teach such a Doctrine we are to learne by their good leaues how to speake and thinke more wholesomely then they doe out of the Scriptures Whether they play with figures or no I referre it to the Iudgement of indifferent Readers that will take the paines to peruse the places It is a good signe they speake in earnest when they double it and treble it in their open Sermons and writings and render the causes thereof pithâ—…ly and plentifully as Theodoret and Leo doe and chiefly Saint Austen in foure whole Chapters of his Booke de Trinitate whose learning and iudgement though you set light by because they sort not with your fansies I confesse I reuerence for that the whole Church of Christ hath done the same before me and I see nothing in the word of God repugnant to their Doctrine truely conceaued But you haue learned to speake more wholsomely as you thinke out of the Scriptures I pray you then let vs heare your wholesome speech I vrge that the enemie must haue a price for his Captiue I pray who is that enemie which must be satisfied the Diuell God forbid Gods Iustice onely is that offended Enemie to whom our Ransome was paid the Diuell was but Gods slaâ—…e and Executioner There is no man for ought that I know which saith the Diuell must be satisfied it is your partiall humor that leadeth you so to surmise my Sermons professe it were an Iniurie to Christ for vs to thinke his bloud was shed to satisfie the Diuell but the enemie to Christs elect which is the diuell and not God must be conquered and spoyled though not satisfied And that as S. Austen rightly obserueth God would haue done first by Iustice and then by power Because the Diuell by his peruersenesse was a desirer of power and a forsaker and impugner of Iustice and men did so much the more imitate him how much the more neglecting or hating Iustice they did studie to be mightie and were either inflamed with the getting or delighted with the hauing thereof It pleased God that for the taking of Man out of the diuels power the diuell should not be conquered by power but by Iustice and so men imitating Christ should seeke to ouercome the diuell by Iustice and not with power By him that dyed and was so mightie to vs that were mortall and altogether weake both Iustice was commended and power promised Of these twaine the one Christ performed dying the other rising For what is more iust then to come willingly to the death of the Crosse for righteousnesse And what is more mightie then to rise from the dead and ascend vp to heauen with the same flesh which was slaine First then by righteousnesse and after by power Christ Conquered the diuell It is no hard matter to perceaue the diuell to be conquered by power when Christ who was slaine by the diuell rose againe that is harder and deeper to be vnderstoode that the diuell was conquered when he seemed to himselfe to be the Conquerer to wit when Christ was slaine For then Christs bloud because it was his that had no sinne was shed for the remission of our sinnes that whom the diuell iustly detained and tied to the condition of death as guiltie of sinne those he might iustly loose through Christ whom being guiltie of no sinne he vniustly put to death With this Iustice was the Diuell vanquished and with this bond was the strong man bound that his things should be taken from him which were with him the vessels of wrath and bee turned to vessels of mercie And after proofe made out of the Scriptures that we are translated from the power of darknesse and of the diuell to the kingdome of God and of his beloued in whoâ—… we haue Redemption for remission of sinnes then follow the words which you so highly chalenge In this Redemption the bloud of Christ was giuen for vs as a Price QVO ACCEPTO which being taken that is wrongfully pursued and vsurped as the diuels manner is to take things which are not his and not willingly offered or lawfully receaued as God did accept the same at the hands of his Sonne the diuell was not enriched but fast tyed that we should be loosed from his bands The bloud of Christ patiently shed vnto death was the Price of our Redemption by the witnesse of the whole Scriptures which Christ obediently and voluntarily offered to his Fathers will for the full remission of our sinnes and our perfect reconciliation with God This bloud could not be iustly shed by any because it was innocent and holy They must therefore be iniust and wicked that should shed the righteous bloud of that vndefiled Lamb. Wherefore the secrete counsell and iustice of God deliuered Christ being thereto willing into the hands of sinners and permitted him to the power of darknesse with all reproch shame and torture to take his life from him This obedience and patience of the Redeemer in suffering the rage and violence of Satan and his members God so highly accepted and recompenced that not onely his wrath was appeased and our sinnes remitted but all power in heauen and earth as well ouer Satan as ouer all his kingdome was giuen vnto the manhood of Christ to take from the power and feare of the diuell whom Christ would and to adiudge that cruâ—…ll and bloudie tyrant with all his adherents to euerlasting destruction For though the Diuine nature of Christ in that hee was the Sonne of God were a rightfull and powerfull Lord ouer Satan and his whole kingdome sinne death and hell not excepted to dispose thereof at his pleasure yet the humane nature of Christ had of it selfe no such right or prerogatiue in respect it was a creature and so lower and weaker then the condition of Angels sauing for the personall vnion thereof with the Godhead of Christ. And therefore as the wisedome of God thought it no match nor honour for the diuine Maiestie of Christ to spoyle the diuell that was but a base and vile seruant in comparison of his Almightie power so the iustice of God would not aduance the manhood of Christ to the heigth of his kingdom to rule all things in heauen earth and hell till hee had humbled himselfe to the death of
the Crosse for remission of our sinnes and receiued violent wrong from the diuell in putting him to death In reuenge and recompence whereof as all these fathers confesse God tooke iust cause to make not the Diuine nature which had that right before and could not loose it but mans nature which Satan had by sinne conquered and subiected to himselfe to be in the person of Christ conquerer and Lord ouer Satan and all his power to take whom hee would to make them vessels of mercie and to reserue the rest as vessels of wrath vnto the terrible iudgement of Christ. Wherein these Fathers doe not swarue from the Pophets and Apostles meaning howsoeuer they vse different words that Christ should diuide the spoyle of the mightie because hee powred out his Soule vnto death And that therefore God highly exalted and gaue him a name at which euery knee boweth in heauen earth and hell for that hee was obedient vnto the death of the Crosse. Neither doth Ambrose when he speakerh of a Price required by the diuell or yeelded to the diuell meane any more then a CAVSE SVFFICIENT why the spoyling of Satans kingdome was giuen vnto the manhood of Christ and al the power of darknesse sinne death and hell put vnder his feete For a Price doeth not alway import an honourable condition or a pleasing satisfaction as it signifieth when it is referred to God but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke which is properly a Price noteth either Reward or Reuenge so doth pretium in Latine comprise both and generally whatsoeuer is balanced one against the other to be exchanged one with the other is the price of ech other So that it is no dishonour to the bloud of Christ to be so precious that not onely the voluntarie offering therof did fully satisfie the iustice of God displeased with our sinnes but that also the wrongfull shedding thereof which was necessarily to be committed to Satan and his members as the onely fit instruments for such an impietie was a iust occasion why God in requitall of that wrong made the manhood of Christ the subduer and destroyer of Satans kingdome Not that the diuell had any right or command ouer vs against or without the will of God but that hee was so blinded by the wonderfull wisedome of God in reuenge of his subuerting the first man that he was made by shewing his malice against the manhood of Christ an Actor in our Redemption and the Author of his owne subuersion whiles without his knowledge and against his meaning hee was Gods instrument for our saluation and his owne destruction This you can not quietly brooke because you make the chiefest point of our Redemption to bee the killing of Christs Soule with Gods immediate hand and so farre are you from confessing Christ to be vniustly slaine as an innocent that you defend him to be sinfull hatefull defiled with our sinnes and hanged by the iust sentence of the Law and the diuel to be onely a minister and executioner of Gods iudgement against Christ. Yea your similitude if you stand to it of prisoners taken in warre and your ransome yeelded to God as to an enemie for his captiues setteth iarres if not warres betweene the first and second person in Trinitie by making God the Father an enemie both to the Redeemer and Prisoner For among men whose vse and custome you presse in this place the detainer is alwayes a professed enemie to the redeemer since confederates doe not vse to take or detaine ech others subiectes or seruants but open enemies The Ransomer then and the prisoner haue one and the same enemy and consequently by your resemblance God is an enemie as well to Christ as to vs. The proofe which you bring to shew God to be an enemie to his elect out of the fift of S. Matthew is impertinent to the cause and diâ—…erent from the trueth For besides that the new writers as Erasmus in his paraphrase Bucer Bullinger Musculus Caluine Gualterus in their commentaries vpon this chapter and the old as Tertullian Ierom Chrysostome Hilarie Theophylact Euthymius and others with one consent referre this admonition of Christ to men that are Aduersaries Iudges and Iaylours here in this life which is wide from your purpose your making of God to be an Aduersarie in that place acknowledgeth a superiour Iudge to God to whom the Aduersarie must by complaint not by command deliuer vs and your comparing the deuill to an obedient minister of the Law excuseth him from being a rebell to God and an accuser of men But if you would speake or thinke as the Scriptures leade which you pretend but not perfourme you should finde in them though not in this precept that the deuill is by a speciall kind of notation called our ENEMIE as indeede he is the ancient eger and continuall supplanter and impugner of man and that God to his elect is and euer was a gracious and louing father when he was most displeased with their sinnes and euen then so carefull and mindfull of their saluation that he gaue them his owne Sonne when they were his Enemies to dâ—…e for them and by that death to make satisfaction and purgation of all their sinnes which was not the part or worke of an Enemie how much soeuer his holines then did and still doth dislike their vnrighteousnesse And since the punishment of our sinnes was layd vpon Christ and we healed by his stripes if therein God professed Enmitie to his elect and executed it all on Christ the deuill being but the Iaylor and Executioner or as else where you say an Instrument onely and by that parable not to be blamed for doing no more then he is commaunded by the Iudge your wholesome doctrine commendeth the deuill as an obedient seruant and maketh God an Inferiour and yet an Enemy to the manhood of Christ. Which if you did not meane you must temper your words and proofes better and learne not so egerly to reiect euery phrase in an ancient Father that pleaseth not your palate when your selfe spake and wrote so licentiously and dangerously But I fit your similitude you say to your desire farther then your selfe did expresse because I say the Ransomer is not bound to be Prisoner for his Redeemed but may satisfie the enemie by money or otherwise You are a happie man that euery thing fitteth your desire You positiuely teach that Christ our Redeemer must suffer the selfe same paines of hell which we should haue suffered The reason you yeeld for it is a poore similitude drawen from the common vse and custome of men in redeeming their captiues taken in warres I replyed that your similitude prooueth no such thing because amongst men the Ransomers neede not nor doe not sustaine the same seruitude and imprisonment which the captiues doe and must if they be not redeemed Yet the whole price you say must be payd by
to see him die as likewise his buriall by his owne followers the sealing of his Tumbe and his lying three daiâ—…s in the graue to omit I say all these things with silence and to produce a word which the Manichees reiected as odious and iniurious to Christ and the Christians defended none otherwise then as common to all men that die both good and bad were no small ouersight in so learned a writer But this is a â—…ite of yours to shift of the truth of his answere it is no part of his meaning He sheweth against the Manichees and likewise against you since you defend the Contrarie that the death of the Body is in all men the punishment of sinne and that this death INFLICTED ON MANS NATVRE for sinne which is the MORTALITIE OF OVR FLESH by the Scriptures is called a Sinne and a Curse euen in Christ not that Christ was properly and truly accursed with God as transgressours are which is your erroneous assertion but that he submitted himselfe to receiue the punishment of sinne in his owne person by the death of his Body which was common to him with all men If the former words of Saint Austen were not plaine enough he hath playner If thou deny Christ was accursed deny Christ was dead If thou deny he was dead now â—…ightest thou not against Moses but against the Apostles If thou confesse him to haue beene dead confesse that he tooke the punishment of our sinne without sinne Now when thou hearest the punishment of sinne beleeue it came either from Gods blessing or cursing If the punishment of sinne came from blessing wish alwaies to be vnder the punishment But if thou desire to be thence deliuered beleeue that by the iust Iudgement of God the punishment of sinne came from the curse Confesse then that Christ tooke a Curse for vs when thou confessest him to haue beene dead for vs Nec aliud significare voluisse Mosen cum diceret maledictus omnis qui in ligno pependâ—…rit nisi mortalis omnis moriens omnis qui in ligno pependerit and that Moses had none other meaning when he said Accursed is euery one that hangeth on a Tree then to say euery one that hangeth on a Tree is Mortall and dieth He might hauâ—… said Accursed is euery Mortall Man or accursed is euery one that dieth How thinke you would Austen prooue that Christ truely died because he was truely accursed or that Christ tooke vpon him a Curse because he tooke vpon him the death of the Bodie which is the punishment of sinne in all mortall men and so proceeded from the curse whereunto all men for sinne were subiect He doth not defend the Apostle by Moses but he expoundeth Moses by the Apostle and so resolueth in plaine words that Moses had none other meaning when he said accursed is euery one that hangeth on a Tree then if he had said accursed is euery mortall man because death came first on all men as a Curse for sinne You acknowledge not the death which all men die to be a punishment or Curse for sinne But all the wit you haue will not answere Saint Austens reasons For the death of the Body which is common to all mortall men must of force be a blessing or a Cursing If it be a blessing why doe we beleeue or hope to be free from a blessing but if we detest continuance vnder it and desire deliuerance from it then certainly the death of the Body in all men euen in the Saints of God was and still is a punishment and Curse of Sinne till Christ raise vs from it An other reason Saint Austen vrgeth to the same effect which is this Vnlesse God had hated sinne and our Death he would not haue sent his sonne to vndertake and abolish the same What maruaile then if that be accursed to God which God hateth God that is him selfe all life and gaue vs life as his blessing in this world must needs hate death which is priuation of life as repugnant to his Image and euerting the worke of his hands wherewith he ioyned Soule and Body to participate in life And though by his Iustice he inflicted death on all men for sinne yet of his mercie he sent his owne and PAINFVLL death to be that part of the curse which Christ suffered for vs. This I hope is more then shame though shame and reproch were not the least parts of Gods curse against sinne euen in Christ. You would needs in a brauado set vp your bristles and aske What nothing but the shame of the world will any man of common sense affirme that this was all the curse that Christ bare for vs I replied that shame and ignominie was an expresse part of the curse which Christ dying suffered for vs and that there was no cause you should so much disdaine Chrysostome and Austen for so saying The Scriptures themselues in that point concurred with them as I haue fully shewed in my Conclusion and you can not auoid it Lest therefore your Reader should take you to be tongue-tied you cleane change the case and would haue men beleeue that I defend and endeuoured to proue that shame was the whole curse which Christ endured As though I alleaged not S. Austen at large to proue that death in all men Christ not exempted was a part of the curse inflicted on mankinde for sinne And therefore when Chrysostome sayd the crosse is the onely kinde of death subiect to the curse I did not set him and Austen at variance as if the one did trippe the other but I thus reconciled them that not only death as in all men but the verâ—…e kinde of death which Christ died was accursed by the very words of the Law in Chrysostomes iudgement This then is one of your familiar trades and trueths to set downe that in my name which I neuer spake nor meant and so by lying when you can not by reasoning to support your cause Indeed if a man will admit your absurd and false positions so much is consequent out of their words For where you will not haue the death of the bodie to be any part of the curse inflicted on sinne except the death of the damned be coherent with it as in the reprobate it followeth from Chrysostomes words that the corporall death of Christ seuered from all other sorts of death had no part of Gods curse in it besides shame which yet is as farre from being a true curse where the cause is good as death it selfe since neither shame nor death are true and inward curses when they are suffered for righteousnesse but rather causes and increases of blessing not in nor of themselues but by Gods goodnesse accepting and recompensing them with all fauour and blisse Againe you mislike that I sayd Christs dying simplie as the godlie die may in no sort be called a Curse or accursed I mislike that you can not or
once by sinne we were plunged into the depth of all miserie as a punishment for sinne then the grace of Christ by the death of his body brake off the chaines of internall and eternall death knit to the former by Gods iustice and made the naturall death of our bodies which without Christ was onely a punishment and the entrance to all other mischiefes of sinne afteâ—… this life to become now an aduantage to the soule which is presently freed from the labours of this life and inuested and secured with euerlasting blisse But the body is not yet quited from the burden and corruption laid on it by Gods iustice for the punishment of Adams sinne and the soule in the midst of her comforts not onely feeleth the want but sheweth her desire to receaue her bodie as appeareth by the praâ—…er of the soules vnder the Altar who desire not now in heauen reuenge of their persecutors whom they pardoned and praied for on earth but woondering at Gods patience that is daily prouoked and abused they desire the day of iudgement though thâ—…t bring with it the destruction of the wicked because they shall then receaue their bodiâ—…s and with them the fulnesse of Gods promises That place of the Catechisme doth â—… notably contradict you who call death to the Gâ—…dly the gate of hell a strange and most vntrue translation The Catechisme speaketh of the soules of the godly who without Christ were assured by death to enter the bottomlesâ—… pit of hell and now by Christ doe safely passe from death to heauen but what is this to their bodies whereof I speake doe the bodies of the Saints passe straight vpon death to heauen as their soules doe I trust your Catechisme saith not so and therefore no way contradicteth me But I translate it so when I call death the gate of hell which is sâ—…range and vntrue No good Sir when I translated the text because the word Sheol was doubtfull and imported all the power and strength oâ—… hell against bodie and soule in this world and in the next I retained the verie worde Sheol as may be seene in the page of my Sermons which you cite pag. 150. li. 32. yet what was ment by â—…heol in that place when I came to examine I did incline rather to the word hell then to the word Graue since we had in English no more words to expresse the power or danger of Satans kingdome on earth For neither the griefe which Ezechias conceaued nor the phrase which he vsed might be rightly referred to the graue It was not the graue that Ezechiah did so much feare and so much decline it was the doubt of Gods displeasure that vpon deliuerance of him and his citie from the hands of Senacherib presently strooke the king with sicknesse and denounced death vnto him as vnworthie to enioy that protection which God had shewed from heauen in defence of his people against their enimies and therefore in the bitternesse of his soule which he confessed did oppresâ—…e him he said he should goe to the gates of Sheol that is to a dangerous conflict with death betweene hope and feare of Gods fauour or anger Neither doth Sheol there import onely the graue for at first Ezechiah resolued he should die and so goe farder then the gates or entrance of the graue Neither doth that phrase in other places of Scripture expresse barely the buriall of the bodâ—…e The gates of hell sayth our Sâ—…uiour shall not preuaile against my Church by which he meaueth nothing lesse then the graue Are the gates of death knowen to thee saith God to Iob who could not be ignorant what the sides and bottome of a graue were Thou liftest me saith Dauid from the gates of death when yet he was sure to come to his graue And had Ezechiah from the griefe of his hart vnder which he chattered like a Swallow and mourned as a Doue pronounced death to be the Gate or first inuasion that hell or Satan made one mans Body for sinne what had you to say against it By the enuie of the Diuell saith the wise man Death entred into the world The Apostle saith as much By sinne Death eâ—…red into the world not as a blessing of God but on all men to Condemnation From this Condemnation the Soule by Christ is presently released the Body is also promised but yet not cleered from that Condemnation to Death which sinne brought with it And since the Apostle calleth it an Enemie to Christ and Austen doubteth not to name it a corporall Curse why should I not number it rather amongst the gates or powers of hell then of heauen since the diuell was the Author and Christ will be the destroyer thereof It offendeth you that I say if we will reason what death is in it selfe we must resolue it to be a part of Gods curse which you say is no answere For who euer denied it to be in it selfe a part of Gods curse for sinne but your expresse words are death is to the godly no curse properly Doe you now find the foile how foolishly you haue all this while supported an errour that yoâ—… now come with properly to proppe it vp least it fall on your head You can now with shame enough confesse WE KNOVV AL SHAME AND AFFLICTION TO ALL MEN IS A KIND OF CVRSE Then death a man would thinke may rightly be called a kind of corporall curse since that is the sharpest and forest of all outward asfâ—…ictions A kind of curse who euer denied that say you Euen your wisedome hath all this while denied it In your Treatise you bleated forth this resolution Therefore Christes dying simply as the godly die MAY IN NO SORT HERE BE CALLED A CVRSE or accursed You iterate the verie same in your defence Yea it is the maine ground of your second speciall reason Christ you say was made a curse sor vs or accursed in his death But to die simply as the godly doe may in no sort be called a curse or accursed Christ therefore endured the curse and wrath of God truely Your expresse wordes you say are Death to the godly is no curse properly but a vantage Are not the other your expresse wordes also that the death of the godly MAY IN NO SORT BE called a curse or accursed and doth not the force of your reason wholy depend vpon these later wordes For had you confessed that death shame and paine were to the godly corporall curses how then conclude you that Christ was properly accursed Because the Apostle saith He was made a curse Doeth the Apostle say he was made a curse properly It would empt and waste all the wit in your head from the one to conclude the other Against your precâ—…e Negatiue that death in the godly might in no sort be called a curse I opposed the contrarie that the death of the bodie was a curse for sinne laide on
owne mouth to bruize the Serpents head before death was inflicted on Adam and his of-spring And therefore the punishment of mans sinne following could extend no farder in the Elect then to the death of the Body vnlesse you will make Gods punishment repugnant to his promise of Christ made before to his Elect which were to charge God with Inconstancie And therefore either the death of the Body was neuer any punishment of sinne in Adam which is repugnant to the Scriptures and the full consent of all Diuines old and new or else it resteth still the same to the Elect which it was at first when it was inflicted on them in the person of their first Father Indeede the promise of Christ to the faithfull brake of the sequence of eternall death which in the wicked is coherent to the death of their Bodies and that made God in his Iudiciall sentence pronounced against Adams sinne to comprise no more but Adams returne to dust for that he meant no more to his Elect though he would suffer death to haue his full force against the Bodies and Soules of the wicked both in this world and in the next for euer As for the Saluation of the faithfull before Christs comming in the flesh I see not which way that should be endangered by their afflictions in this life It is written of Lazarus dying before Christ that in his life time he receiued euill and therefore after death he was comforted So that their chasticement in this life which was a moderate and fatherly correction and punishment of their sinnes could be no impediment to their saluation but worke rather in them that were patient in their troubles as it doth in vs an excellent and eternall waight of glorie For in that the Iudgement of God began here in this life with them their humbling themselues vnder the mightie hand of God with true Repentance of their sinnes and full assurance by faith that in the promised Seede their sinnes should be pardoned caused God of his mercy to turne their â—…eauinesse into ioy and in due time to exalt them Further you except against me touching Innocents and Martyrs executions who I say are most blessed If you meane their Soules are most blessed I said as much before you if you respect their patience and loue in laying downe their liues for the truth I make no doubt the death of Gods Saints is precious in his sight But if the suffering of death were a blessing and aduantage as you would haue it it were no such thankes with God to taste of his blessings for his name sake The greatnesse of their reward sheweth the shaâ—…pnesse of their conflict with the sting and smart of death which because they refuse not for Christes cause their patience is the more precious in Gods sight but this doeth not prooue the corruption of their bodies turned to dust to bee any blessing but rather an enemie that must be destroyed before their bodies shall enioy the true blessing of immortall glorie that is reserued for them The holy men are in trueth most glorious and blessed in them If you speake of their bodiâ—…s you speake falsly and directly against the Scripture which expresâ—…ely saith They are sowâ—…n in corruption and dishonour but they shall be raised in incorruption and dishonour and what can be more repugnant to the trueth or more reprochfull to the resurrection from the dead then to say that corruption in the bodies of the Saints is most glorious and blessed The Saints and Martyrs can not be properly cursed and properly blâ—…ssed too in any measure Can you see that in the members of Christ and can you not see so much in Christ himselfe You defend with might and maine that Christ was properly and truely accursed and that he was also truely and properly blessed except you will bee worâ—…e then a Turke you may not denie For euen his manhood was personally ioyned with his Godhead and more abundantly blessed then any Martyr can be as hauing in him the fulnesse of blessing for him selfe and vs all How hangeth then this not onely monstrous but impious Assertion of yours together that the Soule of Christ was truely and properly most abundantly blessed and most properly cursed at one and the same instant You will come in with your two countenances and conditions his owne and ours but in vaine doe you salue a manifest contrarietie and impictie with countenances Christ was truely accursed in no condition or countenance since he was most blessed in himselfe and the spring of all blessing to vs. The Soules of the Martyrs are not blessed vnlesse their bodies be blessed also and free from the true curâ—… although you seeme to denâ—…e this point Of the TRVE curse â—…aide on the bodies of Martyrs I spake neuer a word and therefore that is no vncouth Assertion of mine as your phrase is but an impudent fiction of yours that thinke best to belâ—…e the trueth when you cannot otherwise preuaile against it I said not a woâ—…d moâ—…e then Saint Austen said before me Maledictus omnis moriens Accursed is euerie one that dieth And when the godly are so streightned that they must either commit Idolatrie or suffer Martyrdome euen in that case of Martyrs Saint Austen saith Elâ—…gendum est maledictum in corporiâ—… morte quo maledicto ipsum corpus in Resurrectione liberabitur deuit andum autem maledictum in animae morte ne cum suo corpore in aeterno igne damnetur A Christian when these two are proposed must chuse the curse of a bodily death from which curse the body shall be freed in the Resurrection and hee must shunne the curse of the death of the Soule least that be together with the body condemned to euerlasting fire And to prooue this to be non Anicularis malâ—…dictio an olde wifes curse as the Manichees called it but a propheticall prediction hee giueth sound reasons to all that list not to moâ—…ke and elude the trueth as you doe Morsipsa ex maledicâ—…o Death it selfe came from the curse that was laide on all mankinde for sinne Maledictum est omne peccatum siâ—…e ipsum quod sit vt sequatur supplicium siâ—…c ipsum supplicium quod alâ—…o modo vocatur peccatum quâ—…a fit ex peccato Accursed is all sinne whether it bâ—…e the fact deseruing punishment or the punishment it selfe which is after a sort called sinne because it is cauâ—…d by sinne Which words though you afterward idlely abuse yet are they sound and consonant to the Scriptures Of sinne there is no question but that is in it selâ—…e truely accursed as being the roote and cause of all Gods curses vpon men and Angels where it is not remitted and howsoeuer of mercie God doeth paâ—…don it vnto his Elect yet hee hateth their sinnes in such sort that either sinne must die in them by true and hartie repentance or they must perish with
men as a sinfull and accursed wretch and saith Christ was content so to be made a curse for vs when indeed he was none by the wrong which he suffered at mens hands to free vs from the iust desert of our sinnes with God Which exposition I bring to let the Reader see how much the learned and godly Fathers detested your proper and true curses in the whole manhood of Christ. But we shall haue fresh proofe That your speech was sound your reason euident and that I openly peruerted your words You were neuer brought vp belike but where will went for reason and speech for proose you tell vs so often of sound and euident reasons when you bring nothing besides your naked and absurd fansies Your speech you say was sound that Christes dying simply but as the godly die might in no sort heere be called a curse Take home your As that you set running abroad to breed a brabble and your speech hath neither soundnesse nor sense in it That Christ died the same kinde of death which the godly die I meane the death of the bodie and not of the soule nor of the damned is a plaine position of the Scriptures We are afflicted persecuted and deiected saith Paul euerte where we beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Iesus and againe I count all things losse that I may be CONFORMED to his death Christ laid downe his life for vs saith Saint Iohn and we ought to lay downe our liues for our brethren Ibi mortuus est Christus vbi tues moriturus there or in that part Christ died in which thou shalt die Hactenus morerentur ad Christi gratiam pertinentes quatenus pro illis ipse mortuus est Christus carnis tantum morte non SPIRITVS We are Redeemed that such as pertaine to Christes grace should so farre forth die how farre forth Christ himselfe died for them that is onely the death of the bodie and not of the SPIRIT So that the godly are conformed and matched with Christ as touching the kind of death which must be common to both and that being a punishment and curse on our nature for sinne why is it not truely saide of Saint Austen that Christ receaued our curse that is a bodily death to free vs from euerlasting death which is the true curse of body and soule The reason is euident because the text heere doth speake and treat of the curse of the Law against sinne such therefore was Christs curse which he sustained The text speaketh of the curse of the Law pronounced against vs for violating the Law That curse the Apostle doth not applie to Christ as you doe but bringeth another text of the Law where the violent and shamefull punishment of hanging on a tree is called a curse To which since Christ submitted himselfe for our â—…akes and so suffering a curse of punishment he discharged vs from the whole curse of the Law due to vs for transgressing Wherefore your leaping from the one curse to the other and from a part to the whole is no euident reason but an euident falsehood which Chrysostome Augustine Ambrose Nazianzene Epiphanius and Cyrill doe mightely impugne and your selfe in the end doe yeeld Christ may be rightly called sinne and so a curse in that he was a sacrifice for sinne and for the curse which is as cleane contrary to your Assertion heere as holinesse and righteousnesse is to vncleannesse and wickednesse You openly peruert my words affirming that I say death here that is Christes death noted Galat. 3. vers 13. may in no sort be called a curse when I expresly euen there and euery where say the contrarie You are very iealous that I goe about to cleare you from your absurd and false conceits without your consent but your feare is needlesse as your quarrell is causelesse I applied not HERE to Christes death as you most fondly mistake and inuert my report of your words but I referre HERE to the curse there mentioned obseruing in you that you defended Death which all the godly haue common with Christ as touching their bodies might in no sort here be called a curse that is the curse which the Apostle here nameth I am so far from enuying your glorie in this point though I pitie your folly that where you make Christes Afflictions euerie one both small and great from the day of his birth to the houre of his death to bee proper punishments and so true curses and effects of Gods very wrath in him for our sinne I will adde if you will that Christes hunger wearinesse weeping and growning in spirit for these are afflictions brought into mans nature by sinne are likewise defended by you to be true curses in Christ. Howbeit you shall doe well in all these miseries and infirmities of our life and nature to finde out Christes most blessed humilitie and charitie not refusing them for our comforts and leaue the proper and true curses of God for the diuell and his associates Your greatest exception is that this curse laide on Christ cannot bâ—…e vnderstood of the whole curse of God or of the law The exception is such that withall the wits and shifts you haue you shall neuer auoide it For where the whole curse of the Law hath in it corporall spirituall and eternall death well deserued by sinne and most iustly inflicted on sinners as we see in the wicked and reprobate who for sinne are subiected to these three deathes or curses the two last which are spirituall and eternall death you can not offer to Christ without hereticall and diabolicall blasphemie and to draw the Apostle into that societie were arrogant and impudent impietie Since then there are so notorious impediments why Christ neither did nor could suffer the whole curse of the Law denounced to sinne and prouided for sinne with what face and conscience you shift and shuffle this geere let the Reader iudge if he haue either godly wisdome to which you appeale or but humane sense from which I doe not appeale Your conueiance is as weake as your cause is wicked Christ you say suffered the whole curse of the Law saue what you excepted thence onely so farre as possibilitie of things could admit that is which you saw was impossible he should suffer And so wee haue here your owne confession that possibilitie of things could not permit Christ to suffer the whole curse of the Law and yet you make the Apostle to meane all these impossibilities For he maketh none of your exceptions But looke somwhat neerer and you shall see greater barres to that totall assertion then impossibilities euen horrible impietie and blasphemie which if they barre not you from your boldnesse they terrifie me and all good Christians to come within the sound of them This shift being shameâ—…l you slide to another as absurd and impertinent to your purpose as the former For were it granted
force and leading him captiue with a most glorious triumph in the sight of God and his Angels And though you can not digest it yet I make no doubt but the omnipotencie of the Sonne of God by which he is equall to his Father in the same essence was able by the only command of his will to haue taken mankinde from the dominion of the Diuell but the submission and humilitie of the Sonne of God vnto death was so vnknowen and vnlooked for to Satan that his confusion was the greater when he saw with his owne eagernesse he had beene the instrument of mans redemption and his owne destruction Doth not the verie maner of speech import some mightie contention and violent opposition where yet at length an absolute and most glorious triumphant victorie was obtained The words import a glorious conquest but what contention or opposition could there be betweene the Sonne of God and the diuell farther than pleased Christ himselfe to permit and admit I hope you will giue the diuell no power nor abilitie to resist God against his will It was Gods will and Christs good liking that the serpents head should be crushed by biting the heele of the promised seed for so the Scripture expresseth the contention and opposition that Satan should be suffered to haue against Christ. Grant then Christ suffered the diuell by the violent hands and tongues of the Iewes to doc his worst which may be proued by other places of Scripture though not by this that you bring what thence inferre you This must be conceiued and felt by Christ. What must Christ conceiue and feele The question is not whether Christ wanted sense but what the diuell did against him These could be none other effects but only of Gods proper wrath seueritie and indignation against the sinne of the world We are no whit the wiser for this answer though this be plainly repugnant to your former principles which make the soules proper suffering in Christ to be from the immediate hand of God and that the diuell I trust is not If it be truth that you teach why speake you not more directly and particularly what it was that Christ suffered from the diuell Are your mysteries so bottomlesse that they can not or so truethlesse that they may not be specified It could not be the reuealing of any glorie or comfort which such instruments procured vnto him and wrought vpon him Make you the diuell the authour of Reuelations vnto Christ It may be he is the founder of your fansies but Christ needed no such Reuealers Or do you reason that because the diuell reuealed no comfort to Christ therefore he tormented the soule of Christ These are some new found Reuelations they are no conclusions in any diuine or humane learning Against this you bring not a word I need not bring any thing against it till you bring somewhat for it but you be farre from prouing it that can not or dare not expresse it What if no tongue can expresse the maner as neither haue I once endeuoured to expresse it shall not therefore the testimonie of the Holy Ghost be true that on the Crosse Christ had such a conflict as I haue obserued Few men besides you conclude that which they can not expresse but your maner is to prate of your obseruations as if they were some reuelations which yet you neither vnderstand nor can declare The testimonie of the Holy Ghost is as true as yours is false and hath no more concordance with your conceits than light hath with darknesse A conquest you say implieth first a conflict But a conquest extendeth farther than the conflict for not only the persons and weapons of the resistants are in the Conquerers power but all the goods rights and dominions that any way belong to the vanquished It is therefore true that Christ subduing Satan subdued sinne hell eternall malediction confusion desperation and damnation but these things did not inwardly assault Christ howsoeuer by the mindes and mouthes of the wicked Christ was reputed and reproched as a reprobate The Scriptures then describe the outward tentations and afflictions that Christ suffered from the malicious thoughts tongues and deeds of the Iewcs fired and inflamed by Satan to this mischiefe but of your mysticall internall and Satanicall prouocations and torments the holy Ghost speaketh not a word I gaue you occasion enough to speake of these things when I tolde you the diuell had nothing to doe with the soules of men but either to tempt them or torment them which words you report but you after your loose maner leade your Reader by by-wayes and crosse-paths to eye other things then you glance at my exceptions forgetting still that the reason which you made remaineth both weake and idle for ought that you haue brought first or last n Defenc. pag. 81. li. 17. Before I answer you directly this we may consider Christ might and no doubt he did in his soule discerne conceiue and applie to himselfe all the rage malice and violence of the Iewes tormenting him to death as set on fire by Satan himselfe and by all the powers of hell You were to proue the diuell himselfe did worke on the Soule of Christ without any meanes of men whom he maketh his Instruments for his wicked purposes and now you tell vs that Satan did set the Iewes hands and tongues on worke to reproch the Soule and torment the Body of Christ. This that you last say is most true and ouerthroweth all that you would say For if Christ discerned and felt no worke nor force of Satan but by the mouthes and hands of the Iewes then certainly Satan had no such inward and spirituall conflict with Christ as you imagine much lesse had Satan any power to possesse and torment the Soule of Christ which is the thing you must proue before your hell paines will be haled out of Christs triumph o Defenc. pag. 81. li. 22. These powers of hell also were set on worke by the Iustice and seuere wrath of God now purposety laying punishment on his Sonne thereby to take Satisfaction for all our sinnes If you meane that God by his secret Counsell and Iustice losed the raines to Satan to shew his malice against Christ by the mouthes and hands of the wicked as he doth in the afflictions of all his Saints for purposes to him knowne and by him liked I see not how this should any thing helpe your Cause but if by this you would that Satan was Gods Instrument inwardly to torment the Soule of Christ or that the diuell had any speciall Commission to inuade the manhoode of Christ otherwise then by the violent hands and virulent tongues of the Iewes as it is most false that you ashrme so is it most wicked that you intend p Defenc. pag. 81. li. 24. Now this feeling and suffering in the Soule of Christ made an other kind of impression in him
sufferings is fabulous and false which is blasphemie in the highest degree x Defenc. pag. 82. li. 34. The wicked Iâ—…es and Diuels were only instruments to do that which he set them on worke to doe though they thought not so If God had the wicked Iewes and Diuels â—…or his instruments in afflicting Christ then was the whole suffering of Christ not so properly Gods action as those things which God doth by the immediate working of his spirit and power of his will without all meanes or instruments vsed by him And when all this flourish is faded away tell vs why the crucifying and wounding of Christes bodie and shedding of his bloud by the rage of the Iewes was more properly Gods action then the beheading of Iohn Baptist or stoning of Steuen or the violent death of any Martyr in which God decreeth directeth and appointeth what shal be done though the wicked vnawares performe Gods conâ—…ll by satisfying their bloudy rage and furie If you answer that absolutely and immediatly God worketh all in all then referre you all the wickednesse in the world both of men and diuels to Gods immediat action which is not an heape but an hell of blasphemies If you meane that God worketh all the good which is in euery action but not the malitious and furious desires of the diuell and his members then are you no whit the neerer to make the whole suffering of Christ to be Gods most proper action For not in Christes sufferings only but in the trials and afflictions of all his Saints as in all the punishments of the Reprobate God hath his most righteous iudgements and most holy purposes which the diuell doth execute not knowing Gods counsels and hating Gods seruants as he doth God himselfe and so by Gods secret wisdome and almightie power is made an instrument by his eger malice to serue their good and promote Gods glory whiles he laboureth their destruction and Gods dishonour Of this S. Austen wisely and soberly sayth y August de 〈◊〉 li. 4. ca. 13. Nescit Diabolus quomodo illo insidianâ—… â—…rente vâ—…tur ad salutem sidelium suorum excellentissima Dei sapientia The diuell doth not know how the most excellent wisdome of God vseth his lying in wait and raging to the saluation of the faithfull z Defenc. pa. 82. li 36. Now we come to answer you more directly touching the text iâ—… hand Where you would intimate that Christ on the Crosse was not tempted by the powers of hell because Christ could not be tempted by Satans inward suggestion but only by the eare receiuing an outward voice this I suppose also is a singular conceit of your owne without any title of Scripture to proue it by I can not call your conceits singular they are so void of all reason and iudgement priuate they are to your selfe and depriued of all trueth and testimonie either of Scripture saue such as you most ignorantly abuse or of the Church of Christ before you which you regard not as drowned in the depth of your selfe-pleasing paradoxes Whether I haue grounds of Scripture and the consent of Christs Church for that which I defend in this and other points refused by your curious conceitfull head the Reader shall see before we depart But in the meane while you forget Sir Defensor that you should proue this to be the Apostles meaning in those words produced by you Christ spoiled powers and principalities which you neuer offer to doe You denie that I affirme and without any farther processe you presume your fansie to be the Apostles sense which is your common course throughout your writings Could you desorce mine exceptions as you can not that maketh not your exposition the truer nor your argument the stronger till you haue iustly proued this which you pretend to be the Apostles purpose a Defenc. pag. 83. li. 4. What reason can you giue that where the minde conceiueth any temptation there of necessitie must be concupiscence and corruption of the flesh c. In vs men it is so you say I grant it is so but that of necessitie in nature it must be so I see no reason in the world The conceiuing discerning of a tentation is not the point we speake of but the profering and suggesting it and why that can not inwardly be done by the minde of man without corruption of sinne the reason is euident in the Scriptures For a tentation to sinne is not a cogitation or imagination but a prouocation and motion to sinne which is sinfull in the Tempter since it is no lesse euill di ectly and purposely to prouoke to sinne then to consent or commit sinne For which cause the Scriptures ascribe that office namely to the diuell to be the Tempter vnto euill and S. Iames b Acts 5. v 3. Matth â—… v 3. expresly and truely demeth it of God as from whom being good commeth nothing but that which is good And consequently as c Iames. 1. God can not be tempted with euill so neither g Thess. 3 v. 5. tempteth he any man to euill sayth Iames thereby teaching vs that he must first be tempted or filled with euill that tempteth and leadeth another thereto Since then Man in his first Creation was made after the Image of God that was very good and void of all euill though he might be outwardly tempted because he was mutable yet could â—…e not inwardly be tempted by his owne heart because he was innocent for that which was right and good as euery part within man was could not perswade or prouoke man to euill but like must leade the like And this is the reason of that generall rule in Saint Iames touching inward tentation where he saith Euery one is tempted when he is drawen and enticed by his owne concupiscence The Apostle speaketh not this of outward tentations but of inward sending men to the corruption of their owne hearts and lusts by which Satan secretly prouoketh them to sinne without externall speech and presence which all the godly would soone detest and abhorre but baiting them with their owne desires and delights by meanes of that concupiscence which naturally dwelleth in them and not onely serueth the diuell as an instrument to farther his wicked suggestions but of it selfe lusteth after euill and striueth against the Spirit of grace If this were not in Adam before his fall then could the diuell worke in him by no inward motion of infidelitie or iniquitie since the parts and powers of the soule that should suggest either must be infected and inclined to either before they could prouoke and allure the rest to consent Howbeit the question is of Christ whether he could inwardly be tempted to euill by the cogitations or thoughts of his owne heart though neither consent nor act did follow and herein I thinke you will shew your selfe to haue a fountaine of folly if not worse springing out of that vnquiet braine of yours d Defenc.
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
impressed in them by Gods power and will though whiles strength and memorie dure they may be so confirmed in their good or euill purposes that they doe not yeeld so long as they can make resistance This naturall horror of death which mans soule hath impressed in her by Gods owne doing if Christ would admit in the Garden priuately before his Father as obedient to his ordinance not openly before his enemies to whom he would shew nothing but patience and constance aboue all malefactors and martyrs what force haue your examples to refute this since Christ voluntarily shewed that in the Garden which the soules of all men naturally doe when the feare or force of death falleth on them k Petri Martyris loci communes class 2. loco 1. sect 51. Omnes pij statuunt in morte irâ—… diuinae sensum esse ideoque sua natura dolorem horrorem incutit quod Christus ipse dum or aret in horto alij multi sancti viri declarauerunt All the godly saith Peter Martyr resolue there is a sense of Gods wrath in bodily death and therefore by the nature thereof it striketh a feare and terrour into vs which Christ himselfe when he prayed in the Garden and many other holy men haue declared To let you farther see that your Malefactors and Martyrs doe not prooue that Christ might not shew himselfe afrayd of death in the Garden though in patience and constancie he exceeded all mankinde when he came to the present feeling of his paines you shall heare the iudgement of S. Austen affirming that Christ by this voluntarie Christ would be like the weake to comfort the weake feare would of mercie conforme himselfe to his weake members for their comfort lest they should despaire when they feele the feare of death oppressing them l August in Iohannem tract 60. Firmissimi quidem Christiani si qui sunt qui nequaquam morte imminente turbantur Sed numquid Christo fortiores Quis hoc insanissimus dixerit Quid est ergo quod ille turbatus est nisi quia infirmos in suo corpore hoc est in sua Ecclesia suâ—… infirmitatis voluntaria similitudine consolatus est c. They are indeed most setled Christians if there be any such which are not troubled when death approcheth But are they stronger than Christ Who will so say though he were neuer so madde What is it then that Christ was troubled therewith but because by the voluntarie shew of his weaknesse he did comfort those that were weake in his bodie which is his Church that if any of his were troubled with the approching of death they should in spirit beholde him lest thinking themselues by this fearefulnesse to be reprobates they should be swallowed vp with a woorse death of desperation And elswhere with admiration of Christes goodnesse for this verie cause m Idem in Iohannem tract 52. O Lord sayth he God aboue vs Man for vs I acknowledge thy mercy for in that thou being so great wouldest of thy loue be voluntarily troubled by n Ibidem taking the affection of thy members thou doest comfort many in thy bodie the Church which are necessarily troubled with this their infirmitie lest by despairing they should perish So that neither of these wayes Martyrs nor Malefactours are stronger than Christ though he feared death which you imagine they do not but Christ either in respect of his Fathers ordinance against sinne shewed that conflict with death in himselfe which the soules of all men haue naturally be they Martyrs or Malefactors before they depart their bodies or els of mercie towards vs he would voluntarily assume our weaknesse in the Garden lest we should despaire when we feele the stroke and terrour of death as by his example on the crosse he ledde vs to immooueable patience and confidence in all our afflictions Some Malefactors you say despise death often smile in their torments Being hardened in their sinnes and obstinate against God they may haue either stupefaction of sense by Satans meanes to encourage others to the like wickednesse by their contempt of death or els obduration in their mischiefe till the time of repentance be past but their soules that so stifly contemne Gods iudgements haue another maner of terror before they forsake their bodies when indeed it is too late for want of sense and memorie to call for grace And the Martyrs themselues as all good Christians that are resolued not only quietly to suffer but to desire death that they may be with Christ are by Gods grace preserued in that minde so long as vnderstanding and faith preuaile but when the powers of the soule are ouerwhelmed by the violent paines and pangues of death she is by Gods ordinance in all mankinde and euen in the All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before 〈◊〉 aied faithfull suffered to feele the touch and sting of bodily death which is fully knowen to none but to God that ordained it and to herselfe that feeleth it though this agonie of death be shortened or succoured as pleaseth God of his mercie to dispose in euery man and in Gods elect this anguish though it be very sharpe for the time turneth to their good and his glorie God supporting and comforting the soules of his Saints with hope of a better life Your reasons therefore are all idle and impertinent which you draw from the patience of Martyrs or stifnesse of Malefactors For admitting all that to be true which Martyrs by grace and Malefactors of pertinacie performe in their torments whiles strength and memorie serue them yet haue they both their conflicts with death when they can neither speake nor expresse what they feele and malefactors a most fearefull confusion when repentance being past which they neglected their soules are now suffered to see the terrours and torments of hell into which they shall presently depart And this naturall anguish of death which assaulteth all men when the soule feeleth the strangenesse and bitternesse of her diuorce from the bodie Christ might purposely â—…uffer to arise in himselfe in the Garden that tasting it with perfect sense and memorie he might sustaine it with greater patience and obedience though it were very painfull than all mankinde besides o Defenc. pag. 101. li. 20. All your answeare is malefactours are no fit comparison for the sonne of God for they are desperate not hauing any feare or care of God till they feele the force of his wrath in hell fire What an answeare is this The answeare is â—…itter and fuller then your wit serueth you to vnderstand or your learning to refute For this ignorant or desperate contempt of Gods iudgment which you alleage in malefactors Christ might not follow since he rightly discerned and religiously feared Gods displeasure against sinne euen in the death inflicted on the body of man So that Christ shewed an humble regard of Gods punishment with due feare and sorow which
impenitent Theeues and murderers neglect till it be to late and yet when he came to the very suffering of death on the Crosse his silence and patience farre exceeded both malefactours and martyrs The cause of your error is this that you ascribe that to weaknesse of heart and want of strength in Christ which he of humilitie to God mercie to his members voluntarily admitted in himselfe to comfort and strengthen the weake which are not able to imitate his perfection of patience on the crosse p Leo de Passione Domini serm 7. In our basenesse saith Leo Christe was despised he sorowed in our heauinesse and was crucified in our paine For of mercy he tooke vnto him the passion of our mortality to this end that he might heale it and his power admitted it that he might conquere it All thinges in him were full of mysteries and full of miracles q Bernard serm Agnosco planè in duce belli 〈◊〉 trepidationem agnosco agroti vocem in medico agnosco infirmantem gallinam cum pullis confidero charitatem stupeo miserationem 1. de S. 〈◊〉 expauesco dignationem I plainly see saith Bernard citing Christes praier in the garden in the captaine of the field the feare of weakelings I see in the Physician the voice of the sicke I see the hen weake with cherishing her yong ones I consider the loue of Christ I am euen amazed at his mercy and I tremble to see what he voutchsafed for vs. r Defenc. pag. 102 li. 1â—… To leaue these and come to the patience of Martyrs in their sufferings It is admirable what ioy what peace what triumphe they shew in the middest of a thousand most strange and bucherly torments noe lesse if not greater in outward shew then the sufferings of our Sauiour Christe It is farre more admirable in our sauiour Christ that he would be weake for As Christ would be weake to coÌ„fort the weake in the Garden so was be stronger than the strongest on the Crosse. their sakes that were weake when it pleased him before his passion and strong for their example whom he would make strong when he came to the heigth of his sufferings and by either as wel weakenesse as strength teach vs in both to depend on him and not to exalt our selues against him or afore him as you doe Martyrs with your manifold termes and torments And haue not Martyrs thinke you before they depart this life as great conflicts with the paines and horror of death as Christ had any though the wisdome of God reserue the naturall sting of death till the soule fecle her bodily senses and powers ouerwhelmed and her selfe violently forced to forsake her seat in which case she would vtterly faint if she were not supported by the secret goodnesse of God and taken from that conflict in her bodie by the hands of Angels to be brought with ioy to the presence of God s Cyprianus de Passione Domini That feare of Christes in the garden saith Cyprian expressed the common affection of mans infirmitie and the generalitie of all men that liue in the flesh to be vrged with this sorow and that the dissolution of the soule and the body cannot want this griefe Martyrs you suppose want this griefe or willingly endure it but you are deceiued in either of these as in all things els t August in Iohannem tract 123. Si nulla esset mortis vel parua molestia non esset tam magna martyrum gloria If there were no paine or but small pain in death the glory of martyrs would not be so great saith Austen And againe u 〈◊〉 de ciuitate 〈◊〉 li. 13. ca. 11. Tam molâ—…sta mors est vt nulla explicari locutione possit nec vlla ratione vitari So pairfull is death that it can by no wordes be expressed nor by no meanes auoided x Bernard de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid horribilius morte in morte tam dulce carnis animae vinculum amarissimo secandum erit diuortio What is more horrible saith Bernard then death in death the vnion of body and soule which is so sweete shal be seuered with a most bitter diuorce But martyrs you thincke are willing to endure it they find as much vnwillingnesse in nature as they fiind readinesse in faith or desire in hope saue that in them necessity worketh obedience y August de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serm 32. mortem horret non opinio sed natura It is nature saith Austen not opinion that abhorreth death Quis enim vult mori prorsus nemo it a nemo vt beato Petro diceretur alter te cinget feret z Ibidem sermone 33. quo tu non vis Who will die by his will vtterly no man and so certainely no man that it was said by Christ to Peter another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldest not when he went euen to martyrdome Death therefore by Gods ordinance hath in it a sting repugnant to mans nature which all men euen martyrs themselues do feele when the paine is so great that it passeth both their strength and their patience the force thereof seuereth their soules from their bodies albeit in Gods Elect all things turne to their good this agonie of death not excepted in which God supporteth them whiles they haue sense that they despaire not and after some conflict with death taketh their soules from them now ioyfull that they are deliuered and shall be presented to the Throne of Grace This Christ alone of all men was able exactly to know and feele in himselfe before and without the pangues of death not that he was weaker than Martyrs but that all the godly might assure themselues he tasted euen the sharpenesse of death to which they are subiect and is able and willing to sustaine vs and saue vs in the naturall conflict and horrour of death as he did himselfe a Defenc. pag. 103. h. 2. All this other godly men do also suffer and feele which they take passing ioyfully and quietly Who told you that there is ioy and rest in the pangues of death Haue the gates Iob. 38. of death beene opened to you or hath any of the dead certified you what 〈◊〉 there is in â—…euering the soule from the bodie Did God punish Adams disobedience with ioy Martyrs 〈◊〉 ioy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death but not in death and ease or doth nature abhorre pleasure True it is the godly ought not to be dismayed with the feare of death since it is God that woundeth and healeth killeth and quickeneth bringeth to hell and bringeth backe againe but they must acknowledge death to be Gods punishment on Adams sinne and the straightest gate that leadeth to heauen b 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This punishment sayth Cyprian was layd on all Adams ofspring without exception that the difficultie of the last passage out of this life should be feared Hanc
Both these Christ affirmeth in the garden k Matth. 26. vers 53. Thinkest thou saith he to Peter that I cannot now pray to my Father and he will giue me more then twelue Legions of Angels how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so And at the second time of his returne to praier l Ibid. vers 42. O my Father if this cup cannot paesse away from me but that I must drinke it that is thereof thy will be donne So that by the first frame of Christs praiers m Ibid. ver 39. O my Father IF IT BE POSSIBLE let this cup passe from me If we vnderstand either Christs purpose to make it appeare that his death reuealed in the Scriptures was now by Gods counsell necessarily required for our redemption and that it was no want of power nor neglect of his safetie that put him into the hands of his enemies but his owne good will obeying the wisedome of his Father for our saluation or els that he desired the sharpenesse of the Cuppe might passe from him so farre as was possible that it might not ouerpresse his strength and patience in either of these two senses the words stand well and haue no touch of declining or disliking the counsell and determination of God to ransome and reconcile the world to himselfe by the death of his Sonne If with Chrysostom Cyril Damascene and others we like to make it the voice of mans weake flesh in Christ but still subiected to the will of God there is no repugnance to the will of God which is alwayes preferred though there be a declining of his hand if it were possible to stand with his will For so long as obedience ouerruleth the sense of nature and nature sheweth nothing but that which is ingraffed in it by Gods power and will I doe not see what aduantage you can take Sir Defender at this third sense of Christes words though we grant the flesh of man to be so created that it shrinketh at the weight of Gods hand and would decline it if it might stand with Gods will Els were it not lawfull to pray that affliction might be ended or eased if we might desire nothing that were possible to be contrary to Gods will since we know not his particular will touching our temporall troubles but by the euent n Defenc. pag. 126. li. 16. Thus Dauids and Christs were not onely possible to be contrarie but contrarie in deede as the sequell shewed You may as well inferre that God himselfe had contrary willes when he repented that he made man when he threatned destruction to Niniâ—…eh and death to King Ezechiah and yet vpon their prayers spared both howbeit it were blasphemie to say that God hath willes indeede contrary one to the other as the sequell sheweth He hath an absolute will working and perfourming in heauen and earth whatsoeuer pleaseth him which cannot be resisted nor frustrated by any means He hath a conditionall will by iustice threatning and punishing vs when we are sinfull and carelesse and by mercy sparing vs when we repent and turne vnto him And this will in him though it worke contrary effects in vs yet it is in him onâ—… and the same will wherewith he giueth his owne as he best liketh pardoneth the penitent and reuengeth the obstinate the one agrâ—…eing with his mercie the other with his iustice So Christ had two willes the one proportioned to Gods creation whereby the flesh shrinketh and shunneth paine the other measured by Gods determination which declared his obedience and in either of these he accorded with the will of God who ment not onely to strike but to haue the stroke felt with paine and griefe to mans nature in Christ. o Defenc. pag. 126. li. 17. Howbeit both their desires were neuerthelesse holy made in faith assured to receiue as conditionall desires may be directed aright prepared sufficiently yet only for this cause seeing Dauid simply knew not Gods contrarie will Christ knew it not at this instant Dauid repented his sin with which God was displeased the more earnestly instantly because he saw the dislike which God had of his fact was the cause of death denounced to his child So that Dauids desire to please and pacifie God with most humble and inward submission the rather if it were possible to auert the wrath of God threatned to his child for his offence had in it pietie charitie humilitie and other good points of godly repentance and his prayer for his child was pardonable because he knew not Gods certaine resolution to the contrarie though he heard the Prophet in Gods name denounce p 2. Sam. 12. the child should surely die which Dauid tooke to be conditionall as other Gods threats are oftentimes the rather to reduce sinners to more zealous and hartie conuersion vnto God But in Christes prayers no such thing can be pretended His not remembring what he knew most assuredly and beleeued most stedfastly could not make his prayers to be prepared sufficiently directed aright and assured to receiue For neither preparation direction faith nor assurance could be in the soule of Christ without vnderstanding and memorie since neither forgetfulnesse nor ignorance of that which we should know doe warrant our prayers to be holy much lesse to be perfect and such as are assured to be heard And if all these conditions of faithfull and Godly prayer were found in Christs petition in the Garden as you confesse shew vs how they could be indeed contrary to Gods knowen will I haue no doubt of all Christes prayers and speaches but they were well aduised rightly prepared and throughly assured to be heard that is perfectly holy as he intended them but Christes not remembring the will of God reuealed to him could not performe or effect these things in his prayer but rather contrariwise his full knowledge and present remembrance of Gods will with exact obedience and submission thereunto Otherwise not remembring that which he well knew might excuse from sinne if hee were so amazed that vnderstanding and memorie failed him but it could not make him assured to receiue since God doth graunt their desires to such as dewly remember and not in such as in part or wholy forget his will Againe not remembring the trueth of Gods will reuealed is not faith in any man since faith is the sure and full perswasion of Gods will and promises toward vs which if we remember not how may we be said to be fully assured and firmely perswaded of them Wherefore you make out this matter with emptie words as your manner is least you should be taken tardie with a plaine error and haue peeced together very vntowardly diuers mens places the head not agreeing with the hâ—…eles since you first defended that Christ was forgetfull and all confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie or else he had sinned in praying against Gods knowen will and now you
Christ this agonie and from his feare he was deliuered To say as you do that it was eternall death and euâ—…rlasting malediction which Christ here thus wofully and distressefully feared is the strangest speech in Diutnity that euer I heard You cunningly dissemble as your maner is that Pag. 22. which you quote I professed to refuse no mans opinion that s Seâ—…m pag. 22. li. 2. agreed any way with the rules of trueth and thereupon layed downe three things which Christ might 〈◊〉 in the Cup of Gods wrath and by his prayer accordingly decline them to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corporall 〈◊〉 aboue his strength and the separation of his soule from hiâ—… bodâ—…e by deâ—…th The feare of eternall death which is vrged by some of good learning and euen by the Catechisme on which you would seeme to stand so much if we admiâ—…ted in Christ himselfe I sayd must be taken for a Religious dislike and shunning of hell t Sermo pag. 23. li. 4. not for any distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe which we could not imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith and these we might not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant Where then I alleage so many reasons Pa. 23. u li. 32. guarding Christs person most sufficiently froâ—… all danger and doâ—…bt of eternall death thence you collect that I auouch Christ thus â—…ofully and distressefully feared euerlasting damnation which is a strange and 〈◊〉 falsehood though familiar with you as if without such grosse stuffe you could not 〈◊〉 out your pamphlet The Catechisme we heard before saying that Christ was Aeternae mortis horrore persusus wholly touched with the horror of 〈◊〉 death M. Caluin sayth as much x Caluin in li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Vnde eum oportuit cum Infâ—…rorum copiâ—…s 〈◊〉 mortis horrore quâ—…si consertis manibus luctari Wherefore Christ was to wrestle hâ—…nd in 〈◊〉 with all the power of hâ—…ll and with the horrour of ETERNALL death Others might be brought in like sort but these suffice to discharge me that I did not imagine these things of mine owne head but found them in men of good learning and iudgement which yet I did not receiue except we did expound their words to import in Christ a religious feare declining euerlasting death in himâ—…elfe or affectionately sorowing when he consideâ—…ed what was due to vs for ouâ—… sinnes Wherefore if you make so strangâ—… of these words stirre against your authorized Catechisme and Master Caluin who first vsed them y Defenc. pâ—…g 130. li. 20. You cannot helpe your selfe in making Christes â—…eare of this death to be onely a religious feare and a feare for others these imaginations I haue remoued before Then you perceiue well enough in what sense I admit their words but to aduantage your selfe you dispence with a slaunderous lie Your remoouing is like the roling of paper to make pipes withall you play still on one string and that so much out of tune that euery man is wearie with hearing it besides your selfe z li. 29. These affections you say were not likelie in him at all much lesse to be the causes of such effects As though Christ had none other causes of sorow but onely this And what vnlikelihood that these should be in Christ at this season sauing that your fansie leadeth you to what you list These are not feare properly they ought rather to be called a religious care and pittâ—…e which differ greatly from the nature of feare properly taken Did I professe that Christ feared euerlasting death properly did I not rather excuse or qualifie the vehemencie of their wordes who put in Christ an horror of eternall death you reason now against the Catechisme which you make shew to maintaine and not against me For other feare of euerlasting death in Christ then improper I acknowledge none You thinke the nature of enlabeia will not admit any proper feare Then doe you conuince your selfe to be a notable deluder and abuser of the trueth For you are not ignorant what I say but you peruert it of purpose to miscarie your Reader and countenance your cause a li. 38. What say you did Christ doubt eternall damnation and therefore feared it you lacke a woodden dagger to become your part better haue I any such wordes or sense I shew the generall signification of â—…labeia to be b Conclus pa. 305. li. 25. a carefull and diligent regard to beware or decline that which we mislike or doubt and that as well in priuate and publike affaires as in Religion and you applie this as if I had sayd Christ feared and doubted eternall damnation Whereas I neither mention eternall damnation in all that section nor so much as name Christ within fourtie lines of those wordes which shew how largely enlabeia is taken You speake so darkly that I know not how to take you You double so continually that I cannot tell what to make of you I haue in the same page 305. whence you tooke these wordes distinctly shewed what parts of Gods wrath Christ might be said to feare or suffer and in what sense and yet you complaine of darknesse when you shun the light and watch for a word applied to another purpose pretending you must needes stumble at that straw And therefore neuer come in with any after close what my meaning may be if my wordes be not plaine reprooue them if they be refute them except you receiue them This you say commeth neerest to the signification of the Greeke word I graunt it doth touching eulabeia but in Maâ—…ke the word doth import properly feare and that in extremitie It is happie yet that when you cannot chuse you will graunt that which is fully prooued to your face In your vnlearned Treatise you would needs make as vnlearned an obseruation that c Treatis pag. 74. li. 22. this very word not onely in other Authors but in the Scripture is vsed for a perplexed feare And when your ignorance is conuinced for enlabâ—…ia is not onely lesse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is feare in the Greeke tongue but contrarie to it because it is the d De placitis Philoso li. 7. in zenone declining of euill with reason and circumspection as Diogenes Laertius writeth you graunt that which you cannot gainesay With as much skill you auouch that ekthambeiâ—…thai doth import properly feare and that in extremitie whereas properly it noteth admiration at any strange or suddaine sight Whether feare be ioyned with it or no which sometime is according to the cause and circumstance of the place e Defenc. pag. 131. li. 8. My reason that Eulabeia heere signifieth feare properly yea a perplexed feare and not onely a religious deuotion as you say is grounded not so much on the nature of the word as on the circumstances of the place and the other wordes of the text Christ did as
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
the death of the soule and so neglecting what you should prooue you vainly push against that which I doe not vphold And yet if we admit these cries and teares to be powred forth not for himselfe but for vs then might he most wofully bewaile our deserued destruction which was no lesse then euerlasting damnation of body and soule if he did not ransome and release vs from it To his fathers will Christ submitted himselfe in the garden but what he disliked in that cup which he named and how much thereof he tasted is knowen neither to you nor to me nor to any man liuing That it was very sharp we may iustly collect by his naturall dislike thereof but what degrees or sorts of paines were adherent to his passion is not for you or me to determine What he might suffer with piety patience and obedience to his father is aboue mans reach to define but the second death or the death of the soule if we follow the leading of the Scriptures and not fall to deuising a new hell and a new death of the soule to support our fansies are things that by no colour of Scripture can be confirmed howsoeuer you straine and stretch the word of God to find them there e Defenc. pag. 137. li. 28. And yet it was I grant the death of the soule or the second death that is simply the 〈◊〉 thereof Gods withdrawing himselfe from him in the paines and torments thereof Your grant is the ground of your doctrine besides that which you haue nothing els to beare the burden of your deuices But what a iest is this when you should iustly prooue and fully conclude your assertions to fall to granting of them whereas your graunt with me and with any man that is wise is not worth a grey goose quill Howbeit these are the best buttresses of your cause euen your owne violent conceits that force the Scriptures to your liking But Sir remember you are neither Prophet nor Apostle and so your granting of these nouelties may shew your owne gyddinesse it cannot preiudice the true and vndoubted rules of the Christian faith Hence it followeth inâ—…incibly that Christ indeed suffered sith thus he feared more then the meere bodily death euen the death of the soule For he could not I say thus feare but he must needes know that it was to come or might come vnto him If he but knew that it might come vnto him then it certainly did come vnto him at one time or another in his passion before he left the world Here is the prime and pride of your obseruations out of this place of the Apostle to the Hebrewes and except a man were out of his witts he would not reuell in this sort with such waterish and witlesse resumptions Palpable vntrueths you call inuincible certainties and trifles wherewith children will not be deceiued you obtrude to the whole Church of Christ as fortresses of their faith Christ feared ergo he suffered more then a bodily death ergo the death of the soule What he knew might come that certainly did come These be such bables that boyes in the street will deride them and yet you conceaue and propose them as Sapientiall and soueraigne collections But he that wilfully wandreth thinketh no way straighter then that he traceth and dreamers are often delighted with empty shadowes now if we take your owne translation the Apostle telleth vs that Christ was heard in that he feared ergo he did not suffer it and though it might come yet because he was freed from it certainly it came not and many things might come more then the death of the body and yet not the death of the soule If then you haue no stronger meanes to conclude the death of Christs soule then these the simplest Reader will soone perceiue that your reasons be as frigent as your humours be feruent and though there be fire in your mind yet there is water in your mouth for you truly conceaue or iustly conclude nothing f Defenc. pag. 138. li. 3. Sec. to the Hebrewes Christ abolished through death him that had the power of death that is the Diuell and so deliuered all them which for feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage Heere I see no reason in the world but that the Apostle by the often repeating of death and by the naturall referring of it in one place as it were to the other doth vnderstand and signifie one and the same death altogether But it is the death of the soule which the Diuell hath power and execution of also the death of the soule sinnefull men were held in feare of all their life long It followeth then I suppose that euen through the death of the soule Christ abolished the Diuell and deliuered his children I know not whether your eies be open or your braines sound that you see nothing but what pleaseth your selfe And what if they be either so dimme or so dull that you see not the truth is that a reason that your ignorance or wilfulnesse must be the loadstone of our creed with such peeuish and priuate presumption would you preuaile against Scriptures Fathers and the whole church of Christ that what you doe not or will not see we must relinquish as false and erroneous to let you see if you be not blinded with preferring your fansies before the trueth of Christ that this is a lazie loose and lewd argument which heere you make take your owne maior or first proposition that Christ suffered the selfe same death which he abolished whereof the Diuell had power and execution and whereof we were in feare being not redeemed all our life long and set this for the second proposition or assumption but it is most euident that the Diuell had power and execution of eternall death and to the feare of euerlasting Destruction were we subiect all the time of our life before we were deliuered by Christ ergo Christ suffered eternall death and damnation in hell For he abolished that from the faithfull and thereof the Diuell had power and execution as also we were in feare and danger of that without the Redeemer What say you to this conclusion grounded on your owne collection and proposition see you the falsenesse and wickednesse thereof and yet if your assertion be true that Christ must redeeme vs with the same kind of death whereof we were in feare and bondage without him and abolish the Diuell with that verie death whereof he had power and execution the one is as strong as the other But who besides you would warble thus in so waighty matters True it is that the name of death compriseth all the kinds of death I meane of bodie of soule of both for euer and this chaine of death is inseparable and ineuitable where Christ doth not breake it By the malice of the diuell perswading sinne which is the losse of grace and death of the soule in this life came into the
world the death of the bodie that hence both body and soule might be haled to hell though first the soule and after the bodie when at the last day it shall rise from the corruption of the graue to euerlasting destruction To thinke that Christ submitted himselfe to all these sorts of death corporall spirituall and eternall is most hellish blasphemie for so he should not haue redeemed vs but destroyed himselfe bodie and soule foreuer To say that Christ deliuered vs not from all these lincks of death from spirituall death whiles here we liue from eternall death after this life and at the generall resurrection from the power of the graue where our bodies rot in the meane time is heathenish impietie and heresie denying the whole force and fruit of our redemption by Christ. Since then he cleered vs from all and yet suffered not all sorts of death it is manifest which is the Apostles meaning in the wordes by you cited that by one kind of death which in Christ was corporall he freed vs from all power of death heere and heereafter in bodie and soule not preseruing our bodies that they should not turne to dust but restoring them after death which is the farre more marueilous and mightie worke of God And this is euery where so plainly witnessed in the Scriptures and plentifully confessed by the learned and auncient fathers that none but he that is blinder then a bat would professe he seeth no such thing Christ g Matth 20. gaue his life a ransome for many and h Coloss. 2. by the bloud of his crosse pacified things in heauen and in earth i Hebr. 9. By the sacrifice of his bodie once made we are sanctified and k 1. Peter 1. healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in his bodie on the tree If then the bloud of Christ clense vs from all sinne by which the diuell and death had power ouer vs It is most certaine that Christ abolished sinne and Satan by suffering his bloud to be shed vnto death for the remission of sinnes raising himself that is the Temple of his bodie from death into a glorious and blessed life by which the power and kingdome of Satan were vtterly ouerthrowen l Defenc. pag. 137. li. 15. Against this you haue no reason at all but wordes and wrestings and vaine oftentation of Fathers none of them all denying our sense The reason of all reasons is against it which is that no man nor Angell may adde or alter any thing in the Christian faith without the sure warrant of the sacred Scriptures m Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is reason enough for me and for all â—…he faithfull that there is no such thing deliuered in the word of God You talke of words and wrestings as knowing them best and vsing them most and herein I am content to stand to the iudgement of the wise and indifferent Reader whether you haue brought ought yet for the death of Christes soule or his suffering the second death but your owne speaches and surmises abusing the wordes of the holy Ghost to your owne fansies without either cause or colour And touching the vaine ostentation of Fathers who as you vaunt deny not your sense I brought ancient learned writers not ignorant of the Christian faith as being the pillars of their times that with great perspicuitie and vehemence denied as I doe the death of Christs soule and affirmed with me the death which Christ suffered in the body of his flesh to be a most sufficient ransome for the sinnes of the whole world Augustins words were n August epist. 99. The same flesh in which only Christ died rose againe by the quickning of the spirit For that Christ was dead in soule that is in his humane spirit who dare 〈◊〉 since the death of the soule in this life is none else but sinne from which he was altogether free This you say denieth not your sense and why because you auouch the death of Christs soule which Austen asketh who dare auouch to say that Christ suffered the death of the soule is with Austen an impudent and wicked presumption and no part of the Christian faith or of mans redemption Austen by the death of the soule ment sinne you will say which you meane not You say by your leaue that Christ o Trea. pa. 42. li. 20. became defiled and hatefull to God by our sinnes And so if pollution of sinne be the death of the soule that kind of death you ascribe to Christ though not for his owne sinnes yet for ours then made his no lesse by guilt then by punishment as you teach directly against the assertion of Saint Austen who saith p August contra Faâ—…stum li. 14. ca. 4. Christ tooke our punishment without our guilt that thereby he might release our guilt and end our punishment But you vnderstand not Austen when he saith there is no death of the soule here but sinne he doth not thence exclude the consequents and adherents to sinne in this life but noteth that onely sinne doth kill the soule because it doth separate vs from God who is the life of the soule and the light and grace of God departing from the soule by sinne the soule dieth that is looseth all her sense of God and motion to God by which she liueth vnto God This with Austen and this indeede by the word of God is the death of the soule which if you attribute to Christ you incurre open and exquisite infidelitie For your meaning therefore it maketh no great matter if you will offer to correct our Creede you must speake as the Scriptures speake and not deliuer â—…s your priuate dreames for the publike doctrine of Christs Church With like neglect you skip the rest auouched by Saint Austen that Christ died onely in his flesh which rose againe by the quickning of the spirit Wherein least you should vse your accustomed euasion that the flesh of Christ compriseth as well his soule as his bodie Saint Austen hath wisely preuented you in saying the same flesh onely died Which rose againe Where if your learning serue you to say that Christes soule rose againe the third day you shall make vs a new resurrection of soules after this life as the Scripture doth of bodies which were a meete deuice for such a diuine as you are How beit Saint Austen naming Christs soule a part from his flesh and affirming of Christs soule that no man in his right wits dare auouch Christs soule died but onely that flesh which rose againe it is as cleere as mans speech may be that he vtterly refuseth the death of Christs soule as an irreligious and vnchristian position and directly teacheth this as a ground confessed in Christian religion that Christ died in his bodie alone which rose againe the third day and not in his soule which no Christian man durst auouch was euer dead Of
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
bodies of wilde beasts must returne to earth as to the place by the tenor and trueth of Gods iudgement appointed for all men Thou art dust and to dâ—…st shalt thou returne that is to the earth out of which thou wast taken and to which Iacob would descend mourning all the daies of his life for the losse of his sonne not meaning in Sheol to haue ioy with the soule of his sonne as you peruert his speech and sense for then he would haue gone to Sheol not mourning but reioycing Againe to follow our purpose good Ezechiah also looked for Sheol to be his habitation likewise after this life This cannot bee vnderstood of his carcasse rotting and wasting away to nothing in the graue and therefore endureth not as the word Dori my mâ—…nsion signifieth Therefore he meaneth it of his soules abiding els where Againe Ezechiah was a godly man therefore hell was not fit for him and he seemeth to insinuate that in the Land of the dead he might see the Lord whither he was to goe and that must needes bee in the place of blessed soules euen that which heere is noted by the word Shâ—…l You stumble still at the same stone that none of those thinges can be ment of the graue because the body rotteth and wasteth to nothing in the graue You must leaue these falshoods if you will but seeme to be a Diuine The bodies of the Saints can not bee raised from their graues if they be wasted wholy to nothing in their graues And if you follow this argument well whatsoeuer your name be that by this meanes vndermine the resurrection of the dead your wordes will broach an open heresie though you slily vrge them to establish your new found Sheol Wherefore I omit this desperate cauill as fighting rather against the faith then against the name of Sheol wherein mens bodies after death though turned to dust yet not to nothing doe still remaine Your next reason that the graue can not be called Dôr an habitation or a continuance is idle and vtterly mistaken by you as all the rest is For Dôr is the time of mans life heere on earth as well as a place of abode And what should hinder Ezechiah to say the time of my life is ended or the place of mine abode heere on earth is remooued or passed away Must it needes follow that he shall haue a time to liue in Sheol or a place for his soule to abide there as you absurdly vrge or that this habitation may not be said to be in the graue where his body lieth knowen to God though vnknowen to man These be miserable shifts to hale in your priuatiue positiue generall speciall station state place without place of your first found Sheôl For where before you auouched that Sheol signified indeed no positiue thing properly but a meere priuation of this life you be now come vpon confidence of these rather riots then reasons to resolue in plaine tearmes that the place of blessed soules where they see God is euen that which heere is noted by the word Sheol The place of blessed soules where God is seene I hope is first speciall to the godly not generall to good and bad Next it is positiue and not meerely priuatiue Thirdly it is peculiar to the soules of iust men not imparted as yet to their whole persons Fourthly it is not destruction it is saluation And lastly it is heauen or Paradise a part of the third heauen which you neuer thought to be Sheol These many contrarieties you haue contriued in lesse then two leaues hauing none other ground for all this but onely that the dead bodies of men turned to ashes and wasted to nothing as you defend can not be said to be any where and so not in Sheol and since there is somewhat of iust men in Sheol as the Scriptures witnesse it must needes be the soule and this erroneous and perfidious position that the body of man hath no being at al after it is turned to dust is the sole foundation of your late made Sheol for iust mens soules It is a most vaine reason that you giue that Sheol heere is taken for hell because death to the wicked is the passage to hell which death Ezechiah was not neeere vnto I doubt not but you wil be as bold with me as you are with others to corrupt or peruert euery word you light on so you may seeme to say somewhat My words were that death in his owne nature was a passage to hell as we find yet by proofe in all the wicked though the faithfull be freed from it by the mercies of God in Christ. And therefore Ezechiah in the bitternesse of his soule might well call death the gates of hell euen as our Sauiour said The gates of hell should not preuaile against his Church though they should persue it on earth calling sinne error and persecution the gates of hell albeit in the godly they worke not so much but in the wicked only And in death denounced by Esaie to Ezechiah the king did not so much feare the passage out of this life as the suddaine change of Gods fauour towards him who not long before with a mightie hand from heauen and by a miraculous slaughter of his enemies saued him and his city from the rage of Senacherib and on the suddaine about that very time as the Scripture noteth strake him with sicknesse and sent him word to putt his house in order for he should die which message the king feared was a signe of Gods displeasure against him as iudging him vnworthy to enioy so great a deliuerance And this might make Ezechiah otherwise a good king to tremble at that which in Gods secret counsell he was not neere vnto though in the feare and gâ—…iefe of his own hart he might feele in some fort the bitternes of death in that short pangue Another obiection of yours is as weake where you say Sheol heere must be the graue because it is said afterward sheol doth not confesse thee death cannot praise thee for it is euident that Ezechiah meaneth not absolutâ—…ly there is no praising of God in shâ—…l but onely be vnderstandeth the outward frequenting of the Temple and publishing of Gods goodnesse to others If you can shift of one circumstance or make a shew with some ambiguity you thinke your selfe safe neither care nor conscience leadeth you to looke to the rest that is written either in the same or in other places of the sacred Scriptures This comparison made betwixt the liuing and the dead that the liuing confesle and praise God which the dead cannot doe belongeth in the liuing to the whole man that is chiefly to the soule the maker and directer of our praiers but associated with the body whose parts and affections she guideth and composeth euen as she doth the tongue to serue so good an action In the dead this ioint deuotion of body and soule
to the enemie The diuell therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking to kill one lost all and hoping to carie one to Hades hell was himselfe cast out of hades hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades hell is abrogated death no more preuailing but all being raised to life neither can the diuell stand vp any more against vs but is fallen and indeed creepeth on his brest and bellie And therefore of the Saints he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in fine they saw Hades hell spoiled Epiphanius in sundrie places expresseth the parts and purpose of Christs descending to hell or hades He was crucified buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee descended to the places vnder earth in his diuinitie and in his soule he tooke captiuitie captiue and rose againe the third day What here he calleth places vnder the earth whither Christes soule went after his death that elswhere he calleth Hades The Godhead of Christ would performe all things that perteined to the mysterie of his passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would descend together with his soule to the infernall places to worke the saluation there of such as were before dead I meane the holy Patriarcks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he might performe the things he would against hades in the forme of a man euen in hades that the chiefe Ruler HADES and death thinking to lay hands on a man and not knowing his Deitie vnited to his sacred soule Hades himselfe might rather be surprised and death dissolued and that fulfilled which was spoken Thou wilt not leaue my soule in Hades Basil Death is not altogether euill except you speake of the death of a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their departure hence is the beginning of their punishments in hades againe the euâ—…s that are in hades haue not God for their cause but our selues the head and root of sinne is in vs and in our willes And againe Dathan and Abiram were swallowed vp of earth the gulfes and clefts thereof opening vnder them Heere were not they the better for this kinde of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for how should they be so that went to hades to hell but they made the rest the wiser by their example And writing on the 48 Psalme Because man turned himselfe from the word of God and became a beast the enemie caught him as a sheepe without a shepheard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put him in hades hell but when he sayth God will redeeme my soule from the power of hades he doth plainly prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the descent of the Lord to hades who would redeeme the Prophets soule with others not to abide there Nazianzene in his second Oration against Iulian the Renâ—…gate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stop thou thy secrets and wayes that leade to hell hades I will declare the plaine wayes which leade to heauen And of Christ he sayth Christ died but he restored to life and with his death abolished death He was buried but he rose againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended to hell hades but he brought backe soules and ascended to heauen Macarius When thou hearest that Christ deliuered soules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of hell hades and darkeneâ—…se and that the Lord descended to hades and did an admirable worke thinke not these thinâ—… to be farre from thine owne soule And thus he maketh Christ to speake to death and to the diuell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I command thee hades and darkenesse and death restore the soules inclosed And so the wickâ—… powers trembling refund man that was inclosed Cyrill of Alexandria In olde times before Christ the soules of men departing from their bodies were sent to fill the receptacles of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in dennes vnder the earth But after Christ commended his oâ—…ne soule to his Father he renewed the same way for vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And now we goe not to bades from any place but we follow him rather in this and committing our soules to a faithfull Creatour we rest in excellent hope Yet of Christ he aâ—…firmeth The soule which was coupled and vnited to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descended into hades and vsing the power and force of the Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed it selâ—…e to the spirits or soules there For we must not say that the Godhead of the onely begotten which is a nature vncapable of death and no waâ—… conquerable by it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was brought backe from the dâ—…es vnder the earth Cyrill of Ierusalem like wise in his Catechismes vpon those words of the Psalme If ascend to heauen thou art there if I goe downe to hades tâ—…u art preâ—…ent sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If tâ—…ere â—…e â—…ing higher than the heauens and hades be lower than the earth he that compreâ—…â—…eth the â—…owest doth also touch the earth And to those that were baptized he sayth When thou renouncest Satan thou hast vtterly abrogated the couenant had with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. euen the olde couenant â—…ith hades hell and the Paradise of God is opened to thee In the Homilies which Leo the Emperour made for the exercise of his stâ—…le and confession of his faith it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is risen bringing Hades prisoner with him and proclaiming lilibertie to the capitues He that held others bound is now in bonds himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is come from hades with the ensigne of his triumph the sowre and heauie lookes of those that are vtterly ouerthrowen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of Hades death and the hatefull diuels Damascene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The soule deisied descended to Hades that as to those on earth the Sonne of righteousnesse was risen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to those that sate vnder the earth in darkenesse and in the shadow light might shine The brazen gates were torne the iron barres were broken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the keeper of Hades hell did shake for feare and the foundations of the world were laid open Cydonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is in hades hell vengeance for all sinnes heere committed not onely the consent of all wise men but also the equalitie of the Diuine iustice confirmeth and strengthmeth this opinion Aeneas Gazeus He that in a priuate life committeth small sinnes and lamenteth them escapeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishments that are in Hades hell Gregentius Christ tooke a rodde out of the earth which was his pretious crosse stretching his right hand strake all his enemies conquered them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Hades death sin and that wilâ—…e serpent Theophylact. The rich man dying is not caried by the angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but
recenseri insernum siue gehennam mortem peccatum legem In the meane while thou must see our enemies heere numbred in order hell or gehenna death sinne and the law Christ hath gotten the victory ouer all these and the fruit of that victory redoundeth to vs. Bullinger The Apostle declareth that the victory ouer sinne death and hell is gotten by the might and merits not of the saints but of Christ to whom the saints must yeeld all glory praise and thanks And this explanation hath very excellent degrees First â—… hell to wit the excrlasting punishment whereby the dead are condemned to the second death the second is sinne which is the force of death and hell For by sinne came death The third is the law the strength of sinne The law being then taken away the force of sinne decaieth sinne being abolished the power of death ceaseth death being disarmed hell is ouerthrowen Hyperius If death shall then haue no more rule it followeth that neither hell shall preuaile against the godly For this must be vnderstood of them since the wicked shall not be deliuered from the power of hell In these words ô death where is thy sting ô hell where is thy victory either God as conquerer or the saints as giuing the praise of the conquest to God in a sort reproch death and hell with the losse of their power and strength And very aptly is death put first and then hell For men die before they be cast into hell in which the wicked tast the second or eternall death Moe might be brought but with wise men there can be no question that the Saints at the last day being then fully freed from all their enemies may giue thanks to God for the victory purchased by Christ against them all hell and Satan not excepted Also we are to note that the Apostle heere plainely alludeth to that of Hoseah O Sheol o kingdome of death I wil be thy destruction not ô hell The Prophet speaketh this to comfort Israel in their captiuity against their continuall destruction and raizings out of this world You will soone brest other men that will beard the Apostle in this matter so boldly as you doe Indeed you and some others thinke it a glory to take part with the Iewes contradicting all that the Euangelists Apostles alleage out of the law and the Prophets touching Christ and his kingdome and you vouchsafe to yeeld to the holy Ghost speaking in them no more skill or vnderstanding of the old Testament but to allude to it and as it were to play with it when the true literall sense of most places as you thinke is farre from that which they intend But this Iudaizing whiles you would seeme more then others to smatch of a little Hebrew I for my part detest and professe to the world I take that euery where to be the true and direct meaning of Moses and the Prophets which Christ and his Apostles collect from their words And therefore Ierom saith of this very place as I say of all others That which the Apostle referreth to the resurrection of the Lord nos aliter interpretari nec possumui nec audemus we neither can nor dare interprete otherwise Yea so well learned you are in the circumstances of the Prophets speach that you pronounce The Prophet speaketh this to comfort Israel in their captiuity shewing that now the Lord would stay his iudgment that way and death should now destroy them no more Whereas Israel was then in no captiuity as appeareth by the 16 verse of the same chapter Samaria shal be desolute And God had no meaning to tell the people he would now stay his hand and they should be destroied no more because in the two next verses he threatneth They should be spoiled dried and desolate they should fall by the sword their infants should be dashed in pieces and their women with child should be ripâ—… Wherefore except you will haue the holy Ghost to speake contradictions as your manner is you must acknowledge that amidst the fearefull troubles destructions and desolations then and afore denounced by the Prophet against the whole kingdome of Israel God doth comfort his elect amongst them that whatsoeuer became of their bodies in this affliction approching he had his time when he would vtterly destroy the power of all their enemies not onely freeing them by death from tyrants and persecutors but sauing them from death and hell by his annointed Messias who should be a death to death and a destruction to hell And as this was the greatest comfort and onely hope that Gods children in their miseries could expect or desire so the Apostle keepeth right the Prophets meaning and sheweth the time when all this shal be performed that is when all teares shal be wiped from the eies of Gods elect and all their enemies sinne death and hell troden vnder their feete In this comfort and promise as hell was the chiefest enemy so of all others that must be conteined within the limits of Gods assurance and their deliuerance In vaine are all other promises of grace whiles that enemy standeth vnuanquished And therefore as we most needed so God most promised and Christ most performed the destruction of hell aboue and afore the death of the body which you so much talke of and from which you giue to the reprobate a resurrection as well as to the godly which is but a cold comfort to him that duely considereth it Next we come to the Reuelation First I haue the keyes of Hades that is of destruction or of the kingdome of death and of death Or we may take them as two words for oâ—… and the same thing That is both of them for death What shew of reason haue you to bring in here Christs power ouer the damned soules in hell because there is mention else where of the key of hell therefore the key of Hades here is the same What colour of reason is there in this Euen so much as you can not resist For if it be certaine which the Scripture confirmeth that Christ hath the keyes of both that is as well of hell as of death and gate them both by submitting himselfe to death And Hades in the new Testament is taken for hell as hitherto we haue seene and euen with Saint Iohn the writer of this Reuelation it is a different thing from death what can Hades be here but hell That Christ by his obedience vnto death had all power in heauen and earth and hell giuen him the Apostle is very plaine Christ became obedient to the death euen the death of the Crosse. Wherefore or for which cause God highly exalted him and gaue him a Name aboue euery name that at the name of Iesus euery knee of those in heauen on earth and vnder the earth should bow and euery tongue confesse that Iesus is the Lord. As he himselfe also witnessed when he said
questioned which you say was without any presence of his humane soule and consequently must be referred to his diuine nature I aâ—…irme the contrarie that this exaltation to be Lord ouer heauen earth and hell pertained not to Christes Deitie which neuer wanted that Soueraintie but to his manhood which was obedient vnto death and was therefore aduanced to this hight And since this conquest ouer hell was reall in proofe not verball in claime speciall to Christes person not generall to all his members and performed after Christes death not by Christes diuine but by his humane nature this must needs be referred to Christes soule which might descend to hell and must before it could shew it selfe vanquisher of hell and not to his bodie which lay dead in the graue and could neither ascend nor descend till it was restored to life You make Christ Lord ouer hell because he kept himselfe from thence but so were all the faithfull whose soules were not inclosed in hell whom yet the Scriptures make not Lords ouer death and hell but deliuered from both There must be a conquest peculiar to Christ whereby he did take all power from them and reserued it to himselfe and rose from death as hauing the keyes of both The particular manner whereof in time and other such circumstances though the Scriptures do not expresse yet must not the general be doubted because the Scriptures witnesse that Christs soule was not left nor for saken in hell of Gods diuine power and presence but thence returned as conquerer of all Satans power and Dominion This the Church of Christ hath alwayes professed and this may the godly safely beleâ—…ue notwithstanding M. Broughtonsbedlom proclamation that it is the generall corruption of religion Scripture and all learning Our fourth reason There is altogether as great reason and as vrgent cause that Christ whole man both soule and bodie should be present in hell to free vs thence wholy that is our soules and bodies as there is that his soule must be there present to free thence our soules Heere I wish you would answere my proposition without skoffes and taunts and â—…autie disdaine as your manner is You cannot mocke and that is great pitie When your propositions want not only proofe and trueth but learning and vnderstanding shall I say they be sage wise Christian resolutions your deuices I call dreames your contradictions I call contrarieties your neglect of all Councels and Fathers I call presumption and your shifting and outfacing affirming that which is false and dâ—…nying that which is true I call vnshamefastnesse if not impudencie What other names should I giue them I professe I cannot flatter you in your fansies neither see I any cause why you regarding no man besides your selfe should thinke your selfe fit to be regarded with the disgrace of all auncients and others Where the matter is not meet to be reiected with disdaine I vse it not and where it is why should I not Yet now you would haue a direct and faire answere to your proposition though you little deserue it you shall This which you mention to wit our deliuerance from hell was not the onely cause of Christs descent thither his owne honour and right that suffered shame and wrong at Satans hand on the crosse was the chieâ—…e cause of his descent that after death he might shew himselfe in his manhood the conquerer and destroier of Satans power This you cleane leaue out of your proposition because you would be sure to bring nothing that should be sound and sufficient Againe your proposition as it standeth hath no strength in it besides your owne imagination For hell once subdued and conquered by Christ needeth not the second time to be conquered Since then till the day of iudgement hell hath no more but the soules of the wicked some few excepted who descended aliue to hell what needed more then the soule of Christ to conquer hell Thirdly sâ—…ing the body is cast into hell to increase the paines of the soule the soule being acquited and freed from hell there is no cause the body should goe thither And so in respect aswell of Gods ordinance till the day of doome as of the soules preeminence in and ouer the body the soule of Christ after death might iustly discharge our bodies and soules from all the power and claime that Satan had against vs. Lastly the proportion which Fulgentius Athanasius and others mention as deriued from the Scriptures that as the two parts of man after death were for sinne appointed to two seuerall places his soule to hell and his body to the graue so the Redeemer did â—…etch man backe againe from those two places of condemnation with the presence of his soule subduing hell and of his body resisting corruption this pâ—…oportion I say gâ—…ounded on the Scriptures is more then you can any way confute or open your mouth against with any trueth You aske why this going to hell by our Sauiour was not rather afâ—…er his resurrection when both paâ—…ts were ioined together First because by death which is the separating of the soule from the body Christ was to destroy both death and hell Next he was to rise conquerer of them both and not after his resurrection which was a conquest of both to reconquer them againe This therefore is an vnwise demand and sheweth that you doe not vnderstand what belongeth to Christs death or resurrection who was to rise the full conquerer and Lord of all his enemies in his owne person and not aâ—…ter his resurrection to make a new conquest ouer them And therefore your heaping of seuenteen places of Scripture in the margine of your booke to shew that Christ died and rose againe is to let men see that you haue emptied your note Booke and there find that Christ did rise from the dead To which if you will adde which is the true intent of all those places that Christ was to rise a perfect conquerer of death and hell you shall make so many proofes that Christ conquered both before and with his resurrection and by no meanes after it For his resurrection was manifest proofe that neither his soule was forsaken in hel nor his flesh left to see corruption in the graue and therefore both hell and death were perfectly subdued when he ioined againe his soule to his body and aduanced them both to an immortall and celestiall life Considering then whence the parts of Christs manhood were taken when he rose from the dead to wit his soule from hâ—…ll where it was not forsaken and his body from the graue where it was not corrupted you shall easily see if you doe not wilfully shut your eies that the power and force of Christs resurrection beganne with the subduing of hell by his soule and ouermastering putrifaction by his body Against whose soule and body since neither destruction nor corruption could preuaile it was not possible but he should rise vanquisher and Lord
Satans kingdome at his pleasure Now had not those Infernall powers been subiected to the Soule of Christ after death how should it haue appeared that his manhood not his godhead had the conquest ouer Satans strongest holds and that the keves of death and hell were resigned vnto him for since the Scripture beareth witnesse that his Soule was not for saken in hell that is not there left destitute of his diuine power glory what resistance could be made that he should not returne thence the Lord and Ruler of all his enemies whereof hell and Satan were the chiefest His godhead then was the giuer but his manhoode was the receauer of this power and preâ—…minence ouer hell Satan that they for euer should stoupe to him and see both what wrong they did him and what vengeance was heaped on them as also how righteous mans redemption was by the Crosse and death of the Sonne of God Lastly why did not the presence of his flesh in the graue keepe ours that it should not come there or at least that it should neuer putrifie nor rot as his flesh did not Euen because such was Gods will it should not God by his sentence pronounced on Adam and his ofspring adiudged them to returne to dust from which Christ shall raise them at the last day and not before And from dust to restore them sheweth greater power in Christ then to preserue them from dust This therefore verifieth the iustice and magnifieth the power of God and for you to aske why it might not be aswell otherwise as so is to enter more saucely then wisely into those things which you should religiously and faithfully beleeue And where you say all these sequels are as good and as liâ—…ly as my assertion you shew your accustomed boldnesse if not haughtinesse that condemne so many learned and auncient fathers for plaine fooles in not seeing what â—…urd consequences depended on their assertion How beit in the midst of your pride you shew little wit that all this while you can light on none other reason of Christes descent to hell but onely this that we should neuer come there This indeed was one of the causes euen to secure vs by his conquest that hee hath the keyes of death and hell and therefore we shall not need to feare either since both are wholy subiected and submitted to his power though he stay the time prefixed by his father when we shall be partakers of his victorie ouer death at the end of the world as we are ouer hell at our departing hence assuring vs in this life by faith in him that we neede not feare either death or hell both which he hath conquered I made this argument in my former Treatise that Christes descending into hell if euer he did so could not be iudged any part of his exaltation or glorification To which your reply is I know not whether more strange or skornefull But you resolue that these words hee descended to hell importeth his exaltation and triumph This argument was drawen from your imagination taking vpon you to dispose of the parts of the Creede as best pleased you which because I reiected as wanting all warrant besides your owne note booke you interpret it to be a strange and skornefull answere Howbeit there is no strangenesse in mine answere but to him that neuer peeped farder then in his owne shell The Fathers with one consent referre that clause to Christs Conquest ouer hell Christ had power saith Athanasius in the graue to shew incorruption and in his descent to Hades hell to dissolue death and to proclaime to all resurrection Cyprian When in Christs presence hell being broken open captiuitie was captiuated his conquering soule presented to the sight of his Father returned to her bodie without delay Epiphanius Christ was crucified buried he descended to hell in his Deitie and his soule he tooke captiuitie captiue and rose the third day with his holy bodie That he was free among the dead signifieth hell had no power ouer him but that of his owne accord he descended to heli with his soule because it was impossible he should be held of it So Austen Reddunt Inferna victorem Hell restored him a conquerer and whiles his bodie lay in the graue his soule triumphed ouer hell The Councels prouinciall and generall do the like Christ descended to hell deuicto mortis imperio and subduing the kingdome of death rose the third day Euen as the generall Councels of Ephesus and Constantinople say Yea the later writers as Innocentius Durandus and others ioyne this clause with Christs resurrection and make them both but one Article of our faith as descendit ad inferna tertia die resurrexit he descended to hell and rose the third day they set for the fift Article of the Creede euen as that auncient writer among Saint Austens workes did before them So that neither Elder nor later writers ioyne with you in this conceit of yours that Christes descent to hell was the lowest part of his humiliation they directly professe it to be the first part of his exaltation and a preamble to his resurrection And where you thinke it much that his descending should belong to his exaltation not the place but the purpose of his descent maketh that alteration The Scripture saith The Lord himselfe shall descend from heauen with a shoute and with the trumpet of God when he shall come to iudge the quicke and dead and yet that descent shall be the greatest part of his glorie You skoffe at me for the like as if I had said his descending was ascending and heauen was Hell But herein you affirmevntruely First I say though his soule leauing his bodie ascended yet this is not meant by that phrase he descended to Hades Secondly I neuer sayd that Hades signified heauen although some in Hades are in heauen Thirdly much lesse did I euer say that hell is heauen The interpretation which you made of the Article Christ descended to hell I sayd had none other matter of faith in it except you thought the Church in her Creede went to varying of phrases but that Christs soule ascended to heauen For where Hades in the Creede must signifie not a priuation nor a generall and indefinite condition as if Christ went some whither yet no man knew whither but a determined place whither Christs soule after death repaired that place of force must be heauen or hell And since by no meanes you will haue Christs soule descend to hell as the whole Church hath hitherto receaued and beleeued you must acknowledge the meaning of that Article to be that Christs soule ascended to heauen and so whether you will or no if that be the effect and intent of those wordes in the Creede descending must be taken for ascending and hell for heauen This is not meant you say by that phrase It is one of
no death of the Soule 519 The Fathers professe true fire to be in hell 46 The Fathers plainly remoue the death of Christs Soule from the worke of our redemption 330. 331 All Christs Feares were holy 215 Feare and sorrow in Christ were sufferings for sinne 345 Christs Feare in the Garden was religious 371 Christs â—…eare and sorrow were painfull but religious sufferings 372 What Feare and sorrow Christ was to yeelde vnto God when he offered the ransome of our sinnes 374 What things Christ might iustly and greatly feare in the Garden 380 â—…eare may be intellectâ—…ue or sensitiue 383 Christ might feare many thinges besides hell paines 385 Why Christ feared more then Mattyrs doe 395 Christ might iustly feare the pâ—…wer of Gods wrath 380 Figuratiuely the Soule may be said to be crucified 80 Fire in hell is not allegoâ—…icall 40. 41. 42. 43 The Fathers professe tâ—…ue fire to be in hell 46 It is possible that brimstone may bee mingled with fire in hell 47 The same fire punishâ—…th the wiâ—…ked both bâ—…fore and after iudgeâ—…ent 55 What fire did signifie in sacrifices 112. 113 What fire might note in the holocaust 116 How Christ was Forsaken on the crosse 409 How farre and wherein Christ was Forsaken are the things questioned 414 What forsaking could not be found in Christ 414 We were forsaken of God till Christ 〈◊〉 vs by his death 417 Christ neuer forsaken of hope and comfoâ—…t â—…7 God shewed by the present euent that he had not forsaken hâ—…s sâ—…nne 419 We stâ—…iue not for the word but for the sense and maner of forsaâ—…ing 431 G GEhenna was not vsed in speaking to the Gentiles 618 God can doc more then he will 23 Gods loue to Christ appeared euen in his death 20. 21 Gods purpose in the death and crosse of Christ. 154. 155. 156 God vseth meanes and instruments in punishing 33 God tempereth loue and iustice in punishing his elect 147. 255 God worketh good by euill 254 God is iust as well in forgiuing as in punishing sin 262 God was able to saue vs otherwise then by Christs death 287 God was the author of all Christes afflictions but not with his immediate hand 298. 299 God vieth his creatures to performe his iudgements 302 God is the principal agent in all our sufferings but not with his immediate hand 302 Gods hand worketh whatsoeuer meanes he vseth 300. 301 Gods loue to his sonne ouerswaied his hatred to our sinnes 268 Gods iustice in subiecting Satans kingdome to Christs manhood 230 The Gospell differeth much from the Law 264 How the Graue is aâ—… habitation for the godly 575 God would not haue our flesh as yet freed from the Graue 670 Christ was not Guilâ—…y of our sinne though he took our punishment on him 162. 163 The whole man is guilty of all sinne 185. 186 187. 208 Guilty stretcheth as well to the punishment as to the fact .266 A mediator not guilty of the sinne for which he doth mediate 276 H HAdes what it signifiâ—…th with the Greeke Fathers 589. 590. 591. 592. 593 Hades what it is with Chrylostom 589 Athâ—…nasius taketh Hades for hell 599. 6â—…0 Hades in Athanasius Creed is not the graue 659 Hades with Ignatius is not the graue 657 The soules of the godly are not in Hadâ—…s 602 Hades is a place of darkenesse 609 How Hades is vsed in the new Testament 629 Hades with new writers is the graue or hell 609. 610 611 Hades is a place vnder the earth 613 Hades an vnseene and darke place 618 Hades in the Creed must signifie hell 649 Hades is not the ignominie of the graue 651 Hades was first the name of the diuell 615 Hades is hell or the diuell in the new Testament 619 Hades is hell in the new Testament without any figure 621 Why Hades signifieth hell in the new Tâ—…stament 647 Hades with the Pagans was the place not the state of the dead 616 The whole created world is Hades with the Defâ—…nder 615 Hades in effect is nothing but death with the Defender 624 How 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Inferi concurre in signification 579 How the Defender wauereth about Hades 619 How Hades is vsed in the Reuelation 642 How Hades shall be cast into hell fire 644 S. Luke maketh Hades a place of torment 621 What Hades Matth. 11. 23. is threatned to Capernaum 630 Many Greeke copies haue Act. 2. 24. the sorrowes of Hades 625 Hades in the Scriptures opposed to the highest heauens 635 Christ loosed the sorrowes of Hades 625. 626 The wall of Hades not broken but by Christ. 657 Hades hath not all the dead 646 Hades followeth after death 643 Hades taken for the rulers or persons in hell 647 The soules of the godly are not in Hades 602 Hanging on a tree was not the whole curse of the law 236 Hanging on the crosse a cursed kind of death 237 Innocents and penitents not truely accursed though Hanged on a tree 238 Hard speeches should rather bee qualified then strained to the highest 271 All affections make sensible alterations in the Heart 1â—…3 194 The heart is the seat of mans affections and actions 2â—…3 The Hâ—…art suggesting euill sinneth 311 The ioyes of Heauen are proper to the place 455 456 The sight of God in this life â—…uch differeth from the sight of his face in Heauen 456 The Saints of God had some sight of God in earth but not comparable to that in Heauen 460 The soules â—…re not yet in the same height of Heauen where Christ is 5â—…0 541 How many Heauens the Scriptures make 541. 542 The graces of God in earth are not the ioyes of Heauen 461 Why the Heauens are compared with hell in the Scriptures 634 God is not the immediate and principall inâ—…cter of Hell paines 2â—… 29 The sentence of the iudge containeth the essence of Hell paines 35 Christ suffered not the substance of hell paines 36 Reiection from Gods kingdome essentiall to Hell paines 37. 38 Malediction essentiall to Hell paines 38 Hell fire is not allegoricall 40. 41 42. 43. 49. 53 54 I neuer said Hell fire was materiall 44 The Fathers professe tâ—…ue fire to be in Hell 46 51. 52 So doe later Diuines 49. 50 It is possible that brimstone may be mingled with fire in Hell 47 Chaines there are in Hell though not of iron â—…7 Whether there be true fire in hel before the iudgment is not the question 54 Christ suffered not the essentiall part of hell paines 56 Hell paines not the cause of Christs agonie 58. 59 The sharpnesse of Hell paines 60 The foretast of iudgement in Hell is neither full finall perpetuall nor genâ—…rall 210 Positiue punishment now in Hell 214 The suffering of Hell paines no way necessarie to our saluation 220 Men may feare but not feele the truâ—… paines of hel in this life 320 The paines of hell are no naturall affections 383 Christ might feele somewhat extraordinarie yet not the paines of hell 391 The vehemencie of hell