his buriall and going downe into his graue as you acknowledge that hades many times may well signifie With the septuagint that were Iewes and translated the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke almost 300. yeeres before Christes birth I said indeed Hades stood aswell for the graue as for hell euen as the Pagans also did vse it but the Euangelists and Apostles retaining a difference betweene Thanatos death and Hades take Hades for hell and neuer for the graue whose example the Greeke Diuines doe follow and therefore Hades with them doth not signifie the graue but the place where the wicked are tormented after death as it doth in the Gospell of S. Luke Secondly the wordes of Ignatius agree not with that in Matthew by which you would expound them For Matthew saith the graues did open at Christs death and manie bodies of the Saints that slept arose and comming out of their graues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his resurrection came into the holy citie and appeared to many They did not rise with Christ but after him as Austen well expoundeth it that Christ alone might be the first fruits and first borne from the dead And therefore Ignatius did not speake this of Christes resurrection but of his ascension euen as Thaddeus did in the selfe same sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended alone to Hades but he ascended to his Father with a great multitude That Ignatius here noteth Christes buriall in none other wordes besides If you meane in the same sentence there was no cause nor need he should if you meane in the same place it is not true for the next sentence sauc one is this The day before the Sabbaoth at the third houre Christ receaued sentence of condemnation from Pilate at the sixt houre he was crucified at the ninth he breathed out his spirit and before the Sunne-set he was laid in his graue The Sabbaoth day he staied vnder the earth in his graue and at the dawning of the Lords day he rose from the dead But that Ignatius wordes can not be verified of Christes buriall is euident by the very purport of the wordes themselues he descended to hades alone saith Ignatius To his graue Christ descended not alone Those that were crucified with him were buried at the same time with him Besides he descended alone is as much as of his owne accord and by his own force no man helping or accompanying him which was not the manner of his buriall For his bodie was buried by others and could not of it selfe descend to the graue His descending to hades was a voluntarie action euen as his ascending from it was which in a dead bodie no man can imagine Lastly the wall neuer broken before can not be vnderstood of the graue since from the graue some others rose long before the death and birth of Christ as is plaine by the storie of him that was cast dead into Eliseus graue and of Lazarus Faine you would slubber vp these things but they hang in your teeth and will not goe downe The power of the graue or the strength of death which remained indeed from the beginning of the world as a mightie wall not broken downe was now you say by Christes death vtterly ouercome and dissolued In this answer you inclose three vntrueths First Christ neuer descended into the power of the graue nor strength of death as you conceaue they had no power or dominion ouer him he breathed out his owne soule at his owne pleasure to be resumed againe when pleased himselfe though for the proofe of his death to be true and vnfained hee was content his body should lie in the graue till the third day Againe the power of the graue or strength of death was no wall vnbroken from the foundation of the world Many rose from the dead before Christ and some were translated that they should not see death Thirdly it is not yet as you affirme vtterly ouer come and dissolued For the bodies of the Saints are vnder it and so shall be till the last day when the wicked shall rise from their graues aswell as the Saints though not to heauenly blisse as they shall Besides this the words as well of Ignatius as these of Thaddeus must be performed betweene Christs descent to hades and his resurrection For so Eusebius reporteth the wordes of Thaddeus Christ descended to hades and brake the wall neuer broken before since the world began And rose againe and raised the dead which had slept from the beginning Hades then hath a partition which neuer man brake as Abraham told the rich man Onely Christ who was God and man voluntarily descended thither and with his returne thence broke the wall that was neuer broken before Though some being dead did rise to life againe before Christs resurrection as touching the time yet the vertue and power of Christs resurrection was before them by which onely and meerely they rose againe Neither yet was resurrection to alâ—… the dead forthwith performed by the resurrection of Christ neuerthelesse purchased it was euen then and by the onely power and vertue thereof is and shal be performed to all in dâ—…e time You would seeme in this to answere me but indeed you refute your selfe For you confeste that this partition betweene death and life was often broken before Christs resurrection bâ—…it the power of Christs resurrection you say was before them by which onely they rose againe But both Ignatius and Thaddens say it was neuer broken before the time that Christ descended to hades They therefore doe not meane the graue as you doe If you say the graue was a partition to stay men from heauen till Christ was risen then were not the soules of the Saints in heauen whose bodies were in the graue which is repugnant to your owne position So that the graue neither hindering the body from life nor the soule from heauen before Christs comming was not the wall vnbroken till Christs descent to hades of which these auncient writers speake Our resurrection was purchased by Christs death and openly confirmed and assured to vs by Christs resurrection but since it shall not be performed vnto vs till the last day this wall is not vet actually broken downe to all Christs elect no more then death is abolished to them which is the last enemy that shal be destroied but is not yet subâ—…ected vnder Christs feet in respect of his members which doe and shall lâ—…e in theiâ—… graues to the end of the world Neither doth the Apostle call Christ the first fruits of the dead as you intend because others who rose from the graue before Christ did rise by the vertue and power of his resurrection you commit heerein a double error Christ was truely the first that euer rose from death to an immortall and celestiall life and the power and force of his resurrection bringeth not men backe to a
questioned which you say was without any presence of his humane soule and consequently must be referred to his diuine nature I aâ—…irme the contrarie that this exaltation to be Lord ouer heauen earth and hell pertained not to Christes Deitie which neuer wanted that Soueraintie but to his manhood which was obedient vnto death and was therefore aduanced to this hight And since this conquest ouer hell was reall in proofe not verball in claime speciall to Christes person not generall to all his members and performed after Christes death not by Christes diuine but by his humane nature this must needs be referred to Christes soule which might descend to hell and must before it could shew it selfe vanquisher of hell and not to his bodie which lay dead in the graue and could neither ascend nor descend till it was restored to life You make Christ Lord ouer hell because he kept himselfe from thence but so were all the faithfull whose soules were not inclosed in hell whom yet the Scriptures make not Lords ouer death and hell but deliuered from both There must be a conquest peculiar to Christ whereby he did take all power from them and reserued it to himselfe and rose from death as hauing the keyes of both The particular manner whereof in time and other such circumstances though the Scriptures do not expresse yet must not the general be doubted because the Scriptures witnesse that Christs soule was not left nor for saken in hell of Gods diuine power and presence but thence returned as conquerer of all Satans power and Dominion This the Church of Christ hath alwayes professed and this may the godly safely beleâ—…ue notwithstanding M. Broughtonsbedlom proclamation that it is the generall corruption of religion Scripture and all learning Our fourth reason There is altogether as great reason and as vrgent cause that Christ whole man both soule and bodie should be present in hell to free vs thence wholy that is our soules and bodies as there is that his soule must be there present to free thence our soules Heere I wish you would answere my proposition without skoffes and taunts and â—…autie disdaine as your manner is You cannot mocke and that is great pitie When your propositions want not only proofe and trueth but learning and vnderstanding shall I say they be sage wise Christian resolutions your deuices I call dreames your contradictions I call contrarieties your neglect of all Councels and Fathers I call presumption and your shifting and outfacing affirming that which is false and dâ—…nying that which is true I call vnshamefastnesse if not impudencie What other names should I giue them I professe I cannot flatter you in your fansies neither see I any cause why you regarding no man besides your selfe should thinke your selfe fit to be regarded with the disgrace of all auncients and others Where the matter is not meet to be reiected with disdaine I vse it not and where it is why should I not Yet now you would haue a direct and faire answere to your proposition though you little deserue it you shall This which you mention to wit our deliuerance from hell was not the onely cause of Christs descent thither his owne honour and right that suffered shame and wrong at Satans hand on the crosse was the chieâ—…e cause of his descent that after death he might shew himselfe in his manhood the conquerer and destroier of Satans power This you cleane leaue out of your proposition because you would be sure to bring nothing that should be sound and sufficient Againe your proposition as it standeth hath no strength in it besides your owne imagination For hell once subdued and conquered by Christ needeth not the second time to be conquered Since then till the day of iudgement hell hath no more but the soules of the wicked some few excepted who descended aliue to hell what needed more then the soule of Christ to conquer hell Thirdly sâ—…ing the body is cast into hell to increase the paines of the soule the soule being acquited and freed from hell there is no cause the body should goe thither And so in respect aswell of Gods ordinance till the day of doome as of the soules preeminence in and ouer the body the soule of Christ after death might iustly discharge our bodies and soules from all the power and claime that Satan had against vs. Lastly the proportion which Fulgentius Athanasius and others mention as deriued from the Scriptures that as the two parts of man after death were for sinne appointed to two seuerall places his soule to hell and his body to the graue so the Redeemer did â—…etch man backe againe from those two places of condemnation with the presence of his soule subduing hell and of his body resisting corruption this pâ—…oportion I say gâ—…ounded on the Scriptures is more then you can any way confute or open your mouth against with any trueth You aske why this going to hell by our Sauiour was not rather afâ—…er his resurrection when both paâ—…ts were ioined together First because by death which is the separating of the soule from the body Christ was to destroy both death and hell Next he was to rise conquerer of them both and not after his resurrection which was a conquest of both to reconquer them againe This therefore is an vnwise demand and sheweth that you doe not vnderstand what belongeth to Christs death or resurrection who was to rise the full conquerer and Lord of all his enemies in his owne person and not aâ—…ter his resurrection to make a new conquest ouer them And therefore your heaping of seuenteen places of Scripture in the margine of your booke to shew that Christ died and rose againe is to let men see that you haue emptied your note Booke and there find that Christ did rise from the dead To which if you will adde which is the true intent of all those places that Christ was to rise a perfect conquerer of death and hell you shall make so many proofes that Christ conquered both before and with his resurrection and by no meanes after it For his resurrection was manifest proofe that neither his soule was forsaken in hel nor his flesh left to see corruption in the graue and therefore both hell and death were perfectly subdued when he ioined againe his soule to his body and aduanced them both to an immortall and celestiall life Considering then whence the parts of Christs manhood were taken when he rose from the dead to wit his soule from hâ—…ll where it was not forsaken and his body from the graue where it was not corrupted you shall easily see if you doe not wilfully shut your eies that the power and force of Christs resurrection beganne with the subduing of hell by his soule and ouermastering putrifaction by his body Against whose soule and body since neither destruction nor corruption could preuaile it was not possible but he should rise vanquisher and Lord
nothing is superfluously repeated so nothing is obscurely couered in it And though this Article He descended to hell wanted for a time in some Churches euen as some part of Scripture did yet was it retained by all Christian Writers as a ground of true religion from the Apostles time and professed in some Churches very anciently in their Creed and at last generally receiued in all places All the Fathers of Christes Church with one consent teach this as a point of the Christian faith That Christ after death descended to hell insomuch that Austen resolutely sayth Who but an Infidell will denie that Christ was in hell Where Abrahams bosome was neither was nor is agreed amongst the learned only Austen rightly inferreth out of Christes words That being a place of comfort and farre off aboue Hades where the rich man was tormented with a great Gulfe setled betwixt those two places it could be no part nor member of hell The rest which are very many appeare by the seuerall Titles ouer ech Page or by the Table prouided to finde the same with more facilitie THE SVRVEY OF CHRISTES SVFFERINGS FOR MANS REDEMPTION IT may seeme somewhat strange to thee Christian Reader as it doth likewise to me that one and the selfe same cause being twice now debated and discussed in writing on either side we should at the last be farther from agreeing on the true state of the controuersie than we were at the first entring into the matter If the fault be either in the doubtfulnesse of my words proposing it or in the diuersnesse of my mind defending it I refuse no reproch of follie and inconstancie but if I keeping close to the points which I first propounded and calling vpon the aduerse part with as great vehemencie and importunitie as I could to goe directly to the issue and no way to digresse from the things in question the Impugner trusting more to the couert of his words than to the soundnesse of his proofs will of purpose shunne the marke prefixed and roue at pleasure with doubtfull and deceitfull termes to hide the nakednesse of his side and to make the Reader beleeue he hath matter of moment when indeed he doth not so much as vnderstand himselfe or take any knowledge of the chiefest things which I obiect or alledge then is he woorthie to beare the blame who best deserueth it and thou Christian Reader mayest soone perceiue and assoone pronounce both for thine owne ease and for an end to be had in this strife for to thee the Confuter referreth himselfe and so doe I whether of vs flieth the touchstone of trueth and faileth in the due proofe of his doctrine as neere as God shall giue thee wisdome to discerne light from darknesse and grace to preferre trueth before falshood In the Preface of my Sermons published I much misliked and openly charged the ouer hastie Discourser that called himselfe H. I. for cleane changing the state of the first Question and to the maine diuision of his Treatise where he sayth The whole controuersie hath in it two points the first That Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God c I replied in my conclusion It was too much boldnesse to outface the world in print that this was the position which I impugned There were too many witnesses there for me to denie or for him to belie the Question he knew it well enough but he could not tell how to proue that which I then reproued and therefore he shranke from it and dallied with generall and doubtfull termes And lest either the patient Reader or strict Examiner should be forced farre to seeke for the chiefe points by me denied or affirmed in those Sermons I purposely and plainly numbred and deliuered them in such sort as none could mistake them but he that would wilfully ouerleape them My words thou wilt pardon me to repeat good Christian Reader that thereby thou mayest see whether I alter or new frame my first questions and resolutions as this Prater pretendeth by his euery where complaining of my manifolde ambiguities fallacies and contrâ—…rieties or he rather dissembleth the weaknesse and couereth the badnesse of his cause vnder certeine perplexed and confused phrases as anon thou shalt heare more at large These are my words in the foresayd Preface I laboured in these my Sermons to prooue these foure points First That it was no where recorded in holy Scriptures nor iustly to be concluded by the Scriptures that Christ suffered the true paines of Hell Secondly That as the Scriptures describe to vs the paines of the Damned and of hell there are manie terrors and torments which without euident impietie can not be ascribed to the Sonne of God Thirdly That the death and bloud of Christ Iesus were euidently frequently constantly set downe in the writings of the Apostles as the sufficient price of our Redemption and true meane of our Reconciliation to God and the verie same proposed in the figures resembled in the sacrifices of the Law and sealed with the Sacraments of the New testament as the verie ground-worke of our saluation by Christ and so haue beene receiued and beleeued in the Church of God foureteene hundred yeeres before any man euer made mention of hell-paines to be suffered in the soule of Christ. Lastly where the Scriptures are plaine and pregnant That Christ died for our sinnes and by his death destroyed him that had power of death euen the diuell and reconciled vs when we were strangers and enemies in the body of his flesh through death besides That the Holie ghost in these places by expresse words nameth the bodily death of Christ as the meane of our Redemption Reconciliation to God no considerate Diuine might affirme or imagine Christ suffered the death of the soule for somuch as the death of the soule must exclude Christ from the grace spirit and life of God and leaue in him neither faith hope nor loue sanctitie nor innocencie which God forbid any Christian man should so much as dreame And if any man to mainteine his deuice would inuent a new hell and another death of the soule then either Scriptures or Fathers euer heard or spake of they should keepe their inuentions to themselues it sufficed me to beleeue what I read and consequently not to beleeue what I did not reade in the Word of God which is and ought to be the foundation of our faith Whether there be any darkenesse or doubling in my speech I leaue it to thy censure good Christian Reader I affirme touching our redemption and reconciliation to God what the Scriptures affirme and as neere as I could in the selfe-same words I denied the late additions of some men in matters of so great weight which the Scriptures by their perpetuall silence denie and by their open and euident consequents disprooue and impugne If any man thinke my Sermons in these points lesse euident or pertinent to the purpose than my Preface let him looke
damned doe though in circumstances of time and place his sufferings somewhat differed from theirs Your quintessencing and new framing of another hell which the Scriptures neuer speake of your quenching hell-fire with a fansie your appointing God to be the tormentor in hell with his immediate hand your nice diuiding betweene the substance and circumstance of Gods eternall iudgements your placing the substance thereof in the apprehension of the soule and that as well in this life as in the next with a number of like audacious and desperate deuises to vphold the name or the shade of hell-paines in the sufferings of Christ wee shall anon discusse when we come to your opening of the question in the meane while the Reader must marke The question is not whether Christ bare the burden of all our sinnes on the tree or whether he were touched and tempted in all things like to his brethren yet still without sinne but whether it can be prooued by the Scriptures that Christ must beare all and the selfe same burdens of our sinnes which wee should haue borne in this life and the next and which the damned doe and shall beare Your distinction of the substance and circumstance of Gods endlesse and mercilesse vengeance of sinne in hell we shall quickly let the Reader see how vainely you presume it without all warrant of holy Scripture and how falsely you applie it to the person of Christ against the manifest Scripture if first we obserue how handsomely you set downe the doctrine which I defend in the next words to your owne hieroglyphicall question of purpose that if you cannot by trueth ouerbeare it you may at least by falshood disgrace it His contrary opinion say you we conceaue thus that Christ suffered for our sinnes nothing else but simply and meerely a bodily death altogether like as the godly doe often suffer at the hands of persecutors sauing onely that God accepted the death of his sonne as a ransome for sin but the death of his seruants he doth not Had you not seene and read my sermons printed before you made this late defence you might haue excused your selfe Sir defender by forgetting or mistaking my wordes but after so often and open repeating them in Print what cause can be imagined why you should thus apparently peruert my words and purposely forsake the points which I proposed saue onely that finding the foile and doubting a fall you would gladly slippe your necke out of the collar and seeing no better meanes you thinke it more skâ—…ll to stand wrangling about the Question then to be taken tardie with saying iust nothing in a matter of the greatest weight and chiefest regard in Christian religion My words are euery where plaine enough as well in deliuering as debating the question that Christ suffered no death saue onâ—…ly the death of the bodie by the verdit of holy Scripture and therefore whatsoeuer the Scripture speaketh of Christs death it is intended and referred to the death of Christs bodie on the Crosse and by no meanes to the death of his soule The words of my preface are these Where the Scriptures are plaine and pregnant that Christ died for our sinnes and by his death destroyed him that had power ouer death euen the Deuill and reconciled vs when we were strangers and enemies in the body of his flesh besides that the holy Ghost in these places by expresse words nameth the bodily death of Christ as the meane of our redemption and reconciliation to God no considerate Diuine may affirme or imagine Christ suffered the death of the soule When I come in my Sermons to handle that point I thus beginne it That Christ did or could suffer the death of the soule is a position farre from the words but farther from the groundes of sacred Scriptures When I shew the Fathers doe ioyne in the same resolution with the Scriptures I say Rightly therefore doe the Ancient Fatâ—…ers teach that Christ dying for our sinnes suffered ONELY THE DEATH OF THE BODIE BVT NOT OF THE SOVLâ—… Concluding their testimonies I capitulate in this wise I hope to all men learned or well aduised it will seeme no Iesuiticall phrenzie but rather Christian and Catholike doctrine that the Sonne of God dying for our sinnes suffered NOT THE DEATH OF THE SOVLE BVT ONELY OF THE BODIE If you vnderstand not these words Sir Defender your Reader will iudge you fitter to learne your abc then to dispute questions in Diuinitie if you doe conceaue them and will peruert them let him likewise pronounce whether it be sinceritie or impudencie in you thus to outface the matter against my plaine speach and to make Proclamation that I defend Christ suffeâ—…ed nothing else for our sinnes but simply and meerely a bodyly death altogether like as the godly often doe at the hands of persecutors Had you said I maintaine Christ suffered no death but onely a bodily death I would haue asked you by what Scriptures you or all your adherents can disproue it but charging me as you doe with this opinion that Christ suffered nothing else but simply and meerely a bodily death altogether like the godly I must tell you this is one of your trueths which many men will call a malitious leasing since my wordes are publikely extant to the contrarie My first resolution was Christ saw before hand that going to his Crosse he should tast all kindes of calamities and so it came to passe For betweene his last Supper and his death he was betrayed of Iudas abiured of Peter forsaken of all his followers he was wrongfully imprisoned falsly accused uniustly condemned he was buffeâ—…ed whipped skorned reuiled he endured cold nakednesse thirst wounding hanging shame reproach and all sorts of deadly paines besides heauinesse of hart and agonie of mind which oppressed him in the Garden All this I affirme Christ suffered before his death and therefore all this besides his meere bodily death to which I added all those afflictions and passions of the Soule which naturally and necessarily follow paine and accompany death You perchance would annex the paines of hell and the death of the Soule but those are the very points in question which I then did and yet doe vtterly exclude from the sufferings of Christ. Where you say I hold Christs death was altogether like as the godly doe suffer at the hands of Persecutors I know not what you meane by your altogether in some things his death was like theirs in many things vnlike A wrongfull and painefull death of the body he suffered at the hands of the Iewes as the godly doe often at the hands of their persecutors and a full perswasion he alwaies had of Gods exceeding and assured loue and fauour towards him in the middest of all his anguishes as the godly haue in theirs though in farre lesse perfection then his was but as touching the cause the manner the force of his death I make it altogether vnlike theirs
will not distinguish what death is in it selfe euen to the godly and what is consequent after it by Gods mercie towards his Saints And heerein I say you want both trueth and iudgement for things are to be named by their natures and not by the sequents which often God sendeth cleane contrarie to the purposes and practises of Satan and his members Tyrannie shall it be no crueltie because it maketh Martyrs Sinne shall it not be displeasing to God because it humbleth the faithfull by repentance The corruption of mans nature shall it not be sinne because thereby God exerciseth his Saints to watchfulnesse and prayer Euen so the death of the bodie which God at first inflicted on all his Elect for sinne shall it be no punishment for that God doth comfort his in death and reward them after death I affirme death to the godly is no curse properly And I aâ—…irme that when you can not tell how to start from the force of truth you do nothing but lie or flie to your phrases of proper and verie which here as in other places do you no good In the fifteenth line of this page you say the death of of the godly may IN NO SORT be called a Curse or Accursed In the sixteenth whiles you offer to proue those words you confesse them to be false Death to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Curse properly you say but a benefit and aduantage then improperly death is a curse and before you sayd It may in no sort be called a Curse to them If in no â—…rt then neither properly nor improperly What then is that Enemie that must be destâ—…oyed a cursing or a blessing Can it be an enemie to Christ and yet a blessing to the godly I cannot better refell your folly then S. Austen doth in this verie case If death be a bleâ—…ing to the bodies of the godly neuer desire to be deliuered from it what nâ—…ed you beleeue or loue the resurrection of the flesh which is the destruction of death in the bodie it death be a benefit to the bodie But if this be repugnant to Christian religion then hath death in it euen a shew of Gods curse on the bodie for sinne which must be destroyed before Christ can fully reigne in all his Saints Yet is it to the godly no curse properly The heigth of your learning hangeth on the helpe of this word PROPERLY we yet came to no point in all our defence but when you see your selfe pressed you straightwayes post to PROPER and VERY and yet you neuer define either nor take the paines to expound your selfe lest you should be taken with open heresie and blasphemie in applying one and the same curse properly and truely to Christ and the damned You say I am to young a Doctour to controll Saint Austen herein and I say you are a Doctour not olde enough to prooue Austen contrarie to me in this point A farre younger then I am will soone discerne by that I haue sayd that S. Austen is repugnant in this point to your proper and verie nouelties for where you say Death to the godly may in no sort be called a curse S. Austen thus expoundeth Christes words to the godlie Feare not those which kill the bodie as if Christ had sayd Nolite timere male dictum mortis corporalis quod temporaliter soluitur Feare not the CVRSE of a bodily death which in time is dissolued And so when he resolueth Moses had none other meaning in this sentence Cursed is euerie one that hangeth on a tree then if he had sayd Mortall is euerie one that hangeth on a tree Poterat enim dicere maledictus omnis mortalis aut maledictus omnis moriens For Moses might haue sayd Cursed is eâ—…ry mortall man or cursed is euerie man that dieth If Moses might truely haue so sayd as it is euident by S. Austens position then I trust death in some sort may be iustlie called a Curse euen to the godlie But S. Austen sayth that the death of the bodie is good to the good and euill to the euill That speech S. Austen sayth may be tolerated not in respect of death it selfe which is euill but of the mercies of God which follow the faithfull after their deaths His words which you skippe as your maner is to do when any thing maketh against you are Dici potest It may be sayd But vpon that speech he presently moueth this question in the beginning of the next Chapter If the death of the bodie be good to the good quo modo poterit obtineri quòd etiam ipsa sit poena peccati how may it be resolued that it is also the punishment of sinne His resolution you did not reade or not regard because it resisted your fansie but thereby the Reader may see what credit is to be giuen to your words when you crake of Fathers We must confesse sayth Austen that the first men were so created that if they had not sinned they should haue tasted no kinde of death but the verie same being the first sinners were so punished with death that whatsoeuer should spring from their root should be held subiect to the same punishment And discussing the question proposed more at large he resolueth Sic per ineffabilem Dei misericordiam ipsa pâ—…na vitâ—…orum transit in arma virtutis fit meritum iusti etiam supplicium peccatoris So by the vnspeakeable mercie of God the punishment of vice becommeth the armour of vertue and the reuenge of a sinner is made the merit of the iust Non quia mors bonum aliquod facta est quâ—… antea malum fuit sed tantam Deus fidei praestitit gratiam vt mors quam vitae constat esse contrariam instrumentum fieret per quod transiâ—… in vitam NOT THAT DEATH IS BECOME ANY GOOD which before was euill but so great fauour God hath yeelded vnto faith that death which most certainly is contrarie to life is made an instrument for the good by which they passe vnto life And to make men the better to vnderstand the effect of his speech he bringeth an example out of the Scriptures where the law is called the strength of sinne Why sayth he rehearse â—…e this Because that as the Law is not euill when it increaseth the lust of sinners so death is not good when it augmenteth the glorie of the sufferes but as the vniust doe eâ—…lly vse not onely euill but also good things so the iust doe well vse not onely good but euen things that be euill Hence commeth it that the wicked vse the Law ill though the Law be good BONI beâ—…è moriantur quamuis sit mors malum and the good die well though death be euill I haue toucheâ—… at large Saint Anstens reasons and resolutions in his owne words because the Reâ—…der should the more cleerely conceiue him and the discourser see him contrarie to his conceits euen in this point
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 â—…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 nâ—…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 merâ—…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 câ—…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 mankâ—…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
departed from the bodie it rested not idle but descended ad inferos vnto hell And surely the one and the other societic both of godly soules and of the damned found the presence of Christes soule For the soules of the faithfull were cheered with great comfort and gaue God thanks sor deliuering them by the hand of this Mediatour and performing that which so long before he had promised Other soules also adiudged to euerlasting damnation animae Christi aduentum persenserunt perceiued the comming of Christes soule Zanchius shewing the different interpretations of those words of the Apostle Christ spoiled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in himselfe that is in his owne person sayth Other Interpreters hold that these enemies were vâ—…nquished and conquered on the crosse by Christ but the triumph was pâ—…rformed when Christ in his soule entred the kingdome of Hell as a glorious victorer For so they interpret the Article He descended into Hell And because the word deigmatizein doth signifie to carie one in an open shew as the Romans were woont in the eyes of men to leade their enemies once ouerthrowen with their hanâ—…s bound behinde them to their perpetuall shame and the soule of Christ separated from his bodie might really doe this to the diuels bringing them out of their infernall kingdome and carying them along the aire in the sight of all the Angels and blessed soules therefore nothing hindereth vs to interpret that which Paul heere writeth as the words sound euen of a reall triumph ouer the diuels in the sight of God onlie and of the blessed spirits specially since the Fathers for the most part so expound them ex nostris non pauci neque vulgares and of our Expositors not a few and those no meane men Aretius in his Problemes purposely treating of Christes descent to hell first alleageth that Tota Ecclesia vbique terrarum hodie illum Articulum agnoscit diuer sum à sepultura recitat the whole Church throughout the world at this date acknowledgeth that article and reciteth it as different from Christs buriall And to that obiection that some Creeds had not this clause he answereth The Church finding the descent of Christ to hell to be plainly deliuered in the Scriptures with great aduise admitted this Article into the Creed Otherwise how could it be that with so full consent of all nations and all tongues this clause should be so constantly and so consentingly receaued Repeating therefore many other senses he refuseth them euery one and concludeth Quare mea est sententia Christum descendisse ad inferos postquam tradidisset spiritum in manus Dei patris in cruce c. Wherfore mine opinion is that Christ descended into hell after he yeelded his soule on the Crosse to the hands of God his Father And hell in this question we put to be a certaine place appointed for the damned euen for Satan and his members To the words of Christ vttered to the thiefe this daie shalt thou be with me in Paradise I answere they hinder not this cause For Christ was in Paradise with the thiefe according to his diuinity in the graue according to his body in hell according to his soule Howbeit there is no certaintie how long Christ staied in hell not long it seemeth so that he might in soule that verie day returne from hell and after a glorious sort enter Paradise with the thiefe Neither hath that any more strength that Christ commended his soule into his Fathers handes For the soule of Christ was still in his Fathers hands though he descended into hell This descent was voide of forrow and shame to Christ. Where they say there was no need of this descent they run backe to the beginning for how should it be needlesse which the Scripture pronounceth Christ did and we confesse in our Creed We iudge it therefore needfull first for the reprobate that they might know he was now come of whose comming they had so often heard but neglected it with great contempt Againe Satan was perfectly to know that this Christ whom he had tempted in the desart and deliuered to death by the fraud of the Iewes was the very Messias and the seed promised to the woman Hoc inquam expediebat etiam Demonibus in imo Tartaro innotescere This I say was expedient euen for the diuels in the deepe of hell to know Thirdly it was expedient for the elect that Satan might see he should haue no right no not on their bodies since Christ heereafter would raise them to life Hemmingius As Christ by his death conflicted with the enemy on the gibbet of the crosse and ouercame him so by his glorious descent to hell resurrection and ascension to heauen he executed the triumph erecting as a monument of his victorie the ensigne of his crosse Mollerus writing on the 16. Psalme Touching Christes descent to hell We saith he vnderstand that Article of our faith in the Creede simply and without allegorie and beleeue that Christ truely descended to the lower parts of the earth as Paul speaketh Ephes. 4. It is enough for vs to beleeue which Austen affirmeth in his Epistle to Dardanus Christ thereforâ—… descended that he might helpe those which were to be holpen For Christ by his death destroied the powers of hell and the tyrannie of the diuell as is said Osee 13. O death I will be thy death and thy destruction O hell And this his victory he would in a certaine maner shew vnto the diuell that he might strike perpetuall terrors into the diuell and take from vs all feare of Satans tyrannie Let it suffice vs to know this and omit curious questions and disputations heereabouts Pomeranus on these words of the 16. Psalme Thou wilt not leaue my soule in Hell Heere hast thou saith he that Article of our faith Christ descended into hell If thou aske what he did there I answer He then deliuered not the Fathers onely but all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the end thereof not out of Lymbus but out of the lowest nether most hell to which we all were condemned and in which we all were as in death by the sentence of God There euerlasting fire did abide to vs all that being deliuered to death by the sinne of Adam we might in the last iudgement be deliuered to punishment and perpetuall sire Christ therefore descended euen thither vnto death and hell to this end least thou shouldest dâ—…scend thither that as he had redeemed vs from death so he might deliuer vs from hell Westmerus in his expositions of the Psalmes followeth worde for word the confession of Pomerane Wolfgangus Musculus Christ therefore was to die not that he should simply be dead but that by his death he might conquer death and ouercome him that had the rule ouer death and so he was to descend to hell
thing so to thinke Ambrose confesseth the same Expers peccati Christus cum ad Tartari ima descenderet vinctas peccato animas mortis dominatione destructa é fâ—…ucibus Diaboli reuocauit ad vitam Christ free from sinne when he descended to the lowest pit of hell recalled to life out of the diuels iawes the soules that were bound with sinne destroying the Dominion of death And so doth Ierom. Infernus locus suppliciorum atque cruciatuum est in quo videtur diues purpuratus ad quem descendit dominus vt vinctos de Carcere din itteret Infernus is the place of punishments and torments in which the rich man clothed with purple was seene and to which the Lord descended to dimisse such as were bound out of prison These I trust were no Heretikes but if need were and I would vse that aduantage against you which you insisting on Tertullians error seeke against me they would doe little lesse then prooue you to be a refuser and peruerter of the faith receiued in the Church of Christ and professed not by them onely but by all those Fathers whom I formerly cited as concurring in this cause with them But I smile at your follie and remit your reproches to the Readers impartiall Censure Athanasius also saying where humane soules were held by death there Christ brought his humane soule meaneth nothing else but that his soule came vnder the same condition of death as other humane soules did not that he went to the place of the damned Neither must he be vnderstood after your partiall translation when you say ex orco out of hell himselfe saith ex Hadou out of the power of death You set your selfe to outface all the places which I brought out of the Fathers for Christs descent to hell and as you played your part in wrenching wrying the words of Tertullian Austin from their rightsense so you continue in all the rest with like successe thinking it enough for you to say the word though it be neuer so false and farre from the Fathers meaning As first in Athanasius wordes what double punishment was that I pray which God threatned to Adam for sinne in saying to the earthly part earth thou art to earth shalt thou returne and to the soule thou shalt die the death for those are Athanasius words and what be the two places to which man after his dissolution was condemned Did God threaten nothing to Adam but the dissolution of bodie and soule or did he threaten the death of the soule also after this life which properly noteth hell besides the death of the bodie I trust you be not so senselesse as to say that God for sinne threatened no more to Adam and his posteritie but onely a bodily death for so could none of Adams off-spring by that sentence be adiudged to hell which yet we find daily performed by Gods iustice Then the death of mans soule threatened by God for sinne and meant by Athanasius in those words which you would elude was the place of perpetuall torments where the soule of man was truly held in death and not the condition of the soule seuered from the bodie without respect of any consequent miserie Therefore your maine foundation is euidently false that Athanasius by the death of mans soule meaneth nothing els but the soules being apart from the bodie without regard of punishment following but in expresse words he noteth the place Vbi tencbatur anima humana in morte where the soule of man was held captiue in death which spite of your heart must needes be hell Againe according to the double death threatned for sinne Athanasius saith â—… Homo in duas partes discerpitur vt ad duo loca discedat condemnatur Man dying is distracted in two parts and CONDEMNED TO TWO PLACES Now in your diuinitie is any man condemned to heauen or to Paradise you must find vs then two places of condemnation whither either part of man dissolued was adiudged as his bodie to the graue his soule to hades So saith Athanasius in expresse words If you can shew me another place of condemnation well you may say that a man is diuided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into three places and that being reuoked out of two places he remaineth bound in the third but if you can shew none other place of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the graue and Hades from which man is perfectly freed Christ deliuering vs how say you then that God is not reconciled vnto mankind If then Hades bee a place of condemnation â—…or sinne where the soule of man was bound till it was freed by Christ 〈◊〉 certainely Hades with Athanasius is neither Paradise nor heauen but onely hell Againe if by death raigning in the soule of man Athanasius intended nothing but the condition of death common to good and bad and euen to Christ himselfe how could hâ—… say of Christ that he was then and there inuiolus a morte not subâ—…ect to death or that he brake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bands of the soules detained in hades Hath heauen or Paradise any bands that must be broken And as for you last conceit that Hades being enemie and opposite to the immortalitie and resurrection of mens persons cannot by any means be hell for in hell shal be immortality resurrection as well as in heauen it is so like to the rest of your diuinitic that I doc not ouer much maruaile at it If hades be enemie and opposite to immortalitie as you confesse out of Athanasius then Hades is neither heauen nor Paradise for they are both places of immortalitie there is no death but life in either of them And though you cunningly shift handes and change mens persons for mens soulâ—…s of which Athanasius speaketh when he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where mans soule was held in death there Christ presented his humane soule to breake the chaines of death euen in hades yet that immortality is as well in hell as in heauen is a phrase of your owne framing to put all trueth and faith out of ioint The Scriptures teach most truely that God alone hath immortality It then you haue found vs a new immortalitie in hell you haue found vs a new God also And what is immortalitie but without all death since then in hâ—…ll there is nothing but death that eternall as well of soule as of body your deuices are very delâ—…cate in euerlasting death to finde no death But dally not thus with the grounds of Religion least God doe not dally with you if by your assertion the deliuerance from death and immortalitie which Christ brought to his elect be none other then such as men in hell shall haue pray God your braines be not as much crazed as your faith is And as for your interpreting Athanasius words and gessing at his meaning when we vse madde men to
serueth For that a vast and deepe gulfe in the earth should be nothing els but an abolishing of any visible creatures hence or that this should be the most proper sense of Sheol and your vast and deepe gulfe a resemblance thereof this hath neither top nor toe If Sheol be properly nothing but a priuation how can it be a vast and deepe gulfe in the earth or what proportion or similitude hath the one with the other These are therefore nothing but your fictions imagined of your owne braine to delude the Scriptures and to auoide the lower Sheol indeed which is the place of torment for the damned How Capernaum was exalted to heauen whether in her owne proud conceit after the example of the king of Babylon of whom Esaie speaketh or whether Christ ment that by reason of his often preaching and working miracles amongst them the kingdome of God was in the midst of them but not receaued nor regarded by them which some thinke to be the meaning of this place I stand indifferent so long as we keepe Sheol opposite to heauen I meane not to the clouds nor to the skies as you would shift the matter but to the place aboue where the way of life is and the brightnesse of Gods glorie that thereby we may conceaue in the lower sheol darknesse and death for euer euen as in the higher sheol both are for the time The way of life saith Salomon is on high neither in the clouds nor starres but in the seat of the blessed euen in heauen to him that declineth Sheol below Where speaking of eternall life since bodily life is heere on earth he warneth vs that eternall death is in sheol below The rest of your stuffe is not woorth the sticking at For what if God by Ieremie threatned Babylon that though her walles were thicke and her gates high the one should be broken and the other burned and though she should mount vp to heauen by raising her walles neuer so high yet her destroyers should come from God Doth this being spoken of the walles and gates which should be razed prooue that her walles and gates should descend to Sheol Where hath the prophet any such words of the walles gates or buildings of Babylon And for you to expound Sheol by what you list is a larger commission then I know any you haue I haue no doubt but walles and gates cannot reach vnto the clouds much lesse to the starres and therefore heauen applied to them standeth for that which riseth on high in the aire but that the pride of the king of Babel lifted it selfe aboue the clouds and starres I haue prooued by the plaine report of the Prophet against which no exception can be taken Next let vs view the Corinthians O death where is thy victorie ô hades ô destruction or ô power of death where is thy sting Heere it is referred to the destruction of the whole and intire persons of men taken away by death out of this world What is now become of your world of soules which you so often vrged as properly signified by hades What is become of your vast and deepe gulfe in the earth which sheol and hades did import as yon told vs but euen now Nay what is become of your destruction of stones and their descending to Hades which you said was threatned to Capernaum Are all these out of date and in euerie new place must you be forced to frame vs a new Hades You will rest somewhere at last if it be possible for your vnquiet head to haue or like any rest Well now then hades is the destruction of the whole person of man taken out of this world by death And why should not hades heere be taken for hell The whole scope and drift of the Apostle heere is to speake of the resurrection of the bodie and you graunt it What then The Saints receauing their bodies endued with immortalitie may they not reioice in their deliuerance from corruption and insult as hauing then the full victorie ouer hell and death Our full deliuerance from hell and from Satan is obtained in this life as it is written we being deliuered from our enemies and from the handes of all that hate vs. We are so deliuered from their hands or power which is all one that we shall not need to feare them but we are not yet actually freed from their snares since we daily must pray not to be ledde or left into temptation neither are all our enemies yet fully destroied since as the Apostle saith the last enemie that shall be destroied is death If all Christes enemies were put vnder his and our feete he should no longer raigne as Redeemer and Sauiour of his Church for he must raigne till he hath put all his enemies vnder his feete and then shall deliuer vp the kingdome to God euen the Father which is not before the end And yet were all things granted which you intend it helpeth you not one whit for may not the saints giue thankes for all euen then when all is fully finished though part be before perfourmed And may they not iustly reioice against all the power of Satan I meane sinne hell and death when the last enemie is in sight conquered though they be formerly freed from sinne and fully deliuered from the danger and feare of hell Your speech is very bad and scandalous where you say the bodies of the Saints lying in their graues are in the diuels walke For then the graues where bodies lie senselesse are a part of hell properly taken You told vs euen now that the aire on high was the place of diuels thinke you much that vpon occasion I should say the graues vnder the earth are within Satans walke The booke of Iob saith Satan compasseth the earth and walketh in it And Peter confirmeth the same saying He walketh about seeking whom he may deuoure So that the diuels walke for all your saying is farre larger then hell And if our Lord and master most truely said of the woman which was crooked and could not lift vp herselfe in any wise that Satan had bound that daughter of Abraham lo eighteene yeeres may not the dead bodies of Abrahams children be in Satans walk as well as their liuing bodies be in Satans bands And you that be so curious in other mens speeches doe you looke to your owne Doe not you defend that the soules of the blessed in heauen may be said to be in inferno and vnder the power of death whereof the Diuell hath the rule by the Apostles doctrine we being heere truely iustified by Gods grace are fully freed and deliuered from all the power of our enemies Are we so fully freed that we can neither sinne nor die or are sinne and death no parts of Satans power When I speake of a full conquest ouer hell and death in both parts of man soule and
recenseri insernum siue gehennam mortem peccatum legem In the meane while thou must see our enemies heere numbred in order hell or gehenna death sinne and the law Christ hath gotten the victory ouer all these and the fruit of that victory redoundeth to vs. Bullinger The Apostle declareth that the victory ouer sinne death and hell is gotten by the might and merits not of the saints but of Christ to whom the saints must yeeld all glory praise and thanks And this explanation hath very excellent degrees First â—… hell to wit the excrlasting punishment whereby the dead are condemned to the second death the second is sinne which is the force of death and hell For by sinne came death The third is the law the strength of sinne The law being then taken away the force of sinne decaieth sinne being abolished the power of death ceaseth death being disarmed hell is ouerthrowen Hyperius If death shall then haue no more rule it followeth that neither hell shall preuaile against the godly For this must be vnderstood of them since the wicked shall not be deliuered from the power of hell In these words ô death where is thy sting ô hell where is thy victory either God as conquerer or the saints as giuing the praise of the conquest to God in a sort reproch death and hell with the losse of their power and strength And very aptly is death put first and then hell For men die before they be cast into hell in which the wicked tast the second or eternall death Moe might be brought but with wise men there can be no question that the Saints at the last day being then fully freed from all their enemies may giue thanks to God for the victory purchased by Christ against them all hell and Satan not excepted Also we are to note that the Apostle heere plainely alludeth to that of Hoseah O Sheol o kingdome of death I wil be thy destruction not ô hell The Prophet speaketh this to comfort Israel in their captiuity against their continuall destruction and raizings out of this world You will soone brest other men that will beard the Apostle in this matter so boldly as you doe Indeed you and some others thinke it a glory to take part with the Iewes contradicting all that the Euangelists Apostles alleage out of the law and the Prophets touching Christ and his kingdome and you vouchsafe to yeeld to the holy Ghost speaking in them no more skill or vnderstanding of the old Testament but to allude to it and as it were to play with it when the true literall sense of most places as you thinke is farre from that which they intend But this Iudaizing whiles you would seeme more then others to smatch of a little Hebrew I for my part detest and professe to the world I take that euery where to be the true and direct meaning of Moses and the Prophets which Christ and his Apostles collect from their words And therefore Ierom saith of this very place as I say of all others That which the Apostle referreth to the resurrection of the Lord nos aliter interpretari nec possumui nec audemus we neither can nor dare interprete otherwise Yea so well learned you are in the circumstances of the Prophets speach that you pronounce The Prophet speaketh this to comfort Israel in their captiuity shewing that now the Lord would stay his iudgment that way and death should now destroy them no more Whereas Israel was then in no captiuity as appeareth by the 16 verse of the same chapter Samaria shal be desolute And God had no meaning to tell the people he would now stay his hand and they should be destroied no more because in the two next verses he threatneth They should be spoiled dried and desolate they should fall by the sword their infants should be dashed in pieces and their women with child should be ripâ—… Wherefore except you will haue the holy Ghost to speake contradictions as your manner is you must acknowledge that amidst the fearefull troubles destructions and desolations then and afore denounced by the Prophet against the whole kingdome of Israel God doth comfort his elect amongst them that whatsoeuer became of their bodies in this affliction approching he had his time when he would vtterly destroy the power of all their enemies not onely freeing them by death from tyrants and persecutors but sauing them from death and hell by his annointed Messias who should be a death to death and a destruction to hell And as this was the greatest comfort and onely hope that Gods children in their miseries could expect or desire so the Apostle keepeth right the Prophets meaning and sheweth the time when all this shal be performed that is when all teares shal be wiped from the eies of Gods elect and all their enemies sinne death and hell troden vnder their feete In this comfort and promise as hell was the chiefest enemy so of all others that must be conteined within the limits of Gods assurance and their deliuerance In vaine are all other promises of grace whiles that enemy standeth vnuanquished And therefore as we most needed so God most promised and Christ most performed the destruction of hell aboue and afore the death of the body which you so much talke of and from which you giue to the reprobate a resurrection as well as to the godly which is but a cold comfort to him that duely considereth it Next we come to the Reuelation First I haue the keyes of Hades that is of destruction or of the kingdome of death and of death Or we may take them as two words for oâ—… and the same thing That is both of them for death What shew of reason haue you to bring in here Christs power ouer the damned soules in hell because there is mention else where of the key of hell therefore the key of Hades here is the same What colour of reason is there in this Euen so much as you can not resist For if it be certaine which the Scripture confirmeth that Christ hath the keyes of both that is as well of hell as of death and gate them both by submitting himselfe to death And Hades in the new Testament is taken for hell as hitherto we haue seene and euen with Saint Iohn the writer of this Reuelation it is a different thing from death what can Hades be here but hell That Christ by his obedience vnto death had all power in heauen and earth and hell giuen him the Apostle is very plaine Christ became obedient to the death euen the death of the Crosse. Wherefore or for which cause God highly exalted him and gaue him a Name aboue euery name that at the name of Iesus euery knee of those in heauen on earth and vnder the earth should bow and euery tongue confesse that Iesus is the Lord. As he himselfe also witnessed when he said
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 consequenâ—…s after death doe not proue death to be good 246 The nature of death not changed in the godly 252 God so hâ—…teth death that he will destroy it as an enemie 254 Naturall death came not by the sentence of Mosâ—… Law 261 Thâ—…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 pâ—…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 contâ—…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 Dâ—…fender doth grossely mistake the reiection of the Iewes to be the meaning of Christes complaint on the crosse 98 The Dâ—…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 5â—…3 The Defender misciteth S. Iohns words and on that error groundeth all his reasons 644 The Defender giuing a reason of nâ—…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 whoâ—…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 Desâ—…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 temptatioÌ„s 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
was neglected and loathed And vpon conference with the most reuerend Father the late Archbishop now with God was aduised in open audience to deliuer what the Scriptures teach touching our redemption by the death and bloudshedding of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God Which accordingly I did declaring by occasion of the Apostles words Be it far from me to reioyce but in the Crosse of Christ first the Contents and then the Effects of Christes crosse In the Contents of Christes crosse I shewed what Christ suffered by the witnes of holy Scripture and what he suffered not and there ioyned this issue That no Scripture doth teach the death of Christs soule or the paines of the damned to be requisite in the person of Christ before he could be the Ransomer of our sinnes and Sauiour of the world And because the proofs pretended for this point might be three Praedictions that Christ should suffer those paines Causes why he must suffer them and Signes that he did suffer them I likewise insisted on all three and shewed there were no such Praedictions Causes nor Signes of the true paines of hell to be suffered in the soule of Christ before he could saue vs. Wherein his Agonie in the Garden and Complaint on the Crosse were examined as well by the rules of holy Scripture as by the maine consent of all the Fathers And lest the death of Christ suffered in the bodie of his flesh on the altar of the Crosse as it is described in the Scriptures and the shedding of his precious bloud should be disabled or distrusted of any as no sufficient meanes or price of our redemption in the Effects of Christs crosse I prooued the merits of Christes suffering to be infinite in respect of his person who was God and of the perfection of his obedience vnto the death of the Crosse the maner of his offering to be bloudie foreshewed by the Sacrifices of the Law and sealed by the Sacraments of the Gospell the power of his death to be mightie as able to conquer Sinne Hell and Satan the comfort of his Crosse to be necessarie to which we must all be conformed to suffer with him before we can raigne with him the victorie thereof to be heauenly in that he rose the third day into a celestiall and eternall life hauing all his enemies vnder his feet Yet for peace sake I yeelded the name of hell-paines might in some sort be tolerated in the sufferings of Christ if we meant thereby great and intolerable paines as the word is sometimes metaphorically taken in the Scriptures at the least by our vulgar translation for the word indeed was Sheôl which is vsed aswell for the graue as for hell and so those speeches of Dauid That the paines of Sheol found him out or compassed him might import the paines of death which brought men to their graues And concerning that Article of our Faith Christ descended to Hell I taught it might not by the course of the Creed be referred to Christ liuing but to Christ dead and safely note the conquest which Christs manhood after death had ouer all the powers of darkenesse declared by his resurrection when he rose Lord ouer all his enemies in his owne person Death Hell and Satan not excepted and had the Keyes that is all power of death and hell deliuered him by God that those in heauen earth and hell should stoope vnto him and be subiect to the strength and glorie of his Kingdome These things were first vttered by speech and after committed to writing that aswell the parts as proofes of euery point might more plainly appeare to all that would examine them My care was in either of these to ioyne with the doctrine prescribed by the booke of Homilies to be taught in the Church of God to the people That there is none other thing that can be named vnder heauen to saue our soules but this only worke of Christes precious offering his bodie vpon the Altar of the Crosse. For so great was Gods wrath and displeasure towards sinne that he could be pacified by no other meanes but only by the sweet and precious bloud of his deere Sonne And 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 onely and full amends for all the sinnes of the world As for Christs descent to hell I deliuered the same ends and intents which the booke of Homilies doth where it saith Christes death destroyed death and ouercame the Diuell His death destroyed hell with all the damnation thereof Christ passed thorow death and hell to the intent to put vs in good hope that by his strength we shall do the same He destroyed the Diuell and all his tyrannie and openly triumphed ouer him and tooke away from him all his Captiues meaning all the Elect and hath raised and set them with himselfe amongst the heauenly Citizens aboue These things thus preached and printed by me it may please your excellent Maiestie to vnderstand were first impugned by an hastie and humorous Treatise whiles my Sermons were yet vnder the Presse and after by a larger and warier Defence which is this that I now refute The Treatiser sliding from the things proposed by me wherein he could not open his mouth but with as many vntrueths as words did beare men in hand the question was Whether Christ suffered for vs the wrath of God or no whereas I mooued no such doubt but rather acknowledged That all which Christ suffered in soule or in bodie was the wrath of God against our sinnes if we speake as the Scriptures doe of punishments prouided â—…or this life where Christ did suffer and not of the wrath to come which is the vengeance prepared for the Diuell and the damned in another world And because in this Treatise I found moe distempered pangs of erroneous follie than aduised steppes of learning or religion I refelled the chiefe reasons thereof in a Conclusion added to my Sermons as they were in printing not thinking it worth my time or paines to make any longer resutation of him that remembred so little of that I had vttered and reasoned so loosely for that which he would establish No sooner were those Sermons and that Conclusion published but the curious Brethren seeing their kingdome of conceits impugned made their obseruations on both and sent their collections and reasons to the Treatiser that he might make a fresh Defence correcting in many things his former rashnesse and now leading him rather cunningly to cauill with the Fathers speeches than so proudly to disdaine their testimonies which maketh him not only to change his minde in many matters from that he sayd before but often to crosse himselâ—…e in the selfe same leafe whiles he doth not marke what he sayth out of his owne heart and what he bringeth out of other mens supplies and papers In this Defence for so they
Agonie after an Angell appeared from heauen and comforted or strengthened him with a message from God it seemeth rather an effect of Christes intentiue prayer which the Scripture there mentioneth than a consequent to any other passion or paine Christes intentiue prayer after comfort receiued by an Angell from heauen might proceed from his ardent desire care and zeale of our redemption from the wrath of God and protection from the rage of Satan And therefore as the Prophet foreshewed he should not onely beare the sinnes of many but pray for the Trespassers Christ might spend all the spirits and powers of bodie and soule in most vehement and feruent prayer euen vnto a bloudie sweat to haue all his members pardoned their sinnes and reconciled to God by the sacrifice of his bodie which he would offer for them and also to haue Satan cast out from accusing them and in the end trodden vnder their feet If Christes bloudie sweat were supernaturall we must aske no cause thereof but leaue it to his sacred will who could aboue nature doe what he would That it was no proofe of hell paines appeareth plainly because Christ after in greater paines on the Crosse did not sweat bloud and of all those whom these men imagine suffered hell paines in the Scriptures no one can be produced that euer sweat bloud The word forsaking vsed by Christ in his Complaint on the Crosse doth not in all the Scriptures inferre the paines of the damned but in the wicked it noteth reiection desperation and feare of damnation and in the godly it argueth want of protection or decrease of consolation in their troubles In Christ it might shew the time the cause the maner or the griefe of his being so long forsaken and left to the rage and reproch of his persecutors without any sensible signe of Gods loue towards him care for him helpe in his troubles or exse in his paines but it doth not prooue that Christ thought himselfe forsaken of Gods fauour grace or spirit which feare or doubt could not be in him without a manifest touch of error and want of faith Christ neuer feared nor doubted that he should or could perish vnder the hand of God persuing our sinnes in the bodie of his flesh but for the ioy set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame and as S. Peter sayth of him at the time of his suffering he alwayes beheld God at his right hand that he should not be shaken and therefore his heart reioyced and his tongue was glad and his flesh rested in hope because his soule should not be forsaken in hell nor his flesh see corruption Christ was made a curse for vs in that he suffered the temporall and corporall curses of the Law threatned vnto sinners as all sorts of afflictions belonging to this life and in the end a painfull and shamefull death by which he abolished the spirituall and eternall curse of God due to vs for sinne but he was neuer inwardly truely nor eternally accursed of God since by tasting of our externall curse for a time he made vs partakers of his spirituall and celestiall blessednesse for euer Christ who knew no sinne was made sinne for vs that is either the punishment of our sinnes or the sacrifice for our sinnes for we were healed by his stripes and he gaue himselfe for vs a sacrifice of a sweet smell to God Being then an holy and acceptable sacrifice to God for sinne he was neither defiled nor hatefull to God with our sinnes but suffered the iust for the vniust that is he tooke vpon him the punishment of our sinnes though he were most innocent and by the holinesse of his person submitting himselfe to the death of the crosse purged our vncleannesse by his innocencie couered our guiltinesse and by his fauour with God reconciled vs that were enemies Christ bare the full punishment of our sinnes that is not all which we should haue borne for then he must haue beene euer lastingly reiected confounded and condemned to hell fire which are most horrible blasphemies but he bare so much of the punishments of this life where he suffered as in his person by the iust iudgement of God was most sufficient for all our sinnes TOuching Christs descent to hell the words are plainly cited by Peter out of Dauid that Christes soule after death should not be left in Hades which Saint Luke in his Gospell vseth for the place where torments are prepared for the wicked after this life And in that sense is the word vsed thorowout the New Testament as likewise the Greeke Fathers tooke it for the place vnder the earth whither the soules of all men were condemned for sinne and where the Diuels detaine and torment the wicked That Christ likewise descended to the lower parts of the earth and to the bottomlesse deepe after death is vouched by Saint Paul whereupon the whole Church of Christ from the beginning hath confessed his descent to hel to be a point of Christian pietie Peters Sermon in the second of the Acts intended not simply to proue that Christ was risen from the dead as Lazarus and others were but affirmed farder of him That God raised him vp to set him on Dauids Throne that is to make him King of Glorie This he prooueth In that Christes flesh could not see corruption nor his soule be forsaken in hell which was verified in none no not in Dauid who were all dead and saw corruption but only in the Messias It was therefore impossible that either death or hell should detaine Christ but he was to rise Lord of death and hell and the Sauiour of all his from both as appeared by his ascending to heauen and sitting at the right hand of God Neither was this strange to the Iewes who were taught to expect that to be performed by the Messias which God promised by his Prophet O Death I will be thy death O Hell I will be thy destruction Sheol in the Olde Testament signifieth the Graue and Hell that is the places whither the dead bodies of all men went and whither the soules of the wicked dead in sinne descended after death And therefore where it is distinguished from the death of the bodie or referred to the soule after death as it is in Dauids words applied by Peter to Christ it apparently signifieth Hell The ends of Christes descent are likewise deriued from the Scriptures as the destroying of the Diuels kingdome and triumphing ouer powers and principalities and making an open shew of them spoiling them by deliuering all his Elect dead liuing and yet vnborne from the right power and feare of eternall death taking into his hands the Keyes of Death and Hell that he might be Lord of all in Heauen Earth and Hell The Creed is not a Collection of Greeke or Hebrew phrases vnknowen to the people but a short summe of the Christian faith prouided for the simpler sort of men to learne by heart And therefore as
ambiguous and quarrellous The whole propitiatorie sacrifice are words as doubtfull as the other for since Christ was the Priest who by his eternall spirit offered himselfe vnspotted to God and gaue himselfe for vs to be an offering and sacrifice of a sweet smel vnto God his innocence and obedience chiefly rested in his soule thence sanctified his bodie which suffered death for the ransome of our sinnes Though then all things in Christ were holie and acceptable vnto God and so sacrifices most meritorious yet nothing did fully satisfie the iustice of God for sinne nor make a perfect reconciliation for vs with God but his obedience vnto death For that which must satisfie for sinne must be death other ransome for sinne God neither in his wisdome and counsell would nor in his trueth and iustice could accept after his will once determined and declared It was the first wages appointed and denounced by God to sinne In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death or certainly thou shalt die the doubling of the word noting the inflexibilitâ—…e of Gods counsell and iustice The Apostle witnesseth the same when he sayth The wages of sinne is death Then as sinne was irreuocabâ—…e rewarded with death so must it necessarily be redeemed by death Which rule stood so sure that when the Sonne of God would giue himselfe for vs to redeeme vs he could not do it by reason of Gods immutable counsell and decree but by death Wherefore the Apostle calleth him the Mediator of the New testament through death for the redemption of transgressions And where a testament is there MVST BE sayth he the death of the testator He contenteth not himselfe to say there was but there must be the death of the testator before we could be redeemed A necessitie not simplie binding Gods power but plainly declaring his counsell to be fixed and his will reuealed Since then Christ was to taste death for all men that through death he might destroy him which had power of death euen the diuell and deliuer vs who were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne the point which indeed wee both must stand on is what death Christ suffered to redeeme vs from sinne and to reconcile vs vnto God whether it were the death of the damned which is the second death or the death of the soule or as I auouch the death of the bodie only Other parts of Christes person and beames of his vertues and kinds of his sufferings are not to this quâ—…stion â—…arther than they commended and presented to God Christes death which must ransome our sinnes but the scope to which all the rest was referred and the â—…lose which consummated all the rest was death and therefore no sufferings of Christ were parts of the propitiatorie sacrifice which ransomed sinne but such as ended in death or tended to that sorrowfull shamefull and painfull death of Christ which by order of Gods iustice was appointed to satisfie for sinne The fulnesse of which satisfaction consisted in death and therefore the death and bloud of Christ though they were not the whole sacrifice yet were they the full and perfect ransome and price for sinne because without them the rest could not preuaile and to them all the rest was directed If then you will deale plainly as you pretend or not forget your duetie to God and his trueth you must leaue cauilling with the words of the Holy Ghost and go soberly to consider not whether any other sufferings but whether any other death of Christes be mentioned in the Scriptures to ransome our sinnes besides the death of his bodie If you finde any other there professe â—…t in Gods name if you finde none but only that described or mentioned in the Scriptures leaue snarling at the depth and bredth of those words which the Spirit of God hath authorized and learne rather to vnderstand them truely than vainly to oppose against them In sense and substance there is no difference betwixt these words the death bloud and crosse of Christ the crosse noting the tree whereon Christ died a reprochfull and cruell death for vs and his bloud expressing the maner of his death by sundrie sorts of shedding the same as by whipping piercing his head with thornes boaring his hands and feet to fasten him to the crosse and hanging him thereon three houres by the sorenesse of his wounds till his soule departed from his bodie To make these iarre one with the other which the holy Ghost had knit together is the signe of a busie but not of godly wit and howsoeuer you and your adherents can flourish with figures of Grammar you were best take heede that you turne not your eares from the trueth of God The bodily death which Christ died to ransome our sinnes the holy Ghost doth note sometimes by his Flesh sometimes by his Body sometimes by his Blood and sometimes by his Crosse and these either ioyned or seuered and sometimes also by his soule or life laide downe or powred out vnto death for vs. We finde them ioyned when Paul saith It pleased God by Christ to reconcile all things to himselfe and to pacifie by the BLOOD of his Crosse through him both things in earth and things in heauen And you which in times past were strangers and enemies hath he now reconciled in the BODY OF HIS FLESH through death Seuered are they when Peter saith You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a Lambe vndefiled Who by his owne blood saith the Apostle entered in once into the holyplace and obtained eternall Redemption And so when Iohn saith The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne As likewife Paul We haue Redemption through his blood euen the Remission of sinnes Of his body himselfe saith This is my body which is giuen for you and my flesh will I giue for the life of the world so are we sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Likewise of his soule by which the Scripture meaneth his life for that life wholy dependeth vpon the presence of the soule in the body My Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my soule or life The sonne of man came to giue his soule or life as a ransome for many And Esay foreshewed that Christ should diuide the spoyle of or with the mightie Because he powred out his soule vnto death which seuereth the soule from the body and so made it an offering for sinne by laying it downe of himselfe that death might seaze on his body This then being the maine foundation of the Gospel which the Apostle receiued that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures the Question still standeth as I first set it What death Christ died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scriptures and not what sufferings went before or what other things ioyned with his death which is
life of all And that this is most perfect charitie I will cite our Sauiour himselfe for a witnesse where he saith greater loue hath no man then to lay downe his soule for his friends By all this Christ teacheth his Disciples to be so farre from shunning daungers and troubles for the saluation of men that the death of the flesh must not be refused for euen to that doth charitie stretch Fulgentius an other of the Fathers on whom you would faine fasten your error of Christs redeeming our soules by the death of his soule and our bodies by the death of his body not only noteth when and how Christ laid downe his soule for vs but why that phrase is applyed to Christs death and to all theirs that die willingly for loue not necessarily vpon constraint The whole man Christ laid downe his soule when his soule departed his flesh dying on the crosse And so againe Christ dying in the flesh laid downe his Soule and shewing the difference betwixt deliuering the body to death and giuing or laying downe the soule He saith Where loue is not the body is said to be deliuered but not the soule to be laid downe as the vessell of election plainly testifieth If I giue my body to be burnt and haue no loue it auayleth me nothing Here Paule declareth that without loue the body may be yeelded but not the soule laid downe For where he purposeth to signifie the purenesse of his loue he thus writeth to the Thessalonians Our goodwill was to bestow on you not onely the Gospell of God but euen our owne soules and to proue this an effect of his loue he addeth because yee were deare vnto vs. So that it is proued by manifest witnesse of Scripture that there wanteth loue where the body onely is layed downe to death but there is charitie where the soule is laid downe together with the body Beda Ponere ergo animam mori est Sic Apostolus Petrus Domino dixit animam pro te ponam id est pro te moriar carne To lay downe the Soule is to die So the Apostle Peter said to Christ I will lay downe my Soule for thee that is I will die in the flesh for thee A good sheepeheard saith Christ layeth downe his soule for his sheepe He did that he taught he performed that he commaunded he laid downe his Soule for his sheepe and shewed vs a way to contemne death which we must follow and a paterne after which we must be Printed which is first to extend our outward works of mercie towards his sheepe then if neede be to offer our death for them The later writers are all of the same mind and expound those words of our Sauiour the Sonne of man came to serue and to giue his soule a ransome for many and I lay downe my soule for my sheepe to haue none other sense then that he would die for vs as the Fathers before them did expound the same Erasmus in his paraphrase expressing our Sauiours meaning in both places saith in the person of Christ Therefore I came euen to serue the welfare of all in so much that I thinke it no burden to giue my life by the losse of one soule to redeeme many And againe Therefore my Father loueth me singularly as his Sonne because of mine owne accord I bestowed my life for the safetie of my Fathers flocke Bullinger likewise in the person of our Sauiour I came to serue the good of all and that which is farre greater I came into this world to giue my life for sinners And so I yeeld my selfe to death and euen to the death of the crosse that my sheepe beleeuing in me may liue by my death And alleadging and relying on Saint Austens words on the same place he addeth out of Austen To lay downe the soule is to die So Peter the Apostle said to his Master I will lay downe my soule for thee that is I will die for thee Attribute this to the flesh for when the soule goeth out of the flesh and the flesh remaineth without a soule then is a man said to lay downe his soule What saith the Euangelist Christ bowing his head gaue vp the Ghost this is to lay downe the soule Musculus Christ declareth what his ministerie is euen to redeeme mortall men and the chiefest degree of this ministerie is that he would giue his soule for them Then are we redeemed by the onely begotten Sonne of God and that dearely euen with his owne death For the Lord of heauen and earth humbled himselfe vnto death and that vnto a most shamefull death What was more vile or more abiect in the world then the death of the crosse And in the person of Christ Therefore my Father loueth me because I lay downe my soule that is because I die for my sheepe Caluine vpon those words of Christ I came to giue my soule a Redemption for many Therefore Christ mentioneth his death that he might withdraw his Disciples from a peruerse imagination of an earthly kingdome In the meane time the force and fruite of his death is aptly and rightly expressed whiles he affirmeth his life to be the price of our Redemption Whence it followeth that the price of our reconciliation with God is no where found but in the death of Christ and so It is no maruaile that Christ affirmeth himselfe to be therefore loued of his Father because he esteemeth our saluation dearer then his owne life He would by this arme his Disciples least seeing him soone after to be caried to death they should faint in hart as if he were oppressed by his enimies but rather acknowledge it to be the wonderfull prouidence of God that he should die to redeeme the flocke Gualter Christ saith he came to giue his soule to be the price of Redemption for many This passeth all offices that men may yeeld one to another For as him selfe saith no man hath greater loue then this to giue his soule for his friends But he vouchsafeth to die for his enimies And dying for vs he bestowed life on vs because his death was a ransome sufficient for the sinnes of the world And so A good sheepeheard saith Christ layeth downe his soule for his sheepe b As if he should haue said who can deny him to be a good sheepeheard that so much loueth his sheepe as not to refuse to redeeme their safetie with the losse of his owne life And because the Sonne of God hath exposed or yeelded his life for vs who can doubt but he hath satisfied abundantly for vs Vitus Theodorus Christ saith the sonne of man came to minister and to giue his life for the Redemption of all That surely is the chiefest and truest loue and seruice when a man serueth his enimies with body and life And likewise in the person of Christ. I alone am the good
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 clemenâ—…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 redâ—…mption to the captures that the iust sentence of condemnation should be dissolued by tâ—…e iust worke of the 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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 rusheâ—…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 declaâ—…eth Gods Commission to Satan touching Christ Tâ—…ke thou power against his bodie and lose the right of thy wicked dominion ouer his â—…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 bondâ—…ge by sinne eâ—…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 conceiâ—…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 eâ—…en the wrongfull shedding thereof by Satans instigation wrought the subuersion of Satans power and right in all the â—…lect God by the rule of Iustice giuing vnto Christs manhoode the spoyle of Satans kingdome â—…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 â—…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 shâ—…weth was executed against the Diuels them selues Christ SPOYLED Principalities and Powers and made a shew of thâ—…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 seâ—…de and her seâ—…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 heâ—…le euen the bruizing of the Serpents head For nothing is more equall with God then to remâ—…ate the same measure to men and Angels that they mâ—…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 depâ—…ed Satan of all his â—…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
the Crosse for remission of our sinnes and receiued violent wrong from the diuell in putting him to death In reuenge and recompence whereof as all these fathers confesse God tooke iust cause to make not the Diuine nature which had that right before and could not loose it but mans nature which Satan had by sinne conquered and subiected to himselfe to be in the person of Christ conquerer and Lord ouer Satan and all his power to take whom hee would to make them vessels of mercie and to reserue the rest as vessels of wrath vnto the terrible iudgement of Christ. Wherein these Fathers doe not swarue from the Pophets and Apostles meaning howsoeuer they vse different words that Christ should diuide the spoyle of the mightie because hee powred out his Soule vnto death And that therefore God highly exalted and gaue him a name at which euery knee boweth in heauen earth and hell for that hee was obedient vnto the death of the Crosse. Neither doth Ambrose when he speakerh of a Price required by the diuell or yeelded to the diuell meane any more then a CAVSE SVFFICIENT why the spoyling of Satans kingdome was giuen vnto the manhood of Christ and al the power of darknesse sinne death and hell put vnder his feete For a Price doeth not alway import an honourable condition or a pleasing satisfaction as it signifieth when it is referred to God but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke which is properly a Price noteth either Reward or Reuenge so doth pretium in Latine comprise both and generally whatsoeuer is balanced one against the other to be exchanged one with the other is the price of ech other So that it is no dishonour to the bloud of Christ to be so precious that not onely the voluntarie offering therof did fully satisfie the iustice of God displeased with our sinnes but that also the wrongfull shedding thereof which was necessarily to be committed to Satan and his members as the onely fit instruments for such an impietie was a iust occasion why God in requitall of that wrong made the manhood of Christ the subduer and destroyer of Satans kingdome Not that the diuell had any right or command ouer vs against or without the will of God but that hee was so blinded by the wonderfull wisedome of God in reuenge of his subuerting the first man that he was made by shewing his malice against the manhood of Christ an Actor in our Redemption and the Author of his owne subuersion whiles without his knowledge and against his meaning hee was Gods instrument for our saluation and his owne destruction This you can not quietly brooke because you make the chiefest point of our Redemption to bee the killing of Christs Soule with Gods immediate hand and so farre are you from confessing Christ to be vniustly slaine as an innocent that you defend him to be sinfull hatefull defiled with our sinnes and hanged by the iust sentence of the Law and the diuel to be onely a minister and executioner of Gods iudgement against Christ. Yea your similitude if you stand to it of prisoners taken in warre and your ransome yeelded to God as to an enemie for his captiues setteth iarres if not warres betweene the first and second person in Trinitie by making God the Father an enemie both to the Redeemer and Prisoner For among men whose vse and custome you presse in this place the detainer is alwayes a professed enemie to the redeemer since confederates doe not vse to take or detaine ech others subiectes or seruants but open enemies The Ransomer then and the prisoner haue one and the same enemy and consequently by your resemblance God is an enemie as well to Christ as to vs. The proofe which you bring to shew God to be an enemie to his elect out of the fift of S. Matthew is impertinent to the cause and diâ—…erent from the trueth For besides that the new writers as Erasmus in his paraphrase Bucer Bullinger Musculus Caluine Gualterus in their commentaries vpon this chapter and the old as Tertullian Ierom Chrysostome Hilarie Theophylact Euthymius and others with one consent referre this admonition of Christ to men that are Aduersaries Iudges and Iaylours here in this life which is wide from your purpose your making of God to be an Aduersarie in that place acknowledgeth a superiour Iudge to God to whom the Aduersarie must by complaint not by command deliuer vs and your comparing the deuill to an obedient minister of the Law excuseth him from being a rebell to God and an accuser of men But if you would speake or thinke as the Scriptures leade which you pretend but not perfourme you should finde in them though not in this precept that the deuill is by a speciall kind of notation called our ENEMIE as indeede he is the ancient eger and continuall supplanter and impugner of man and that God to his elect is and euer was a gracious and louing father when he was most displeased with their sinnes and euen then so carefull and mindfull of their saluation that he gaue them his owne Sonne when they were his Enemies to dâ—…e for them and by that death to make satisfaction and purgation of all their sinnes which was not the part or worke of an Enemie how much soeuer his holines then did and still doth dislike their vnrighteousnesse And since the punishment of our sinnes was layd vpon Christ and we healed by his stripes if therein God professed Enmitie to his elect and executed it all on Christ the deuill being but the Iaylor and Executioner or as else where you say an Instrument onely and by that parable not to be blamed for doing no more then he is commaunded by the Iudge your wholesome doctrine commendeth the deuill as an obedient seruant and maketh God an Inferiour and yet an Enemy to the manhood of Christ. Which if you did not meane you must temper your words and proofes better and learne not so egerly to reiect euery phrase in an ancient Father that pleaseth not your palate when your selfe spake and wrote so licentiously and dangerously But I fit your similitude you say to your desire farther then your selfe did expresse because I say the Ransomer is not bound to be Prisoner for his Redeemed but may satisfie the enemie by money or otherwise You are a happie man that euery thing fitteth your desire You positiuely teach that Christ our Redeemer must suffer the selfe same paines of hell which we should haue suffered The reason you yeeld for it is a poore similitude drawen from the common vse and custome of men in redeeming their captiues taken in warres I replyed that your similitude prooueth no such thing because amongst men the Ransomers neede not nor doe not sustaine the same seruitude and imprisonment which the captiues doe and must if they be not redeemed Yet the whole price you say must be payd by
which he so much denieth The death of the body which the godly doe suffer is to this day an euill of it selfe and the punishment of sinne but God of his mercie towards his hath giuen such grace not to death but to their faith that by suffering death patiently they shal be the more plentifully rewarded But as no wise man will say the Law is euill when the wicked abuse it to kindle their lusts so may no sober man say that the death of the faithfull is good in it selfe though by Gods goodnesse it bee made to them a triall of their patience and a passage to a better life You say the nature of death is changed and not to the faithfull any longer an euill or part of the punishment and curse which was laide oâ—… sinne S. Austen saith the contrarie It is still an euill as it was and the nature thereof is not changed though the vse thereof be changed by faith and the consequents altered by Gods goodnesse Now things must bee esteemed by their nature and not by their vse as Austen teacheth For euill men vse good things euilly yet that maketh not good to bee euill because their vse is inuerted and euen so saith Austen good men haue a good vse of death which is euill yet that maketh not the death which they suffer to be good in it selfe or in nature to bee such as by Gods fauour it is to them When the death therefore of the faithfull is said by Saint Austen or any others to be good they meane the vse and not the nature thereof and when they say it is euill or a curse they meane the nature and not the vse For touching the nature thereof the Apostle who must be heard saith fully and resolutely Death is an enemie that must be destroyed euen in the godly And touching the vse thereof the same Apostle saith To mee Christ is life and to die is gaine Against this you neither doe nor can bring ought besides waste words and places either not vnderstood of you or wrested by you as spoken of the nature of death when they meane the vse of death which the faithfull haue by Gods abundant blessing Your selfe doe say The vengeance of the Law once executed on the suertie can no more in Gods iustice be executed on vs. In the vengeance of the law is comprised corporall spirituall and eternall death The whole Christ neither did nor could taste and bee a Sauiour A part he therefore tasted which was the death of his body and thereby freed vs from the rest which was due to our sinnes From the death of the body he hath not as yet wholly deliuered vs but hee will and in the meane time hee hath broken the linckes of death whereby those three were coupled together first in his owne person who suffered the first kinde of death and neither of the other and by vertue thereof hath done the like in all his Saints leauing their bodies for a season vnto death as his was that he may raise them after with greater power and glorie then if they had neuer died What doeth this hinder but death may truely bee called a Curse as in Christ so in his members and though execution of vengeance be restrained from vs yet imitation of Christ is not excluded neither is the generall sentence pronounced against the sinne of all mankinde To dust thou shalt returne reuoked but by the resurrection from the dead how then was it vengeance on Christ if it were due to mans nature Death was due to mans nature for sinne and consequently not due to Christ that had not sinned When therefore it was laide on him that deserued it not it must be taken as the wages of our sinne in his person and so was a wound to him though a medicine to vs because hee was wounded for our transgressions and wee were healed by his stripes Our publike doctrine in England set foorth by Master Nowel confirmeth as much To the faithfull death is now not a destruction but a changing of life and a very sure and short passage to heauen Euery thing that is licensed or liked as profitable to bee publikely read or taught is not by and by authorised in all things nor made the publike doctrine of this Realme You would faine oppose Master Nowel to Saint Austen who if hee were liuing would giue you no thanks therefore Saint Austens Faith hath beene allowed and receiued by all Synods and Councels since his time and by the whole Church of Christ as fit to guide and leade not onely learners but makers of Catechismes and therefore the match if they were repugnant is somewhat vnequall but indeede you haue neede to bee taught how to vnderstand your Catechisme That death is a destruction to the godly can you tell who saith so except it bee your selfe That it is a changing of life and short passage to heauen if you meane to the soules of the faithfull as the Caâ—…echisme doth no man doubteth thereof if you meane to their bodies that they by death change life and so haue a short passage to heauen it is a notable falsitie and heresie gainsaying the verie grounds of the Christian faith For priuation of sense and corruption to dust is no life much lesse an heauen except you will multiplie heauens as you do helles without reason or trueth It is most true which the Catechisine intendeth that death is this to the souls of the faithful but not to their bodies as yet till the generall day of resurrection and then the destruction of death in their bodies shall bring them to the full possession of heauenly glory prouided both for soule and bodie till that time their bodies lie vnder the dominion or power of death which is not yet destroied in euery part of vs because of sinne dwelling in our bodies though it throughly be conquered in the person of Christ and shall be likewise in vs at his appointed time As little to the purpose is that which you cite next out of the Catechisme that Death which before was a punishment is now become a vantage For he meaneth that death before had nothing in it nor after it but punishment and so was wholly and onely punishment which now by Christ is altered and made an aduantage to vs as well in respect of the manifold miseries and offences of this life from which we are deliuered as in regard of the felicitie and securitie which the soules of the Saints decâ—…ased enioy but this is nothing to their bodies which lie depriued of life and corrupted to dust till the finall restitution Neither is this a comparison with our condition before sinne in which we were created when soule and bodie should iointly haue beene translated to the kingdome of heauen without any sense or touch of death if we had stood fast in obedience but this noteth what death is after sinne committed without Christ and rightly saith that when
once by sinne we were plunged into the depth of all miserie as a punishment for sinne then the grace of Christ by the death of his body brake off the chaines of internall and eternall death knit to the former by Gods iustice and made the naturall death of our bodies which without Christ was onely a punishment and the entrance to all other mischiefes of sinne afteâ—… this life to become now an aduantage to the soule which is presently freed from the labours of this life and inuested and secured with euerlasting blisse But the body is not yet quited from the burden and corruption laid on it by Gods iustice for the punishment of Adams sinne and the soule in the midst of her comforts not onely feeleth the want but sheweth her desire to receaue her bodie as appeareth by the praâ—…er of the soules vnder the Altar who desire not now in heauen reuenge of their persecutors whom they pardoned and praied for on earth but woondering at Gods patience that is daily prouoked and abused they desire the day of iudgement though thâ—…t bring with it the destruction of the wicked because they shall then receaue their bodiâ—…s and with them the fulnesse of Gods promises That place of the Catechisme doth â—… notably contradict you who call death to the Gâ—…dly the gate of hell a strange and most vntrue translation The Catechisme speaketh of the soules of the godly who without Christ were assured by death to enter the bottomlesâ—… pit of hell and now by Christ doe safely passe from death to heauen but what is this to their bodies whereof I speake doe the bodies of the Saints passe straight vpon death to heauen as their soules doe I trust your Catechisme saith not so and therefore no way contradicteth me But I translate it so when I call death the gate of hell which is sâ—…range and vntrue No good Sir when I translated the text because the word Sheol was doubtfull and imported all the power and strength oâ—… hell against bodie and soule in this world and in the next I retained the verie worde Sheol as may be seene in the page of my Sermons which you cite pag. 150. li. 32. yet what was ment by â—…heol in that place when I came to examine I did incline rather to the word hell then to the word Graue since we had in English no more words to expresse the power or danger of Satans kingdome on earth For neither the griefe which Ezechias conceaued nor the phrase which he vsed might be rightly referred to the graue It was not the graue that Ezechiah did so much feare and so much decline it was the doubt of Gods displeasure that vpon deliuerance of him and his citie from the hands of Senacherib presently strooke the king with sicknesse and denounced death vnto him as vnworthie to enioy that protection which God had shewed from heauen in defence of his people against their enimies and therefore in the bitternesse of his soule which he confessed did oppresâ—…e him he said he should goe to the gates of Sheol that is to a dangerous conflict with death betweene hope and feare of Gods fauour or anger Neither doth Sheol there import onely the graue for at first Ezechiah resolued he should die and so goe farder then the gates or entrance of the graue Neither doth that phrase in other places of Scripture expresse barely the buriall of the bodâ—…e The gates of hell sayth our Sâ—…uiour shall not preuaile against my Church by which he meaueth nothing lesse then the graue Are the gates of death knowen to thee saith God to Iob who could not be ignorant what the sides and bottome of a graue were Thou liftest me saith Dauid from the gates of death when yet he was sure to come to his graue And had Ezechiah from the griefe of his hart vnder which he chattered like a Swallow and mourned as a Doue pronounced death to be the Gate or first inuasion that hell or Satan made one mans Body for sinne what had you to say against it By the enuie of the Diuell saith the wise man Death entred into the world The Apostle saith as much By sinne Death eâ—…red into the world not as a blessing of God but on all men to Condemnation From this Condemnation the Soule by Christ is presently released the Body is also promised but yet not cleered from that Condemnation to Death which sinne brought with it And since the Apostle calleth it an Enemie to Christ and Austen doubteth not to name it a corporall Curse why should I not number it rather amongst the gates or powers of hell then of heauen since the diuell was the Author and Christ will be the destroyer thereof It offendeth you that I say if we will reason what death is in it selfe we must resolue it to be a part of Gods curse which you say is no answere For who euer denied it to be in it selfe a part of Gods curse for sinne but your expresse words are death is to the godly no curse properly Doe you now find the foile how foolishly you haue all this while supported an errour that yoâ—… now come with properly to proppe it vp least it fall on your head You can now with shame enough confesse WE KNOVV AL SHAME AND AFFLICTION TO ALL MEN IS A KIND OF CVRSE Then death a man would thinke may rightly be called a kind of corporall curse since that is the sharpest and forest of all outward asfâ—…ictions A kind of curse who euer denied that say you Euen your wisedome hath all this while denied it In your Treatise you bleated forth this resolution Therefore Christes dying simply as the godly die MAY IN NO SORT HERE BE CALLED A CVRSE or accursed You iterate the verie same in your defence Yea it is the maine ground of your second speciall reason Christ you say was made a curse sor vs or accursed in his death But to die simply as the godly doe may in no sort be called a curse or accursed Christ therefore endured the curse and wrath of God truely Your expresse wordes you say are Death to the godly is no curse properly but a vantage Are not the other your expresse wordes also that the death of the godly MAY IN NO SORT BE called a curse or accursed and doth not the force of your reason wholy depend vpon these later wordes For had you confessed that death shame and paine were to the godly corporall curses how then conclude you that Christ was properly accursed Because the Apostle saith He was made a curse Doeth the Apostle say he was made a curse properly It would empt and waste all the wit in your head from the one to conclude the other Against your precâ—…e Negatiue that death in the godly might in no sort be called a curse I opposed the contrarie that the death of the bodie was a curse for sinne laide on
owne mouth to bruize the Serpents head before death was inflicted on Adam and his of-spring And therefore the punishment of mans sinne following could extend no farder in the Elect then to the death of the Body vnlesse you will make Gods punishment repugnant to his promise of Christ made before to his Elect which were to charge God with Inconstancie And therefore either the death of the Body was neuer any punishment of sinne in Adam which is repugnant to the Scriptures and the full consent of all Diuines old and new or else it resteth still the same to the Elect which it was at first when it was inflicted on them in the person of their first Father Indeede the promise of Christ to the faithfull brake of the sequence of eternall death which in the wicked is coherent to the death of their Bodies and that made God in his Iudiciall sentence pronounced against Adams sinne to comprise no more but Adams returne to dust for that he meant no more to his Elect though he would suffer death to haue his full force against the Bodies and Soules of the wicked both in this world and in the next for euer As for the Saluation of the faithfull before Christs comming in the flesh I see not which way that should be endangered by their afflictions in this life It is written of Lazarus dying before Christ that in his life time he receiued euill and therefore after death he was comforted So that their chasticement in this life which was a moderate and fatherly correction and punishment of their sinnes could be no impediment to their saluation but worke rather in them that were patient in their troubles as it doth in vs an excellent and eternall waight of glorie For in that the Iudgement of God began here in this life with them their humbling themselues vnder the mightie hand of God with true Repentance of their sinnes and full assurance by faith that in the promised Seede their sinnes should be pardoned caused God of his mercy to turne their â—…eauinesse into ioy and in due time to exalt them Further you except against me touching Innocents and Martyrs executions who I say are most blessed If you meane their Soules are most blessed I said as much before you if you respect their patience and loue in laying downe their liues for the truth I make no doubt the death of Gods Saints is precious in his sight But if the suffering of death were a blessing and aduantage as you would haue it it were no such thankes with God to taste of his blessings for his name sake The greatnesse of their reward sheweth the shaâ—…pnesse of their conflict with the sting and smart of death which because they refuse not for Christes cause their patience is the more precious in Gods sight but this doeth not prooue the corruption of their bodies turned to dust to bee any blessing but rather an enemie that must be destroyed before their bodies shall enioy the true blessing of immortall glorie that is reserued for them The holy men are in trueth most glorious and blessed in them If you speake of their bodiâ—…s you speake falsly and directly against the Scripture which expresâ—…ely saith They are sowâ—…n in corruption and dishonour but they shall be raised in incorruption and dishonour and what can be more repugnant to the trueth or more reprochfull to the resurrection from the dead then to say that corruption in the bodies of the Saints is most glorious and blessed The Saints and Martyrs can not be properly cursed and properly blâ—…ssed too in any measure Can you see that in the members of Christ and can you not see so much in Christ himselfe You defend with might and maine that Christ was properly and truely accursed and that he was also truely and properly blessed except you will bee worâ—…e then a Turke you may not denie For euen his manhood was personally ioyned with his Godhead and more abundantly blessed then any Martyr can be as hauing in him the fulnesse of blessing for him selfe and vs all How hangeth then this not onely monstrous but impious Assertion of yours together that the Soule of Christ was truely and properly most abundantly blessed and most properly cursed at one and the same instant You will come in with your two countenances and conditions his owne and ours but in vaine doe you salue a manifest contrarietie and impictie with countenances Christ was truely accursed in no condition or countenance since he was most blessed in himselfe and the spring of all blessing to vs. The Soules of the Martyrs are not blessed vnlesse their bodies be blessed also and free from the true curâ—… although you seeme to denâ—…e this point Of the TRVE curse â—…aide on the bodies of Martyrs I spake neuer a word and therefore that is no vncouth Assertion of mine as your phrase is but an impudent fiction of yours that thinke best to belâ—…e the trueth when you cannot otherwise preuaile against it I said not a woâ—…d moâ—…e then Saint Austen said before me Maledictus omnis moriens Accursed is euerie one that dieth And when the godly are so streightned that they must either commit Idolatrie or suffer Martyrdome euen in that case of Martyrs Saint Austen saith Elâ—…gendum est maledictum in corporiâ—… morte quo maledicto ipsum corpus in Resurrectione liberabitur deuit andum autem maledictum in animae morte ne cum suo corpore in aeterno igne damnetur A Christian when these two are proposed must chuse the curse of a bodily death from which curse the body shall be freed in the Resurrection and hee must shunne the curse of the death of the Soule least that be together with the body condemned to euerlasting fire And to prooue this to be non Anicularis malâ—…dictio an olde wifes curse as the Manichees called it but a propheticall prediction hee giueth sound reasons to all that list not to moâ—…ke and elude the trueth as you doe Morsipsa ex maledicâ—…o Death it selfe came from the curse that was laide on all mankinde for sinne Maledictum est omne peccatum siâ—…e ipsum quod sit vt sequatur supplicium siâ—…c ipsum supplicium quod alâ—…o modo vocatur peccatum quâ—…a fit ex peccato Accursed is all sinne whether it bâ—…e the fact deseruing punishment or the punishment it selfe which is after a sort called sinne because it is cauâ—…d by sinne Which words though you afterward idlely abuse yet are they sound and consonant to the Scriptures Of sinne there is no question but that is in it selâ—…e truely accursed as being the roote and cause of all Gods curses vpon men and Angels where it is not remitted and howsoeuer of mercie God doeth paâ—…don it vnto his Elect yet hee hateth their sinnes in such sort that either sinne must die in them by true and hartie repentance or they must perish with
meriement or a prattlement then an argument That they resisted or inuaded might happely be collected not from the force of those words but from the disposition of such enemies yet which way they inuaded or how farre they preuailed can no way be thence coniectured though it be strongly by you conceited The Apostles words as I haue shewed may either declare the glory of Christes resurrection wherein all knees of things in heauen earth and hell did bow and stoupe vnto him rising from the dead or as some apply them expresse the power and glorie of his Passion in which by the perfection of his innocence patience and obedience he spoyled sinne and Satan of al their right and force ouer his Elect and caried all his Enemies as Captiues in an open shew before God and his Angels notwithstanding all the instance or resistance they could make From either of these senses how you can inferre that Satan tormented the Soule of Christ or that he impressed in Christs hart spirituall wicked cogitations or motions I verily doe not see except you haue a Patent to make Conclusions contrary to their Premisses o Defenc. pa. 85. li. 25. Then you come to confute my fourth Reason but the mainest points thereof you haue not so much as touched I shewed that the Godly sometimes in this life doe feele a tast of Gods insinite wrath and euen of hellish sorrowes 2. That Christ our Redeemer suffered for vs as deepely yea deeper then euen any of vs heere doe suffer but all this you can here clenly passe ouer without any word to it The matters were belike very waightie and your proofes many that I was forced to passe them with silence Indeede I neither tooke nor had any more time to refute your Treatise then whiles my Sermons were in Printing as they know that had the doing thereof and that made me the shorter in refelling your Reasons and sometimes the darker in proposing ruine owne but as for this which here you complaine of I saw no cause why in that speedie dispatch I should trouble my selfe any longer with it The first Proposition in some sense I admitted the second which you barely supposed without proofe I reiected as iniurious to Christ and repugnant to the Apostles words which you alleaged for it Neither haue you in this long aduised and farre consulted Defence so much as medled with the instances that I gaue against your false Collection Let him that will read the 286. Page of my Conclusion and see whether touching the maine points here pretended you were not briefely but truely answered and stand yet staggered with the parts there specified The summe of mine Answere to both as my words there witnesse was this p Conclus pa. 286. li. 7. The Terrors of minde which we fecle through conscience of our vnworthinesse ignorance of Gods Counsell and distrust of Gods fauour Christ neuer felt his Faith admitted no doubting his loue excluded all fearing his hope reiected all despairing q Ibid. li. 15. He was tempted in all things alike except sinne Then neither the rootes parts nor fruites of sinne must be in him but the Apostle that excepteth sinne excepteth all sinfull adherents What say you to this is it no Answere I would gladly heare what you can reioyne against it But you that skip euery thing which toucheth you to the quicke and iette in your generall Phrases like a Crow in a gutter ouer leape what you list and then for a shew surmise that your Reasons and proofes are silenced Well I may speake now more largely and plainly but in effect I can speake neither more truely nor more directly then I then did Yet for your pleasure I will not refuse to put your Propositions once more on foote to see how currant they are r Defenc. pag. 85. li. 27. The Godly sometimes in this life doe feele a tast of Gods infinite wrath and euen of hellish sorrowes You commit but three foule ouersights in this one proposition 1. You marre the whole and make it impertinent to your purpose 2. You contradict your Contradictions in the Defender maine Positions 3. You rest on euident ambiguities or open falsities What some of the godly doe sometimes feele either in Body or Soule maketh nothing to Christs sufferings by your owne Confession Your owne Rule is s Defenc. pag. 86. li. 32. In these words Christ was like vs in all Temptations and afflictions we are to vnderstand all that are incident to mankind generally not which happen to any man particularly So that what the godly doe sometimes feele for not onely Children and Infants but many thousand Christians die free from these hellish sorrowes of yours may not be made a President for Christs sufferings And where you or your Corrector would after salue this ouersight by saying in the margine t Defenc. pag 8â—… in margine li. 1. which though all generally feele not yet generally is due to all in respect of sinne you multiply your absurdities you mend not the loosenesse of this Proposition For due to all in respect of sinne are all manner of externall and corporall plagues from many of which your selfe would exempt Christ by this obseruation of yours and likewise reiection confusion desperation and eternall damnation are due to all in respect of sinne from which if you doe not exempt Christ you exempt your selfe out of the number of the Faithfull to take a worse course then Iudas who yeelded his Masters Body into the hands of men where this conceit yeeldeth Christs Soule into the power of diuels Secondly be you now of the minde that the Godly doe sometimes feele a Tast of Gods wrath How often haue you resolued and Proclaimed in this Booke that u Defenc. pa. 13. li 8. to the Godly their afflictions both small and great are no effects of Gods proper wrath and now they sometimes feele a Tast of his Infinite wrath What shift to saue this repugnancie can you deuise Gods Infinite wrath perhaps is not his proper wrath It is the same you say that Christ suffered and since Christ by your Doctrine suffered none but the proper wrath of God the Faithfull feeling the same that Christ did must suffer the same kind of wrath that Christ suffered Againe can you find vs an Infinite wrath in God that is not properly wrath What hath Gods proper wrath of which you haue iangled so much more then Infinite in time or degree or both but these Resolutions of yours be like your Inuentions they hang together as drunken mens steps or mad mens dreames Consult I pray you with your friends and aske them what answere you shall yeelde to this forgetfulnesse of theirs or variablenesse of yours Thirdly what meane you by hellish sorowes If you thereby note the feare of hell Men â—…ay feare but not suffer the true paines of hell in this lise which may often afright the seruants of God in this life is that
teacheth that we must follow the will of God though nature reclaime So that the preferring of Gods will before the desire of his owne nature and the limiting of his prayer with this condition If it were possible not to Gods power but to Gods purpose to saue the world without his death then he desired the cuppe might passe from him prooue apparently that Christ was not onely well aduised in that prayer but he meant to teach vs that neither the power of his enemies did oppresse his weaknesse nor his owne loue leade him to a needlesse death it was rather Gods determined and irreuocable counsell and will that he must die or we must perish By which we learne not Christes inconstancie as of a man amazed but an excellent mysterie of Christian religion that no sacrifice could take away sinne but onely The intent of Christs prayer in the garden the death of Christ on the crosse which he for our sakes earnestly desired though by his thrise declining it if we might possibly be otherwise saued he shewed how painfull and grieuous that suffering would be vnto him We are therefore by the one to collect how intolerable that cuppe would be to his flesh and by the other to beholde his ardent loue to vs and willing obedience to his Father which things if in your conceit they conclude Christ to haue beene therein amazed I shall coniecture that your wits are not to this houre yet well recouered since greater pietie and charitie could not be shewed in that infirmitie wherewith Christ was then compassed and acerbitie of paines to come which he did not dissemble Now let vs heare how you impugne this o Defenc. pag. 99. li. 26. The first of these foure maketh in my minde much for vs. For vnderstanding that Christ tooke all the infirmities and passions whereto mens nature is subiect to the end he might cure all and euerie kinde of them in vs then it followeth that he wanted not the paines and immediate sufferings of paines inflicted by Gods owne hand in his soule It is but your mind that maketh so much for you your collection is otherwise as wide from reason and trueth as any may be For what if Christ taking our nature vnto him tooke therewith all our infirmities and affections which you cunningly call passions a word indifferent to affections and sufferings doth that inferre that he tooke vnto him the paines of the damned because mans nature through the hardnesse of his impenitent hart is subiect after this life by Gods iust iudgement to euerlasting damnation for sinne are your eyes so ill matches that you cannot discerne betwixt naturall affections cleauing to all men from their birth and the reall suffering of hell paines inflicted as you defend by Gods immediate hand on the soules of the faithfull here in this life which in deed are reserued for the wicked in another world are somtimes feared of the godly here on earth when the conscience of their sin through want of faith calleth Gods fauor in question with their owne harts first proue that all the godly haue the pains of the damned inflicted here in this life on their soules by the immediat hand of God for nature is not proper nor priuate to this or that man but common and constant to all men and next that notwithstanding your hell paines thus suffered they are in constant and perfect faith and assurance of Gods fauour and his heauenly kingdome and then you haue some pretence for your purpose which now is none For touching the first I appeale not onely to the Scriptures which teach no such thing but to the consciences and experiences of all the faithfull whether this can haue any trueth in it that the true paines of the damned are really inflicted on all their soules here on earth by Gods immediate hand And secondly when they feele any feare of Gods wrath or doubt of Gods fauour whether that come not through the failing and shrincking of their faith which pressed often with the number of their sinnes feareth least God will visite their offences with a mercielesse iudgement because they haue so greatly prouoked him The feare of hell may iustly make them quake and tremble which they acknowledge they haue worthily deserued and the same terrour doth often though not alwaies pursue the wicked vnto desperation but other torments of hell actually inflicted by Gods owne hand on the soules of all the faithfull as the Scriptures deliuer none so you shall not be able to prooue any common to all mankind though God want not power to punish where and as pleaseth him If therefore you speake of naturall affections they were common to Christ with vs but in vs excessiue vpon euery occasion which in him were moderate till they were inflamed with piety or charitie and then they burned more in him then in vs by reason of his abundant giftes and graces farre passing ours But if you talke of some secret speculations priuate to your selfe and some others of your sort that dreame perchaunce of hell paines both night and day according to your owne fansies then no words of mine nor of any auncient father come neere those deuices of yours which are knowen to no man either by reading or feeling but to such conceiters as you are if happely you doe not belie or deceaue your owne hearts p Defenc. pag. 99. li. 37. This your authors here doe fully affirme Cyrill Ambrose and others as before we haue obserued Mine authors there are easily redde and if any such thinge be there mentioned or thence to be concluded I am content you shall be thought to speake some trueth which is almost a maruaile in you you wrie all things so absurdly to your senselesse fansies Of your fourth argument and of these authors I haue largely deliuered what I take to be true euen in the place where you produced them to this purpose And so I leaue this as lately refuted lest I lengthen the volume to much q Defenc. pag. 100. li. 1. It is most vnreasonable which here you doe if you doe as you seeme to vnderstand them of meere bodilie death and of the infirmities meerelie of his flesh Shew that they name or intend any other death then the death of Christes body on the crosse or els your otherwise conceauing them without any words of theirs is a plaine peruerting them to pull them to your part Of infirmities when they speake they meane naturall such as were no derogations to faith nor hope nor to any other the graces of Gods spirite in Christ and in them all Christ was like vnto vs whether they were infirmities of body or soule Whether feare and sorow be infirmities meerely of the flesh is a doubt fit for Feare may be intellectiuâ—… or sensitiue your discussing they may be sensitiue or intellectiue according to their obiects and in Christ since they were caused by things rather foreseene then felt or at least
impressed in them by Gods power and will though whiles strength and memorie dure they may be so confirmed in their good or euill purposes that they doe not yeeld so long as they can make resistance This naturall horror of death which mans soule hath impressed in her by Gods owne doing if Christ would admit in the Garden priuately before his Father as obedient to his ordinance not openly before his enemies to whom he would shew nothing but patience and constance aboue all malefactors and martyrs what force haue your examples to refute this since Christ voluntarily shewed that in the Garden which the soules of all men naturally doe when the feare or force of death falleth on them k Petri Martyris loci communes class 2. loco 1. sect 51. Omnes pij statuunt in morte irâ—… diuinae sensum esse ideoque sua natura dolorem horrorem incutit quod Christus ipse dum or aret in horto alij multi sancti viri declarauerunt All the godly saith Peter Martyr resolue there is a sense of Gods wrath in bodily death and therefore by the nature thereof it striketh a feare and terrour into vs which Christ himselfe when he prayed in the Garden and many other holy men haue declared To let you farther see that your Malefactors and Martyrs doe not prooue that Christ might not shew himselfe afrayd of death in the Garden though in patience and constancie he exceeded all mankinde when he came to the present feeling of his paines you shall heare the iudgement of S. Austen affirming that Christ by this voluntarie Christ would be like the weake to comfort the weake feare would of mercie conforme himselfe to his weake members for their comfort lest they should despaire when they feele the feare of death oppressing them l August in Iohannem tract 60. Firmissimi quidem Christiani si qui sunt qui nequaquam morte imminente turbantur Sed numquid Christo fortiores Quis hoc insanissimus dixerit Quid est ergo quod ille turbatus est nisi quia infirmos in suo corpore hoc est in sua Ecclesia suâ—… infirmitatis voluntaria similitudine consolatus est c. They are indeed most setled Christians if there be any such which are not troubled when death approcheth But are they stronger than Christ Who will so say though he were neuer so madde What is it then that Christ was troubled therewith but because by the voluntarie shew of his weaknesse he did comfort those that were weake in his bodie which is his Church that if any of his were troubled with the approching of death they should in spirit beholde him lest thinking themselues by this fearefulnesse to be reprobates they should be swallowed vp with a woorse death of desperation And elswhere with admiration of Christes goodnesse for this verie cause m Idem in Iohannem tract 52. O Lord sayth he God aboue vs Man for vs I acknowledge thy mercy for in that thou being so great wouldest of thy loue be voluntarily troubled by n Ibidem taking the affection of thy members thou doest comfort many in thy bodie the Church which are necessarily troubled with this their infirmitie lest by despairing they should perish So that neither of these wayes Martyrs nor Malefactours are stronger than Christ though he feared death which you imagine they do not but Christ either in respect of his Fathers ordinance against sinne shewed that conflict with death in himselfe which the soules of all men haue naturally be they Martyrs or Malefactors before they depart their bodies or els of mercie towards vs he would voluntarily assume our weaknesse in the Garden lest we should despaire when we feele the stroke and terrour of death as by his example on the crosse he ledde vs to immooueable patience and confidence in all our afflictions Some Malefactors you say despise death often smile in their torments Being hardened in their sinnes and obstinate against God they may haue either stupefaction of sense by Satans meanes to encourage others to the like wickednesse by their contempt of death or els obduration in their mischiefe till the time of repentance be past but their soules that so stifly contemne Gods iudgements haue another maner of terror before they forsake their bodies when indeed it is too late for want of sense and memorie to call for grace And the Martyrs themselues as all good Christians that are resolued not only quietly to suffer but to desire death that they may be with Christ are by Gods grace preserued in that minde so long as vnderstanding and faith preuaile but when the powers of the soule are ouerwhelmed by the violent paines and pangues of death she is by Gods ordinance in all mankinde and euen in the All feele the sting of death which Christ expressed before 〈◊〉 aied faithfull suffered to feele the touch and sting of bodily death which is fully knowen to none but to God that ordained it and to herselfe that feeleth it though this agonie of death be shortened or succoured as pleaseth God of his mercie to dispose in euery man and in Gods elect this anguish though it be very sharpe for the time turneth to their good and his glorie God supporting and comforting the soules of his Saints with hope of a better life Your reasons therefore are all idle and impertinent which you draw from the patience of Martyrs or stifnesse of Malefactors For admitting all that to be true which Martyrs by grace and Malefactors of pertinacie performe in their torments whiles strength and memorie serue them yet haue they both their conflicts with death when they can neither speake nor expresse what they feele and malefactors a most fearefull confusion when repentance being past which they neglected their soules are now suffered to see the terrours and torments of hell into which they shall presently depart And this naturall anguish of death which assaulteth all men when the soule feeleth the strangenesse and bitternesse of her diuorce from the bodie Christ might purposely â—…uffer to arise in himselfe in the Garden that tasting it with perfect sense and memorie he might sustaine it with greater patience and obedience though it were very painfull than all mankinde besides o Defenc. pag. 101. li. 20. All your answeare is malefactours are no fit comparison for the sonne of God for they are desperate not hauing any feare or care of God till they feele the force of his wrath in hell fire What an answeare is this The answeare is â—…itter and fuller then your wit serueth you to vnderstand or your learning to refute For this ignorant or desperate contempt of Gods iudgment which you alleage in malefactors Christ might not follow since he rightly discerned and religiously feared Gods displeasure against sinne euen in the death inflicted on the body of man So that Christ shewed an humble regard of Gods punishment with due feare and sorow which
for the manhood of Christ to say my God my God why hast thou so long forsaken me without any publike signe or shew that thou louest and fauourest me whom this nation had so much wronged and blasphemed or is it of late become so shamefull a thing with you that Christ should complaine he was forsaken and left in the hands of his persuers without help or ease both old and new writers euen of the best learned that haue been in Christs Church haue thought it no shame for Christ in that very respect so to speake o Hieronym in Matth ca. 27. Maruaile not saith Ierom at Christes complaint of being forsaken when thou seest the scandall of his crosse p 〈◊〉 de fide li. 2. ca. 3. He speaketh as a man saith Ambrose which was no shame for him to doe because being in danger we thinke our selues forsaken of God The same wordes q 〈◊〉 in Mar. ca. 14. Bede r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Rabanus and r 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ca. 27. Aquinas repeat and follow Theodoret saith Christ s 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 21. calleth that a dereliction which was a permission of the diuinity that the humanity should suffer Christe would endure saieth Austen this vnto death in the sight of his enemies that they might take him as one forsaken Lyra. u 〈◊〉 Mat. ca 27. Dixit 〈◊〉 derclictum a deo 〈◊〉 quia dimittebat cum in manibus occidentium Christ saith he was forsaken of God his father because he was left in the hands of those that slew him And so our new writers August epist. 120 x 〈◊〉 in Mat. ca. 27. Hic questus est se in manibus impiorum adomnem ipsorvm libidinem a patre derelictum Christ heere complained saith Bucer that he was forsaken of his father or left in the 〈◊〉 of the wicked to endure all their rage Bullinger y Bullingerus in Matth. ca. 27. Derelinquere siue deserere in 〈◊〉 est permittere To forsake or leaue in Christes wordes on the Crosse is to permit So that this was Christs meaning why doest thou suffer me to be thus afflicted why doest thou permit these things to mine enemies when wilt thou deliuer me Munster z Munsterus in Psalm 21. haec Christi verbanon impatientiam aliquam aut diffiden̄tiam prae se ferunt c these words of Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee shew no impatience or diffidence but declare that he was a true man and that he had truely suffered And what if as some learned Fathers conceaue Christ did not grieuously complaine in those wordes that he was forsaken but thereby led his enemies to looke and search in the Psalmes Prophets for the cause why the messias should be so forsaken deliuered into the hands of sinners as they saw he was a August epist. 120. Christ doth not say saith Austen my God my God why hast thou forsaken me sed causum commonuit requirendam cum addidit vt quid dereliquisti me id est propter quid quam ob causam but he admonished the cause to be searched when he added why hast thou forsaken me that is to what end and for what cause for truely there was a cause and that no small cause why God would not deliuer Christ from the handes of the Iewes but leaue him in the power of his persecutors till he died Leo likewise b Leo de Passione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 17. Therefore Christ cried with a loud voice why hast thou forsaken me that he might make it knowen to all for what cause he ought not to be deliuered nor defended sed saeuientium manibus derelinqui but to be left in the hands of his pursuers which was to be made the Sauiour of the world and the Redeemer of all men non per miseriam sed per misericordiam non amissione auxilij sed definitione moriendi not by any miserable necessitie but of mercie not for lacke of helpe but of purpose to die for vs Whether then Christs meaning in those wordes if we apply them to his owne person were to hasten the time of his death which he knew was at hand and should bring him case of his excessiue How many meanings 〈◊〉 words on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue paines or to mooue his father to demonstrate by those signes which followed what fauour and affection he bare to the person of his sonne though for our sakes he suffered him thus to be vsed or to teach his persecutors that there was a cause which they knew not why himselfe being their messias should die this death on the crosse or last whether his manhood conformed it selfe to the desires and grones of his church and members whom the Prophets teach in this wise to pray when they were oppressed with any great calamity or misery none of these waies I say are the wordes of Christ on the crosse chalengeable but they stand well with the piety patience confidence and expectance that were in Christ and haue better foundation in the sacred Scriptures then your paines of the damned or your second death to be then and there suffered in the soule of Christ. c Defenc. pag. 110. li. 7. The bare names againe of Austen Ambrose Ierom doe here likewise no good this is but a weake kind of reasoning for so learned a Diuine as you are I like better this kind of weakenesse in matters of faith to haue the consent of the learned and auncient fathers for that I teach then your kind of strength which is to be so stiffe in your priuate conceits that you will delude the Scriptures with your figures and deride the fathers as seely fooles not vnderstanding the first principles of Religion rather then you will forgoe the least of your fansies If you light on any Reader of the same mind let him know that the choice wil be hard for him to make whether all the fathers in Christes Church did erre in the chiefe grounds of their faith or he himselfe be out of the trueth If Christian Religion were not since Christes time before our age this is a greater forsaking of Christ then any was on the Crosse. For then hath God forgotten all his purposes and promises so often mentioned in the Prophets and confirmed to Christ if there were neuer Church of Christ since the Apostles death till our dayes And he that is of that humour it skilleth not greatly of what side he be for certainly he can be no member of Christs Church that reiecteth all persons places and ages before his birth as none of Christs I wish no wise nor sober Reader so farre to venture his soule If then to the Primatiue Church of Christ next after the Apostles we yeeld but ordinary knowledge of the Christian faith we may not take from so many learned fathers and Pastours as God hath for so many hundred yeares adorned his Church withall the common vnderstanding of their Catechisme and
if you take vpon you to tell you must consult with Balaams beast for no man can tell you vnlesse you finde by the starres how long that sturre dured For my part I thinke as they were neuer satisfied with his torments so neuer left they taking all occasions to deride him as we may perceiue by the very speaking of these words vpon which some sayd Let be Let vs see if Elias will come and saue him Now if the very passengers did not refraine their tongues from 〈◊〉 on him shal we thinke the standers by did so quickly leaue with mouth to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart to disdaine him and condemne him as forsaken of God in the midst of so many shames and miseries And the poison of their hearts accounting him to be wicked and reiected of God was the thing which Christ respected as well as the 〈◊〉 of their tongues But what if their mocks did cease at twelue of the clocke as you 〈◊〉 presume with out all good ground might not Christ therefore in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 words and hatefull thoughts three houres after when now he was 〈◊〉 to giue vp the ghost though whiles life did last he was content with all quietnesse and silence to endure them Was it so fond and absurd as you talke of to 〈◊〉 them with the beginning of that Psalme that all these things which he had suffered and they had vsed towards him were foreprophesied of the Messias and Sauiour of the world Who but a man destitute of wit or sense would giue such entertainment to two so learned and ancient Fathers for so saying t Defenc. pag. 114. li. 16. Your authorities are bare arguments Ierom bringeth no reason but his owne word 〈◊〉 I see not what he sayth to your purpose at all Your absurdities and contrarieties hatcht out of your owne head are farre worse arguments Ieroms bare word is as good as your bare will or bold face in any place in Christendome Howbeit Ierom is not alone in this minde S. Austen sayth u August epist. 120. Psalmum cuius prophetiam 〈◊〉 ad se 〈◊〉 demonstrans cius primum versum exclamauit cum pendâ—…ret in ligno To shew the prophesie of that Psalme to perteine to him the Lord repeated the first verse thereof with a loud voice as he hung on the crosse You see not how Chrysostome maketh to this purpose Christ spake these wordes sayth Chrysostome that thereby the Iewes might learne he honoured his Father to the last breath and that his Father was no 〈◊〉 x 〈◊〉 in Matth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him Therefore he spake the Prophets words confirming the ancient Scripture that they might perceiue him to be of the same will with his Father Had he beene forsaken 〈◊〉 his Father and conuicted thereof by his owne confession as you interpret Christs words he had declared by his speech his Father to be an aduersarie to him since to 〈◊〉 is no signe of loue but of dislike But he spake these words of the Prophet to proue that his Father was not opposite to him but of the same will with him What els can Chrysostome meane by this but that the Prophet by this Psalme foreshewed the Sonne of God and Sauiour of the world should speake these words on the crosse and thereby not only affirme that God was his God and not his aduersarie but ratifie the ancient Scripture euen that whole Psalme as forespoken of him whereby the Iewes might plainely learne that nothing befell him which the Prophet in that Psalme did not before declare should befall the true Messias and Sauiour of the world y Defenc. pag. 114. li. 〈◊〉 Finally these kindes of dereliction which you mention besides pag. 32 33 38 c. are nothing sitter than the former You sit like a supreame Iudge ouer Fathers and Scriptures and cassiere all besides your owne conceits vpon the warrant of your owne will without any farther trouble or proofe It is vrged in those pages which you passe ouer that forsaking thorowout the Scriptures neuer signifieth the state or paines of the damned You care not for that your will must haue way and your word must stand It is there also auouched that whensoeuer the godly complaine in the Scriptures as they often doe that they are forsaken they meane of helpe in time of need and of deliuerance in the day of trouble Nor Scriptures nor Fathers haue any power to preuaile against your pleasure you will haue forsaking in Christes words to note the paines of the damned though there be no example thereof in any diuine or humane writings You are belike some Praetor or some Pilate that what you haue written you haue written and other reason you will yeeld none z Defenc pag. 114. li. 22. Six or seuen diuers yea contrary senses you haue brought of a few words and of them all you say they are all godly expositions and all these interpretations are sound and stand well with the rules of Christian pietie How sound and fit they are it hath beene scene And what haue you found in any of them dissonant from the rules of Christian pietie for which I commended them They fit not your fansie I know it well but they swarue neither from the faith of Christ nor from the word of God For where all good Expositions The true rules how to expound the Scriptures should haue these foure conditions the right vse of the words the circumstances of the place the coherence with other Scriptures and concordance with the maine grounds of pietie and charitie which by no pretence of any speech in Scripture may be impugned these expositions of the ancient Fathers transgresse in none of them And where the Iewes falsely wickedly and blasphemously obiected to Christ that he was forsaken of God you out of the abundance of your wit and faith will haue Christ on the crosse publikely and plainly to confesse and confirme their sacrilegious obiections and to iustifie their impietie for trueth by acknowledging with a loud voice that he was forsaken of God A worse exposition than which the diuell himselfe could not deuise For whatsoeuer was inwardly betweene him and his Father he would neuer so openly ratifie their impious and slanderous cogitations and imputations with his owne mouth nor leaue such a confession presently before his death in the eares and hearts of all his enemies as that he found himselfe to be truely and inwardly forsaken of God but rather calling that a forsaking which they misconstrued to be so he complained that God had so long with such patience left him in their hands without any shew as yet of loue and fauour towards him which made his enemies thinke God had indeed forsaken him z Defenc pag. 114. li. 26. Verily you haue a good head if you can reconcile all these and make them stand together Doth any man that hath so much as a head require to haue all expositions reconciled before they may be tolerated
yet will I looke againe toward thine holy temple Thou hast brought vp my life from the pit ó Lord my God z Ibid. ver 7. When my soule fainted I remembred the Lord and my praier came vnto thee into thine holy temple So that Ionas sainted with feare of death but not with the paines of the damned who I troe do not pray in their paines much lesse trust in God or are heard of him as Ionas was a Trea. pa. 46. Dauid wanted not the like in his manifold and fearefull agonies many times Though I exempt neither Dauid nor any of Gods saints here on earth from b 2. Cor. 7. feares within and sights without and troubles on euery side as the Apostle speaketh of himselfe yet is there no proofe that Dauid euer suffered the paines of the damned his words conuince no such thing Sheol which you would now turne to signifie hell though in the words of Dauid applied to Christ by Peter in the acts you stiffely refuse it standeth indifferent to note the pit prouided for the body which is the graue or prepared for the soule which is hell So that out of a word admitting this double signification you can neuer inferre which sense you please but by some other sound and sufficient circumstances Againe there are but two places which cleerly confesse that Dauid was compassed or ouertaken with the snares dangers or troubles of Sheol the 18 Psalme and the 116. In the first of which it is more then euident as well by the occasion of the Psalme as by the variation and coniunction of other words that Dauid ment the danger of death which often beset him vnder the persuit of Saul and other his enemies as the manifest words of holy writte do witnesse For this is the inscription of the Psalme c 2. Sam. 22. Dauid spake vnto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord deliuered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul So that the snares and ropes of death which he speaketh of in that Psalme were apparantly the manifold dangers of life which his enemies and chiefly Saul put him in Secondly the titles that he there ascribeth vnto God proue that in his persecutions Dauid neuer doubted of Gods goodnesse towards him but in all his troubles held that for his chiefe hope and help d Psal. 18. v. 1. I will loue thee deerly saith he ô Lord my strength e 2. The Lord is my Rocke and my fortresse and my deliuerer my God my Rocke in him will I trust my shield the horne of my saluation and my refuge f 3. I will call vpon the Lord which is worthy to be praised so shall I be safe from mine enemies Thirdly the words there declaring his dangers and yet at last the destruction of his enemies argue as much For he saith g Ibid. vers 4. The ropes of death compassed me the floudes of vngodlinesse that is of the vngodly made me afraid The h 5. ropes of Sheol enuironed me the snares of death ouertooke me And so for the persons of his enemies he saith i Ibid. vers 18. They preuented me in the day of my trouble but the Lord was my stay the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousnesse because I kept the waies of the Lord. His seuering his enemies from God and iustifying himselfe not in the sight of God but in respect of them proueth all his intention in that Psalme to be touching his enemies whom by Gods aide and might hee k vers 37. persued and consumed wounding them that they fell vnder his feet and whose necks were giuen him that he might destroy them that hated him l vers 41. They cried vnto the Lord sayth he but there was none to deliuer them This no way concerneth the diuell nor his tentations much lesse any paines of hell from the immediate hand of God but most euidently the plots of men that were his enemies and sought his destruction The other Psalme maketh the like profession vpon the like occasion and affirmeth that God heard Dauid and inclined his eare vnto him when the m Psal. 116. snares of death compassed him when the straights of Sheol found him out when troubles and griefe tooke hold on him In other places where Dauid saith that his life or Soule was deliuered and saued from n Psal. 30. Sheol and euen from the o 86. lowest Sheol it is indifferent which sense wee follow since no doubt he did ascribe the euerlasting Saluation of his Soule from Hell vnto Gods goodnes and mercie no lesse then he did the preseruation of his life from the Graue And therefore I shall not neede to discusse any of those places which admit both constructions and yet bring not your hell-paines into this life any whit the sooner Againe when Dauid speaketh of feares ropes snares of hell if it were graunted that Dauid intended as well the inward assaultes of Satan to subuert his soule as the outward perils of his life to shorten his daies it helpeth not your cause For the gates euen of hell that is the power thereof preuaile in this life against all that are not of Christs true church and often compasse and besiege the faithfull and p 1. Pet. 5. the roaring lion that goeth about seeking whom he may deuoure is neither idle nor vnable to take hold of mens soules by sundrie sinnes tentations deceits and snares if he be not stedfastly resisted by faith and to make them the children of hell not by the present suffering thereof but by preparing and obliging them to the wrath to come Of the Scribes and Pharises Christ saith q Matth. 23. vers 15. You compasse sea and land to make one Proselyte that is a nouice of your profession and when he is gotten you make him filium gehennae the child of hell double to your selues Shall we hence conclude that the Scribes and Pharises and all their Proselytes were heere on earth in the true paines of hell and of the damned because our Sauiour who can not erre pronounceth them THE CHILDREN OF HELL or shall wee rather accept Christes owne Exposition where he saith r Ibid ver 33. O Serpents generation of Vipers how should you escape the future damnation or iudgment of hell Lastly as the name of God is added figuratiuely to manie things to signifie the beautie and excellencie thereof in their kindes as the s Psal. 36. hilles of God and the t 80. Ceders of God for faire and goodlie hills and trees so the name of hell is vsed in detestation for that which is fearefull and intolerable as the sorowes of hell and straights of hell and such like Whereby it is euident that you may dreame of Dauid as you doe of others that he felt in this life the paines of hell or of the damned but if you sett your selfe to prooue it
Both these Christ affirmeth in the garden k Matth. 26. vers 53. Thinkest thou saith he to Peter that I cannot now pray to my Father and he will giue me more then twelue Legions of Angels how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so And at the second time of his returne to praier l Ibid. vers 42. O my Father if this cup cannot paesse away from me but that I must drinke it that is thereof thy will be donne So that by the first frame of Christs praiers m Ibid. ver 39. O my Father IF IT BE POSSIBLE let this cup passe from me If we vnderstand either Christs purpose to make it appeare that his death reuealed in the Scriptures was now by Gods counsell necessarily required for our redemption and that it was no want of power nor neglect of his safetie that put him into the hands of his enemies but his owne good will obeying the wisedome of his Father for our saluation or els that he desired the sharpenesse of the Cuppe might passe from him so farre as was possible that it might not ouerpresse his strength and patience in either of these two senses the words stand well and haue no touch of declining or disliking the counsell and determination of God to ransome and reconcile the world to himselfe by the death of his Sonne If with Chrysostom Cyril Damascene and others we like to make it the voice of mans weake flesh in Christ but still subiected to the will of God there is no repugnance to the will of God which is alwayes preferred though there be a declining of his hand if it were possible to stand with his will For so long as obedience ouerruleth the sense of nature and nature sheweth nothing but that which is ingraffed in it by Gods power and will I doe not see what aduantage you can take Sir Defender at this third sense of Christes words though we grant the flesh of man to be so created that it shrinketh at the weight of Gods hand and would decline it if it might stand with Gods will Els were it not lawfull to pray that affliction might be ended or eased if we might desire nothing that were possible to be contrary to Gods will since we know not his particular will touching our temporall troubles but by the euent n Defenc. pag. 126. li. 16. Thus Dauids and Christs were not onely possible to be contrarie but contrarie in deede as the sequell shewed You may as well inferre that God himselfe had contrary willes when he repented that he made man when he threatned destruction to Niniâ—…eh and death to King Ezechiah and yet vpon their prayers spared both howbeit it were blasphemie to say that God hath willes indeede contrary one to the other as the sequell sheweth He hath an absolute will working and perfourming in heauen and earth whatsoeuer pleaseth him which cannot be resisted nor frustrated by any means He hath a conditionall will by iustice threatning and punishing vs when we are sinfull and carelesse and by mercy sparing vs when we repent and turne vnto him And this will in him though it worke contrary effects in vs yet it is in him onâ—… and the same will wherewith he giueth his owne as he best liketh pardoneth the penitent and reuengeth the obstinate the one agrâ—…eing with his mercie the other with his iustice So Christ had two willes the one proportioned to Gods creation whereby the flesh shrinketh and shunneth paine the other measured by Gods determination which declared his obedience and in either of these he accorded with the will of God who ment not onely to strike but to haue the stroke felt with paine and griefe to mans nature in Christ. o Defenc. pag. 126. li. 17. Howbeit both their desires were neuerthelesse holy made in faith assured to receiue as conditionall desires may be directed aright prepared sufficiently yet only for this cause seeing Dauid simply knew not Gods contrarie will Christ knew it not at this instant Dauid repented his sin with which God was displeased the more earnestly instantly because he saw the dislike which God had of his fact was the cause of death denounced to his child So that Dauids desire to please and pacifie God with most humble and inward submission the rather if it were possible to auert the wrath of God threatned to his child for his offence had in it pietie charitie humilitie and other good points of godly repentance and his prayer for his child was pardonable because he knew not Gods certaine resolution to the contrarie though he heard the Prophet in Gods name denounce p 2. Sam. 12. the child should surely die which Dauid tooke to be conditionall as other Gods threats are oftentimes the rather to reduce sinners to more zealous and hartie conuersion vnto God But in Christes prayers no such thing can be pretended His not remembring what he knew most assuredly and beleeued most stedfastly could not make his prayers to be prepared sufficiently directed aright and assured to receiue For neither preparation direction faith nor assurance could be in the soule of Christ without vnderstanding and memorie since neither forgetfulnesse nor ignorance of that which we should know doe warrant our prayers to be holy much lesse to be perfect and such as are assured to be heard And if all these conditions of faithfull and Godly prayer were found in Christs petition in the Garden as you confesse shew vs how they could be indeed contrary to Gods knowen will I haue no doubt of all Christes prayers and speaches but they were well aduised rightly prepared and throughly assured to be heard that is perfectly holy as he intended them but Christes not remembring the will of God reuealed to him could not performe or effect these things in his prayer but rather contrariwise his full knowledge and present remembrance of Gods will with exact obedience and submission thereunto Otherwise not remembring that which he well knew might excuse from sinne if hee were so amazed that vnderstanding and memorie failed him but it could not make him assured to receiue since God doth graunt their desires to such as dewly remember and not in such as in part or wholy forget his will Againe not remembring the trueth of Gods will reuealed is not faith in any man since faith is the sure and full perswasion of Gods will and promises toward vs which if we remember not how may we be said to be fully assured and firmely perswaded of them Wherefore you make out this matter with emptie words as your manner is least you should be taken tardie with a plaine error and haue peeced together very vntowardly diuers mens places the head not agreeing with the hâ—…eles since you first defended that Christ was forgetfull and all confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie or else he had sinned in praying against Gods knowen will and now you
man of any learning or vnderstanding thus in print and open view of the whole Realme to rage revell rush on with lying craking and facing when he speaketh not one true word for first Sir flincher is this the point heere or any where proposed by me whether Christs sufferings were only bodily did I promise or produce any Fathers to that end is it not the death of the soule and the paines of the damned which I impugned in Christs sufferings haue I not most truely performed which I euer professed that the whole Church of Christ for so many hundred yeeres neuer thought neuer heard of the death of Christs soule in the worke of our redemption but rested their faith on the death of Christs body as a most sufficient price both for the soules and bodies of the faithfull What cunning then is this first to shift your hands of that you can no way prooue though you still doe and must professe it and then to clamour at me for drawing the Fathers cleane from their intent and meaning is this the way to credit your new Creed by such deuices and stratagemes to intertaine the people of God least they should see how farre you be slid from the ancient primatiue Church of Christ take a while but the thought of a sober man and this pangue will soone be ouerpast Did you not vndertake to prooue the death of Christs soule by Scriptures which indeed I first and most required and haue you so donne looke backe to your miserable mistakings and palpable peruertings of the words of the holy Ghost and tell vs what one syllable you haue brought sounding that way are your secrets such that they be no where reuealed in the word of God must all faith come from thence and is your faith exempted that it shall haue no foundation there are men and Angels accursed that preach any other Gospell then was deliuered and written by Christs Apostles and shall you be excused for deuising a new kind of redemption by the death of Christs soule no where witnessed in the Scriptures you see how easie it were to be eloquent against you in a iust and true cause but words must not winne the field What I impugned my sermons will shew what I haue prooued I will not proclaime If I haue failed in that I endeuoured the labour is mine the liberty is the Readers to iudge Let the indifferent read it they shall find somewhat to direct them let the contentious skanne it they shall see somewhat to harle their hast and perhaps to restraine their stifnesse What euer it be I leaue it to others since the discourser hasteth towards an end and so doe I. s Defenc. pag. 146. li. 2 This is the profit that comes by ordinarie flaunting with Fathers which many do frequent in these dayes Thinke they if the Scriptures alone suffice not for things in religion that the Fathers will suffice or if the Scriptures may be wrested by subtle heads that yet the Fathers can not Is it not enough for your selfe to be a despiser of all antiquitie and sobrietie but you must insult at them that beare more regard to either than you do If to flaunt with Fathers be so great a fault which yet respecteth their iudgements that haue beene liked and allowed from age to age in the Church of Christ what is it to fliske with pride and follie grounded on nothing but on selfe-loue and singularitie It were to be wished that euen some of the best writers of our age as they thinke themselues had had more respect to the auncient Fathers then they shew we should haue wanted a number of nouelties in the Church of God which now wee are troubled withall as well in Doctrine as in discipline This course of concurring with the lights of Gods Church before our time in matters of faith though you mislike other manner of men then you are or euer will be haue allowed and followed as u August contra Iâ—…num li. 1. Augustine x Theodor. diol 2. 3. Theodorete y Leo epist. 97. 〈◊〉 Leonem Leo z Cassi. de incarnat Domini li. 7 ca. 5. Cassianus a Gelas. de duabus in Christo natâ—…ris Gelasius b Vigilius li. 5. cap. 6. Vigilius and the two c Hispalensi concilium 2. ca. 13. councels of Hispalis and others not doubting the sufficiencie of the Scriptures but shewing the correspondencie of beleeuing and interpreting the Scriptures in all ages to haue bene the same which they imbraced and vrged And in all euennesse of reason were it better to feede the people with our priuate conceits pretended out of Scripture or to let such as be of iudgement vnderstand that we frame no faith but such as in the best times hath bene collected and receiued from the grounds of holy Scripture by the wisest and greatest men in the Church of God your only example turning and winding the words of the holy Ghost to your owne conceits will shew how needfull it is not to permit euery prater to raigne ouer the Scriptures with figures and phrases at his pleasure and thence to fetch what faith he list If you so much reuerence the Scriptures as you report which were to be wished you would why deuise you doctrine not expressed in the Scriptures Why teach you that touching mans redemption which is no where written in the word of God Indeed the Scriptures are plaine in this point of all others what death Christ died for vs if you did not peruert them against the histories of the Euangelists and testimonies of the Apostles Omit the description of his death so farely witnessed by the foure Euangelists what exacter words can we haue then the Apostles that Christ d Coloss. 1. pacisied things in earth and things in heauen by the bloud of his crosse and reconciled vs which were strangers and enemies in the bodie of his flesh through death Beleeue what you reade and what you reade not in the word of God beleeue not and this matter is ended but by Synecdoches without cause you put to the Scriptures not what you read in them but what you like best and by Metaphores and Metonimies you will take bodie for substance and flesh for soule And so where the Apostle auoucheth that we were reconciled to God through death in the bodie of Christs flesh you tell vs we could not be redeemed without the death of Christs soule and the essence of the paines of the damned suffered by suddaine touches from the immediate hand of God after an extraordinarie manner If you teach no doctrine but deliuered in the Scriptures aband on these deuices not expressed in the Scriptures If you content your selfe with the all sufficient word of God in matters of faith you must relinquish the death of Christs soule and paines of the damned as no part of our redemption since there is no such thing contained in the word of God To me and
ascend aboue the higth of the clouds and I wil be like the most high * The last or highest heauen the Scripture nameth the Seat throne or habitation of God which is not only holy as whereinto no vncleane thing shall enter but is aboue all other heauens and often called the heauen of heauens In this is the presence of Gods throne that is a perpetuall and plaine reuelation of his diuine glory and maiesty which the elect Angels alwaies behold And heere is not only the fulnesse of ioy as in the presence of God but the stability security and satiety of euerlasting life and blisse to men and Angels without any defect doubt or danger of failing or decreasing In this they want nothing and besides this they desire nothing since in him who is all in all they find all things worthy loue delight and ioy Looke downe from heauen saith Esay to God and behold from the dwelling place of thine holinesse and glory And Ieremie The Lord shall crie from aboue and giue out his voice from his holy habitation Behold the heauens and the heauens of heauens containe thee not saith Salomon Praise the Lord from the heauens saith the Psalmist praise him in the highest Praise him all his Angels praise him all his armies Praise him heauens of heauens To this place when Christ ascended with his body the Apostle saith of him that he was made higher then the heauens and ascended aboue all the heauens and sitteth â—…t the right hand of maiesty in the high places Now two we call both not all but of three we first vse this word â—…ll And the Greeke tongue hath a speciall number for two which is the duall the plurall is applied to moe Besides Moses saith in the beginning before the light or firmament were created God made eth hashamaiâ—…m the heauens and the earth where by the name of heauen the best interpreters vnderstand the place appointed for the habitation of Angels and the reuelation of Gods glory Now the word hashamaiâ—…m in Hebrew being not the singular number must haue diuers maâ—…s in it as well as the aire and 〈◊〉 haue diuers regions and sphaeres to make the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree to either of them So that when Christ is said to haue ascended aâ—… the heauens nature reason and Grammar besides Scripture seeme to teach vs that he ascended aboue that part of the third heauen where the Apostle noteth Paradise to be And consequently if the soules of the righteous deceased be in Paradise they are not as yet in the highest heauens where Christ sitteth in the glory of God his Father in whose house are many mansions and whether they shal be admitted at the last day when Christ shall come againe to take them vnto himselfe and to haue them for euer with him in the possession and communion of his kingdome and glory that they may be like the Angels To this difference of place and glorie before and after the day of iudgement the Scriptures incline as well as the Fathers if I mistake them not which I referre to the iudgement of the wise and learned S. Iohn saw the soules of the Martyrs Vnder the altar where they were willed to rest vntill the number of their fellow seruants were fulfilled But when crownes of glorie are giuen them as in the last day they shall stand in the presence of the throne of God and before the Lambe and he that sitteth on the throne will dwell among them Henceforth saith Paul is laied vp for me the crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the iust iudge shall giue me at that day and not to me only but vnto all that loue his appearing Blessed be God saith Peter who hath be gotten vs again vnto â—… liuely hope to an inheritance immortall vndâ—…filed which fadeth not away reserued in heauen for you which is prepared to be shewed in the last time Now are we the Sonnes of God saith Iohn but yet it doth not appeere what we shall be we know that when he shall appecre we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is that is aswell the glorie of his Godhead as of his manhood Then as Paul saith to all the faithfull Your life is hidde with Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall ye also appeare with him in glory And he shal say Come ye blessed of my Father receaue the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world and not retaine the kingdome already possessed by you It were easie out of new writers to shew the same Master Calâ—…m shall suâ—…ce for al who vseth not ouersoone to concurie with the fathers when they diuert from the Scriptures The soules of the saints after death are in peace saith he because they are escaped from the power of the enemy But when heauenly Ierusalem shal be aduanced to her glory and the true Salomon Christ the king of peace shall sitte aloft in his iudgement seat then shall the true Israelites raigne with their KING This they may easily perceiue by the Scriptures whosoeuer haue learned to giue eare to God and heare his voice This also haue they deliuered to vs by hand who haue sparingly and reuerently handled the mysteries of God For Tertullian saith why should we not admit Abrahams bosome to be called a temporall receptacle of the soules of the faithfull And Chrysostom Vnderstand what and how great a thing it is for Abraham to sitte and for the Apostle Paul to expect vntill he be perfected that then they may receaue their reward For vntill we come the Father hath foretold theÌ„ he wil not giue them their reward Art thou grieued because thou shalt not yet receaue it what should Aâ—… doe who ouercame so long since and yet sitteth without his crowne what Noe and the rest of those times for behold they expected thee and expect others after thee They preuented vs in their conflicts but they shall not preuent vs in their crownes because there is onetime appointed to crowne all together Augustine in many places describeth secret receptacles in which the soules of the godly are kept vntill they receaue their crowne and glory Bernard in two homilies made at the feast of all Saints where he handleth this question of purpose teacheth that the soules of the Saints departed from their bodies do stand as yet in the outward courts of the Lord being admitted to rest but not to glory Into that most blessed â—…ouse saith he they shall not enter neither without vs nor without their bodies Those that place soules in some part of heauen so they giue them not the glory of the resurrection to be shewed on them at the time of the resurrection and not before they differ nothing from the former opinion And in his institutions Since the Scripture euery where biddeth vs depend
vpon the expectation of Christs comming and differreth the crowne of glory 〈◊〉 that time let vs be content with the boundes which God hath appointed vs that the soules of the godly hauing ended their warfare of this life depart into an happy rest where with a blessed ioy they looke for the fruition of the promised glory and so all things stand suspended till Christ our redeemer appeare Then none of these writers old nor new so conceaued or so expounded Christes wordes as you doe that all his Saints doe locally accompany him and generally wheresoeuer he abideth or whithersoeuer he goeth The Fathers all with one voice I may truely affirme teach and beleeue euen that Christ after death went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were yea and there remained till his resurrection To which consent of men some where you ascribe exceeding much Your assertions all the Fathers with one consent refuse to which agreement of learned and auncient writers I confesse I yeeld very much when there is no expresse Scripture against it alleaged and vrged by some of themselues as in all the cases where I forsake them there is but what is that to your nouelties who neither in the first nor second question yeeld any thing to their iudgements and censures put them altogether That the soules of the faithfull before the comming of Christ were in Abrahams bosome our Sauiour first deliuered and no father that I know departeth from it but where Abrahams bosome was whether in earth or elsewhere and whether it were a skirt of hell or no till Christ transferred them thence to Paradise of this some fathers diuersely thinke and diuersely speake And but that Saint Austin learnedly discusseth and resolueth this point that Abrahams bosome could be no member nor part of hell since this was a secret habitation of rest and happinesse which the Scripture neuer affirmeth of hell but calleth it a place of torment it would be hard for you or any of your crue to say where Abrahams bosome was That Christ after death went to the place where the faithfull were in expectation and desire of his comming to redeeine the world the Fathers affirme but that he went no whither else or that hec went not to the place of the damned as well to discharge and release his members thence that is from all feare and daunger thereof as to destroy the power of the diuell ouer all his and to triumph ouer the force and furie of Satan in his owne person that euery knee of things vnder the earth should bow to him as well as of things in heauen and earth in this you vtterly mistake the consent of the Fathers which you so much talke of and shew that you neuer came neere the reading of them howsoeuer you presume to affirme what you list of them And least I should carie the Reader without cause to rest on my word as you would haue him doe on yours he shall heare the Fathers speake their owne mindes and so the better iudge of your abusing them Ireneus Dauid said prophesying this of Christ thou hast deliuered my soule from the nethermost hell Cyprian When in Christs presence hell was broken open captiuitie made captiue his conquering soule being presented to his fathers sight returned without delay to his bodie Lactantius or as some thinke Venantius o The darkenesse fled at the brightnesse of Christ the grosse mist of eternall night vanished Hinc tumuluÌ„ repetens post tariâ—…ra carne resumpta belliger ad coelos ampla trophea refers Then after thy being in hell thou going to thy graue resuming thy bodie as a warrier thou barâ—…st to heauen a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CONQVEST ouer hell Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who euer went to hell besides the sonne which rose from the dead at the sight of whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keepers of hell gates shrâ—…ncke for feare Yea HADES HELL or the Diuell at the sight of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was afraid and amazed saying Who is this that descendeth hither with so great power and authoritie Who is this that teareth open the brazen gates of hell breaketh the bars of Adamant Who is this that being crucisied is not conquered by me who am death Who is this that looseth their bandes whom I conquered Who is this that by his owne death destroyeth me that am death Eusebius To him only were the gates of death opened him only the keepers of hell gates seeing shranke for feare and the chiefe ruler of death the diuell knowing him alone to be his Lord rose out of his loftie throne and spake to him fearefully with supplication intreatie Eusebius called Emisenus The Lord descending darkenesse trembled at the suddaine sight of vnknowen light Aâ—… praefulgidum fidus caeloruÌ„ Tartareae caliginis profunda viderunt And the deepes of hellish darkenesse saw the most bright starre of heauen Deposito quidâ—… corpore imas atque abdit as Tartari sedes filius hominis penetrauit the Sonne of man laying aside his body pearced the lowest and secret seates of Tartarus or of the dungeon of hell Hilarie The powers of heauen doe incessantly glorifie the Sonne of God sor conquering death breaking the gates of hell In hell he killed death Gregorie Nazianzene Going to the gates of hell all couered with darknesse thou shalt pearce hell with a sharpe speare and shalt deliuer all thou alone being free and shalt besides haue the victory ouer thine enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valiantly SVBDVING HELL the SERPENT and DEATH Chryâ—…ostome Descendente in tenebrosam inferoruÌ„ caligineÌ„ Domino ettam illic tunâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dubio dies splendidissimus fuit vbi seruator illuxit tenuit in illo noctis horrore inuiolabilem Maiestatis suae splendorem The Lord descending into the darke mâ—…st of hell euen there no doubt then was a most cleere day where our Sauiour shined In that horror of night he held the brightnesse of his Maiestie inuiolable Ierom. Pro vita populi mortuus non es derelictus in Tartaro Dying for the life of thy people thou wast not left in hell And againe Christ dâ—…stroyed and brake open the closed places of hell and put the diuell that had power ouer death from his kingdome and Dominion Augustine If the holy Scripture had sayd that Christ after death came to Abrahams bosome not naming hell and the sorrowes thereof I maruaile if any man would haue durst to affirme that Christ descended into hell But because euident testimonies of the Scripture mention hell and the sorowes thereof no cause is occurrent why our Sauior should be beleeued to haue come thither but to saue from those paines And againe There is a lower hell â—…hither the dead go whence God would deliuer our soules by sending his sonne thither For therefore Christ came euen
vnto hell that we should not abide in hell Ruffinus Eousque ille miserando descendit vsquequo tu peccando deiectâ—…s es Christ descended of mercie to the very place whither thou wast deiected by sinne Fulgentius It remained to the full effect of our redemption that the man which God tooke vnto him without sin should descend euen thither whither man separated from God fell by desert of sin that is to hell where the soule of a sinner vseth to be tormented and to the graue where the flesh of a sinner vseth to be corrupted yet so that neither Christs flesh might rot in the graue nor his soule be â—…ormented with the sorrowes of hâ—…ll Cyrill The powers Principalities and rulers of the world which the Apostle numbreth none other could conquere and carie into the desart of hell but only he who said be of good hope I haue ouercome the world Therefore it was necessary that our Lord Sauiour should not only be borne a man amongst men but also descend to hell that he might carie into the wildernesse of hell the goate that was to be led away and returning thence this worke perfourmed might ascend to his father Caesarius Arelatensis Aeterna nox inferorum Christo descendente resplenduit attonitae mentis obstupuere Tortores The euerlasting darkenesse of hell was made bright with Christs descending thither the tormentors inwardly stroken were amazed Prudentius Tartarum benignus intrat fracta cedit Ianua fertur horruisse mundus noctis aeternae chaos Christ mildely entred hell breaking open the gates the world shooke at the opening of Chaos of euerlasting darkenesse Arator Infernum Dominus cum destructurus adiret Sol ruit in Tenebras arua tremunt concussa locis saxa crepant tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cunta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quo vitae portitor ibat When the Lord went to hell to destroy it the Sunne was darkned the earth shooke the rockes claue in sunder Hell mourned to see her bands loosed But what could death doe there whither the bringer of life came Petrus Chrysologus Mortem suscepisse vicisse intrasse inferos redijsse venisse in iura Tartari Tartari iura soluisse non est fragilit as sed potestas To suffer death and to conquere it to goe to hell and to returne to come within the lawes of the dungeon of hell â—…nd to dissolue the lawes therof is not weakenesse but power And thus he maketh Christ to speake after his resurrection to his Disciples Ego ex mortuis sum vinus ex infernis sum supernâ—…s Ego sum quem mors fugit inferna tremuerunt Tartarus Deum confessus est I am aliue from the dead and come vp from those below I am he whom death fled from hell trembled at and the dungeon of hell confessed to be God Maximus This day of Christes resurrection which the Lord hath made penetrat omnia vniuersa continet coelum terram Tartarumque complectitur pearceth all places conteineth all compriseth heauen earth and the dungeon of hell For that Christ the true day lightned heauen earth and the deepe of hell the Scripture witnesseth There should be no end of alleaging if I should cite all that speake to this purpose These be auncient and sufficient to prooue this refuter a fabler in affirming that the Fathers with one voice auouch Christ went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were whom the Fathers did not thinke to be in the torments of hell nor in the place of the damned and to shew that I teach none other sense of the Creed then all these Fathers and infinit others did before me Neither can they be shifted off as this Trifler vseth to decline them who name Hades that they ment the world of soules which might be as well in heauen or paradise as in hell since they speake of Christes descent after death to that place where there was euerlasting darknesse and amazednesse of diuels bondage and punishment of sinners deliuerance from destruction an happie and mightie conquest ouer enemies with such like circumstances which by no meanes can agree either to Paradise or heauen or to any other place but onely to hell where these things are found and no where else And if new writers may be regarded I could bring as many or moe of them of great learning and good iudgement confessing and allowing this exposition of the Creede which I follow that Christ descended into Hell to destroy Satans power and force ouer his and to free them all from comming thither as concurrent and consonant with the sacred Scriptures and namely refelling your fansie that Christ went no whither but where his faithfull and holy seruants were The very Catechisme which you would seeme so much to respect as if it were the publicke and authorised doctrine of this Realme maketh it needfull to beleeue that as Christs body was laid in the bowels of the earth so his soule separated from his body descended ad inferos to the places or spirits below that is to hell and with all the force and efficacie of his death so pearced vnto the dead atque inferos adeo ipsos and euen to the spirits in hell that the soules of the vnfaithfull perceaued the condemnation of their infidelity to be most sharp and iust ipseque inferorum princeps Satan and Satan himselfe the Prince of hell saw all the power of his tyrannie and of darcknesse to be weakned broken and destroied and contrariwise the dead who whiles they liued beleeued in Christ vnderstood the worke of their redemption to be performed and felt the fruite and force thereof with a most sweet and certaine comfort The Catechisme treating of Christs descent to hell mentioned in the Creed deliuereth this to be the sense thereof that Christes soule separated from his body descendit ad inferos descended vnto hell And least we should doubt what he meaneth by inferi he putteth inferos as a degree lower farder then the dead in saying Penetrauit ad mortuos atque inferos adeo ipsos Christ pearced vnto the dead and which more is euen to hell it selfe and maketh Satan to be Princeps inferorum the Prince of hell Who is no chiefe ruler either in heauen or Paradise but onlie in hell Againe he resolueth that together with the soule of Christ came the power force of Christs death as well to the faithfull which were saued by him as to the rest iustly condemned for their vnbeliefe and that the Diuell himselfe saw all the power of darckenesse afflicted and oppressed by Christ. More then this I do not teach so much the catechisme auoucheth to be part of the Christian faith and the meaning of that article in the Creed Christ descended into hell Peter Martyr likewise in the confession of his faith and exposâ—…tion of the Creed sayth As touching Christes soule as soone as it
is into hell Euthymius After death they shall descend to hell Lyra. Into the lower parts that is to Gehenna which is in the lower parts of the earth So Pellican They that seeke me to death shall fall on destruction and be rather thrust downe to hell Pomerane These things shew that all the endeuours of such as be enemies to godlinesse shal be frustrate and they shall descend to hell to euerlasting death Westhmerus followeth Pomerane word for word Bucer Dauid denounceth destruction to his enemies seeking his soâ—…le to death as that they should be cast downe to hell which he meaneth by the lower parts of the earth The verse ensuing fortelleth the reiection of their carcaâ—…es to be meat for Foxes Felinus insisteth on the very same words Mollerus They shall goe to the lowest parts of the earth that is they shall vtterly perish and descend to hell and their carcasses be cast abroad in the fields to be torne and deâ—…oured of wild Beasts Hauing now found by the circumstances of the Scriptures themselues as also by the iudgement of so many Iewish Rabbins Christian writers old and new expositors that your heaping vp of Hebrew phrases is but the vaine broching of your owne fansies and consequently that there is no cause for you to controle the full consent of so many learned Fathers as haue applied the Apostles wordes to Christs descent to the lower parts of the earth that is to hell which the Scriptures place vnder the earth Let vs see which of these two senses yours or mine best fitteth the apostles purpose Of yours I may safely say it hath no coherence with the wordes nor intent of the Apostle For these two verses the ninth and the tenth interposed wiâ—…h a parenthesis apparantly pertaine to the verifying of Dauids wordes cited immediately before in the eight verse that Christ ascending on high lead captiuitie captiue Before Christes ascending by way of relation the Apostle putteth Christes descending and because descending and ascending must haue contrary extreames from which and to which the motion is made therefore to the highest heauens aboue which Christ ascended Paul opposeth the lowest parts of the earth to which Christ first descended The end of his descending is comprised in Dauids wordes to leade Captiuitie Captiue which must be from the place of their chiefest strength euen as the end of his ascending after hee had led captiuitie Captiue was to giue gifts to men Now these two are the greatest blessings that Christ in this life bestoweth on his Church and in order follow one the other as Dauid first and after him the Apostle setteth them For we were first to be deliuered from our enemies and from the hands of all that hate vs I meane the enemies of our soules as Zacharie filled with the holy Ghost did prophesie we should before we could serue him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse as wee ought to doe â—…ll the dayes of our life Deliuerance from the power of our enemies we had none but by Christs conquering them and leading them Captiue And full conquest ouer them Christ had none but by rising from the dead and treading vnder his feet all their power and strength not onely against himselfe but against all his And no place fitter to dissolue and breake all their force and might then in the chiefe castle of their kingdome which is hell seated in the lower parts of the earth So that this exposition of the learned and auncient Fathers which I before abundantly deliuered in their owne wordâ—…s is so farre from any iust challenge that it orderly and plainely lightneth and iustifieth the wordes of Dauid which the Apostle there taketh vpon him to illustrate Now in your exposition there is no such thing For first the graue is not in the lower parts of the earth nor opposite to the height of heauen whither Christ ascended according to the Apostles wordes Next Christ descending to his graue was rather lead captiue of death then shewed any conquest ouer death Thirdly before Christ many rose from the graue as well aunciently raised by Elias and Elizeus as then newly by Christ himselfe But this conquest which Dauid heere celebrateth was not ouer the graue onely but ouer hell Satan sinne death and all the power and feare of the enemie which Christ led Captiue leauing none vnconquered and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in his owne person as the same Apostle elsewhere deliuereth Therefore this place must stand for good till you or your friends bring better helpes to vnioynt it then your and their idle phrasiologie gainsaying the whole Church of Christ for your priuate nouelties and vanities Where you expound the text and say he descended to the lowest and ascended to the highest that he might fill all places with the presence of his manhood you speake both inconueniently and farre from the Apostles meaning You adde to it with his presence very deceitfully in a differing letter like the text and together with the text What censure this deserueth the godly doe know What censure deserue you that cannot speake three lines without an open iniurie or manifest folly You first confesse I expound the text and then you charge me with adding to the text as if any man could possibly expound any place of Scripture and adde nothing to the wordes Then were plaine reading of the text the best expounding of it and so should all exposition be superfluous and iniurious as most of your expositions are And who besides you so deepely doteth as to charge an expositour with saying somewhat besides the text but I adde it in a different letter like the text and together with the text I cannot expound any place of Scripture but I must insert the wordes of the text which I expound and ioyne them together with mine owne The text I cite not three lines before exactly as it lieth in the apostles writings and set by the side the quotation of the place Ephes. 4. with a direction to the wordes alleaged by me out of the apostle I then reason from the true meaning of the apostles wordes who saith that Christ first descended to the lower parts of the earth and ascending on high lead captiuitie captiue Whence did Christ lead captiuitie captiue but from the lower parts of the earth If that were the purpose of his descending the lower parts of the earth were the place whence he lead captiuitie euen all his our enemies captiue And so I made the conclusion of mine owne and not a fresh allegation as you absurdly mistake of the Apostles words Christ then descended into the lower parts of the earth and thence lead captiuitie captiue that he might fill all places with his presence Where if your eies were not more then dimme you might soone see I quoted no text as I did before but declared by mine owne wordes inserted what I gathered out of the
bodies of wilde beasts must returne to earth as to the place by the tenor and trueth of Gods iudgement appointed for all men Thou art dust and to dâ—…st shalt thou returne that is to the earth out of which thou wast taken and to which Iacob would descend mourning all the daies of his life for the losse of his sonne not meaning in Sheol to haue ioy with the soule of his sonne as you peruert his speech and sense for then he would haue gone to Sheol not mourning but reioycing Againe to follow our purpose good Ezechiah also looked for Sheol to be his habitation likewise after this life This cannot bee vnderstood of his carcasse rotting and wasting away to nothing in the graue and therefore endureth not as the word Dori my mâ—…nsion signifieth Therefore he meaneth it of his soules abiding els where Againe Ezechiah was a godly man therefore hell was not fit for him and he seemeth to insinuate that in the Land of the dead he might see the Lord whither he was to goe and that must needes bee in the place of blessed soules euen that which heere is noted by the word Shâ—…l You stumble still at the same stone that none of those thinges can be ment of the graue because the body rotteth and wasteth to nothing in the graue You must leaue these falshoods if you will but seeme to be a Diuine The bodies of the Saints can not bee raised from their graues if they be wasted wholy to nothing in their graues And if you follow this argument well whatsoeuer your name be that by this meanes vndermine the resurrection of the dead your wordes will broach an open heresie though you slily vrge them to establish your new found Sheol Wherefore I omit this desperate cauill as fighting rather against the faith then against the name of Sheol wherein mens bodies after death though turned to dust yet not to nothing doe still remaine Your next reason that the graue can not be called Dôr an habitation or a continuance is idle and vtterly mistaken by you as all the rest is For Dôr is the time of mans life heere on earth as well as a place of abode And what should hinder Ezechiah to say the time of my life is ended or the place of mine abode heere on earth is remooued or passed away Must it needes follow that he shall haue a time to liue in Sheol or a place for his soule to abide there as you absurdly vrge or that this habitation may not be said to be in the graue where his body lieth knowen to God though vnknowen to man These be miserable shifts to hale in your priuatiue positiue generall speciall station state place without place of your first found Sheôl For where before you auouched that Sheol signified indeed no positiue thing properly but a meere priuation of this life you be now come vpon confidence of these rather riots then reasons to resolue in plaine tearmes that the place of blessed soules where they see God is euen that which heere is noted by the word Sheol The place of blessed soules where God is seene I hope is first speciall to the godly not generall to good and bad Next it is positiue and not meerely priuatiue Thirdly it is peculiar to the soules of iust men not imparted as yet to their whole persons Fourthly it is not destruction it is saluation And lastly it is heauen or Paradise a part of the third heauen which you neuer thought to be Sheol These many contrarieties you haue contriued in lesse then two leaues hauing none other ground for all this but onely that the dead bodies of men turned to ashes and wasted to nothing as you defend can not be said to be any where and so not in Sheol and since there is somewhat of iust men in Sheol as the Scriptures witnesse it must needes be the soule and this erroneous and perfidious position that the body of man hath no being at al after it is turned to dust is the sole foundation of your late made Sheol for iust mens soules It is a most vaine reason that you giue that Sheol heere is taken for hell because death to the wicked is the passage to hell which death Ezechiah was not neeere vnto I doubt not but you wil be as bold with me as you are with others to corrupt or peruert euery word you light on so you may seeme to say somewhat My words were that death in his owne nature was a passage to hell as we find yet by proofe in all the wicked though the faithfull be freed from it by the mercies of God in Christ. And therefore Ezechiah in the bitternesse of his soule might well call death the gates of hell euen as our Sauiour said The gates of hell should not preuaile against his Church though they should persue it on earth calling sinne error and persecution the gates of hell albeit in the godly they worke not so much but in the wicked only And in death denounced by Esaie to Ezechiah the king did not so much feare the passage out of this life as the suddaine change of Gods fauour towards him who not long before with a mightie hand from heauen and by a miraculous slaughter of his enemies saued him and his city from the rage of Senacherib and on the suddaine about that very time as the Scripture noteth strake him with sicknesse and sent him word to putt his house in order for he should die which message the king feared was a signe of Gods displeasure against him as iudging him vnworthy to enioy so great a deliuerance And this might make Ezechiah otherwise a good king to tremble at that which in Gods secret counsell he was not neere vnto though in the feare and gâ—…iefe of his own hart he might feele in some fort the bitternes of death in that short pangue Another obiection of yours is as weake where you say Sheol heere must be the graue because it is said afterward sheol doth not confesse thee death cannot praise thee for it is euident that Ezechiah meaneth not absolutâ—…ly there is no praising of God in shâ—…l but onely be vnderstandeth the outward frequenting of the Temple and publishing of Gods goodnesse to others If you can shift of one circumstance or make a shew with some ambiguity you thinke your selfe safe neither care nor conscience leadeth you to looke to the rest that is written either in the same or in other places of the sacred Scriptures This comparison made betwixt the liuing and the dead that the liuing confesle and praise God which the dead cannot doe belongeth in the liuing to the whole man that is chiefly to the soule the maker and directer of our praiers but associated with the body whose parts and affections she guideth and composeth euen as she doth the tongue to serue so good an action In the dead this ioint deuotion of body and soule
hell And further that being in heauen yet staied not there as you say but immediately came out againe to goe to hell Againe that an humane soule being in the depth of hell yet should feele no paines and that being locally in hell it should come out thence also What can be more against the generall rules of the Scriptures then these things You haue laboured heard and caught a herring With much a doe you haue found at length that Christ was a good man he is more beholding to you now then afore when you told vs he was all defiled accursed and hatefull to God for and with our sinnes Your leasure did not serue you to thinke that he was also the true and eternall Sonne of God and therefore no force of death or hell could preuaile on his body or soule farder then he was willing for the declaration of his humilitie and manifestation of his power and glorie Is it against your faith and charitie that all knees of those in heauen and earth and hell should stoupe and bow to the humane nature of the sonne of God Is your Creed so crazed that you can not beleeue that Christ rising spoiled Principalities and powers and made an open shew of them triumphing ouer them in his owne person Is grace so farre gone from you that you may not endure to heare that Christ descended first into the lower parts of the earth and then ascended againe on hie and ledde captiuitie captiue and gaue gifts to men whereof deliuerance and freedome from all power and danger of hell and Satan were not the last nor least But he was a man you say though a good man and therefore you thinke he must be subiected to the same straights that other mortall and sinnefull men are to feele paines in hell and not to come out from thence This which you call faith is infidelitie against the Sonne of God whiles you seeke to tie him with the same chaines of darknesse and weakenesse wherewith wicked and sinnefull men are tied that are adiudged to euerlasting damnation To be condemned to hell is for misbeleeuers and misliuers to destroy the power and strength of hell was meete only for the manhood of the Sonne of God That he felt no paines there and returned thence were the smallest parts of his glorious triumph ouer hell and Satan It was impossible as Peter teacheth that the paines of death or hell should take hold on him and his soule could not be left there As for comming out of heauen to goe to hell to subdue and destroy the same what more inconuenience is in that then in comming from heauen to the graue there to take vp his body when he restored it to life that wicked men condemned to hell cannot come thence nor find ease there I find it testified in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that the Sonne of God in his humane soule could not goe thither without abiding there for euer and suffering the paines of hell as well as others I find no such grounds in all the Scriptures He saith of himselfe I haue the keies of hell and of death that is all power and command ouer them He had power then not onely to free himselfe from your faithlesse doubts and dangers in hell but to free all his elect from thence and to subiect all things and enemies and so the strength and rage of hell and Satan vnder his feet If the trueth of God bind you to beleene that an Angell comming downe from heauen cast the Dwell into the bottomlesse pit and there bound him and loosed him as he was prescribed doth not your faith serue you to confesse that all power in heauen and in earth and much more in hell was giuen vnto Christ and that as well ouer rebellious Diuels as obedient Angels who adored him when he was brought into the world and serued him the time that he was in the world and are not stronger then his humane nature but receaue power from him as being personally God and Man these be the grounds not of faith but of ignorance which faile vnder your feete and shew that you build on Sand which hath no force when it commeth to be sifted From the grounds of faith which are none you come to the circumstances of the place it selfe and say they are all against me but I that hitherto haue tried you so false conceited in euery thing will not trust you to be true-tonged in this whatsoeuer you pretend These wordes of Dauid thou wilt not leaue my soule in hades nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption I said conteined a speciall prerogatiue verified in none but in the true Messias and Sauiour of the world To this you replie I denie it heere is no such prerogatiue mentioned It is all one skill in you to denic trueths and affirme falsehoodes you cannot doe the one without the other And heere your fansies thrung so fast one on another that they thrust ech other out of doores The maine scope of Saint Peters purpose in this place you doe not or will not vnderstand and on that error you build the rest of your reasons which are all erroneous like the roote whence they come Saint Peter you say intending onely in all this speach to shew the Iewes that this Iesus whom they had slame was not now dead but risen againe plainely graunteth all this matter of Dauid as well as of Christ. Heere are two monstrous falseshoods on which all the rest of your running reasons are setled It had been to small purpose for Peter to prooue to the Iewes that Christ by them slaine was raised from the graue and restored to life if there he had rested or intended that onely as you stifly auouch what could he by this haue inferred more touching Christ then any man might likewise of Lazarus whom Christ raised from the graue This therefore was not Peters scope he had an higher and farder reach in that long Sermon of his which he throughly expresseth afterward and that was Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a suertie that God hath made him both LORD AND CHRIST this Iesus I say whom ye haue crucified To conclude this Peter doth not reason so weakely as you imagine Christs soule is ioined againe to his body though they crucified him ergo Christ is the true Messias and Sauiour of the world This were like one of your reasons which haue nor head nor taile But Peter endued with the holy Ghost reasoned verie truely and sufficiently and in effect thus The prophesie of Dauid which neuer was nor could be fulfilled in any no not in Dauid himselfe but onely in the Messias that his soule should not be left in hades nor his flesh see corruption is fulfilled in Christ whom you crucified he is risen Lord of all his enemies in his owne person the sorrowes of death being losed before him he is ascended vp
to heauen as Dauid likewise foretold of him and there sitteth at the right hand of God vntill all his enemies in the rest of his members be made his footstoole and thence hath he shed forth this which you now see and heare euen the promise of the holy Ghost receaued of the Father for all his Know ye therefore for a suertie that God hath made him both Lord ouer all in heauen earth and hell and Christ euen the annointed Sauiour of all his elect Against this illation neither all the miscreants in earth nor all the Diuels in hell can open their mouths Where first we may see that Peter resteth more on the manner and power of Christs resurrection then simply on this that his soule was reunited to his body from which by death it was seuered Secondly he bringeth the words of Dauid to shew that either part of the Messias submitted to death for the time was to returne againe to life with greater glory the flesh free from all corruption the soule superiour to all destruction Thirdly that these things neither were nor could be verified in Dauid since Dauid saw corruption as his sepulchre prooued remaining to that day and Dauid was not as then ascended to heauen much lesse made Lord ouer all his enemies Heere is no such prerogatiue mentioned If this were common to Christ with Dauid and others of the faithfull how could Peter hence conclude that this was not spoken of Dauid but onely of the Messias Againe if this were no prerogatiue what need was there that Dauid should be a Prophet by speciall reuelation to know this much and that which Dauid knew was not onely this that Christ should rise to life againe but the words are that God would raise vp Christ after death to set him on his throne that is to giue him an euerlasting kingdome euen all power in heauen and earth subiecting all his enemies vnder his feet So that simply to rise from death was no prerogatiue nor proper to Christ but to rise Lord ouer all death and hell not excepted this was peculiar to Christ and not common to him with Dauid and therefore must needes be a speciall priuiledge to the manhood of Christ which is expressed chiefly in these words Thou wilt not forsake my soule in hades but bring me thence conquerer of all mine enemies You adde no flesh dead was euer free from corruption but onely Christes what then ergo his soule was in hell Why winch you where no man toucheth you doth any man say Christes soule was in hell because his flesh saw no corruption or rather that Dauids wordes are as plaine and peculiar to Christ in the one that Christes soule was not forsaken in hell as in the other that God would not suffer his flesh to see corruption and both being affirmed of Christ by way of speciall prerogatiue why should not both be likewise performed in Christ were not some being dead raised to life againe before their flesh putrified The promise of God to Christ that his flesh should not see corruption doth not onely assure a speedie resurrection but an impossibilitie that any corruption could preuaile against his flesh since the returne of his flesh to dust to which all others are iudged would bee the dissolution of his person for the time which by no meanes might befall him his Godhead being vnited vnto flesh and not vnto dust In these words therefore of Dauid the soule and bodie of Christ were appointed to be superiour to all contrarie powers that is the soule to hell the flesh to the graue and from both was Christ to rise as subduer of both that he might sit on his heauenly Throne as Lord ouer all not by promise onely as before but by proofe also as appeared in his resurrection And yet so many dayes as Christ did lyeth no man in his graue without some taint of corruption which in Christ was vtterly none It is a strange absurditie still to abuse your Reader calling this word hell which indeede is nothing but death in effect Againe to presume that we take it for Paradise or heauen or hell when wee referre it alwayes to the generall state of the dead and no farder immediately Then when you expound the wordes of the Creede Christ descended to hades your meaning is nothing in effect but that Christ died which was before deliuered in plained and shorter wordes and so your exposition is an idle and obscure repetition Againe hades in the new Testament is neuer taken for the death of the bodie since it is annexed to bodily death as a consequent after it and so your acception of it is repugnant to the trueth of the Scriptures And where you will at no time haue Hades taken for Paradise Heauen or Hell as here you pretend when you thereby note the place of soules deceased meane you they are neither in Heauen Paradise nor Hell are you not a wise man to talke so much of an inuisible place and when you come to the point you will haue it no place at all but you referre it alwayes to the generall state of the dead and no farder immediately An inuisible place you referre immediately to no place and thus when you will be frantike or foolish words shall loose their proper and plaine signification and containe no more then pleaseth you Shew vs a place where soules deceased are besides Paradise Heauen and Hell and wee will graunt you may exclude these three by some pretence when you spake of the place of hades but if you cannot then topos aides a place vnseene which you haue so much bowled at will be a place in spite of your heart and that immediately and consequently will bee Paradise Heauen or Hell whatsoeuer you presume or dreame to the contrarie Christ had another inestimable cause to reioyce that he was raised to life againe namely that he might fulfill his whole worke for our saluation which before his resurrection and ascension he could not accomplish When I told you that Christ after death was to conquere Hell and to free vs thence you would needes defend that Christ on the Crosse perfited our redemption and wrought our saluation and now you say which I take to bee the truer though you meane not to bee constant therein that before his resurrection and ascension hee could not accomplish the worke of our saluation The text saith God raised him vp loosing the sorrowes of death because it was impossible for him to be holden fast of it Will you conclude from hence ergo there were present sorrowes in the place where Christ was there is no strength in this reason There is more strength in it then either you will acknowledge or can answere The sorrowes of bodily death are all dissolued by the separating of the soule from the bodie Then after death there are no sorrowes of bodily death But God raised vp Christ loosing the sorrowes of
may doe well to leaue this outfacing Scriptures and Fathers it may seeme a shift for a time but it will end with your shame By the whole text it is euident Peter had no reason nor purpose to speake to the Iewes of Christes soule being in hell If you may be iudge Peter shall say nothing but what hitteth your hand right It is more then plain by the whole purport of Peters speech that he ment to prooue Christ to be raised vp as Lord of all his enemies and Sauiour of all that obey him To rise simply from death was not sufficient to shew the eternitie and soueraigntie of Christs kingdome but he must be raised as the only Lord that should sit on Dauids throne and haue all things in heauen earth and hell subiected vnto him From our enemies if hee could not deliuer vs he could be no Sauiour of ours he must therefore tread them all vnder his feete when he rose from death before we could hope to be freed from them by his force And to this end Peter expresly maketh mention that God scattered the sorrowes of death and hell before him when he raised him vp that all the faithfull might be assured as Christ conquered and destroied the diuell in his owne person when he rose from the graue so he could and would doe the like for all his members by freeing them from the power of Hades and conforming them to his death and resurrection This God had promised to his people by his Prophet saying I will redeeme them from the hand of hell I will deliuer them from death O death I will be thy death O hell I will be thy destruction Repentance is hid from mine eies This Dauid foretold the Messias should performe in that his soule should not be forsaken that is left destitute of power or honour no not in hell Of this deliuerance from their enemies and from the handes of all that hated them spake the Prophets that were from the beginning of the worlde This was the oath that God sware to Abraham that they being deliuered out of the handes of their enimies should serue him without feare of sinne death or hell This the Iewes beleeued and expected in the Messias and therefore neither were they I meane the elect among them so ignorant vnbeleeuing and stubborne as you pretend three thousand being conuerted with this one Sermon neither was this so strange and vncouth a thing as you imagine being so often promised and prophesied vnto them Neither did Peter intend onely Christes resurrection as you suppose his chiefe scope being to shew them the strength and height of Christs heauenly kingdome And where you flourish that this was not subiect to sense and without all example of the like in the whole law and namely no figure foreshewing any such thing these be obiections meeter for perfidious Iewes then for those that would seeme to be beleeuers How many points of faith are not subiect to sense Christes sitting at the right hande of God in glorie will you not beleeue because it is not subiect to sense and without an example of the like and no figure foreshadowing any such matter Of Christes ascending to heauen and his returne to iudge the quicke and the dead haue you any examples or figures in the whole law and yet it is no such hard matter to proportion our deliuerance from hell and Satan to the bondage of Israell in Egypt and the ouerwhelming of Pharoh and all his host in the bottom of the redde sea The like might be said of Sampsons death who being weake and bound slew all his enemies of Dauid and Goliah of Daniell in the Lyons denne without harme of Ionas lying in the Whales bellie and such like which though in all things they match not Christs conquest ouer Satan and the destruction of him and his kingdome as no figures can do yet are they resemblances of that which you so much dissemble Howbeit as I said of Christes birth buriall descending to Hades rising ascending sitting in heauen and comming to iudge the law did not yeeld any expresse and visible figures as it did of his death and sacrifice We haue seene that Hades hath no such meaning in the Acts which yet is the only place whereon you build This were sufficient to end this argument but yet it shall be good to trie whether any where hades properly signifieth hell Verily it doth so signifie no where at all in the Scriptures Yet I graunt it is and ought to be translated hell in two places Matth. 16. v. 18. Luk. 16. v. 23. not that the word it selfe doth necessarily signifie hell but because the circumstances heere doe require that meaning as the fittest and best for these particular purposes We haue seene you beate your braines about Hades to make it any thing rather then tha tindeed it is both by the generall opinion of all Pagan Poets and by the constant assertion of all the Greeke Fathers We haue also seene you turne winde your selfe you know not whither sometimes to haue it the place for soules departed this world sometimes the state of such soules sometimes the power of death and sometimes the priuation of this life and so to crosse and controle your owne conceits that you could not tell where to set foote without falling Now as he that is blinde maketh no difference betwixt day and night no more doth your wilfull yet witlesse imagination perceaue any distance betwixt trueth and falshood And hauing held your owne so well that no shifting or shuffling can make you ashamed you will now proceed to a farder triall of other texts of Scriptures to see whether you can outface them with your fansies and figures as you haue done them that be already ouerpast I make no doubt but if you may sit sole Iudge in your owne cause you will quickly pronounce for your selfe but if you must prooue as well as pronounce you will make as many errors in your proceedings as there be holes in a sieue Howbeit you grant that in two places of the new Testament Hades is and ought to be translated hell not for that the word of it self doth so necessarily signifie but because the circumstances require that meaning Which is as much as if you said there are two places in the new Testament where hades is must be taken for hel neither can you with all your sleights shifts auoid the same the circumstances of the text so euidently demonstrate the Euangelists tooke hades for hell This by your leaue is some preiudice to your cause and a bridle to your boldnesse that the holy Ghost doth twice in the Gospels by your owne confession vse hades for hell and why he doth not vse it in that sense in other places there is no impediment but your proud will and waste wordes Saint Luke is so cleere as no exception can be taken to it that Hades is the
bodie which is not performed before the bodie rise to glorie you turne it as if I professed our redemption from hell to be imperfect till the last day And when I mention with Saint Paul the redemption of our bodies from corruption which shall not be before the resurrection you would inferre thereupon if you could tell how that the bodies of the Saints remaine subiect to the power of hell to the curse of the law and to the claime of Satan Thus you runne on like a riotous spaniel chalenging vpon euery foote but finding nothing With like wit and trueth you inferre vpon my wordes where I say the death of the body was inflicted on mankind as part of the wages of sinne that therefore the godly must pay a part of their owne redemption and satisfaction for sinne and then Christ was not our onely and absolute redeemer But which way doth this follow can you tell punishment for sinne is in our persons neither redemption nor satisfaction for sinne in Christs person it was both Know you not the difference betwixt Christs person and ours But I say pa. 216. that the bodies of the dead Saints are in the possession of hell and in the handfact of hell In wresting and wrangling is all your grace Where some auncient writers seeme to say that Christ deliuered some of the Saints out of the present possession of hell all the defence I said that could any way be made out of the Scriptures to excuse this was to take hell improperly for the sting and wound of bodily death which Satan the ruler of hell procured to man by sinne For sinne death and corruption are the workes of the Diuell which Christ came to dissolue God made not death as the wiseman obserueth but created man without corruption and through the enuie of the Diuell came death into the world This then being one of the wounds which Satan through sinne gaue vnto our first father and all his ofspring this is not perfectly cured but with the resurrection of our bodies to eternall life though the poyson of this wound bee in the meane time allayed and the danger secured And thus whiles I seeke to mitigate other mens wordes and to extenuate the name and power of hell vnderstanding thereby nothing but the dissolution of mans life and corruption of mans bodie which Satan occasioned by sinne you make the Reader beleeue I take the name of hell properly for the power and right that hell hath ouer the bodies of the wicked and teach that the Saints are not deliuered from hell till their bodies rise from death which when you list you can find to bee refuted elswhere by me and therefore to be no part of my meaning heere How death is an enemie which must be destroyed aswell as sinne and hell we neede not your commentarie except it were stoared with better Diuinitie It hindreth the Saints you graunt from enioying their appointed felicitie yet as a peaceable and quiet stop Ascribe you this peace and quietnesse to their bodies voide of life and sense or to their soules staied from the full fruition of eternall glorie by that meanes And troe you the soules of the Saints be well and quietly content to lacke their appointed felicitie not at all to desire it or not earnestly to pray for it were plainly to loath it and not obediently to expect it Wherefore they exceedingly affect and instantly pray for the destruction of this enemie that keepeth their bodies in dishonour and corruption and hindereth their spirits from enioying that glorie which shal be reucaled in the last time which appeareth by their vehement prayer in the Reuelation how long O Lord holy and true doest thou not iudge and auenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Where they in heauen seeke not reuenge on them for whom they prayed in earth but they expresse their continuall and ardent desire for that day when they shall be wholy conformed to Christ their head And when they are willed to rest for a season they gladly submit themselues to the will and wisedome of God but meane while they hate death as an hinderer of that blisse and ioy which they so much loue and long for and shall no doubt reioyce exceedingly when this last enemie is swallowed vp in victorie as the rest were before But let death be an enemie which way you will how doth this conclude that Hades here 1. Corinth 15. in no sort signifieth hell The very text seemeth thus to expound it selfe saying where is thy sting O Hades the sting of death is sinne Where the later seemeth a direct exposition of the former noting these two wordes Hades and death as Synonymas for one thing being applied to men When you talke of the text of holy Scripture you should not leaue the wordes that are extant in all our printed copies retained and alleaged by the best and most of the Greeke Fathers as likewise of our new writers and cleane to the single conceite of some one man taking vpon him to correct all the printed copies that euer he saw and of his owne authoritie to alter the Originall I doe not therefore by your and his leaue admit this for Saint Pauls text since it is his priuate change of the wordes in the Greeke against all the copies that are either manu-scripts or printed at this day His owne confession is this Contrario ordine legunt hunc locum non modo Graeci omnes codices quos inspeximus sed etiam Syrus Arabs interpretes Not onely all the Greeke copies that we haue seene but the Syriack Arabick Interpreters read this place in a contrarie order that is they put these words ô Hades where is thy victorie in the last place which you set in the first and the other words ô death where is thy sting they set first which you will haue to be last Thus then stand the Apostles wordes cleane contrarie to that which you bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting O Hades wher is thy victorie And in this order doe Luther Erasmus Zuinglius Peter Martyr Caluine Bullingere Gualtere Aretius Hemmingius Hyperius Osiander Marlorate and I know not how many more both keepe and cite that text in Latin vbi tuus mors aculeus vbi tua Inferne victoria Where is thy sting O death where is thy victorie O hell And touching the Greeke copies and Fathers that are auncient and obserue the same order of the wordes for the Apostles text we haue Origen Athanasius Nazianzene Nyssene Epiphanius x Chrysostome x Oecumenius and though the translatours of x Theodoret and x Theophylact retaine the wordes of the old Latin Bible in this place for the text yet there is no likelihood that these two in their own tongue varied from the rest specially Theophylact who in his commenting
mortall and miserable life in this world but to be conformed to his glorious body that is to incorruption and immortality g Thus I vnderstand your Thaddeus also Athanasius in his Creed as it seemeth most reasonably and necessarily because they expresse neither his death nor his buriall at all in any other words saue these he descended to hades You runne so fast on your owne conceits that you see not what you passe by Hath Thaddeus no words touching Christs death what make you then of these scant a line before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how Christ humbled himselfe and died And though the Creed prouided for the simpler sort distinguisheth Christs crucifying death buriall and descent to hell yet what need is there that the learned euery time they talke of Christs crosse or death should number all these seuerally and orderly as they stand in the Creed crucifying is enough to note his death for they crucified him vnto death Christs buriall had in it no more but the certainty of his death and by Gods prouidence the vigilancâ—…e of his enemies that his body should not be thought to be stolen away by his owne Disciples Other moment or matter of our redemption there was none in Christs buriall The goodly words with which you would feed vs that in the graue he came vnder the power strength dominion and kingdome of death are rather variations for a nouice then any points of sensible doctrine for a diuine So that Athanasius expressing Christs suffering for our saluation his descending to hades and rising the third day from the dead fully compriseth all the principall works which Christ performed for our saluation from his crosse to his resurrection Now what Athanasius meaneth by hades since his works are extant in Greeke we shall not need to depend on your partiall coniectures We haue many plaine and perspicuous places which deliuer his sense and meaning vnto vs. I haue shewed before which I must not so often repeat that Athanasius maketh two places of condemnation whither man after death was adiudged for sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the graue and hades And of Christs body and soule he directly saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bodie of Christ went to the graue the soule to hades these places being diuided with a great distance and the graue receauing the presence of his body for there was his body present and hades receiuing his humane spirit Thinke you this to be plaine enough that Christs descent to hades was not his buriall where his body lay but the going of his soule to hades whither man was condemned for sinne and which Athanasius saith The Diuell kept as the onely place of his strength The enemie saith he fallen from heauen remoued from the earth expelled from the ayre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euery where vanquished determined if he could to keepe hades safe For this place was yet left vnto him But as soone as Christ died the world wanted the light of her Sunne the Vaile of the temple rent the earth trembled the Rocks did cleaue in sunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the souldiers together with the keepers of Hades did shake for feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Diuell thiâ—…ing to carry Christ to hades was himselfe throwen out of hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not long after but Christ loosed the sorrowes or paines of hades Athanasius then without peraduentures taketh hades for hell and Christs descent thither in soule to worke the subuersion of Satans kingdome and deliuerance of all his elect thence were they liuing dead or yet vnborne Your seeking to peruert this reason because the auncient Creedes want sundry other Articles which now are in our Creede is to no purpose For so much as they all do euermore intend to set downe perfectly the summe of Christs accomplished Redemption and mediation at the least Not any of those his maine workes are in them omitted If your pride were not greater then your skill we should haue a great deale lesse prating from you How shall the Reader beleeue your report of Fathers and their meanings when you neuer saw so much as the Creedes of the auncient Councels and yet pronounce so boldly of them as if you had perused them all but yesterday The great Nicene Creede maketh no mention of Christs death or buriall but saith He suffered and rose the third day The first generall Councell of Constantinople whose Creede was after vsed in the Church Seruice saith Christ suffered and was bâ—…ied and rose the third day omitting his crucifixion and death The great Councell of Aphrica and the generall Councell of Ephesus concurre with the Nicene and say he suffered and rose the third day What truth then is there in your words where you say they all doe euermore intend perfectly to set downe the Summe of Christs Redemption for vs not any of those his maine works are in them omitted Is the death of Christ none of his maine works for our Redemption finde you now that his buriall may be omitted and yet the Creede not be imperfect These things good Sir are implyed as consequent or antecedent to the parts expressed For if Christ did rise the third day he rose from the Graue where he had lien three daies and buried he was not before he was dead As also he rose not but from the dead Wherefore in his resurrection are both his death and his buriall comprised Besides he suffered vnto death Which things were all plainly proposed to the simple in their Creede called Aposto like but not in the Creedes concluded by the learned Pastours in their Councels The same course kept the Greeke and Latin Fathers sometimes expressing Christs death buriall and descent to hell sometimes omitting some of them as the cause required Epiphanius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ saith he speaking of the things as they were done is crucified buried he descended to the places vnder the earth in his Deitie and in his soule he leadeth Captiuitie Captiue and riseth the third day Vigilius Constat Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum sexta feria crucifixum ipsa die ad Infernum descendisse ipsa die in sepulâ—…hris iacuisse ipsa die Latroni dixisse hodie mecum eris in Paradiso It is certaine that our Lord Iesus Christ was crucified on the sixt day and that day descended to hell that day lay in the graue and that day said to the Theise This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And declaring how this was verified in Christ ergo dicimuâ—… Dominum iacuisse in sepulchro sed in sola carne Dominum descendisse ad infernum sed in sola anima Then we say that the Lord lay in his graue but with his Body alone and descended to hell but with his Soule alone without his Body Howbeit to speake plainly your Thaddeus whom
doubtlesse he went not thither You profere vs reasons very seldome but when you push them forth they want all things that should support them Your maior heere hath no force in it your minor hath no trueth and so your conclusion is like a forward bud that shrincketh before it bloweth That Christ should triumph ouer powers and principalâ—…ies and all knees of those in heauen earth and hell bow vnto him was aswell for his soueraignty as for our safety Your maior then must haue both those parts in it that if Christs descent thither were neither for his glory not our good then was it needlesse But it was both He was to rise superiour to all his and our enemies that as in the crosse he submitted his life to the rage fury of Satan his members so when he rose he might be made Lord ouer heauen earth and hell It was therefore his right to haue the keyes of death and hell wherby Satans kingdom aswell in hell as in earth should be subiected to the power of his humane nature which could not be but beneficiall for vs whose redeemer and Sauiour he was Againe what need is there that you should know the depth of Gods counsels and reason of Christs doings in euery thing as though you were to take an account of him what cause he had to doe as he did If the Scripture beare witnesse that Christs soule was not left in hell though we could not discerne the precise purpose of his descent thither we may not therefore reiect it as superfluous But what say you to those two maine points expressed in Scripture the destroying of Satan and deliuering of vs from feare of death which Christ performed by his death The benefits all and euery one which you euery where rehearse I most vnfeinedly and religiously beleeue but what is this to his locall being in hell You acknowledge the words but not the deeds of Christs destroying and spoiling Satan through but not after his death and so in name but not in proofe you make him Lord ouer hell as where he neuer shewed the power and prerogatiue of his humane nature but onely by taking his body from the graue Now this doth not answere the reall and actuall subduing of Satans strength and kingdome mentioned in the Scriptures with so magnificent and euident words as the Apostle vseth that Christ led captiuity captiue and made an open shew of powers and principalities and triumphed ouer them in his owne person You call these blasts of vanity because I say they were performed on euery part of Satans kingdome and euen in the place where his chiefest strength and power was which was hell but your replies are rather beesoms of infidelity which would sweepe away whatsoeuer the Apostle saith of Christs most glorious triumph ouer Satan and his whole kingdome with the taking of his flesh out of the graue where it lay dead and ascribe no more to Christs conquest ouer death and hell then you doe to all the faithfull when they shal be raised from the earth to the fruition of eternall life This I say is not sufficient in Christs person For he must not onelie be free himselfe and the freer of all his from death and hell but all infernall places and powers were to stoope to him as Lord of all when God would bring him to the glory of his resurrection This conquest you say Christ purchased by his Passion but hee did not execute it till his resurrection If hee executed nothing till his resurrection and purchased all by his Passion then he did nothing in hell For his resurrection was distinctly after his supposed being in hell The Apostles wordes are plaine that Christes crosse was his humiliation Christ humbled himselfe being obedient to death euen the death of the crosse Then Christes Passion and death were parts of his debasing and not his triumphing ouer death or hell After death must his triumph beginne and not before nor at the time of his breathing out his soule but when the time of his resurrection came God loosed the sorrowes of death before his humane soule which was not left destitute of glory soueraintie in hell and raised his bodie from the graue restoring him to life as the subduer and Lord of all his enemies that is as well of hell as of death You would calculate the minutes and see what distance of time there was betwixt the returne of Christes soule from hell and the raising of his bodie from the graue but this is like the rest of your vanities to be more then audacious in blasing your owne deuises and curious in searching Gods secrets reserued to himselfe What time the soule of Christ ascended to Paradise or descended to hell we doe not know we must leaue that to God it sufficeth vs that Christes Soule by the witnesse of holy Scripture was not lest in hell nor his flesh in the graue but both restored to life as conquerers of death and hell Christes resurrection therefore containeth the bringing of hissoule from hell and the ioyning of it to his bodie that both might be restored to celestâ—…all and perpetuall glory and consequently the subduing of hell as his soule returned to his bodie is iustly reputed a part of the glorie of his resurrection I would willingly beleeue you but alas who sayth so besides your selfe or onely such as can tell no better then you If auncient Fathers and later writers if prouinciall generall Councels did not professe the same that I doe you might beleeue as you list but if they all concurre that this is testified in the Scriptures which you labour to elude with phrases and figures then pitie your selfe as stretching and shrinking the Scriptures at your pleasure pitie not me who haue the maine consent of all ages and Christian assemblies from the Apostles to this very time wherein we liue to interpret the wordes of the holy Ghost as I doe and to make Christes subduing of hell consequent to his death and precedent to his resurrection Neither can the Apostles wordes that Châ—…ist through death destroyed him that had power of death and deliuered all them which for feare of death were all their life long subiect to bondage haue any full or effectuall performance if Christ after death and before the raising vp of his bodie did not in that part of his humane nature which lay not in the graue shew himselfe the conquerer of Satan and his Infernall kingdome that by Christes subduing eternall death and taking the whole power thereof into his hands we might be assured of our deliuerance from that which we most feared which was not the death of the bodie but the destruction of bodie and soule in hell fire This Conquest we both beleue neither may we much differ about the time since it must be through his death and so after he was dead and before his resurrection the manner is all that is
of death and hell And where you thinke it absurd that one part of Christ his soule should gloriously triumph the other his body ALL THIS WHILE lying in humiliation the time was not so long as you would haue it seeme since these things were done in that shortnesse and neerenesse of â—…me which pleased God and the soule once remoued from the body whether in heauen or in hell was first to goe towards and to the body before that could receaue life from the soule and so of force the glory of the soule must begin before the glory of the body And euen according to your owne conceit if the soule were in heauen all the while that the body lay dead in the graue did not the exaltation of the soule in heauen begin a good while before the body which the third day was restored to life and till that time lay senselesse in the dishonor and dominion of the graue as you conceaue And is this so strange a thing with you in Christian religion that Christs soule should enioy honor blisse and glory before the body when the soules of the faithfull so many hundred yeeres before their bodies are partakers of heauenly ioy Your likelihoode that Christ would cleere himselfe first wholy and intirely in both parts before he would begin to strip and spoyle Satan for vs seeing it is a greater degree of victorie to spoyle the enemy and to treade him vnder foote then to get freedome to himselfe Hath no likelihood but in your owne eyes If Christ were in doubt of the victorie or afraide of the enemie it were good policie first to make him selfe sure and after to helpe others but the Sonne of God hauing no such doubt nor dread might destroy and spoile those Infernall places and powers when as pleased him selfe with the most dishonour and shame that might be to Satan and his kingdome For as he would dieâ—… shew his power in raising himselfe from the dead so when he was dead he would conquere Satan that his strength might the more appeare in dissoluing the sorrowes of death and returning to life with the full command ouer death and hell And therefore your strong likelihoods as you call them are childish conceits and distrusts of Christs power and habilitie to performe his victory Like to these are those other points which you aske Why might not one part of Christ haue sufficed in his sufferings righteousnesse obedience which Apollinaris an heretick affirmed as well as that one part serued to triumph for vs in hell Christ suffered for vs in this life where body and soule were ioyned together in suffering and meriting but he conquered hell by death that is after death when the Soule was yet seuered from the Body What Apollinaris the Heretick affirmed you vnderstand not if you thinke he did hold that the Soule of Christ did suffer or merite for vs his heresie was that Christ had no humane Soule but his Deitie did mooue and rule his body in steede of a Soule Next you aske Why the body ouer comming corruption in the graue which I call a part of Satans kingdome did not thereby destroy the whole kingdome of Satan and so saue our Soules that Christ might not haue needed to haue come to hell for that purpose He that hath nought else to doing may intend to aske such idle questions Why God would haue the flesh of his Sonne by resisting corruption in the graue to assure our bodies of incorruption and his Soule by subduing hell to free our Soules from the power and feare of hell you were best aske him a reason whose will is the rule of all things but since we were in danger and feare of both deaths least the one should lead vs to the other which was most to be feared what reason can you bring against the Counsell and wisdome of God confirming vs against the power of death and hell by the conquest of both parts of Christs manhoode ouer both his and our enemies You would otherwise haue ordered our safetie and indemnitie from death and hell if your aduise had been asked but nourish these impieties at home in your bosome blaze them not so busily to the world as if you would beleeue nothing till you saw a reason thereof that fitted your fansie What God might haue done is not for you nor me to aske what improportion or discohaerence with the Christian faith is there in this that the power of Christs Soule and Body superiour to hell and to the graue should assure our Bodies and Soules the victorie ouer both in such sort and at such time as God hath appointed If they meane that Christs flesh being in the graue and his soule being in hell did seuerally and distinctly saue our flesh and our soules then how will you be reconciled to them who doe denie that point You would faine put downe Fulgentius Athanasius and others as if they did not vnderstand the first points of their Catechisme that the ioynt Redemption of our Soules and Bodies was obtained by the ioynt-sufferings of Christ in Soule and Body on the Crosse but yet since we are to die when our Soules shall be seuered from our bodies to assure vs that our Soules are freed by the merits of his passion from the danger of hell and our bodies shall be raised from the dust of the earth why might it not please the Sonne of God by the presence of his body in the graue without corruption to confirme the Resurrection of our bodies from corruption and by the presence of his Soule in hell subduing the power and kingdome of Satan to strengthen our faith that our Soules seuered from our bodies shall be free from all danger and feare of hell which he hath conquered in his owne person and whereof he hath taken the keyes into his hands as him selfe affirmeth This was no new sauing of our Soules and bodies as you suppose but rather the securing of vs by his example that our Soules and bodies seuered by death shall be subiected to neither but be reserued to eternall life that we may be partakers of his victorie Further why was it needefull that an actuall presence of his manhoode should be in hell seeing indeede it is certaine that the whole actuall triumph of Christ ouer Satan proceedeth not of the proper vertue of the manhood but only from the vertue power of the Godhead of Christ Conflict between the godhead of Christ Satan there neither was nor might be any but as by Adams disobedience Satan gained vs into his possession so by the obedience of Christs manhood euen to the death Satan lost vs out of his power and dominion Neither might the Deitie of Christ through death be made Lord ouer all his enemies except you will touch on a trick of Arianisme but the manhoode of Christ for his submission vnto death receiued the keyes of death hell and power to dispose of
Satans kingdome at his pleasure Now had not those Infernall powers been subiected to the Soule of Christ after death how should it haue appeared that his manhood not his godhead had the conquest ouer Satans strongest holds and that the keves of death and hell were resigned vnto him for since the Scripture beareth witnesse that his Soule was not for saken in hell that is not there left destitute of his diuine power glory what resistance could be made that he should not returne thence the Lord and Ruler of all his enemies whereof hell and Satan were the chiefest His godhead then was the giuer but his manhoode was the receauer of this power and preâ—…minence ouer hell Satan that they for euer should stoupe to him and see both what wrong they did him and what vengeance was heaped on them as also how righteous mans redemption was by the Crosse and death of the Sonne of God Lastly why did not the presence of his flesh in the graue keepe ours that it should not come there or at least that it should neuer putrifie nor rot as his flesh did not Euen because such was Gods will it should not God by his sentence pronounced on Adam and his ofspring adiudged them to returne to dust from which Christ shall raise them at the last day and not before And from dust to restore them sheweth greater power in Christ then to preserue them from dust This therefore verifieth the iustice and magnifieth the power of God and for you to aske why it might not be aswell otherwise as so is to enter more saucely then wisely into those things which you should religiously and faithfully beleeue And where you say all these sequels are as good and as liâ—…ly as my assertion you shew your accustomed boldnesse if not haughtinesse that condemne so many learned and auncient fathers for plaine fooles in not seeing what â—…urd consequences depended on their assertion How beit in the midst of your pride you shew little wit that all this while you can light on none other reason of Christes descent to hell but onely this that we should neuer come there This indeed was one of the causes euen to secure vs by his conquest that hee hath the keyes of death and hell and therefore we shall not need to feare either since both are wholy subiected and submitted to his power though he stay the time prefixed by his father when we shall be partakers of his victorie ouer death at the end of the world as we are ouer hell at our departing hence assuring vs in this life by faith in him that we neede not feare either death or hell both which he hath conquered I made this argument in my former Treatise that Christes descending into hell if euer he did so could not be iudged any part of his exaltation or glorification To which your reply is I know not whether more strange or skornefull But you resolue that these words hee descended to hell importeth his exaltation and triumph This argument was drawen from your imagination taking vpon you to dispose of the parts of the Creede as best pleased you which because I reiected as wanting all warrant besides your owne note booke you interpret it to be a strange and skornefull answere Howbeit there is no strangenesse in mine answere but to him that neuer peeped farder then in his owne shell The Fathers with one consent referre that clause to Christs Conquest ouer hell Christ had power saith Athanasius in the graue to shew incorruption and in his descent to Hades hell to dissolue death and to proclaime to all resurrection Cyprian When in Christs presence hell being broken open captiuitie was captiuated his conquering soule presented to the sight of his Father returned to her bodie without delay Epiphanius Christ was crucified buried he descended to hell in his Deitie and his soule he tooke captiuitie captiue and rose the third day with his holy bodie That he was free among the dead signifieth hell had no power ouer him but that of his owne accord he descended to heli with his soule because it was impossible he should be held of it So Austen Reddunt Inferna victorem Hell restored him a conquerer and whiles his bodie lay in the graue his soule triumphed ouer hell The Councels prouinciall and generall do the like Christ descended to hell deuicto mortis imperio and subduing the kingdome of death rose the third day Euen as the generall Councels of Ephesus and Constantinople say Yea the later writers as Innocentius Durandus and others ioyne this clause with Christs resurrection and make them both but one Article of our faith as descendit ad inferna tertia die resurrexit he descended to hell and rose the third day they set for the fift Article of the Creede euen as that auncient writer among Saint Austens workes did before them So that neither Elder nor later writers ioyne with you in this conceit of yours that Christes descent to hell was the lowest part of his humiliation they directly professe it to be the first part of his exaltation and a preamble to his resurrection And where you thinke it much that his descending should belong to his exaltation not the place but the purpose of his descent maketh that alteration The Scripture saith The Lord himselfe shall descend from heauen with a shoute and with the trumpet of God when he shall come to iudge the quicke and dead and yet that descent shall be the greatest part of his glorie You skoffe at me for the like as if I had said his descending was ascending and heauen was Hell But herein you affirmevntruely First I say though his soule leauing his bodie ascended yet this is not meant by that phrase he descended to Hades Secondly I neuer sayd that Hades signified heauen although some in Hades are in heauen Thirdly much lesse did I euer say that hell is heauen The interpretation which you made of the Article Christ descended to hell I sayd had none other matter of faith in it except you thought the Church in her Creede went to varying of phrases but that Christs soule ascended to heauen For where Hades in the Creede must signifie not a priuation nor a generall and indefinite condition as if Christ went some whither yet no man knew whither but a determined place whither Christs soule after death repaired that place of force must be heauen or hell And since by no meanes you will haue Christs soule descend to hell as the whole Church hath hitherto receaued and beleeued you must acknowledge the meaning of that Article to be that Christs soule ascended to heauen and so whether you will or no if that be the effect and intent of those wordes in the Creede descending must be taken for ascending and hell for heauen This is not meant you say by that phrase It is one of
Ephesus which the Councels of Chalcedon and Constantinople doe fully approoue Now what Cyrill meant by spoiling hades appeareth in these words Our Lord Iesus saith Cyrill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing spoyled death and loosed the number of soules that were detained in the dâ—…nnes there rose the third day We must not say that the Deitie of the onely begotten returned from the denns vnder the earth but his soule descended to hades and vsing his diuine power and authoritie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed it selfe to the soules there and said to them in bands come forth and to them in darkenesse receiue light This Cyrill tooke from Athanasius whom he much followed and often cited Those wretches the diuels did not know that the death of Christ should giue vs immortalitie and his descent to Hades should procure our ascent to heauen For the Lord rose the third day from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing spoiled Hades hel troden the enemie vnder foote dissolued death broken the chaines of sin with which we were tyed and freed vs that were bound saying arise let vs goe hence Being therefore freed from the bondage of the diuell let vs acknowledge our redeemer and glorifie the Father c. So elswhere What neede had Christ that was God of the crosse of the graue of hell to which things we were subiect but that in them he sought vs quickning vs in this manner agreeable to vs For if the Lord had not bene made man wee had neuer risen from the dead as redeemed from our sinnes but had remained dead vnder the earth neither had we beene exalted to heauen but had laine still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hell For vs therefore and for our sakes it is sayd God exalted him and gaue him the dominion of heauen earth and hell By which places as by infinite others in Athanasius it is euident that Christ conquered and spoiled hell and Satan for vs and deliuered vs thence aswell as those that were formerly deceased to whom as to vs hell had a chalenge till the Sauiour of the world freed both them and vs thence And this is the true meaning of those prouinciall and generall Councels which say Christ rose the third day hauing first spoiled hell The same I affirme of that Allegory in Luke which sheweth Christs ouercomming binding and spoiling of Satan indeed but not by his locall being in hell Christ expressely applieth it to his dispossessing of Diuels out of mens bodies I did not alleage this parable to prooue Christs going to hell in soule after death but to shew what parts Christs conquest ouer hell and Satan must haue to wit that he must subdue bind and spoile Satan before his conquest ouer Satan could be perfect Other places of Scripture applied these parts to Christs rising from the dead and spoiling the kingdome of Satan for this parable it did suffice that these things heere mentioned must be fully performed by Christ before he did fully conquere Satan Now that these things were throughly performed by Christ whiles he liued on earth is repugnant to the Scriptures For so Christ should neuer haue died since death was a part of Satans power which Christ was to spoile It is therefore certaine that Christs ouermastering of Satan began here on earth when he cast him out from such as were possessed but Christs conquest ouer Satan had not his sull and complete higth no not in his owne person till he rose from the dead and ascended to heauen leading captiuity captiue That therefore it began before Christs death I doe not denie but that it was not finished till his resurrection and ascension the Scriptures auouch Christ saith Origen hauing bound the strong man and by his crosse conquered him went euen to his house to the house of death and into hell and thence tooke his goods that is the soules which he possessed And this was that which he spake by a Parable in the Gospell saying Who can enter a strong mans house and spoile his goods except he first bind the strong man So Ierom. The strong man was bound and tied in hell and troden vnder the Lords foote and the Tyrants howsen being spoiled captiuity was led captiue And Zanchius The Apostle to the Ephesians the 4. where he speaketh of Christs triumph and saith he led captiuity captiue that is he led the Diuel captiue and triumphed ouer him doth not there say this triumph was made on the crosse but then performed that is perfected when Christ ascended to heauen Christ then obteined it on the Crosse but performed it afterwards Of euill spirits subdued and spoiled the Sonne of God triumphed Whither pertaineth that parable of Christs when a strong man keepeth his house his goods are in peace but when a stronger then he commeth vpon him he taketh his spoiles from him Remember I pray how God shewed his displeasure against your wresting of his word by that strange terrour that happened euen then when you were descended intâ—… he depth of this vncouth doctrine at Paules Crosse. Indeed it may be that you and such others were in a strange terror at that time otherwise there was no cause nor harme but the breakeing of an old rotten forme which men desirous to heare had ouer loaden and so where they stood halfe a yard aboue ground before they were then faine to stand on their feet But Sir by what authoâ—…ity doe you take vpon you to interprete Gods will by the cracking of an old stoole Are you of late become a Southsaier that you professe to declare Gods meaning by the breaking of an old borde in sunder What say you then to those Coronations of Princes and other assemblies where many haue been slaine What say you to S. Pauls Sermon where Eutychus falling downe from a third lâ—…ft was taken vp dead Will you say his doctrine was vncouth because the hearers were a while troubled with that accident had there any thing indeed fallen out as God be thanked there did nothing you would haue plaied the false Prophet apace to presume of Gods purpose when by your owne foolish feare vpon the cracking of an old forme you proudely and prophanely take vpon you to pronounce of Gods pleasure Where you charge me in the end arrogantly and absurdly to falsisie the Synod of this Realme it is but what your selfe doth in effect I said our Synod corrected King Edwards Synod You acknowledge and professe that in the later words of that former Synod now left out are three things that cannot be iustified by the Scriptures If a man would hire you you cannot leaue this outfacing and falsifying no not when you goe about to cleare your selfe of it which whether it be absurd or arrogant I leaue to the Reader Our Synod you said corrected King Edwards Synod Said you no more did you not lustily conclude Therefore our Synod