soeuer are punishments of our first sinne inflicted on Adam and all his posteritie whiles here they liue is newes to none but to you Saint Austen saith Sunt duo tortores animae Timor Dolor There are two tormentors of the Soule sorrow and feare Now torment without sinne the Soule should neuer haue had Fnding then sorrow and feare in the Soule of Christ by the witnesse of the Gospell though the cause thereof be not expressed I resolued that Christ tasted these which were punishments of sin by their first institution as well as other our infirmities of Soule and Body What followeth hereupon That these were proper punishments inflicted on Christ by Gods very wrath Who saith so You or I They are your words in deed but no way mine It followeth you say euidently from my words As how Christ was not free from SORROVV and feare and these were punishments of our first offence ergo what Ergo the whole Question is granted in a word Ergo fooles might flee but for want of wings The Question is whether Christ died the death of the Soule or suffered the paine of the damned You heare me say Christ sorrowed and feared as also he hungred in the desert and thirsted on the Crosse which likewise came into mans nature as punishments of sinne will it hence follow that hunger and thirst are the paines of hell No more doe sorrow and feare inferre the whole Question except in a mad moode you will auouch that no man can feare or sorrow vnlesse he suffer the paines of the damned and death of the Soule But Christ suffered these as a punishment of our sinnes you will say And so did he those For though euery thing which he suffered did not yeeld satisfaction for our sinnes because death was required to make the full paiment thereof yet euery infirmitie and miserie that he felt consequent to our condition were receaââ¦ed in him as punishments for sinne fastned to our nature and state I feare you meane his holy affections as deuotion to God and compassion to men Were there any sufferings in Christ that were vnholy Would you haue him afraid that he was or should be reiected and condemned of God Or sorrow for the losse of Gods grace and sauour in him selfe That were vnholinesse in deede to be in any sort so affected and without hainous blasphemie you can not suspect that of Christ. But his paine you thinke was infinite Then was his patience and obedience the more religious and pretious in Gods sight wheresoeuer he felt the paine either in Soule or in Body or in both And when you haue said what you can and deuised what you will except you will weaken Christs faith hope and loue in God which without sinne can not be you must leaue feare and sorrow in him to be naturall and holy affections and no way defiled with our sinne The obiect or cause of Christs feare is that you would speake of if you could tell what to make of it but you dare not depart from your couert of Gods very wrath and proper punishment for sinne least you should vtter as many absurditics as syllables That feare and sorrow then were affections in Christ I thinke no man doubteth besides you and that they were in him most holy you dare not deny least to folly you should ioyne heresie and so notwithstanding your feare what I meane sorrow and feare in Christ were most holy affections whatsoeuer the occasions of his feare and sorrow were If they were affections common to Body and Soule how then were they punishments proper to the Sonle I vse not PROPER as you doe for that which is peculiar to the Soule and not imparted to the Body for so no feare nor sorow is proper to the Soule in this life and least of all Christs whose Body no doubt was afflicted with the feare of his minde which as you thinke astonished and ouerwhelmed all the powers of Christs Soule and senses of his Body but I take proper for that which first beginneth in the Soule though it after offend the Body Otherwise the Body feeleth nothing which doth not affect the Soule neither is there any feare or sorrow in the Soule which is not impressed on the Body The sorrow of this world worketh death saith the Apostle which it could not do but by changing and decaying the Body and godly sorrow for sinne though it make a deepe impression in Soule and Body yet the pardon of sinne and comfort of grace doe more reuiue the spirits then sorrow doth quench them and so that hurteth not mans life as worldly sorrow doth But why cite I the Fathers that Christ did not feare either death or hell Forsooth because you and your friends make that the cause of Christs feare and Agonie though now you hide it vnder the name of Gods proper wrath And if it be an absurd impudent and impious assertion to say that Christ trembled or doubted for feare of hell as due to him or determined for him what is it then to defend that he did and must suffer the very paines of the damned and of hell before we could be redeemed If he did not feare it how could he suffer it since he was not ignorant what should befall him A naturall feare you say he had of death and hell A disliking and declining of hell Christ might haue as well for him selfe as for vs that were ioyned in one Body with him but a doubtfull feare what should be the end of him selfe or his sufferings he could not haue The weaknesse of mans nature might also iustly tremble and shake at the might and power of God prouoked with our sinnes which were to be answered and ranfomed by his Body but other feare Christ could haue none and these I trust be religious submissions and not amazed confusions such as you put in the Soule of Christ. You come now to your fortifying of your speciall reasons not speciall for any more excellencie in them then in the rest which you may safely sweare but for that they more specially touched the question as you say though you neuer offered to come necre it To the words of Esay the Prophet by you cited that Christ bare our iniquities and sustained our sorowes themselues I answered shortly the words made nothing to your purpose the text did not expresse whether Christ sustained all or some What now replie you I meane all and euery whit so farre as possibilitie will admit Keepe your meaning to make sawsigies as I aske not after it so I little regard it How prooue you the Prophet meant so Not by his words for they are not generall what other helpe you haue to come by his meaning I would gladly heare The verie text expresseth so much WITH GREAT EMPHASIS Christ bare our sorowes themselues You shew your skill when you come to your proofs for first this is no Emphasis and were it how prooue
because it is neuer inflicted but after the first death and likewise wrath to come for that the state of this present life is not capable of thââ¦se extreame torments which are reserued for another world And least I should seeme to make degrees and parts of eternall death out of mine owne head let vs briefly view whether the word of God do not witnesse the same There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth sayth Christ when you shall see Abraham Isaac and Iacob and aâ⦠the Prophets in the kingdome of God and your selues thrust out at doores Many of those that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake sayth Daniel to perpetuall shame and reproch Their worme shall neuer die sayth Esay The Lord that willed his good and faithfull seruants to enter into their masters ioy when he came to the slouthfull and vnprofitable seruant commanded to be taken from him euen that he had and to cast him into vtter darkenesse The Iudge himselfe forwarneth he will giue this sentence on the wicked in the last day Depart from ââ¦e ye cursed into euerlasting ââ¦ire prepared for the diuell and his angels They shall be tormented in fire and brimstone sayth Iohn and the smoke of their torments shall ascââ¦nd euermore and they shall haue no rest night nor day This is that euerlasting perdition and vengeance of eternall fire which the wicked shall suffer in hell and this is the full and complete punishment and wages of sinne repaying the reprobate according to their deserts when their sinnes come once to that ripenesse and fulnesse that they may no longer be endured by Gods iustice the two former kinds of deaths in this world being such as are either despised or desired by the wicked For nothing is more acceptable to them than without all feare or care of God to follow their willes and pursue their lusts which iâ⦠the death of the soule and the death of the bodie which they can not decline they labour to neglect and though they murmuâ⦠at God for it as if man had beene framed at first mortall yet finde they no great hurt in it because they know not the sequel of it and perceiue it to be common to good and badde and to leaue no sense of paine behinde it And indeed the outward punishments of this life are by Gods bountie and patience so tempered not only with comfort to the godly but with moderation to the wicked that they warne all men to feare and flie the wrath to come and giue time and place for amendment The old inhabitants of the holy land thou Lord diddest hââ¦te sayth the Wiseman for they committed abominable works as sorceries and wicked sacrifices neuerthelesse thou sparedst them also as men and didst send the forerunners of thine host euen hornets to root them out not that thou couldest not destroy them with one rough word but in punishing them by little and little thou gauest them space to repent The Apostle sayth the same Despisest thou the riches of Gods bountie and patience and long suffering not knowing that the bountie of God leadeth thee to repentance but thou after thine hardnesse and heart that can not repent heapest vnto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and of the declaration of the iust iudgement of God who will reward euery man according to his works The wrath of God is also diuersly taken in the Scriptures sometimes for the inward dislike and hatred that God in his holinesse hath of all iniquitie sometimes for his iudgements threatned or executed against sinne whether they be tempered with loue or patience to worke or expect repentance as in his owne and in this life or proportioned to the deserts of wicked and impenitent sinners for substraction of grace as to the reprobate in this world or infliction of vengeance as to the danmed in hell Such is the holinesse of God that he can loue no wickednesse but by nature and of necessity doth and must hate all vnrighteousnesse in whomsoeuer Thou art not a God that loueth wickednesse sayth Dauid neither shall euill dwell with thee What fellowship hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse or what communion hath light and darknesse What fauour then and allowance should iniquitie finde with God that is the very fountaine and flaming fire of all holinesse To declare Gods perfect hatred against all sinne as well of the faithfull as faithlesse the Scripture witnesseth not only that his soule abhorreth the outrages of the wicked which are an abomination vnto him but also that he is displeased and grieued with the sinnes euen of his elect These things the Lord hateth sayth Salomon yea his soule abhorreth them All these are the things that I hate saith the Lord by the Prophet Zacharie The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all them that worke iââ¦iquitie sayth Dauid to God The Lord will abhorre the cruell and deceitfull man Yea God is displeased and grieued with his owne when they sinne against him The Lord saw it sayth Moses and was stirred to anger with the prouocation of his sonnes and his daughters When Dauid had slaine Vriah and taken home his wife the thing displeased the eies of the Lord sayth the Scripture Likewise when he numbred the people God was displeased with that deed Esay remembring the mercies of the Lord towards the house of Israel sayth hee was their Sauiour in all their troubles he was troubled and the angell of his presence saned them but they rebelled and grieued the spirit of his holinesse The Apostle confirmeth the same Grieue not the Holy spirit by whom ye are sealed vnto the day of Redemption Then as the loue of all righteousnesse is a naturall and necessarie consequent to Gods holinesse so the dislike and hatred of all sinne is rightly and properly appertinent to his diuine puritie neither must the godly take it for an improper kinde of speech but fully beleeue and plainely confesse that God is truely and greatly displeased with their sinnes lest in their hearts they bring him within compasse of liking or allowing their vncleannesse and when they repent they must not onely tremble at the prouoking of so righteous and fearefull a Iudge but chiefly sorrow for the displeasing and offending the holinesse of so gratious and louing a father This dislike and detestation of disobedience euen in his owne children which God of his holinesse hath the Scripture often expresseth by the name of Anger though no punishment follow The Lord was very angrie with Moses sayth the Scripture when he so long refused to goe at Gods appointment to deliuer the children of Israel out of Aegypt God was likewise verie angrie with Aaron and Miriam his sister for speaking against Moses though Aaron was not punished for it and Miriam quickely healed of her leprosie So God himselfe professed to Eliphaz the Temanite saying My wrath is
members and vitall parts is so weake that they are not able to sustaine the force which bringeth great or most sharpe paine Which Chrysostome also confiââ¦meth Name fiââ¦e if thou wilt the sword or wilde beasts and if any thing be more grieuous than these yet are these scant a shadow to the torments of hell And these when they grow vehement are easiest and soonest dispatch men the body not sufficing to suffer a sharpe paine any long while Your hell paines then are not very sharpe which the wicked may suffer so many yeres in this life and not forsake either food or sleepe Yet Christ did feele you say Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne and that only you know though you cââ¦n not expresse the maner or measure of his feeling it And it was discerned and conceiââ¦ed by Christ to be such and so did wound the soule properly yea chiefly though it were outwardly executed on his bodic The wrath and vengeance of God due to sinne and generally to all mankinde for sinne is spirituall corporall and eternall death with all the seeds and fruits of death that is the losse of all earthly and heauenly blessings in this life and the next and the depth of perpetuall miââ¦ery in body and soule here and in hell This is the true wages and full payment of sinne and though God of his bountie and patience do often remit to the wicked in this life a great part of this ãâã in things tempo all yet when he inflicteth on them the miseries and calaââ¦ities of this life he giueth them their due And as for spirituall and eternall death now and hereafter it is so proper and certaine to the reprobate that not one of them shall eââ¦cape eââ¦ther Spirituall death is blindnesse and hardnesse of heart working all vncleââ¦nnesse euen with greedinesse which sheweth men to be strangers from the life of God and ãâã ãâã as past all sense and feeling of God Eternall death the Scripture calleth WRATH TO COME because no man suffereth the full force and waââ¦ght thereof in this life but as it is the second death so it followeth in men after the first death which ââ¦euereth the soule from the bodââ¦e Yee vipers broââ¦d sayd Iohn Baptist to the Pharises and Sadduââ¦s who hath taught you thus to flââ¦e from the wrath to come Iesus sayth Paul deliuereth vs from the wrath to come In this life the wicked may haue a fearefull expectation but no present execution of this iudgement there is a day of ââ¦rath euen the reuelation of the ââ¦st iudgement of God when euery man shall be rewarded according to his works and a violent fire shall dââ¦uoure the aduersaries This wrath by the Scriptures is reserued for the vessels of wrath for euer and shall be executed on them with indignation furie and fire not onely because the wrath of God against the wicked burneth lââ¦ke fire but for that it shall be powred on them with flaming and euerlasting fire The effects whereof are reiection malediction confusion desperation and such lââ¦ke which neuer accompanie saluation To say that Christ suffered this kinde of wrath which is the true and proper wages of sinne is horrible and hellish blasphemie which I hope no Christian man will aduenture From the spirituall death of the soule which is the wrath of God reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men and bringeth with it the losse of all grace and goodnesse in this life and consequently leaueth the pollution and dominion of sinne in the soule of man our Lord and master must be as free as from damnation the one being alwayes a necessary consequent to the other Displeasure and wrath against Christes person God neuer had nor could haue any Christ being his owne and only sonne and so deerely beloued that for his sake Gods most iust and most heauie wrath against the sinnes of all his elect did calme and asswage for Gods inward loue doth not admit contrarieties or changes as mans doth all Gods counsels wayes and wo kes being absolutely perfect and constant chiefly towards his owne sonne whom he naturally infinitly and euerlastingly loueth in the same degree that he doth himselfe and therefore no more possible there should be in god any displeasure or dislike conceiued of his sonne for bearing the sinnes of the world or for what cause soeuer than of himselfe And since the humane nature of Christ was by Gods owne wisdome will and worke ioyned into the vnitie of the person of his sonne and made one and the same Christ with his Godhead no cause nor course whatsoeuer could alter or diminish the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards the very manhood of Christ but as God did inseparably knit it to the person of his sonne so did he make it fully partaker of that infinite loue wherewith he embraced his sonne To confirme this to all the world God did often from heauen pronounce with his owne voice This is my beloued sonne in whom I am well pleased as he forespake by his Prophet Beholde mââ¦e elect in whom my soule delighteth This vnspeakable loue of God towards the person of his Sonne now being God and man is the chiefe ground of our election and redemption For wee were adopted through Iesus Christ and made accepted in his beloued by whom wee haue redemption through his blood euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace So that we were neither elected nor redeemed but by the infinite loue of God towards his sonne for whose ââ¦ake we were adopted to be the sonnes of God and to whose loue the fierce wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes did yeeld and giue place neither may he beare the name of a Christian man that otherwise teacheth or beleeueth of our election and redemption Now iudge thou Christian Reader whether it were wrath or loue in God towards his sonne that pardoned all our sinnes for his ââ¦ake and accepted the voluntarie sacrifice of his bodie and blood for the redemption of the world through whoââ¦e death we are reconciled to God and cleansed by his blood from all our sinnes Then as in God there neither was nor could be any displeasure against the person of his Sonne nor against any part thereof for what cause soeuer nor any chaunge or decrease of the loue which God with his own mouth professed from heauen towards Christ incarnate so could not Christ without plaine infidelitie conceaue or beleeue that God was inwardly displeased or angrie with ââ¦im no not when he presented him ââ¦elfe to God his Father vnder the burden of all our ââ¦innes knowing that neither sin from which he was ââ¦ee being the innocent and ââ¦mmaculate ââ¦amb of God noâ⦠Gods most holy dislike or iust pursuite of sinne could diminish Gods fatherly affection and most constant loue to him For though he were not ignorant that God in his holinesse did hate
redeeming Captiues is either to free Prisoner for Prisoner or to take money for the ransome of libertie neither of which tooke place in our redemption and therefore the common custome of redeeming of men taken in warre hath no likenesse with the redeeming of the world since God tooke no money for our ransome as men vse to do for their Prisoners but the life of his only Sonne for the libertie of his rebellious seruants which men vse not to doe Neither did Christ offer a price proportioned to our value or abilitie but farre excelling our persons and exceeding our power It was therefore a very colde comparison to resemble the freeing of mens bodies for golde and siluer which Captaines esteeme more than they doe Prisoners to the redeeming of their soules by the precious bloud of Christ and such as S. Peter reiected before me in euident words Yee were not redeemed with corruptible things as siluer and golde but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a lambe vndefiled and vnspotted And for you or any man els to say that Christ suffered no lesse nor none other than we should haue suffered or payed no more than we should haue payd is to subiect the soule of Christ to our deserued confusion and condemnation and to euen our persons who are wretched and sinfull men with his who is the true and eternall sonne of God either of which is a sensible defacing of his dignitie innocencie and obedience wholly requisit to our redemption and vtterly impossible to our condition You seeme to inferre that I forsooth doe holde with your opinion that Christ payed the price of our redemption properly to the diuell and not to God If you should leaue belying and falsifying of other mens speeches you should leaue one of your chiefest defences For when you can take no aduantage of my words you sticke not to straine them to your bââ¦nt and as though mistaking and wresting were not wrongs enough you inlarge them and interlace them not only with things neuer intended by me but with plaine contrarieties to that which is conteined in my words To shew how full and perfect our redemption is by the bloud of Christ in my sermons I say The bloud of Christ doth redeeme cleanse wash iustifie and sanctifie the elect it doth pacifie and propitiate the Iudge it doth seale the couenant of mercie grace and glorie betwixt God and man it doth conclude and binde the diuell And lest any man should mistake that I sayd The price was so sufficient that it did not onely pacifie and propitiate the Iudge but conclude and binde the diuell that otherwise had a challenge to vs as to the seruants of sinne and corruption I added It was an iniurie to Christ for vs to thinke his bloud was shed to satisfie the diuell but Christ offered his bloud as a sacrifice to God his Father to satisfie the iustice of God prouoked with our sinnes and yet Satans extreme rage against the person of Christ in conspiring and compassing his death with all contumelie and crueltie turned to his vtter ruine God raising againe the Lord Iesus from death and giuing him power to spoile the kingdome of the diuell in recompence of the wrong which he receiued at Satans hand Thus was the bloud of Christ a price most sufficient for all the world the voluntarie offering whereof by Christ himselfe was the sacrifice that appeased the wrath satisfied the iustice and purchased the fauour of God towards vs and the wrongfull spilling whereof which Christ with patience endured did exclude the diuell euen by Gods iustice from all the challenge that otherwise he had vnto vs. Doth this make the pââ¦ce of our redemption which was the bloud of Christ to be payed properly to the diuell and not to God or rather cleane contrarie that this price was willingly offered and so properly payed to God for the satisfaction of his iustice and by no meanes yeelded or payed to satisfie the diuell but the iniurious shedding thereof by the procurement of Satan did iustly discharge all the members of Christ from the power and challenge of the diuell who afore possessed them by the rule of Gods iustice And to this sense I did restraine the words of Ambrose to make him accord with the rest of the Fathers who with one voice confesse that God would not vse power alone but euen iustice to the diuell in taking man out of his hand and therefore ordered the price of our redemption in such sort that it should not only fully satisfie and pacifie his owne wrath by a willing and precious oblation but iustly exclude all the power and possession of darknesse from the elect by Satans malitious and contumelious attempt against the person of the Sonne of God Neither is this doctrine so strange as you would make it but only to those that neuer waded farther then the mire of their owne inuentions Irenaeus that ancient Father vrgeth this as a rââ¦ason why Christ must be man as well as God that the diuell might be conquered by iustice Christ therefore sayth he coupled and vnited man to God Si ââ¦nim homo non viââ¦isset inimicum hominis non iuste victus esset inimicus For if a man had not vanquished the enemie of man the enemie had not beene iustly vanquished So Theodoret When the Creator saw our nature of it selfe to ioyne with that cruell Tyrant the diuell and to fall into the deepe pit of wickednesse he wrought our saluation wisely and iusââ¦ly For neither would ââ¦e vse his POVVER alone to free vs nor arme his MERCIE alone against him that had ãâã mans ãâã vnder serââ¦itude leââ¦t he should exclaime of this mercâ⦠as vââ¦iust but God tââ¦oke a ãâã with clemencie and adorned with iustice The effect whereof for the whose discourse is somewhat long we may perceiue by the words which Theodoret ascribeth to the person of Christ for thus hee maketh Christ to speake to the diuell Because thou who receiuedst power against sinners ãâã touched my bodie that ãâã ãâã of no sinne forfeit thy power and cease thy tyrannie I ãâã ãâã all ãâã from death ãâã simply vsing the power of a Lord but a righteous power I ãâã ãâã the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã death I haue suffered death and not subiââ¦ct to death I did admit ãâã No way guiltââ¦e I was reckened with the guiltie and being free from debt I was numbred ãâã Sustaining therefore an vniust death I dissolue the death that is deserued and imprisoned wrongfully I free them from prison that were iustly detained And lest you should say of him as you doe of Ambrose and Austen that he doth but play with the figure ââ¦e ââ¦airely preuenteth that idle shift of yours in these words Let no man thinke that herein wee dallie or trifle for by the sacred Gospels and doctrines of the Apostles we are taught that these things are so Leo likewise not once or twice publikely teacheth
of this iudgment Christ before expressed when he said and I if I were exalted to the Crosse will draw all men vnto me And after when rising from his feruent praier he said z Marke 14. Behold the sonne of man is deliuered into the hands of sinners As also to the Iewes that came to apprehend him a Luke 22. This is your verie hower and the power of darkenes as likewise to Peter when he b Iohn 18. drew his sword and smote the high Priests seruant and cutt of his right eare put vp thy sword into thy sneath b Iohn 18. shall I not drinke of the cup saith Christ which the Father hath giuen me The fruit of this Iudgment is euerie where specified in the Scriptures c 1. Pet. 2. Christ bare our sinnes in his bodie on the Tree by whose stripes ye were healed that being deliuered from sinne wee should liue to righteousnes What need you then so curiously question Against whom or in what cause sate God in iudgment now when Christ was thus astonished and agonized God sate in iudgment to receaue satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect at the hands of his owne Sonne by his humilitie and obedience vnto death d Defenc. pag. 93. li. 3. Of necessitte it must be one of these three wayes First Gods maiestie and great iustice now at this time might sit in iudgment against vs and so consequently yea chiefly against Christ himselfe as our Ransomepaier Suertie in our steed e li. 16. Secondly God might be considered now as iudging Satan the Prince of this world f Pa. 94. li. 40. Thirdly Gods matestie iustice may be considered sitting in iudgment meerely against sinfullmen You be copious where you neede not and carelesse where most cause is you should be circumspect to make an idle shew of small skill you bring here a TRIPLE iudgment of God First against vs and Christ our suertie Secondly against Satan Thirdly against sinnefull men which were either elect or reprobate as though one and the same iudgment of God for mans Redemption did not concerne all three to witt Christ as the Redeemer Gods iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Satan Satan as the accuser the Elect as the ransomed leauing the reprobate in their sinnes through their vnbeliefe vnto the dreadfull day of vengeance In that the Redeemer was by this iudgment receaued and allowed to make satisfaction for the sinnes of his elect Satan was excluded from all place and power to accuse them for sinne or to raigne ouer them by sinne and the purgation of their sinnes which should beleeue in Christ being made by the Person of the Sauiour they were reconciled to God by the death of Christ and discharged from the wrath to come the anger of god remaining on such as by faith obeied not the sonne of God Saue therfore your fruitlesse paines in the rest and shew why the beholding of Gods power and iustice now sitting in iudgment to redeeme the world and to receaue recompence from the person of Christ for the sinnes of men might not breed a religious feare and trembling in the humane nature of Christ. g Defenc. pag. 93. li. If you meane that thus Christ with submission beholding his Father in iudgement at this time was cast into this agonie it is the verie trewth and the same which we maintaine You take this for a shew to build your fansies on but as your maner is you abuse trewthes to serue your turnes Let it stand for good that Christ now beheld his Father Christ might beholde the power of his Fathers wrath against sinne and yet not feare the vengeance due to the wicked sitting in iudgment to require recompence for the sinnes of the faithfull what followeth that God awarded the selfe same vengeance against the person of Christ that we had deserued and should haue suffered if we had not beene redeemed This is a false hereticall and blasphemous conclusion no way coherent to the premisses and no way consonant to the Scriptures For then finall destruction desperation confusion and euerlasting damnation of soule and bodie to hell fire which without question were the wages of our sinnes as we may see by their example that are not clensed from sinne by the bloud of Christ must without reseruation or remedie haue lighted on the person of Christ. If that vengeance of sinne which was due to vs could by no iustice be inflicted on the person of the sonne of God no not if he had borne the sinnes of the whole world how then could the doubt or feare of his punishment on himselfe cast him into this agony you will release him of the circumstance but tie him to the substance of the selfe same pains which the damned endure When you sitt in iudgement on Christ shew your wicked and witles conceits as much as you list but the father to whom of right it appertained sitting in iudgment to receaue ãâã from the person of his sonne who was most willing thereto ne did ne could by iustice determine any thing against his owne sonne that should either derogate from the person of Christ or abrogate the loue which God professed and pronounced so often from heauen towards him God might haue condemned vs that most iustly deserued it but to adiudge the same condemnation to his owne Sonne was simply impossible to the Iustice holines trueth and loue of God For so the vnion of Christes person must either be dissolued which god hath faithfully sworne and mightily wrought or els the second person in Trinitie must haue tasted of the same vengeance with the damned and with the Diuells which is a blasphemie that the Diuell neuer drempt nor durst to broche h Defenc pag. 93. li. 8. This ãâã not but that Christ had recall paines inflicted from the Father as from the ãâã ãâã ãâã against vs in him who were thus acquited by him Not denying is a slender proofe of that which you should with most infallible certaintie conclude ãâã you did a ãâã If Christes manhood might and did righteously and iustly seare and tremble at the glorie power and maiestie of God sitting now in iudgement to proportion the price that should be payed for mans ransome how doth that ãâã the reall paines of the damned were inflicted on the soule of Christ at that instant except in madde mens conceits which respect more their pangs than their proofs and preferre their willes before the wisdome of Gods spirit or witnesse of mans reason All iudgement against sinne you will say tendeth vnto condemnation No iudgement against the Sonne of God could proceed vnto damnation for what or whose sinnes soeuer And therefore to me and to all that obserue the words of the Holy Ghost it is a cleerer case than the Sunne-shining at noone day that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and healed by his stripes who bare our sinnes in
THE SVRVEY OF CHRISTS SVFFERINGS FOR MANS redemption AND OF HIS DESCENT TO HADES OR HEL for our deliuerance By THOMAS BILSON Bishop of Winchester The Contents whereof may be seene in certaine Resolutions before the Booke in the Titles ouer the Pages and in a Table made to that end ROM 6. v. 10. In that Christ died he died to sinne ONCE ROM 10. v. 6. 7. Say not in thine heart Who shall descend to the bottomlesse deepe That is to bring Christ backe from the dead AVGVST Epist. 99. Quod fuerit anima mortificatus Iesus quis audeat dicere That Iesus was dead in soule who dare auouch Quis nisi Infidelis negauerit fuisse apud Inferos Christum Who but an Infidell will denie Christ was in Hell Perused and allowed by publike Authoritie LONDON Printed by Melchisedech Bradwood for Iohn Bill M. DC IIII. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY VVISE AND RELIGIOVS PRINCE IAMES by the grace of God King of Great Brittaine France and Ireland Defender of the true and Christian Faith c. MOst religious and renowned Prince if the Heathen reaching no farther than the light of Nature could leade them sawe those Common-weales would soone flourish whose Gouernors were giuen to the study of Philosophy how much rather must Christians ascribe that to heauenlie Wisdome which they did to earthly and confesse those Realms to be blessed indeed where the chiefe Rulers are carefull to seeke first the Kingdome of God to prefer the loue of true pietie before all respect of humane policie For since Gods purpose and promise is to honour them that honour him and no good thing can be wanting to those that rightly worship him according to his will how liberall benedictions mercifull protections may those Princes hope for at Gods hands who set their hearts wholly to seeke him and make all their wayes straight in his sight This fauour from heauen to be guided by good and godly Princes the Realme of England hath tasted a long time to their no small comfort whiles for these 45 yeeres by the Christian care of a most milde and gratious Queene now with God they haue beene directed to the trueth of the Gospell of Christ and defended in peace from the violence of all impeachers and impugners of either And after her decease though our vnthankfulnesse had prouoked the wrath of God and our vnfruitfulnesse well deserued the Kingdome of God should be taken from vs yet he that is rich in mercie towards all that call on him respecting more the glory of his name lest his enemies should blaspheme than any worthinesse of ours not onely continued but increased his accustomed goodnesse to vs and gaue your Maiestie being the lineall and rightfull heire to the Crowne of this Realme a present and peaceable entrance with the greatest applause of all states sorts and sides that hath beene seene these many ages and specially of the godlie who saw the happinesse of the former gouernment would be doubled by the manifolde gifts and graces of your Christian and Princely integrity clemency bounty wisdome and piety And surely their hope hath not deceiued them for who so hath rightly discerned and duely considered your beââ¦ignesse of nature your ripenesse of iudgement your deepnesse of wisdome your vprightnesse of iustice your readinesse to mercie your bounteousnesse to the best your euennesse to all your desire of peace your care of your people your fauour to your Cleargie and respect to your Church your promptnesse in professing and stedfastnesse in establishing the true seruice of God amongst vs which your Highnesse hath constantly shewed since you came to the Crowne can not but acknowledge that to be iustly applied to your Maiestie which was first sayd of Salomon Blessed be the Lord your God which loued you to set you on the Throne of all Britaine because the Lord loued this land made you King to doe equitie and iustice happie are those your seruants which stand euer before you and heare your wisdome Whereof because it pleased God and your Maiestie I should attend you aswell at your Table in your first Progresse into these Countries of Surrey and Hampshire as at your conference for matters of Religion and assemblie of States for the welfare of this Realme I can beare certaine and assured witnesse as likewise can the rest of your Nobles and Bishops then present who all with no lesse admiration than contentation heard with what sharpnesse of vnderstanding maturenesse of knowledge soundnesse of reason firmnesse of memorie and aptnesse of speech your Highnesse entred debated and resolued the greatest and hardest points of diuine and humane wisdome shewing in euery of them such dexteritie perspicuitie and sufficiencie as I professe before God without flattery I haue not obserued the like in any man liuing As therefore I iudge the whole Realme blessed and beloued of God for giuing them a Prince of such rare prudence intelligence and experience so doe I after the example of the Apostle thinke my selfe happy that I shall this day bring these matters in question before so learned religious and iudicious a King no lesse skilfull in the sacred Scriptures than carefull to continue the true Christian faith thorowout his Dominions without dissenting from the will of God reuealed in his Word or departing from the primitiue Church of Christ in her best and purest times May it then please your excellent Maiestie to be enformed that vpon some mens too much forwardnesse to innouate as well the doctrine as the discipline of the Church of England they thinking those deuices alwayes best which are newest it was rife in Pulpits and vsuall in Catechismes that the death of Christ Iesus on the Crosse and his bloudshed for the remission of our sinnes were the least cause and meane of our redemption but he did and must suffer the death of the soule and the very same paines which the damned doe in hell before we could be ransomed from the wrath of God and this was that descent of Christ to hell which we are taught by the Creed to beleeue This opinion began to preuaile so fast that children were trained to it and the people led to controle the Scriptures as not rightly deliuering the true cause of our redemption by Christ in that they mention no meane to ransome vs from death and hell but the bloud of his crosse and death admitted in the bodie of his flesh and therefore in all such places we must as they say by a kinde of Synecdoche conceiue the death of the damned to haue beene suffered for a season in the soule of Christ and that to be the full and perfect price of our redemption I was much grieued I confesse to your sacred Maiestie to finde this so often in Catechismes and frequent in Pulpits and without iust ground in the Word of God to be so confidently blazed whiles the doctrine of this Realme proposed by publike authoritie to the people in the Booke of Homilies
which hee bare our sinnes to the strength of his patience and so both his paines and his patience farre exceeded all mens The rather for that Christes sense did not faile him by degrees as ours doth when the paines of death are extreamest which driue our soules from our bodies but hee did in most perfect sense feele the sting and bitternesse of paine to the last breath by reason he was of his owne accord at an instant appointed by his Father to breathe out his owne soule and so did to the great admiration of the Centurion that obserued it and consequently hee retained firmnesse of voice and exactnesse of sense all the while his paines were at sharpest The soule is punished in this life by her vnderstanding will affections and senses according as their obiects directed and strengthened by God make violent and vehement impressions the torment of hell-fire being the iudgement of another world Neither is God the tormenter of soules in hell with his immediate hand but by his wisdome and power hath ordained euerlasting fire as an externall Agent aboue nature to take vengeance of damned men and diuels according to their deserts No Scripture doth teach That God with his immediate hand tormented the soule of his Sonne on the Crosse or in the Garden notwithstanding Christes soule was full of feare and sorow in the Garden and of griefe and paine on the Crosse all which outward and inward passions ne did ne could peruert Christs will nor oppresse his power but they must all be voluntarie that they might all be meritorious and the more Christs power was to admit them when he would as he would and because he would the more his obedience was to the will and hand of God who forced nothing on Christ against his will but by that which was offered and suffered tried the obedience of his Sonne and accepted all from him as a most willing Sacrifice The wrath of God punishing our sinnes in the person of Christ was neither such as the Damned in hell nor as the Reprobate in earth doe suffer but rather common to the members of Christ who must drinke of this Cuppe haue fellowship with his afflictions and be conformed to his death though they neuer feele the true paines of hell nor haue their soules tormented by Gods immediate hand Neither was it any other wrath than such as might stand with Gods loue towards his Sonne who did not hate him for our sakes but loued vs for his and was Fatherly tempered to the strength of Christes manhood and graciously ouerruled and quenched by the fauour that God bare to the person of his Sonne And therefore the termes of meere and proper wrath if they meane proper to the damned are false and impious in Christes sufferings which neither in maner measure nor purpose did agree with the torments of the damned The true and full satisfaction for our sinnes must not be deriued from the singularitie and infinitie of Christes paines longer and greater than which the damned and diuels doe euery one suffer but from the dignitie of the person who being the only and eternall Sonne of God that made vs humbled himselfe in our stead and in our nature to restore vs and offered recompense for our sinnes which was his submission and obedience vnto the death of the Crosse more pleasing to God than our condemnation to hell could haue beene for in this ballance betweene the wrath of God against our sinnes and the loue of God towards his Sonne neither was his iustice neglected nor his loue ouer swayed but a sweet and wise temper of both was prouided for the manhood of his Sonne first to suffer with patience and then to raigne with glorie that all the sonnes of God might be the more willing and readie by his example to obey the will and abide the hand of God before they did enter into his Kingdome The Scriptures witnessing that the Sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit this might not want in Christes Sacrifice for sinne but he approching the presence of God with and for our offences lawfully might and exceedingly did feare the greatnesse and iustnesse of Gods anger against our iniquities and as deeply sorrowed that Gods holinesse was so carelesly despised and highly displeased with our manifolde iniquities Which inward sacrifices of feare and sorrow for vs and our sinnes in the person of the Mediatour were no lesse acceptable to God than the simple suffering of paine Since Gods power is despised where it is not duely feared and sinne is iustified where the displeasing of God is not thorowly sorrowed in presenting vs and our cause to God Christ was to yeeld for vs and in our behalfe that infinite submission and feare to the power of God prouoked and contrition and sorrow to the holinesse of God offended which we could neuer haue done And without these to offer to beare the burden of our sinnes was to make light account of our sinne against God and of Gods wrath against our sinne which was farre from the Sonne of God There might therefore in Christes sacrifice for sinne not without iust cause appeare exceeding feare and sorrow yet both religious and measured by the rules of obedience and humilitie though passing grieuous to the soule of Christ. Neither were these submissions and afflictions of Christs soule answerable to his perfection and our transgression if they did not reach to the highest degree of feare and sorrow that mans nature in Christ was capable of without distrust of Gods fauour or dislike of his iustice Christ did not pray in the Garden contrarie to his Fathers knowen will but made an expresse and speciall reseruation thereof euen in the first part of his prayer Neither was he amazed and confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie as these Presumers teach but he prayed with faith and suffered with obedience both which require perfect vnderstanding will and memorie Manie things might concurre to increase Christes sorrow in the Garden as the reiection of the Iewes for spilling his bloud the dispersion of his Church all flying and forsaking him the continuall rage of Satan against his weake and fearefull members Christ now in his temptations and afflictions beholding theirs with great compassion and griefe of heart which is it that Hilarie saith Et tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est Christ sorrowed for vs and prayed for vs. An Agonie is properly a vehement contention of minde to preuaile in that we vndertake rightly weighing and striuing to remoue the difficulties and impediments obiected to hinder the euent Christes bloudie sweat if it were naturall must proceed rather from zeale and intention of minde than from feare and sorow which coole the bloud and quench the spirits whereas the spirits must be mightilie kindled and the bloud much heated and thinned before it can issue forth by sweat And since by the words of Saint Luke Christ fell into an
to the places where these things are handââ¦ed and iudge in Gods name as he findeth cause remembring that he which withstandeth or neglecteth the trueth withstandeth and neglecteth his owne saluation First that no Scripture doth witnesse or warrant Christs suffering the true paines of hell in his soule see either the proposing of their opinions that so thinke or the examining of their proofes which are brought for that conceit or the shutting vp of that part which sheweth the summe of all aforesayd which I close in this wise Then are there in the sacred Scriptures neither any praedictions that Christ should suffer the paines of hell in his soule heere on earth nor causes why he must suffer them nor signes that he did suffer them and consequently what soeuer is pretended no proofe that these sufferings must be added to the Crosse of Christ before the worke of our saluation can be perfect Secondly that such paines of hell as the Scriptures expresse and auouch may not be applied to Christ without apparent impietie reade what I write concerning the particulars and settle thy iudgement gentle Reader as thou likest best I desire not to preuaile where I bring not sufficient proofe emptie words on either side are slender meanes to quiet thy conscience or settle thy faith if thou seeke to be religious Thirdly where the whole course and tenor of the sacred Scriptures do plainly and fully ascribe our Redemption and the remission of our sinnes to the death and bloud of Christ Iesus I dare not delude the words of the Holy ghost as if they were euery where improper or imperfect but by the foure first effects of Christs crosse I make it appeare how sufficient our saluation is by the bloud of Christ without anie supplie of hell paines to be suffered in the soule of Christ. Lastly since no Christian man may doubt but we are redeemed and saued by the death of Christ how farre it is from all sense and shew of holy Scripture to subiect Christ to the death of the soule and how repugnant to the mouthes and mindes of the ancient and catholike fathers I insert a speciall discourse and thence obserue that where whensoeuer the Holie ghost speaketh of the death of Christ he meaneth the death of Christs body suffered on the altar of the Crosse and by no meanes the death of Christs soule These things being thus sensibly and plainly set downe to the view and reach of all men were they neuer so simple if they were Christians what reason had you Sir Refuter in your Treatise to slide from all this and to delude your Reader by telling him that the whole controuersie had in it two points 1 That Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God 2 That after his death on the Crosse he went not into hell in his soule as if I proposed or proued nothing in the first part of my Sermons but that Christ did not suffer for vs the wrath of God did I or could I make or mooue anie such question that in preciââ¦e words taught the wrath of God against our sinnes was verie great in the Crosse of Christ did I not in plaine termes ascribe to Christ a double sense of Gods wrath the first pursuing our suretie being innocent and obedient and euen his owne and onelie sonne with all maner of corporall and temporall scourges vnto death before it could be pacified the next a serious contemplation of that eternall and intolerable vââ¦ngeance which the Iustice of God had in store for vs by reason of our manifolde sinnes whose danger and destruction touched him as neere through the tendernesse of his loue and pitie as if it had beene imminent ouer his owne head But this you will say is not the wrath which you meane Sir whatsoeuer your meaning be which is scant knowen to your selfe as anon we shal better perceiue the words of your Treatise setting the very question to which your Reader must looke ouerlashed with two palpable vntrueths vnfit for a man of that care and conscience which you would seeme to haue For first this could be no question with me whether Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God who exactly affirmed that Gods wrath was great in the Crosse of Christ and admitted in the soule of Christ a sight and sense of Gods temporall wrath inflicted on his bodie and of Gods eternall wrath prepared for our sinnes Againe had I moued that question which I neuer meant doth the first part of the controuersie containe no more but Whether Christ suffered the wrath of God or no are your hell paines so soone vanished into smoake is the death of Christs soule no question with you whether the death of Christs bodie and the shedding of his bloud be the full price of our Redemption and cause of our reconciliation to God is it not worth the asking nor worth the answering but you ranne from the rest not able to iustifie that which I disproued and then as your maner is you catch a large and licentious word and currie that till you confound both your selfe and your Reader For who but you would haue proposed such a question Whether Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God knowing that in the Scriptures themselues according to which we must frame our speech in matters of faith there are many degrees and differences of Gods wrath whereof some may be attributed to Christs sufferings without offence others can not without plaine impietie and therefore the question which you proposed in your Treatise was but a very stale to make your Reader gaze at whiles you shifted aside from the matter which I moued The one you will say is a proofe of the other for he which suffereth Gods wrath must needs suffer the paines of hell That was and must be the whole strength of your Treatise vnlesse you will confesse that you meant to waste your paper and mocke your Reader with a number of emptie and idle fansies But how faint and feeble that foundation was to beare so great a building the conclusion of my Sermons doth sufficiently shew In which I tolde you that either your argument must be vitious if your antecedent were particular or if to make your argument good you enlarged your antecedent to be generall your first proposition would be both iniurious and blasphemous For though Christ might and did suffer some parts of Gods wrath as the Scripture vseth that word which is all that your indefinite proposition will implie yet it would no way follow that he therefore suffered the paines of hell And if to amend your consequent you did affirme that Christ suffered the whole wrath of God and euery part thereof and so by consequent the paines of hell also the forme of your argument was bettered but your antecedent on which the conclusion must depend was a most false and wicked assertion for then must Christ haue suffered reprobation desperation eternall
They inherite both sinne and death from their Parents and so of necessity must die and putrifie in the graue he did inherite neither but being free from both yeelded himselfe to die that he might purge and abolish sinne Death wresteth our soules from our bodies be we neuer so patient whiles sence doth last he breathed out his soule powerfully and willingly which none could take from him except he would lay it downe of his owne accord Our bodies doe rot in the graue and lye in corruption which is the dominion of death till the time they shall be restored his body could not be dissolued to ashes because neither part of his humane nature might perish after it was once vnited to his Diuine but lay in the graue without corruption resisting death and rose with speede in glory ouerthrowing death first in him selfe and after in all his members at their appointed time So that death is now a necessarie consequent to our sinfull nature his voluntary death was the satisfaction for our sins and pacification of Gods wrath restoring vs againe to Gods fauour which through sin we had lost Thus haue you both swarued very far Sir Desender from your owne question which your selfe put in your first Treatise though wide from our purpose and wholy misreported the doctrine which I formerly auouched by Scriptures and Fathers giuing small hope you will deale more sincerely in the rest that enter so corruptly at the first but you will now open the whole state of the Question which we are content to heare The opening of the whole state of the Question For the better vnderstanding whereof we must note these principall things What you calâ⦠the opening of the Question I may better call the darkning and obscuring of the Question with many trifling and tedious obseruations with many new found farre fet and ill applyed phrases with many bold and false assertions powred out of your owne braines without any shew or so much as pretence of holy Scripture And if you may be suffered thus to raigne and reuele in matters of Religion at your pleasure it is an easie way for you to conclude any thing without any great paines or proofes For you bring vs a world of wordes warranted by no mans authoritie but by your owne and out of them you frame false positions fitte for your fancie and vtter them as vndoubted principles of Christian Religion which indeede haue in them neither truth nor sence when they come to be examined As is your matter so is your method tumbling and tossing too and fro like the vnsettlednesse of your head and spending twentie pages in meere confusion and contradiction for which cause I must be driuen to recall your conceits to some speciall heads least in pursuing your steps I loose both my selfe and the Reader The things which you disorderly shuffle and I shall be forced more largely to handle concerne either the offender which is man or the offence which is sinne or the Iudge which is God or the punishment which is death or the ransommer and redeemer which is Christ. I meane to meddle with no more in any of these but what directly pertaineth to this question and serueth aptly to exclude your conceits and truely to establish the collections which I make First then 1 touching MAN who consisteth of body and soule the doubt will be whether the whole man sinned in Adam that the whole might suffer in Christ or whether the soule onely sinned that the soule of Christ onely must suffer Secondly in 2 SINNE must be remembred how it commeth and what it bringeth Sinne is either COMMITTED as by Adam or INHERITED as by vs all or ASSVMED as by Christ who tooke vpon him the punishment of our sinnes though neither committed nor inherited by him And of it selfe sinne breedeth in the offendor where it is not remitted clensed and remooued by the blood of Christ POLLVTION of the whole man STING of conscience and REVENGE of Gods wrath in this life and the next Thirdly for the 3 IVDGE which is God we must learne from what ground within him the punishments of his elect in this life doe proceede whether from his Iustice or from his loue or from both mixed together by whom he executeth his iustice in earth and in hell whether by his immediate hand or by inferiour ministers and meanes with what measure he proportioneth it as well to the faithfull in this life as to the faithlesse till the number of their sinnes be full and lastly to what purpose he directeth it either to reuenge sinne as in the wicked and damned or to represse sinne as in the godly or to declare his iustice as in Infants baptized or to perfit his graces as in the best of his Saints here on earth or to purge and abolish sinne and to prooue obedience as in the person of Christ Iesus Fourthly 4 DEATH which is the wages of sinne and includeth all the punishments prouided here and elsewhere for sinners is either corporall parting the soule from the bodie or spirituall separating the soule from the life and grace of God or eternall excluding both bodie and soule from the ioy and blisse of Gods heauenly kingdome and wrapping them both in the darkenesse fire and horrour of hell for euer That all the paynes and griefes of this life are the seedes of death and wayes to death and so come vnder the name of death which driueth the soule from the bodie is now presumed and shall be prooued in place conuenient Fiftly concerning the 5 REDEEMER which is Christ to whose sufferings all that is aforesaid must in some sort be referred the question is in what part and how farre he suffered feared or apprehended the wrath of God against our sinnes but without question we must know and beleeue that his person was naturally and infinitely beloued of God all the elect being imbraced and accepted onely for him and in him and that the dignitie of his person and depth of his fauour with God when hee submitted himselfe to shew his obedience and maintaine Gods iustice by the shame and sharpenesse of the Crosse receiued in his humaine nature was the right ground and true cause of our Redemption and Reconciliation to God whose patience vnto death was a greater and acceptabler sacrifice to God for sinne then all the world yea then all earthly and heauenly creatures were worth And to increase or strengthen this voluntary sacrifice for sinne the paines of hell were no way needfull since Christ was to shew his obedience in this life onely and after death to rise and raigne with glory and by that which he suffered on the Crosse he was to learne the obedience of a Sonne and not the vengeance due to deuils In all these issues if I would take the Discoursers trade to affirme what I list without any further proofe I could end the whole cause in as fewe wordes as I haue expressed it but since that will neither
which will not suffer you to be tempted aboue that you be able but will giue the issue with the tentation that you may be able to beare it Yea to his enimies God mitigateth the heauinesse of his hand at first and giueth them time and place to amend before he destroyeth them I gaue her space to repent saith Christ but she repented not and therefore when the measure of their sinnes waxeth full God repaieth them the fulnes of vengeance which is puuishment proportioned to their sinnes and this is the due and proper punishments of those that are wilfull and doe not repent their wickednesse The paines of the godly are partly remembrances to cause repentance partly Chasticements to humble vs and mortifie sinne in vs but these whatsoeuer they be yea though death it selfe are improperly called punishments Here you touch after your loose maner the purpose of God in afflicting his seruants which you say is to reforme them but in no wise to punish them If God had none other meaning in afflicting the faithfull but to reforme their sins nor none other meanes to doe that but by paines your speech had some truth but because God hath diuers purposes in so doing and diuers waies without paines to amend his children this that here you bring as the rest else-where is a blind groping besides the truth and a bold presuming that you are in the truth God many times lodeth the best and chiefest of his Saintes with oftner and greater troubles then he doth the meaner sort not because their sinnes are more then others or they neede more amendment then the rest but to TRIE their faith as in Abraham and Iob or to shew the perfection of his grace as in Paul or to prepare them to glory as in Lazarus or to conforme them to Christ whose steps they must follow and often to declare his iustice as he did in striking Dauids child when the sinne was both repented and pardoned in the Father In the sicknesse and death of which child as of all other infants regenerate by Baptisme there neither was nor can be any vse of Repentance humiliation or mortification for themselues and consequently by your owne diuision since to them it can be NO CORRECTION it must in them be a punishment of sinne not actually committed by them but naturally deriued to them by the guilt and corruption of their Parents Yea the generall paine laid on Adam and all mankinde as dissolution by death priuation of originall light and grace corruption of sinne infection of soule which declare vs all to be the children of wrath by nature were they corrections or punishments of Adams sinne since after death there is no repentance nor amendment of life and the rest are neither barres to sinne nor retraits from sinne but either parts effects or causes of sinne which sticke so fast and beare such rule in many euen of the elect that no gentle or fatherly admonitions reprehensions or comminations will preuaile with them but they must be ouerruled and wearied with sharp and pearcing scourges before they will see or forsake the loathsomnesse of their sinne Wherein though it be a great fauour of God rather to persue them with all temporall plagues vnto their conuersion then to let them run headlong to euerlasting perdition yet the meanes which he vseth are mixed with iustice and mercie and are rightly beleeued to be punishments fully deserued by their sinnes though not fully proportioned to their sinnes the iust and full wages whereof in sinfull men can be none other but death corporall spirituall and eternall So that your diuision all paine from God is either correction or punishment and your position no paine in the godly is punishment are not onely friuolous and false but repugnant each to the other for so much as paine commeth from God for probation of faith perfection of grace assurance of saluation encouraging of others by example as well as for correction and death and correction in Infants where correction hath no place must by your owne partition be a punishment of sinne inflicted on the first Man and all his posteritie The which because we all inherite from our Parents and had it in vs at our birth when there was no vse of correction for vs it was then in vs all and so still remaineth a punishment of our first Parents sinne though by the grace and price of Christs death we are and shall be freed from it But come to your purpose and apply this to Christ for thither you bend and thereat you shoote is your diuision true in the sufferings of Christ then since by your owne assertion chastisements and remembrances which are the branches that you make of Correction belonged nothing at all to Christ and indeede there could be no cause to correct any sinfull corruption or affection in him where no sinne was it is a plaine confession that the bodily death and paines which Christ suffered on the Crosse were the punishment of our sinnes in his body and consequently a part of that curse which was imposed on the first mans sinne which you so stifly denied in your Treatise where you said Therefore Christs dying simply as the godly die that is a bodily death may in no sort be called a curse or cursed And if to shift of this contradiction and confession of the truth of my answere to the place of S. Paule Christ was made a curse for vs you referre these words as the godly doe not to the same kinde of death which is bodily in both but to the same cause of death which was different in Christ and his members Remember good Sir the words are not mine but your owne I put many differences betwixt the death of Christ and his Saints as namely the cause the manner and force of his death which I haue touched before but the kind of death which was bodily and not Ghostly is all one in Christ and the godly For Christ died not the death of the Soule no more doe the godly when they depart this life albeit they may oftentimes whiles here they liue draw neere to the death of the Soule by sinning which Christ could not And if you begin now to be better aduised I am not displeased with it it shall suffice that mine answere did and doth stand true that Christ in suffering bodyly paines and death for vs suffered a part of the same punishment and curse which was laid on all mankind for the sinne of Adam We must note especially that to suffer as the godly doe Chasticements and corrections is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath nor the punishment of sinne except it be in a very improper speech To suffer the true punishment satisfaction proper payment and wages of sinne onely that is to suffer properly and truely the wrath of God now then seeing the paines which Christ for vs did feele were indeede properly the
punishment and payment and vengeance for sinne such as the godly doe in no wise suffer Christ onely hauing wholy suffered that for vs all Therefore indeede his sufferings proceded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods meere Iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences Thou hast in these words Christian Reader the bulwarke of this mans cause concluding that Christ suffered the MEERE IVSTICE PROPER VVRATH and very CVRSE of God for sinne The frame of his reason if I vnderstand it as who vnderstandeth his mysteries but himselfe is this All paine in man is from God either as correction of sinne or as punishment for sinne In Christ there was no â cause and so no neede of â correction his sufferings therefore were the punishments of sinne They were punishments for sinne Ergo they were the true punishment proper payment wages and vengeance of sinne which proceeded from Gods proper wrath and were the true effects of Gods mââ¦ere iustice bent to take recompence on him for our offences His termes of TRVE PROPER and MEERE ioyned to the PVNISHMENT VVRATH and IVSTICE of God are not warranted by any Scripture much lesse referred to the sufferings of Christ nor so much as prooued by any testimony defined with any certaintie directed by any part or expounded by any meanes but onely proiected as Ridles and laberinthes to weary the wise to angle the simple and to refuge himselfe when he shall be pressed with the falsitie and impietie of his assertions Least therefore we wrangle about words in vaine which is his desire and deuise that he may seeme to say somewhat and carry the Reader into a forest of strange and vnknowen phrases where he shall hardly discerne what either side saith I thââ¦nke it needefull first to declare what the Scriptures meane by the wages of sinne and wrath of God and so to trie in what sense and with what truth his termes may be added to them and applyed to the sufferings of Christ. The wages of sinne is death saith S. Paul God himselfe foretold Adam it should be so Whensoeuer thou catest of the forbidden tree thou shalt die the death Then how many kinds of death are by God threatned and inflicted on sinners so many parts must the wages of sinne containe Now those are three the death of the Soule in this life which I call spirituall the death of the body leauing this life which I call corporall and the death of both in the next world which I call eternall For as man had two parts by which he did liue Soule and body and two places wherein he might liue if he obeyed God earth for a time and heauen for euer so disobedience depriued either part of man in either place of the life which he should haue enioyed and subiected him to the feares griefes and paines of death both here and in hell for euer The life of the body is the vnion of the Soule with the body the effects whereof are sense and motion to discerne obtaine and performe that which is needfull or healthfull for the body And as the presence of the Soule bringeth life to the body so the departing of the Soule taketh life from the body and leaueth it dead that is voide of all action motion and sense as to euery mans eyes is apparent in dead bodies The Soule therefore in the Scriptures is vsually taken for the life of the body which proceedeth from the Soule and is maintained by the Soule And these phrases to seeke a mans Soule tolay downe his owne Soule or to giue it for another to powre out his Soule vnto death with such like doe properly expresse the death of the body quickned by the Soule because men loose or leaue this life when they loose or leaue their Soules And where God threatned death to Adam euen the very same day in which he should transgresse we must not thinke that God either delayed the punishment longer or extended it farder then his words at first imported When therefore the very same day that they sinned God said to the woman increasing I will increase thy sorrow and to the man In sorrow shalt thou eate all the daies of thy life we must acknowledge that from that time forward death began to take hold and worke on both their bodies though not by present separation of the Soule from the body for Adam liued after that 930. yeeres yet by mortalitie mutabilitie miserie and namely by sorrow and paine as the instruments and agents of death Worldly sorrow causeth death as Paul witnesseth and a broken hart saith Salomon drieth the bones yea sorrow hath slaine maxy And were it not so written yet experience and nature teacheth vs that griefe of mind and paine of body where they continue or increase consume the flesh and hasten death so that when God the same day that they sinned subiected them to sorrow and paine which before they felt not He made way for death that it might continually worke in them and ââ¦ken them till they returned to dust The tiââ¦e of this life saith Austââ¦n is nothing elsâ⦠but a race to death and truely after a mââ¦n begiââ¦th to be in this bââ¦dy he is in death The life of the soule is not her vnderstanding and will which she can neuer lose no not in hell but onely the trueth and graââ¦e of God by whose spirit she receiueth the light of faith to direct her and the strength of loue to stirre and iââ¦cite her in tââ¦is life to beholde desire and embrace the holinesse and goodnesse of Gods blessed will and promise for her euerlasting happinesse which with patience and comfort of the Holy ghost she expecteth till Gods appointed time do come The lacke or losse of this inward sense and motion of Gods spirit which only can quicken the soule is the death of the soule depriued of her life which is God and left to herselfe in blindnesse and hardnesse of heart and giuen ouer vnto a reprobaââ¦e minde and vile affections to worke wickednesse euen with greedinesse till contempt of Gods will and desperation of his mercy doe fearefully end her miserable time in this life and violently draw her from hence to see and suffer the terrible iudgements of God prouided for sinne in another world Life euerlasting is the perfect and perpetuall vision and fruition of Gods glorious presence in the heauens where vnspeakable light and honour ioy and bliââ¦e shall compasse and replenish bodie and soule in the fellowship of Christ and his elect angels for euer The exclusion and reiection of the wicked from this heauenly fââ¦licity together with the shame and confusion of sinne wounding and stinging the conscience without ease or rest and the dreadfull horror of hell the place of darknesse and diuels hauing in it continuall flames of intolerable and vnquenchable fire eternallie tormenting the soules and bodies of the damned the Scriptures call the sââ¦cond death
kindled against thee and against thy two friends though he willed them to sacrifice for their offence and promised to accept Iobs prayer for them The same may often be obserued in other places of the Scriptures The wrath of God is likewise taken for the threates whereby God denounceth what he will inflict on the wickednesse of men or for the sharpe reproofe which hee vseth against sinne committed I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest saith God of the disobedient Israelites in the wildernesse In miââ¦e indignation ââ¦d in the fire of my wrath haue I spoken it saith God by Ezechiel surely at that time there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel So Dauid Then shall â God â speake to them in his wrath and terrifie them in his sore displeasure Wherefore Dauid prayeth for himselfe O Lord reprooue me not in thine anger knowing that Gods rebukes and threates ought to be as much regarded and feared of the faithfull as his plagues Lastly all the Iudgements of God awaking the negligent scourging the disobedient obdurating the impenitent in this life or renenging the Reprobate here and in hell are in the Scriptures called the wrath of God of which speech there can be no question because the word of God giueth plaine plentifull euidence in euery of those parts onely the Discourser auoucheth that the two first are no degrees nor effects of Gods proper wrath though the Scripture call them wrath but are so termed by a very improper speech These are his words To suffer chastisements and corrections as the godly doe is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath except it be in a very improper speech And this is one of the maine points on which he putteth theissue of the question I affirme saith he Christ suffered Gods proper wrath and vengeance You thinke all afflictions whatsoeuer small or great and towards whomsoeuer are the effects of Gods wrath but that is not so except in a most improper speech To the godly their afflictions both small and great are Gods fatherly and gracious chastisements and no effects of his properwrath Thou must not forget Christian Reader from what beginning we come to this issue This Rouer taking vpon him to prooue that Christ suffered the true paines of hell and of the damned made this his foundation That Christ suffered the wrath of God for vs which he affirmed to be equall to hell it selfe and all the torments thereof Mine answere shortly was I did not see what this proposition Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God if it were granted could helpe his cause or hinder mine For the wrath of God extended to all paines and punishments aswell corporall as spirituall in this life and the next were they temporall or eternall So that no paine or punishment small or great could befall the bodie or soule of Christ but it must needs proceed from the wrath of God To this he now replieth To suffer as the godly do chastisements and corrections is not to suffer or feele Gods wrath nor indeed the punishment of sinne except it be in a very improper speech Where first obserue that these words as the godly do are not conteined in mine answer but intended by him in his replie The ground on which I stood was that all the miseries of mans life what soeuer they be came first from the wrath of God reuenging the sinne of our first Father and so are degrees and parts of that wrath wherewith God punished the transgression of Adam I named no miseries peculiar to the godly but common to them with the wicked neither did I touch any speciall maner of suffering as the godly do suffer but prooued that the Scriptures which must teach vs all how to speake in Gods causes called them wrath euen in the godly And consequently since Christ suffered sorrow paine and death which came for sinne and are common to all he might and did suffer the wrath of God for vs and yet not the paines of the damned You cast about afresh Sir Discourser in your defence and tell vs the Scriptures speake verie improperlie when they call the miseries of this life the wrath of God and therefore you bring vs a new phrase of your owne framing and say the godly in no wise doe suffer Gods proper wrath that is properly taken or properly so called which Christ did suffer as you affirme Is your learning so good Sir Defender that you will applie to God wrath indignation and furie properly so called which are the highest degrees of Gods anger against the wicked Haue you forgotten who tooke vpon you such knowledge in the Hebrue tongue that the vsuall words whereby the Scripture expresseth the wrath of God against the wicked do import the nose the heat the boiling the kindling the excesse aââ¦d rage of God against the wicked which words if you referre to God by way of proper speech you make of euery one of them a barbarous and blasphemous heresie So that your late coined distinction of Gods wrath by improper speech towards his children and his wrath properly so called against his enemies is vaine and foolish the words in Scripture that note Gods wrath against his enemies are most improper and are translated from the behauiouâ⦠of angrie men to God of purpose to strike a terrour into the wicked of that great and grieuous iudgement which they shall receiue But whatsoeuer the words designe in their naturall signification which the Christian faith forbiddeth vs to attribute properly vnto God because they expresse humane affections and corporall passions which are not in God by the anger which is in God against sinne the Scripture meaneth nothing els but his most holy dislike of sinne in whomsoeuer and his most iust and constant will and decree in some to reward sinne according to desert which is vengeance in this life and the next in others so to temper the punishment of sinne with loue and mercie that whatsoeuer he inflict on bodie or soule shall tend to the praise of his iustice and mercie and end with the consolation and saluation of their soules And by the anger which proceedeth from God are in the Scriptures intended either his threats against sinne or his punishments of sinne be they corporall or spirituall temporall or eternall mixed with mercie or proportioned only to iustice If you relinquish your holdfast of improper speech and rase that vnaduised shift out of your booke for God hath in him no wrath properly so called but his holinesse displeased and iustice prouoked by sinne are improperly named his wrath in the Scriptures Let vs come to the proprieties of the things themselues and see whether chasticements for sinne doe properly proceede from Gods loue onely or from his iustice tempered with loue and mercy Of the wicked I shall not neede to speake much we make no great question of them
vs. In this sense all that the Scripture intendeth by wrath in God is most proper and naturall to God namely his holinesse abhorring sinne his iustice proportioning punishment to it and his power performing whatsoeuer his will and councell decreeth for the repressing or reuenging of sinne For which respect Zanchius a very moderate and considerate writer of our time and one whom amongst others the Discourser iudgeth no way inferior to the best of the Auncients setteth downe this for one of his Resolutions which he calleth a Thesis Ira eo sensu quo scripturae dant illam deo veré proprié ei attribuitur Anger in that sense in which the Scriptures giue it to God is truely and properly ascribed vnto him And his resolutions ensuing vpon the former are not onely that God is angry he meaneth truely and properly as his first Thesis affirmeth with all sinners as well elect as reprobate but that maior grauior est ira dei aduersus homines etiam electos propter peccata quam existimari possit ab ipsis hominibus The anger of God against his elect for sinne is greater and greeuouser then they can conceiue A second signification of proper may be that this wrath which the Scriptures attribute to God is proper to him and common to no creature els Men and deuils haue wrath but that is tumultuous or vitious and hath no communion with Gods wrath which is righteous and holy The Saints and Angels in heauen no doubt detest all iniquitie but they are no fit discerners esteemers nor rewarders of sinne The secrets of the heart they know not whose vncleannesse is open onely to the eies of God The waight of sinne they cannot truely balance he onely that is offended and cannot be deceiued rightly knoweth how farre euery sinne should displease and what euery sinne deserueth As they cannot fully ponder offences no more can they iustly proportion punishment to the demerits of euery sinner and least of all ordaine and arme meanes temporally to afflict or eternally to reuenge the bodies and soules of transgressors he onely that is all-wise all-holy all-iust and allmightie can throughly discerne perfectly dislike euenly reward and powerfully represse sinne by repentance or vengeance as seemeth best to him and therefote he onely is the righteous Iudge of the world and capable of that wrath which is proper to God A third meaning of Gods proper wrath may be this that as euery thing most rightly deserueth his name when it hath in ãâã permixtion of the contrary to alter his nature so Gods proper wrath may be that which is wholy and onely wrath without any temper of mercie or loue to diminish the heate and hight of wrath That is most properly light that hath no darkenesse trueth that hath no falshood good that hath no euill in it And since Gods iustice against the wicked admitteth neither loue to their persons nor mercie to their miseries that is also Gods proper wrath which is fully and wholy wrath without any fauour or pitie towards them that are the vessels of wrath appointed to destruction Of their damnation S. Iohn writeth The smoke of their torment shall ascend for euer and they shal haue no rest day nor night Wherby it is euident their iudgement shall be mercilesse their worme neuer dying and the fire neuer quenching And how can it be otherwise since they are both haters and hated of God Iacob haue I loued saith God and Esau haue I hated Thou hatest saith Dauid to God all those that worke wickednesse Yea the wrath of God saith Paul is reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men For as they regarded not to know God so God deliuered them vp into a reprobate minde to doe vnseemely things Neither is there any greater wrath in this life then for men to be left to the lustes of their owne hearts that they may be full of all vnrighteousnesse wickednesse maliciousnesse haters of God inuenters of euill voyde of all loue fidelitie and mercie and here receiue in themselues a meete reward of their errour to prepare them for eternall vengeance with diuels in the world to come This wrath of God against the wicked hath in it neither loue nor mercie but is wholy wrath proportioned to their desires which are sinnefull and their deserts which are hatefull before God and so they feele the iust and full recompence of their affected ignorance and wilfull disobedience Of this wrath the elect doe not taste they are freed from it in Christ their Redeemer and Sauiour by whose spirit their mindes are lightned and renued and their hearts perswaded to the obedience of faith and by whose death they are wholy deliuered from the wrath to come Of the two former they often taste specially when they neglect continuall and serious repentance to which free remission of sinnes is offered in the blood of Christ Iesus or when through the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit they are caried backe to the desires of their former corruption In which cases the Lord with sundry and sore afflictions letteth them sharpely feele what it is to prouoke the holinesse or abuse the goodnesse of so gracious a Father and neuer leaueth scourging them till they see and acknowledge their vnrulinesse and lament and leaue their vncleannesse taking hope and hold through faith of his mercies promised them in Christ Iesus If it can not be truely sayd of the elect that in this third sense which you vrge they taste of Gods proper wrath because of the loue which God beareth and sheweth them in Christ his sonne how much lesse may it be auouched of Christ himselfe that he suffered all Gods proper wrath on whom nothing was layed for our sinnes but with so great loue fauour and honour considering the cause which he vndertooke that God in each and all Christs sufferings declared him to be the best pleasing sacrifice and most sufficient recompense for sinne that heauen could yeeld or God would haue For whether wee looke to the choise of the person to the measure of his chastisement or to the reward of his labour wee shall see the exceeding and admirable loue and fauour of God towards him albeit the iustice of God kindled against our sinnes did not quit him from all paine yea that very chastisement by which he yeelded and learned obedience did not onely witnesse but also increase Gods loue towards him And where you Sir Discourser cast your eyes onely vpon Gods seuere and implacable iustice against sinne when you speake of Christes sufferings to serue your owne turne and to tole in hell-paines with some pretence of piety all the godly may perceiue and must confesse that God in satisfaction for sinne had greater regard of his holinesse despised by mans disobedience and of his glorie defaced by Satans triumph for our fall than of the rigor of his iustice prouoked by contempt of his commandement For
had God chiefly respected the execution of his iustice against sinne his owne sonne was most vnfit to be subiected to that vengeance which was prepared for deuils but God in the recompense which he required for sinne chose rather to haue his holinesse contented and his glory aduanced than to haue his iustice inflicted to the vttermost And therefore he selected the person of his owne sonne that might fully satisfie his holinesse and maruellously exalt his glorie but on whom of all others his iustice could take least holde not that his iustice should be neglected but that a moderate punishment in his person for the worthinesse thereof would weigh more euen in the balance of Gods exact iustice than the depth of Gods wrath executed on all the transgressours The chastisement of our peace layd vpon him will proue the same For where the wages of sinne is death and death due to sinne is threefold spirituall corporall and eternall as I haue formerly shewed such was the person of our Sauiour that two parts of death due to sinne could by no rule of Gods iustice fasten on Christes humane nature The gifts of Gods spirit and grace could not be quenched nor diminished in him he was full of grace and trueth he had not the spirit by measure as we haue but of his fulnesse we all haue receiued It is my father saith he that honoureth me whom ye say to be your God yet haue ye not knowen him but I know him and if I should say I know him not I should be a liar like vnto you but I know him and keepe his word and do alwayes the things that please him The cleerenesse of trueth knowing Gods will and fulnesse of grace keeping his word beeing continually present with the humane soule of Christ most apparently the death of the soule which excludeth all inward sense and motion of Gods spirit could haue no place in him by reason the death of the soule is the want of all grace and height of all sinne from which he was free much lesse could any part of Christs manhood by Gods iustice be condemned to euerlasting death or to hell fire since there could nothing befall the humanitie of Christ which was vnfit for his Diuinitie they both being inseparably ioyned together or repugnant to that loue which God so often professed and proclamed from heauen or iniurious to the innocencie and obedience which God so highly accepted and rewarded or preiudiciall to mans saluation which God so long before purposed and promised No weight of sinne no heat of wrath no rigour of iustice could preuaile against the least of these to cast Christ out of heauen and combine him with diuels in the second death which is the lake burning with fire and brimstone There is onely left the third kinde of death which is corporall to which Christ yeelded himselfe willingly for the conseruation of Gods iustice who inflicted that paine on all men as the generall punishment of sinne for the demonstration of his power who by death ouercame death together with the cause and consequents thereof and for the consolation of the godly that they should not faint vnder the crosse nor feare what sinne and Satan could do against them It was loue then in God towards vs to giue his sonne for vs So God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting but farre greater loue to his sonne than to vs though the burden of our sinnes which we could not beare were layd vpon him For since God hath adopted vs through Christ Iesus vnto himselfe and made vs accepted in his beloued of force he must be much better beloued for whose sake we all are beloued And if to make the world by his sonne were an excellent demonstration of Gods euerlasting and exceeding loue towards his sonne to send him into the world that the world through him might be saued doth as farre in honour and loue exceed the former as our Redemption by which heauen is inherited doth passe our creation whereby the earth was first inhabited Neither was it possible that God should remit the rigor of iustice against sinne for the loue of any but onely of his owne sonne whom because he loued as deerely as himselfe and had made heire of all things worthily and rightly did the wrath of God against man asswage and yeeld to the loue of God towards his owne sonne against whom no punishment could proceed but such as was fatherly and serued rather to witnesse obedience than to execute vengeance For though you Sir Discourser in the height of your vnlearned skill resolue that Christ could suffer no chastisement but all his sufferings were the true and proper punishment or iust vengeance of God for sinne yet the Prophet Esay telleth vs the chastisment of our peace was vpon him and the word Musar which the Prophet there vseth deriued from Iasar is the proper word that in the Scripture signifieth the correction of a father towards his sonne and of God likewise towards his Church Chastise thy sonne saith Salomon while there is hope As a father chasteneth his sonne â so â the Lord chasteneth thee sayth Moses to Israel My Sonne refuse not the chastening of the Lord. Blessed is the man whom thou Lord doest chasten The like may be seene by those that will looke Deutr. 21. vers 18. Ierem. 2. vers 30. Ierem. 31. vers 18. Psal. 118. vers 18. The Apostle concurreth with the Prophet Esay touching Christes sufferings and sayth Though he were the sonne yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered He learned obedience which is the subiection of a sonne to his fathers chastisement he tasted not vengeance which is the indignation of an enemie requiting Yea the very death which Christ suffered in the body of his flesh was so farre from being an effect of Gods proper wrath that it was an increase of Gods loue towards him and as well the price of our Redemption as the cause of all his honor following Therefore the Father loueth me sayth our Sauiour because I lay downe my soule or life to take it againe And so much the Prophet foretolde Therefore will I giue him sayth God a part in many things and he shall diuide the spoile of or with the mightie because he poured out his soule or life vnto death Which the Apostle sheweth to be thus verified in Christ. He humbled himselfe being obedient vnto the death euen the death of the Crosse. Wherefore God also highly exalted him and gaue him a name aboue euery name that in the name of Iesu euery knee should bow of things celestiall terrestrial and infernall euery tongue confesse that Iesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the father All power honour and iudgement in heauen earth and hell are therefore deliuered
ouer to Christ by God and all things subiected vnder his feet because he hââ¦bled himselfe and was obedient to his father vnto death euen the death of the Crosse. Was it then wrath in God without loue that brought Christ to his death or rather vnspeakable loue in God towards his sonne which ouerruled his iustice prouoked by our sinnes and so highly accepted and plentifully rewarded the death of Christ that he made him LORD ouer all things and persons in heauen earth and hell to giue grace and peace mercie and glory to Gods elect by his meanes and merites and to inflict excecation destruction and damnation on the wicked both men and diuels by his iudgement and sentence If it were admirable loue and fauour in God towards Christs humane nature to ioyne mans flesh and spirit into the vnitie and societie of his Sonnes Diuine maiestie what inestimable honor and glory was it to put the whole gouernment of Gods kingdome in heauen and earth into Christs hands which is the reward that God hath allotted to Christs obedience patience shewed on the Altar of the Crosse So that the learned may soone perceiue I worke no deceit nor mistaking to the Reader through the ambiguitie of this word THE VVRATH OF GOD as you pretend but you wandring in the desart of your owne deuises haue fashioned to your selfe a fardle of phrases as Gods proper and improper wrath ãâã meere iustice and such like and vnder the generalitie and vncertaintie of these words you hide your head and when you are required to make some proofe and shew some parts of Gods wrath out of the Scripture which Christ suffered besides the death of the Crosse and paines thereof you answere to particularize or to specifie the parts of Gods wrath which Christ felt as I will you to doe what madnesse were it in men to attempt and what folly is it in any to require Indeede it would be madnesse in you to attempt it for thereby you should plainly disclose that absurditie and impietie which now is cloaked vnder generall and doubtfull termes but those that be godly will neuer suffer their faith to be framed by your phrases except you shew warrant of Gods word both whence you collect them and what you meane by them neither of which you doe nor can doe with any truth in these points now in question For first by what Scripture proue you that Christ did or must suffer the proper wrath of God or the punishment and vengeance of sinne I following the sense and words of the Scriptures and of Diuines both olde new which make shame sorrow paine and death in this life the effects of Gods wrath punishing sinne in Adam and his of-spring at his fall did by consequent a specie ad genus affirmatiue gather and in that respect confesse that Christ suffering those things on the Crosse suffered the wrath of God and due punishment of sinne in this life but you tell vs now the Scriptures in that point speake most improperly you haue found out that Gods wrath signifieth properly the paines of the damned and those Christ suffered for our sinnes True it is and long since by me auouched that Gods wrath against sinne extendeth to all the paines and punishments of Soule and body as well in hell as on earth and in comparison of the terrible torments of hell fier the paines and punishments of the faithfull in this life may be called and accounted rather the chastisements of a Father then the rigour of a Iudge but since you refuse that sense of Gods wrath which I collected from the Scriptures as very improper take no aduantage of my confession and let Gods wrath stand in your sense either for Gods displeasure against the person offending or for the vengeance of sinne executed on the wicked and damned I aske you now by what authoritie of holy Scripture can you prooue that Christ suffered Gods proper wrath or his wrath at all I recall not my former Resolution which I take to be sober and sound but you reiecting it as improper and deceitfull let vs see how you prooue by the Scriptures that Christ suffered Gods wrath which you so much presume and make the chiefe pillour of all your procedings In your late defence with shame enough you yeeld at last that this word HELL is not literally and expresly applyed to Christs sufferings in the Scriptures you must likewise yeeld by your leaue that this speech the wrath of God is not literally nor expresly affirmed of Christs sufferings in all the Scriptures That he was wounded for our transgressions and torne or trodden vnder feete for our iniquities and we healed by his stripes as also that he was afflicted and oppressed and bare our iniquities and poured out his soule vnto death the Prophet Esay witnesseth that he dranke of the Cup which his Father gaue him the Euangelists mention and the Apostle saith he was deliuered and died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures but none of these expresse or inferre that he suffered the proper wrath of God or full punishment and vengeance of sinne which are the phrases placed for the ground-worke of all your discourse though no way prooued by any shew of Scripture The words vsed generally by the holy Ghost to expresse Christs sufferings besides the former import that he gaue himselfe for vs to be the sacrifice the price and the ransome of our deliuerance All which wordes note no wrath conceiued against him nor vengeance executed on him but rather the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards him as the onely Sacrifice that God would accept the onely price that God did esteeme the onely ransome that God would receaue for the sinne of the world This Sacrifice was his body this price was his bloud this ransome was his death We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus once â made â priceââ¦th ââ¦th Paule that is yee were redcemed with the precious blood of Christ saith Peter For we haue redemption in him by his blood And he is the mediatour of the new testament through death for the ransome of the transgressions in the former testament So that by the sacrifice of his bodie price of his blood and ransome of his death he hath made a most full recompence satisfaction and redemption for the sinnes of the world and consequently the punishment which he sustained when he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree was the full perfect purgation and propitiation of our sinnes full not in the degrees and parts of condemnation and vengeance due to sinne which the damned doe suffer as you falsely and absurdly insinuate but full in price and force of Redemption and deliuerance from sinne for somuch as Gods holinesse is highly pleased with the obedience Gods glory greatly aduanced by the humilitie and Gods iustice fully satisfied with the
submission and patience of his Sonne on the Crosse. More then this if you will vrge on the person of Christ as needefull for our Redemption first proue it and then professe it at your pleasure otherwise if you boldly and vainely presume it your addle and idle wordes can not preiudice the setled and vndoubted principles of the Christian faith warranted by the word of God and fully receaued by the Church of Christ euen from the beginning To your maimed and ruinous foundation that Christ must suffer all and the very same punishment wages and vengeance of sinne which the damned doe suffer and we should haue suffered had we not beene excused by his suffering it for vs I haue plainly and sadly answered I know not how often it is a false and lewd imagination and so impious that your selfe dare not in your late Defence offer it to vew without many bridles to holde it from horrible blasphemie But Sir discourser why coyne you conclusions in christian Religion that must haue three or foure exceptions to saue them from open impietie and why see you not that your speciall reseruations ouerthrow the truth of your owne assertion for where the true and proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne in all the wicked is spirituall corporall and eternall death in your limitations at last which you forgate at first you except Christ from spirituall death which is sinne and from eternall death which is damnation of body and soule to hell fier yet you still affirme that Christ suffered the full proper punishment wages and vengeance of sinne as though these two spirituall and eternall death were no parts of the punishment vengeance due to sin or these being excepted as vnfit for Christ to suffer you could truely say Christ suffered the full and proper punishment and vengeance of sinne which consisteth of these three kinds of death And who but you would send vs such headlesse and senselesse resolutions in Diuinitie as these are I affirme that Christ suffered all gods proper wrath and vengeance for sinne I say all that the very damned do suffer namely so described and limited as is aboue said And againe He suffered from Gods hand euen as the damned doe namely in these points which are both possible and reasonable Were you some new Euangelist or vpstart Apostle it were euen enough for you to referre Christs sufferings to your description and your limitation without any farther authority but when you take vpon you with your bare word to broch so many nouelties in Christian religion without one line or letter of holy writ to vpholde your dreames and deuices who can chuse but deride your follie You pinne mens faiths for the ground of their saluation to your descriptions and your limitations to possibilitie and reason measured by your rule without any text or title of Scripture to warrant your words and then you thinke the maine question is profoundly and fully handled but your sober and wise Reader will presently finde the lamenesse or leudnesse of your grand conclusion For if Christs person not only by your possibilitie and reason but by the soundnesse of trueth and sincerenesse of faith must be exempted from sinne which is the death of the soule and from damnation which is euerlasting death why write you so boldly that Christ must suffer all Gods proper wrath euen all that the damned do suffer whereas apparently those two being excepted Christ could suffer no kinde of death but only a corporall And if by your so describing and so limiting the matter you draw Christ within the staine or guilt of sinne or within the compasse or danger of damnation hope you to finde any Christian eares so patient that will endure that monstrous and sacrilegious indignitie But you will inuent a new hell for Christ which shall haue the substance but not the circumstance of damnation and shal be inflicted by Gods immediate hand properly ye a only in the verie soule of Christ which Gods owne infinite wrathfull power and iustice can inflict for satisfaction where and how it pleaseth him The question good Sir is not of Gods power what he can do but of his will reuealed in his Word and of his promise performed in the person of his sonne for our saluation and testified by the mouthes and pennes of the Prophets and Apostles that were guided by his holy spirit to speake and write the trueth I make no doubt but God can create another heauen another earth and another hell as quickly and as easily as he did these that now are yet if any man affirme that God will so do or hath so done I must holde him for an Infidell because he gainsayth Gods trueth and belieth Gods will by pretending Gods power Talke not therefore what God can doe shew rather by the word and witnesse of trueth what God hath done to that must we trust to that are you bound and from that are you slipt You haue not so much as any colour of Scripture for these desperate nouelties and vanities I will giue them no woorse words lest you complaine of my bitternesse and if any man be but so wise as to let your proue these things before he beleeue them he is safe enough for euer admitting them I may spare my paines in refuting them yet because destitute of all other helpe you appeale to possibilitie and reason to fourbish your new inuention of another hell let vs see how handsomely you hale it onward By the law of our creation as we are men hauing a soule besides our bodie so our soule hath in it a threefolde facultie of suffering paines First that which is proper and immediate iustly so called proper because it is proper only to reasonable and immortall spirits Immediate two wayes First because it can and doth receiue an impression of sorrow and paines made from God only by and in it selfe without any outward bodily meanes thereunto Secondly it is also an immediate punishment or els correction of sinne it commeth not for any other cause at all So that thus we meane when we speake of the soules proper and immediate suffering The soules second facultie of suffering paines is not proper but common to vs with beasts namely that which is by sympathie and communion with and from the body A third kinde of painfull suffering the soule hath namely her vehement and strong affections are painfull whether they be good or euill as zeale loue compassion pitie care c. neither are these immediatly for sinne whether punishments or corrections neither are they punishments or corrections at all properly in themselues accidentally they may be when they grow so strong that they paine and grieue the soule If the walles and roofe of your new hell rise no fairer nor stand no faster then your foundation doth a weake puffe of winde will blow all away If a man should shortly answer you That the soule of man hath but one
knew him to be the same man that before was lame from his mothers wombe they were amazed and sore astonished at it Ieremie lamenting the miserie of the Iewes sayth I am sore vexed for the hurt of the daughter of my people I am heauie and astonishment hath taken me Euen as the Apostle also witnesseth of himselfe I speake the trueth in Christ and lie not I haue great heauinesse and continuall sorow in mine heart for my brethren that are my kinsmen according to the flesh If visions and Angels from God if the works and iudgements of God executed on others haue driuen the best men to frights and agonies what maruell then if the humane nature of Christ presenting himselfe in the garden vnto the Maiestie of his Father to be the Ransommer of mankinde and with his owne smart to satisfie the iustice of God for the sinne of the world and no way ignorant how weighty that burden and how mighty the hand of God was to whose will he must and did wholly submit himselfe what maruell I say if the weaknesse of our flesh in Christ beganne to be afrayed and astonished at the iudiciall presence and power of God at the perill of man if he were deserted and price to be payd for him before he could be redeemed not that damnation or destruction were prepared or purposed for him that should saue vs but for that the hand of God was infinitely able without hell and the paines thereof to presse and ouerpresse the manhood of Christ by whatsoeuer meanes he would This you will say is the paines of hell and the very same yea all that which the damned do suffer In deed Sir Discourser doth your skill serue you to make a religious submission to the Maiesty of God and an holy confession of his most mighty power euen with feare and trembling to be all that the damned now suffer or the selfe same paine which is sharpest in hell Doe not the godly at all times when they enter into the iust consideration of themselues presently see their owne infirmity and indignitie and thereby fall with feare and trembling to confesse all sanctitie glorie might and maiesty to be Gods and themselues to be not only earth and ashes but euen sinfull and hatefull vnto God if he be not gracious and mercifull vnto them And will you call these faithfull meditations of Gods children giuing vnto God his due the paines of hell and state of the damned because the sense of their weaknesse and vnwoorthinesse breedeth in them feare and trembling Then make heauen as touching the essence thereof all one with hell and saluation in substance to be the same that damnation is because the best learned Fathers confesse that the Angels in heauen doe and shall tremble at the voice and iudgements of God Adââ¦uius vocem Archangeli Angeli tremunt At whose voice the Angels and Archangels doe tremble sayth Hilarie speaking of the Godhead in Christ. Which words Leo the Great doth allow and alleage in his Epistle to Leo the Emperour and they grew to be of that credit that the effect of them was inserted in the Church seruice by Gelasius as Alcuinus doth witnesse Maiestatem tuam tremunt potestates The powers of heauen do tremble at thy Maiesty Christ comming from the heauens to iudgement euery creature shall tremble saith Basil the Angels themselues shall not be without feare for they also shall be present though they shall giue no account to God At that day sayth Chrysostome all things shall be full of astonishment horror and feare A great feare shall then possesse euen the Angels and not the Angels only but the Archangels and Thrones and powers of heauen because their fellow seruants must vndergoe iudgement for their liues led in this world Will you hence conclude that the Angels and Archangels are or shal be then in the paines of hell because they do and shall tremble at the sound of Gods voice and sight of Gods wrath to be executed on the world No more may you inferre that Christ did or should suffer the paines of hell and of the damned for that his manhood began to feare and tremble either at the maiestie of God sitting in iudgement or at the power of his iustice able to punish by what meanes and in what measure pleased him or at the weight of our sinnes for which he did vndertake or at the sharpnesse of vengeance layd vp in store aswell for the Iewes as all other vnbeleeuers that should neglect the saluation then to be purchased by his death and passion since the person of Christ being God and man was farre more assured and secured from hell and damnation than either the Saints or Angels of God are or can be At least then you thinke Christ feared and felt the wrath of God due to our sinnes though outwardly executed on his bodie From Christes Agonie which might haue diuers causes and whereof the true cause is not reuealed vnto vs by the Scriptures as I haue alwayes sayd so I now repeat it againe you can conclude nothing for your paines of hell to be suffered in the soule of Christ through the immediate hand of God They are your blind and bold deuises I must not say lewd and wicked because you are so tender you may not be touched to bring the true paines of hell yea the sharpest and extreamest of them into this life and to make the substance of hell nothing but a certaine paine inflicted onely on the soule by the immediate hand of God which you thinke Christ suffered in the garden where you say he felt as extreame sharpnes of paine as may by any possibilitie be endured yea though in hell it selfe and yet this incomprehensible vnspeakeable infinite and intolerable fierie wrath and paines of hell did neither part his soule from his mortall body nor so much as breake his patience So terrible you make the torments of hell in words and so easie in deeds that the wicked here suffer and endure them without ending their liues breaking their sleepes or refusing their foode But the true paines of hell are of an other manner of force thââ¦n you dreame of They leaue no place for meate nor sleepe the body must be immortall and not able to die that shall endure them they passe all patience of mââ¦n and Angels So that howsoeuer you aggrauate your fansie with fierie words you eleuate in truth the dreadfull iudgements of God against sin when you make the shaââ¦pest and extreamest of them to be tolerated of our Sauiour in this life with patience and siââ¦ence as appeared in his sufferings and the reprobate in the midst of your hell paines to liue eate and sleepe which in the trââ¦e paines of hell were not possible Austen saith rightly So is the soule conioyned with this body that to thâ⦠paines which are exceeding great it yeeldeth and departeth because the very frame of the
former feare and freed from suffering hell paines wherein there is no comfort he prayed more earnestly or ardently and his sweate was in colour and consistence like drops or strings of blood trickling downe to the ground So that feruencie in prayer is set downe next before that sweate in the Gospell as a precedent or cause thereof Howbeit I onely barre the boldnesse of this deuiser who presumeth what pleaseth him of Christs bloodie sweate in the garden because the Scriptures doe not exactly mention the cause and thinke it no reason to let him build on a blinde coniecture a false conceit of his owne without any warrant of holy Scripture But I am repugnant to my selfe and some where I hold that Christ suffered no more but meere bodily paines that is in his soule from and by his bodie Neuerthelesse contrââ¦riwise I seeme somewhere to yeelde wholely so much as you affirme I leaue that grace to you Sir Discourser to roule to and fro and when you haue ââ¦aid a thing after a sense and in a sort then in another kind to vnsay it againe and laying the whole foundation of your cause vpon Christes suffering the wrath of God neither to bring any proofes or to shew any parts thereof by the word of God but to play with the termes of very proper and meere and to call that the opening of the whole question Indeed I euery where defend that Christ suffered no death expressed or mentioned in the Scriptures saue onely the death of the bodie from other passions or sufferings of the soule as feare sorrow shame and such like I doe not exempt the soule of Christ when he sustered for our sinnes though I leaue no place in him for the feare of damnation sting of conscience despaire or doubt of Gods fauour and such other shipwrackes of all faith hope patience and pietie The Crosse death and blood of Christ when I name I vse those words as the Scripture doth to declare the whole maner and order of his passion from the garden to the graue as it is described in the Euangelists not excluding either the feare or agonie which befell him before he was apprehended but comprising within his death his obedience and patience in all those asââ¦ictions which he suffered till he died And this is no wauering in mee to retaine the words of the holy Ghost in their right sense and vse but it is rather a childish dalliance in you Sir Discourser to suppose that the death of Christ doth import no more but the very act of giuing vp the ghost or els if I by that worde designe the rest of Christs sufferings endured at the time of his death by the witnesse of holy Scripture you will also hemme in your hell paines within the list of the same wordes though the Euangelists name or note no such thing in all the historie of Christs passââ¦on So likewise in speaking of Gods wrath against the wicked I wrap in no Ridles nor enuiron the Reader with a windlace of words but plainely and fairely distinguish it either by the naturall vertues and properties that are in God misââ¦iking and repreââ¦sing sinne or by the effects and punishments proceeding from God to reuenge the works and reward the workers of iniquitie In the wicked Gods holinesse hateth the euill deede and the doer that is both the sinne and the sinner and by his iustice without all loue or fauour towardes them awardeth a punishment against them according to their deserts which the power of God doth execute on them not respecting their strength but rather inabling them to continue in perpetuall torments of bodie and soule in hell fire for euer Gods purpose being onely to reuenge sinne in them and to destroy them for their sinnes which is most holy and righteous in him though it be neuer so grieuous and intollerable to them Gods iust and full iudgement against sinne where and when it pleaseth him to inflict it is the depriuing bodie and soule of all outward and inward peace and grace in this life for the time and the reiecting of both from all blisââ¦e and rest in the world to come for euer which is the losââ¦e of God and of all his blessings prouided in this life and the next for his elect These causes and parts Gods anger hath against the wicked for their sinnes and to euery of these the Scripture beareth witnesse In Christ Gods holinesse infinitely imbraced the humilitie obedience and charitie of his Sonne offering himselfe to be the ransommer of man and perfectly loued the integritie innocencie and puritie of his manhood created called and anointed of God to this intent and end that his death and bloodshedding should be the redemption of the world though God vtterly hated the sinnes of men which his sonne then assumed into the bodie of his flesh to beare the burden of them when wee could not Wherefore Gods iustice finding the loue of the Father towards his Sonne farre to exceede the hatred of the Creator against the vncleannesse of his sinfull but sedused creature did relent from the rigour of that iudgement which was prouided for sinne in Angels and with a fatherly regard and respect to the meanest part of the peââ¦son of his sonne decreed a punishment for our sinnes in the manhood of Christ which was a corporall death accompanied with the sharpest paines that Christ might endure with obedience and pacience whose voluntarie submission and sacrifice for sinne the iustice of God did accept as a most sufficient price and payment for all our sinnes which in themselues deserued euerlasting destruction of bodie and soule in hell fire with deuils This correction though very sharpe yet not ouerpressing the patience of Christs manhood Gods iustice would not release to his owne Sonne least he should seeme to make light account of our sinne if it were remitted onely for prayer and intreatie and without iust cause so terribly to punish the sinnes of the reprobate with all kinds of death I meane corporall spirituall and eternall And greater or other death then the death of the bodie God by no iustice could impose on the person of his Sonne since Christ could not be subiected to sinne which he must cleanse and abolish in vs much lesse be reiected from euerlasting ââ¦lisse and ioy to which hee must bring vs least of all linked and chained with deuils in perpetuall flames of hell fire for so much as hee was the true and onely Sonne of God for whose sake we all were adopted and made heires of eternall saluation And for this cause the power of God which is otherwise most dreadfull to men and Angels and so was then to the manhood of Christ restrained it selfe and tempered the smart of Christes paines to the stââ¦ength of Christes humane nature not meaning to ouerwhelme his patience but to trie his obedience to the vttermost In all which sufââ¦erings Gods counsell and purpose was most fauourable and honourable euen to the manhood
any reason or learning ergo Christs dead bodie depriued of soule and sense was the whole Ransom for our sinnes for that he meaneth by Christs death or ergo no action nor passion of Christs soule before or on his crosse was meritorious If I say these conclusions doe necessarily follow out of those words or out of the meaning of them then I must confesââ¦e I am fowly ouershot in my speach But if these be most ignorant and absurd collections from my words and from theirs that vsed that speââ¦ch before me then mayest thou see Christian Reader what meaning this man hath throughout this booke purposely to peruert and misconster all that I say to make thee beleeue I broch some strange and wonderous Doctrine But shifts lâ⦠hid but a while the shame in the end will be his How then can that which I sundrie times teach of Christs sufferings in his soule be true if our whole ranââ¦om and propitiation be bodily bloudy and deadly only which is the point ââ¦here stand on What contradiction finde you in my words that Christ might haue and had sufferings in his soule as feare sorrow and affliction of minde and yet died no death but only a bodilie Only a bodily death doth not exclude all paines which are not bodily but all deaths saue the death of the bodie Wherefore my conclusion is whââ¦re it was That the death which the Mediator must suffer for sinne by the Apostles doctrine must onely be bodily and bloodie and therefore by no meanes the death of the soule or of the damned Yet this ââ¦as not our whole rââ¦some you say nor the whole sacrifice for sinne the sufferings of his soule must be added vnto it When I speake of Christes death I vnderstand that maner and order of his death which the Euangelists describe for so the Scriptures meane when they speake of Christes death and from that death I doe not seuer those sufferings of his soule which the Scripturââ¦s mention because the sharpnesse of that death which his body was to suffer draue him to the deepe consideration of the cause why of the Iudge from whom and the captiue for whom he suffered Christ otherwise had not suffered death as a Redeemer if he had been ignorant of any of these or compelled by force to endure the furie of the Iewes he had power enough to stay their rage decline their bloudie hands yea to auert or decrease the paines as he thought good but because he was to offer himselfe as a willing sacrifice to suffer death to saue vs from the wrath of his Father he layed aside his owne power and submitted himselfe wholly to be disposed at his Fathers will which the Scriptures call his obedience vnto death When therefore he foresaw and felt how sharpe and painfull that death would be and was which he must and did suffer for our sinnes was it possible he should not fully cast the eyes of his ââ¦inde vpon the horror of our sinnes which did so sting him vpon the fiercenesse of Gods wrath which did so pursue him though he were his innocent and only sonne and vpon the terrible vengeance that rested for vs if he should mislike or refââ¦se to beare the burden of our offences If any man learned thinke it possible for Christ to suffer the one and not in spirit most cleerely to see the other I am content he shall seââ¦er the sufferings of Christs soule from the griefe and anguish of his bodily death but if it be more than absurd so to conceiue then finde we that the sight and sense of Christes extreame torments in bodie caused and vrged his soule thorowly to beholde these things with feare and sorrow which in themselues were most fearefull and could not châ⦠but affect Christes soule deeply and diuersly As for the whole ransome of our sinne we shall haue occasion in the next reason more largely to treate of But you haue reasons you say to confirme your maine matter among manie these two the first the Iewish sacrifices shadowing and foreshewing the second the sacraments of Christians testifying and confirming that the true sacrifice for sinne was bodily and bloudy Still what trifling is this doth any in the world denie that the true sacrifice for sinne was the bodie bloud and death of the Redeemer Wherefore the proposition must be as I did set it in your behalfe the Iewish sacrifices were shadowes or figures and our sacraments were signes of our whole and absolute redemption by Christ I say of the whole and entire propitiatorie sacrifice or els you shrinke and leaue the question When I lacke one to set propositions in my behalfe I will send to you for helpe till then spare your paines except you might reape more thanks But you must learne to get you plainer termes or at least more plainly to expound them if you will needs be a setter of propositions for what is the WHOLE sacriââ¦ice propitiatorie and what is our WHOLE redemption By the whole sacrifice meane you the whole person of Christ that gaue himselfe for vs or intend you the whole action whereby he sanctified submitted and presented himselfe as a sacrifice of a sweet smell vnto God or by the whole vnderstand you all that in Christ was deuoted and deliuered vnto death for the satisfaction of Gods iustice And so our whole redemption doe you referre it only to remission of sinnes as the Apostle doth when he sayth We haue redemption through Christes bloud euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes or also to deliuerance from the dominion and infection of sinne and to the abolishing of all corruption in soule and bodie which is our whole and absolute redemption When the powers of heauen shall be shaken and the Sonne of man come in a cloud with power and great glorie then lift vp your heads sayth Christ for your redemption draweth neere You are sealed by the holy Spirit vnto the day of redemption sayeth Paul And Dauid God shall redeeme their soules from deceit and violence that is he shall deliuer their soulââ¦s The Saints as the Apoââ¦e speaketh were racked and would admit no redemption to obtaine a better resurrection where by redemption he meaneth deliuerance As Zacharias sayd God hath visited and sent redemption to his people that is saluation or deliuerance from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate vs to serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life So that our whole and absolute redemption compriseth all the degrees and steps of our saluation as iustification sanctification and glorification and these though they were merited and obtained for vs by Christes obedience vnto dââ¦ath yet are they performed and accomplished by diuers other meanes therewith concurring and thereon depending as by the grace of his spirit the working of his power and glory of his comming And therefore the words which you haue set in my behalfe are like their authour that is they are
of the liuing sacrifices what needed the burning of the same after it was dead and senselesse obscurely to intimate if not falsely that the fire of affliction as you would haue it should consume the Messias God had therefore another meaning as I take it in commanding ech sacrifice after it was slaine to be offered to him by fire Forwhere of all creatures subiect to mans sight and sense fire was the fittest for the light heate force and motion thereof to designe vnto the people the brightnesse of Gods glorie the zeale of his holinesse the grace of his Spirit and seate of his habitation in the heauens God gaue the Iewes fire from heauen to burne perpetually on his Altar which did teach them with what cleannesse of hands and feruentnesse of heart the things which hee required should bee offered vnto him and did separate the sacrifices dedicated vnto God from all prophane abuse and humane vse and made them ascend towardes the place of his glorious presence that he might accept them with fauour and be pleased with them All which significations of heauenly fire were most perfectly accomplished in the sacrifice of Christ Iesus For neuer man nor Angel offered vnto God any seruice with like puritie and charitie as the Lord Iesus offered himselfe to his Fathers will and that his oblation did not onely clense his body from all corruption of mortalitie and infirmitie as appeared by his resurrection but pearced the heauens with admirable celeritie and efficacie and preuailed in the presence of God to bee a sweete smelling sauour for all the sonnes of God Some of these things you seeme to acknowledge As fire to signifie the Acceptation of Christs death in that it was a sacrifice of a sweete sauour ascending vp to God What reason then haue you that fire should note the wrath of God powred out on Christes soule and body before he died Shall one and the same fire in one and the same sacrifice import both gracious acceptance with God and terrible vengeance from God These be contraries in mine eyes whatsoeuer they be in yours That fire in sacrifices did shew Gods fauour and not his anger the sacrifices of Gedeon Salomon and Elias doe plainly prooue which God with fire from heauen consumed not in token of any displeasure against them or dislike of their offerings but in signe of very fauorable acceptations both of their persons and sacrifices Euen so at the first offerings of Aaron the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people and there came a fire from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering vpon the Altar which when all the people saw they gaue a shout for ioy and fell on their faces This fire descending from God and consuming that sacrifice God commaunded to keepe burning for euer on his Altar and none might approch to him with any other fire in incense or offering in so much that when Nadab and Abihu the sonnes of Aaron tooke strange ââ¦ire to offer before the Lord and not of that which alwaies burned on the Altar God destroyed them with fire The fire then which consumed the sacrifices of the Iewes was miraculously deliuered them by God and ioyfully receaued of all the people and therefore did not argue to them any wrath or vengeance on their sacrifices but rather the fauour and good liking of God which the Scripture noteth by the sweete odour of the sacrifice As when Noah made his burnt offerings to ascend by fire the Scripture saith the Lord smelled a sauour of rest that is he shewed himselfe to be appeased and his anger to rest So when Aaron and his sonnes were to be consecrated Priests God said to Moses Thou shalt make to smell by fier that is thou shalt burne the whole Ram as a burnt offering it shall be to the Lord a sauour of rest that is a pleasing sacrifice And for that cause God willed the Iewes in their peace offerings whereby they gaue thanks for their safetie and prosperitie to vse fire and saith of it ISSHE this burning by fire or this sacrifice made by fire is a sauour of rest vnto the Lord. And so in incense which Saint Iohn resembleth to the prayers of the Saints fire was likewise required to teach them that their prayers went vp before God as the smoke of sweete odours and were accepted of him Then not affliction or indignation on the Sacrifice was declared by the fire which God commaunded to be vsed in all kinds of sacrifices but rather an ascending vp to the presence of God and an accepting thereof in the sight of God which is farre from your suffering of hell paines in the soule of Christ for which you bable so much in both your bookes But the Apostle sayth as the bodies of beasts were burnt without the campe so Christ suffered without the gate Were it granted that fire in Sacrifices did signifie probation or affliction which is no way proued you are no whit the neerer to your suffering of hell paines in the soule of Christ. For the bodies of beasts sayth the Apostle were burnt which can by no pretense of these wordes be stretched farder than the afflictions of Christes bodie when he was carried to be crucified without the gate And the chopping of the holocaust in pieces that it might the more conueniently be layed on the wood to burne maketh as slender proofe that Christes soule suffered the paines of hell notwithstanding your graue deuice that Christes soule was chopt in pieces and not his bodie which conceits of yours declare your follie but helpe not your cause Those Sacrifices whereof part was burnt by fire and the rest reserued for the Priest and sometimes for the owner that brought them to feast before the Lord had their bloud shed at the doore of the Tabernacle as well as the other and so resembled the death of Christ no lesse than the other though God would haue no part of the one to be eaten by the Priests or people as the other were but to be wholly consumed by fire because they were wholly reserued or dedicated vnto him And this the Apostle respecteth in that comparison which he maketh of the bodies of beasts burnt without the campe whereof the Priests that serued in the Tabernacle could not be partakers They were consumed by fire because the Priests should not eat thereof to foreshew as the Apostle noteth that such as were addicted to the seruice and ceremonies of the Law and the outward Temple could not be partakers of the trueth which is in Christ except they did leaue those elements of the Law which seemed so glorious in their eyes and followed Christ out of the gate bearing his reproch whose bloud was most holy and most sufficient to sanctifie the people though hee were cast out of the citie to suffer as a malefactour and wicked person Neither were the dead bodies of those beasts consumed by fire out
owne words and hereafter by your leaue tell you it is a plaine lye and a meere shift if you father your termes of Christs meere blood and single bodie vpon me as any part of the Question which I mooued or Doctrine which I defend Wherefore I pray thee Christian Reader once more to take notice that I be not driuen in euery page to proue one and the same thing against the Discoursers vnsauery childish and Idle phrases with which he would faine elude the Scriptures and delude the world Your confession both of my Sermons and conclusion Sir Descourser is this Sundry times you teach that Christ did suffer peculiarly and seuerally some proper punishments in his soule besides his bodily sufferings yea that this was a part of his crosse and the effect of Gods wrath on his soule as well as the suffering in his body Against my words so often witnessed in my writings and so openly confessed by your selfe you take vpon you by some secret reuelation belike to know my meaning that no more but the shedding of Christs blood MEERELY is the full satisfaction of all our sinnes which MEERE BLOOD of Christ the Scriptures meane not nor onely his body SINGLY and SIMPLY considered The MEERE blood and SINGLE and SIMPLE body of Christ with such like couerts of your cause are termes fit for such a teacher as you are to which if you could once conuert the Question we must haue as many Lexicons to bring vs out of these Laberinthes as there be leaues in your booke Keepe them therefore as whelps of your owne litture the faith of Christ and the word of God hath stood without them these sixteene hundered yeeres What I meane by the body and blood of Christ giuen and shed for our Redemption and the remission of our sinne I haue meetly well expressed I must not in euery section fall to fresh repetitions When I speake as the Scripture speaketh I meane as the Scripture meaneth They know not your new termes of the MEERE blood nor of the single and simple body of Christ but by his blood and death they meane that manner of shedding his blood and that kind and course of death suffered in the body of his flesh which the Gospell describeth no way excluding from Christ when he presented himselfe before God to vndertake mans cause the due consideration of mans infirmitie and iniquitie abounding or of Gods iustice therewith displeased nor his humble and voluntary submission to the mightie hand and righteous will of his heauenly Father to excuse vs from the heauie iudgement that otherwise did hang ouer our heads So much as the Scriptures mention in declaring the manner of his death and bloodshedding so much they containe in the name of his Crosse blood and death For as the description which the holy Ghost maketh is in no point idle so the comprehension of all vnder one word excludeth nothing formerly described This I take to be a sound and sure way to expound the Scriptures by their owne direction and intention For since the manner and order of Christs death was so carefully regestred by the spirite of God that we should not be ignorant of it whensoeuer the Scriptures speake of Christs Crosse blood and death they referre vs to all that which either by the Prophets was foretold or in the Gospell is expressed touching the order and manner of his death And so Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures as Paul addeth Then to take any thing from it which is mentioned in the Scriptures or to adde any thing to it which is not there expresly recorded is to depart from the word of trueth and to dishonor and deface the death and bloud of Christ with our inuentions This being my meaning euen from the beginning as my words declare I moued these two generall questions The first Whether in the crosse and death of Christ described in the Scriptures the death of the soule or the death of the damned were by any good warrant of the sayd Scriptures comprised Secondly Whether the crosse and death of Christ as the Scriptures describe them be not the full and perfect price of our redemption from sinne and reconciliation to God by the testimonie of the same Scriptures without the death of the soule or paines of the damned The Discourser finding himselfe inclosed with these questions speaketh directlie to neither and prooueth nothing in either but declining the enuie of these speeches the death of the soule and the paines of the damned which indeed are the points misliked and reiected he changeth the first question into the generall termes of suffering Gods wrath and the soules proper suffering which may import manie things besides those two and in the second he euery where beareth the Reader in hand that by the death and bloud of Christ I meane the MEERE bodily sufferings of Christ without anie sense or sorrow of the soule in her spirituall powers And lest the Scripture should stand in his way he casteth them all behinde him that any way witnesse the force and merit of Christes death and bloudshedding as figuratiue speeches because they name not the MEERE bloud of Christ nor only his body SINGLY considered But Sir all this while you forget that you haue proued nothing but onely supposed and auouched what pleased you and that in matters of faith you may not adde to the word of God without manifest apostasie The things questioned by me were the death of the soule and the verie paines of the damned as appeareth euidently by my words when I first mooued the question Of these you say nothing all this while which yet you must soundly fully proue before you may adde them to the words of the Holy ghost testifying the power vertue of Christes bloud and death Therefore howsoeuer you seeme to shift off the Scriptures as figuratiue speeches with your MEERE and SINGLE termes they will sticke faster by you than so For as there can be no doubt of my meaning comprising all in the death and bloud of Christ which the Scriptures report of the order and maner of his sufferings when he yeelded himselfe to die for the sinnes of the world according to the counsell of his Fathers wil so you may not presume any thing to be conteined in the death or crosse of Christ as requisite for our redemption which is not cleerely witnessed by the Scriptures Proue therefore by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which are the true paines of hell and then adde it to the crosse of Christ when you will Till so you do the Scriptures which I haue produced stand in their full strength against you For as they bind all Christian men stedfastly to beleeue that which is written touching their redemption by the death and bloud of Christ so do they straitly prohibit all and euery be they men or Angels to adde any other
dull conceite or eger stomacke rather betrayed by your foolish rolling to so many what ifs then my reason any way refuted I alter you will say the order of it Though I spake then more shortly then now I doe because I had no leasure to stand so long thereon yet he that will Reade but the third part of that Section whence you take this shall finde the very same parts and words that now I vse there contained and expressed But I afterward defend the proposition with the condition annexed to bee simplie true When I saw your humour was so franticke that not vnderstanding my words you would presently pronounce them in the view of the whole Realme to be a notorious Paradoxe and impietie I bid you take your vttermost aduantage of my words and as they stoode though that were not my first intent they were sound and good and your impugning them was prophane and false I yet auouch the same For where the Scriptures teach no Redemption but by the death and bloud of Christ your other deuââ¦sed Redemptions by the death of the soule and paines of Hell I account no better then false and prophane And therefore if our soules be not that way redeemed which the Scriptures reueile which is by the death and bloud of Christ they are not redeemed at all And being not at all redeemed I would faine know by the best of your skill what benefit of Redemption our bodies shall or can haue more then the bodies of Infidels Yea set that redemption aside which the Scriptures attribute to the death and bloud of Christ and neither bodie nor soule can be saued but infidelity and the wages therof I meane damnation both of soule and bodie preuaile in all men So that you were not well in your wits when with such an heat and huffe you cried out What a Pradoxe is it yea what impietie But I must chuse whether I will speake this sophistically or absurdly you say Is it any sophistrie or absurditie to speake as the Spirit of God speaketh in the Scriptures Your MEERE bloud of Christ is indeed absurd Sophistrie for you imagine by that word that Christ shed his bloud for our sinnes without any meritorious action or passion of the soule concurring which in the Redeemer of the world was so impossible as nothing more If I speake otherwise than the Scriptures speake take your pleasure at it so you bring reason for it but whe I keepe my selfe within the compasse of their speech your aââ¦ouching that I speake Sophisticallie or absurdlie reprocheth the Scriptures whom I follow In either of those points which you impugne as that our soules are redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that our bodies haue not redemption in this life I haue the Scriptures plainly precedent before me and therefore except they speake sophistically or absurdly I in retaining their speech and sense can do neither The difference betwixt the deaths of the faithfull and infidels is a thing well known to me and approoued by me yet must the Apostles words stand true that in this life we haue not the Redemption of our bodies but we must waite for it till the time that all things be restored That Christ hath already purchased and obtained it for vs by his death and passion I make no doubt as also that we rest in hope assured of it but hope which is seene is not hope and though the soules of the Saints retaine a firme faith and full expectance of Gods promise for the raising and Redeeming of their bodies from corruption and in the meane time discerne and feele as well the comfort that is in the death of Gods elect as the great blessings and benefites that follow their death yet their bodies lying in dust haue no shew nor sense thereof much lesse haue they that which Paul calleth the Redemption of the body From which words Saint Austen collecteth very truely Si Redemptio corporis nostri secundum Apostolum expectatur profecto quod expectatur adhuc speratur nondum tenetur If the Redemption of our body by the Apostles doctrine must be wayted for that which is expected is still hoped for but not yet obtained Take then the Redemption of the body for the incorruption of the same as Paul doth whom in that point I followed and tell me what benefite of incorruption which is the word you so much storme at the bodies of the faithfull haue more then the bodies of infidels You range aside as your manner is to the ceasing of sinne in the godly and their resting from labours as also the entrance of their soules into heauen as if the bodies of the wicked did sinne in their graues or were tossed with troubles when they were dead and rotten or in the Saints your sight did not serue you to distinguish their soules from their bodies For when I say as Paul sayth their bodies haue not yet redemption you replie their soules after death haue an entrance into heauen Euen so when I say that the death of the bodie to the saints is a part of that wrath curse and punishment which God inflicted on all mankinde for their sinne in Adam as shall after God willing more largely appeare you oppose the benefits which God of his peculiar goodnesse towards his children hath reserued for them after they haue obediently and patiently submitted themselues to his diuine pleasure in bringing their bodies to corruption for the sinne that dwelleth in them And thus by your mangling of matters you confound in the godlie their soules with their bodies and in God himselfe his iustice against sinne with his mercy towards his owne You might haue learned of S. Austen rightly to seuer them as he doth though you crosse him in this as in most of the things that are in question betwixt vs. Quamuis bonis conferatur per mortem plurimum boni vnde nonnulli etiam de bono mortis congruenter disputaverunt tamen hinc quae praedicanda est nisi misericordia Dei quòd in bonos vsus conuertitur poena peccati Though much good come to the godlie by death whereupon some haue accordingly written of the benefits of death yet what els in this must we acknowledge but the mercie of God that the punishment of sinne is turned to good vses And so that ancient writer of the booke Hypognosticôn amongst S. Austens works Vt moriantur homines poena peccati est vt reuertantur ad vitam Domini miserantis est That men die is the punishment of their sinne that they returne to life againe is the Lords mercie Before you depart from this point that not the bloud of Christ nor his flesh without respect to the merit of his whole soule was the full price of redemption you will shew how sundrie of the ancient Fathers doe agree with you sufficiently in this matter though afterwards in my booke I seeme to bring them against you If
bodilie death which God had irreuocably pronounced and executed on Adam and his ofspring by returning him and them to the earth for manie thousand yeeres before Christ came but rather in that to partake with vs that he might saue vs from the rest which in all the wicked did accompany this death and in the end to raise vs againe to a better life lest we should faint vnder the hand of God who fastneth vs to the afflictions of this life by the example and fellowship of Christs sufferings For if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him and we must first die in Adam before we can be quickned againe in Christ. They are now profitable for vs you will say and so rather helpe vs than hurt vs in this corruption of sinne with which we are compassed I doubt not thereof and so were they from the first instant that they were imposed on Adam but how came this corruption of our nature if not as a punishment of sinne in Adam and consequently the remedies thereof do also witnesse Gods displeasure against sinne though they be farre more holesome for vs than to rot in the sores of our inward corruption Can any man doubt but God was and is able to cleere vs though neuer so corrupt from the infection and dominion of sinne by the working of his Spirit more mightilie and casilie than by troubles and griefs if it had so seemed good to his wisdome and iustice And had he determined to shew vs onlie loue without all regard to his iustice how readie was it for him in Christ to haue released as well all corporall and temporall affliction to his elect as he did spirituall and eternall But he resolued otherwise in his most wise counsell for the conseruation of his iustice and so now healeth our corruption with the salue of affliction to let vs haue continually presented before our eyes and impressed in our bodies what our sinne at first did and still doth deserue though he neuer withdrew his mercie from vs which in the end shall most abundantly recompense all Wherefore it is no reason that because troubles are profitable or necessarie for our corrupt state therefore they are not effects of Gods displeasure against sinne yea rather because God could haue otherwise cured sinne in vs and would not but by perpetuall affliction it is an argument that God so hated sinne in our first parents that he would haue the verie remembring curing thereof to be alwayes in this life painfull and grieuous to our outward man though he would also comfort vs in Christ whiles heere we liue and heereafter crowne vs with glorie for Christes sake Neither is this a question of words whether they be proper or improper in the Scriptures but a point of doctrine necessarie to be receiued of all men that the corruption and dissolution of our nature and life in this world doth manifest the exceeding hatred that naturallie God hath of sinne who rewarded it in all mankinde so seuerely that he spared neither the bodies soules states nor liues of his elect from sensible signes of his detesting sinne in them though for his sonnes sake in whom they were beloued and adopted he would by his wonderfull power rather further than indanger their saluation euen by those maladies and corrosiues of sinne This sheweth the greatnesse of Gods power and goodnesse of his mercie towards vs but this altereth not the iudgement which God pronounced and punishment which he inflicted on Adam and all his ofspring for sinne The corruption and infection of sinne which naturally and continually dwelleth in all the godly called by Diuines concupiscence is it no punishment of sinne because the guilt thereof is remitted in Baptisme and now it is left in vs to humble vs and awake vs to call for grace and to resist sinne that striuing with it we see not only the danger of sinne assaulting vs but the Spirit of God assisting vs and bountie of God rewarding vs The actuall sinnes of the faithfull shall we thinke them no sinnes but fauors from God because by them God worketh repentance submission conuersion yea faith zeale ioy and thanksgiuing in his elect God worketh sayth Austen all things for the good of those that loue him and so farre forth vtterly all things that if any of them stray and for sake the right way euen that God turneth to their good because they returne more humble and better taught The like I say of death and other miseries of mans life pronounced first by Gods mouth and still inflicted by Gods hand They are as they were degrees or effects of Gods anger against sinne in Adam pursuing him and all his posteritie for the confirmation of his iustice though by Gods mercie towards his they now serue as they did euen at the first in Gods children to represse sinne to worke repentance to raise confidence in God and contempt of all earthly things and to exercise the graces of Gods Spirit giuen them as patience obedience and such like and to giue them assurance of a better life The Church of Christ euer was and is of the same minde with me that the death of the bodie with her seeds and fruits in this life first entred and still remaineth as a PVNISHMENT of sin Men shunned saith Austen the death of the flesh rather than the death of the spirit that is the punishment rather than the cause of the punishment We came vnto death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death was the sacrifice for sinne Theodoret speaking of the separation of bodie and soule wherby that which is mort all sustaineth death the soule remaining free from death as being immortall asketh his aduersarie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Doest thou not thinke death to be a punishment Who answering The Diuine Scripture teacheth so much Theodoret inferreth Is death then the punishment of sinners The other yeelding that this is granted of all men Theodoret concludeth Why then since both the soule and bodie sinned doth the bodie alone sustaine the punishment of death Fulgentius Nisi praecessisset in peccato mors animae nunquam corporis mors in supplicio sequeretur Except the death of the soule had gone before by sinne the death of the bodie had neuer followed after as a punishment And therefore of our flesh he sayth Nascitur cum poena mortis pollutione peccati It is borne with the punishment of death and pollution of sinne And of yoong children By what iustice is an infant subiected to the wages of sinne if there be no vncleannesse of sinne in him or how do we see him strooken with death if he felt not the sting thereof which is sinne Maxentius in the confession of his faith We beleeue sayth he that not only the death of
the bodie which is the punishment of sinne but also the sting of death which is sinne entred into the world because we consent not to these men who say the contrarie but to the Apostle who testifieth that sinne and death went ouer all men Prosper The punishment of sinne which Adam the root of mankinde receiued by Gods sentence saying Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne and transmitted to his posteritie as to his branches the Apostle sayth entred into the world by one mans sinne and so ranged ouer all men Beda The death as well of vs men as of Christ is called sinne because it is the effect and punishment of that sinne which Adam committed The second councell of Arrange about 450 yeres after Christ confesseth no lesse If any man affirme that only the death of the bodie which is the punishment of sinne and not sinne also which is the death of the soule passed by one man to all mankinde he ascribeth iniustice to God and contradicteth the Apostle who sayth By one man sinne entred into the world and by sinne death passed ouer all men Our later writers though they fully defend that God doth not punish his either to destruction as he doth the wicked nor for satisfaction of sinne as he did his owne Sonne for the sinnes of all his Saints and to comfort the afflicted they set before them the presence of Gods power assisting them in their miseries or deliuering them from their troubles the purpose of God respecting wholy their good and the promise of God exceedingly recompencing their patience yet when they come to the causes prouoking God to this seueritie they acknowledge that to be sinne and teach euery man to descend into himselfe and to giue God the glorie in that his righteous iudgement beginneth at his owne house Of the euils which we suffer in this life there be many and sundry causes saith Bullinger but sinne it selfe is counted to be the generall cause For by disobedience sinne entred into the world and by sinne death diseases and all the mischiefes in the world The persecutions and cruell tortures inflicted on the Church of God or on particular Martyrs as they were offered them for the confession and testimony of the faith and truth of the Gospell so for the most part they had for their causes the offences and sinnes of the godly which the iustice of God did visite in his seruants though for the good and welfare of his Saints The people of Israell sinned against the Lord in the desert vnder the Iudges and Kings very often and very enormously and were grieuously punished by the Lord but againe they were speedily deliuered as often as they acknowledged their sinnes and turned vnto the Lord. If therefore any man suffer any euill for sinne committed let him acknowledge the iust iudgement of God vpon himselfe and humble himselfe vnder the mightie hand of God confessing it vnto God and asking pardon with lowly praier let him patiently beare that which he hath so well deserued to suffer It is certaine saith Zanchius that all the punishments and miseries which we feele in this world are from sin and inflicted for sinne In which place he resolueth by a plaine thesis that death is the punishment of sinne and so are all those things which are the fruits of death as well in Soule as in body and in our externall state It is an argument saith Gualther of a mind skant religious wholy to despise death quam per peccatum ingressam peccati poenam esse omnes Scripturae testantur which all the Scriptures witnesse came in by sinne and is the punishment of sinne In the Philosophers commendations of the death of the bodie there are some things saith Peter Martyr not agreeable to the Christian faith and to the sacred Scriptures For we say that death must not be accounted any good but an euill thing Quandoquidem Deus illam vti poenam inflixit nostro generi For so much as God inflicted it as a punishment on mankind And so else where Omnes pij statuunt in morte ââ¦rae diuinae sensum esse ideoque sua natura dolorem horrorem incutit All the godly resolue that in death there is a sense of Gods wrath and therefore of his owne nature it impresseth a griefe and terror And if there be any to whom it is contenting and acceptable to die they haue that from some other fountaine and not from the nature of death There might be assigned saith Musculus many kinds of the wrath of God but for this present we content our selues with a triple diuision thereof whereby we diuide it into generall temporall and eternall The generall wrath of God is that wherewith the whole posteritie of Adam is enwrapped for originall sinne Hence come all the miseries of mankind which equally follow the condition of men and cleaue as well to our minds as to our flesh The temporall wrath of God is that Qua peccat is non impiorum modò sed piorum irascitur ac paenas de illis sumit in hac vita whereby God is angry with the sinnes not of the wicked onely but of the godly also and taketh punishment of them in this life Whether I speake or thinke otherwise then these new and old Diuines haue spoken and taught let the Reader iudge But mine owne Authors in the very places which I alleadge doe say that the nature of death is changed and that God is angry with his elect as a Father with his beloued children to chasten and amend them Peter Martyr saith indeede the nature of death is chaunged by Gods goodnes making that profitable to vs which of it selfe is very harmefull but with what condition doth he say it is changed Puta si quis obediente animo eam sube at néque poenam illam reijciat quam diuina iustitia nos omnes voluerit exoluere If a man submit himselfe vnto it with an obedient hart and reiect not that punishment which the iustice of God would haue vs all to suffer And so it was chaunged euen when it was inflicted on the elect in Adams loynes For Christ was first promised to be the bruizer of the Serpents head Now if death afterward tooke full and euerlasting hold on Christs members then the serpent preuailed against Christ and his chosen and not Christ against the Serpent Wherefore God so moderated his sentence that he adiudged Christes members in Adam no farder then to the earth whence Christ should raise them and vtterly abolish from them all the Serpents poyson that is sinne death and corruption but this prooueth not death to be good in Gods Children or to be no punishment of sinne in them because God conuerteth it to their aduantage in the ende no more then their sinnes are good because God turneth them also to the benefite of his elect For as you heard before Saint Austen
or amended then was he not punished for correction On the other side much lesse did God purpose to destroy Christs person being his owne and onely Sonne as he doth the wicked whose bodies and soules he will destroy in hell and consequently Christ was not punished to destruction That is proper to the reprobate whose persons God hateth and leaueth in their sinnes that they may prouoke his iust wrath to their vtter destruction Then was Christ neither punished as the godly are for amendment nor as the wicked are for vengeance and so your partition is false and defectiue and all your collections grounded thereon are like the foundation that is voide of all strength and trueth What then was Gods purpose in punishing Christ for our sinnes euen that which you alwayes passe by with deafe and dull eares though it be often repeated and vrged vnto you because you will not be turned from the trade of your hellish paines Why God would not haue man redeemed but by the death and passion that I call the punishment of Christ Iesus the Scriptures yeeld many causes though of Gods will no cause may be required some respecting God himselfe some concerning Christ and some regarding vs. Touching God the crosse of Christ doth commend his wisdome shew his power manifest his loue content his holines preserue his iustice Christ crucisied as Paul sayth is the power of God and the wisdome of God to them that are saued howsoeuer the crosse of Christ seeme foolishnesse and weakenesse to them that perish Then to controle the carnall wisdome of the world and to confound the pride and strength of Satan and his members God would vse the basenesse and feeblenesse of the Crosse in sauing his elect Also to witnesse his loue towards vs he decreed the same So God loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling sauour vnto God With which Sacrifice the holinesse of God resteth so well pleased that he accepteth vs as holy and sanctified by the oblation of the bodie of Iesus Christ once made The vpholding of Gods Iustice by the death of Christ is often specified in the Scriptures By a man came death and by a man the resurrection from the dead Him that knew no sinne God made sinne for vs to wit a sacrifice for sinne that wee should be made the righteousnesse of God in him Therefore it was expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole Nation perished not He was wounded for our transgressions and by his stripes are wee healed The Lord layed vpon him the iniquitie of vs all And where a Testament is there must be the death of the Testator for a Testament is confirmed when men are dead So that by the Scriptures themselues God decreed the Crosse of Christ in mans redemption to reueale his wisdome power and loue to the world and wholly to satisfie his holinesse and iustice which were thorowly displeased and prouoked with mans disobedience but as thorowly recompensed and appeased by the submission and obedience of Christ. As for Christ himselfe it is euident by the Scriptures that his enduring the crosse declared his obedience patience humilitie charitie perfection and power in more effectuall maner than without it he could haue done For therein he emptied and humbled himselfe and became obedient vnto death euen to the death of the crosse When hee was reuiled he reuiled not againe when he suffered he threatned not He was oppressed and afflicted yet did he not open his mouth For so he loued vs that he gaue himselfe for vs and greater loue than this hath no man to bestow his life for his friends But God setteth out his loue towards vs that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. Once then he suffered the iust for the vniust that he might bring vs to God and being consummate through affliction was made the Prince of our Saluation For in that he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted and became a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people And therefore he died and rose againe that he might be Lord of the dead and the liuing and through death destroy him that had power of death euen the diuell On our behalfe it was not needlesse that Christ should die the death of the crosse For besides that we are bought with a price lest we should be our owne euen with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe vnspotted and vndefiled and reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne which couenant is irreuocable being sealed with his bloud by his crosse Christ left vs an example how we should follow his steps and be partakers of his sufferings that when his glorie shall appeare we may be glad and reioyce For it is a true saying if we be dead with him we shall liue with him if we suffer with him we shall raigne with him We are buried then by Baptisme into his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorie of his Father so we should also walke in newnesse of life knowing this that our olde man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroyed that hencefoorth we should not serue sinne He died for all that they which liue should not hencefoorth liue vnto themselues but to him which died for them and rose againe Infinite are the places of Scripture witnessing the causes effects and fruits of Christs death on the Crosse all which this Dreamer must denie or delude before he can defend that Gods purpose in Christes sufferings was only to punish our sinne lying on him For if Gods purposes in appointing Christes Crosse were so acceptable to the Father so honourable to the Sonne and so profitable for man as the Scriptures mention with what face can it be said that God punished his Sonne only for vengeance or that whatsoeuer Christ suffered all his life long specially at his death was verie wrath and vengeance from God properly taken Christ suffered the same things here on earth which the godly likewise do in this life as appeareth by the history of his death and passion and other paines or deaths in Christ the Scriptures doe not specifie Gods counsell in decreeing the Crosse of Christ for mans redemption considering the true desert of our sinne and terrible vengeance prouided for others was varie fauourable and fatherly not ouerpressing the patience of Christes humane nature nor wearying his obedience and had in it farre more gracious and glorious intents and euents than our afflictions can or ought any way to match or approch If then Gods fauour to his elect make their sufferings in this life no wrath nor vengeance nor so much as punishments why should
the exceeding loue and admirable honor wherewith God accepted and aduanced the death of his Sonne for mans saluation seeme to any sober man verie wrath true vengeance or the proper punishment of sinne prouided and reserued for reprobate men and angels It was not for correction you say What then ergo for vengeance Who being in his right wits would so reason God afflicteth his Saints often times for probation for perfection for coronation as the Scriptures auouch and not for correction May a man thence conclude by your Logick that these afflictions of the Godly are true punishment and proper vengeance Your selfe most withstand it Why then since Christes afflictions had in them a cleere illustration of Gods wisdome power and loue towards man somewhat blemished and obscured in mans fall by Satans craft and a full recompence to his holinesse and iustice neglected and irritated by mans vnrighteousnesse besides the obedience sufficience and preualence of his Sonne thereby declared why should I say those afflictions of Christ great and small during his life and at his death seeme to any man that is well aduised the true wrath proper vengeance and right punishment that was prepared for sinners Yea since the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne must be common to sinfull men with the sinfull Angels in as much as they both sinned and shall both receaue the due wages of sinne how can the corporall afflictions of this life wherein the diuels can not partake with men be called the proper vengeance and right punishment of sinne And who but you hearing our Sauiour pronounce that euerlasting fire is the full payment and proper punishment of wicked and accursed men and Angels would labour with such loose and lewd collections to bring Christ Iesus within the compasse of the full punishment and proper vengeance due to sinne Wherefore take backe your riotous and irreligious termes As they are not prooued by any Scripture so are they not to be suffered in Christian Religion because they are but cloudes to cloke the fantasticall frame of your new hell In the sharpnesse of the punishment exacted by God on the manhood of his owne Sonne for our sinnes though farre different from that which the wicked doe and shall feele and which the Scriptures call the wrath to come wherein the diuels shall haue their portion euen in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone God would haue vs learne how much he detesteth our sinnes how easie all the plagues which we suffer in this life are in respect of that we deserue how infinite the loue and mercy of God was towards vs to lay the burden which we could not haue borne on the shoulders of his onely Sonne who for his dignitie innocencie and euery way sufficiencie was able to quench that wrath that euerlastingly and intolerably would haue burnt against vs to our finall and perpetuall destruction of body and soule For if Gods owne Sonne though he did recompence our sinnes with his infinite humilitie obedience and sanctitie was yet pursued vnto death in most painefull and reprochfull manner for our sakes before we could be quited from the guilt and load of our sinnes had we appeared in the iust iudgement of God to receaue the reward of our manifold iniquities what could haue beene the end thereof but a most dreadfull damnation of body and soule to hell fire for euer with the desperate and damned spirits This God would haue vs obserue in the death of his Sonne though there be many other points of Gods wisedome power and loue towards Christ himselfe which the Scriptures inclose in the Crosse of Christ. That then Gods wrath and displeasure against our sinnes appeared in the Crosse of Christ I doe not deny speaking of wrath after the manner of the Sacred Scriptures But that any wrath or vengeance proper to the wicked was therein offered or executed on Christ or that he suffered the iust and full punishment allotted to others for sinne Saue that his sufferings were in his person the full price of our Redemption I meane a most sufficient satisfaction and recompence for all the sinnes of the world I find no mention made thereof in all the Scriptures nor see any iust cause or proofe thereof alleaged by you in all your writings For since you will not endure that any thing executed on the godly shall be truely called wrath it is euident that the wrath which you imagine Christ suffered must be proper to the wicked before it can be rightly called wrath because the godly feele no part of Gods wrath litle nor great as you suppose Now that Christ suffered the wrath of God prouided for the sinnes of the wicked only and no way common to the godly this is both a false and a wicked proposition of yours though you euery where vrge it you no where prooue it but boldly as your fashion is affirming it you thinke the world bound to embrace it I find by the Scriptures that the wrath which Christ suffered in Soule and Body differed from that which is proper to the wicked as well in the Nature and measure of the paines as in the purpose of the punisher and inward peace of the sufferer and in all the consequents of the paines themselues In this world the wicked find subtraction of all grace and fauour confusion and desperation in the world to come exclusion from glorie Malediction and damnation wholy and euerlastingly light on them none of which may be transferred to Christ without intolerable blasphemie Yet paine you thinke Christ suffered and more then paine the wicked and damned doe not suffer Were that true which is most false that the damned suffer no more then pain though indeed in hell cuery thing doth paine them yet all paines are not of the same nature and kind and no paines felt in this life come neere the paines of hell whereof this mortall life and flesh is not capable The paine of fire we see doth presently cut of this life and some diseases so much heate the body that they doe the like and yet the paine and force of this naturall fire or of any sicknesse is nothing comparable to the fury of hell fire for which the bodies of the wicked must be made immortall before they can endure it All aches and agues doe paine the body all feares and sorrowes afflict the soule and spirit of man Shall we thence conclude that all men at all times when they are pained or grieued suffer the paines of hell because it is paine which the damned doe suffer It is more then prophane abusing and deluding the terrible iudgements of God against sinne to suppose that all paines of body and soule are hell paines in nature and kind which you wrap vnder the fold of proper wrath and right punishment of sinne because they are paines Wherefore they must either be the selfe same paines that God in his iust and fierce wrath inflicted on the damned or you
suffer then Christ did not so suffer If you flie to the purpose of the punisher which was different in Christ and his members and thinke there to succour your selfe you come to short the purpose of God in Christes afflictions as I haue shewed by the Scriptures was farre more fauourable and honourable in Christ then it can bee to any of the elect And therefore Gods purpose in Christes punishment will far der free him from hell paines then it will any of the faithfull The proportion of the pain which Christ suffered the inward peace of the sufferer will proue the same For where the paines of hell exceed the patience of men and Angels and are no way possible to bee suffered in the weaknesse of our mortall bodies the measure of Christes paine was so proportioned to the strength of his flesh that it neither ouerwhelmed his life nor his patience And though his sweate were like bloud in his earnest prayer and Agonie yet no Scripture decideth whether that were for paine feare or zeale and that dured but a while in the Garden where as after when his afflictions and paines were at sorest he shewed no signe of shrinking either at the torments of his body or at the affliction of his minde but as the Apostle saith For the ioy set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame not wearied nor fainting in minde but with most perfect obedience and quiet patience persisting to the ende This conflict betweene paine and patience to serue Gods glorie and obey Gods will Christ proposeth to all his members on the same condition that it was offered to his humane nature To him that ouercommeth saith he will I giue to sit with me in my throne euen as I ouercame and ââ¦it with my Father in his throne As for the consequents of hell paines it is so brutish blasphemie to affirme them of Christ that I forbeare to obiect them I haue often named them and you say you abhorre such blasphemies as well as â⦠doe that Christ so suffered hell paines But Sir you your friends must shew by the Scriptures that God hath seuered these consequents I meane reiection reprobation confusion malediction diction desperation and such like from the true paines of hell The Scripture proposeth them as necessarie and infallible consequents to the true paines of hell You will seuer them because otherwise Christ must either not suffer the true paines of hell which euerteth all your new Doctrine or he must also suffer these which the Scriptures annexe to the true paines of hell If you confesse the first that Christ did not suffer the true paines of hell the Question is well ended If you seuer these consequents from the true paines of hell shew by what authoritie of sacred Scriptures you doe it and then you may be excused from lewd and wicked presumption For if God by his word reuealed hath ioyned them together you doe or should know what sacriledge it is for your pleasure to pull them in sunder Let your Reader therefore iudge whether you can be quited from the one except you shew good warrant for the other which as yet you neither haue done nor offered to doe Your selfe graunt expresly that the wrath of God is hell indeede onely it causeth hell to be cruell yea you grant it to be sharper then hell So that we see hereby how vainely you say out of this proposition Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God for sinne I shall neuer conclude ergo he suffered the true paines of hell I haue here shewed you I trust that this followeth well seeing the wrath of God which Christ felâ⦠in his spirit was his right and proper wrath albeit he suffered not all nor the whole wrath of God nor euery part thereof iust as the damned doe Here you see your full purpose is to conclude that Christ suffred for vs the true paines of hell though it hath beene your policie to conceale so much from the Reader all this while And indeede howsoeuer you dissemble it because you can no way prooueit The death of Christes soule and the true paines of hell or of the Damned are the maine markes which you shoote at though you closely carie it in other termes which are more generall and ambiguous as the wrath of God and the punishment of sinne to keepe your Reader from discouering your foolish reasons and reiecting your wicked deuices But cough vp your conceites freely and wander not thus about a wood of words to shew your contentious spirit or at least to hide your hatefull mysteries Here you haue shewed you trust that it followeth well seeing the wrath that Christ felt in his spirit was right and proper wrath You haue shewed vs what you intend but neither here nor else where doe you shew by what grounds of reason and trueth you can inferre it Christ suffered proper wrath and that in spirit you say You neuer went about to define or describe what proper wrath is much lesse haue you any way prooued that which Christ suffered to be proper wrath And now on the sudden you bend vp your bristles and boast you haue shewed that Christ suffered the true paines of hell But by what Scriptures I pray you haue you shewed it or by what Fathers Or if you haue neither of those to deriue your doctrine from what groundes of reason haue you produced for it You haue roued ignorantly confusedly and absurdly at the sufferings of mans soule you haue filled our eares with certaine new phrases of proper verie and right wrath and vengeance for sinne but first and last you haue proued nothing nay I see not so much as any offer of proofe but a bolde proiect of trifles and termes to support your errors But I grant expresly that the wrath of God is hell Hauing shewed by sundrie Fathers the verie page before that the wrath of God is often taken for the effects thereof and so for any punishment which God inflicteth for sinne I granted that hell and all the ââ¦orments there mightiustly be called the wrath of God because they are t the sharpest effects of Gods wrath against sinne What conclude you thence ergo euerie effect or degree of Gods wrath is hell If you clamper vs such conclusions you are fitter to ring a bell than to write a booke What shew of reason hath this illation of yours The wrath of God is applied to all the paines and punishments of sinne and so by consequent to hell as to the greatest vengeance that God taketh of men or diuels for sinne Will you hence inferre hell is the greatest punishment of sinne ergo hell is all the punishment that God inflicteth for sinne or whatsoeuer God inflicteth for sinne is hell By this Logike a rotten tooth a gowtie toe a broken head or a lame legge are the true paines of hell and all men liuing and dying are in the paines of hell But you will create vs
his whole manhood Irather discharge you from it then burthen you with it onely I added if you should meane otherwise then your words were vttered which I did not say you did then your Antecedent had a flat contradiction in it selfe For so you should in one and the same reason affirme that Christ suffered all which he suffered in his whole Manhood and yet had some sufferings proper to his Soule But granting Christ to suffer all that he suffered in his whole Manhood yet Gods wrath as Gods wrath must you say be suffered properly and immediatly in his Soule The best part of your defence resteth on As and As it were and you take it for fome ââ¦ine tricke to face out your Reader with an As but where before you committed one absurditie now with helping that you incurre twaine For still you make one and the same fuffering proper to the soule and yet common to bodie and soule which in our countrey is a contrarietie notwithstanding your As and adding your As whereon you presume you now affirme that Gods wrath as Gods wrath must be suffered properly and immediatly in Christes soule and so the bodily sufferings of Christ by this latter resolution of yours were no part of Gods wrath as Gods wrath which is contrarie to your conclusion but the page before that all Christes afflictions small and great were the effects of Gods verie wrath and whatsoeuer Christ suffered was very wrath properly taken But you vnderstand suffering for discerning and so the soule onlie discerneth the wrath to be from God which the bodie suffereth Then by your vnderstanding Christes bodie suffered nothing at all because it discerned nothing at all and so Christ suffered nothing in his whole manhood which is contrarie to your maine assertion But heere you take suffering for sensitiue discerning which may be in the bodie through or from the soule If you may be suffered to leape to and fro with what significations of words you please to deuise you may reach what contrarieties you will for the principles of your faith and one As in the end shall mend all Were it worth the time or paines to oppose your trifling As I could aske you whether condemnation of sinne corruption of nature and infliction of death on the children of Infidels be no parts of Gods wrath as Gods wrath because they are not yet by age able to discerne the wrath of God or whether the curse which God layed on the earth and Christ on the figge tree were no curses because neither the earth nor the figge tree could discerne them But Gods intention maketh it wrath not mans discerning and in man it is wrath on either part bodie and soule though onlie the soule can discerne what and which is wrath from God As for the goodnesse of your reason if your say may stand for reason you haue sayd it indeed but any thing els that you proue there or elsewhere touching the proper wrath of God or the sufferings of Christes soule from the immediate hand of God truely I see not and that I likewise leaue as I do the rest to the Readers censure Hauing freed your selfe from contrarieties as your maner is with increasing them you hasten now to vnload your al surdities in which whatsoeuer I haue said I could thorowly fasten on you notwithstanding your new found shifts of directly and indirectly primarily and secundarily if it could stead Christs Church to haue your speeches proued absurd but because I seeke to mainteine the trueth of our redemption which is needfull for all men to know and not to publish your follies farder than the pride of your owne reasons compelled me as I shortly touched them at the first so will I now as shortly ouerrunne them to-let you see that I mistake not your words howsoeuer you will now amend them and not spend long time in displaying your ouersights which may be better bestowed about the matter itself You deny not your words that Christ assumed not our Nature nor any part of it but only to suffer in it properly and immediatly You would faine salue them if you could but how All men may see it to be manifest that heere you speake of Christes suffering for our redemption Why runne you then so vnaduisedly to his incarnation where Christ assumed our Nature and not in his passion Your meaning you say was no more bââ¦t to exclude that which I affirme that Christ tooke hiâ⦠humane soule to suffer in it only from and by the bodie Would you excuse your follies by belying my words Where do I affirme that Christ tooke his humane soule to suffer in it only from and by the bodie You talke of reasonable and iust aduersaââ¦ies what reason or iustice call you this to cite words in my name which I neuer spake nor wrote and so falsely to excuse your words by mine And yet there is good difference betweene these two sentences Christ tooke his humane soule to suffer in it only from the bodie and Christ assumed not our Nature nor any part of it but only to suffer in it properly and immediatly The first admitteth Christes sufferings as one respect why he tooke an humane soule which is verie true The other excludeth all other respects of taking bodie or soule saue only to suffer which is as false as the first is true That was not your meaning you wil say Then learne to ballance your words better before you so rashly powre them foorth and blame not your miââ¦ker who readeth the words but seeth not your meaning But come to your words affirmatiue since your negatiue are so farre out of square I grant Christ intended that his humane soule should suffer by Sympathie but yet this he intended not DIRECTLY nor PRIMARILY in taking two distinct parts of our humane nature our soule and our bodie You would seeme learned to the simple by your doughty distinctions of DIRECTLY and PRIMARILY and vnder this visard of empty words make them beleeue there lay some great mysteries But take backe your toyes wherein you put so much trust the Christian faith was preached written and receiued without these needlesse bon graces of direct and indirect primarie and secondariâ⦠they are but dennes of your deuices to lurke in Christ tooke our soule and our body vnto him purposely and fully to saue both which of the twaine hee meant directly and primarily to suffer in and which indirectly and secondarilâ⦠is a fruitlesse speculation of yours The Christian faith neither hath nor needeth any such questions For since man consisteth of both and without either can be no man the Sonne of God descending for vs and our saluation directly and primarily purposed to sane and suffer in both And because the body being made of earth was the weaker and baââ¦r part of man the soule in will and reason though not in power and lââ¦ght as yet drawing neere to the Angels of God and by
conceale it and onely skirre at it here and there in SOME KIND OF SENSE Otherwise you offer nothing as yet to the Reader but the proper sufferings of the soule which I trust are not alwaies priuation of grace and exclusion from blisse For so the faithfull should neuer haue any proper sufferings of the Soule or else vtterly loose both the spirit and fauour of God which they neuer doe The other Authoritie which I cite In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death is not so sound you thinke For am I sure that death here is but the bodyly death onely and no more I no where say that death threatned in these words was onely the death of the body it is one of your rash and rude illations it is none of my assertions I knew that God gaue this Commandement and threatned this punishment as well to Adams posteritie as to his person Otherwise had this prohibition beene made to Adam alone neither could the woman haue beene within the compasse of it who was not then created when this precept was inioyned neither could Adams of-spring haue tasted of death as well as Adam if this penaltie had stretched no farder then to Adams person But he being the roote and stocke of all mankind as he receaued blessings by his creation which should be common to all that descended of him so by his transgression he lost them as well from his Issue as from himselfe and subiected them to the same death and condemnation that he did him selfe when he rebelled against God his Creator Death we see executed on all the children of Adam and therefore we may not doubt but death was threatned to them all before it was inflicted on them Howbeit the commination in this place is like to Gods thââ¦eats in all other places against the transgââ¦ssours of his Law It denounceth what shall ââ¦e due vnto all but it bindeth not God that he shall not haue power to release or mitigate what and to whom pleaseth him In death then here threatned I containe all kinds of death corporall spirituall and eternall either as expressed in the generall name of death which is common to them all or as consequent ech to other and coherent if by Gods goodnes and mercies in Christ Iesus they be not seuered Saint Austen learnedly and truely teacheth the same When it is asked what death God threatned to the first men if they transgressed the Commandement giuen them whether the death of the body or of the soule or of the whole man or that which is called the second death we must answere ALI When therefore God said to the first man what day soeuer yee eate thereof yee shall die the death that threatning contained what soeuer death there is euen vnto the last which is called the second death and after which there is none other If any man stand more strictly on the time and kinde of death when and which Adam should die by this Commination Saint Austen hath an other answere In that which was said yee shall die the death because it was not said deaths if we vnderstand that onely death whereby the soule is forsaken of her life which to her is God for she was not forsaken that she might forsake but she did first forsake that she might after be forsaken though I say we vnderstand that God denounceth this death when he said what day yee eate thereof yee shall die the death as if God had said what day yee forsake me by disobedience I will forsake you by iustice Surely in that death were the rest denounced which without Question were to follow For euen in that a disobedient motion rose in the flesh of the Soule disobeying for which they couered their priuie parts one death was perceaued wherein God forsooke the Soule And when the Soule forsooke the body now corrupted with time and wasted with age an other death was found by experience which God mentioned to Man when punishing sinne he said earth thou art and to earth shalt thou returne that by these two deaths that first death of the whole man might be accomplished which the second death at last doth follow except man be deliuered by the grace of God By Saint Austens iudgement concording with the Scriptures God threatned all kinds of death to the transgressor the death of the Soule the same houre to take place that he disobeyed the rest to follow in their order as next the death of the body and at last eternall death of body and soule if the grace of God by Iesus Christ did not release and free man from it That the death of the Soule tooke present hold vpon the disobeyers the Scripture giueth testimony sufficient when it noteth their shame feare and flight of Gods presence who before sinne was their delight ioy and blisse The death of the body was a long time differred in Adam euen nine hundred and thirtie yeeres before it did separate his Soule from his Body but it began presently to worke and shew his force in either of their bodies The sentence of mortalitie God called Death saith Theodoret. For after Gods sentence Adam euerie day expected or feared Death Beda saith the like That which God said In what day soeuer thou shalt eate thereof thou shalt die the Death was as if he had said Morti deputatus eris thou shalt be deputed or adiudged to death not that he should that very day die but be mortall Chrysostom imbraceth the same opinion In what dââ¦y soeuer yee shall eate of the tree yee shall die the Death But Adam liued still how then died he By the sentence of God and the nature of the thing it selfe For he that maketh him selfe subiect to punishment is vnder punââ¦shment sinonre tamen sententia If not by deede and execution yet by guiltinesse and sentence pronounced So that if we will rightly conceiue Gods commination to Adam we must so take the words of God as threatning Adam and his posteritie with all kinds of death to which they all should bee subiect as guiltie thereof and deseruing the same though hee would keepe to himselfe the dispencing and moderating thereof not binding himselââ¦e thereby but the offenders as euery supreame Iudge doth on earth after sentence giuen and before execution finished Else if wee ââ¦e God who is trueth it selfe to the rigour and tenor of those words without reseruing power to him to dispose of Adam and Adams of-spring at his pleasure and in the words Thou shalt die the death comprise the execution of all sorts of death which can not be reuoked then we conclude Adam and all his issue without remedie or mercie vnder all sorts of death that is vnder spirituall corporall and eternal death which is not onely an vtter ouerthrow to all Christian ââ¦eligion promising saluation in Iesus Christ but a mecre madnesse against all mankind deuoting them without exception or mitigation to eternall
superfluous That you will say is the proper and strict signification of the word satisfie but you take it more largely For the abuse of words I will not greatly striue so you build thereon no impieties howbeit when I say that nothing might satisfie for sinne but death I take satisfaction properly for the last and full payment after which no more was due for sinne and that apparantly by the Scriptures was the death of Christ before which the rest was not sufficient and after which no more was required by the righteous will and counsell of God So that although the obedience and patience of Christ all his life long did tend to satisfaction and made way for satisfaction as his hunger wearinesse pouertie and such like yet none of these did satisfie for sinne or acquite vs from sinne by the verdict of the holy Scripture but Christ after all these must yeeld himselfe to suffer that kind of death which the iustice of God should appoint and ordaine before we could be freed from our sinnes His blood you thinke did wash vs from all our sinnes Because his blood was shed for vs euen vnto death therefore his bloodshed expresseth the manner of his death as likewise his apprehension buffeting reproches and shame which the Scripture describeth in the order of his death and therefore compriseth vnder the name of his death For by Christes death as I haue often said the Scripture meaneth that kind of death in all respects and circumstances which the Euangelists in their writings report Who will grant in proper speech that those are his death The name of Christs death in the Scriptures containeth all those things which were coincident and concurrent to that death which Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Neither shall we neede your figure Synecdoche by a part of Christs sufferings to vnderstand all that he felt or suffered from his mothers wombe that is a loose deuise of yours to make any thing of euery thing and so to confound the Scriptures that no man shall knowe either what to beleeue or what to beware For where S. Iohn saith the blood of Christ doth clense vs from all our sinnes by your Synecdoche you imagine that the wine which he dranke at his last Supper the water wherewith he washed his disciples feete the teares which he shed for Lazarus death the iourney which he tooke to Galilee the sleepe which he fetched in the ship the hunger which he sustained in the wildernesse and what not should doe the like since euery thing that befell our Sauiour small or great did satisfie for sinnes as well as his death and passion What els is this but to mayme and mangle the Scriptures which name the blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption and his death the meane of our reconciliation if euerie thing that Christ did or endured shall be of the same force and weight to satisfie for sinne that his bloud and death were His bloud you will say is not his death The shedding of his bloud vnto death which the Scripture intendeth by his bloud is a plaine description of his death This is my bloud sayd he which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And the rest which were appendants to his death expresse the maner of his death which the wisdome and iustice of God would haue to be full of violence iniurie reproch contempt shame and paine All which as they note the maner of his death so are they inclosed by the Scriptures in the name of his death and that I trust more properly being parts thereof than the naturall infirmities of his bodie as sleepe hunger and wearinesse or the voluntarie euents of his life as the rest of his actions and passions long before the houre came that he should be deliuered into the hands of sinfull men Why may not the proper sufferings of Christs Soule be as well admitted into the worke of Christs satisfaction although his SOVLE COVLD NOT PROPERLY DIE The sufferings of Christs Soule at the time of his death which the Scriptures mention we easily admit into the worke of his satisfaction for sinne but your satis-fiction of hell paines and of the death of Christs Soule we doe not admit because the holy Ghost so diligently describing the whole order and manner of Christs sufferings when he went to his death teacheth no such thing as you falsely collect from certaine words of his and chiefly from his bloody sweate whereof not knowing precisely the cause you surmise what best pleaseth your humor without all warrant of the word of God Prooue therefore by the Scriptures and not by your owne ghesses that Christs Soule suffered these things from the immediate hand of God which you suppose and we shall soone find a place for them in the worke of Christs satisfaction for sinne Till then giue me leaue to expound the Scriptures by themselues and not by your vnioynted and vntidie Commentaries confounding Christs life and death nature and will affections and punishments satisfaction and merits as if they were not different parts of our saluation to take our nature vpon him to worke all righteousnes in our names to suffer a shamefull and painfull death for our sinnes and to obtaine all spirituall and celestiall graces and comforts here and in heauen for vs. The first sinne committed by Adam and our continuall treading in his steps rest yet vndiscussed wherein we should not neede many words if you could or at least would rightly conceaue what is said and not ignorantly or purposely mistake and measure all things by your hastie humor To prooue that Christ must satisfie for sinne by the proper sufferings of his Soule and not with or by his body you brought this reason in your Treatise Whereby Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne by the same the second Adam Christ hath made satisfaction for our sinnes But Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne in our Soules our bodies being but the Instrument of the Soule and following the Soules direction and will Therefore Christ in his Soule most properly made satisfaction for vs In my Conclusion to your obiections I first denyed your Maior or former proposition For though the Soule of Adam as also our Soules quickly might and worthily did die for sinne and by sinne wherein they were the principall agents yet the Soule of Christ by no warrant of holy Scripture did or could die the death of Spirits and so could make no satisction for sin by her death Now by the Scriptures without death there was no satisfaction for sin and therefore the soule of Christ must satisfie for sinne by the death of her body not by any death proper to her selfe And so much the Scriptures auouch teaching vs that we haue redemption euen the remission of sinnes through his blood are reconciled to God
restraineth his wordes of Christs sufferings in that whole Section The death therefore which hee saith Christ suffered as the punishment appointed by God for haynous offences or for mans wickednesse and thereby conquered the deuill who had the rule of death was the cruell and shamefull death which the Iewes put Christ to on the Crosse which was the death that God either allotted to all men for sinne or prescribed specially for grieuous offences as an accursed kind of death euen in this life where Christ suffered though euerlasting death did ensue the wicked in the next world from which Christ was free Neither can the deuill be said to be the ruler of the second death if it be inflicted as you would haue it by the immediat hand of God except you make the deuill ruler and gouernour of Gods immediate hand which is notorious blasphemie It is there also written that Christs will was to suffer all extreamitie for vs who had deserued all extreamitie and all these things being taken vpon him hee destroyed them all You sliely slippe your Authors words in the question prefixed which is the cause of this answere and lighting on a Latine phrase which you scant vnderstand you pursue that to the pit of hell The question proposed in the Catechisme is this Since Christ had power in himselfe to choose what kind of death he would why would he rather be fastned to the Crosse then suffer any other kind of punishment The answere is Vltima omnia pati voluit pronobis quia vltima omnia eramus commeriti Christ would endure for vs in all things the vttermost which the Iewes could doe vnto him because in all things we had deserued the vttermost And that the phrase vltima omnia the vttermost in all things is referred to the Iewes to note the worst they could doe vnto Christ appeareth by that which is added as a reason of those words For the Crosse saith he was of all others a detested and abhorred kind of death which yet Christ would chiefly sustaine at the Iewes hands for vs that he might receiue on him the grieuous curse which our sinnes had fastned to vs and by this meanes deliuer vs from it All despightes all reproches and punishments offered him by the Iewes Christ counted light for our saluation and endured to be contemned and abiected by them as the basest or vilest of all men So that the Catechisme had no intent to say that Christ willingly would suffer the worst that God could doe vnto him that were defiance to Gods power and iustice which was fardest from Christs thought and must be from the Catechizers words except you will haue him blaspheme but in deede our Sauiour did submit himselfe to the worst and vttermost that men could doe vnto him which was the determinate counsell of God for the satisfaction of his iustice and redemption of our sinnes and therefore Christ made choise of the Crosse to yeeld vp his life that the Iewes might to the last breath loade him with all maner of despightes reproches and tortures which they by Satans instigation failed not to performe Leaue then your peruerting of other mens words and subuerting of their meanings and I see no one syllable yet cited by you out of the Catechisme that tendeth towards your new found hell or the death of the damned to be suffered in Christs soule But Christ you thinke could deliuer vs from no more then he suffered for vs. You might haue learned the contrarie to that out of the Catechisme where you are plainly taught that Christs corporall and temporall wrongs reproches and paines inflicted on him by the Iewes did quit vs from all spirituall euerlasting debts deaths feares and paines Christ in our name and place vndertooke to his Father to satisfie him for our sinnes and with the most sweete sacrifice of his obedience to appease his Fathers wrath conceaued against vs for our obstinacie and so to restore vs to fauour with God And therefore Christ the most innocent Lambe of God was bound with cordes to free vs who for our deserts were deliuered captiues to Satan sinne and damnation Christ who was vtterly without all fault was accused and condemned by the sentence of an earthly Iudge that he might absolue vs before the heauenly Tribunall who were euery way guiltie and most worthy of damnation Christ with his precious bloud shed for vs did wash and clense the spots and filthinesse of our sinnes Lastly Christ with the reproches which he sustained most vndeseruedly and with the most shamefull and most sharpe death which was inflicted on him deliuered vs from the punishment ignominie and death euerlasting which we had most iustly merited with our wicked offences and so all our sinnes were buried in obliuion and remooued farre from the sight of God by Christ. This doctrine if you could brooke you would not so much disable the sufferings of Christ at the hands of his persecutours as you doe not so hastily commit the soule of Christ to the paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God before you wil acknowledge our redemption to be perfect by the crosse and death of Christ but as your manner is you steppe by whole leaues that are against you and stumble at a word that happily may be wrested from his right sense and that you thinke is strong enough to beare the waight of all those absurdities if not impieties which you would reare Marke also what doctrine the Law of this Realme consonantly publisheth and commandeth in the homilies of Christs passion The first homily maketh Christes putting himselfe betweene Gods deserued wrath and our sinne the extreamest part of his passion You alleaged the Catechisme rather for your pleasure then any profit to your cause you do the like now with the booke of Homilies You cite but little thence and that to litle purpose That Christ put himselfe betweene Gods deserued wrath and our sinne to appeare the iust displeasure of God kindled against vs and to auert it from vs I knowe no man that maketh any doubt thereof and I maruaile to what ende you alleage it For what needed a Redeemer but to saue vs from the wrath of God prouoked by our wickednesse and armed with infinite power to take vengeance of mans vnrighteousnesse Or how could Christ be a Mediatour if he did not stand betweene vs and the dreadfull anger of God irritated by our iniquities to quench the same and to keepe vs from euerlasting destruction But the Homily you say maketh that the extreamest part of Christs passion which was a further feeling then the sense of bodily paine onely And therefore by the Homilie he felt Gods proper wrath spiritually which our sinne deserued You no sooner heare the name of Gods wrath but you run to your old bias and straightway pitch on your hell paines There are no such words in all that Homilie as that Christs putting him selfe betweene Gods wrath and our sinne was
the extreamest part of his passion Gods wrath against mans sinne was indeede the cause of all that Christ suffered and not the extreamest part onely of his sufferings by which you would extenuate the rest as not extreame enough till that were added But the Booke of Homilies teacheth you no such Doctrine that proposeth the death of Christ suffered in his Body on the Crosse for the FVLL and ONLY satisfaction or amends of all our sinnes Heare the words that the Reader may see what a counterfeite pretence you make of publike Authoritie as if it were consonant to your new conceited errours when it plainly impugneth them So pleasant was this Sacrifice and oblation of his Sonnes death which he so obediently and innocently suffered that God would take it for the ONLY and FVLL AMENDS for all the sinnes of the world No tongue surely is able to expresse the worthinesse of this so pretious a death Yea there is none other thing that can be named vnder heauen to saue our Soules but THIS ONLY VVORKE of Christs pretious offering of his Body vpon the Altar of the Crosse. The death of Christs Body you thinke did not manifest the wrath of God against our sinnes the death of the Soule and paines of hell must be added before the wrath of God will appeare in Christs Crosse. So teach you but the Booke of Homilies teacheth the cleane contrarie Christ being the Sonne of God and perfect God himselfe who neuer committed sinne was compelled to come downe from heauen and to giue his Body to be brused and broken on the Crosse for our sinnes Was not this a manifest token of Gods great wrath and displeasure towards sinne that he could be pacified by NO OTHER MEANES but ONLY by the sweete and pretious bloud of his deare Sonne Therefore in the Booke of Homilies as there is no mention so is their no intention that Christ suffered spiritually the proper wrath of God which our sinnes deserued These are your phrases and fansies added to the booke of Homilies which neither speaketh nor meaneth any such thing as you idlely inferre Againe Christ bare all our sinnes sores and infirmities vpon his owne backe no paine did he refuse to suffer in his owne bodie But as he felt all this in his bodie so he must feele the greatest part primarily and much more deeply in his soule ergo he refused not to suffer all the paines of the wrath of God both in bodie and soule This kinde of ergoing passeth mine vnderstanding To the first proposition taken out of the booke of Homilies that Christ bare all our sores and infirmities vpon his owne backe refusing no paine in his owne bodie to deliver vs from euerlasting paine you put what pleaseth you without any proofe and then you inferre what you list without any sequele of reason or trueth For how hangeth this geere together Christ bare all our sores and infirmities in his owne bodie ergo he suffered all the paines of Gods wrath both in bodie and soule Are there none other paines of Gods wrath but the sores and infirmities of our bodies And if Christ did suffer all bodily paine incident to men heere on earth doth it therefore follow that he suffered all the paines both of bodie and soule that Gods wrath here and els where hath prouided for sinners If a man would set himselfe purposely to crosse the booke of homilies I know not how he might do it more directly then you do to conclude expresly the contrary to that which is there deliuered It is no maruell that so manie writers are of your side as you say when you can enlarge them and interlace them after this sort but you shall doe well to thinke that your Reader now hearkeneth after the publike doctrine of this Realme authorized by the lawes thereof in the booke of homilies as you professed and not after your secret conceits intercepting and peruerting the trueth there taught by your pernicious and erroneous glozes Christ you say must feele the greatest part of his bodily paines primarily in his soule Haue you not brought vs monsters enough in matters of faith but you must hatch vs more Must bodily paines for of those speaketh the booke of homilies as appeareth by the next words Christ refused no paine in his owne bodie and the first wordes are he bare all our sores and infirmities on his owne backe must I say bodily paines be felt primarily in the soule If you shift all sense to the soule then the bodie beareth that is feeleth nothing and so you refute the booke of homilies you follow it not If you allow sense to the bodie tell vs I pray you how violence first offered to the bodie is primarily felt in the soule It may be betwixt first in English and primus in Latine you haue found some deepe difference The soule you thinke doth primarily consider of the paines of her bodie that you meane by feeling Then leaue you to the bodie a second consideration of his owne paines and so you giue reason and memorie to the bodie distinct from the soule which well becommeth a man of your wisdome That Christ duely considered of the cause for which he suffered and of the Iudge by whose appointment he suffered these things in his bodie from the Iewes I haue often sayd it and you haue often reiected it as not sufficient to satisfie the wrath of God against our sinnes and therefore you euery where vrge the proper punishment and iust reward of sinne due to vs on the soule of Christ and when you come to proue it you rest on the religious consideration that Christ had of his sufferings and call that the wrath of God as if you might choppe and change the wrath of God to your best liking and neuer be constant in any thing Howbeit the question now is what the publike homilies teach the people to beleeue of the worke of their saluation and not how you can shift and sheere wordes to make them sort with your errours Shew therefore somewhat out of the booke of Homilies established by the lawes of this realme that may cleerely confirme or concurre with your doctrine and sell vs not the verdiuyce of your owne deuices in stead of good wine allowed by publike authoritie Christ tooke vpon him the reward of our sinnes the iust reward of sinne But the same homilie sayth the reward of our sinne was the iust wrath and indignation of God the death both of bodie and soule Therefore by the homilie Christ tooke on him for vs the iust wrath and indignation of God the death of the bodie and soule Your trade of iugling will but shame you if you can shift hands no cleanlier then here you doe Your first and second propositions here cited out of the Booke of Homilies are so curtayled by you that they seeme nothing lesse then that they are in their right places The writer of the Homilies hauing taught
the people that Christ came to saue the house of Israell by giuing his life for their sinnes and that sinne caused the onely Sonne of God to be crucified in the flesh and to suffer the most vile and slaunderous death of the Crosse and consequently willed them to remember how grieuously and cruelly Christ was handled of the Iewes for our sinnes and to set before their eyes Christ crucified with his body stretched on the Crosse his head crowned with sharpe thornes his hands and his feete pearced with nayles his heart opened with a speare his flesh rent and torne with whips his browes sweating water and bloudâ⦠by this stirreth vp the hearers to the hatred of sinne that was so grieuous in the sight of God that he would not be pacified but onely with the bloud of his owne Sonne And though there were a thousand examples in the Scripture shewing how greatly God abhorred sinne yet this one is of more force then all the rest that the Sonne of God was compelled to giue his body to bee bruised and broken on the Crosse for our sinnes After these premonitions follow your words Christ hath taken vpon him the iust reward of sinne which was death not the whole reward of sinne which is an vtter exclusion from all grace and glorie and the eternall damnation of body and Soule in hell fire but the death of his body bruised and broken on the Crosse by the cruell rage of the Iewes which is particularly and plainely before described Now the death of the body inflicted on all mankind for sinne is the iust though not the full reward of sinne and by suffering that Christ freed vs from all condemnation of sinne which otherwise in vs would haue beene euerlasting And this explication the same Homily addeth to the former words which you cite though you purposely suppresse it When all hope of righteousnesse was past on our part and wee had nothing whereby wee might quench Gods burning wrath and worke the saluation of our Soules Then euen then did the Sonne of God come downe from heauen to be wounded for our sakes to be reputed with the wicked to be condemned vnto death to take vpon him the reward of our sinnes and to giue his body to be broken on the Crosse for our offences Here are both the places which you patch together the one noting Death to be the iust reward of sinne the other expressing what kind of death Christ suffered for vs as the reward of our sinne euen the breaking of his body on the Crosse for our offences In the second proposition you shew more deprauing of the publike doctrine of this Realme For where the second Homily saith in expresse words that our Grandfather Adam by breaking Gods commaundement in eating the Apple forbidden him in Paradise purchased not onely to himselfe but also to his posteritie for euer the iust wrath and indignation of God who condemned both him and his to euerlasting death both of body and Soule you transferre this iudgement from Adam to Christ which the Homily doeth not and least you should bee taken tardie with open blasphemie you leaue out the word EVERLASTING which is euident in the Homily and vpon those maimed and forged collections you inferre that by the Homily Christ tooke on him for vs the death both of body and Soule Why say you not Christ tooke vpon him EVERLASTING death both of body and Soule which was the iust and due purchase or wages of our sinne by the plaine words of that Homilie You feared blasphemie and therefore you chose rather to falsifie the place then to want some defence for your Doctrine Christ you will say died that death which was the reward of our sinne by the Booke of Homilies To belie publike Authoritie so grossely in so great causes is a quadruple iniquitie What death Christ died for our sinnes is openly professed and euen pictured before our eyes in this very Homilie the words I repeated in the Section before What death was the wages of our sinne if the word euerlasting did not fully declare the same Homilie in the same Section whence your words are taken doth twice most abundantly teach Adam tooke vpon him to eate of the tree forbidden and in so doing he died the death that is to say he became mortall he lost the fauour of God he was cast out of Paradise he was no longer a Citizen of heauen but a fire brand of hell and a bond-slaue to the Diuell And sixe lines after So that now neither Adam nor any of his had any right or interest at all in the kingdome of heauen but were become plaine Reprobates and cast-awaies being perpetually damned to the euerlasting paines of hell fire It would fairely fit your new Doctrine to defend that Christ was a Reprobate and a Cast-away yea a fire-brand of hell and a bond-slaue to the Diuell perpetually damned to the euerlasting paines of hell fire And though I be perswaded you detest these diuelish impieties and hellish blasphemies yet you regard little your cause or your conscience which vouch in Print that Christ suffered that reward of sinne which by the Booke of Homilies was due to vs all those things by the same Booke in the same place being due to vs. You will shift of this matter as if these things might be granted in substance not in circumstance and in our countenance not in his But such shifts are so shamefull and sinfull in this case that I thinke your owne friends wil altogether mislike your flying to the Booke of Homilies for the death of the Soule or the iust reward of sinne in all mankind there mentioned to be suffered in the Soule of Christ. Also our great Bible appointed by Authoritie to be read in publike Churches expresly saith as much It is a poore pittance when you finde no helpe for your new made hell in the whole Text of the Bible to run to the Printers additions set by the sides of the Booke who often annexe things in the Margine for direction or explication as they thinke good which declare the Printers or Correctors but not the Authors nor Translators mind Your wits I trust be not so weake but you can discerne between the English translation of the Text commaunded to be publikely read in the Church and the Marginall notes added by others without any warrant of publike Authority for ought that I see And therefore I take not my selfe nor any man else to be bound to those notes farder then they euidently concurre with the truth of the Text though they may be sometimes profitable for the opening of hard places That Christ was in an Agonie the Euangelist affirmeth and the English Translator hath done his duetie in expressing so much but what the cause was of that Agonie is beyond the Commission of a Translator to specifie since the Scripture concealeth it and so publike Authoritie which appointed
the English Translation to be openly reade in the Church confirmeth not the Marginall appositions which may not be read in the Church though they may be receiued so farre as they haue manifest coherence with the Text or consequence from the Text in respect rather of their veritie then Authoritie For these notes at first were not affixed and in sundry editions they haue been altered increased as the Corrector liked euen this note which you alleage somewhat differeth from the Geneuian notes whence this and the most of the rest were taken The words of the Geneuian edition vpon this place are these The word Agonie signifieth that horror that Christ had conceaued not onely for feare of death but of his Fathers Iudgement and wrath against sinne The Printer of the great English Bible or his Corrector ouer against those words of the Text he was in an Agonie setteth this obseruation in the Margine He felt the horror of Gods wrath and iudgement against sinne I refuse not those words as if they gainsaid the Doctrine which I defend but I see no farder ground in them then ghesse when they ayme at the cause of Christs Agonie which the Scripture suppresseth Howbeit let the words stand in their full strength though by no meanes I acknowledge either Authentike or publike Authoritie in them they rather euert then support your opinion The vttermost here ascribed to Christ is HORROR that is a shaking or trembling feare of Gods Iudgement and wrath against sinne which all the godly finde in them selues when they enter into the serious cogitation of Gods holinesse displeased and his Iustice prouoked with their sinnes but this is farre from the death or paines of the damned except you make the vengeance of the Reprobate all one with the repentance of the faithfull This therefore is like the rest of your proofes no way tending to your purpose The feare of Gods wrath against sinne which is common to all the godly in this life though not at all times hath no fellowship with the feare of the Reprobate much lesse with the torments of the damned The one is a religious and godly sorrow for sinne which worketh saluation and yet agniseth with feare and trembling the iustnesse and greatnesse of Gods wrath against sinne the other is the beholding of the terrible and eternall destruction of Body and Soule prepared for them without all hope of ease or end In Christ there might be a double cause of this horror conceaued or felt by him as affections are felt in the Nature of Man the one touching vs the other touching himselfe Christ might tremble and shake at the terror of Gods Iudgement prouided for vs which was euerlasting damnation of Body and Soule in hell fire and the more tenderly he loued vs the greater was his horror to see this hang ouer our heads euen as we naturally tremble to see the desperate daungers of our dearest friends present before our eyes And if Paul said truely of him selfe we knowing the terror of the Lord meaning the terror of the Lords Iudgement against sinne how much more then did the Sauiour of the world know the same the cleare beholding of which might iustly worke in him a manifest horror to teach vs to take heede of that terrible Iudgement at the sight whereof for our sakes he did tremble in the daies of his flesh An other cause of that horror might concerne himselfe For since the wrath and Iudgement of God against our sinne was so terrible to behold that Christ in his humane nature trembled at it how could it but raise an horror in him to know that he must presently receiue in his owne Body the burthen thereof and make satisfaction therefore with his owne smart which how farre it would pearce his patience the weakenes of our flesh in him might well feare and tremble though his spirit were neuer so resolute and ready to endure the most that mans nature in this life could sustaine with obedience and confidence So that either the sight of Gods wrath against sinne due to vs or the satisfaction of the same which Christ was to make might vrge his humane nature to that feare and trembling for the time which these notes obserue and yet neither of these come neere the feare of the wicked or paines of the damned Besides that religious horror and feare is nothing lesse then the paines of hell inflicted on the Soule by the immediate hand of God which is the deuice that you seeke to establish Thus my Text of Scripture is also iustified that Christ gaue himselfe the price of Redemption for vs WHICH ELS VVE SHOVLD HAVE PAYD If wresting adding and altering may be called iustifying then is your sense of that text iustified indeed otherwise there is nothing yet alleadged that any way approueth that meaning of the text which you would inforce The price of our redemption Christ payd not the same which els we should haue payd had we not beene redeemed for so Christ must haue suffered euerlasting damnation of bodie and soule which was the payment exacted of vs but he payd a PRICE for vs that more contented his displeased Father than our euerlasting destruction could haue done You dallie therefore with the doubtfulnesse of the word PAYD which sometimes signifieth the enduring of punishment sometimes the yeelding of recompence The Price of our sinnes which we should haue payd that is the punishment of our sinnes which we should haue susteined was eternall destruction of bodie and soule in hell fire and other payment we could make none This payment due to vs or punishment which we should haue payd the person of Christ could not suffer it is most horrible blasphemy so to speake or thinke but he payd a price for vs that is a SATISFACTION and AMENDS for our sinnes which by no meanes we were able to pay And so much the word ANTILYTRON noteth euen a Price Recompence or Ransome in exchange of the punishment or imprisonment which the captiue should suffer This Price you will say was himselfe I make no doubt that Christ gaue himselfe to die but NOT TO BE DAMNED for our sinnes as we should haue beene Neither can the common custome of redeeming captiues inferre any more than the giuing of a price for the Prisoner And therefore I did iustly aske Who told you that the Scripture here speaketh after the common vse of redeeming Captiues taken in warre And where you answere the nature of the word ANTILYTRON importeth so much which is properly vsed in such cases you vndestand neither the nature of the word neither the maner of our redemption rightly For first the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whence Antilytron commeth properly signifieth a mutuall redemption of ech other as Aristotle obserueth and so we should redeeme Christ as he redeemed vs. Wherefore the word is heere improperly taken and signifieth no more than LYTRON without composition Againe the common vse of
that doctrine to the people The iust and mercifull God did not so vse the iniurie of his will those are his words that to restore vs hee would only shew the power of his clemenââ¦ie but because it was a consequent that man committing sinne should be the seruant of sinne God so fitted the medicine to the sicke the pardon to the guiltie and redââ¦mption to the captures that the iust sentence of condemnation should be dissolued by tââ¦e iust worke of the ãâã For if only the Godhead should haue opposed it selfe for vs sinners not so much reason as power should conquer the diuell The Sonne of God therefore admitted wicked hands to be layed on him and what the rage of the persecutors offered with patient power he suffered This was that great mysterie of godlinesse that Christ was euer loaden with iniuries which if he should haue repelled with open power and manifest vertue he should haue exercised onely his diuine strength but not regarded our cause that were men For in all things which the madnesse of the people and Priests did reprochfully and ãâã vnto him our sinnes were wiped away and our offences purged The diuell himselfe did not vnderstand that his crueltie against Christ should ouerthrow his owne kingdome WHO SHOVLD NOT LOOSE THE RIGHT OF HIS FIRST FRAVD IF HE COVLD ABSTAINE FROM THE LORDS BLOVD But greedie with malice to hurt whiles he rusheââ¦h on Christ himselfe falleth whiles he taketh he is taken and persuing him that was mortall he lighted on him that was the Sauiour of the world Iesus Christ being lifted vp on the tree returned death vpon the Authour of death and strangled all the principalities and powers that were against him by obiecting his flesh that was possible giuing place in himselfe to the presumption of our ancient enemie who raging against mans nature that was subiect vnto him durst there exact his debt where he could finde no signe of sinne Therefore the generall and mortall hand-writing by which we were solde was torne and the contract of our captiuitie came into the power of the Redeemer The person of the Sonne tookâ⦠vpon him properly the reparation of mankinde that whose maker he was he might be their restorer so directing his counsell to effect that to destroy the kingdome of the diuell he rather vsed the righteousnesse of reason then the power of his might For whiles the diuell raged on him whom he held by no law of sinne he lost the right of his wicked dominion I repeat the more to let the Reader see that the Fathers in this case doe not play with figures as this Discourser dreameth but they consonantly propose and vrge with earnest and euident words a great point of Christian pietie Gregorie teacheth the same lesson When Satan tooke Christes bodie to crucifie it he lost Christes elect from the right of his power And by Gods speech to Satan concerning Iob Beholde he is in thine hand but saue his life hee thus declaââ¦eth Gods Commission to Satan touching Christ Tââ¦ke thou power against his bodie and lose the right of thy wicked dominion ouer his ââ¦lect Damascene also noteth that one respect why Christ was made man was to stoppe the diuels murmuring if God should haue taken man out of his hands by the power of his Deitie Christ was made man sayth he that that which was conquered might conquer God was not vnable who is able to doe all things by his almightie power and force to take man from the Tyrant that helâ⦠him but that would haue beene a cause of complaint to the Tyrant that had conquered man if he were forced by God Therefore God who pitied and loued vs willing to make man that was fallen the conqueror of Satan became man restoring the like by the like that is man by man And in this sayth Damascene appeareth Gods iustice that man being ouerthrowen he would haue none other besides man to conquer the Tyrant neither would he by violence take man from death but whom death had of old brought into bondââ¦ge by sinne eââ¦en him would the gracious and righteous God make conquer againe What reason then haue you to reuell at Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose in such sort as you doe that their names are of no waitht to warrant such a Doctrine as those words of theirs pretend Or what teach they different from the rest of the Fathers if their words be rightly taken and not wrested aside to your crooked conceiââ¦s That the bloud of Christ was so sufficient a price for vs that not onely the voluntarie sacrificing thereof throughly satisfied the displeased Iustice of God and obtained remission of all our sinnes but eââ¦en the wrongfull shedding thereof by Satans instigation wrought the subuersion of Satans power and right in all the ââ¦lect God by the rule of Iustice giuing vnto Christs manhoode the spoyle of Satans kingdome ââ¦or the patience which Christ shewed whiles Satan by the mouthes and hands of the wicked spoyled Christs humane nature of honor and life for the time what danger is there in this to the Christian Faith or what repugnancie to the sacred Scriptures THEREFORE VVILL I giue him his part in many things ââ¦aith God of Christs manhoode and he shall deuide THE SPOYLE of the mightie or with the mightie because he powred forth his Soule vnto death this the Apostle shââ¦weth was executed against the Diuels them selues Christ SPOYLED Principalities and Powers and made a shew of thââ¦m openly triumphing ouer them in his owne Person According as God threatned the Serpent vpon his first deceauing the woman I will put enmitie betweene thy seââ¦de and her seââ¦de he shall bruize thine head and thou shalt bruize his heele Where God expresseth plainly the Recompence that the seed of the woman should haue for suffering Satan to bruize his heââ¦le euen the bruizing of the Serpents head For nothing is more equall with God then to remââ¦ate the same measure to men and Angels that they mââ¦te to others It was therefore a thing most iust in the sight of God as he subiected Man to Satans power when by sinne he first conquered Man so he subiected Satan to the will and power of Christs manhoode when by righteousnesse Christ conquered the diuell And as Christ patiently endured to be wrongfully depriued of his life by the meanes and members of Satan so in requitall of that presumption and iniurie Christ powerfully and iustly depââ¦ed Satan of all his ââ¦ight and interest to the Elect for whose sakes Christ gaue his life This excludeth not the voluntarie seruice and sacrifice of Christs obedience vnto death wherewith the Iustice of God was satisfied and appeased but this sheweth that as God had chiefe regard of his owne Iustice and mercie towards man in giuing his owne Sonne to be the pacification of his wrath and propitiation of our sinnes so he dealt iustly with the diuell in causing the
spoyler to be spoyled and for the wrongfull and spitefull inuasion that Satan made against his Lord and Master to loose all the Dominion and power that otherwise he claymed ouer Christs elect And so the Price of our Redemption whatsoeuer you trifle to the contrarie did not onely discharge the guilt of our sinnes and our debt to Gods iustice by Christs willing obedience to God euen vnto death but the furious and iniurious intermedling of Satan therewith so closeth his mouth that he seeth and knoweth our deliuerance and his destruction to be iust I am out of doubt that the Fathers doe but play with figures or if they meane indeede to teach such a Doctrine we are to learne by their good leaues how to speake and thinke more wholesomely then they doe out of the Scriptures Whether they play with figures or no I referre it to the Iudgement of indifferent Readers that will take the paines to peruse the places It is a good signe they speake in earnest when they double it and treble it in their open Sermons and writings and render the causes thereof pithââ¦ly and plentifully as Theodoret and Leo doe and chiefly Saint Austen in foure whole Chapters of his Booke de Trinitate whose learning and iudgement though you set light by because they sort not with your fansies I confesse I reuerence for that the whole Church of Christ hath done the same before me and I see nothing in the word of God repugnant to their Doctrine truely conceaued But you haue learned to speake more wholsomely as you thinke out of the Scriptures I pray you then let vs heare your wholesome speech I vrge that the enemie must haue a price for his Captiue I pray who is that enemie which must be satisfied the Diuell God forbid Gods Iustice onely is that offended Enemie to whom our Ransome was paid the Diuell was but Gods slaââ¦e and Executioner There is no man for ought that I know which saith the Diuell must be satisfied it is your partiall humor that leadeth you so to surmise my Sermons professe it were an Iniurie to Christ for vs to thinke his bloud was shed to satisfie the Diuell but the enemie to Christs elect which is the diuell and not God must be conquered and spoyled though not satisfied And that as S. Austen rightly obserueth God would haue done first by Iustice and then by power Because the Diuell by his peruersenesse was a desirer of power and a forsaker and impugner of Iustice and men did so much the more imitate him how much the more neglecting or hating Iustice they did studie to be mightie and were either inflamed with the getting or delighted with the hauing thereof It pleased God that for the taking of Man out of the diuels power the diuell should not be conquered by power but by Iustice and so men imitating Christ should seeke to ouercome the diuell by Iustice and not with power By him that dyed and was so mightie to vs that were mortall and altogether weake both Iustice was commended and power promised Of these twaine the one Christ performed dying the other rising For what is more iust then to come willingly to the death of the Crosse for righteousnesse And what is more mightie then to rise from the dead and ascend vp to heauen with the same flesh which was slaine First then by righteousnesse and after by power Christ Conquered the diuell It is no hard matter to perceaue the diuell to be conquered by power when Christ who was slaine by the diuell rose againe that is harder and deeper to be vnderstoode that the diuell was conquered when he seemed to himselfe to be the Conquerer to wit when Christ was slaine For then Christs bloud because it was his that had no sinne was shed for the remission of our sinnes that whom the diuell iustly detained and tied to the condition of death as guiltie of sinne those he might iustly loose through Christ whom being guiltie of no sinne he vniustly put to death With this Iustice was the Diuell vanquished and with this bond was the strong man bound that his things should be taken from him which were with him the vessels of wrath and bee turned to vessels of mercie And after proofe made out of the Scriptures that we are translated from the power of darknesse and of the diuell to the kingdome of God and of his beloued in whoâ⦠we haue Redemption for remission of sinnes then follow the words which you so highly chalenge In this Redemption the bloud of Christ was giuen for vs as a Price QVO ACCEPTO which being taken that is wrongfully pursued and vsurped as the diuels manner is to take things which are not his and not willingly offered or lawfully receaued as God did accept the same at the hands of his Sonne the diuell was not enriched but fast tyed that we should be loosed from his bands The bloud of Christ patiently shed vnto death was the Price of our Redemption by the witnesse of the whole Scriptures which Christ obediently and voluntarily offered to his Fathers will for the full remission of our sinnes and our perfect reconciliation with God This bloud could not be iustly shed by any because it was innocent and holy They must therefore be iniust and wicked that should shed the righteous bloud of that vndefiled Lamb. Wherefore the secrete counsell and iustice of God deliuered Christ being thereto willing into the hands of sinners and permitted him to the power of darknesse with all reproch shame and torture to take his life from him This obedience and patience of the Redeemer in suffering the rage and violence of Satan and his members God so highly accepted and recompenced that not onely his wrath was appeased and our sinnes remitted but all power in heauen and earth as well ouer Satan as ouer all his kingdome was giuen vnto the manhood of Christ to take from the power and feare of the diuell whom Christ would and to adiudge that cruââ¦ll and bloudie tyrant with all his adherents to euerlasting destruction For though the Diuine nature of Christ in that hee was the Sonne of God were a rightfull and powerfull Lord ouer Satan and his whole kingdome sinne death and hell not excepted to dispose thereof at his pleasure yet the humane nature of Christ had of it selfe no such right or prerogatiue in respect it was a creature and so lower and weaker then the condition of Angels sauing for the personall vnion thereof with the Godhead of Christ. And therefore as the wisedome of God thought it no match nor honour for the diuine Maiestie of Christ to spoyle the diuell that was but a base and vile seruant in comparison of his Almightie power so the iustice of God would not aduance the manhood of Christ to the heigth of his kingdom to rule all things in heauen earth and hell till hee had humbled himselfe to the death of
once by sinne we were plunged into the depth of all miserie as a punishment for sinne then the grace of Christ by the death of his body brake off the chaines of internall and eternall death knit to the former by Gods iustice and made the naturall death of our bodies which without Christ was onely a punishment and the entrance to all other mischiefes of sinne afteâ⦠this life to become now an aduantage to the soule which is presently freed from the labours of this life and inuested and secured with euerlasting blisse But the body is not yet quited from the burden and corruption laid on it by Gods iustice for the punishment of Adams sinne and the soule in the midst of her comforts not onely feeleth the want but sheweth her desire to receaue her bodie as appeareth by the praââ¦er of the soules vnder the Altar who desire not now in heauen reuenge of their persecutors whom they pardoned and praied for on earth but woondering at Gods patience that is daily prouoked and abused they desire the day of iudgement though thââ¦t bring with it the destruction of the wicked because they shall then receaue their bodiââ¦s and with them the fulnesse of Gods promises That place of the Catechisme doth â⦠notably contradict you who call death to the Gââ¦dly the gate of hell a strange and most vntrue translation The Catechisme speaketh of the soules of the godly who without Christ were assured by death to enter the bottomlesâ⦠pit of hell and now by Christ doe safely passe from death to heauen but what is this to their bodies whereof I speake doe the bodies of the Saints passe straight vpon death to heauen as their soules doe I trust your Catechisme saith not so and therefore no way contradicteth me But I translate it so when I call death the gate of hell which is sââ¦range and vntrue No good Sir when I translated the text because the word Sheol was doubtfull and imported all the power and strength oâ⦠hell against bodie and soule in this world and in the next I retained the verie worde Sheol as may be seene in the page of my Sermons which you cite pag. 150. li. 32. yet what was ment by ââ¦heol in that place when I came to examine I did incline rather to the word hell then to the word Graue since we had in English no more words to expresse the power or danger of Satans kingdome on earth For neither the griefe which Ezechias conceaued nor the phrase which he vsed might be rightly referred to the graue It was not the graue that Ezechiah did so much feare and so much decline it was the doubt of Gods displeasure that vpon deliuerance of him and his citie from the hands of Senacherib presently strooke the king with sicknesse and denounced death vnto him as vnworthie to enioy that protection which God had shewed from heauen in defence of his people against their enimies and therefore in the bitternesse of his soule which he confessed did oppresââ¦e him he said he should goe to the gates of Sheol that is to a dangerous conflict with death betweene hope and feare of Gods fauour or anger Neither doth Sheol there import onely the graue for at first Ezechiah resolued he should die and so goe farder then the gates or entrance of the graue Neither doth that phrase in other places of Scripture expresse barely the buriall of the bodââ¦e The gates of hell sayth our Sââ¦uiour shall not preuaile against my Church by which he meaueth nothing lesse then the graue Are the gates of death knowen to thee saith God to Iob who could not be ignorant what the sides and bottome of a graue were Thou liftest me saith Dauid from the gates of death when yet he was sure to come to his graue And had Ezechiah from the griefe of his hart vnder which he chattered like a Swallow and mourned as a Doue pronounced death to be the Gate or first inuasion that hell or Satan made one mans Body for sinne what had you to say against it By the enuie of the Diuell saith the wise man Death entred into the world The Apostle saith as much By sinne Death eââ¦red into the world not as a blessing of God but on all men to Condemnation From this Condemnation the Soule by Christ is presently released the Body is also promised but yet not cleered from that Condemnation to Death which sinne brought with it And since the Apostle calleth it an Enemie to Christ and Austen doubteth not to name it a corporall Curse why should I not number it rather amongst the gates or powers of hell then of heauen since the diuell was the Author and Christ will be the destroyer thereof It offendeth you that I say if we will reason what death is in it selfe we must resolue it to be a part of Gods curse which you say is no answere For who euer denied it to be in it selfe a part of Gods curse for sinne but your expresse words are death is to the godly no curse properly Doe you now find the foile how foolishly you haue all this while supported an errour that yoâ⦠now come with properly to proppe it vp least it fall on your head You can now with shame enough confesse WE KNOVV AL SHAME AND AFFLICTION TO ALL MEN IS A KIND OF CVRSE Then death a man would thinke may rightly be called a kind of corporall curse since that is the sharpest and forest of all outward asfââ¦ictions A kind of curse who euer denied that say you Euen your wisedome hath all this while denied it In your Treatise you bleated forth this resolution Therefore Christes dying simply as the godly die MAY IN NO SORT HERE BE CALLED A CVRSE or accursed You iterate the verie same in your defence Yea it is the maine ground of your second speciall reason Christ you say was made a curse sor vs or accursed in his death But to die simply as the godly doe may in no sort be called a curse or accursed Christ therefore endured the curse and wrath of God truely Your expresse wordes you say are Death to the godly is no curse properly but a vantage Are not the other your expresse wordes also that the death of the godly MAY IN NO SORT BE called a curse or accursed and doth not the force of your reason wholy depend vpon these later wordes For had you confessed that death shame and paine were to the godly corporall curses how then conclude you that Christ was properly accursed Because the Apostle saith He was made a curse Doeth the Apostle say he was made a curse properly It would empt and waste all the wit in your head from the one to conclude the other Against your precââ¦e Negatiue that death in the godly might in no sort be called a curse I opposed the contrarie that the death of the bodie was a curse for sinne laide on
it For to the impenitent no sinnes are pardoned Except yee repent saith our Sauior ye shall all perish likewise As sinne is accursed so all punishment of sinne saith Austen is accursed meaning till it be released and no longer a punishment of sinne Which he auoucheth not of the wicked onely whose punishment is perpetuall and therefore truely and properly a curse but of all the godly when they suffer for their sinnes We saith Austen came to death by sinne Christ by righteousnesse and therefore where our death is the punishment of sinne his death is the sacrifice for sinne And that the death of our bodies is hatefull to God euen as our sinne is he resolueth in these words Nisi Deus odisset peccatum mortem nostram non ad eam suscipiendam atque delendam filium suum mitteret Except God had hated sinne and also death in vs he would neuer haue sent his Sonne tâ⦠vndertake and destroy our death For so much the more willingly God giueth vs immortalitie of our bodies which shal be reuealed with Christes comming how much the more mercifully he hateth our death which hung on the crosse when Christ died Here you may learne that the bodies of Martyrs are so acceptable to God that he hateth death which detaineth them in dust and that the loue which he beareth to the one is the cause why he will destroy the other as an enimie to them ââ¦hom he loueth and therefore iustly hated of him but in the meane time how false is this reason which you so much stand on God in his secret and euerlasting counsell loueth the soules and bodies of his Saints as being the members of Christ and temples of his holie spirite therefore he hateth neither sinne in their soules nor death in their bodies Nay rather the more he loueth the one the more he hateth the other and sent his Sonne to destroy both sinne and death in his elect as the Enimies that hinder and defer the true blisse promised to his seruants You say we must call things by those names which God first allotted them That I deny if God since euidently hath altered them My rule had more reason in it then you doe comprehend For if it be written of Adam in his innocencie that God brought all liuing creatures vnto man to see how hee could call them and how soeuer the man named the liuing creature so was the nââ¦me thereof how much more shall it be verified of Gods wisdome With whom is no change that he knew all his workes from the beginning of the world and therefore the word of the Lord abideth for euer that he may be iustified in whatsoeuer he saith but God you say hath made the alteration himselfe or else your conceite deceiueth you For God hath not reuoked the generall iudgement which he gaue vpon all men for sinne Dust thou art and to dust thou shalâ⦠returne but he hath performed his promise made before he inflicted this punishment that the Seed of the woman should bruize the Serpents head And therefore there is no change made by God as you imagine but he qualified his sentence at the first pronouncing of it on all his elect euen as it standeth to this day And were there that addition since made by God which you vntruely dreame of Yet Saint Austen telleth you that altereth not the name of punishment first imposed on all but sheweth Gods goodnesse towards his owne Whatsoeuer it is in those that die which with bitter paine taketh away sense by religious and faithfull enduring it it increaseth the merââ¦te of patience Non aufert vocabulum poenae it taketh not away the name of punishment His firme resolution is Wherefore as touching the death of the body that is the separation of the soule from the bodie when such as die suffer it Nulli bona est it is good to no man And noting the vse that God maketh thereof in crowning his Saints with as ample words as you haue any he resolutely concludeth Mors ergo non ideo bonum videri debet quia in tantam vtilitatem non vi sua sed diuina opitulatione conuersa est Death theâ⦠OVGHT NOT TO BE THOVGHT GOOD because by Gods mercie and not by any force of his own it is turned to so great vtilitie And this assertion you and your adherents must yeeld vnto least you rather conuince your selues then that woorthy pillour of Christes church to be in an errour For the ground that he standeth on is sure God turneth euill to a good vse and will you therefore denie euill to be euill because God vseth it well to how many good and blessed purposes doth God vse the diuell and shall the diuell by your doctrine now cease to be a diuell what excellent effectes doth God worke by the sinnes of the faithfull shall we therefore not call them nor account them sinnes you be cleane out of your byas good Sir when you come in with your changes made by God to alter the names or natures of things that be euill Afflictions and death which originally and Naturally were punishments for sinne and so are still in the wicked the same to the godly are since changed and now not punishments nor curses To wise men there is enough said to bablers who will still talke they know not what nothing is enough The Scriptures and Fathers may not be set aside to giue way to your follies Daniell confessing the sinnes of himselfe and of his people Israel plainly saith Therefore the Curse is powred vpon vs written in the Law of Moses the seruant of God because we haue sinned against him Baruc made the same confession during the Captiuitie Saint Iohn in his Reuelation of the Citie of God now brought to the presence of the Lambe saith There shall be no more Curse meaning amongst the faithfull as there was before For the wicked then shall be most deepely accursed Saint Austen learnedly and largely writing of the miseries of mans life saith Quot quantis poenis agitetur genus humanum quae non ad malitiam nequitiamque iniquorum sed ad conditionem pertinent miseriamque communem quis vllo sermone digerit quis vlla cogitatione comprehendit With how many and how great punishments mankinde is persued which pertaine not to the malice and leudnesse of the wicked but to the common condition and calamitie of man what tongue cââ¦n expresse what heart can comprehend And repeating many particulars which there may be seene he concludeth Satis apparet humanum genus ad luendas miseriarum poenas esse damnatum It appeareth sufficiently that mankââ¦de is condemned to endure the punishments of miseries And lest you should flie to your shift of improper speeches as your maner is S. Austen exquisitly discusseth and resolueth this question that these miseries and afflictions come from the iust iudgement of God
men as a sinfull and accursed wretch and saith Christ was content so to be made a curse for vs when indeed he was none by the wrong which he suffered at mens hands to free vs from the iust desert of our sinnes with God Which exposition I bring to let the Reader see how much the learned and godly Fathers detested your proper and true curses in the whole manhood of Christ. But we shall haue fresh proofe That your speech was sound your reason euident and that I openly peruerted your words You were neuer brought vp belike but where will went for reason and speech for proose you tell vs so often of sound and euident reasons when you bring nothing besides your naked and absurd fansies Your speech you say was sound that Christes dying simply but as the godly die might in no sort heere be called a curse Take home your As that you set running abroad to breed a brabble and your speech hath neither soundnesse nor sense in it That Christ died the same kinde of death which the godly die I meane the death of the bodie and not of the soule nor of the damned is a plaine position of the Scriptures We are afflicted persecuted and deiected saith Paul euerte where we beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Iesus and againe I count all things losse that I may be CONFORMED to his death Christ laid downe his life for vs saith Saint Iohn and we ought to lay downe our liues for our brethren Ibi mortuus est Christus vbi tues moriturus there or in that part Christ died in which thou shalt die Hactenus morerentur ad Christi gratiam pertinentes quatenus pro illis ipse mortuus est Christus carnis tantum morte non SPIRITVS We are Redeemed that such as pertaine to Christes grace should so farre forth die how farre forth Christ himselfe died for them that is onely the death of the bodie and not of the SPIRIT So that the godly are conformed and matched with Christ as touching the kind of death which must be common to both and that being a punishment and curse on our nature for sinne why is it not truely saide of Saint Austen that Christ receaued our curse that is a bodily death to free vs from euerlasting death which is the true curse of body and soule The reason is euident because the text heere doth speake and treat of the curse of the Law against sinne such therefore was Christs curse which he sustained The text speaketh of the curse of the Law pronounced against vs for violating the Law That curse the Apostle doth not applie to Christ as you doe but bringeth another text of the Law where the violent and shamefull punishment of hanging on a tree is called a curse To which since Christ submitted himselfe for our ââ¦akes and so suffering a curse of punishment he discharged vs from the whole curse of the Law due to vs for transgressing Wherefore your leaping from the one curse to the other and from a part to the whole is no euident reason but an euident falsehood which Chrysostome Augustine Ambrose Nazianzene Epiphanius and Cyrill doe mightely impugne and your selfe in the end doe yeeld Christ may be rightly called sinne and so a curse in that he was a sacrifice for sinne and for the curse which is as cleane contrary to your Assertion heere as holinesse and righteousnesse is to vncleannesse and wickednesse You openly peruert my words affirming that I say death here that is Christes death noted Galat. 3. vers 13. may in no sort be called a curse when I expresly euen there and euery where say the contrarie You are very iealous that I goe about to cleare you from your absurd and false conceits without your consent but your feare is needlesse as your quarrell is causelesse I applied not HERE to Christes death as you most fondly mistake and inuert my report of your words but I referre HERE to the curse there mentioned obseruing in you that you defended Death which all the godly haue common with Christ as touching their bodies might in no sort here be called a curse that is the curse which the Apostle here nameth I am so far from enuying your glorie in this point though I pitie your folly that where you make Christes Afflictions euerie one both small and great from the day of his birth to the houre of his death to bee proper punishments and so true curses and effects of Gods very wrath in him for our sinne I will adde if you will that Christes hunger wearinesse weeping and growning in spirit for these are afflictions brought into mans nature by sinne are likewise defended by you to be true curses in Christ. Howbeit you shall doe well in all these miseries and infirmities of our life and nature to finde out Christes most blessed humilitie and charitie not refusing them for our comforts and leaue the proper and true curses of God for the diuell and his associates Your greatest exception is that this curse laide on Christ cannot bââ¦e vnderstood of the whole curse of God or of the law The exception is such that withall the wits and shifts you haue you shall neuer auoide it For where the whole curse of the Law hath in it corporall spirituall and eternall death well deserued by sinne and most iustly inflicted on sinners as we see in the wicked and reprobate who for sinne are subiected to these three deathes or curses the two last which are spirituall and eternall death you can not offer to Christ without hereticall and diabolicall blasphemie and to draw the Apostle into that societie were arrogant and impudent impietie Since then there are so notorious impediments why Christ neither did nor could suffer the whole curse of the Law denounced to sinne and prouided for sinne with what face and conscience you shift and shuffle this geere let the Reader iudge if he haue either godly wisdome to which you appeale or but humane sense from which I doe not appeale Your conueiance is as weake as your cause is wicked Christ you say suffered the whole curse of the Law saue what you excepted thence onely so farre as possibilitie of things could admit that is which you saw was impossible he should suffer And so wee haue here your owne confession that possibilitie of things could not permit Christ to suffer the whole curse of the Law and yet you make the Apostle to meane all these impossibilities For he maketh none of your exceptions But looke somwhat neerer and you shall see greater barres to that totall assertion then impossibilities euen horrible impietie and blasphemie which if they barre not you from your boldnesse they terrifie me and all good Christians to come within the sound of them This shift being shameââ¦l you slide to another as absurd and impertinent to your purpose as the former For were it granted
Because you coyne new Principles of Religion you thinke your selfe Authorized to make newe Rules for Similitudes In the Scriptures it is not required that Similitudes made of God or of Christ his Sonne should be lawfull in euery part of the Comparison but onely that they be possible and so propose the thing which the holy Ghost would intimate The day of the Lord shall come euen as a Theife in the night Will you iustifie night Robbers because Christs comming is resembled to theirs Christ draweth a comparison from the vnrighteous Iudge to God and taketh likewise a Similitude from Vsurers and Extortioners to teach that God will haue his gifts carefully imployed Will you by that Parable make it lawfull to lend money for aduantage Or for men to reape where they did not sow because these things are proportioned to Gods graces Christ bringeth the Similitude of an vnfaithfull Steward that wasted his Masters goods and abated his Masters debts and saith the Lord and Master commended the vniust Steward that he had done wisely Will you hence vphold prodigalitie and infidelitie in seruants which cosen their Masters rather then they will worke or want Similitudes we see of things most vnlawfull are made and referred to Gods Actions by Christ himselfe and therefore it is no weakning to my Similitude whatsoeuer you say that no King hath power by Gods Law to lay bodily death on his Innocent Sonne I doe not by that resemblance make any thing lawfull or vnlawfull but shew how euill it becommeth Prisoners and Captiues to twite or vpbraid their Redeemers and deliuerers as if they were defiled and guiltie of their Sinnes for whom they mediate and intreate Of bodily death I spake neuer a word that is your Idle conceite added to my comparison But the Similitude fitteth not Christs sufferings in our Redemption No more doth any Similitude that man can make I say of Christs death as Saint Austen saith of his birth If you seeke for areason it shall not be wonderfull if you aske for an example it shall not be singular The Acts of men may in some sort resemble or imitate they cannot match or euen the works of God But why are you so curious in other mens Similitudes that are so carelesse of your own Doth your example of a Suretie fit the bodily sufferings of Christ I hope humane lawes haue no power nor practise to take mens liues away for Suretiship nay they allow no Sureties for any corporall paines as we saw before because no man is Master of his owne Body to engage the whole or any part thereof to be mangled or maymed vnlesse he will be an homicide of himselfe which Gods Law doth not permit nor mans Law accept How much lesse then doth your Suretie resemble the paines of the damned suffered in the Soule of Christ as you say from the immediate hand of God If men haue no power to pawne their owne Soules nor to kill other mens your similitude of a Suretie bound to the Law to pay an other mans debts is as wide from Christes sufferings as mine and farre wider For he must be Suretie not onely life for life but Soule for Soule which Mans Law doth not meddle with And yet your owne example of a Suretie serueth my turne to declare your Doctrine to be false as well as any other For if a Man fined by a Court for ryots contempts or other misdemeanures and committed to prison till he pay the same find friends that to purchase his libertie will make present payment of his fine haue you any reason or conscience to charge them as guiltie or partakers of those Riots or other offences done by him whom they deliuer If men may be Sureties Mediators and ransomers of others and yet not deserue to be blamed for other mens Crimes why could not the Sonne of God take vpon him the punishment of our sinnes and yet be most free from the fault and guilt thereof Because God did punish Christ you will say with his immediate hand which he would not doe if Christ were Innocent Soft Sir that is no way prooued but barely pretended by you that God was the Tormentor of Christs Soule with his immediate hand The Scriptures teach the contrarie that God deliuered him into the hands of sinners to doe what soeuer Gods hand and counsell had determined before to be done And though the wicked be the Rod of Gods wrath and the staffe in their hands is his Indignation Yet serue they their malice in afflicting the faithfull when God hath an other end which is most iust and holy to put his Saints to the tryall of their obedience and patience in suffering for righteousnesse sake that he may be glorified in them and they exalted and crowned by him In the cruell and wrongfull death of his Sonne to which Christ willingly submitted himselfe God had farre greater and waightier causes and works euen the Redemption of the world and the demonstration of his Diuine power and wisedome and such like which I haue often mentioned and therefore doe presently passe them with silence An other Reason of mine you impugne with marueylous skorne and detestation That seeing Christ on the Crosse spoyled powers and Principalities and made a shew of them openly triumphing ouer them Therefore I collected that Christ selt the diuels as the very instruments that wrought the very effects of Gods wrath vpon him I grant I tooke it to be not a ridiculous but impious iest rather then a tolerable reason for you to conclude that because Christ triumphed ouer diuels therefore diuels tormented his Soule with the very effects of Gods wrath which euery where you make to be the paines of the damned And surely as yet why I should conceiue better of it I see nothing either proued or produced by you First you assume that these words of the Apostle were spoken of Christ hanging on the Crosse but what Scripture assureth that besides your selfe you peremptorily put it into the Text by saying Christ on the Crosse spoyled Principalities but your additions are no good illations with me The place if you take the paines to turne to it doth rather shew the Contrarie To proue that the faithfull are tied neither to the Rites and shadowes of the Law nor to any submission or seruice of Angels the Apostle bringeth Christs death for the one where the hand-writing of Ceremonies that kept vs in bondage was fastned to the Crosse and so cancelled and we freed from it and for the other he bringeth Christs Resurrection by which all contrarie powers were openly spoyled triumphed and subiected to Christ as to the head of all power and principalitie Yee were buried with him in Baptisme saith Paul with whom yee were also raised and when yee were dead in sinnes and in vncircumcision of your flesh he quickned you together with him forgiuing your sinnes and cancelling the hanauriting of ordinances
and toies That I make but one cause to witte Religious feare in the 23 Page of my Sermons looke there who list he shall find you a fabler In the fift cause that might be of Christs agonie which was the deprecation of Gods wrath I yeelded to some mens speeches so farre for quietnes sake that it ââ¦ight be said Christ feared that is l Serm. pag. 22 li. 2â⦠shunned euerlasting death and that the sight of gods wrath l Serm. pag. 21. li. 19. tempered and made ready for the finnes of men which the Scripture calleth a cupp n Pa. 22. li 35. might for a time somewhat astonish the humane nature of Christ yet so that the sight of our sinnes and the wages thereof o Pa. 23. li. 2. impressed nothing that is no feare in the soule of Christ but a religious feare to sorow for the one and pray against the other Here are expresly named religious feare sorow and zealous praier occasioned by the sight of the cuppe of Gods wrath prepared for our sinnes How then doth this exclude the rest of the causes which are there precedent or consequent or how come you to cast away Christes sorow for sinne and praier against the desert of our euill deedes whereof the first rose from the submission that Christ made vnto Gods wrath prouoked and the second from the compassion that Christ had towards men endangered and to leaue but one where I name three Are you so well skilled in the Scriptures that you doe not know a Religious feare of God compriseth the whole seruice of God and therefore might much more containe the holines of Christs affections when he submitted himselfe to the will and hand of God for our sakes What rudenes then or rashnes or both is this when I note diuers partes or effects of one thing or vse diuers words to describe one and the same matter for you to quote out contrarieties by Arithmetick because the wordes be different and neuer to weigh the sense in which they accord So trifle you with the two generall causes as if they could not containe the six speciall that I say might be of Christs agonie when yet those six are but remembrances of some respects that Christ might haue in his feare and sorow and those two comprehend all six as parts or consequents of Christs submission to God and compassion on men Neither doe I pretend or professe that euery of these six was the whole and entire cause of his agony It is your dottage so to dreame and no piece of my mind These six and many moe reasons and occasions Christe might haue at that time to feare and sorow wherin I doe not determine which was the full and true cause of that agonie but how many respects might lead him to feare and sorrow at that present which I doe not conclude as certaine but propose as possible and farre more probable then your reall paines of the damned supposed at that instant actually to torment the soule of Christ. Leaue therefore your one two and six to Tilers to tell their pinnes or Wittalls to number their Geese and shew that either I determine any precise or particuler cause ef Christs agonie thereby to deserue mine owne censure as you doe or that those six which I mention may not be referred to those two generalls which I note that so at least you may make me disagree with my selfe p Defenc pag. 92. li. 32. Last of all this your resolution making Christs piety and pittie to be the onely proper and maine cause of all his wofull passion is vtterly false and vntrew hauing no ground but meere coniectures Your memorie is as brickle as your reason is feeble Those six causes of Christes agonie and not of all his wofull passion as you lightly leape you know not whither I did no otherwise propose then that they q Serm. pag. 17. li. 28. 29. might be euery one of them more likely and more godly then your deuice of hell paines As for the onlie cause of that agonie I medled with no such matter my words are euideââ¦t to the contrarie r Ibid. li. 30. Others at their leasures may thinke on more which I shal be content to hââ¦are but that piety or charity or both must be the Rootes of Christs feare and sorow and not infidelitie and distrust of Gods fauour towards his person or function nor the Reall and inherent sense of Hell paines common to him with the damned as you doe peremptorilie but pestilently dreame in that I said I was resolute and so I yet remaine And you shall sooner proue your selfe to be the man in the Moone then Christes soule to haue beene tormented with any reall paines inflicted on him by the immediate hand of God which position of yours hath impietie for the ground and follie for the proofe howsoeuer you thinck to face it out with your insolent verbositie s Defenc pag. 92. li. 37. Your first cause is submission to the maiestie of God-sitting in iudgment when Christ was thus astonished and agonized therewith I pray thee Christian Reader to remember in all these causes what was my purpose and promise euen now specified not to conclude The first cause concurring to Christs agoniâ⦠these as necessarie and entire causes of Christes agonie but to shew them possible and more likely and Godlie then his Pagent of Hell paines inflicted on the soule of Christ. The reason that led me to set downe this as one of the causes that MIGHT BE of Christes agonie for so I alwaies meane though perhaps in course of speach I alwaies adde not so much were the wordes of our Sauiour t Iohn 1â⦠Now is the Iudgment of this worlde now shall the Prince of this world be cast out And I if I were lifte vp from the earth will draw all men vnto me This said hee signifiyng what death he should die The iudgment which here our Sauiour noteth was not at that instant when he spake these words but at an houre to come when Satan the Prince of this worlde should be u Iohn 16. iudged that is eiected and cast out from x Reuel 12. accusing the Saints and the x Reuel 12. saluation of God and power of his Christ established in heauen So much the words of Christ imported when he said Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out and not now alreadie is he cast out This Iudgment then was Redemptorie not condemnatoriâ⦠wherein the sonne of God in our flesh was admitted to make satisfaction for the sinnes of all that should beleeue in him and to pay the price that should appease the iustice of God prouoked by our misdeeds and so to reconcile vs to the fauour of God by the bloud of his Crosse that there might be no more place for Satan to accuse vs any longer y Reuel 12. night and day before God as otherwise he did The issue
by dangers and doubts weighed and considered by the spirit of Christe I know no reason why you ascribe them meerely to the flesh As for the contrarieties which you would take hold of that Christ as a man did abhorre and feare death and yet not somuch as to fall into that agony or bloudy sweate for feare of his sufferings with such a slacke and shallow Reader as you are they may beare a shew of repugnancie but to any man that marketh or vnderstandeth what is said it accordeth full well that Christ might haue a naturall feare of death which is common to all the godly and yet no such perplexed feare for any sufferings of his as to sweate bloud for paine therof And this maketh more against you then you wil seeme to acknowledge For if Christ had no such afflicting feare in regard of his owne suffring or passion but only in respect of vs and our danger then certainly by the censure of Ambrose Ierom and Bede Christ suffered no paines of hell nor of the damned since they would bread another maner of agony then this life could endure And howsoeuer the view of death fast clasped with hell till Christ did breake the knotte thereof might seeme terrible to Christes humane consideration yet for somuch as he was secured from the one by the innocency vnity and dignity of his person though he submitted himselfe to the death of his body this feare was both righteous and religious and as farre from the paines of the damned as any sufferings of the soule in this life might be e Defenc. pag. 100. li. 10. He would not he could not so feare and be affrighted yea and piteously astonished with such sorrow oppressing him as to sweate drops of bloud onely for feare of his bodily death Neither would he pray at all much lesse so vehemently and so often times as he did against that which he perfectly knew was Gods will and his owne most willing purpose to vndergoe It is more then folly to mistake misplace and misapplie euerie thing after this sort as you doe and then to collect you know not what nor why from your owne vnwise and rash presumptions What if Christ had more cause of sorrow in the Garden then his bodily death ergo he felt the paines of the damned inflicted on his Soule by Gods immediate hand Tie this argument to the manger litter is fitter for it then an answere Such blockish and brutish sequences were the first morter that plastred your hell paines to Christs passion The worke of our redemption which Christ now vndertooke to haue pronounced and setled by the righteous iudgement of God and his Elect to be freed and pardoned of all their sinnes by the sufferings of his person The worke of our redemption was cause enough to prouoke Christs bloudy sweate and to be restored to Gods fauour by his mediation as also satan to be reiected from preuailing against them or so much as accusing them was a matter of the greatest moment in all Christian Religion What maruaile then if the manhood of Christ when it approched so waightie a worke as by prayer first to obtaine and confirme all this that after he might the more cheerefully and constantly accomplish his obedience vnto death What maruaile I say if the glory of Gods iudgement and power of his wrath the number of our sinnes and neglect of our owne state the sharpe and eger malice of satan made Christ with all possible feare of the great might and maiestie of the Iudge all passionate sorrow for the crimes and contempts of the prisoners all earnest and zealous intention of prayer against the impugner and impediment of mans deliuerance to agonize himselfe euen vnto a bloudie sweate If in our prayers the spirit of Christ stirre vp f Rom. 8. sighes vnspeakeable when we remember what danger we were in what sorrow cries and teares may we iustly thinke the fountaine of mercie and pietie would powre forth in our behalfe when our saluation was now in question before the Iudge of all the world and how burned that fire and flame of Christs loue and care for vs till he was comforted and assured from heauen that God would not by our wickednesse or vnworthinesse be stayed from performing his mercies towards vs in Christ his Sonne nor from accepting Christs obedience and sacrifice as the full ransome for all our transgressions notwithstanding all the resistance that sinne or satan could make in the righteous iudgement of God This you will say God long before had purposed and promised vnto his Sonne Christ was most earnestly to aske what God had faithfully promised to graunt And that made Christ the more earnestly pray for it since God had from the beginning determined as well to haue it asked by his Sonne as graunted by himselfe And therefore Christs supplications for vs in the daies of his flesh and at the hower of his passion now approching were as needefull as his sufferings forsomuch as pietie and charitie are perceiued rather by the Soule then by the flesh and God would neuer haue accepted the outward murdering of Christs body without the inward and acceptable sacrifice of his voluntarie obedience patience and loue euen vnto death which were the points that were chieflly pretious in Gods sight g Defenc pag. 100. li. 19. Or else Cyrill meaneth no more but that Christ naturally misliked and ãâã euen as all flesh doth all bodilie paine and death This we alway yeelde and it maketh nothing against vs. It maketh lesse for you that Christ had and lawfully might haue as you graunt a naturall misliking and shunning of all bodily paine and death and consequently knowing the sharpnesse of the paine that was prepared for him on the crosse might without breach of pietie or repugnance to Gods knowen will desire to haue that Cup passe from him if it were possible for man by Gods good pleasure to be otherwise redeemed and saued And this reseruation of Gods will in his prayer FATHER ãâã Luke ââ¦2 IF THOV VVILT take away this Cup from me which was the possibilitie ment by Christ and his present preferring Gods will before the instinct of nature liking ease in presently saying Neuerthelesse not my will but thy will be done doth exquisitely proue that Christ was not astonished in his prayer nor past remembrance of Gods knowen will as you dangerously surmise and no cause you should conclude he felt hell paines in this agonie because the Scripture concealeth the sense of his feruent supplication when after comfort receiued from heauen he fell into an agonie of most earnest and ardent prayer in which his sweate was like drops of bloud And therefore your foolish and wicked imagination that Christ in his agoniâ⦠was so amazed that he knew not what he prayed nor discerned when he impugned the will of God is without all leading or likelihood of the word of God and grounded onely vpon your wilfull and hastie
impenitent Theeues and murderers neglect till it be to late and yet when he came to the very suffering of death on the Crosse his silence and patience farre exceeded both malefactours and martyrs The cause of your error is this that you ascribe that to weaknesse of heart and want of strength in Christ which he of humilitie to God mercie to his members voluntarily admitted in himselfe to comfort and strengthen the weake which are not able to imitate his perfection of patience on the crosse p Leo de Passione Domini serm 7. In our basenesse saith Leo Christe was despised he sorowed in our heauinesse and was crucified in our paine For of mercy he tooke vnto him the passion of our mortality to this end that he might heale it and his power admitted it that he might conquere it All thinges in him were full of mysteries and full of miracles q Bernard serm Agnosco planè in duce belli ãâã trepidationem agnosco agroti vocem in medico agnosco infirmantem gallinam cum pullis confidero charitatem stupeo miserationem 1. de S. ãâã expauesco dignationem I plainly see saith Bernard citing Christes praier in the garden in the captaine of the field the feare of weakelings I see in the Physician the voice of the sicke I see the hen weake with cherishing her yong ones I consider the loue of Christ I am euen amazed at his mercy and I tremble to see what he voutchsafed for vs. r Defenc. pag. 102 li. 1â⦠To leaue these and come to the patience of Martyrs in their sufferings It is admirable what ioy what peace what triumphe they shew in the middest of a thousand most strange and bucherly torments noe lesse if not greater in outward shew then the sufferings of our Sauiour Christe It is farre more admirable in our sauiour Christ that he would be weake for As Christ would be weake to coÌfort the weake in the Garden so was be stronger than the strongest on the Crosse. their sakes that were weake when it pleased him before his passion and strong for their example whom he would make strong when he came to the heigth of his sufferings and by either as wel weakenesse as strength teach vs in both to depend on him and not to exalt our selues against him or afore him as you doe Martyrs with your manifold termes and torments And haue not Martyrs thinke you before they depart this life as great conflicts with the paines and horror of death as Christ had any though the wisdome of God reserue the naturall sting of death till the soule fecle her bodily senses and powers ouerwhelmed and her selfe violently forced to forsake her seat in which case she would vtterly faint if she were not supported by the secret goodnesse of God and taken from that conflict in her bodie by the hands of Angels to be brought with ioy to the presence of God s Cyprianus de Passione Domini That feare of Christes in the garden saith Cyprian expressed the common affection of mans infirmitie and the generalitie of all men that liue in the flesh to be vrged with this sorow and that the dissolution of the soule and the body cannot want this griefe Martyrs you suppose want this griefe or willingly endure it but you are deceiued in either of these as in all things els t August in Iohannem tract 123. Si nulla esset mortis vel parua molestia non esset tam magna martyrum gloria If there were no paine or but small pain in death the glory of martyrs would not be so great saith Austen And againe u ãâã de ciuitate ãâã li. 13. ca. 11. Tam molââ¦sta mors est vt nulla explicari locutione possit nec vlla ratione vitari So pairfull is death that it can by no wordes be expressed nor by no meanes auoided x Bernard de ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Quid horribilius morte in morte tam dulce carnis animae vinculum amarissimo secandum erit diuortio What is more horrible saith Bernard then death in death the vnion of body and soule which is so sweete shal be seuered with a most bitter diuorce But martyrs you thincke are willing to endure it they find as much vnwillingnesse in nature as they fiind readinesse in faith or desire in hope saue that in them necessity worketh obedience y August de ãâã ãâã serm 32. mortem horret non opinio sed natura It is nature saith Austen not opinion that abhorreth death Quis enim vult mori prorsus nemo it a nemo vt beato Petro diceretur alter te cinget feret z Ibidem sermone 33. quo tu non vis Who will die by his will vtterly no man and so certainely no man that it was said by Christ to Peter another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldest not when he went euen to martyrdome Death therefore by Gods ordinance hath in it a sting repugnant to mans nature which all men euen martyrs themselues do feele when the paine is so great that it passeth both their strength and their patience the force thereof seuereth their soules from their bodies albeit in Gods Elect all things turne to their good this agonie of death not excepted in which God supporteth them whiles they haue sense that they despaire not and after some conflict with death taketh their soules from them now ioyfull that they are deliuered and shall be presented to the Throne of Grace This Christ alone of all men was able exactly to know and feele in himselfe before and without the pangues of death not that he was weaker than Martyrs but that all the godly might assure themselues he tasted euen the sharpenesse of death to which they are subiect and is able and willing to sustaine vs and saue vs in the naturall conflict and horrour of death as he did himselfe a Defenc. pag. 103. h. 2. All this other godly men do also suffer and feele which they take passing ioyfully and quietly Who told you that there is ioy and rest in the pangues of death Haue the gates Iob. 38. of death beene opened to you or hath any of the dead certified you what ãâã there is in ââ¦euering the soule from the bodie Did God punish Adams disobedience with ioy Martyrs ãâã ioy ãâã ãâã death but not in death and ease or doth nature abhorre pleasure True it is the godly ought not to be dismayed with the feare of death since it is God that woundeth and healeth killeth and quickeneth bringeth to hell and bringeth backe againe but they must acknowledge death to be Gods punishment on Adams sinne and the straightest gate that leadeth to heauen b ãâã de ãâã ãâã This punishment sayth Cyprian was layd on all Adams ofspring without exception that the difficultie of the last passage out of this life should be feared Hanc
in him It workââ¦th both in vs and why should either want in him who was farre better able to pââ¦rforme both then we are the like I say of the feare of Gods wrath when we haue prouoked it We ought not only to reuerence that most excellent maiesty but when we haue sinned to feare and tremble before that power which can doe with vs what he will And though we hope in his mercy yet that doth not breed any neglect of his power which if we doe not feare when we haue prouoked we doe despice And therefore Moses giueth this for a rule of true deuotion and submission vnder the mighty hand of God Who knoweth the power of thy wrath for according to thy feare that is as thou art feared so is thine anger The lighter account we make of his anger the heauier shall his hand be to vs. The more we feare it without distrust the lesse we shall feele it For submission and sorow doe mitigate the wrath of God which carelessenesse and contempt do aggrauate Since then no man knew the power of Gods wrath against sinne so perfectly as Christ did and yet the infinitenesse of Gods power did passe the reach of Christs humane soule to comprehend why might not the manhoode of Christ yeld greater feare and trembling to the power of Gods wrath against our sinne for which he was to satisfie then all men liuing were able to do and yet together with the fearefull impression thereof retaine a religious submission thereto In compassion when we feare for other mens dangers or grieue for other mens harmes is not this affection painfull to vs because it proceedeth from mercy and ãâã is affââ¦iction thogh it be a vertââ¦e pity in vs are you so hard harted as well as hie minded sir defendour that you were neuer touched nor troubled with the sense of other mens miseries l Iob. 30. Did I not weepe saith Iob with him that was in trouble Was not my soule in heauinesse for the poore When the Apostle willeth vs to m Rom. 12. mourne with them that mourne Doth he meane we should make a pastime of it because it is an affection of mercy and charity Doth not daily experience teach vs how much the miseries of those whom we dearly loue do bite pinch vs Can we forget Dauids n 2. Sam. 19. ver 1. 4. affection aud affliction for Absolon Doth not the Scripture describe all naturall mothers in those words o Matt. 2. v. 18. In Rama was a voice heard mourning and weeping and great Lamentation Rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted because they were not In godly zeale and care we shall find the like p 2. Cor. 11. Who is weake saith the Apostle and I am not as weake who is offended and I burne not yea the q Psal. 69. zeale of thine house hath consumed me saith Dauid Then are feare and sorow proceeding either from piety or charity no whit the lesse grieuous because The highest degrees of religious feare and sorow were in Christ. they are religious but rather the more inwardly we are touched with either the more acceptable is that affection to God specially when it concerneth his owne power or honor And consequently as the highest degrees of religious feare and sorow were in Christ at the time of his propitiating the holinesse and iustice of God for our sinns so were they in him as sharpe and painfull as any his afflictions which otherwise he felt in his body r Defenc. pag. 115. li. 15. That these should or could afflict Christ so much aboue his strength and patience is more then strange Easily they might aboue his strength since he would vse no strength but weakened himselfe of purpose to feele the smart and burden of our sinnes but not aboue his patience since he did not repine at any of these but requested by praier to haue the punishment of our sinne proportioned to the weaknesse of his humane flesh considering the infinite power of Gods wrath most iustly prouoked by our sinnes s Defenc. pag. 115. li. 17. It were no vertue but sinne in any to giue way to our affections though about good things immoderately beyond our patience and strength of nature It is no sinne but vertue to presse both our strength and patience to the vttermost for Gods glory in things commanded by him As in louing God t Bernardus de diligendo Deo modus est sine modo diligere the measure is to loue him without measure so in all the dueties which God requireth the most that we can doe is not too much Feare and sorrow then which are as the Apostle speaketh u 2. Corin. 7. vers 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according to God or for God that is obedient to Gods will are neuer immoderate neither bring they danger of life or defect of grace as worldly feare and sorow do But how commeth your discââ¦etion to charge Christes affections with immoderation For your hell-paines you are content to plunge his bodie and chiefly his soule into astonished and all comfortlesse confusion and for submission to God and confession and apprehension of the iustnesse and greatnesse of his anger against our sinnes you will not giue him leaue being our Agent and Intercessour in his owne person to present that to God which is due from vs and for vs euen inward sorrow for Gods iust displeasure and an humble feare of his mightie power thereby to honour the one and preuent the other when he now addressed himselfe to make full satisfaction for our sinnes x Defenc. pag. 115. li. 19. Though they somewhat molest the minde yet in trueth they are most pleasing and delightfull to good men not tedious much lesse painfull vnto death The Apostle himselfe answereth this obiection and telleth you that y Heb. 11. no chastisement FOR THE PRESENT seemeth to be ioyous but grieuous yet AFTERVVARD it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to them that are thereby exercised Our Sauiour by this example teacheth the same Verily z Iohn 16. Verily I say vnto you ye shall weepe and lament but your sorow shall be turned into ioy A woman when she trauelleth hath sorrow because her houre is come but as soone as she is deliuered of the childe she remembreth no more the anguish for ioy that a man is borne into the world To say that paine is pleasure and sorrow is delightfull fighteth against Nature Scripture and euen against common sense but God doth diuersly comfort the affliction of his Saints with ending easing or otherwise recompensing them whereby the faithfull a 2. Cor. 4. faint not though their outward man perish because our light affliction which is for a moment worketh to vs a farre exceeding and euerlasting weight of glorie Though then our Sauiour was on euery side pressed with sundry sorowes which would not end but in his death yet that doth
that Christ did attend his praiers is most euident For he both added a condition to them and presently declared what he ment by that condition to witte that he desired the bitternesse of this cup to passe as much as Gods gratious will towards him should like and not as the sense of mans nature in him would affect So that here is nothing in Christes praier arguing any forgetfulnesse or not remembring but an euident confirmation rather of that which you would so faine denie or auoid if you could tell how that Christ did religiously and carefully conuert his cogitations in his praiers both to deprecate his Fathers wrath as farre as might be and yet to giue full assent to his Fathers wil. And therefore the difference which Origen Ierom Bede and others make betwââ¦ene the beginning and continuing of these affections of feare and sorow in Christ howsoeuer with a false shew you impugne it hath better ground in it then any thing you say against it i Defenc. pag. 124. li. 8. Natures verie instinct is in such dolours to wish and desire ease and the more vehemently it is pinched the more earnââ¦stly it desireth and this is Gods owne gift and workemanship in nature and simply thus to desire is in this respect truely to be reckned Gods owne expresse will Haue you now found that Christ did not manifestly in plaine words pray contrary to his Fathers knowen will But that expressing the sense of mans nature in himselfe as touching the paines which should assault him on the Crosse he desired that cup that is the sharpnesse of that paine might passe as much as was possible to stand with Gods good pleasure And yet least he should seeme in nature more to respect his owne ââ¦inart then his Fathers will he presently declareth himselfe that he ment no farder to be eased then might stand with Gods counsell and will foredetermining these thinges So that without your hell paines then inflicted on Christes soule by Gods immediate hand and without your confused and forgetfull astonishment the praiers of our Sauiour in the Garden did both answeare Gods ordinance in the frame of our flesh which is not brasse as Iob speaketh and yet preferre the will of God for the conseruation of his iustice before the liking of his sense or desire of his nature Which if you acknowledge then are your assertions false and wicked that Christ in plaine wordes praied contrary to Gods knowen will and this could not haue wanted sinne had he not been astonished when he so praied For the praiers are facred and sound without any maze or obliuion of his Fathers will and his owne purpose but rather expressely remembring both and preferring that which indeed should be preferred when and as it ought k Defenc. pag. 124 li. 22. It was contrary in the outward wordes and in the particular affection of his mind now wanting this remembrance but it was fully and wholly according to Gods wilâ⦠in the generall disposition of his mind and whole man You would faine vphold a contrariety to Gods will in the praiââ¦rs of Christ and though they be neither in trueth nor in sense repugnant to Gods will yet you say there is a repugnancy in the particular affection of his mind As appeareth by his adding Not my will but thy will be done Howbeit you heard before out of Zanchius a very learned and very sufficient Diuine l Zambius de triââ¦us Elââ¦him parte 2. li. 3. ca 9. Rââ¦sponsio 2. Quare falsum omnino est in Christo diuersam voluntatem a Patris fuisse It is vtterly false that there was in Christ a will diuers from his Fathers will The naturall dislike that man hath of paine and death which is the rule of Gods creation Christ calleth his will because it was the weakenesse of mans flesh in him as he forewarned when he said The spirit is prompt but the flesh is weake to abide the paine and horror of death but this naturall affection when he had confessed to be in himselfe both to shew himselfe to be a true man and naturally affected as we are and also to foreshew that his death should be very painefull and greeuous vnto him he wholly and fully submitted it to his fathers will which indeed was his will and desire euen as he was man as well as his Fathers His owne wordes are m Luc. 22. Desiring I haue desired that is I haue earnestly desired to eat this Passââ¦ouer with you before I suffer And againe n Luc. 12. I must be baptised with a baptisme and how am I grieued till it be ended He desired the time and fââ¦uit of his death he might not desire death in it selfe because it was not only the dissolution of nature but the touch of Gods wrath against the sinne of man and therefore no way to be desired but in regard of consequent effects Neither was there any contrariety in the particular affection of Christs mind to Gods will as you auouch It is a dangerous deuice of yours to make Christes will agreeable to Gods in the generall disposition of his mind but repugnant in his particular affection which you would excuse with a greater error of Now wanting this remembrance But Gods will was as Christes was that Christ in his humane nature should haue an vtter dislike and horror of death which yet for the loue of man and obedience to God he should submit to that will of God whereby he would haue the punishment of our sinnes tedious and grââ¦euous to the Redeemer least it should seeme a sport to ransome vs from the wrath of God Both these wills were in God the Father and the sense of the one and the submission to the other in the humane nature of Christ so that in either part Christs will was conformable to the will of God though his naturall dislike of death and paine yeelded and submitted it selfe to the will of Gods iustice by which he required and exacted the punishment of our sinne in the manhood of Christ. o Defenc. paâ⦠124. li. 30 If you abhorre this ââ¦n me yet see what Chrysostom taught These wordes NOT AS I VVILL BVT AS THOV VVILT do signifie two willes saith he one of the Father another of the Sonne contrary one to the other Thinke you as Chrysostom doth and then you shall easily be suffered to speake as Chrysostom speaketh For as power and weakenesse are contrary so were the two wills in Christ declaring his two natures the one despising and conquering death which was his diuine will answeareable to his Fathers the other fearing shunning death which shewed him to be a true man As then Christ had two contrary natures yet knit and vnited in one person so had he two contrary wills touching death yet both agreeing and concurring in one end And so much Chrysostom would haue taught you if you had read on the very same place which you quote for your error p Johan
Both these Christ affirmeth in the garden k Matth. 26. vers 53. Thinkest thou saith he to Peter that I cannot now pray to my Father and he will giue me more then twelue Legions of Angels how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so And at the second time of his returne to praier l Ibid. vers 42. O my Father if this cup cannot paesse away from me but that I must drinke it that is thereof thy will be donne So that by the first frame of Christs praiers m Ibid. ver 39. O my Father IF IT BE POSSIBLE let this cup passe from me If we vnderstand either Christs purpose to make it appeare that his death reuealed in the Scriptures was now by Gods counsell necessarily required for our redemption and that it was no want of power nor neglect of his safetie that put him into the hands of his enemies but his owne good will obeying the wisedome of his Father for our saluation or els that he desired the sharpenesse of the Cuppe might passe from him so farre as was possible that it might not ouerpresse his strength and patience in either of these two senses the words stand well and haue no touch of declining or disliking the counsell and determination of God to ransome and reconcile the world to himselfe by the death of his Sonne If with Chrysostom Cyril Damascene and others we like to make it the voice of mans weake flesh in Christ but still subiected to the will of God there is no repugnance to the will of God which is alwayes preferred though there be a declining of his hand if it were possible to stand with his will For so long as obedience ouerruleth the sense of nature and nature sheweth nothing but that which is ingraffed in it by Gods power and will I doe not see what aduantage you can take Sir Defender at this third sense of Christes words though we grant the flesh of man to be so created that it shrinketh at the weight of Gods hand and would decline it if it might stand with Gods will Els were it not lawfull to pray that affliction might be ended or eased if we might desire nothing that were possible to be contrary to Gods will since we know not his particular will touching our temporall troubles but by the euent n Defenc. pag. 126. li. 16. Thus Dauids and Christs were not onely possible to be contrarie but contrarie in deede as the sequell shewed You may as well inferre that God himselfe had contrary willes when he repented that he made man when he threatned destruction to Niniââ¦eh and death to King Ezechiah and yet vpon their prayers spared both howbeit it were blasphemie to say that God hath willes indeede contrary one to the other as the sequell sheweth He hath an absolute will working and perfourming in heauen and earth whatsoeuer pleaseth him which cannot be resisted nor frustrated by any means He hath a conditionall will by iustice threatning and punishing vs when we are sinfull and carelesse and by mercy sparing vs when we repent and turne vnto him And this will in him though it worke contrary effects in vs yet it is in him onâ⦠and the same will wherewith he giueth his owne as he best liketh pardoneth the penitent and reuengeth the obstinate the one agrââ¦eing with his mercie the other with his iustice So Christ had two willes the one proportioned to Gods creation whereby the flesh shrinketh and shunneth paine the other measured by Gods determination which declared his obedience and in either of these he accorded with the will of God who ment not onely to strike but to haue the stroke felt with paine and griefe to mans nature in Christ. o Defenc. pag. 126. li. 17. Howbeit both their desires were neuerthelesse holy made in faith assured to receiue as conditionall desires may be directed aright prepared sufficiently yet only for this cause seeing Dauid simply knew not Gods contrarie will Christ knew it not at this instant Dauid repented his sin with which God was displeased the more earnestly instantly because he saw the dislike which God had of his fact was the cause of death denounced to his child So that Dauids desire to please and pacifie God with most humble and inward submission the rather if it were possible to auert the wrath of God threatned to his child for his offence had in it pietie charitie humilitie and other good points of godly repentance and his prayer for his child was pardonable because he knew not Gods certaine resolution to the contrarie though he heard the Prophet in Gods name denounce p 2. Sam. 12. the child should surely die which Dauid tooke to be conditionall as other Gods threats are oftentimes the rather to reduce sinners to more zealous and hartie conuersion vnto God But in Christes prayers no such thing can be pretended His not remembring what he knew most assuredly and beleeued most stedfastly could not make his prayers to be prepared sufficiently directed aright and assured to receiue For neither preparation direction faith nor assurance could be in the soule of Christ without vnderstanding and memorie since neither forgetfulnesse nor ignorance of that which we should know doe warrant our prayers to be holy much lesse to be perfect and such as are assured to be heard And if all these conditions of faithfull and Godly prayer were found in Christs petition in the Garden as you confesse shew vs how they could be indeed contrary to Gods knowen will I haue no doubt of all Christes prayers and speaches but they were well aduised rightly prepared and throughly assured to be heard that is perfectly holy as he intended them but Christes not remembring the will of God reuealed to him could not performe or effect these things in his prayer but rather contrariwise his full knowledge and present remembrance of Gods will with exact obedience and submission thereunto Otherwise not remembring that which he well knew might excuse from sinne if hee were so amazed that vnderstanding and memorie failed him but it could not make him assured to receiue since God doth graunt their desires to such as dewly remember and not in such as in part or wholy forget his will Againe not remembring the trueth of Gods will reuealed is not faith in any man since faith is the sure and full perswasion of Gods will and promises toward vs which if we remember not how may we be said to be fully assured and firmely perswaded of them Wherefore you make out this matter with emptie words as your manner is least you should be taken tardie with a plaine error and haue peeced together very vntowardly diuers mens places the head not agreeing with the hââ¦eles since you first defended that Christ was forgetfull and all confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie or else he had sinned in praying against Gods knowen will and now you
for That the death of the soule or body should haue dominion ouer him was simply impossible and Christ ãâã knew so much as your owne words yeeld Then neither did he nor could he pray by your positions for any such thing and consequently God did not heare him in those things for which he praied not And so your two waies of hearing and deliuering Christ your selfe by your owne doctrine ouerthrow rather as iests then iust deliuerances And then doth my sequell persue you more strongly then before that Christ must be freed from suffering that he feared not by suffering it since he neuer doubted and so neuer praied by your diuinity to be sustained in it nor after suffering to be freed from it p Defenc. pag. 132. li. 15. In another place you seeme to obserue a point both strange and very contrary to your selfe in saying feare is more intolerable in Christ then doubting when you haue so often and so earnestly affirmed that Christ feared for feare became astonished To him that neuer read leafe nor line of holy Scripture this may make some iolly shew but to him that can distinguish white from blacke it will appeare to be rather an ignorant conceit in you then a repugnant speach in me A naturall feare of euill is incident to all mens natures by Gods ordinance in his first creating vs and so common to Christs manhood with all men be they good or bad For therefore did God threaten death to Adam if he disobeyed that both the loue of God enioied and feare of euill if he transgressed might restraine him from sinne A religious feare of Gods greatnesse and in cause of committing or suffering for sinne the trembling at the power of his wrath is proper to the godly wherein Christ might and did communicate with them as being to beare the punishment of our sinne though he were free from all sinne A distrustfull feare which quencheth faith and excludeth hope is common to all the wicked and therein Christ might not concurre with them least he conioined with them in siââ¦ne The first was tolerable the second was commendable in Christ the third was neither Of this third kind of feare I speake when I say feare is more ãâã in Christ then doubting But perhaps you could not discerne so much because my speach was darââ¦e I am content to be tried by the Reader whether any man might mistake my words euen there where you stumble at them but he that would wilfully peruert them My words stand thus In that perfect persuasion knowledge and assurance of Gods euerlasting q Sermo pa. 118. li. 22. purpose fauour and loue towards him that he should be the Sauiour of the world if doubting be not tolerable how enexcusable is feare and terror as if he were for saken of God Doâ⦠I heere speake of all kinds of feares or of that only whereby Christ should feare least Gods purpose promise and loue towards him might faile my illation in that very page is this The soule of Christ must therefore be farre from fearing or doubting least r Ibid. li. 32. God would change his mind recall his word frustrate his promise and violate his oââ¦th for these are blasphemies against God in the highest degree He must be more then blind which doth not see what kind of feare I exclude from Christ but you did cunningly to peruert my words when you could not resist my reasons For all your apprehensions of Gods proper wrath and fierie indignation which you so much proclaime if you direct them to the person of Christ as if he conceaued feared or doubted any change or decrease of Gods fauour and loue towards him or his sacrifice then are they these verie feares which heere I banish from Christ as vtterly blasphemous It was therefore some skill to shift of these words with a slanderous and false crimination least they should make you breath before you were disburdened of them if you toke them rightly s Defenc. pag. 132. li. 19. You seeke a weake aduantage in that I said eisaekonstheis may seeme to shew that Christ was heard being in that which he was saued from You see I chalenge no certaine but a seeming reason from that word In the maine ground of our saluation and redemption which are most certaine in the Scriptures to impugne the doctrine there deliuered with seeming reasons is the guise of him that would seeme a good Christian but is none Indeed you haue beset your selfe in your defence with store of seemings as I could specifie the places and points if it were to this purpose and I thinke your whole defence hath nothing in it but your seemings you vse therein so few either authorities or reasons other then your owne conceits and assertions But vpon these seemings you set pestilent positions slanderous imputations and false conclusions as euen here you both resolue that Christ was in your hell paines and you presume so to translate the word eisakonstheis he was heard being in it as if that were the true force of the Apostles words But your selfe maketh a stranger conclusion ergo the actiue ãâã Treat pag. 63. li. 26. referred to God importeth that God being in the same pains did heare him Yet such a conclusion as your collection cannot auoid For where Christ was heard God did heare the passiue in Christ noteth the actiue to be truely affirmed of God that he did heare Christ. If then that word as you boldly with your seeming reason and false translation affirme import being in the paines of hell it must so signifie as well in the actiue referred to God as in the passiue applied to Christ. If you be now ashamed to heare of these vnseeming and vnsauery reasons blot them out of your owne booke and bestow your time better hereafter u Defenc. pag. 132. li. 24. Lastly you say but in the garden Christ neuer praied with strong cries and teares to be saued from death that we read in the Scriptures I hope you doâ⦠not read in the Scriptures expressely at all that thus he praied in the garden You may soundly gather it from the Scriptures I grant My words are not that the Scriptures expressely name Christs teares in the garden but that none other place nor time of Christs praier mentioned in the Euangelists doe admit teares but the garden For there the place being priuate and his praiers so vehement that his sweat was like bloud both olde and new writers haue collected that the Apostles words were verified in the garden yea the sweat of Christ Bernard calleth teares where he saith x Bernardus in Ramis Palmarum Serm. 3. Christ falling into an agony prayed the third time where he seemed to weepe not only with his eyes but with all the parts of his bodie that the whole bodie of his Church might be purged with the teares of his whole body Zinglius confesseth as much y Zinglius in Historiam Passio Non
death for which we must not pray But whosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not that sinne and so neither Christ who was the true Sonne of God nor any of his chosen who are the children of God by adoption can sinne that sinne nor die that death because he that is begotten of God liueth by God who is eternall life to all that know him and cleaue vnto him without separation If then the sinnes of the Elect be not vnto death but such as we in pietie may and in charitie must pray for consequently the death of the soule here meant by Saint Iohn is such as is not incident to any of the sonnes of God and so not the temporall hell which you communicate to Christ and his members Heere are your eight places of Scriptures proouing as you pretend the second death of the soule which you ascribe to Christ in euery one of which saue the first and second there can be no question but euerlasting damnation is intended and in those two the guiltinesse of eternall death which is due to sinne may be comprised in the name of death which the Apostle iustifieth when he sayth t Rom. 5. v. 12. The offence of one came on all men vnto condemnation which is in effect that he sayd before Death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned But that any of these intend your temporall hell brought into this life not by snares and feares working on the soules of men but by substance and essence and not eternall death in hell fire with the Diuell and his Angels you nor all your adherents shall euer be able by any ground of holy Scripture to make it appeare And therefore your presuming it vpon the bare shew of places concluding no such thing is a pestilent intrusion vpon the word of God whiles you sticke not to couple your conceits which are false and erroneous with his vndoubted and vndefiled trueth x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 31. First ordinarily and commonly it belongeth only to the damned wherewithall are the ordinarie accidents and concomitants desperation induration vtter darknesse c. with perpetuitie of punishment and that locally in HELL Generally and truely the Scriptures neuer vse the name of the second death but for the lake burning with euerlasting fire into which the Diuell and all the Reprobate shall be cast and whatsoeuer you otherwise pretend is your owne absurd deuice without the Scriptures and against the Scriptures to keepe your doctrine from open derision and detestation And since your selfe acknowledge that this is the ordinarie and vsuall doctrine of the Scriptures it shal be needfull for your Reader to hold you to that till you fully proue your extraordinarie deuice by the same Scriptures by which the other is euidenly confirmed and so much openly confessed by you y Defenc. pag. 135. li. 36. In this sense the Fathers generally do take it where they denie that Christ suffered the death of the soule and so do we If your cause haue so little holde in the Scriptures it hath lesse in the Fathers who in the necessarie worke of our redemption thought it sacriledge to say any thing that was not apparently proued by the Scriptures And as you light not on a true word when you come to deliuer vs the mysteries of your new hell so this is patently false that the Fathers generally take the death of the soule for eternall damnation only when they denie that Christ died the death of the soule They speake as the Scriptures leade them and confessing two deaths of the soule as the Scriptures doe which are sinne excluding all grace and the wages of sinne euen euerlasting damnation they generally denie that Christ died any death of the soule and haue for confirmation of their doctrine therein the whole course of the sacred Scriptures concurring with them x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 37. Secondly the death of the soule or the second death may be extraordinarily and singularly considered namely to imply no more but simply the very nature and essence of it You broach two apparent and euident vntrueths which you make the whole foundation of your presumptuous errour First that either Christ or his Elect in this life did or do suffer the very nature and essence of the second death Next that the Scriptures do singularly and extraordinarily reserue that kinde of second death for Christ and his members Shew either of these by the word of God before you make them grounds of your doctrine or els any meane Reader may soone conceiue you meane to teach no trueth confirmed in the Scriptures but a bolde and false deuice of your owne which you would extraordinarily intrude vpon the word of God a Defenc. pag. 136. li. 5. This is a death to the soule as before we haue shewed according to this sense the Scriptures and Fathers before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. When you glaunced before at the death of Christes soule you prayed vs to haue patience When the Defender shouââ¦d proue the death of Christs soule he sayeth bee hââ¦th proued it already till you came to the place where we should receiue a reasonable satisfaction and now you are come to the place where you should make iust and full proofe thereof you send vs backe againe and say you haue shewed it before What meaneth this doubling and deceiuing of your Reader but that you would seeme to haue many proofs when indeed you haue none and therefore you post vs to and fro to seeke for that we shall neuer finde In the 113. Page of this Defence you went about by your miserable misconstruing of certaine wordes vsed by some of the Fathers to enforce a shew of a death on the soule of Christ but against the haire as there I haue proued and therefore stand not on your former vnfortunate aduentures but either heere make proofe by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or leaue prating and publishing it so confidently as you and your adherents do for the chiefe part of mans redemption The Scriptures and Fathers you say before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. Is this all you haue to say for the death of Christes soule that the Scriptures and Fathers may be vnderstood not to denie it The Scriptures must affirme it before you can make it any point of Christian religion or part of our reconciliation to God b Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and not by not denying If that be your course to put any thing to the Creed which you list to say the Scriptures doe not denie you may quickly haue a large Creed containing all things which the Scriptures abused with your figures and wrested to your fansies shall not in expresse words as you thinke denie c Defenc. pag. 136. li. 9. Moreouer let it be obserued that if we had no proofes at all
you l Treâ⦠pa. 78. li. ãâã butted both these as absurd and most false that Christ was made aliue either in his humane soule or by the same I replied that you refuted your owne position Foâ⦠if in the former words of Peter his meaning were to say that Christes soule and bodie as you conceaue him were done to death then of necessitie Christ must be quickned and restored to life as well in his humane Soule as in his Bodie And this is so farre from being absurd and false as you proclaimed it that it is openly blasphemous otherwise to saie or thinke that Christ was neuer made aliue in his humane soule if once it were dead as you collected out of Peters words What course now take you to colour these incongruities You ment it was absurd to say that Christes soule was quickned as was his bodie Of the maner of death you speake there not a word but onely seeke to prooue that spirit in that place can not be taken for Christes soule because it is most absurd and false as you say that Christ was made aliue in his humane soule How you will iangle or iuggle touching your intent is not to this purpose you must answere for the sense which you would patch to Peters words The death which Christ suffered in his flesh by Peters assertion was it the death of the body alone or of both body and soule if of the body only then is your commentane which corrupteth Peters words absurd false and wicked Did Peter intend to teach that Christ died in both parts of his manhood that is in soule as well as in bodie then is it a necessarie trueth and point of piety to confesse and affirme that Chist was made aliue in his humane soule which you say is absurd and false Which way will your wisedome winde out of this grinne you ment it is absurd for the soule to be quickened as the body is You ment as best serued your turne but what ment Peter if he affirmed the soule of Christ died as you interprete him must not his words auouch that Christes soule was made aliue except you resolue that Christs soule once dead was neuer quickned againe and though you set a bold face on these contradictions and say you are farre from them yet ech meane Reader may soone perceaue how farre you were ouershot in them though heere you would outface them And where you now say that in such a sense you doe not denie but Christ may be said to be quickned in the spirit what is this but to grant that now which before you called absurd and most false m Dââ¦c pag. 140. li. 37. I hope it is cleere to reasonable men that Christes soule according to the Scriptures phrase may be said in some sort to haue tasted suffered death that is the extreamest feelings of Gods wrath for sinne and the most vehement paines of the damned but in a singuler maner and extraordinarie vvay And to the same reasonable men I referre it whether you haue brought one word or syllable out of holy Scripture concluding that Christ died the death of the soule or the second death The Scripture phrase you haue peruerted and distorted to your meaning but the words are farre from inferring any such thing euen in the iudgement of the meanest Your mittigations In some sort in a singular manner and extraordinarie way What argue they but your wresting of the Scriptures from their right sense since no such thing is there affirmed yea the death of the soule and the second death in the Scriptures are such as you dare not auouch of Christ but with these limitations which are no where mentioned in the Scriptures but are houels to shroud your absurd and false doctrine from the tempest of the word of God conuincing you of impiety and heresie if you did not thus delude the force of them But in vaine doe you seeke for these vnsound refuges when you be once driuen from your footing in the word of God For you must not only prooue by the Scriptures which you neither haue done nor can doe that Christ suffered the death of the soule and the second death as you say he did but you must shew also where these exceptions are written of Christ otherwise they are but shifts declining the maine and generall trueth of the Scriptures touching the death of the soule and the second death which can no more agree to Christ then sinne and damnation which you may as well defend IN A SORT in a singular manner and extraordinary way to be found in Christ as the other And therefore dally not with the word of God and faith of Christ your singular manner will not saue you from abusing the one and defacing the other except you can shew where your assertion as well as your exceptions be written in the booke of God As for the most vehement paines of the damned when you take the paines to prooue any thing otherwise then by the meale of your owne mouth you shal be answered The paines of the damned expressed in the Scriptures are reiection confusion worme of conscience and torment of hell fire which if by your cunning conueyance you cast vppon the soule of Christ you shall cough me a singular and extraordinary miscreant n Defenc. pag. 141. li. 6. Now besides the matter you gird at me in diuers places as where I say the death of the soule is such paines and sufferings of Gods wrath as alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God This geere deserued more then girding other men vse to blush at such falsehoods but shamefastnesse and you are parted When you had thus grossely thwarted the trueth as to say that the paines of Gods wrath which here you make the most o Treatis pag. 77. li. 5. vehement paines of the damned doe alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God your Printer or Corrector ashamed of that more then childish ouersight would not take vpon him to altar your text and so to amend your error but with a marginall note bridled your wordes making an addition cleane contrarie to your text For where you said alwayes he said ordinarily which is not alwayes and so he giueth you the lie and yet himselfe is as farre from the trueth as you are For neither alwayes nor ordinarily much lesse alwayes ordinarily which is as much as alwayes sometimes doe the most vehement paines of the damned accompanie them that are strangers to the grace and loue of God and therefore this Laborinth is like your other riddles in religion neither Writer Reader nor Corrector can tell what to make of them nor how to temper them with any trueth But now you will make amends for all p Defenc. pag. 141. li. 10. Forsooth it is true they are alwayes wicked whom these paines do accompanie ordinarily It is the first time I heard you speake
be principles of the Christian faith and that in so euident and pertinent manner that I know not how to lighten or strengthen their wordes Thou hearest them with one voice affirme that Christ died not A DOVBLE but A SINGLE death for vs which they likewise aââ¦ch was the death of HIS BODY ONLY AND NOT OF HIS SOVLâ⦠and THâ⦠DEATH OF THE SOVLE HE DIED NOT. The death of the soule they truely deriue from the Scriptures to be either sinne or damnation sinne by which men are depriued of all grace and so of the life of God and damnation which is a perpetuall reiection from all blisse addicting the wicked to eternall and intollerable miserie in the torments of hell fire Which of these things will this dreamer denie will he say that Christ died moe deaths then ONE and as well the death of the soule as of the bodie So he must say if he will vphold his new redemption by the death of Christs soule and so he doth say but whether there in he crosse not the full consent of Christs whole Church I leaue it to thy censure Will he shift as hee hath hitherto done with the name of flesh that it compriseth as well the soule as the bodie and therefore by the death of Christs flesh onely the Fathers doe not exclude the death of Christs soule but the death of his Godhead they prooue indeed against the Arians that the Sonne of God could not die in his Diuine nature but onely in his humane flesh And this as we now see is one of their maine reasons The soule of Christ died not nor coulde die much lesse then his Godhead And therefore the most of them do expresse that argument vtterly denying that Christes soule died any kinde of death but onely his flesh Besides a number of them not onely expresââ¦e by circumstances and consequents of burying and rising againe what the rest meane by the flesh but they vse the word ãâã which can not be taken for the soule and with like zeale and truth auouch that Christ died in his body onely So that these three stand for cleere and sounde conclusions with all these Fathers First that Christ died BVT ONE KIND of death Secondly that HE DIED ONELY IN HIS FLESH OR BODY and thirdly that THE DEATH OF THE SOVLE HE NEITHER DID NOR COVLD DIE. Will hee shuââ¦e with the name of death and say they ment not his kind of death that will nothing relieue him For first if Christ died but one kinde of death and of his bodily death no Christian may so much as doubt then by maine consequent out of their wordes Christ died no death of the soule let him take it how and which way he will Againe if Christ DIED ONELY IN BODY as they likewise witnesse then apparantly he died not any death of the soule neither in your sense Sir Defenser nor in theirs Lastly what death of the soule can you shew mentioned in the Scriptures without the compasse of their diuision that is which is not sinne or damnation Of sinne the Apostles wordes are plaine p Rom. 7. Sinne seduced me and slew ãâã ãâã ãâã and I died as likewise that q ââ¦hes 2. q Coloss. 2. we were dead in our sinnes This death men liââ¦ing may die as the Apostle saith of wanton widowes r â⦠Tim. 5. lyuing she is dead and of all the Gentils s ââ¦phes 4. walking in the vanitie of their minde they are strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the hardnesse of their heart who being past feeling haue giuen themselues to worke all vncleanesse euen with greedinesse Where the hardnesse of mans heart voide of all feeling or ãâã of God and so running on in all wickednesse is by the Apostle defined to be the death of the soule which is a depriuing or ââ¦anging from the life of God The second death as I before haue shewed is the laââ¦e burning with fire and brimstone into which the diuell and all the wicked shall be cast Shew now a third death of the soule not in your extraordinarie fansie and folly but in the word of God to which these Fathers proportion their speeches If there be no such thing there then directly earnestly and truely do these Fathers auouch that Christ dââ¦ed no death of the soule Of Fathers it may be your Mastership maketh small account and will not sticke in the high perswasion of your great and deepe learning to reiect them all as ignorant of the principles of their faith and so fitter to be taught then to teach but that proud peeuishnesse to giue it no worse words I leaue to the sober to censure for an vpshot the Reader shall haue a cleere conclusion out of the sacred Scriptures that the soule of Christ neuer was nor could be dead and consequently that these learned and ancient Fathers deliuered sound and true doctrine touching the soule of Christ and The soule of Christ liuing by graââ¦e could no way be dead fully build their asââ¦ertions on the maine foundations of the Diuine Scriptures It is euident by nature sense and trueth that priuatiues can not concurre at one and the same time in one and the same subiect For the one expelleth the other and so can not be found both together Yea since the one of them cleerely remooueth the other they can no more stand together then may contradiction For that which liueth is not dead and that which is dead liueth not I meane alwaies the same time and the same part But the soule of Christ by the manifest and manifold testimonies of holie Scripture did alwaies liue in the fulnesse of faith of hope of loue of grace of trueth of spirit It is euident therefore that the soule of Christ neuer died nor could die Which of these assertions will you encounter that Christes soule may be aliue and dead both at one time You would seeme the leafe before to shunne the shame of t Defenc. pag. 140. li. 25. this absurditie that Christes soule died and died not will you now come plainely and grossely to it by auouching that Christes soule was at one and the same time LIVING AND NOT LIVING DEAD AND NOT DEAD that is both ALIVE AND DEAD If you doe there is no man in England that hath either eies or eares to see or heare but he will reprooue you for a manifest beliar of his sense as well as of Christs soule Will you smoothly set yourselfe to one side and say that Christs soule was not aliue so many parts of life as I haue named in the soule of Christ so many pregnant proofes are there in holy Scripture that Christes soule was not onely liuing but as full of life as of grace during the whole time of his passion Neither is there any one of those things named by mee concerning the life of Christes soule which you can take from Christ without apparent blasphemie For if
you depriue him of saith hope loue grace truââ¦th or the spirit of God you leaue him in Infidelitie desperation hatred of God reprobation falshood and make him no way the Sonne of God since they onely are the sonnes of God who are ledde by the spirit of God Now what shamefull and impious enormities these are you can easily coniecture So that of force you must confesse the soule of Christ to be liuing and endued with all these parts and powers of the life of God or else you must professe your selfe to be nothing lesse then a Christian And euen the praiers which he made and obedience which he shewed in all and euerie his conflicts and agonies prooue his soule not onely to liue but to rest assuredly on the fauour and loue of God towards him which are no fruites nor effects of the death of the soule but exactly the conrrarie Yet paine you thinke Christ might all this while suffer and that most extreame which you call the death of the soule Your calling sweete sower good badde light darknesse and life death changeth not the natures of the things but conuincââ¦th your owne ignorant and wilfull headinesse You must call things in Christ not as pleaseth your fansie but as the word of God directeth and by witnesse thereof shall you neuer be able to proue that Christs soule was dead since thence so many sure demonstrations may be brought that Christs soule was alwaies u Iohn 1. full of truth and grace and of the Holy Ghost not only in a greater abundance then either man or Angel hath or can haue but aboue all measure And in this state if we should imagine with you that x Iohn 3. Christs soule suffred the greatest sense of torments that any creature can feele yet this doth not inferre Christs soule to be dead but expressely the contrary since all paine The soule of Christ in her greatest paines did most shew the life of patience and obedience to God yea if it were possible paine equall with hell it selfe suffered in this life with obedience and patience such as all Christs sufferings were except you will wrappe him as well within sinning as suffering doth conuince the soule of Christ to be rather liuing then dead as the martyrs of Christ had their soules then most liuing in their greatest torments when force of intolerable paine excluded their spirits from their bodies And therefore I doe not a little maruaile how lightly you leape to determine and defend the death of Christs soule since all paine endured with patience obedience and confidence prooueth the soule to be most aliue to God-ward euen when she departeth as not able to sustaine the fury and violence of the torment encreasing And heerein appeareth your notable error in calling that the death of Christs soule which the Scripture calleth his obedience and victory For he was y Phil. 2. obedient to the death euen the death of the Crosse that is in all his sufferings vnto the end he z Reuel 3. ouercame and sate with his Father in his Throne as we ouercomming shall sit with Christ in his Throne And other conquest in our conflicts there is none then constant resisting all temptations and patient enduring all afflictions which Christ did before vs and we must after him by his example both which are most ââ¦uident ââ¦ignes effects of the life and strength of the soule To beleeue and loue God to hope in him and call on him in proââ¦perity declareth the soule to be ãâã but in adââ¦ty and extreaââ¦ty to continue and ãâã those dueties of piety are as forââ¦ible powers and parts of the life of the soule as the Scripture maketh any Wherefore it is a grosse ouersight in you to call that the death of the soule which the Scripture maketh the life of the soule and to pronounce Christs soule to be dead in those respects which the word of God teacheth to be the chiefest proofes of the life of the soule If you slide from the sense of absolute and inherent paine to the feare and horror of dereliction and desperation in the soule of Christ for you role at your pleasure from one to another and are constant in nothing but in generall and doubtfull speaches as were the first authors of this conceit and make that the death of the soule No temptations without desparation kill the soule then know you that these temptations kill not the soule till they plant infidelity and desperation in the soule of man from which I trust you will cleere Christ or els I mââ¦st aske what difference betwixt you and a Turke For the Iewes were not so wicked as to take from Christ his trust in God they said of him as he hung on the Crosse a Matth. 27. he trusteth in God but they thought God had failed him in suffering him to come to that cursed kind of death wherein they knew not the wisedome or power of God But no Christian can be excused by ignorance if he diminish the faith hope loue patience or obedience of Christ in all his sufferings and those not decreasing it was no way possible for the soule of Christ to be but liuing yea full of life grace how great soeuer the paines were which he endured or the temptations which he resisted So that both fathers and Scriptures persue you narrowly to this straight that Christes soule must either alwaies liue and so your doctrine is vtterly false which auoucheth the death of Christs soule to be the ground of our redemption or if it died it must die with sinne since without sinne there is no death of the soule and all paines and torments that are possible in this life if they be suffered with obedience and patience doe rather demonstrate the life then confirme the death of the soule euen in the person of Christ Iesus b Defenc. pag. 142. li. 24. But our authorised Catechisme published by master Nowel and the homily sheweth that Christ suffered farre more sharpely then meere bodily death euen the infinite paines of Gods wrath in his soule which I pointed you vnto before but you fairely leape it ouer You belie the one and confute the other and then charge me with leaping them both ouer The homily which indeed is authorised hath no such thing as you report the Catechisme which is only approoued to be taught to children in schooles hath more then you any way like or receaue and yet not that which you now defend The sorow and paine which the Catechisme supposeth in Christs soule was the feare and horror of eternall death that you not only refuse in plaine words but refell with many reasons as you thinke The like you doe for Christs descent to hell which the Catechisme confesseth to be not the presence of Christs soule in Paradise but an effectuall force thereof in hell whereby the soules of the faithlesse saw their damnation to be iust and the Diuel himselfe perceaued all
others that beleeue the words of Paul are sufficient declaring this to be the very ground of the Gospell which hee receiued and deliuered that Christ e 1. Cor. 15. died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that hee arose the third day according to the Scriptures Whence by a full and faire coherence I collect that whatsoeuer died in Christ according to the Scriptures that was buried and raised the third day according to the Scriptures But it is more then manifest by the Scriptures that the soule of Christ was neither buried nor raised from death the third day but onely his bodie It is therefore as plaine to me by the all sufficient word of God that the soule of Christ died not for our sinnes according to the Scripture Your f Defenc. pag. 146. li 23. section touching materiall fire in hell I haue sifted at large before I shall not neede to say any more of it Your hemming in all the world on your side g Defenc pag. 147. li. 25. not some nor the most or best but euen all and euery one both Churches and writers in the world who are Protestants leauing none to vphold the doctrine which I deliuer but Papists Iesuites and Friars is as I told you before and must tell you againe an egregious lie so loud and leud that all the belles in London if they should iarre together could not yeeld a more offensiue sound That euery new writer speaketh of some feares sorrowes temptations or painefull sufferings in the soule of Christ neuer was nor is by me denied neither doe I in my Sermons take vpon me to determine what feares temptations paines and sorrowes Christ might and did suffer in his soule onely I added that we must beware we diminish not his faith hope loue confidence obedience patience and other gifts and graces of the spirit of God in the soule of Christ which the Scripture cleerely maketh to be without want defect or measure in him Shunning those sands I left euery man to his libertie to speake or write of Christes feares and sorrowes as farre as any circumstance of holy Scripture did duely enforce but the death of the soule the paines of hell and of the damned and the second death if any sought to fasten on the soule of Christ whosoeuer they were they did it by their owne surmises they had no warrant for any of those in the word of God except they tooke the paines of hell figuratiuely for great and intolerable such as sometimes the Godly in their humane weakenesse thinke and complaine they feele or feare though they come nothing neere the true paines of hell which cannot be endured in this mortall life and flesh by the euidence of nature and Scripture This being my constant course as my Sermons printed doe apparently witnesse what folly what madnesse is this so egerly and often to chalenge me for contradicting the whole world when it is but your immoderate greedinesse or giddinesse to thinke that everie man who writeth any thing of the feares or sufferings of Christs soule doth presently teach as you doe the death of Christs soule and the substance of the most vehement paines of the damned yea the second death to be a necessary part of our redemtion which Christ must suffer before he could ransome vs To censure mens priuate opinions I take no pleasure some men otherwise very learned and laborious haue dipped too deepe in that die as your selfe proue and pronounce by reiecting and reselling the horror of eâ⦠nâ⦠death in the soule of Christ though Master Caluin say Christ CONFLICTED therewith and the Catechisme auouch Christ was therewithall Pââ¦VSED If you may thus renounce and refute the first deuise and spredders as you thinke them of your proper and spirituall temptations and torments in the soule of Christ giue others leaue to receaue them no farder then they concurre with the Scriptures and with the primatiue church of God I find diuers men speake diuersly but very few and these late that light on the death of Christs soule and suddaine touches of the essentiall paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God which is your fresh and new deuice yea many that are caried away with the generall termes of Gods wrath and horror of his dreadfull iudgements against sin no way like the death of Christs soule and by speciall words debarre all mention of the second death in the sufferings of Christ and those as well English as others How false and soolish your vaunt is of all and euerie church and writer in the world that are Protestants to be of your minde will soone appeare to any that will reade and waigh the workes and wordes of Zuinglius Musculus Martyr Bullinger Aretius ãâã new ãâã teach the sufferings of Christs soule without the paines of hell Zanchius and of sundry others as sound in faith as ripe in iudgement as diligent in reading and sufficient in all kinde of learning as the best you can name either broching or bowing towards your late conceits who though they teach that Christ suffered in soule and body as I doe yet they assigne farre other sufferings in the soule of Christ then your essentiall paines of the damned I may not stand to make new discourses touching new writers a place or two shall serue for all and so an end of this matter Bullinger vpon those words of Esay Christ layd downe or made his soule a sacrifice sor sinne saith h ãâã in ãâã ãâã ââ¦3 To make his soule a sacrifice for sinne is to offer himselfe to be a sacrifice to Purge sinnes And he saith Christs soule and not his flesh not that the flesh of Christ was not offered for vs but that whole Christ body and soule offered himselfe to God and that willingly from his heart and of his owne accord and whole Christ was the expiation of our sinnes licet interim neque diuinit as sit passa neque anima mortua sed caro de quare beati Patres Vigilius Fulgentius contra Haereticos religiose disputarunt Though during that time neither his diuinty suffered NOR HIS SOVLE DIED but his flesh whereof the blessed fathers Vigilius and Fulgentius haue religiously discoursed against Heretickes Zanchius whose learned workes are to me in steed of many writers that are caried with faction and affection to vphold whatsoeuer some other men say though he could not for his often and great labours get time to finish his purposed treatise of mans redemption in that exact manner that he hath donne the rest yet commenting on S. Paules Epistles as occasion was offered he fully deliuereth the matter and manner of our redemption to be the only sacrifice of Christs body and bloud other propitiatory sacrifice for sinne then that he acknowledgeth none though he ascribe to the soule as well her sufferings as her sacrifice i Zanchius in ca. 2. epist. ad Philip. v. 8. All things
bodies of wilde beasts must returne to earth as to the place by the tenor and trueth of Gods iudgement appointed for all men Thou art dust and to dââ¦st shalt thou returne that is to the earth out of which thou wast taken and to which Iacob would descend mourning all the daies of his life for the losse of his sonne not meaning in Sheol to haue ioy with the soule of his sonne as you peruert his speech and sense for then he would haue gone to Sheol not mourning but reioycing Againe to follow our purpose good Ezechiah also looked for Sheol to be his habitation likewise after this life This cannot bee vnderstood of his carcasse rotting and wasting away to nothing in the graue and therefore endureth not as the word Dori my mââ¦nsion signifieth Therefore he meaneth it of his soules abiding els where Againe Ezechiah was a godly man therefore hell was not fit for him and he seemeth to insinuate that in the Land of the dead he might see the Lord whither he was to goe and that must needes bee in the place of blessed soules euen that which heere is noted by the word Shââ¦l You stumble still at the same stone that none of those thinges can be ment of the graue because the body rotteth and wasteth to nothing in the graue You must leaue these falshoods if you will but seeme to be a Diuine The bodies of the Saints can not bee raised from their graues if they be wasted wholy to nothing in their graues And if you follow this argument well whatsoeuer your name be that by this meanes vndermine the resurrection of the dead your wordes will broach an open heresie though you slily vrge them to establish your new found Sheol Wherefore I omit this desperate cauill as fighting rather against the faith then against the name of Sheol wherein mens bodies after death though turned to dust yet not to nothing doe still remaine Your next reason that the graue can not be called Dôr an habitation or a continuance is idle and vtterly mistaken by you as all the rest is For Dôr is the time of mans life heere on earth as well as a place of abode And what should hinder Ezechiah to say the time of my life is ended or the place of mine abode heere on earth is remooued or passed away Must it needes follow that he shall haue a time to liue in Sheol or a place for his soule to abide there as you absurdly vrge or that this habitation may not be said to be in the graue where his body lieth knowen to God though vnknowen to man These be miserable shifts to hale in your priuatiue positiue generall speciall station state place without place of your first found Sheôl For where before you auouched that Sheol signified indeed no positiue thing properly but a meere priuation of this life you be now come vpon confidence of these rather riots then reasons to resolue in plaine tearmes that the place of blessed soules where they see God is euen that which heere is noted by the word Sheol The place of blessed soules where God is seene I hope is first speciall to the godly not generall to good and bad Next it is positiue and not meerely priuatiue Thirdly it is peculiar to the soules of iust men not imparted as yet to their whole persons Fourthly it is not destruction it is saluation And lastly it is heauen or Paradise a part of the third heauen which you neuer thought to be Sheol These many contrarieties you haue contriued in lesse then two leaues hauing none other ground for all this but onely that the dead bodies of men turned to ashes and wasted to nothing as you defend can not be said to be any where and so not in Sheol and since there is somewhat of iust men in Sheol as the Scriptures witnesse it must needes be the soule and this erroneous and perfidious position that the body of man hath no being at al after it is turned to dust is the sole foundation of your late made Sheol for iust mens soules It is a most vaine reason that you giue that Sheol heere is taken for hell because death to the wicked is the passage to hell which death Ezechiah was not neeere vnto I doubt not but you wil be as bold with me as you are with others to corrupt or peruert euery word you light on so you may seeme to say somewhat My words were that death in his owne nature was a passage to hell as we find yet by proofe in all the wicked though the faithfull be freed from it by the mercies of God in Christ. And therefore Ezechiah in the bitternesse of his soule might well call death the gates of hell euen as our Sauiour said The gates of hell should not preuaile against his Church though they should persue it on earth calling sinne error and persecution the gates of hell albeit in the godly they worke not so much but in the wicked only And in death denounced by Esaie to Ezechiah the king did not so much feare the passage out of this life as the suddaine change of Gods fauour towards him who not long before with a mightie hand from heauen and by a miraculous slaughter of his enemies saued him and his city from the rage of Senacherib and on the suddaine about that very time as the Scripture noteth strake him with sicknesse and sent him word to putt his house in order for he should die which message the king feared was a signe of Gods displeasure against him as iudging him vnworthy to enioy so great a deliuerance And this might make Ezechiah otherwise a good king to tremble at that which in Gods secret counsell he was not neere vnto though in the feare and gââ¦iefe of his own hart he might feele in some fort the bitternes of death in that short pangue Another obiection of yours is as weake where you say Sheol heere must be the graue because it is said afterward sheol doth not confesse thee death cannot praise thee for it is euident that Ezechiah meaneth not absolutââ¦ly there is no praising of God in shââ¦l but onely be vnderstandeth the outward frequenting of the Temple and publishing of Gods goodnesse to others If you can shift of one circumstance or make a shew with some ambiguity you thinke your selfe safe neither care nor conscience leadeth you to looke to the rest that is written either in the same or in other places of the sacred Scriptures This comparison made betwixt the liuing and the dead that the liuing confesle and praise God which the dead cannot doe belongeth in the liuing to the whole man that is chiefly to the soule the maker and directer of our praiers but associated with the body whose parts and affections she guideth and composeth euen as she doth the tongue to serue so good an action In the dead this ioint deuotion of body and soule
to the enemie The diuell therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thinking to kill one lost all and hoping to carie one to Hades hell was himselfe cast out of hades hell ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hades hell is abrogated death no more preuailing but all being raised to life neither can the diuell stand vp any more against vs but is fallen and indeed creepeth on his brest and bellie And therefore of the Saints he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in fine they saw Hades hell spoiled Epiphanius in sundrie places expresseth the parts and purpose of Christs descending to hell or hades He was crucified buried ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hee descended to the places vnder earth in his diuinitie and in his soule he tooke captiuitie captiue and rose againe the third day What here he calleth places vnder the earth whither Christes soule went after his death that elswhere he calleth Hades The Godhead of Christ would performe all things that perteined to the mysterie of his passion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and would descend together with his soule to the infernall places to worke the saluation there of such as were before dead I meane the holy Patriarcks ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that he might performe the things he would against hades in the forme of a man euen in hades that the chiefe Ruler HADES and death thinking to lay hands on a man and not knowing his Deitie vnited to his sacred soule Hades himselfe might rather be surprised and death dissolued and that fulfilled which was spoken Thou wilt not leaue my soule in Hades Basil Death is not altogether euill except you speake of the death of a sinner ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because their departure hence is the beginning of their punishments in hades againe the euââ¦s that are in hades haue not God for their cause but our selues the head and root of sinne is in vs and in our willes And againe Dathan and Abiram were swallowed vp of earth the gulfes and clefts thereof opening vnder them Heere were not they the better for this kinde of punishment ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for how should they be so that went to hades to hell but they made the rest the wiser by their example And writing on the 48 Psalme Because man turned himselfe from the word of God and became a beast the enemie caught him as a sheepe without a shepheard ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and put him in hades hell but when he sayth God will redeeme my soule from the power of hades he doth plainly prophesie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the descent of the Lord to hades who would redeeme the Prophets soule with others not to abide there Nazianzene in his second Oration against Iulian the Renââ¦gate ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Stop thou thy secrets and wayes that leade to hell hades I will declare the plaine wayes which leade to heauen And of Christ he sayth Christ died but he restored to life and with his death abolished death He was buried but he rose againe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He descended to hell hades but he brought backe soules and ascended to heauen Macarius When thou hearest that Christ deliuered soules ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã out of hell hades and darkeneââ¦se and that the Lord descended to hades and did an admirable worke thinke not these thinâ⦠to be farre from thine owne soule And thus he maketh Christ to speake to death and to the diuell ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. I command thee hades and darkenesse and death restore the soules inclosed And so the wickâ⦠powers trembling refund man that was inclosed Cyrill of Alexandria In olde times before Christ the soules of men departing from their bodies were sent to fill the receptacles of death ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in dennes vnder the earth But after Christ commended his oââ¦ne soule to his Father he renewed the same way for vs ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And now we goe not to bades from any place but we follow him rather in this and committing our soules to a faithfull Creatour we rest in excellent hope Yet of Christ he aââ¦firmeth The soule which was coupled and vnited to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã descended into hades and vsing the power and force of the Godhead ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã shewed it selââ¦e to the spirits or soules there For we must not say that the Godhead of the onely begotten which is a nature vncapable of death and no waâ⦠conquerable by it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was brought backe from the dââ¦es vnder the earth Cyrill of Ierusalem like wise in his Catechismes vpon those words of the Psalme If ascend to heauen thou art there if I goe downe to hades tââ¦u art preââ¦ent sayth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. If tââ¦ere ââ¦e ââ¦ing higher than the heauens and hades be lower than the earth he that compreââ¦ââ¦eth the ââ¦owest doth also touch the earth And to those that were baptized he sayth When thou renouncest Satan thou hast vtterly abrogated the couenant had with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. euen the olde couenant ââ¦ith hades hell and the Paradise of God is opened to thee In the Homilies which Leo the Emperour made for the exercise of his stââ¦le and confession of his faith it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christ is risen bringing Hades prisoner with him and proclaiming lilibertie to the capitues He that held others bound is now in bonds himselfe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christ is come from hades with the ensigne of his triumph the sowre and heauie lookes of those that are vtterly ouerthrowen ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as of Hades death and the hatefull diuels Damascene ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. The soule deisied descended to Hades that as to those on earth the Sonne of righteousnesse was risen ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so to those that sate vnder the earth in darkenesse and in the shadow light might shine The brazen gates were torne the iron barres were broken ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the keeper of Hades hell did shake for feare and the foundations of the world were laid open Cydonius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That there is in hades hell vengeance for all sinnes heere committed not onely the consent of all wise men but also the equalitie of the Diuine iustice confirmeth and strengthmeth this opinion Aeneas Gazeus He that in a priuate life committeth small sinnes and lamenteth them escapeth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the punishments that are in Hades hell Gregentius Christ tooke a rodde out of the earth which was his pretious crosse stretching his right hand strake all his enemies conquered them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Hades death sin and that wilââ¦e serpent Theophylact. The rich man dying is not caried by the angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but
giue aduise we will send for you to make comments vpon their counsels Where you make Athanasius say Christ was held in this death till ââ¦e spoiled and conquered it which you conclude cannot be hell out of question You speake not one true word Athanasius hath no such words that Christ was held in death Of mans soule he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that was held in death but of Christ in that very sentence he auoucheth the cleane contrary saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be could not be held in death Secondly that hades was spoiled of all his power right and claime to or ouer all Christs elect and we deliuered thence Athanasius as well as the rest beareth plentifull witnesse But that Christ spoiled heauen or Paradise where the soules of the Saints were seuered from their bodies brought vs thence is not onely a false fable but a pestilent error Christ raising his body from the graue by Athanasius iudgement gaue vs hope of the resurrection of our bodies and bringing backe his soule from hades as not onely vntouched of any death there but also loosing the bands ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of soules surprised by hades he made vs partakers of his immortality which the strength of hades could not touch Descending to hades Christ brought vs backe saith Athanasius of himselfe and of all Christs members as then not borne Christ did not bring all the faithful of the old Testament from the condition of death much lesse brought he the rest thence that were not either dead or borne We die still and so the condition of death is common to vs after Christs resurrection as it was to the fathers before Christs death and birth but hell hath now no right to vs nor power ouer vs since Christ our head conquered and spoiled Satan of all interest and chalenge to any of his members And where you pretend that hades is spoiled because our soules shal be ioined againe to our bodies at the resurrection know you good Sir that the separation of the soule from the bodie was to dure by Gods ordinance but for a time as well in the wicked as in the godly that is vntil the generall iudgement And you that defend a resurrection and immortality as well of the wicked in hell as of the Saints in Paradise what reason can you giue why the condition of the soule separated from the body is more conquered by Christ for his members then by Satan for his partners for that separation shall cease in both and consequently the force of death seuering the soule from the body is spoiled aswell for the reprobate as for the elect Yea the continuing of the godly soules asunder from their ââ¦odies till the last day is rather a furnishing and storing of your hades then a conquering and spoiling of it And therefore mocke not with these matters they be of more importance then that they may be thus idlely caried Hilarie verily hath this meaning also saying this is the law of humane necessity that their bodies goe downe to the graue their soules to the world of the dead ad inferos Which descent the Lord did not refuse that he might prooue himselfe in euery point to be true man And this for his soule to come vnder the power of death was indeed the law of humane necessity after the like phrase as Iustine Irenaeus and Tertullian also speake but not to goe to hell Your head is so fraighted with falseshoods that trueth can take no place there and so little is your skill though your pride be great that you doe not know for ought that I see how necessity of death came into mans nature Whiles man was free from sinne he was free from death By sinne came death When man lost his innocencie he lost his liberty and fell both within the seruitude of sinne and necessity of death Now death being the wages of sinne reacheth aswell to the soule after this life as to the body to be depriued of this life By one offence came guiltinesse on all men vnto condemnation The law then of humane necessity for sinne without Christ Iesus in whom we recouer liberty is for the body to goe to corruption and for the soule to descend to destruction and not onely to be seuered from the body as you would faine mistake the words of Hilarie It is no part of humane necessity for the soule seuered from the body to ascend to heauen or to Paradise that is the honour and fauour of our Redemption purchased by Christ our Sauiour but necessity of death in vs which is the reward of sinne draweth the whole man body and soule vnto condemnation This you might haue found to be Hilaries meaning by the words precedent which occasioned this conclusion Si descendero in infernum ades If I goe downe to hell thou art there Which Hilarie sheweth to be verified in Christ by the words that you bring meaning that as men by sinne came to this necessitie that their bodies lying in the graue their soules descended to hell So Christ the redeemer of man refused not euen this descent to hell ad consummationem veri hominis to consummate true man or to recouer and restore both parts of man to witte body and soule whereof a true man consisteth That Christ should descend to places vnseene and vnknowen to prooue himselfe a true man what sense can this haue since no man liuing was present to see the proofe thereof and he that doubted whether Christ liuing were a true man would much more doubt whether Christ rising in that glorious bodie which neuer man saw before noâ⦠the like were a true man or no. I thinke therefore by your leaue that as Christ died not to prooue himselfe a true man but to ransome our sinnes so he descended to the places below not to make proofe to vs that he was a true man but to worke our saluation and consummation as elswhere the same Father saith Crux mors inferi nostra salus est Christs crosse death and descent to inferi are parts of our saluation And of Christ he voucheth mortem in inferno perimens he killed death in hell And yet if with you we should take consummation for demonstration which is farre fet and say Christ reââ¦used not that descent to shew himselfe a true man it nothing hurteth me since that burden of necessity lay on all men for desert of sinne till they were deliuered by Christ to haue their bodies goe to the graue and their soules to the place of punishment both which Christ refused not though he were in the one without any corruption in the other without any condemnation but as conquerour of both Of Iustine Irenaeus Tertullian we haue spoken before we shall not need to iterate your ouersights Iustine speaketh of no law at all Irenaeus noteth the law of the dead to be this that they must stay a time dead before their
as you doe tending all to expresse one thing but seeke a little to shew vs what matter is contained in them you should soone see what labour you haue lost in this Carrecke of words which you haue newly brought vs home Your meere and simple death which you say is nothing els but the going asunder of the soule from the body hath of necessitie thus much in it It is the separation of the soule from the body which is the cause of life in the body It is the dissolution of the person which consisteth of body and soule It is the priuation of life which endeth with the departing of the soule It is the continuing of death since possibly there is no regresse from the priuation to the habite without the mightie hand of God working aboue nature For the soule departing neuer returneth till God commaund by whose word heauen and earth were made What now after death becommeth of both parts of man is no hard matter to conceaue Salomon saith Dust meaning flesh first made of dust returneth to earth as it was and the spirit to God that gaue it by him to be disposed and adiudged to ioy or paine as pleaseth him The body then goeth to corruption the soule receaueth iudgement where it shall remaine in hell or heauen till the bodie be restored againe which shall be at the last day Descending to hades after death cannot be verified of the whole person of man but in respect of the parts Referred to the body it is as much as buried and laide in the place where it shall putrifie and returne to dust Applied to the soule it must signifie the place to which the soule is caried which I say must be vnder earth since heauen is neuer called by that name nor expressed by that word either in the Scriptures or in any other sacred or prophane writers The power and dominion of death which you so much speake of is nothing else but Gods ordinance that from death there is no returne to life till hee appoint If then there be no dominion nor kingdome of death preuailing or ruling in heauen where the soules of the Saints are without their bodies then Christ in ascending to heauen descended not to Hades Againe with what trueth can you auouch Christes soule came vnder the full power and dominion of death since death had no power ouer the bodie or soule of Christ longer or farder then he himselfe would permit and his soule free from all bands and paines of death destroied the dominion and kingdome of death to which it was alwaies superiour and neuer subiect but onely that he might shew himselfe with greater power to be conquerer of death rather in rising from the dead then in declining the force of death as if he were not able after death and in death to dissolue the dominion and power of death Wherefore your exaggerating the power and dominion of death OVER THE SOVLE of Christ and that IN HEAVEN whither you graunt Christes soule went after death is not onely a vaine and idle flourish but a poisoned and pestilent doctrine if you take not heed to it since no power of death but Christes will to shew himselfe Lord of life and death either seuered his soule from his bodie or bestowed his soule in any place after death or detained him in the condition of death but he was free to die when he would and rise from death when he would which euerteth all power and dominion of death ouer him how much soeuer in wastefull wordes you auouch the contrarie Touching the proprietie of wordes that you say is as true as the rest For Hades hath no such natiue and proper sense as you talke of but exactly and directly when it is referred to a place and not to a person signifieth a place of darknesse where nothing can be seene as with one consent Heathen and Christian writers acknowledge And the word descending after death which you must applie to the soule ascending to heauen you childishly change into the fall of the person from lise to death or inconstantly varie you know not how to Christes submission when he died or his abasement by lying held and subdued so long time in death Where againe you incurre the same sands that you did before in affirming Christ was held and subdued of death for the time which is plainly false doctrine since he would abide that time in death least any should thinke him not truely dead but was neuer vnder the power and dominion of death And as for lying held in death that phrase is strangely referred to the soule of Christ which ascended to the third heauen with more honour and ioy then it receaued in this life heere on earth What Ruffine saith is not much to be regarded if we beleeue S. Ierom neither was Ruffines faith sound nor his authoritie any thing in the Church and yet were he woorth the respecting he maketh more against you then for you For first these wordes are not vsed as an exposition of Christs descent to Hades but Ruffine saith Diuina natura in mortem per carnem descendit non vt lege mortalium detinerââ¦tur a Morte sed vt per se resurrecturus ianuas mortis aperiret The diuine nature of Christ descended to death by his flesh not to be held of death after the law of mortall men but that rising of himselfe hee might open the gates of death Where he saith the diuine nature descended to death he speaketh not of the soule but of the godhead of Christ which words by your leaue require a sober interpretation and yet in respect of the diuine glory the phrase of descending vnto death signifieth Christes submission to die not his descent after death And withall he refelleth two of your fansies first that Christ was was not held of death which you say he was Secondly that he followed not heerein the lââ¦w of mans nature which you say he did And that Christes soule descended to hell by Ruffines opinion his wordes are plaine enough in many places He applieth that to Christ which Dauid saith Thou hast brought my soule out of hell and alleaging the place of Peter In his spirit Christ preached to them which were in prison heerein saith ââ¦e it is declared quid operââ¦ââ¦gerit in Inferno What Christ did in hell So that the lesse hold you take of Ruffine the better for you and your cause he will doe more harme then good If any thinke this to be somewhat figuratiue yet is it verely so familiar and easie to all people as that other word in the Creede is he sitteth at the right hand of God yea it is farre easier When you can diue deepe into your owne fansies you thinke them as familiar to all others as to your selfe If this were so easie and readie with the simpler sort as you make it me thinkes it should not so much trouble
ordained to be damned for vs. 364 Dauid neuer felt the true paines of hell 453 Dauids feare vnlike to Christs 442 What Death Christ died 19 A threefold death the wages of sinne 13â⦠Corporall death in all men is the punishment of sinne 149. 150. 151. 176 Death in Christ was the satisfaction for sinne 176 Euerlasting death the wages of sinne which Christ could not suffer 226 The death of the body is euill in it selfe though God to his make it a passage to life 244. 245 The consequenââ¦s after death doe not proue death to be good 246 The nature of death not changed in the godly 252 God so hââ¦teth death that he will destroy it as an enemie 254 Naturall death came not by the sentence of Mosâ⦠Law 261 Thââ¦e is no death of the Soule without sinne 366 All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before he died 389 The death and life of the soule here on earth mistaken by the Defender 430 What the second death is in the Scriptures 492 Eight pââ¦es of Scripture abused for the death of Christs Soule 493 By one lande of death Christ freed vs from all kinds of death 504 To be vtterly forsaken of God is the death of the Soule 517. 518 The extreamest degree of pains where grace doth not faile is no death of the Soule 524 What things the death of the body doth import 649 The Defender grosly peruerteth my words 44. 45 The Defender contââ¦adicteth himselfe 56. 57 The Defender contemneth the Fathers and their iudgements 82 The Defender deuiseth shifts to decline Scriptures and Fathers against him 94 The Defender would make the maner of Christes dying onely vnusuall 95 The Dââ¦fender doth grossely mistake the reiection of the Iewes to be the meaning of Christes complaint on the crosse 98 The Dââ¦fender not able to support his errors doth quarrell with the question 99 The Defender eludeth the Scriptures with his termes of single and meere 125. 126. 127 The Defender clouteth one conclusion out of diuers places 146 The Defender maketh the sufferings of Christs flesh needlesse to our redemption 168. 169 The Defender peruerteth the doctrine of the Homilies 224. 225 The Defender maketh Christ sinfull accursed and defiled 265 The Defender would not faile to cite Fathers if he had them 273 The Defender compareth Christ in want of comfort with the damned 291 The Defender vainly presumeth all places of his vnanswered to be granted 319 The Defender hath deuised torments for Christs soule 323 The Defender controleth the words of the holy Ghost by his new phrases 413 The Defender in steed of proouing falleth to granting his owne positions 5ââ¦3 The Defender misciteth S. Iohns words and on that error groundeth all his reasons 644 The Defender giuing a reason of nââ¦thing asketh a reason of all things 415 The Defender claimeth like reuerence to his words as to the Scripture 325 The Defender saith the Scriptures are ordinarilie true that is sometimes false 367 The Defender doth euery where mistake and misapply what is said 384 The Defender forgeth a pace new parts of the Christian faith 393 The Defender taketh the parts of Christs agonie for the causes thereof 401 The Defender is somewhat pleasureable 528 The Defender corrupteth S. Luke 402. 403 The Defender ascribeth a liuely affection to Christs dead flesh 422 The Defender vttereth a flat contradiction to his owne doctrine 422. 423 The Defender confesseth the Fathers prooue my meaning 425 The Defender is driuen to contrarieties 431 The Defender taketh from Christ inward sense and memory in his sufferings 440 The Defender yeeldeth perfect knowledge to Christ in his amazednesse 481 The Defender foolishly prooueth the death of Christs soule 495. 496 The Defender abuseth the Scriptures 534. 535 The Defender cannot discerne a conclusion from a quotation 568 The Defendours foure restraints of hell paines 4 The Defendours disdaine of the fathers 98 The Defendours vaine shifts 114. 115 The Defendours skill in framing arguments 327 The Defendours absurd deuises 490 The Defendours manner of reasoning as illogicall as his matter is false 336 Dereliction in the Scriptures neuer implieth the paines of the damned 415 Deepe what it signifieth 566 To what Deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 The true sense of Paul and Moses words Rom. 10. concerning the Deepe 568 The whoââ¦e church taught that Christ after death descended to hell 544. 545 New Writers teach Christs descent to hell 546. 547 Christ needed no long time to descend to hell 551 Of Christs descending and ascending 553 Christ aescended and ascended to be Lord ouer all 563 To what deepe Christ descended after death 565 567 Descending is to places below 569 How long this clause of Christs descent to hell hath been in the Creed 653. 654 What Ruffinus meaneth by Christs descent to hell 655 Descending to hades was not the buriall of Christs body 556. 557. 558 The causes of Christs descent to hell 666 Desââ¦ending to hell was a part of Christs exaltation 671 The descent of Christ to hell confessed by the Catechisme 677 The Lawes of this land doe binde all to beleeue Christs descent to hell 678 Desperation in hell is no sinne 71 Desperation is the sorest torment in this life 238 A small Difference of wordes may quite alter the sense 199 Difference of Christs offering and suffering 276 Difference of outward and inward temptatioÌs 314 Difference betwixt Gods threats iudgements 472 How the Diuell may discerne and incense our affections 192 The Diuell tormented not Christes soule on the Crosse. 295 Christ suffered as deepe paines but not as deepe Doubts as we may 321 E. ELect Who is enemie to Gods Elect. 233 The Elect are neuer truely accursed 252 The Elect cannot perish 364 Erasmus fouly mistaken by the defendor 653 Foure notable Errors grounded by the defendor vpon the facts of Moses and Paul 363 The first 363 The second 365 The third 367 The fourth 368 What impressions Euill maketh in the soule of man 341 Euill past present or to come worketh sorrow paine and feare in the soule of man 341 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it importeth 485 Is contrarie to feare 501 Esay doth not touch the death of Christes soule 526. 527 Esay 14. Shcol for hell 559. 560 Eusebius report of Thaddeus allowed by the best historiographers 660 F FAthers their iudgements may be called Authorities 83 The Fathers may be left in some priuate opinions 84 I leaue not the Fathers in the grounds of faith 85 The Fathers doc not teach that Christ suffered all which we should haue suffered 138. 139 The Fathers disclaime all necessitie in the death of Christ. 285 The Fathers determine not the exact cause of Christs Agonie 371 Wherein we should follow the Fathers 415 Some Fathers expound me in Christs wordes for my members 416 No Father auoucheth the death of Christs Soule 142. 143 Diuerse Fathers euidently corrupted for the death of Christs Soule 428. 429 By the iudgement of the Fathers Christ died
no death of the Soule 519 The Fathers professe true fire to be in hell 46 The Fathers plainly remoue the death of Christs Soule from the worke of our redemption 330. 331 All Christs Feares were holy 215 Feare and sorrow in Christ were sufferings for sinne 345 Christs Feare in the Garden was religious 371 Christs ââ¦eare and sorrow were painfull but religious sufferings 372 What Feare and sorrow Christ was to yeelde vnto God when he offered the ransome of our sinnes 374 What things Christ might iustly and greatly feare in the Garden 380 ââ¦eare may be intellectââ¦ue or sensitiue 383 Christ might feare many thinges besides hell paines 385 Why Christ feared more then Mattyrs doe 395 Christ might iustly feare the pââ¦wer of Gods wrath 380 Figuratiuely the Soule may be said to be crucified 80 Fire in hell is not allegoââ¦icall 40. 41. 42. 43 The Fathers professe tââ¦ue fire to be in hell 46 It is possible that brimstone may bee mingled with fire in hell 47 The same fire punishââ¦th the wiââ¦ked both bââ¦fore and after iudgeââ¦ent 55 What fire did signifie in sacrifices 112. 113 What fire might note in the holocaust 116 How Christ was Forsaken on the crosse 409 How farre and wherein Christ was Forsaken are the things questioned 414 What forsaking could not be found in Christ 414 We were forsaken of God till Christ ãâã vs by his death 417 Christ neuer forsaken of hope and comfoââ¦t ââ¦7 God shewed by the present euent that he had not forsaken hââ¦s sââ¦nne 419 We stââ¦iue not for the word but for the sense and maner of forsaââ¦ing 431 G GEhenna was not vsed in speaking to the Gentiles 618 God can doc more then he will 23 Gods loue to Christ appeared euen in his death 20. 21 Gods purpose in the death and crosse of Christ. 154. 155. 156 God vseth meanes and instruments in punishing 33 God tempereth loue and iustice in punishing his elect 147. 255 God worketh good by euill 254 God is iust as well in forgiuing as in punishing sin 262 God was able to saue vs otherwise then by Christs death 287 God was the author of all Christes afflictions but not with his immediate hand 298. 299 God vieth his creatures to performe his iudgements 302 God is the principal agent in all our sufferings but not with his immediate hand 302 Gods hand worketh whatsoeuer meanes he vseth 300. 301 Gods loue to his sonne ouerswaied his hatred to our sinnes 268 Gods iustice in subiecting Satans kingdome to Christs manhood 230 The Gospell differeth much from the Law 264 How the Graue is aâ⦠habitation for the godly 575 God would not haue our flesh as yet freed from the Graue 670 Christ was not Guilââ¦y of our sinne though he took our punishment on him 162. 163 The whole man is guilty of all sinne 185. 186 187. 208 Guilty stretcheth as well to the punishment as to the fact .266 A mediator not guilty of the sinne for which he doth mediate 276 H HAdes what it signifiââ¦th with the Greeke Fathers 589. 590. 591. 592. 593 Hades what it is with Chrylostom 589 Athââ¦nasius taketh Hades for hell 599. 6ââ¦0 Hades in Athanasius Creed is not the graue 659 Hades with Ignatius is not the graue 657 The soules of the godly are not in Hadââ¦s 602 Hades is a place of darkenesse 609 How Hades is vsed in the new Testament 629 Hades with new writers is the graue or hell 609. 610 611 Hades is a place vnder the earth 613 Hades an vnseene and darke place 618 Hades in the Creed must signifie hell 649 Hades is not the ignominie of the graue 651 Hades was first the name of the diuell 615 Hades is hell or the diuell in the new Testament 619 Hades is hell in the new Testament without any figure 621 Why Hades signifieth hell in the new Tââ¦stament 647 Hades with the Pagans was the place not the state of the dead 616 The whole created world is Hades with the Defââ¦nder 615 Hades in effect is nothing but death with the Defender 624 How ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Inferi concurre in signification 579 How the Defender wauereth about Hades 619 How Hades is vsed in the Reuelation 642 How Hades shall be cast into hell fire 644 S. Luke maketh Hades a place of torment 621 What Hades Matth. 11. 23. is threatned to Capernaum 630 Many Greeke copies haue Act. 2. 24. the sorrowes of Hades 625 Hades in the Scriptures opposed to the highest heauens 635 Christ loosed the sorrowes of Hades 625. 626 The wall of Hades not broken but by Christ. 657 Hades hath not all the dead 646 Hades followeth after death 643 Hades taken for the rulers or persons in hell 647 The soules of the godly are not in Hades 602 Hanging on a tree was not the whole curse of the law 236 Hanging on the crosse a cursed kind of death 237 Innocents and penitents not truely accursed though Hanged on a tree 238 Hard speeches should rather bee qualified then strained to the highest 271 All affections make sensible alterations in the Heart 1ââ¦3 194 The heart is the seat of mans affections and actions 2ââ¦3 The Hââ¦art suggesting euill sinneth 311 The ioyes of Heauen are proper to the place 455 456 The sight of God in this life ââ¦uch differeth from the sight of his face in Heauen 456 The Saints of God had some sight of God in earth but not comparable to that in Heauen 460 The soules ââ¦re not yet in the same height of Heauen where Christ is 5ââ¦0 541 How many Heauens the Scriptures make 541. 542 The graces of God in earth are not the ioyes of Heauen 461 Why the Heauens are compared with hell in the Scriptures 634 God is not the immediate and principall inââ¦cter of Hell paines 2â⦠29 The sentence of the iudge containeth the essence of Hell paines 35 Christ suffered not the substance of hell paines 36 Reiection from Gods kingdome essentiall to Hell paines 37. 38 Malediction essentiall to Hell paines 38 Hell fire is not allegoricall 40. 41 42. 43. 49. 53 54 I neuer said Hell fire was materiall 44 The Fathers professe tââ¦ue fire to be in Hell 46 51. 52 So doe later Diuines 49. 50 It is possible that brimstone may be mingled with fire in Hell 47 Chaines there are in Hell though not of iron ââ¦7 Whether there be true fire in hel before the iudgment is not the question 54 Christ suffered not the essentiall part of hell paines 56 Hell paines not the cause of Christs agonie 58. 59 The sharpnesse of Hell paines 60 The foretast of iudgement in Hell is neither full finall perpetuall nor genââ¦rall 210 Positiue punishment now in Hell 214 The suffering of Hell paines no way necessarie to our saluation 220 Men may feare but not feele the truâ⦠paines of hel in this life 320 The paines of hell are no naturall affections 383 Christ might feele somewhat extraordinarie yet not the paines of hell 391 The vehemencie of hell
the proper wrath of God 19 What proper applied to wrath signifieth 18 The Scriptures often intermingle proper speeches with figuratiue 19 Proper opposed to Metaphoricall 123 A part may Properly denominate the whole 124 The ioynt sufferings of soule and body most proper to man 167 The whole suffering of Christ was not Gods proper action 303 What the Prophets foretold of Christes sufferings that the Euangelists confirme was verified 299 In punishing his elect God tempereth both loue and ââ¦ustice 147 Corporall death in all men is the punishment of sinne 149. 150. 151 God is most iust in punishing his Saints 262 The Defenders partition of punishment applied to Christ is insufficient and impious 153 All punishment is not for correction or vengeance properly so called 154 The godly iustly punished for their offences 256 Q QVaestion The first quaestion wholy peruerted 3 The chiefe points coincident to the first Question 9 Whether there be true fire in hell before the iudgement is not the Question 54 When and how farre Christ was forsaken are the things Questioned 414 R RAnsome To whom our ransome was paid 228 To saue from death is to raise from death 50 Whence their soules come that are raised to ãâã ââ¦25 Redemption by Christs blood most sufficienâ⦠67 The Scriptures teach no redemption buââ¦ââ¦y the blood and death of Christ. 127 Both body and Soule are redeemed by ãâã blood of Christ. 128. 129 The body hath not his redemption ãâã ââ¦fore the last day 129. 130 Christ vndertooke to be our ââ¦demer 4000. yeers before he was made man 280 The willing offer of the Sââ¦e to be our redeemer did induce the ãâã the whole Trinitie 281 The redeemer might pay as well for the prisoners as for him selfe 377 Christs sufferings ãâã way like the sufferings of the reprobate 331. 332 Christs feare ãâã sorrow not like the reprobates 448. 449 What is ãâã by sitting at Gods right hand 651 The claue of Christs descent to Hades was in the Creeââ¦e before Ruffinus time 655 What Ruffinus meaneth by Christes descent to hell 655 S SAcrifice Three properties of the true Sacrifice for sinne 99. 100 The bloody Sacrifices represented no death but onely bodily 105 No Sacrifices of the Iewes figured the death of Chââ¦ists Soule 106 What Salt flower oile and wine added to the Iewes sacrifices might signifie 109. 110 What fire did signifie in sacrifices 112. 113 What is consequent to the true sacrifice for sinne 272 Why the people laid their hands on the head of their sacrifices 277 Feare and sorrowe necessary in the sacrifice for sinne 379 More then affliction requisite to Christs sacrifice 437 A deââ¦d Soule is no sacrifice for sinne 527 Whââ¦t the Sacraments of the new Testament import 117 Sacraments doe constantly and continually signifie and represent the same 117 The Spirit oâ⦠sanctification is the holy Ghost 511 My exception to the Defenders instance of the Scape-goate 106 What was figured by the scape-goate 107 108 The scape-goate might in some sort be a signe of Christ. 108 How the Scripture limiteth Christs death 5. 180 What the Scriptures meane by the wages of sinne 12 What they meane by the wrath of God 15 Phrases of Gods wrath against the wicked in Scripture are improper 15. 16 Scriptures neuer mention that Chââ¦ist suffered Gods wrath 21. nor the death of the Soule 493. 49. 515 nor the paines of hell 399 ââ¦ow the Scriptures speake of Christs Passion 22 Scriptures often intermin le proper speeches ãâã figuratiue 48 The ââ¦riptures sometimes put a condition all to thin most certaine 473 True ãâã how to expound the Scriptures 435 Many pla s of Scriptures haue diuerse expositions 4â⦠which may be tolerated though they cannoââ¦ââ¦e reconciled 435 The Scriptures ãâã the words but not the errors of the heat en 612 Some Scriptures vnc ãâã ââ¦ine for a time 664 Satan was conquered fast by iustice then by power 229 Satans kingdome subiected to Christs mââ¦nhood 230 Satan assaulted Christ on the ââ¦rosse but by externail meanes 296. 297 Satan might doe nothing against ââ¦hrist but what Christ would 315 Satan worketh not but where he is 306 Christ ordered his conquest most to ãâã shame 669 What was impugned in the Sermons 2 The text of my Sermons was not mistaken 72 But rightly and orderly pursued 78 Our naturall knowledge commeth by Sense 196 Prouocations and pleasures come by the senses 200. 201 The soule for want of her senses sometimes ceaseth to sinne 206 Christs senses might not be ouerwhelmed as martyrs are 396 In what sense Ezekiah vseth the gates of Sheol 247 The lower Sheol signifieth hell and not the graue 557. 558 Sheol for hell Esay 14. 559. 560 The soules of the Saints are not in Sheol 571 Sheol is no meere priuation of this life 572 Sheol is properly a place vnder earth for the dead 573 The soules in Gods hands are not in Sheol 574 The Sheol of soules is more then a meere priuation 575 What Sheol is to the wicked and what to the godly 575 To what Sheol Iacob would descend mourning 576 Sheol no place for iust mans soules 577 There is neither knowledg nor praise of God in Sheol 578 Sheol is no destruction to the godly 575 What is meââ¦nt by meââ¦nt neere to Sheol or ãâã most dwelling there 500 The Defender abuseth Plato and Plato to haue a Sheol for all things 630 Prooueth Moses and Dauid to haue a Sheol for all thin s. 631 To what Sheol Corah and his company descended 631 The Desendours absurd proofes for the Sheol of all thin s. 632 The Similitude of an earthly suerty not fit for Christ though the name may well be vsed 282 283 No humane similitude can throughly fit Christes sufferings for vs. 293 Similitudes are not alwaies of things lawfull 293 Similitude is no equalitie 328 How we are freed from Sinne by Christ. 152. 153 We inherit sinne and death from our parents flesh 171 How sinne is communicated from the soule to the body 188. 189 All acts of sinne by the body 202 Bodie and soule that were ioyned in sinne shal be ioyned in paine 209 How sinne maketh men vncleane 265 How sinne was condemned in Christs flesh 268 How Christ was made sinne 269. 270 Our sinnes were imputed to Christ that is he was punished for them 272. 277 Inward and infinite Sorrow for sinne must bee found in Christs sacrifice for sinnes 372 Christ must as well sorrow as suffer for sinne 373 Inward and voluntary sorrow of the soule is a sacrifice to God 438 Sorrow differeth from paine 444 What sorrow is 444 We may both sorrow and reioice at one time 489 What meanes of suffering the Soule hath 24 The passibilitie of the Soule is but one facultie of the soule 25 The soules suffering by the body is the proper suffering of the soule 26 The meanes by which the soule suffereth paines 30 The soules suffering from and with the bodie not common with beasts 31 The substance of the
paines passe the patience of Men and Angels 450 The true paines of hell are not felt in this life 451. 462 The true paines of hell are proper to the place 454. 455 The true paines of hell are aboue and against nature 464. 465 We must not reââ¦oyce in suffering helâ⦠paines 441 A broken spirit is not the paines of hell 516 Christ brought vs backe from hell 607 No place for soules vnder earth but hell 614 It is not against the faith that Christs Soul should conquere hell 622 Christ must rise conquerer of death and hell 628 The Iewes were promised their Messias should conquere hell 628 All the names of hell prooue it to be in the earth 632 Hell is in the earth yet some diuels in the aire 633 Why the heauens are compared with hell in the Scriptures 634 Our victorie against death and hell not full till the last day 637 638 Christ ââ¦th the keyes of death and of hell 642. 643 Nothing but persons cast into hell 645 The Defender maketh three hells in steede of one 645 Christs spoââ¦ling of hell precedent to his resurrection 673 Hereticke alwaies vrged the same places that the Defender doth 425 What the Holocaust did signifie 111. 112 What ââ¦ire might note in the Holocaust 116 I. IMmediate What suffering is Immediate from â⦠God 27. 32 God is not the Immediate and principall inflicter of hââ¦ll paines 2â⦠29 Christs soule was not tormented with Gods Immed aââ¦e hand 34 God can punish the soule by meanes without his Immediate hand 219 God the author of all Christs afflictions but not by his Immediate hand 298. 299 God is the principall agent in all our sufferings but not with his Immediate hand 302 How ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Infers concurre in signification  What place Tertullia taketh Inferi to be 585. 586 Inferi are places and persons vnder the earth 5ââ¦7 Inferi are not now the place and state of good and bad deceased 588 Saint Austin taketh Inferi for hel and not for the state of the dead 198. 590 The soules of the godly are not in Inferi 602 Infernus with the latin fathers is more theÌ death 603 Inferi not found in the Scriptures in any good sense ââ¦04 Inferi no place for the godly after Christes resurrection 605 Infernus is not the place nor state of all soules deceased 606 Christ did not suffer paines truely Infinite 161 Christs Infirmitie was voluntarie 407 Christs Infirmitie was power 416 How all the kingdomes of the earth might bee shewed vnto Christ in an Instant 308. 309 Irenaeus did write in Greeke 584 Where Irenaeus thought Christs soule was after death 583. 584 The rule of Iustice suffereth the stronger to beare the burden of the weaker 292 Gods Iustice in subiecting Satans kingdome to Christs manhood 230 Gods Iustice might punish Christs bodie but not Christs soule with death 337 The Iudgement of God to which Christ submitted himselfe for our redemption 348 Gods Iudgement for our redemption concerneth Christ men and Angels 348 In this Iudgement God required of Christ satisfaction for the sinnes of men 349 K K ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what it signifieth 625 Christ hath the Keyes of death and of hell 642. 643 Kindred goeth by blood and not by the soule 509 Our naturall Knowledge commeth by sense 196 The meanes of mans Knowledge 199 Our loue and ioy doe follow our Knowledge 462 L LEo maketh Christs words on the Crosse an instruction no lamentation 432 How Christ was like vs in all things sinne excepted 86. 324 Christ not like vs in any sinfull affections 322 How Christ was like vs in his sufferings 323 Christ not like vs in any want of grace or touch of sinne 326 To what lower parts of the earth Christ descended 554 What is ment by the lower parts of the earth 555 The lower earth is all one with the lower Sheol 556 The lower Shcol signifieth hell and not the graue 557. 558 The lower earth Ezechiel vseth for hell 561 The lower parts of the earth are hell 562 M MArtyrs and Malefactors haue a stronge conflict with death though we perceaue it noâ⦠389 The glory of Martyrs were not great if their paines were not great 390. 391 Martyrs find ioy and ease after death but not in death 301 Why Christ feared more then Martyrs doe 395 Christs senses might not be ouerwhelmed as Martyrs are 396 The manner of breathing out Christs Soule was miraculous 87. 88. 89. 90 The Fathers obserue that it was miraculous 91. 92. 93 So doe the new writers 94 Moses praier for the people examined 359 The purpose of Moses praier for the people 360 How Moses in his praier is excused from sin 365 Moses face did shine when he know it not 461 Moses was not amazed in his prayer 368 N THe name of nature in the graces of God and ioyes of heauen is a vaine distinction 461 There was no necessitie in our redemption but Christs will power and libertie 283 284. 285 The Fathers disclaime all necessitie in the death of Christ. 285 No necessitie in the death of Christ 286 Christs feare and agony came not from necessitie but from his humilitie and feruencie 339 Neither necessitie nor infirmitie could oppresse Christ. 405 New wââ¦iters teach the sufferings of Christs Soule without the paines of hell 536 New writers teach Christs descent to hell 546. 547 New writers obserue Christs manner of dying to haue beene miraculous 94 O OLeuians coniectures for his sense of Christs descent to Hades are but weake 631 P. PAines of this life Christ did beare but not of hell 217. 218 Christes Paines might be vnknowen and yet not the paines of hell 161 In outward Paines men perceiue and acknowledge Gods hand vpon them 170 Paines proper to the soule are not by and by the paines of hell 214 All Christs Paines were holy 215 More required in our ransome then onely Paines 216 We cannot iudge of other mens Paines 328. Excessiââ¦e Paine bringeth death 447 How Christ was in Paradise the day of his death 549 The Parable of the strong man bound and spoyled ââ¦74 Christes Patience was greater then any mans whatsoeuer his paines were 394 How Christs patience exceeded all mens 395 Christs patience at the highest before he complained on the crosse 418 Saââ¦nt Paul 1. Cor. 15. keepeth the true sense of the Prophet Osee. 641 Pauls wish for the Iewes considered 360 The time was when Paul so wished Ibid. If Paul spake of the time when he wrote his words were conditionall Ibid. What Paul meant when he wished to be separated from Christ for the Iewes 361. 362 How the Grecians expound Pauls words 361 How Paul in his wish was excused from sinne 365 Paul wished if it were possible or lawfull 366 Paul was not amazed in his prayer 368 The true sense of Pauls and Moses words Rom. 10. 567 568. Positiue punishment now in hell 214 No Positiue thing common to good and bad after death 581 Christ suffered not