named haue vnderstoode this place so dooth Erasmus writing on the fourth Chapter of the Ephe. certainlye this is the thing that the Palsmists by the inspiration of the holy ghost spake of so long agoe for Christ hauing already conquered the hell is ascended aliue againe into the high kingdome of his Father And a little after he addeth after most low humbling followeth most high aduauncing from the most high heauens then the which nothing is higher he deiected himselfe euen into the hell the which nothing is lower When Mare Magdalene came to Christ Ioh. 20. 17. Christ saith to her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but to goe to my brethren and say vnto them Iascend vnto my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God Héer the truth it selfe saith he had not yet ascended into heauen whosoeuer therefore affirmeth the contrary affirmeth an vntruth They wil answere Christ was not ascended in respect of his body but I reply if Christs soule being the principall parte of the humanitye had béene in heauen as they imagine then this speach is vntrue marke my reason for in death when both partes are sundered a man is saide to be where his soule is and not where his body is for the man taketh his name of the principall parte In this forte Christ saith Mat. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen Héere you sée because the soules of those Patriarkes are in heauen they themselues are saide to be in heauen Euen so if Christs soule were in heauen Christ was in heauen and then this saying can not be verefied I haue not yet ascended to my Father for Christ ascended visibly and for this cause willeth Mary to goe tell his brethren whome he calleth to this action as witnesses For as the time of his ascending is noted to be forty dayes after his resurrection and the place to be Bethaniel and that on a mountaine that it might the more esily be séen and y e maner of his going to be meruelous for he was carried vp in a clowde so his faithfull Disciples and glorious Angels were witnesses of his triumphant ascension into heauen Out of these Scriptures this I conclude as Christ was borne but once dyed but once was buried but once so he did but once descend into hell once arise from the dead and once ascended into heauen and but once shall come into iudgement But if the soule of Christ went presently into heauen thē not only this absurditie followeth that he ascended before he descended but also that there are two ascendings of Christ into heauen the one inuisible of his soule the other visible of his body Ignatius who died in the yéere of our Lord 112. For he was cast to beastes to be deuoured this Father lyuing in the time of Policarpus who was Scholler to Iohn Euangelist in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis thus writeth Christ descended into hell alone but he ascended with a multitude Athanasius in his Créed saith who suffered for our saluation and descended into hell and interpreting the 2. Cor. 6. he saith Satan was enuyous against our Sauiour for he killed him not knowing it would be against himselfe for Christ after his crosse going downe into hell hath vanquished death and because he knew no sinne he could not be holden of death so saith Ambrose in his exposition on the 3 Chap. of the Galathians for when they thought y t he should be slaine that he might not teach they profited nothing for his doctryne encreased and he euacuated death in his passion for descending into hell he deliuered mankinde for that cause he suffered himselfe to be murdered knowing that he was for vs against the Diuell And the same Father writing on the 1. Tim. 2. chap. thus confirmeth this doctrine because man now reconciled to God was subiect to infernall death that he could not ascend to God to whom he was reconciled our Sauiour to bring his will to effect suffered himselfe to dye against lawe that descending into hell he might condemne death for the impiety it wrought on him taking away from death those which he hid holde that from hencefoorth whatsoeuer had the signe thereof shovld not be detayned therewith of which thing he shewed a testimony when he arose Therefore to ende these woords into thy hands I commend my spirite doo not shew vs the state of Christs soule but sheweth vs how we must pray in all our tribulations and in the houre of death For the soule of Christ no doubt was in hell but this consider that spirite héere signifieth the soule which in S. Peter they will in no wise confesse Farther where it is obiected that Cyprian saith it is left out of the Créed of the Romane and orientall Church I answere that is not Cyprians woorke for in that treatise is mention made of the Arryans who began their error vnder Constantine the great in the yéere 320. But Cyprian was put to death vnder Valerian in the yéere of our Lord God 249. Therfore Ciprian being dead almost an hundred yéers before that heresie sprāg vp could not write of Arrians for Cyprian is of my opinion as it shal appeare by this y t followeth For in his sermon of the ascending of Christ into heauen he vttereth his iudgement thus Christ did once descend into hel and goeth down into hell no more they shall not sée God no more on the crosse nor those that are damned in hell And in other places he proueth the descension of Christ into hell by the 16. Psalme and by the text of the 1. Pet. 3. Chapter before by me alleadged which héer I omit for breuities sake It is farther obiected that this article is left out of the Nicene créed true it is so Athanasius créed lacketh the buriall Hieroms ad Damas. lacketh it also Tertullian leaueth out in his Créede the catholique Church the resurrection of the flesh and life euerlasting Cirill maketh mention only of the trynity and leaueth out all the rest of the articles therfore this is the answere ab authoritate humana negatiué non valet argumentum It is no good reasoning from the authority of man negatiuely Séeing then that this article is proued by many and manifest Scriptures and by the generall consent of the pure and primitiue Church to beléeue it is safety to deny it peruersely is infidelity Last of all because it hath béen confidently auouched that all the reformed Churches beyond the Seas allowe not this doctrine I will therefore héere reproue that allegation as most false and vntrue First as before I haue proued that Aepnius Luther and the authors of the Centuries confirme this doctrine so héer I will adde to them Pomeranus who trauailed much in the reformation of the Churches of Germany who thus in his exposition of the
in omnibus protectionis tuae muniamur auxilio By whose merites and praiers we pray thée graunt that we may in all things be defended by the aide of thy protection Farther it is finished as concerning the labour and sorrow he tooke in the world for he was sent to preach the Gospell Luk. ◠18. And therfore he went about doing good vnto al. Act. 10. 38. And when he saw Hierusalem which had killed all the Prophets and would kill him also he wept and sorrowed all this labour and sorrowe was finished It is finished also is referred to y e time that Christ was appointed to be amongst men It is finished also is referred to the paines of the body and the soule which he suffered on the crosse which both were finished And last of all it is finished is referred to his obedience for he obeyed as Bernard noteth gladly without spurning simply without dissimulation chéerefully without grudging spéedily without tarrying manfully without estimation of himselfe humbly without presuming and persenerantly in life and death without ceasing Al these interpretations I haue read and doo allow off by which it is manyfest that whatsoeuer was to be doone at the death of Christ was finished The high Priests had taken their counsel Iudas had betraied him the only sacrifice was offered all labour was ended he was entring into rest all sorrowe was turned into ioy the time of his humilitye was at an end he should shortly be exalted the paines and sorrowes of bodye and soule were ended therfore both of them must triumph ouer death and hell he fulfilled euery iotte and title of the Lawe and hath yéelded a pure perfect and perpetuall obedience vnto God his Father both in life and in death therfore euery knée both in heauen earth and hell must bow and obey to him S. Paul saith Hèb. 9. 22. Without shedding of bloud there is no forgiuenes of sinnes If all had béen finished when Christ said it is finished then there néeded no shedding of bloud which as Iohn saith 1. Ioh. 1. 7. purgeth vs from all our sinnes Therfore this is my resolution with Ferus on this Psalme there remained many thinges to be fulfilled as yet namelye his death the opening of his side his buriall the destruction of hell which also were foretolde in the Scriptures but because they were now in the worke of consumation therefore he saith it is finished And a little after there remained also y e resurrection ascension of Christ and sending of the holy Ghoste but these things pertayne to his victory not to his sight and they are rewardes for his fight not labours Moreouer as yée read in the birth of Christ Mat. 1. 22. All this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled So likewise something was to be fulfilled in his ascension Ephe. 4. 10. He that descended is euen the same that ascended farre aboue all heauens to fulfill all things So some thinges are to be fulfilled in the generall iudgement for Paul saith 1. Cor. 15. 5. 4. then shal be brought to passe the saying that is written O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory And therefore Ferus well saith in the same place that our saluation is finished spe non re in hope not in déed For Christ did saý all thinges were finished in such sorte as the Lambe is said to be flaine from the beginning of the worlde not because he was then manifestly slaine but because the killing of Christ was cast forward euen vnto Adam the first man and was spread backward euen vnto the consummation of the worlde and thus our saluation is finished not fullye in déede but in hope This is to be proued by a plaine scripture and so I will end Ioh. 17. 4. Christ saith I haue glorified thee on earth I haue finished the worke which thou gauest me to doo As in this Scripture the woord I haue finished signifieth the woorke to be in finishing so dooth it in 19. of Iohn There is alledged also a place of out of the 2. of the Hebrews 39. verse For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself took parte with them that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the diuell Out of this place they thus argue Christ by his death destroyed the diuell therefore his descending into hell was néedlesse In this argumēt is fallacia aidicto secundum quid ad simpliciter for it is not meant that the diuell is already destroyed but that he might be destroyed For this we read Apoc. 12. 12. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the Sea for the diuell is come downe to you which hath great wrath knowing that he hath but a short time And in the Epistle of Iude the 6. verse The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserued iu euerlasting chaines vnto darkenes vnto the iudgement of the great day Therefore S. Paul praieth that we may tread down Satan vnder our feete Rom. 16. 20. And in an other place he saith that he is a spirite which now worketh in the children of disobedience Ephe. 22. in the 2. of Tim. 2. 26. he saith The wicked are taken in the snare of the diuell and holden at his will In the 2. Cor. 2. 4. he affirmeth That the God of this world hath blynded the eyes of the infidels that the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ which is the image of God should not shine vnto them In the. 1. Pet. 5 6. The diuell is a roaring Lyon going about seeking whome hee may deuoure In the Reuelation 12. 9. 10. verse the diuell is called a dragon an olde Serpent Satan that is a tempter and an accuser All which phrases shew that albeit the diuell hath nothing to doo in Christ yet he snareth blindeth and deuoureth the wicked he accuseth slaundereth tempteth the godly Origen saith in the person of almighty God if my seruant Iob had not béen holy and a worthy man and one that pleased me well thou wouldest neuer haue enuyed him thou hast not enuyed Esau nor Ismael thou wilt not enuy Saul or Achitophel or Doeg or any of them which haue fulfilled thy peruerse wil but thou hast from the beginning of the world enuyed all my seruants and Saints as Abel Ioseph and now Iob himselfe and al other calling on me sincerely It is manifest therefore that the diuel raigneth in the wicked and assaulteth alwaies the godly Therfore the vtter destruction of our euemies shal be in the generall iudgement now they are destroyed in hope then in déed now they are destroyed in fieri thē in facto esse This is proued by S. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death Upon which place Peter Martir sheweth who are our enemies 1. the diuell
Yorke and being requested to deliuer my iudgement in the matter not by M. Chalfoult but by one Richard Woodlands to set vnity betwixt my brethren and not to warre against M. Wisedome in the feare of God and not to please you or your friend or any other man I layd downe my iudgement and gaue vp my Sermon in writing to M. Wisedome crauing an answere to the whole and not to some part of it Now you haue made an answere to some how truly it shall appeare and other things you haue left vnanswered for what cause let the reader iudge In the end you charge me with wit which is small with eloquence which is none and with my promise which I will kéepe most willinglie hoping that you will kéepe yours Humes Sectio 2. Wherefore to grow to the matter I see no cause why you should thinke better of Augustine and Ierome then of Beza and Caluine for they were all but men and they which now are old were sometimes new They had no better warrant of Gods spirit than these and errors in those dayes were so thicke sowen that there grew darnell in the best fieldes euen of them whome wee most admire I speake not this to discredit the Fathers but to proue that they were no Gods They were no doubt the good instruments of our louing God to maintaine his truth against his enemies but they were but men you can not deny but the best of them had his steynes and must confesse that God is infinitely wise who did before hand ordaine it least we might honor them for Gods and set their writings in the place of his eternall word whereof one iot shall not passe though heauen and earth perish Hill Two arguments you make against Augustine and Ierome The one is they had errors and therefore their interpretation not to be admitted The other is the time wherein they liued was corrupt and for that cause they are not to be alledged in a controuersy of Diuinitie The same argument I make against all new writers All new writers haue errors and they liue in a most corrupt time wherein as Christ saith shall be many false Prophets and many false Christs to deceiue the very elect if it were possible Math. 24. 24. Therefore because men are vaine and the time corrupt we must beléeue no man You argue ab accidente ad subiectum For Augustine and Ierome to erre it is an accident but the substance of all Fathers is to beget men in the word of truth 1. Cor. 4. 15. And for this cause Augustine himselfe willeth vs not to beléeue him vnlesse he bring the word of God Truly sayth Augustine I do desire not only a godly reader but a frée corrector in all my writings especially in those things where there is great doubt but as I will not haue him to be geuen vnto me so I will not haue him to be giuen to himselfe let him not loue me more then the Catholike faith As I say to him beléeue not my sayings as Canonicall Scriptures but beléeue stedfastly when thou hast found that which thou beléeuedst not but beléeue not firmely that which thou hast not séene out of Gods word So I say to him do not correct my writings by thine owne opinion or of contention but by the word of God by the reason thereof vncontrouleable And against Cresconius the Grammarian he thus writeth lib. 2. cap. 32. I am not moued with the authoritie of this epistle but I cousider them out of the Canonicall bookes and if they agrée with the word of God I receiue them with praise if they disagrée I refuse them with peace The like he hath Epist. 3. and Epist. 112. And Ierome ad Theoph. is of the same iudgement I knowe that I estéeme otherwise the Apostles and otherwise other interpreters these men speake truth alwayes these men in some things do erre sometime These Fathers themselues confesse themselues to be but men and will vs to beléeue them no farther then they agrée with Gods word Therefore they building vpon Christ aswell as your new ought to be beléeued rather in this point than they for what they wrote in this controuersy the same did all other godly Interpreters both Gréek and Latin hauing a good warrant from Gods word But those of your side write contrary to Gods word to the auncient Fathers yea and contrary to the new Fathers namely Luther Selueccer Chytraeus Pomeran Aepinus Lucas Lossius Alesius Aretius Peter Martyr M. Fox and M. Nowell Therefore because Augustine and Ierome agrée both with the old and new writers and especially with the word of God I like better of them teaching the affirmatiue then of any other labouring to prooue the negatiue To end therefore you must note this that all sayings of the Fathers either they are demonstratiue out of the Scriptures and then they are the voyce of God or else probable and these are the voice of man or else false and then they are the voyce of the Serpent Humes Sectio tertia Their weakenes is no where more apparant then in this matter that we haue now in hand for Ierome ioyneth his opinion herein with a palpable error that Christ descended to deliuer the Fathers which to that day had bin in prison Augustine is not far behinde him who though he confesseth that the Fathers were in ioy with Abraham and Lazarus yet after some long disputatiō whether he did deliuer all or some and why these more then those at length he concludeth that he did deliuer whom he himselfe thought good For after that they had once conceaued that he descended into Hell there followed which could not choose many inconueniences There was not one of them dreamed that which you auouch that he descended into hell there to triumph or bind the diuels or to augmēt their sorrows by shewing them from what grace they had fallen Hill You write that Ierome Augustine did hold a palpable error that is that Christ descended to deliuer the Fathers I hope you will not deny but the Fathers haue their deliuerance by Christ from hell therefore by the merits and works of Christ who I am sure conquered both death and hell Therefore where you proue that Augustine Ierome do erre I will leaue them as I said before but wherein they speake the truth I will praise God for them But let vs see how many wayes the scripture may be corrupted that is by adding altring and diminishing Eue in the third Chap. of Genesis taught all her childrē so to do for in the 3. verse thus she saith But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the gardē God hath said ye shal not eate of it neither shall ye touch it least ye dye First she changeth the word of God for God sayth Gen. 2. 17. of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt not eate Those words of the trée of knowledge of good and euill she changeth
the earth and shalt sleepe in the midst of the vncircumcised These two places by your leaue can not be well meant of hell The text doth shewe plainly that heere is rest and quietnes in the place that heere is spoken of but I hope you will not say that there is any great rest or quietnes in hell In all these places Erets Tacthioth cannot signifye any thing but the graue The same word is vsed also in the 139. Psal. 14. verse My bones are not hid from thee though I was made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth Heere the Prophet I beleeue doth not say of himselfe that hee was fashioned in hell which must needs be if your assertion were true that those Hebrew words doo signify hell as commōly as hell in the english doth note that place Here Beza doth well obserue that the place of the Apostle which you alleage may fitly be applyed to the sence of this place and doth note vnto vs the descension of Christ into the womb of the virgin for Erets Tachioth out of all question doth signifye his mothers womb Hill First you say the place quoted by me Syrac 24. 37. maketh not for the proofe of my assertion If you had considered what went before and what followeth you would haue bin of another minde For before in the 8. verse it is sayd I alone haue gon round about al the compasse of heauen and haue walked in the bottome of the depth Which depth Pellicanus a learned writer doth interprete abyssum mortis inferorum the depth of death and hell Yea the whole Chapter speaketh of the Sonne of God and of his wondrous works in sauing mankinde of the which this is one that he was not only aliue among the liuing but after death his body was among the dead bodies and his soule among the soules in hell which he calleth the lower partes The like scripture to this is in Iob. 38. 16 17. Hast thou entred into the bottom of the sea or hast thou walked to seke out the depth haue the gates of death bin opened vnto thee or hast thou seene the gates of the shadowe of death These words are thus opened by Martin Borrhauius in his learned Commentaries vpon Iob. I haue dwelled in the highest places and my throne is in the pillar of the cloudes I haue gone round about the compasse of heauen aboue and haue walked in the flouds of the sea I pearce through all the lower parts of the earth Haue those in hell or the dead bin searched out of thée and doost thou knowe their state and condition and what shall happen to their bodies hereafter and what doth happen to their soules now The force of death and of hell he maketh manifest by the name of gates as it is manifest in that scripture and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against thée By these words it is euident that the nethermost parts of the earth Syrac 24 37. and Zalmaueth the Hebrew word Iob. 38 17. doo signifye hell and that none but the Sonne of God aboue hath personally shewed himselfe in all these places For the place in Ezechiel that it maketh most significantly for my purpose I will proue it by Esay Ezechiel and diuers other both learned modest writers Esay handling the same matter saith 14 9. Hell beneath is moued for thee to meete thee at thy cōming And Ezechiel in the 15. and 16. verses calleth it hell plainly Sith then both the prophets call it hell how dare you to interpret it graue But that the nethermost parts of the earth do signify hell I prooue it out of the 12. ver of Ezechiel And the strangers haue destroyd him euen the terrible nations and they haue left him vpon the mountaines and in all the valleis his branches are broken Munster on this place saith that by the branches are vnderstoode the carcasses of his hoast which the beasts of the field did deuoure Lauaterus the Minister of Tigurine agréeth with him All the beasts of the field shall dwell vpon his ruine the kings carkas shall not be laid vp into the sepulcher of his elders but shal be a pray to crowes griphins and to other carniuorous birds So doth Pellican a learned Linguist interpret this place At the last there is an auersion or apostrophe to Pharao himselfe or to the Assyrian King To whom art thou likened O thou noble and high among the trées of pleasure thou hast passed all other in power and yet with other kings that were in thy company they were brought to the lowermost parts of the earth that is to hell among the abhominable heathen shalt thou sléepe and lye as a wretched and miserable man Now because you take hold of the word sléepe you must remember that these words are spoken ironically as it is noted in the contents of the 14. Chap. of Esay The derision of the king of Babilon Moreouer Lauaterus on this place of Ezekiel saith These things may be better vnderstood out of the 14. Chap. of Esay which prophecying of the destruction of the king of Babilon Baltassar describeth with what bitter scoffs he is entertained in hell To ende Lauaterus on this place proueth these foure things first that there is an hell secondly that hell in this chapter is called by thrée names that is 1. Sheol 2. Erets Tacthioth 3. and Bor. Hell the lowest parts of the earth and a pit thirdly that this hell is beneath vs and lastly that the tyrants and wicked of the world doo descend into it and this he proueth out of Numb the 16 33. Psal 55 15. And addeth also that Tertullian and Ierome doo prooue hell to be beneath in the earth The conclusion then is thus forasmuch then as the Assyrians dyed with the sword were deuoured of the beasts birds of the field I pray tell me how that can be true that you affirme that the lowest partes of the earth doth signifye the graue for how were they in the graue that were neuer buried therefore they were in hell as both Esay and Ezechiel doo affirme and as Pellican Munster and Lauater thrée notable learned men in the holy toong doo interpret it I thinke your owne friends when they reade this will confesse you either to be ignorant of the word of God or else to wrest it cōtrary to the meaning of the holie ghost Moreouer where you mislike with me because I said that Erets Tacthioth that is the lowermost parts of the earth doth signifye hell generally in the Hebrew toong and you bring an instance out of the 139. Psal. and 14. verse where you prooue that the lower parts of y e earth doth signifie the mothers womb and therefore it doth not signifie hell alwaies this is a childish reason In a metaphoricall signification it signifieth the mothers womb therefore in his proper signification it can not signifie hell Argumentum a metaphora ductum non valet an argument drawen