general rule but hath some exceptions so this hath one exception and but only one there being one only place in the new Testament where Hades is translated otherwise in the vulgar Latine that namely 1 Cor. 15.55 where it is rendred mors or death Of which no reason can be given unlesse perhaps he fell upon some such Greek copies as Eusebius did wherein the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was twice repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. O death where is thy sting O death where is thy victory To which I do incline the rather because the reading of the Latine is exceeding antient ubi est mors aculeus tuus ubi est mors contentio tua where we finde also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. strife for victory occurring in Tertullian Cyprian and others of the antient writers So that the word Hades being used throughout the whole new Testament to signifie the place of torments and inferi or infernus by the old Latine translatour to expresse that word it must needs be that inferi and infernus throughout the Testament and with most Ecclesiastical Authors since the translating of it must signifie the self-same place which we English usually call the name of Hell These things premised we shall the better be inabled to discern what the meaning is of Christs descent into hell whether the words import any local descent or only something analogical and proportionable to it That the Apostles and Evangelists did first commit the sacred monuments of the faith which they left behind them to the Greek tongue as being then of an extent more universall then that of the Romans and the Iews is a thing past question unlesse perhaps St. Matthews Gospel was first written in the Hebrew language as St. Ierome and some other learned men have been of opinion And therefore it is more then probable that they delivered this brief Abstract of the Christian faith which we call the Creed in the same tongue also in which they did communicate those Oracles of eternal life Which granted as I think no question will be made thereof what else can follow thereupon but that the word Hades in the Creed must be taken in the self-same sense in which we finde it generally used not one place excepted in the whole new Testament those very men whose writings make up a great part of the said new Testament contributing their severall Articles to make up the Creed And then what else can be supposed to be the meaning of Christs descent into hell but that he locally went down which is the ordinary meaning of the word descend and went down to the place of torments which in the common course of speech is generally designed by the name of hell Or if the Creed were first compiled and published in the Latine tongue the same conclusion must needs follow from the former premisses the Latine inferi or infernus as before was proved signifying the very same with the Greek word Hades and that imparting nothing else according to the Ecclesiastical notion but the English Hell Besides the Apostles purposely intended this and whosoever else we shall please to think were the Authors of it did intend the same to lay down plainly and methodically according to the understanding of the vulgar sort that which they thought most fitting to comprise in this short Compendium Nor can it enter into the belief of any man endued with ordinary sense and reason that the Apostles having before made use of those vulgar phrases was crucifyed dead and buried in the literal sense which every Artizan and Ploughman nay even women and children could not but understand at the first hearing should then come in with a descent into hell not to be understood in a literal sense as the words usually import in common speech but in a meaning too abstruse and difficult for all vulgar wits beyond the reach of ordinary apprehensions Assuredly it was never the Apostles meaning that they for whose use principally they compiled the Creed and in whose language it was written which soever it was should not be able to conceive the true sense of their words without the help of a Lexicon or having diligent recourse unto the Criticks and Philosophers of their severall Languages But because Arguments of this nature may perhaps be said not to be demonstrative and that men will not readily let goe their hold-fast upon probabilities we will proceed another way and setch the truth of this assertion that Christ descended into hell in a literal sense from the authority and text of holy Scripture Most sure it is that there is nothing comprehended in the Creed but what is to be found in the book of God either in termes expresse as the greatest part of them are or else by necessary and undeniable consequence And both these wayes we doubt not but we shall be able to assert this Article First in the way of necessary undeniable consequence it may be pleaded from that place of St. Paul to the Romans where it is said The righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend up into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead For the expounding of which words we first take notice that the two interrogatives are equivalent to these general negatives none can ascend up into heaven none can descend into the deep And then the meaning will be this that if none can ascend to heaven nor descend down into the deep then not Christ himself which to affirme were plainly and directly contrary unto the righteousnesse of faith So that it is a main ground of the Christian faith that Christ descended into the deep and into such a deep as hath some proportion to his ascension into heaven which possibly can be no other then the deeps of hell And hereunto agree Interpreters both old and new For thus Theophylact Stagger not saith St. Paul nor cast this doubtingly in thy mind how Christ descended from heaven or how after death he arose from the deep again id est ex abditissimo profundissimo loco that is to say from the deepest and most hidden place And why was hell called Hades amongst the Greeks but quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dark hidden and unseen as before was said More plainly Mart. Bucer for the late writers thus The Apostle acknowledgeth this question to be a denial of Christ and that he draweth Christ down from heaven who admitteth this doubt It is evident that the deep is taken pro infernis Hell and in this sense the Apostle seemeth to use this word the deep for he addeth that is to bring back Christ from the dead to wit to account his descent to hell to be void and his victory over death and hell Gehenna of none effect So then
present Article that is to say that by Christs descending into hell is meant nothing else but his going down into the Chambers of death and his continuance in the state of separation from his body for the space of three days under the power and dominion of death Which though it came after the conceit of Calvin who maketh the descent of Christ into hell to be the sufferings of hell paines in his soul in his Agony and upon the Crosse yet we have joyned it to the former as being at the furthest cousin german to it if not the same device clothed in other words For what else is it to be dead and buried but to descend down into the chambers of death and what else to goe down to the chambers of death but to be dead and buried as our Saviour was What need was there that when the Creed had specifyed his death and burial and his lying in the grave three days in as plain termes as possibly the wit of man could devise to put it in there should a clause be added in the next words following to signifie his going down to the Chambers of death a three dayes separation of his soul and body and that in words so figurative and Metaphorical that all the Lexicons and Grammars of both the languages must be searched and studied before we can finde out what we are to trust to Assuredly it was not the Apostles purpose to set mens wits upon the rack to finde out their meaning or to make the Creed which they intended for the use of the simplest sort tormentum ingeniorum a torture to the brain of the ablest Scholar or to expresse themselves in such difficult termes that men must go to Schoole to the old Greek Poets and the late Iewish Rabbins before they can attain to the meaning of them As if there were no way to become a Christian but to be first an exact Critick a professed Philologer Yet this hath been the Helena of our greatest Clerks of none more preciously beloved then by the Bishop of Meuth who in his Answer to the Iesuites challenge hath spent a great deal of unfortunate pains to no other purpose but to crosse the current of Antiquity together with the authorized doctrine of the Church of England Concerning which I shall not need to say more now then what was touched upon before touching the unliklyhood of improbability of using such obscure and figurative expressions in so plain a forme in the which all things else must be understood in the literal sense and the repeating of the same thing twice in so short an Abstract not capable of a Tautologie though in divers words And as for the far fetching of Theological and Ecclesiastical notions out of the works and writings of old obsolete Authors it is a devise not known nor heard of in the Christian Church till these Critical times nor very well approved in this neither by judicious men And therefore for a full and finall answer to this last conceit I shall use this caution of Aquinas viz. Aliud est etymologia nominis aliud significatio nominis c. that is to say that in words we must not so much look upon their original exact and precise signification or derivation as that whereto they are by ordinary use applyed And unto this shall add the counsell and advise of a grave Divine a late learned member of the Church viz. That he who hopeth to attain the true knowledge of the principles of the Christian faith must either use the help of some Lexicon peculiar to Divinity or make one of his own it being an easier thing saith he to learn the termes of Law or Physick out of Thomasius or Riders Dictionaries then to know the true Theological use and meaning of many principal termes in the old or new Testament out of Stephanus or Pagninus his Thesaurus though both of them most excellent writers in their kinde Which I conceive to be as fit and full an answer unto this second exposition of the descent into hell drawn from the Greek Hades and the Hebrew Sheol as the merit of it doth require Only take here the substance of my former answer in these words of Calvin Quantae oscitantiae fuisset rem minime difficilem verbis expeditis claris demonstratam obscuriore deinde verborum complexu indicare magis quam declarare How great a folly must we think it in the compilers of the Creed whosoever they were to lay down that in difficult and intricate phrases which had been formerly delivered in most clear and significant termes especially considering that when two several formes of speech are joyned together to expresse one thing the latter commonly doth use to explain the former We now proceed to that interpretation of this part of the Creed which hath found most followers and hath been most insisted on by some late Divines as the undoubted sense and meaning of the present words though to attain unto this meaning they must allow themselves both Metaphors and other figures which as before was shewn this short forme admits not And this interpretation found the better welcome not because any way more probable then the rest of the new devices but in regard it came from Calvin whose reputation was so high and his authority so great amongst them that as one very well observeth they were esteemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his writings which were almost grown the very Canon by which both Discipline and Doctrine were to be judged Now Calvin seeing how absurd and inconvenient it must needs be thought to make the descent of Christ into hell to be nothing else but his burial and that of his descent into the chambers of death and his continuance of separation from his body being then found out fell on a fancie which might seem to have more affinity to his descent unto the very place of torments the habitations of the damned though to say truth it was not so much properly a descending of his soul to the torments of hell as an ascending of the torments of hell to finde a place in his soul. To bring this in he first declareth that Christ had done nothing for us in the way of redemption if he had died no other then a bodily death and therefore that it was necessary he should undergoe divinae ultionis severitatem the severity of the divine vengeance Then he inferres that to this end he was to struggle cum inferorum copiis aeternaeque mortis horrore with the infernall powers of hell and the horrors that attend on eternal death and to submit himself unto all those punishments which the most wicked souls are condemned to suffer the eternity thereof excepted only that in this sense he may be truely said to descend into hell in regard he suffered all those torments nay that death it self which are by God inflicted upon wicked men dirosque
was said out of Austin formerly that whosoever contradicted that which was there delivered Aut haereticus aut a Christi fide alienus was either an Heretick or an Infidel If none of these particulars may be justly quarrelled it must be then that the Apostles thought not fit to commit it to writing but left it to depend on tradition only And yet St. Augustine saith the same Catholica fides in Symbolo nota fidelibus memoriaeque mandata c. The Catholick faith contained in the Creed saith he so well known to all faithful people and by them committed unto memory is comprehended in as narrow a compass as the nature of it will bear St. Hierome no great friend of Ruffines as I said before is more plain then he who tels us that the Symbolum of our faith and hope delivered by Tradition from the Apostles Non scribitur in charta atramento sed in tabulis cordis was not committed in those times to ink and paper but writ in the tables of mens hearts Irenaeus cals it in plain tearms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Greek word for Tradition and Tertullian fetcheth it as high as from the first creating of the Gospel Hanc regulam ab initio Evangelii decurrisse as expressely he Compare these passages of Irenaeus and Tertullian whereof the first conversed with Polycarpus the Apostles Scholar with that which is told us by Ruffinus of Majores nostri that the relation which he makes came from the Tradition of their forefathers and we shall finde as strong as constant and as universal a Tradition for the antiquity and authority of the Creed in question as for the keeping of the Lords-Day or the baptizing of Infants and it may be also for the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture And yet behold two witnesses of more antiquity then Irenaeus and Tertullian The first Ignatius one of the Apostles scholars and successour unto St. Peter in the See of Antioch who summeth up those Articles which concern the knowledge of CHRIST IESVS in his incarnation birth and sufferings under Pontius Pilate his death and descending into Hell his rising on the third day c. as they stand in order in the Creed The second is Thaddeus whom St. Thomas the Apostle sent to Abgarus the King or Toparch of Edessa within few years after the death of our Redeemer who being to instruct that people in the Christian faith gives them the sum and abstract of it in the same words and method as concerning CHRIST in which we finde them in the Creed at this very day Nor shall I fear to fare the worse amongst knowing men for relying so far upon Traditions as if a gap were hereby opened for increase of Popery For there are many sorts of Traditions allowed of and received by the Protestant Doctors such as have laboured learnedly for the beating down of Popery and all Popish superstitions of what kinde soever Chemnitius that learned and laborious Canvasser of the Councel of Trent alloweth of six kindes of Tradition to be held in the Church with whom agreeth our learned Field in his fourth book of the Church and 20. chapter Of these he maketh the first kinde to be the Gospel it self delivered first by the Apostles viva voce by preaching conference and such ways of lively expressions Et postea literis consignata and after committed unto writing as they saw occasion The second is of such things as at first depend on the authority and approbation of the Church but after win credit of themselves and yeild sufficient satisfaction unto all men of their divine infallible truths contained in them and of this kinde is that Tradition which hath transmitted to us from time to time the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture The third is that which Irenaeus and Tertullian speak of and that saith he is the transmission of those Articles of the Christian faith quos Symbolum Apostolicum complectitur which are contained in the Apostles Creed or Symbol The fourth touching the Catholick sense and interpretation of the Word of God derived to us by the works and studies of the FATHERS by them received from the Apostles and recommended to posterity The fifth kinde is of such things as have been in continual practise whereof there is neither precept nor example in the holy Scripture though the grounds reasons and causes of such practise be therein contained of which sort is the Baptism of Infants and the keeping of the Lords-Day or first day of the week for which there is no manifest command in the Book of God but by way of probable deduction only The sixt and last sort is de quibusdam vetustis ritibus of many antient rites and customs which in regard of their Antiquity are usually referred unto the Apostles of which kind there were many in the Primitive times but alterable and dispensable according to the circumstances of times and persons And of this kinde are those Traditions spoken of in our Book of Articles where it is said that it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like in that at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversity of countreys times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word So that the question between us and the Church of Rome is not in this as many ignorant men are made believe wheâ—her there be or not any such Traditions as justly can derive themselves from the Apostles or whether such Traditions be to be admitted in a Church well constituted I know no moderate understanding Protestant who makes doubt of either The question briefly stated is no more but this that is to say whether the Traditions which the Church of Rome doth pretend unto be Apostolical or not Now for the finding out of such Traditions as are truly and undoubtedly Apostolical there are but these two rules to be considered the first St. Austins and is this Quod universa tenet Ecclesia that whatsoever the Church holdeth and hath alwayes held from time to time not being decreed in any Councel may justly be believed to proceed from no other ground then Apostolical authority The second rule is this and that 's a late learned Protestants that whatsoever all or the most famous and renowned in all Ages or at the least in divers ages have constantly delivered as from them that went before them no man gainsaying or doubting of it without check or censure that also is to be believed to be an Apostolical Tradition By which two rules if we do measure the Traditions of the Church of Rome such as they did ordain in the Councel of Trent to be imbraced and entertained pari pietatis affectu with the like ardor of affection as the written Word What will become of prayer for the dead and Purgatory the Invocation of the Saints departed the worshipping of Images adoration
till she had brought forth her first born son A first born son say they doth imply a second and his not knowing her till then doth tacitly import that he knew her afterwards And this they fortifie with that in the 6. of Mark where not only Iames and Iuda and Ioses and Simon are called his Brethren but his sisters also are affirmed to be then alive But the answer unto these Objections was made long ago St. Hierome in his tractate against Helvidius having fully canvassed them For first the first begotten or first born doth imply no second that being first not which hath other things coming after it but which hath nothing going before it Et primus ante quem nullus as the Father hath it And this appears most evidently by the law of Moses by which the first born of every creature was to be offered unto God The first born not in reference unto those that are to come after for then the owner of a flock or herd of cattel might have put off the sacrifice or oblation of the first born of his sheep or kine til he were sure to have a new increase in the place thereof which the Law by no means would permit And thus we say in common speech that Queen Iane Seymour dyed of her first childe and that King Edward the fift was murdered in the first year of his reign where past all doubt neither Iane Seymour had more children nor King Edward reigned more years then the first alone And for the argument from the word until or donec peperit in the Latine it implyes no such matter as is thence collected the word not having always such an influence as to imply a thing done after because not before When Christ promised his Disciples to be with them alwayes till the end of the world think we his meaning was to forsake them then that they should neither be with him nor he with them I trow no man of wit will say it And when the Lord said unto his CHRIST Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool may we conclude that when death the last enemy shall be overcome that he shall sit no longer at the Lords right hand I hope none dare think it More instances of this kind might be easily had to shew the weaknesse of this inference were not these sufficient And for the Brothers and Sisters mentioned by St. Marke either they were Iosephs children by a former wife as Irenaeus and likewise all the Greek Fathers downwards St. Hilarie and St. Ambrose amongst the Latines are of opinion or else his nearest kinsmen as St. Hierome thinks which in the Idiom of the Iews were accounted Brethren But on the other side our great Masters in the Church of Rome will not only have her to continue a Virgin post partum after the birth as to the purity of her minde but also in partu in the birth as to the integrity of her body Durand one of their chief Schoolmen will needs have it so not thinking it a sufficient honour to her to be still a Virgin non solum carentia experientiae delectationis Venereae not only by an inexperience of all fleshly pleasure sed etiam membri corporalis integritate but in the clausure of her womb the dotres whereof as they conceive were not opened by it And unto this most of the great Rabbins of that Church do full wel agree Assuredly these men with a little help might in time come to be of the Turkes opinion who out of a Reverent esteem which they have of Christ will not conceive him to be born or begotten according to the course of nature but that the Virgin did conceive him by the smell of a Rose and after bare him at her brests But herein they run crosse to the antient Writers who though they constantly maintained the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of Christ yet such a corporal integrity in the act of Child-birth as these men idly dream of did they never hold Tertullian very aptly noteth that she was Virgo a viro non virgo a partu a Virgin in respect that she knew not man and yet no Virgin in regard of her bearing a child which though it were conceived in a wonderful manner yet ipse patefacti corporis lege he came into the world by the open way Pamelius in his notes accounts this and some other passages to this purpose amongst the Paradoxes of Tertullian So doth Rhenanus too a more modern censurer and yet confesseth that St. Ambrose was of this opinion so was St. Hierome too in his second Book against the Pelagians who holds that Christ first opened those secret passages though he after shut them up again According to the judgment of which antient writers for those which followed them in time varyed somewhat from them it is the common resolution of the Protestant Schooles that though Christ when he was born of his Virgin Mother opened the passages of her womb as all children do yet she continued still a Virgin because her mind was free from the thoughts of lust and that she had conceived of the holy Ghost nay that he may more properly be said to have opened the womb of Mary his mother then any other first born do because he found it shut at the time of his birth which the first born of the sons of men do not And being it is confessed by the greatest Schoolmen that there may be an opening of the womb without the losse of Virginity as in the cure of some diseases or on such an accident of which St. Augustine speakes in his first book De Civit. dei c. 18. I should much wonder at the stiffenesse of the Papists in it but that I know they lay it for a ground work of their doctrine of transubstantiation and the local being of his body in more places at a time then one by taking from it all the properties of a naturall body But to say truth they well may free Christs body from the bands of nature when they have freed his mother from the bands of sin not from the sins only of an higher nature but even from slight and veniall sins as they use to call them nor yet from actual sins only but original also To what this great exemption tends we shall see anon In the mean time we may take notice that this exemption from the guilt of original sin is but a new opinion taken up of late and not yet generally agreed on amongst them there having been great conflicts about this priviledge between Scotus and the Franciscans on the one side Aquinas and the Dominicans on the other But in the end the devotions of the common people being strongly bent unto the service of our Lady the Franciscans carryed it Sixtus the 4. who had been formerly of that Order not only ratifying by his Buls their doctrine of her
in his Tribunal or Judgement Seat he caused the Souldiers of his Guard to fall upon them not with swords but staves who wounded many and killed some and for the rest falling on one another in an hasty flight as commonly men do in such affrightments they came unto a wretched and calamitous end Such another wicked and ungodly act was the slaughter of the Galileans who being more tender conscienced then the rest of the Iews would not as they did offer sacrifice for the health of the Romans and therefore came not to the Temple the place of sacrifice but held their Congregations and performed their sacrifices by themselves apart This coming unto Pilates ear and notice being given withal when they met together he caused his men of war to fall upon them and most cruelly put them to the sword And these were those poor Galileans which the Gospel speaks of whose bloud Pilate is there said to have intermingled with their Sacrifices This was not long before the time of our Saviours death that is to say about the third year of his Ministerie So that being in himself of a barbarous and cruel nature and fleshed in a continual course of shedding bloud he was the more like to serve the turn of those murderous Iews whom nothing else would satisfie but the death of the Saviour their crucifying of their long expected Messiah What became of him afterwards I shall let you know towards the conclusion of this Article when he had put an end by death to those many temptations and afflictions which our Saviour suffered during the time of his command This is enough by the way of Preamble to give the reader a short touch and character of him and so to let him see with what truth and plainness S. Austin tels us of the man that he was put into the Creed or Symbol not for the merit of his person propter signationem temporis non propter dignitatem personae as the Father hath it but for the pointing out of the time of our Saviours passion which he doth also touch at in his Encheiridion to Laurentius cap. 5. And so much briefly shall suffice for this present time touching the life and manners of this Pontius Pilate under whom CHRIST suffered let us next look upon Christs sufferings under Pontius Pilate Now for the sufferings of our Saviour they may be principally divided into internal and external the inward or internal being either temptations or afflictions the outward or external either shame or corporal punishments and these again may be considered either as being inflicted on him before his crucifying or in the act of crucifixion Of these the first were those temptations which were laid before him by the Devil immediately upon his Baptism at the performance of which ceremony he was acknowledged by Iohn Baptist to be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world anointed for his following Ministery by the unction of the holy Spirit descending visibly upon him in the shape of a dove and publickly proclaimed by a voice from heaven to be the beloved Son of God in whom he was well pleased This is the first alarm which the Devil took and it concerned him to betake himself to his weapons presently The Devil was an expert warrier and was resolved not to be set upon in his own Dominions but to give the first blow as we use to say and take the enemie whom he feared at the best advantages which were presented and as unprovided as he could And therefore he drew after him into the Wilderness of Iudaea into which our Saviour had been led by the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led into the Wilderness by the Spirit as St. Matthew hath it that is to say a Spiritu Sanctitatis as the Translatour of the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the holy Spirit as we read in Chrysostom And so no question but it was For by what spirit else but the Spirit of God could he be led into the Wilderness to whom all other spirits in the world were subject as they themselves confess in sundry places of the Gospel especially considering that the word is a word of violence such as our Lord and Saviour was not subject to For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew be a word more gentle and may imply a peaceable and quiet leading yet in St. Mark we finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was driven into the Wilderness by the Spirit the holy Ghost or Spirit of God conducting him into the Desert half against his will that is to say with such reluctance in his will considering to what end he was carried thither which was ut tentaretur a Diabulo that he might be tempted of the Devil as many of Gods Saints have found within themselves distracted between hope and fear upon the undertaking of some dangerous enterprise Of which St. Chrysostom in his Homilies on St. Matthew gives us this good note that we are not rashly and unadvisedly to thrust our selves into temptations which is a thing so contrary to Christs example though we are bound by his example to resist temptations as often as the Devil doth suggest them to us In which it is a great part of our Christian duty to call upon the Lord our God that he would be pleased not to lead us into temptation or if he do that he would graciously deliver us from the evil of it and doing so to be assured that no temptation shall be laid upon us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such as incident to man and may well be born that God will not suffer us to be tempted beyond our power but will make way for us to escape that being tryed in this fiery furnace of temptation we may receive that Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to all those which overcome it Now in this story of the temptations of our Saviour there are these three parts to be considered the place the preparation and the temptation it self The place or scene of this great action was the Wilderness of Iudaea as before we said not the inhabited parts thereof for there were many villages interspersed therein as commonly there are in al great Forrests but those which were the furthest and the most remote from humane society The spirit led him not saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the City or the Market place but into the Wilderness and more then so into the least frequented and most savage part of it where he conversed with none but Beasts as St. Mark informs us And this was done on great and weighty considerations First he was led into the Wilderness the better to comply with the type or figure of the Levitical Scape-goat of which it is thus said in Scripture that the Goat on which the lot fell to be the Scape-goat shall be presented alive before the Lord to
peccando dejectus es that is to say Christ out of his mercy descended to that very place unto which man was fallen by sin Petrus Chrysologus in the next Age thus To suffer death and to conquer it intraffe inferos rediisse to enter into hell and return back again to come within the jaws of the dungeon of hell and to dissolve the laws thereof is not of weakness but of power Fulgentius states the point more fully It remained saith he to the full accomplishment of our Redemption that the man whom God took unto himself without sin should descend even thither whither man separated from God fell by desert of sin that is to hell where the soul of a sinner useth to be tormented and to the Grave where the body of the sinner useth to be corrupted yet so that neither Christs flesh might rot in the grave nor his soul be tormented with the sorrows of hell To omit Arator and Prudentius who affirm as much as those before but may be thought to have spoken out of Poetical liberty we will next look upon the Fathers of the fourth Councel of Toledo An. 630. after the birth of our Saviour by whom it was declared that Christ descended to hell to deliver the Saints which there were held captive and subduing the kingdome of death rose again Which after was repeated and confirmed in the Councel of Orleance holden in the 46. year of Charles the Great Finally to descend no lower Venantius Fortunatus once Bishop of Poictiers doth resolve it thus first that Christ did descend to hell and secondly that his descent into hell was no disparagement unto him for that he did it with relation to his infinite mercies as if a King should enter into a Prison not to be there detained himself but to release and loose all such as were guilty Thus have we seen the suffrages of the antient Writers in their times and ages touching the descent of Christ into hell with such a general consent and unanimity that a greater is not to be found in all or any of the Articles of the Christian faith And we have also seen the reasons which as they thought induced our Saviour unto that descent the benefits which did accrew to the Church thereby Now these being principally three that is to say the vanquishing of the powers of hell Secondly the securing of his faithful servants from coming under the dominion thereof And thirdly the deliverie of the souls of those righteous men which lived under the law and were held captive for a time by the powers of darkness till he released them by his coming two of the three I hold to be undoubtedly true and the other I consider as a matter questionable And first I take it for a truth an undoubted truth that our Saviour Christ by his descent into hell did utterly suddue and overthrow the Kingdom of Satan and gave him his last blow in his own Dominions and that thereby he took this captivity captive and having spoyled those principalities and powers which do there inhabit did make a shew of them openly and triumph over them The Scriptures explicated by the Fathers do most abundantly confirm me in the truth of that To which adde here which was before omitted in its proper place those words of Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria saying The powers principalities and rulers of the world which the Apostle speaks of there none other could conquer and carry into the Deserts of hell but only he who said Be of good hope for I have overcome the world Therefore it was necessary that our Lord and Saviour should not only be born a man amongst men but also should descend to hell that he might carry into the Wilderness of hell the Goat which was to be led away and returning thence that work performed might ascend to his Father And I do also hold for a truth undoubted that Christ by his descent into hell hath secured all his faithful servants since that time from coming under the power and dominion of it Which as it was the doctrine of the eldest times of Christianity as appeareth by the objection of Tertullian At inquiunt Christus inferos adiit ne nos adiremus that they i. e. the Orthodox Professors against whom he writ affirmed that Christ went into hell to hinder us from going thither so was it constantly maintained in the times succeeding by all the sound members of the Church This appears yet more evidently by that of Athanasius saying Christ descending to hell or Hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought us back so loosing our detention there In which it is to be observed that he speaks this of himself and others which were then alive and not them in hell but yet both might and must have come there if he had not freed them from it by his descent And so we must interpret that of Hierom also Liberavit omnes Dominus quando anima ejus descendit in infernum the Lord delivered all his servants both dead and living when his soul descended into hell and that of Hilarie Christ descending into hell nostra salus est is our salvation and that of Ambrose descendens ad ' inferos genus humanum liberavit that Christ descending into hell delivered mankinde i. e. aswell from coming thither as from tarrying there Fulgentius goes to work more clearly then any of the rest before recited and doth not only tell us this that descendentem ad infernum animum justi c. the sorrows of hell were loosed by the descending thither of Christs righteous soul but addeth that having so loosed the sorrows or pains of hell omnes fideles ab iisdem liberavit he delivered all the faithful from them But above all St. Augustine is most clear and positive in this particular as may appear in part by that which was said before in the last Section but far more fully in the passages which are yet to come In all those miseries saith he though we were not then yet because our deserts were such that we should have been in them if we had not been delivered from them it may be rightly said we were thence delivered Quo per liberatores nostros non permissi sunt perduci whither we were not suffered to come by our deliverers And who these were whom he delivered in this manner that is to say by not permitting them to come thither at all he tels us in another place where we finde it thus that it is believed not without good cause that Christs soul came into that place in which sinners are miserably tormented Vt eos solveret a tormentis quos solvendos esse occulta nobis sua justitia judicabat that he might deliver them from torments whom in his secret justice unknown to us he thought fit to deliver In a word thus most fully saith that Reverend Prelate Si enim non
nought else but the Port of Salvation which whether it were formerly in the heavens above an apud Inferos or in the places under the earth I determine not Yea I had rather be still ignorant of it then rashly to pronounce of that which I finde not expressed in the Scripture In these things as I will not be too curious so neither will I define any thing therein nor will I contend with any man about this matter It shall suffice me to understand and confess that the godly of the Old Testament were in a certain place of rest and not in torments before the Ascension of Christ although I know not what nor where it was So he with great both piety and Christian modesty and with him I shut up this dispute CHAP. IX The Doctrine of the Church of England touching Christs descent into Hell asserted from all contrary opinions which are here examined and disproved THus have we seen the doctrine of the Primitive Church touching the Article of Christs descent into hell so much disputed or indeed rather quarrelled in these later times Let us next look upon the Doctrine of of this Church of England which in this point as in all the rest which are in controversie doth tread exactly in the steps of most pure Antiquity And if we search into the publick monuments and records thereof we shall finde this doctrine of Christs local descent into hell to have been retained and established amongst many other Catholick verities ever since the first beginning of her Reformation For in the Synod of the year 1552. being the fourth year of King Edward the sixt it was declared and averred for the publick doctrine of this Church to be embraced by all the members of the same that the body of Christ until his Resurrection lay in the grave but that his soul being breathed out was with the spirits in prison or hell and preached to them as the place of Peter doth witness saying For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison c. 1 Pet. 3.18 19. But being the Articles of that year were set out in Latine take them according as they stand in the Original Nam corpus usque ad Resurrectionem in sepulchro jacuit Spiritus ab illo emissus cum spiritibus qui in Carcere sive in Inferno detinebantur fuit illisque praedicavit ut testatur Petri locus c. So also in the year 1562. When Q. Elizabeth was somewhat setled in her state she caused her Clergy to be called together in a Synodical way to the intent they might agree upon a Body or Book of Articles for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Who being met and having agreed upon the two first Articles touching Faith in the holy Trinity and the Word or Son of God which was made very man and having declared in this second that Christ who is very God and very man did truly suffer and was crucified dead and buryed to reconcile us to his Father addes for the title of the third of the going down of Christ into hell Which being an entire Article of it self runs thus in terminis viz. As Christ dyed for us and was buried so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell Which Article with the rest being publickly agreed upon and passed in the Convocations of both Provinces and confirmed under the broad Seal as the law required became the publick authorized Doctrine of this Church of England and afterwards received such countenance in the high Court of Parliament that there was a statute made unto this purpose that all who were to be admitted unto any Benefice with cure of souls or unto any holy Orders should publickly subscribe the same in the presence of the Bishop or Ordinary The like care was also taken after for subscribing to it by all such who were matriculated in either of the Universities or admitted into any Colledge or Hall or to any Academical degree whatsoever and so it stands unto this day confirmed and countenanced by as high and great authority aâ— the power of the Prince the Canons of the Church and the Sanctions of the Civil State can give it Nor stands it only on Record in the Book of Articles but is thus touched in the Book of Homilies specified and approved of for godly and wholesome Doctrine by those Articles and ratified and confirmed together with them Thus hath his Resurrection saith the Homilie wrought for us life and and righteousness He passed through death and hell to the intent to put us in good hope that by his strength we shall do the same He paid the ransome of sin that it should not be laid to our charge He destroyed the Devil and all his tyranny and openly triumphed over him and took away from him all his captives and hath raised and set them with himself among the heavenly Citizens above So far the Homily There was also published in the beginning of the said Queens Reign a Catechisme writ in Latine by Mr. Alexander Nowel Dean of Pauls and publickly authorized to be taught in all the Grammar Schooles of this kingdome though not by such a sacred and supreme authority as the books of Articles and Homilies had been before in which the doctrine of Christs descent into hell is thus delivered viz. That as Christs body was laid in the Bowels of the earth so his soul separated from his body descended ad inferos to hell and with all the force and efficacie of his death so pierced unto the dead atque inferos adeo ipsos and even to the spirits in hell that the souls of the unfaithful perceived the condemnation of their infidelity to be most sharp and just ipseque inferorum Princeps Satan and Satan himself the Prince of hell saw all the power of his tyranny and of darknesse to be weakned broken and destroyed and contrariwise the dead who whilest they lived believed in Christ understood the work of their Redemption to be performed and felt the fruit and force thereof with a most sweet and certain comfort So that the doctrine of Christs descent into hell being thus positively delivered in the Articles and Homilies and Catechisme publickly authorized to be taught in Schools and being thus solemnly confirmed and countenanced both by Laws and Canons and by the subscriptions of all the Clergie and other learned men of this Realm of England how great must we conceive the impudence to be of the Romish Gagger who charged this upon this Church that we denie the descent of Christ into hell Nor do I wonder lesse at the improvidence of those who were then in authority in licensing Mr. Rogers comment on this Book
it is not to be thought that his Disciples would adventure to come by night a few weak men and those too much dejected in their Masters passion to stir abroad in so unseasonable a time and so full of danger Or grant that his Disciples might come by night in expectation of the issue to see what would become of their Masters promises yet certainly it could not be with an intent to steal his body The Monument they knew was too well garded to be forced by them for what could they poor men unexpert and unarmed and but few in numbers against a guard a guard of choise and able fellowes culled out and well appointed for the present service Nor was it likely that the body was took thence by stealth either by them or any others whatsoever The body had been wrapt in sear clothes quae non minus quam pix corporis linteamina conglutinat is the Fathers note which did stick as close unto his skin as it had been pitch And they that came to steal his body would questionlesse have stolen him with his shroud and all and not have took the pains to strip him in a place so dangerous Or grant that too it is not to be thought that they had either so much leasure or so strong a confidence or so little care of their own safety as to spend their time in curiosities or take the pains to wrap up the kerchief which was upon his head and lay it in a place by it self as St. Iohn records it It is a timerous kind of trade to be a theef much more to violate the Sepulchres of those that sleep and rob the grave of its inhabitants and seldome have such vaine capricios as to spend their time in needlesse and superfluous complements Non enim fur adeo stultus fuisset ut in re superflua tantum laboraret said the Father rightly Let us proceed a little further and grant this also that his Disciples came by night and that they came to steal his body yet certainly it was not while the souldiers slept For if they were asleep as they say they were how could they justifie their tale that his body was taken thence by stealth or that the Felonie had been committed by his Disciples yes certainly it must needs be as they relate it for they were fast asleep all night and neither heard the tongues or saw the looks of them that stole him Admit this also for this once that his Disciples stole his body and that they stole him while the souldiers were fast asleep yet could not they restore the dead body unto life again And it was a thing too well known to be denyed that our Saviour was not only seen by his Apostles with whom he did converse and eat and drink and performed other acts of a living man but shewed himself to more then five hundred at one time together which was perhaps the time and hour of his Ascension A thing which passed so current for a truth undoubted that Iosephus one of the most learned and discerning men which have been of that Nation since the times he lived in relating only on the by some passages touching Christ our Saviour and of his being put to death by Pontius Pilate addes also this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that he shewed himself alive again on the third day and conversed with men It seemes the Priests and Pharisees and other leading men of the Iewish Nation were conscious to themselves of this conspiracy and of the weakness of the practise Their next art therefore is to condemn the followers of our Lord of too much credulity and when they could not condemn them of felony to accuse them of folly They grant indeed that on the third day his body was missing in the Sepulchre yet that himself had raised himself from the grave again had never entred into the hearts of men of wisdome if any did believe it as some such there were they either were poor silly women or men of the inferior sort a company of poor contemptible persons Fishers and Publicans and the like Men who had left their trades to attend on him as heretofore some did on Theudas who boasted of himself to be some great body in hope to raise their fortunes by him and finding how they were deceived in their expectation were willing to lay hold on any thing which might keep them up in reputation amongst ignorant and credulous men Nec difficile sane fuit persuadere Pastoribus and commonly such men are most easily befooled into belief of any strange thing which is told unto them This is the last refuge which the Iews found out but this will never save them harmless in the day of judgement For the belief of our Redeemers Resurrection stopped not here but by degrees was entertained by the most eminent men both for wit and learning over all the world thousands of which have been so confident herein that they bare witness of this truth to the last drop of their bloud and rather chose to give their own bodies over unto death then to make doubt of and therefore much more to deny the Resurrection of his A truth which became credible at first by the confident asseverance of them that saw it then by the constancy of those that died for the Confession of it and finally by the vast multitudes of those who have since believed it The Father so resolved it saying Quod credibile primum fecit illis videntium certitudo post morientium fortitudo jam credibile mihi facit credentium multitudo And which addes most unto the wonder the men by whom this Gospel was thus propagated over all the world were as the Iews objected both unlearned and simple devoid of Rhetorick to perswade and Logick to convince by the strength of argument but furnished by the Lord with great powers from heaven speaking with tongues and working miracles as occasion was to confirm their doctrine Eloquia in persuadentium mira fuerunt facta non verba as St. Austin hath it Such was the infinite wisdome of Almighty God that he made use of simple men to confound the wise and of ignorant men to confute the learned lest else the enemy might say that they prevailed rather by their wit and Artifices then by the truth of that which they preached and published Thus have we brought unto the trial what ever hath been quarrelled by the Iews in this present Article We must next look upon the Gentile to whom the doctrine of the Resurrection did seem at first a matter of such impossibility that the Athenians thought it folly and the Romans frenzy What would this babler have said the wise men of Athens when Paul inforced this point unto them Learning had made him madde said Festus when he affirmed the same before his Tribunal But yet as foolish and phrenetical as it seemed to be it proved a matter
dark as St. Iohn hath it or very early in the morning at the breaking or dawning of the day as St. Matthew tels us but that they came not to the Sepulchre till the Sun was risen Or else we may resolve it thus and perhaps with greater satisfaction to the text and truth that Mary Magdalen whose love was most impatient of a long delay went first alone for St. Iohn speaks of her alone when it was yet dark but having signified to Peter what she had discovered she went to make the other women acquainted with it and then came all together as the Sun was rising to behold the issue of the business As for the seeming contradiction in St. Matthews words we shall best see the way to discharge him of it if passing by the Vulgar Latine from whence the contradiction took its first Original we have recourse unto the Greek In the Vulgar Latine it is Vespere Sabbati in the Evening of the Sabbath and that according to the Iewish computation must be on Friday about six of the clock for with them the Evening did begin the day as we saw before But in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English in the end of the Sabbath and then it is the same with St. Marks expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Sabbath was past And this construction comes more neer to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which points unto a thing which is long since past as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hour being now a good while spent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you lost your opportunity by your tardy coming And so the word is here interpreted by Gregory Nyssen by birth a Grecian and therefore doubtlesse one that well understood the Idiotisme of his own language in whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew is made to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very hour and moment of the resurrection Which ground so laid let us subjoyne these words in St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 18. to the last words of St. Lukes Gospel Chap. 23. and then this seeming contradiction will be brought to nothing St. Luke informes us of the women who had attended on our Saviour at his death and burial that having bought spices to imbalme his body they rested on the Sabbath day according to the Scripture v. 56. And then comes in St. Matthew to make up the story as all the four Evangelists do make but one ful history of our Saviours actions which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Sabbath was now past and that the first day of the week did begin to dawn they went unto the Sepulchre as they first intended We have not done yet with the time of his resurrection although the difficulties which concern that time have been debated and passed over We finde it generally agreed on by all four Evangelists that the resurrection was accomplished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the first day of the week and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the dawning of the day as St. Matthew hath it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the rising of the Sun as St. Marke informes About the dawning of the day for certainly it was not fit that the Sun of Heaven should shine upon the earth before the heavenly Sun of righteousnesse Nay therefore did our Saviour prevent the sun by his early rising to teach us that the whole world is enlightned only by the beams of his most sacred Gospell and that he only is the light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his people Israel And there was very good reason also why he should choose the first day of the week to be the day of the resurrection more then any other that as God the Father on that day did begin the creation of the world in which we live the life of nature so God the Son should on the same day also begin the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in the souls of men by which they live the life of grace here and are thereby prepared for the life of glory in the world to come The sixt day in which our father Adam did begin to live was the same day in which the second Adam did begin to die And the seventh day on which God rested from his labours in the great work of our Creation was also rested by our Saviour in the far greater businesse of our Redemption Rested I say by him not sanctifyed For Christ did therefore pretermit and sleep out as it were the Iewish Sabbath that from thenceforth the observation of that day should be laid aside and that in that neglect of his there should no further care be taken of the legal Ceremonies And as God sanctifyed that day in which he rested from the work of the worlds Creation so the Apostles first as it was conceived and afterwards the Church of Christ by their example did sanctifie and set apart that day for religious offices in which our Saviour cancelled the bonds of death and finished the great work of our Redemption The Israelites were commanded by the Lord their God immediately on their escape from the hands of Pharaoh to change the beginning of the year in a perpetuall memory of that deliverance With very good reason therefore did the Church determine to celebrate the Christian Sabbath if I may so call it upon a day not used before but changed in due remembrance of so great a miracle as that of our Saviours resurrection from the power of the grave and our deliverance thereby from the Prince of darknesse The Parallel of the worlds Creation and the Redemption on all mankind by Christ our Saviour with the change which followed thereupon in the day of worship is very happily expressed by Gregory Nyssen in his first Sermon upon Easter or the Resurrection where speaking of Gods rest of the Sabbath day he thus proceedeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By that first Sabbath saith the father thou mayest conjecture at the nature of this this day of rest which God hath blessed above all dayes For on this the only begotten Son of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are who out of a divine purpose of restoring mankind did give his body rest in the house of death and afterwards revived again by his resurrection became the resurrection and the life the day-spring from on high the light to them that sit in darknesse and the shadow of death Finally to insist upon this point no longer three days our Saviour set apart for the performance of this work and wonder of the resurrection and answerably thereunto the Church did antiently set apart three days for the commemoration of that work and wonder which was then performed In which respect the feast of Easter is entituled by the said Gregory Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three days festivall The next considerable circumstance of the
themselves an hodie aeternitatis something which may be called this day before all eternity Which exposition of the words as it is very justly disliked by Calvin so is he very unjustly quarrelled for by some latter writers who look no further on the words then the words of David and not upon the application which St. Paul makes of them Clearly St. Paul who spake by the same Spirit that David did and therefore could not erre in expounding the words of David intends them neither to CHRISTS natural birth as the son of the blessed Virgin Mary nor his eternall generation as the Son of God but to his birth day or begetting to the Crown of the heavenly Canaan the day of their advancement to the regal throne being esteemed as their birth day by most Kings and Princes For who so ignorant in the affaires of the world so little conversant in the monuments of former times as not to know that it is usuall in most States and Kingdomes not only to celebrate with great feasts and triumphs the naturall birth-day of their Kings which they call Diem natalem imperatoris but the inauguration day the day wherein he was exalted to the Crown imperial which they call Diem natalem imperii Certain I am that the day whereon Augustus did assume the imperial power was solemnized in Rome every tenth year with a great deal of joy and that Caligula did decree that the day whereon he began his Empire Dies quo cepisset imperium as my Authour hath it should be called Palilia and celebrated as that was by the antient Romans in memory that their City was on that day founded And thus it hath continued in most States of Christendome but most unprosperously of late as if it were an Omen of the present troubles laid aside in ours And this interpretation of the Psalmists words receiveth good countenance from another place of the same Apostle in which those words of David are again recited The place is this Christ saith he glorifyed not himself to be made high Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priert for ever after the order of Melchisedech The meaning of this passage we have shewn before and is this in brief that Christ being called by God to the two great offices those of the Priesthood and the Kingdome was not exalted unto either though designed to both till God had glorifyed him in the sight of the people by his resurrection And to my seeming Davids words had not St. Paul conducted us to this exposition could have no other meaning then is here made of them For if we marke the composition of the same and the place in which these words are ranked we shall finde that God had first advanced his King and set him on his holy hill of Sion on the royall throne before and but immediately before these words Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee But what need one Apostle be called to witnesse in this point when we have all that glorious company the Apostolical College and the rest of their company apply the whole Psalme to the person of Christ of Christ anointed to the Kingdome by the hands of God but not till Herod Pontius Pilate the Gentiles and the people of Israel had conspired against him to do whatsoever the hand and counsell of God had before determined Having thus brought our Saviour to the Regall throne and set him on the right hand of God in the heavenly places let us next look upon him in his forme of Government according to the arts of Empire These by the Stalists are reduced unto two heads the one consisting in protecting and defending the people committed to them which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other in prescribing laws and executing justice on the transgressours which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both these most perfectly discharged by our Prince and Saviour And first the Enemies against which he protects his people are these three the Devil sin and persecution The two first he discomfited in that painfull combat in which he paid the price of our redemption and made his passage open to the new Hierusalem Since that time there is nothing left in Satan but a powerlesse malice and though he roare against the Church he shall never devour it The gates of hell shall not prevail against it said the glorious Conqueror Sin at the same time lost his strength which was the curse of the Law and not his strength only but his Empire too And though he may sojourn for a time in our mortal bodies yet shall he never reigne over us and have us in subjection as before he had unlesse we willingly betray our selves and captivate our souls to those conquered powers which God hath given us grace to master Nor deales otherwise with the Persecutors of his Church and people then he hath done with sin and Satan whom he doth crush at last with a rod of iron and break them into pieces like a potters vessell as David telleth of him in the second Psalme And though sometimes to manifest his own glory in his peoples sufferings and to make tryall of their faith and Christian patience he doth permit their enemies to prevail against them yet was he never wanting in his own due time to make their deliverance more remarkable then all their afflictions Witnesse the persecutions of the primitive times in which the Princes of the earth and the powers of hell banded themselves against the Lord and against his anointed times in the which it were a difficulty to determine whether the gallantry of the Martyrs or the tyranny of the persecutors gave juster cause of admiration to the sad spectators With such a chearfull countenance did they beare their sufferings that they even wearied their tormenters and did not lose their lives but give them With what a noble confidence did they mount the scaffold on which they were to suffer the most cruel death which the wit of man and malice of the Devil could inflict upon them so bravely and without amazement as if they had been mounted rather to behold a triumph then to be brought to execution Never was tragedy of death more bravely acted nor actor honoured with a richer and more glorious crown And for his enemies and theirs the vengeance of the Lord found them out at last and laid them in the dust with disgrace and ignominy For which was there of all the persecutors who made themselves drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Prophets or that have raged against the Church since those furious times to whom he gave not bloud to drinke whom either in their gray haires or in the pride and flourish of all their glories he brought not to the grave with reproach and sorrow or left their dead bodies to be meat to
to the water but the institution nor to the Sacramental water of it self alone but to the holy Spirit which is active in it Et ipsi soli hujus efficienciae privilegium manet to which belongeth the prerogative in this great effect For as the Spirit of God moving upon the waters of the great Abyss did out of that imperfect matter produce the world so the same Spirit moving on the waters of Baptism doth by its mighty power produce a regenerate Creature From hence it is that in the setting forth of so great a work the water and the Spirit are oft joyned together as in St. Iohn Except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in St. Paul accrrding to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And in St. Iohns Epistle also There be three that bear witness on the earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood And if the Spirit go along with the Waters of Baptism as we see them joyned together in the holy Scripture no question but it will be made effectual to the work intended which is the washing away of sins whether smal or great whether Original or Actual of what sort soever For proof whereof besides what hath been said of this Point already let us behold the practise of the Primitive times when the Discipline of the Church was grown so severe that some were hardly admitted at all unto publick Penance others removed from the communion of the Church for three four or seven years together and sometimes as the quality of the sin appeared for the whole time of their lives A Discipline which the Church used onely towards those which had given up their names in baptism to be visible members of that body whereof Christ was Head and that made more unpleasing to most sort of men upon the growth and spreading of the Novatian Heresie who mistaking the Apostles meaning declared all those to be uncapable of mercy who sinned after Baptism and therefore neither would admit them unto publick penance nor otherwise restore them to the Churches peace of whom St. Cyprian thus complaineth Sic obstinatos esse quosdam ut dandam non putent lapsis poenitentiam And though the Orthodox party did abominate these Novatian rigors yet were they too strait-laced towards those who fell into any publick or notorious sin after they had received the Sacrament of Regeneration it being conceived that after Baptism major in sordibus delictorum reatus as it is in Augustine the smalest sins seemed greater than indeed they were Upon this ground and an assurance which they had that all their sins whatever were expunged in Baptism it was the custom of too many to defer their Baptism till the hour of their death or till they lay so far past hope on the bed of sickness that nothing but the stroke of death was to be expected Thus doth the Story tell us of the Emperor Constantine that in extremo vitae die when he was even brought to the point of death he was baptized in Nicomedia by the hands of Eusebius the like of Theodosius a most pious Prince upon these grounds St. Austine did defer his baptism a long time together that so he might more freely enjoy those pleasures to which he was addicted in his younger years On the like fear of such relapses as were censured so severely in those rigid times he put off the baptizing of Adeodatus his own natural Son till he came to thirteen years of age at what time the severity of the Church began to slaken or rather the good Fathers judgement was then changed to the better on the right understanding of the use and nature of that holy Sacrament A custom as ill taken up so as much condemned and subject to the Churches censures when occasion served those which were so baptized and escaped from death whom they called Clinici because they were baptized on the bed of sickness being disabled by the Canons from the holy Ministery But whether censured or not censured it comes all to one as to the point I have in hand which was to shew that in the practise and opinion of those elder times the Sacrament of Baptism was held to be the general plaster for all manner of sins and though sometimes deferred till the hour of death on the occasion and mistakes before remembred yet then most earnestly desired ad delenda erratu illa quae quoniam mortales erant admiserant as the Historian saith of the Emperor Constantine for expiating of those sins which they had committed But on the other side as some did purposely defer it till the time of their death out of too great a fear of the Church's censures and a desire to injoy the pleasures of sin yet a little longer so others and those the generality of the people of God out of a greater care of their childrens safety procured it to be administred unto them in their â—endrest infancy almost as soon as they were born And this they did on very pious and prudential considerations though there be no express command nor positive precept for it in the holy Scripture for when we read that we were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal. 51.5 that all men are by nature the children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 and that except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.5 What Parent can so far put off all natural affections as not to bring his child to baptism especially if there be any danger of death as soon as all things fitting can be had in readiness for that ministration And though there be no positive precept nor express command for Infant-baptism in the holy Scripture it is sufficient ground for the Church to go on if it be proved to be an Apostolical practise and that it is at least an Apostolical practise there will appear sufficient evidence to any man not prepossessed with prejudice and mis-perswasions For when we finde particular mention of the baptizing of whole housholds as of that of Lydia Act. 16.15 of the Gaoler vers 33. of the same Chapter and of Stephanus 2 Cor. 1.16 Either we must exclude children from being part of the houshold which were very absurd or else admit them with the rest to this holy Sacrament But because many exceptions have been made against these instances some thinking it possible enough that those housholds had no children in them as we see many families in great Towns and Cities where no Infants are others restraining the administration of Baptism unto such of the houshold as by giving testimony of their Faith and Repentance were made capable of it we must for further proof make use of a Rule in Law and back that Rule of Law by a practical Maxim delivered by the
ab his putat exigendam fidem quos novit nullam propriam habere culpam The justice of Almighty God saith he doth not think it fitting that having committed no particular sin of their own he should exact of them a proper and particular faith of their own but as they were undone by anothers fault so they should be relieved by anothers faith To which effect though not so fully I have read somewhere I am sure in St. Ierome but cannot well remember where Qui peccavit in altero credat in altero That he which hath sinned in others may believe by others For the next point though we maintain the necessity of Baptism as the ordinary outward means to attain salvation and do correct those Ministers by the Churches censures by whose gross negligence or default if required to do it an Infant shall die unbaptized Yet we conceive it not so absolutely necessary in the way to Heaven but it is possible for a man to be saved without it For antiquity supplied in some the want of water by blood which many times was the case of Martyrs in others the inevitable want of Baptism by the Holy Ghost the earnestness of the desire if it might have been had supplying the defect of the outward Ceremony Hence came the old distinction of Baptismus fluminis Baptismus flaminis and Baptismus sanguinis Concerning which the Fathers teach us this in brief That where men are debarred by an evitable impossibility from the outward Sacrament Faith and the inward conversion of the heart flying unto God in IESUS CHRIST through the sweet motion and gracious instinct of the Holy Spirit may be reckoned for a kinde of Baptism because thereby they obtain all that which they so earnestly sought after in the Sacrament of Baptism if they could have been partakers of it And if it be so that an ordinary degree of Faith do sometime obtain salvation without the Baptism of Water much more may that which makes men willing to suffer death for Christs and the Gospels sake and be baptized as it were in their dearest blood It was not simply the want of Baptism but the neglect and contempt thereof which antiently in the Adulti men of riper years was accounted damnable But what may then be said in the case of Infants in whom are no such strong desires no such sanctified motions Shall we adjudge them with St. Augustine to eternal fire as some say he did who thereby worthily got the name of Infanto-mastyx or the scourge of Infants as he had gloriously gained the title of Malleus Pelagianorum The Maul or Hammer of the Pelagian Hereticks No God forbid that we should so restrain his most infinite mercies unto outward means Or shall we feign a third place for them near the skirts of Hell as our good Masters do in the Church of Rome We have as little ground for that in the holy Scripture Rather than so we may resolve and I think with safety that as the Faith of the Church and of those which do present such as are baptized is by God accepted for their own so the desire and willingness of the same Church and of their God-fathers and Parents where Baptism cannot possibly be had is reputed theirs also Or if not so yet we refer them full of hope to the grace of God in whose most rigorous constitutions and sharpest denunciations deepest mercies are hid and who is still the Father of mercies though the God of justice And so I shut up this discourse with these words of Hooker That for the Will of God to impart his grace to Infants without Baptism the very circumstance of their natural birth may serve in that case for a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in a charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their salvation to whom the benefit of Christian parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath no power himself to avoid So he of those which are descended of a Christian stock What may be thought of children born of unbelievers hath been said elswhere And so much of the first ordinary outward means ordained by Christ for the remission of our sins the holy Sacrament of Baptism Proceed we next unto the other which is the power of the Keys committed in the person of St. Peter to the Catholick Church and those which by the Churches order are authorized and appointed to it That miserable man being wrought upon unto repentance by the power and preaching of the Word may on confession of his sins be forgiven of God or have the benefit of absolution from the hands of his Ministers if their spiritual necessities do so require For certainly there is not a more ready way to forgiveness of sins than by sincere and sound repentance nor any speedier means to beget repentance than to present our sins unto us in their own deformity by the most righteous myrror of the Word of God For when the sinner comes to know by the Word of God the heinousness of his misdeeds the wrath which God conceives against him for his gross offences together with the punishment which is due unto them according to his rigorous judgments The thought thereof must needs affect him both with fear and horror and make him truly sensible of his desperate state To whom then shall he flie for succor but to God alone humbly confessing unto him both his sins and sorrows How can he look to be recovered of the biting of these fiery Serpents but by looking with the eye of faith on that brazen Serpent which was exalted on the Cross for his Redemption Or if he finde his Conscience troubled and his minde afflicted and that he hath not confidence enough to draw near to God then let him go unto the Priest whom God hath made to be the Iudge between the unclean and the clean whom God hath authorized to minister the word of comfort to raise up them that be faln and support the weak to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide their feet in the way of peace This is the Method to be used the course to be pursued by those who do desire to profit in the School of repentance And about this as to the main and substance of it there is but little difference amongst knowing men For that Repentance is a necessary means required for the remission of sins committed after Baptism the Antients and the Moderns do agree in one The Fathers used to call it secundam tabulam post naufragium the second Table after Spiritual shipwrack on which all those who had made shipwrack of the Faith and a good conscience used to lay hold after they had foregone the benefit received in Baptism to keep them up from sinking in the depth of despair from being overwhelmed in the bottomless Ocean of sin and judgment
did eat drink and sit down together at the self-same Table And therefore unto these and such Texts as these which speak of eating and drinking or sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven there cannot be given a better answer than that which Christ returned to the captious Saduces viz. That in the Kingdom of Heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God And if they are as the Angels of God there shall be neither eating nor drinking then we are sure of that Nor is it like that glorified and immortal Bodies alimoniis terrenis sustentanda sint can be sustained with corruptible and earthly food For as Ierom very well inferreth Vbi cibus sequuntur morbi c. Where there is meat there will be sickness where there is sickness death will follow and after that another Resurrection is to be expected and then another thousand years to be added to that Et sic de coeteris As for those passages alleged from the Revelation if they be literally understood they seem to be expresly for the Millenarians but then withal it draweth after it such inconsequences as plainly overthrow their whole foundation For I hope they will provide themselves of a better Supper Than to eat the flesh of Kings and the flesh of Captains and the flesh of Mighty-men and the flesh of Horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men both bond and free and small and great Such chear and such an earthly paradise as they seem to dream of will agree but ill I must desire to be excused for calling it a Dream of an earthly paradise for I am verily perswaded that it is no other It hangs upon such doubtful proofs and is so differently reported by the Patrons of it that never sick-mans dream was more incoherent Which that we may the better see and see withal how every one added somewhat of his own unto it according as the strength or weakness of his fancy led him I shall put down a memorable passage of Gennadius which most fully speaks it In divinis repromissionibus nihil terrenum vel transitorium expectamus sicut Melitani sperant Non nuptiarum copulam sicut Cerinthus Marcus delirant Non quod ad cibum vel ad potum pertinet sicut Papiae Autori Irenaeus Tertullianus Lactantius acquiescunt Neque per mille Annos Resurrectionem regnum Christi in terra futurum Sanctos cum illo in deliciis regnaturos speramus sicut Nepos docuit qui primam justorum Resurrectionem secundam impiorum confinxit By which we see that Melito did fancy onely a transitory and earthly Kingdom Cerinthus and Marcus introduced the use of the marriage-bed Papias seemed to be content with eating and drinking and Nepos found out the distinction to make all compleat between the first and second Resurrection making the first to be onely of the just and righteous the second of the wicked and impenitent sinner after the end or expiration of the thousand years This is the Genealogie or Pedigree of this Opinion which hath of late begun to revive among us and findes not onely many followers but some Champions also Whom I desire more seriously to consider in their better thoughts whether this their supposed Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour commended to the world by some Antient Writers gave not the first hint unto Mahomets Paradise In which he promiseth to those who observe his Law most delicious dwellings adorned with flowery Fields watered with Chrystalline Rivers and beautified with Trees of Gold under whose comfortable shade they shall spend their time with amorous Virgins and be possessed of all voluptuous delights which to a sensual minded-man are the greatest happiness I know that some of late times and of eminent note have given us this opinion in a better dress delivering upon probable grounds That before the end of the world there shall be a time in which the Church of Christ shall flourish for a thousand years in greater purity and power both for faith and manners and in more outward lustre and external glory than hitherto it hath done in all former ages Coelius Secundus Curio in his Book De Amplitudine Regni Dei P. Cunaeus in that De Repub. Iudaeorum Du Moulin in his Christian Combat Piscator in his Comment on the Revelation Alstedius in a Tract of his called Diatribe de mille Annis Apocalypticis and divers others not inferior unto them for parts and learning have declared for it And for my part I see no danger in assenting to it If this will satisfie the Millenarians they shall take me with them but if they stand too stifly to their former tendries and look not for this flourishing time of the Gospel till the Resurrection of the just be first accomplished and then expect to have their part and portion in the pleasures of it I must then leave them to themselves The method of my Creed doth perswade me otherwise which from the Resurrection of the Body leads me on immediately unto the joys and glories of eternal everlasting life to which now I hasten I know it doth much trouble many pious and sober men to finde the force and efficacy of our Saviours Argument in the place foregoing which seems more plainly to assert the Immortality of the Soul than the Resurrection of the Body the bodies of Abraham Isaac and Iacob being dissolved into dust in the time of Moses though their souls were living with their God Concerning which we are to know 1. That the Sadduces by whom this Question was propounded did not alone deny the Resurrection of the dead but so as to affirm withal Animas cum corporibus extingui That the Soul it self did also perish with the body as Iosephus tells us They said that there was neither Angel nor Spirit as St. Luke says of them 2. That though the Pharisees who were their opposite faction in the latter end of the Iewish state did grant a Resurrection or Reviviscency from the dead yet was it after such an Animal and Carnal sense in eating drinking and conversing with women In qua cibo potu opus esset conjugia rursum jungerentur c. saith my Author of them as the Mahometans now dream of in their sensual paradise And against this absurd opinion as indeed it was the Sadduces had found out that Argument about a woman which had or might have had seven Husbands by the Law of Moses whose writings onely they received as Canonical Scripture desiring to be satisfied in their curiosity to which of the seven she should be wife at the Resurrection Which when the Pharisees could not answer as keeping to those principles indeed they could not they thought to put our Saviour to it at the self-same weapon But they found there another manner of Spirit than what had spoken to them by and