Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	john_n	winchester_n	2,521	5	11.9222	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77667	Meditations and disquisitions upon the creed. By Sr. Richard Baker Knight	Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.	1646 (1646)	Wing B510A; ESTC R231982	69,816	250

speech bee Metap●oricall and Figurative and is a Figurative speech fit to make the Article of a Creede What though to sit at the right hand of God be a Figurative speech and in the Creed Is it not a Figurative speech which custome hath made Litterall And is descending into Hell a speech made literall by any custome And if any man be doubtfull still whether this Article ought to be expounded literally or no he may doe well to aske counsell of the Article which saith He ascended into Heaven For both the Articles being exprest in a like phrase there seemes great reason to take them both in a like sense and seeing his Ascending into Heaven is certainly meant literally therefore certainely also meant literally his Descending into Hell But what Authorities have wee for this Interpretation Indeed Authorities most irrefragable First a generall consent of all the Ancient Fathers Then of all the learned Writers in the Ages following Then in our owne time of an infinite number wee may name these Alexander Gyll John Mayer Alexander Nowell the reverend Deane of Pauls and chiefely the learned Bishop of Winchester Thomas Bilson and which is more then all these and not slightly to be accounted of in the directing of our opinions The Tenet of our Church of England as Deane Nowell writeth in his Catechisme And as there hath been and still is great diversity of Opinions about his descending it selfe so there hath been and still is as great diversitie of opinions about the cause of his descending But though his descending into Hell be an Article of our Creed yet the cause for which he descended is none and therefore though we be tyed of necessity to beleeve that yet we are at our liberty for beleeving of this and need to beleeve no more of it then we see good reason to make it probable And why then should wee trouble our selves with debating of circumstances which doe but serve to breed debate Can wee not beleeve that Christ descended into Hell unlesse wee know the cause why he Descended Should the Israelites have done well to forbeare the obeying of Gods Commandement for wearing cloathes mixt of linnen and wollen untill they might know the cause why they should not weare them and doth any man know the true cause of it to this day Some indeed and of the highest ranke hold this opinion that the cause of Christs descending into Hell was onely to triumph but are there not other and those no meane ones neither that are of opinion he descended as wel to suffer as to triumph First to suffer to perfect our redemption and then to triumph to establish our security First to suffer if not the paines of hell at least some paines in hell thereby to pay the uttermost farthing that was due by us and then to triumph to receive the first earnest of reward that was due to himselfe If his descending into Hell say they were onely to subdue Satan and to triumph over him why is it spoken by David in the person of Christ as a favour of God unto him Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell For what favour was it not to leave his soule there where it was in triumph It had beene certainly more favour to leave it there then to take it from thence It seemes therefore there was something which he suffered in Hell in which it was a favour of God not to leave him and might have been as mischieuous to his soule as corruption to his body if God should have left him in it They adde if Christ had descended into Hell and had not suffered some paines in Hell he had left undone his most meritorious worke and had given over meriting before it came to perfection For to be in Hell and not despair of Gods mercy to suffer paines in hell and perhaps of hell and not murmure at Gods justice are works which in making perfection of merit shew perfection of grace and as without Divine assistance they could not be suffered so without suffering they could not be done They adde farther it is true he was not thrust into Hell as the damned are who if they were not thrust into it would never come there but he descended into it and descending is a voluntary action he might have chosen but as he willingly submitted himselfe to the death of the Crosse in his bodie so he willingly submitted himselfe to the descent into Hell in his soule For till his soule descended into Hell it came not to the lowest degree of humiliation and till it came to the lowest degree of humiliation it could not come to the highest of perfection and to the highest of perfection it was to come before he could come to ascend on high and to lead Captivity captive And these seeme to bee their reasons who are of opinion that Christ descended into Hell aswell to suffer as to triumph But may not these reasons bee easily made appeare to bee unreasonable For when David makes Christ to say Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell was it because he suffered in Hell or was it not rather that though hee onely triumphed in Hell yet his joy of triumphing was not so great to make him forget by whose assistance hee triumphed and therefore to acknowledge that if God should leave him in Hell he should haue cause to leave triumphing And to say that if he had not suffered in Hell he had left undone his most meritorious worke Is it not directly to crosse Saint Paul where he saith That Christ pacified all things by the blood of his crosse by which it appeares that Christ suffered as much as was necessary for our salvation upon the Crosse and what need then of any more suffering by descending into Hell And for degrees of humiliation doe we reade of any lower can wee thinke of any lower then this that Exinanivit seipsum he emptied himselfe of all glory became of no reputation and humbled himselfe to the shamefull death of the bitter Crosse But besides these answers wee may not omit to observe heere a distinction which offers it selfe in the Articles concerning Christ and may seeme to give some light to the clearing of this Controversie For the five first Articles seeme to concerne Christ as onely a patient Conceived by the Holy Ghost Borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate was Crucified Dead and Buried all Articles concerning him as a patient And in which he did nothing but onely suffered But the five later Articles concerne him onely as an agent He descended into Hell Hee rose the third day from the Dead Hee ascended into Heaven He sitteth at the right hand of his Father Hee shall come from thence to judge the quicke and the Dead all Articles concerning him as an agent and as in those of his suffering there is a plenitude of merit so in these of his action there is a plenitude of reward And now if wee keepe us well to this