perfection of my patience and obedience be true and manifested through sharp and harsh sufferings Heb. 2. 10. 17. 7 Neither can I make my death to bee a propitiatory sacrifice until I am compleatly consecrated by induring afflictions Therefore that I may make it evident that my humane nature is thus qualified I must cry out with a loud voyce at the end of all my sufferings My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee or left me to the prevailing powers of darkness to indure such an ignominious and painful death 8 It is most evident that the last extrinsecal part of Christs Priestly consecration was ordained to be finished by his sufferings from the malice and enmity of his proclaimed enemy Satan according to Gen. 3. 15. compared with Heb. 2. 10 17. and Heb. 5. 8 9. And this is yet the more to be marked Heb. 2. 10. because God ordained that the consecration of Aaron and his Sons should not be finished without some trial of his obedience under some kind of affliction for God commanded them to keep a strict watch at the door of the Tabernacle for seven dayes and seven nights together in all which space they were separated from their Wives and Families upon pain of Gods heavy displeasure by death and untill they had manifested the perfection of their obedience under this appointed measure of affliction they might not offer any sacrifice for the procuring of Gods Attonement Levit. 9. 7. but as soon as they were thus consecrated then the very next day they were commanded to draw near to God and to offer sacrifices of Reconciliation And to this purpose I have given another hint from the words of Mr. Trap in Reply 27. Hence I reason thus If the Divine nature had protected the Humane nature of Christ against the power of his proclaimed enemy Satan in this appointed hour for the Prince of darkness to exercise his utmost power against as he did in former times from the prevailing power of Herod in Matth. 2. and from the prevailing power of his Towns-men at the hil Nazaret Luk. 4 29 30. and from his conspirators in Joh. 8. 59. then he could not have fulfilled Gods appointed and declared Decree in Gen. 3. 15. his own Covenant which was that he would enter the Lists in his Humane nature from the seed of the woman with his combater Satan and give him so much liberty as to pierce him in the Foot-soals as a sinful malefactor and yet that he would continue obedient through all his greatest temptations and tryals And his Father covenanted that his temptations and trials from his Combater Satan should be for his ultimate extrinsecal consecration and that then he should make his soul a sacrifice of reconciliation for the breaking of the Devils Head-plot Therefore that he might manifest the perfection of his obedience through all his sharpest sufferings from his malignant Combater Satan his Divine nature must forsake or rest or cease or leave his Humane nature that so his humane nature alone might undergo the combate from the malice of his proclaimed enemy and might manifest the truth of his humane nature by evidencing that he was eminently touched with the quick sense and feeling of our infirmities and by manifesting the perfection of his patience and obedience under all before he could make his soul a propitiatory sacrifice And to this sense do the Orthodox speak Ireneus saith That Christ was crucified and died the word namely the Divine nature Resting that iâ— saith Bastingus In his chap. of Christs sufferings not using his power not putting forth his strength to the intent he might be crucified and die And hence we may take notice that this phrase The Divine nature resting is the very same with Gods forsaking or leaving of the humane nature of Christ in his combate with Satan Because the humane nature was no true part of the divine person but an appendix only therfore the divine nature could and did leave the humane nature alone to combate with Satan that so it might be touched with a quick sense of all his ill usage and might manifest the same by crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me as it is expounded by sundry Orthodox which I will cite by and by But saith Mr. Norton in p. 79. If the pain of loss be not joyned with the pain of sense there can be no sufficient cause given of so bitter and lamentable a cry from that person that was God and man Reply 11. Though that person was God and man yet that hinders not but that his humane nature might make that bitter and lamentable cry from the sense of the Devils ill usage his being God and Man in personal union did indeed priviledge his humane nature from sinful perturbations in his passions and so consequently from Gods coacted Justice but it did not hinder him from his own voluntary passions nor from his voluntary sufferings from his malicious enemy Satan nor from manifesting his true sense and feeling of them bâ—cause his humane nature was no true part of the divine person for then it could not have been left of his divine nature to suffer any thing at all except Mr. Norton will say That his divine nature was passible But because it was no true part but an Appendix only to his divine person as Zanchy sheweth in his Appendix to his Confession of the Faith therefore the divine nature might and did rest cease leave or forsake the humane nature to manage the combate alone with Satan that so it might be sensible of his sufferings from Satans power granted to him in Gen. 3. 15. more than other men can be because of the exact purity of his natural temper above all other men and in these respects it came to pass that he did make that bitter and lamentable cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I say that the union of his humane nature to his divine person was so ineffable that the divine nature could and did forsake leave cease or rest from protecting or assisting his humane nature that so it might undertake the combate alone with Satan and that so it might be touched with the quick sense and feeling of our infirmites more than other men can be and so it made him to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But saith Mr. Norton in page 191. Though the humane nature of Christ from its first union had its dependance subsistance in his divine person yet such is the singleness and unmixedness of the divine nature in this union that it could and did leave the humane nature to act of it self according to its own nâ—tural principles As the humane nature of Christ did not subsist alone so neither doth it perform any humane operations alone dependance in respect of subsistence inferreth a dependance in respect of operations c. In these words Mr. Norton doth argue more like to a natural
p. 328 Luke 22. 44. and Christs Agony explained p. 331 Natural death is the punishment of original sin but Christs humane nature was not by that Justice subjected to death p. 333 296 Ainsworth and others do make the earnest prayers of Christ in the Garden to be a cause in part of his Agony p. 334 * Fervency of spirit in prayer to be delivered from a natural fear and dread of an ignominious death may force out a bloody sweat p. 335. A true description of Christs Agony p. 336 * A Declaration of the Plot of the blessed Trinity for mans Redemption p. 341 at line 18. All Christs greatest outward sufferings were by Gods appointment to be from his Combater Satan p. 344 169 178 266 311 387 Satan did first enter the Lists with Christ at his Baptism when he was first extrinsecally installed into the Mediators office though more especially in the Garden and on the Cros p. 346 Christ did not enter the Lists with Satan in the glorious power of his divine nature but in his humane nature as it was accompanied with our true natural infirmities of sorrow and fear at his appoaching ignominious death p. 353 Some expressions of the Ancient Divines do cleerly evidence that they could not hold any such imputation of sin to Christ as Mr. Norton doth p. 356 * Some few of the Hebrew Doctors writings yet extant do speak of the sufferings of Christ from Satans enmity p. 357 at line 16. Adams first sin in eating the forbidden fruit was the meritorious cause of our spiritual death in sin and then our spiritual death in sin was the meritorious cause of Gods justice first in denouncing our bodily death and secondly in denouncing a judgement to follow to each departed soul p. 357 The Pelagians cannot be convinced That original sin is the cause of the death of Infants if it be granted that God threatned a bodily death in Gen 2. 17. as the immediate effect of Adams first sin p. 358 Christ as man was not able to conflict with his Fathers wrath though in that nature he was able to conflict with Satan and his instruments p. 359 If it be true that Christ sweat clods of blood as Mr. Norton doth affirm then it must needs be a miraculous sweat and then no natural reason can be given as the cause of it p. 361 CHAP. XVII THe Hebrew word Azab hath not two contrary significations as Mr. Norton doth affirm to amuse his Reader about the manner of Gods forsaking Christ upon the Cross p. 371 All Christs greatest sufferings are comprised under the word chastifement p. 375 169 Our larger Annotation on Psal 22. 1. doth account Mr. Nortons way of satisfaction to be but bare humane Ratiocination which saith the Annotation is but meer folly and madness p. 377 God forsook Christ on the Cross because he did not then protect him against the Powers of darkness as he had done very often in former times p. 379 One main reason why God forsook the Humane nature of Christ upon the cross was that so his Humane nature might be the more tenderly touched with the feeling of our infirmities in all the afflictions that were written of him p. 383 174 The Humane nature was no true part of the divine person but an appendix onely p. 387 * Add this Note to the marginal Note in p. 387. Zanchy in his sixth and seventh Aphorismes to the confession of his faith p. 280. saith That the Humane nature was no true part of the person of Christ and saith he in his twelfth Aphorism at 4. Though the nature taken to speak properly is not a part of his person yet at 5. he saith It is acknowledged to be as it were a part of the person of Christ because without it we cannot define what Christ is and because of them both there is but one and the same Hypostasie Though the Humane nature of Christ ever had its dependance and subsistence in the divine after the union yet such was the singleness and the unmixedness of the divine nature in this union that it could leave the Humane nature to act of it self according to its own natural principles p 388 * Add this Note to p. 389. at line 6. In two things saith Pareus this similitude of Athanasius doth not agree and before him Zanchy said as much for in his sixth Aphorism he saith It is freely confessed by Justinus and by other Fathers that this similitude doth not agree in all things to this great mystery * The Geneva Annotation on Psal 22. 1. doth say That Christ was in a horrible conflict between Faith and Desperation and so by necessary consequence it makes Christ to be a true inherent sinner and this blasphemous Note hath been printed and dispersed in many thousand copies and yet where is the Boaâ—erges to be found that hath vindicated Christ from this dangerous Tenent p. 393. God did not so forsake the soul of Christ on the cross as to deprive him of the sweet sense of the good of the Promises as Mr. Norton bolds most dangerously p. 394 Christ was often his owne voluntary afflicter with Soul-sorrows p. 404 178 Christ was the onely Priest in the formality of his own death and sacrifice But yet it doth not thence follow that he was his own Executioner or Self murderer as Mr. Norton doth most unadvisedly thence infer p. 405 No full satisfaction could be made by any thing that Christ suffered before his bodily death was compleated because therein onely lay the formality of his sacrifice withouâ— which no full satisfaction could be made p. 415 309 79. 145 315 Sometimes Mr. Norton doth make Christ to die formally under the sense of the wrath of God for full satisfaction but at other times he doth cross that and makes satisfaction to be fully compleated before hee suffered his natural death So uncertain hee is in his foundation-Principles touching Christs satisfaction p. 416 There was a transcendent difference between the manner of Peters laying down his life for Christ and the manner of Christs laying down his life as a sacrifice for the redemption of the Elect p. 417 * Add this Note to p. 417. Mr. Weams on the Judicial Laws p. 78. doth observe that though Peter said to Christ in Joh. 13. 37. Lord I will lay down my life for thy sake yet Christ that knew his natural unwillingness better than himself told him afterwards that another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not so that in the conclusion when Peter came indeed to dye for Christ he was partly willing and partly unwilling Ioh. 21. 18. which kind of unwillingness was not in Christ at his death because he had by his prayers in the Garden obtained a confirmation against his naturall fear of death when hee came to dye on the cross Therefore Mr. Norton doth deale very unadvisedly to compare the manner of Peters laying downe his life with the manner of Christs laying downe his life for
the Lists with the Devil according to Gen. 3. 15. he saith He entred the Lists to fight the great combate hand to hand with his angry Father and instead of the Devils wrath they put in Gods wrath and instead of the Devils force they put in Gods force to compel the humane nature of Christ to suffer his immediate wrath And let the Reader take notice of this word Compelled most unadvisedly used by Calvin and others And now let the judicious Reader judge whether such descriptions of our Saviours Agony be sutable to the language of the holy Scriptures whether he was pressed and compelled by Gods immediate wrath And whether his Agony and Conflict were not rather from the pressure and compulsion of the Devil and his instruments according to Gods declared Decree in Gen. 3. 15. and judge if it bee not utterly unlike that the humane nature of Christ as it was accompanied with our infirmities was able to enter the Lists with his angry Father and to be pressed under his wrath and to conflict with eternal death as Mr. Nortons phrases are was his humane nature which was left by his divine nature on purpose that his humane infirmities might appear able to fight it out three whole hours on the Cross with his angry Father Perhaps you will answer hee was able because his humane nature subsisted in his divine I grant that it alwayes subsisted in the divine because the divine nature was never angry with the humane but yet it doth not follow that it was alwayes assisted and protected by the divine for then it could not have suffered any thing at all from Satan and his instruments I find it to be an ancient orthodox Tenent that the divine nature did often put forth a power to withdraw protection and assistance from his humane that the infirmities of the humane might appear and in this sense his infirmities in his sufferings were admitted by his divine power But let it be as the objection would have it namely that his humane nature being assisted by his divine was able to indure to bee pressed under his Fathers wrath Then it wil follow from thence that his divine nature did assist his humane nature against the divine Is this absurd language good Scripture-logick But saith Mr. Norton in p. 123. The divine nature was angry not onely with the humane nature but with the person of the Mediator because of sin imputed to him Reply 23. First I have shewed in p. 101. from Mr. Burges that sin was not imputed to the Mediator in both his Natures Secondly Was it ever heard that a Mediator between two at variance did fight hand to hand with the stronger angry opposite party to force him to a reconciliation Can any reconciliation be made whiles displeasure is taken and whiles anger is kindled against the Mediator that seeks to make reconciliation These are paradoxes in Divinity by which the clear Truth is made obscure Such Tenents are like the smoak of the bottomless pit that darkens the Sun and Air of the blessed Scriptures The Lord in mercy open our eyes to see better But saith Mr. Norton in p. 70. Through anguish of his soul he had clods rather than drops of blood streaming down his blessed body a thing which neither was seen nor heard before or since the true reason thereof saith he is Christ died as a sinner imputatively pressed under the sense of the If it be true that Christ sweat clods of blood then doubtless it was a miraculous sweâ—t and then no natural reason can be given of the cause of it wrath of God Reply 24. If it be true that Christ through the anguish of his soul had clods of blood streaming down his blessed body then doubtless it was a miraculous sweat and then no natural reason can be given as the cause of it but I have all along affirmed that his Agony was from natural causes and that his sweat was increased by his strong prayers and cryes and that his sweat was not from the miraculous cause But I perceive that Mr. Nortou himself is put in a wavering mind in p. 66. whether the sweat of Christ in his Agony was from the natural or from the miraculous cause for when he had expounded his Query he concludes thus We leave it to them that have leasure and skill to enquire And saith he Though the Evangelist mentioneth it as an effect proceeding from a greater cause than the fear of a meer natural death notwithstanding saith he our Doctrine is not built onely or chiefly upon this Argument Hence 1 Any indifferent Reader may easily perceive that Mr. Nortons answer to his own Query is but a very wavering and confused answer and therefore his bold conclusion aforesaid is built but upon a sandy foundation and therefore it is not sufficient to satisfie a doubting conscience 2 This speech of his our Doctrine is not built onely or chiefly upon this Argument is a plain acknowledgment that the Agony of Christ and his sweat like blood is no sound Argument to prove that Christ conflicted with eternal death and yet in p. 70 39 68 89 c. he laies great weight upon his Agony as a true reason to prove that he died as a sinner imputatively pressed under the sense of the wrath of God and conflicting with eternal death 3 Mr. Norton is wavering in this that he dares not affirm that Christ suffered the Torments of Hell but by Gods extraordinary dispensation as I have noted it in Chap. 7. Sect. 1. 4 Hence Mr. Norton might as well question whether the first touch or real impression of Hell pains would not utterly have dissolved the link and bond of nature namely of the sensitive soul that is between mans mortal body and his immortal soul in a moment Seeing he holds that his death was caused by the wrath of God For he saith That his blood was shed together with the wrath of God because it was shed as the blood of a person accursed For this is a clear Truth That the vital body of man cannot subsist under the Torments of Hell untill it bee made immortal by the power of God at the Resurrection 5 Hence it may be propounded as another question of moment whether the Greek word for this bloody sweat be noâ— stretched beyond the Context as well as hee hath done the word Amazed in Mark 14. 33. as I have shewed before 6 Hence it may be considered what a learned Divine saith There are some saith he that take Christs bloody sweat in that grievous agony to be a symptom of infernal pains But saith he from what grounds either in Phylosophy or Divinity I know noâ— If the pains of Hell or hellish pains so some distinguish be procured by the fire of Hell be that material or immaterial bloody sweat saith he can be no probable effect of the one or of the other fire nor is such sweat any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or demonstrative sign
Philosopher than to a judicious Divine for though the humane nature of Christ did ever subsist in his divine person from the time of the union yet it did not subsist in his divine person according to the order of natural causes but after the ineffable manner of the voluntary cause of which the rule is not true posiâ—â causâ sequitur effectus for such voluntary causes do work according to the liberty of the voluntary agreement of the persons in Trinity 2 I say also that the form of this union cannot be exemplified from any natural or civil union and therefore the operations that flew from this union may well differ from the operations that flow from all other unions I grant that Athanasius doth in some respects sitly exemplifie See Pareus Notes on Athanasius Creed Art â— this union to the union of our soul and body making one man but yet in some respects it will not hold In two things saith Pareus this similitude doth not agree 1 Because in man by reason of the union of the reasonable soul and body some third thing specifically different is made up to wit man of matter and form neither of which alone is man It is not so saith he in Christ because the word Assuming the flesh was God and the same person both before and after the Incarnation heretofore without flesh and afterwards cloathed with it 2 Saith he The soul of man receives into it the passions of the body with which it grieveth and rejoyceth but God the word is void of all affection and passion Therefore seeing this union is so unexpressible the operations of each nature may well differ from the operations of all other unions 3 Seeing it was the will of the blessed Trinity according to their agreement in the voluntary Covenant that the two natures of the Mediator should keep each nature and their properties distinct Thence the Mediator might act either as man only or as God only or as God and man joyntly And this observation is of necessary use for the right understanding of many Scriptures as it is noted by the Dialogue from Mr. Calvin in p. 111. and to him I will adde Mr. Thomas Wilson for in his Theological Rules for the right understanding of the Scriptures hee saith In his 111. Theological Rule p. 164. thus Some of the works of Christ were proper to his God-head as his miracles Secondly Some to his Man-hood as his natural and moral works Thirdly Some to his whole person as his works of Mediation in which each nature did that which was proper to it but Mr. Norton makes no good use of this rule And all these several operations do arise from the unexpressible nature of this union which doth work according to the agreement of the persons in the voluntary Covenant And of this I have also given a touch before in page 174. 2 I have made it evident in the former Chapter That the most excellent temper and tender constitution of Christs humane nature did make all his sufferings to be abundantly more sharp and keen to his senses than the like can be to us that are by nature born the bond-slaves of sin corruption and death for in that respect out natural spirits are of a blockish and dull sense and therefore we cannot abhor misery and death with that quick sense and feeling as the pure constitution of Christs humane nature might and did do and therefore wee cannot cry out with such a deep sense of it as hee did 3 In obedience to Gods declared Decree in Gen. 3. 15. and in obedience to his own Covenant to enter the Lists with Satan with his humane nature as it was accompanied with our infirmities It behoved his divine nature to rest and to leave his humane nature to feel the power of Satans enmity because it was now the very appointed hour for the powers of darkness to exercise their utmost enmity according to Gods declaration in Gen. 3. 15. So then the operation of his divine nature in this appointed hour was to withdraw assistance from his humane nature and not to protect it as it did at other times but to leave his humane nature alone in the combate and to let the Prince of darkness have his full liberty to disturb his patience and so to pervert his obedience if he could or in case he could not prevail then it was agreed that these trials should be for the consecration of him as of the Priest and Prince of our salvation to his sacrifice And to this sense do the Ancient Divines speak 1 The Passion of Christ saith Austin was the sweet sleep of his Divinity Mr. Rich. Ward in his Commentary on Mat. 27. 42. doth thus paraphrase on these words of Austin As in a sweet sleep saith he the soul is not departed though the operations thereof be for a time suspended so during the time of Christs sufferings his God-head rested as it were in a sweet sleep that so the humanity might suffer in all points according to Gods Decree and to this sense also doth Mr. Perkins speak on the Creed fol. 121. 2 Theodâ—râ—t on Psal 22. saith Christ called that a dereliction which was a permission of the Divinity that the Humanity should suffer 3 Isyehius in Lev. li. 5. ch 16. faith Christs Deity is said to depart by withdrawing his own power from his Humanity that he might give time to his passion 4 The Master of the sentences saith the Divine nature did forsake the humane nature First By not protecting it And secondly By withdrawing his power that so he might suffer And saith he in lib. 3. dist 2. the Deity severed it self because it withdrew protection And secondly saith he it separated it self outwardly not to defend but it failed not inwardly to continue the union If saith he it had not withdrawn but exercised power Christ could not have died 5 Leo de passi Dom. Ser. 170. saith That the Lord should be delivered to his passion it was his Fathers will as well as his own That not onely the Father might leave him but that after a sort he should forsake himself not by any fearful shrinking but by a voluntary cession or resting for the power of Christ crucified contained it self from these wicked ones and to perform his secret disposition he would not use any manifest power he that came to destroy death and the author of death how should he have saved sinners if he would have resisted his pursuers Ibidem Christ saith he cried with a loud voyce Why hast thou forsaken me that he might make it manifest to all for what cause he ought not to be delivered nor defended but to be left into the hands of his perfecutoâ—s which was to be made the Saviour of the world and the redeemer of all men not by any miserable necessity but of mercy not for lack of help but of purpose to die for us Ibidem And saith he Let us leave this to
A Farther Discussion OF THAT Great Point in DIVINITY the Sufferings of Christ AND The Questions about his Righteousnesse Active Passive and the Imputation thereof BEING A Vindication of a Dialogue Intituled The Meritorious Price of our Redemption Justification c. from â—he exceptions of Mr. Norton and others By WILLIAM PYNCHON late of New England LONDON Printed for the Author and are to bee sold at the Signe of the three Lyons in Corn-hill over against the Conduit MDCLV To the Honorable OLIVER S T. IOHN Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Peace be multiplied SIR I Humbly present this insuing Controversie to your Honor because I deem you to be an able Judge not onely in those Controversies that concern the common Laws of this Land but also in Divine Controversies and especially in this insuing Controversie because it hath so much dependance on sundry sorts of Scripture-Laws and Covenants in all which you cannot chuse but have a judicious inspection as well as into the Laws of this Land and the rather because the Laws of England have either in their rise or in their use some relation to the said Scripture Laws and Covenants 1 This insuing Controversie hath some relation to the moral Law of Nature in which Adam was created And this Law though I call it the moral Law of Nature yet I do not call it the Covenant of Nature which God made with Adam touching mans nature in general as my Opponent doth 2 It hath some relation to that special positive Law and Covenant which God made with Adam concerning mans nature as he was ordained to be the head of mans Nature in general For God gave unto Adam two symbolical Trees unto which he annexed a Promise as well as a threatning namely That in case he did first eat of the Tree of Life then his Promise and Covenant which was necessarily implyed was That he and all his natural posterity should be confirmed in his created natural perfections for ever But in case he did first eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil then his threatning was That both he and all his natural posterity should die a spiritual death in sin 3 It hath some relation to the Laws of a Combate for the trial of the mastery for at the first the Devil thought that he had got the ful victory over all mankind by drawing Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit but God told the Devil in Gen. 3. 15. That he would put an utter enmity between him and the seed of that woman which he had deceived and conquered and that one of her seed should combate with him and break his cunning Head-plot by continuing constant in his obedience through all his ill usage until he had made his soul a sacrifice of Reconciliation And moreover God told the Devil that he should have his full liberty to provoke his patience and to hinder him in the course of his obedience by his ill usage and that he should have so much power granted him as to pierce him in the foot-soals for a sinful Malefactor on the cross to try if by any ill usage either by fraud or force he could provoke his patience to make him sin against the Laws of the Combate And God also warned the Devil by his proclamed Declaration That in case he could not prevail by all his ill usage to disturb the passions of the seed of the woman nor any other way to divert him in the course of his obedience then this â—â—ed of the woman by the onely weapon of his righteousness should break his Head-plot in peeces and so should get the victory of the Victor and rescue the spoil from his power or at the least the best part of the spoil namely the Elect and so it was prophecied of this blessed seed in Isa 53. 12. That he should divide the spoil with the strong namely with the strong enemy Satan 4 It hath some relation to the Laws of the Eternal Covenant between the Father and the Son for mans Redemption for God could not have declared the said Laws of the Combate for the Victory except there had gone before-hand an eternal consent decree and Covenant between the Father and the Son for the trial of this Combate in order to the redemption of the Elect from Satans head-plot Therefore from this declared combate in Gen. 3. 15. it follows by necessary consequence that the second person did from eternity Covenant to take unto him mans true nature from the seed of the deceived sinful woman and in that nature as it was accompanied with our true infirmities of Fear Sorrow c. to enter the Lists and to combate with Satan for the end aforesaid And 2. Hence it also follows by necessary consequence That God the Father did Covenant to and with his Son that in case the Devil could not by all his ill usage prevail to disturb his humane passions nor could by any other way divert him in the course of his obedience until he had finished all his sufferings and until at last in that obedience he had made his soul a sacrifice then he would accept of the perfection of his righteousness and obedience both in his combate and also in the formality of his death by his own Priestly power as a sweet smelling sacrifice and thereupon would be reconciled to the Elect and receive them again into special favor as Sons by Adoption A learned Divine saith thus The fundamental grounds of Christianity do inforce us to grant That in the Divine nature though most indivisibly one there is an eminent Ideal pattern of such a distinction as we call between party and party a capacity to give and a capacity to receive a capacity to demand and a capacity to satisfie c. 5 From this eternal Decree and Covenant between the Father and the Son doth result the New Covenant with the Elect For it pleased them to agree That all the Articles of the New Covenant should be ratified and confirmed to the Elect by the death of Christ and from that confirmation by his death It is now stiled the New Testament Heb. 9. 15 16. 6 Presently after the Declaration of the said Enmity and Combate in Gen. 3. 15. namely in verse 19. It pleased God further to declare the Council of his will to fallen but now also converted Adam That he should return to the dust whence he was taken Gen. 3. 19. And this is also further to be noted That God denounced this judicial sentence of a bodily death on him as a just punishment for his original spiritual death in sin and this is also further evident by Rom. 5. 12. And secondly The Apostle doth also further tell us That when God appointed a bodily death to Adams sinful nature that he also did at the very same time appoint a judgement for each departed soul Heb. 9. 27. namely First That such as dyed in the faith of their Redemption by the seed of the woman
sense Now the first Scripture wherein the true Plat-form of our Redemption is first declared is Gen. 3. 15. In this Scripture God doth first proclaim an utter enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent and in that Text God told the Devil that one of the seed of that deceived sinful Woman should in his true humane nature try Masteries with him and conquer him and he told Satan that he should have his full liberty to do what he could either by fraud or by force to hinder this seed of the Woman from breaking his Head-plot and so from winning the prize of mans Redemption and therefore God gave him full liberty to use him as a sinful Malefactor and to peirce him in the Foot-soals to try if by any means he could disturb his patience And in this Combate Christ covenanted that his humane nature should strive lawfully and not suffer his patience to be disturbed nor his obedience to be any wayes perverted until he had finished the Combate with Satan and then he also covenanted in the perfection of that obedience to make his soul a sacrifice for the procuring of Gods Reconciliation And hence it also follows That God the Father had covenanted to and with Christ that he would accept his Combate and his Sacrifice as a valuable consideration for the procuring of his Reconciliation to all the Elect. And thus it was declared that the seed of the Woman should break the Devils Head-plot and win the prize which was the Redemption of all the Elect from Satans spoyl And first From this Proclamation of Enmity and from this first Declaration of the Combate with Satan and of the Victory by the seed of the deceived Woman in Gen. 3. 15. must all the following Scriptures have reference for their true Exposition And secondly From this Scripture it is most evident That all Christs outward sufferings were by Gods appointment to be inflicted on him from the malice of Satan and his Instruments and that all his inward sufferings in his vital soul were to be assumed and exercised from his own true humane affections and passions which he took from the seed of the Woman in relation to his ill usage from his Enemy Satan And thirdly Neither in this nor in any following Scripture iâ— there any mention that Christ was to be made a sinner by Gods judicial imputation there is no such Court-language in the Scriptures neither is the term Hell-torments nor the second death nor the term Inflicted from Gods immediate wrath applied to Christ neither in this nor in any other Scripture though Mr. Norton hath perverted most dangerously many of the blessed Scriptures so to speak Fourthly When this first Declaration in Gen. 3. 15. is rightly understood and conferred with all the other Scriptures that speak of Christs sufferings it will fully declare That Mr. Nortons Tenents are most dangerously erronious and it will confirm the truth of the Dialogue Fifthly This Text of Gen. 3. 15. being rightly understood will be a general Key to open all the other Scriptures that speak of the sufferings of Christ in their right sense Sixthly In this Scripture is set out both the person and office of the Mediator First The term he relates to his humane nature from the seed of the Woman And secondly The term he relates to his divine nature or else he could not have taken the seed of the Woman without original sin Thirdly His office is declared to be a Combater with Satan in his humane nature as it was accompanied with our true humane affections and passions And it was declared that Satan his envious Combater should have his full liberty to do his worst to provoke his passions to some distemper or other that so he might spoyl his obedience and so hinder him from making his soul a Sacrifice c. as it is further declared in this Reply Good Reader Let this eminent example of these ingenuous Bereans make thy spirit calm and deliberate to search into the blessed Scriptures daily whether of us have given the right sense that error may be avoided and that the truth may be imbraced and confirmed to thy soul and to the Church of God when we are dead and gone Thine in the Lord W. PYNCHON A Postscript AFter I had finished my Reply to Mr. Norton and after a good part of it was printed I received a Book lately published by Mr. Anthony Burges called The true Doctrine of Justification the second Part wherein I found that he hath opposed some things in my Book of the Meretorious Price but yet with a differing spirit from Mr. Norton for he professeth that he likes not to be so deep in censuring as he sees some others are 1 In page 407. He doth oppose the Dialogue because it distinguisheth between Christs legal and Mediatorial obedience But in Chap. 3. and elsewhere I have justified the said distinction to be sound and good 2 In page 426. He doth oppose the Dialogue because it makes the formality of Christs death and sacrifice to be supernatural and in this point his answer is almost in Mr. Nortons expressions and therefore my Reply in Chap. 17. Sect. 3. and elsewhere is a sufficient Reply to him as well as it is to Mr. Norton 3 He holds differing things in the point of Christs Satisfaction not only from me but also from Mr. Norton but I hope my whole Book is a sufficient Reply and a sufficient vindication of the truth 4 There is one Scripture in my following Reply which I have cited to my sense out of Mr. Burges in Vindiciae legis namely Mat. 5. 17 18. which he doth now expound in a differing sense from what he had done in Vindiciae legis namely That Christ came to fulfil the Law for our righteousness by Gods imputation This Exposition he did not give in Vindiciae legis but yet I perceived that he held it to be a truth in it self but by his former exposition I could not conceive that hee ever intended to hold it from this Text and Context or else I had not cited him and now I would have left him out had I not been prevented by the Press for the Exposition that I have now given of that Text in page 113. I beleeve is the truth and it hath the approbation of other eminent orthodox Writers And as for his two Reasons given in page 357. to prove that these words of Christ must bee understood of his Suretiship fulfilling they prove it not but according to the Context they do most fitly agree to Christs Doctrinal fulfilling as I have expounded that Text. Thus much I thought fit to speak to the Reader 5 Whereas it hath pleased him to give the term of many Novelismes to my Book I reply That every one knows that when any one doth labour to vindicate the true sense of the blessed Scriptures from some long accustomed errors that such Expositors will be accounted to hold Novelismes
and in cha 16. at Reply 22. ult If it be granted that God denounced a bodily death as the immediate effect of Adams first sin in eating the forbidden fruit then the Pelagians cannot be convinced that Original sin is the cause of the death of Infants for then the Pelagians might reply That seeing it is granted that bodily death is the immediate effect of Adams first sin it cannot be the immediate effect of Original sin But seeing it is evident by Rom. 5. 12. that it is the punishment of Original sin in Infants therefore no other death but a spiritual death in sin was at the first threatned in Gen. 2. 17. Original sin is the essential death that God threatned in Gen. 2. 17. as the proper passion of Adams first sin though in the issue the Elect are redeemed from it by Christs undertaking to be the seed of the conquered woman and in that nature as it was accompanied with our true infirmities to conquer Satan by his constant obedience to the Laws of the Combate notwithstanding Satans unlimited power to provoke and disturb his passions and because at last in the perfection of his said obedience he made his soul a sacrifice of reconciliation by breathing out his immortal Spirit by his own Priestly power p. 34 63 65 Eternal death in Hell is but an accidental punishment to the first spiritual death in sin p. 36 Gods First Covenant with Adam was not made with Adam as a single person but it was made with him as he was the head of mans nature in general p. 25 The kind of life promised to Adam and so to all his natural Posterity was the perpetuity of his life in this world in his created perfections p. 27 All the glory of Gods Creation had been confounded at the very instant of Adams fall if God in his eternal Counsel and Providence had not ordained Christ to be ready at that instant to take on him the Government of the whole Creation p. 28 Gods secret and not his revealed will is the inviolable Rule of Gods relative Justice p. 37 35 and ch 15. CHAP. III. THe quality or kind of Christs obedience ex officio as Mediator was not to the moral Law of Nature as Mr. Norton affirms but it was to the voluntary positive Laws of a peculiar voluntary and reciprocal Covenant that was made between the persons in Trinity from Eternity Secondly Though Mr. Norton doth one while affirm That the quality or kind of Christs obedience was legal the same in nature and measure which we by the first Covenant stood bound unto yet another while he doth contradict that and saith it was more also p 42 Christs obedience to the moral Law is by eminent Divines rightly called Justitiâ personae But his obedience in his death and sufferings they do rightly call Justitiâ meriti p. 44 Christs obedience in his incarnation and in his death was not his obedience to the moral Law as Mr. Norton affirms but it was a special kind of obedience to the voluntary positive Laws of his Mediatorship onely p. 45 * Add this Note to p. 45. Dr. Willet in Dan. 9. p. 291. saith That Christs Descention Conception Incarnation and his Miracles are not imputed to us because they were no part of fulfilling the Law In these words he doth plainly contradict Mr. Norton for he denies that Christs incarnation was any part of Christs obedience to the moral Law If the Incarnation of Christ which was an act of his God-head had been an act of obedience to the moral Law as Mr. Norton affirms then his God-head had been in an absolute inferiority to his Father because the moral Law was given by God as a supream which Tenent doth fully maintain the Arrian Heresie p. 47 * Add this Note to p. 99. and to p. 101. Mr. Norton saith in p. 123. That the Divine nature was angry not onely with the Humane nature but with the person of the Mediator because of sin imputed to him And in p. 55. he saith That God charged Christ with sin as the supream Law-giver and Judge c. In these words he maketh the God-head of the Mediator to be in an absolute inferiority to his Father which doth also maintain the Atrian Heresie * Add this Note to p. 47. and to p. 51. at 5. Christ as he was true man was under the obligation of the moral Law and as he was a Jew he was under the obligation of the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws but as he was Mediator and as he acted as Mediator ex officio he was above the moral Law for he said he was the Lord of the Sabbath even as he was the Son of man And secondly he shewed himself to be above the Ceremonial Law in that he said A greater than the Temple is here Matth. 12. 6 8. The Jews legal justifications under the first Covenant by their outward observation of the works of the Ceremonial Law was a true type of our moral justification by the blood of Christ p. 49 51 235 and p. 259 CHAP. IV. THe order of mens legal proceedings in Courts of Judicature is no way suitable to be alledged for an exemplification of the order of Gods proceedings in Christs sufferings as Mr. Nortons way is because it appears by Gods Declaration of the Combate in Gen 3 15. that his sufferings as he was declared to be the seed of the woman was to be from the voluntary cause in the trial of masteries with his proclaimed enemy Satan and his Instruments in which Combate in case Satan could have prevailed to disturb his patience then Satan had got the victory but in case he could not by all his ill usage disturb his patience nor any way subvert him in his obedience then the victory and the rich prize of mans Redemption was to go on Christs side p. 55 82 9◠22 chap. 13 14 Eternity is essential to the Torments of Hell p. 56 The distinction of essential and circumstantial Hell Torments thereby to make Eternity no more but a circumstance hath four inconveniencies attending it p. 56 Sometimes Mr Norton doth affirm that Christ suffered the pain of loss in respect of the fruition of the good of the Promise but otherwhiles he saith it was but in respect of the sense of the good of the Promises By which wide differing expressions be leaves the Reader in the dark to grope out his meaning p. 58 Mr. Norton in his book p. 123. holds that Christ was separated both in body and soul from all participation of the good of the Promise for a time and so he comes up to Christs total separation from God for a time p 60 Sometimes again he makes the pain of loss to be no more but the want of the sense of the favor of God for a time p. 61 Mr. Norton is put to his shifts to maintain his poenal Hell in this life for he is fain to fly to Gods extraordinary dispensation to
consequently saith he he would have been in a perpetual fear before his fall But saith he in p. 220. The first Adam had not any naturall fear as the second Adam had because there was no hurtful object before his eyes as there was before the eyes of Christ And saith Vinditiae Legis in p. 129. he needed no Mediator nor comfort because his soul could not be terrified with any sin And so saith Austin in his Enchyrid to Lawrence chap. 32. When Adam was made a right man he needed no Mediator but when sin did separate â—ioâ— from God then he must be brought into favor again by a Mediator c. God doth often dispence with his peremptory threatnings p. 157 Gods voluntary positive Laws were not ingraven in Adams nature as his moral Laws were no more than the time of the last Judgement was ingraven in the Humane nature of Christ Mark 13. 32. p. 159. 11 God doth sometimes alter from the Rule of his moral Commands to the Rule of his secret Decâ—ees p. 160 225 CHAP. XI CHrist bare our sicknesses and carried our sorrows from us not by bearing them upon his own body as a Porter bears a burden but he is said to bear them because he bare them from us by the power of his divine command p. 163 CHAP. XII MR. Norton doth most dangerously make all the bodily sufferings of Christ to be hell pains p. 165 169 Mr. Norton doth often wrong the sense of the Dialogue p. 167 296 The true nature of all Christs greatest bodily sufferings are described to be chastisements in Isa 53. 5. therefore they cannot be called the essential torments of Hell inflicted on him from Gods vindicative wrath as Mr. Norton calls them p. 169 178 266 311 344 Christs sufferings may justly be called punishments such as the godly suffer and yet not proceed from Gods wrath as their punishments do very often p. 171 None of Christs sufferings were inflicted on him from Gods immediate wrath as Mr. Norton holds most dangerously p. 172 Christs Humane nature was often purposely left of the Divine nature not onely in his natural and moral actions that so it might act according to physical causes but also in his Office because be was appointed to combate with Satan in his Humane nature that so he might be the more deeply touched with the sense of our infirmities p. 174. 383 The true nature of merit described namely how Christ did merit our redemption p. 176 130 146 308 256 The Judges imputation of any sin in the voluntary combate doth cause such a Combater to loose the prize p. 178 Punishments in the voluntary Combate may be suffered from the opposite Champion without any imputation of sin from Gods vindicative wrath p. 178 God did wound and bruise Christ no otherwise but as he gave Satan leave to wound him and to do his worst unto him p. 178 311 All Christs greatest punishments were suffered without any imputation of sin from God or else God could not have accepted his death as a propitiatory sacrifice to bring us to God p. 182 Christ was eminently voluntary and active in complying with all his sufferings from his Combater Satan or else they had not been meritorious p. 183 CHAP. XIII THe word Sin is often used in a metaphorical sense for a sin-sacrifice because it was offered to procure Gods Attonement for sin p. 190 Christ attoned his Fathers wrath with the sacrifice of his body and blood p 191 It is evident by Isa 53. 6. and by Jer. 30. 21. that there passed a Covenant between the Trinity from eternity for mans Redemption p 193 Christ put away sin as the phrase is in Heb. 9. 26. or condemned sin as the phrase is in Rom 8. 3. when he abolished the use of all sin offerings by his onely true sacrifice for our sins p. 196 The imposition of hands upon the head of the condemned person by the witnesses was to testifie their faith to the throwers of stones that the evidence they had given in against him was true p. 198 Christ doth still bear our sins in Heaven as much by Gods imputation as ever he bare them when he lived here upon earth p. 204 * Add this Note to p. 205. l. 20. All such as hold that Christ was our bounden Surety in the same obligation with Adam must hold as Mr. Norton doth in p. 239. that Christ was delivered from his act of Surety-ship at his death But all such as hold him to be no other Surety but as he is our voluntary Priest to intercede for the pardon of sin must hold him to be an eternal Surety as they hold him to be an eternal priest and that he was not discharged of his Suretiship at his death but that he doth still continue to be our Mediatorial Surety for the procuring of Gods daily pardon as long as we live in this world p. 205 89. CHAP. XIV MR. Nortons palpable mistaking of the Righteousness of God to mean nothing else but the Righteousness of Christ in 2 Cor. 5. 21. is one main cause of his erroneous Interpretation p. 208 It is the righteousness of each person in Trinity to perform their Covenants to each other for the orderly working out of a sinners Reconciliation and Justification p. 211 No Scripture rightly interpreted doth make our sins to be formally imputed to Christ namely not by Gods legal imputation as Mr. Norton holds p. 212 Mans Law doth not allow Sureties for capital crimes p. 216 The imputation of our sins to Christ as it is asserted by Mr. Norton is a doctrine but of late daies p. 222 Christ did impute our sins to himself to make himself a guilty sinner as much as ever his father did ibid. SECT 4. Gods forgiveness is the formal cause of a sinners righteousness p. 228 * Add this Note to p. 231. at Rom. 3. 26. in line 15. And further saith P. Martyr on the Romant p. 318. as differentia maketh the nature or kind so the righteousness of God maketh our Justification for when we are by him absolved from sin we are justified And saith he in p. 367. B. God justifieth in absolving us from our sins and ascribing and imputing to us righteousness and saith he this word Hitsadik is a word taken of the Law and appertaineth to Judgement and so to justifie is by judgement And saith he forasmuch as there are two significations of this word Justifie namely either indeed or in account and estimation for God is the Author of either of them whether of these two shall we follow in the point of Justification proposed Forsooth saith he the latter namely that God doth justifie by account and estimation and this I suppose saith he is sufficient touching the declaration of this word Justification And saith he in answer to the Council of Trent in p. 388. b. The formal cause is the Justice of God not that Justice whereby himself is just but that which he communicateth
so in an unproper sense he may be called our Surety but not in a proper legal sense according to Mr. Nortons Court-language This way of satisfaction first declared in Gen. 3. 15. is the foundation upon which all after Prophecies touching satisfaction by Christs death and sufferings must have dependence and as it was first exemplified to Adam in the sacrifice of a Lamb as I have shewed in the Institution of the Sabbath and therefore all those positive Laws touching Priest and Sacrifice declared afterwards to Moses are but the further opening of the manner of Christs satisfaction and indeed those types were but the Picture of what was agreed on in the Eternal Covenant to bee performed in due time by the seed of the Woman 4 It may hence be gathered That God ordained no other afflictions for Christ to suffer but either from Sathans enmity in piercing him in the foot-soals meaning thereby his outward afflictions Or else secondly they were from himself in the inward man for as he was true man of the seed of the Woman so he must be inwardly touched with the feeling of our infirmities and therefore as often as objects of fear or sorrow c. did present he was to be touched as our merciful High-priest with a greater measure of these infirmities than any other man can be but no Scripture doth speak a word in Mr. Nortons Dialect that his soul was pressed under the sense of Gods immediate wrath for in case his Fathers immediate wrath had pressed those sorrows from his soul as Mr. Nortons term is then those sufferings had not been voluntary from his own will but constrained but say all sound Divines nothing was constrained in Christ by any supreme power and therefore not by Gods immediate wrath though the Devil had liberry to use what force hee could to his outward man yet hee had no liberty to force his soul but himself was the only voluntary Agent in all the affections of his soul hee feared hee sorrowed c. when hee would and as much as hee would and therefore was often touched with the feeling of our infirmities in a larger measure than any other mans soul can bee and thus hee was our voluntary Mediator and Surety Mr. Norton still makes Christ to bee our legal Surety in the same obligation with Adam on the contrary I do still affirm that Christ suffered our punishments not from Gods judicial imputation of sin for then indeed he had suffered from Gods wrath but that he suffered our punishments only from the voluntary Cause and Covenant and such sufferings might be and were undertaken by Christ both without any judicial imputation of sin and also without wrath as in the trial of masteries with Sathan Enmity upon Adams fall was proclamed and the seed of the Woman was commanded but not in wrath to enter the lists with Sathan and try masteries with him and the Devil must do his worst to disturb his patience and so to pervert his obedience and Christ must exemplifie the perfection of his obedience by the perfection of his patience even in that ignominious and painful death of the Crosse untill hee had finished all his sufferings for his consecration to his Priestly office and then at last make his soul a sacrifice for sin But this way of satisfaction Mr. Norton dams for heresie The Lord open his eyes to see better and the eyes of those that are misled by him 5 It was ordained in the Eternal Decree and Covenant that Christ should be consecrated to his Priestly office for the better making his death a sacrifice by afflictions Heb. 2. 10. Heb. 5. 9. Heb. 2. 10. God ordained all Christs greatest sufferingâ— in his Passion to be for his consecration to his sacrifice To consecrate is interpreted by the Seventy to make perfect As for example when the people had worshipped the Golden Calf Moses by Gods special positive command in Exod. 32. 27. 29. commanded the Levites to consecrate their hands by doing perfect and exact justice upon the Idolaters without respect of persons not sparing their own sons or neer kindred and this act of theirs is recorded to their praise in Deut. 33. 9. and by this impartial act of perfect justice their hands were consecrated to God 2 The consecration of Aaron and his sons to the Priestly office was to bee effected by continuing seven dayes under the observation of certain particular Rites before their consecration could bee finished Exod. 29. 9. and Lev. 8. 22. and then the very next day after their consecration was finished Moses bid them draw near to the Altar to execute the Priests office by offering a sacrifice both for themselves and for the people Lev. 9. 7. But Christ needed not to offer any sacrifice for himself and therefore it was only for his people 3 As Moses is said to consecrate Aaron and his sons through many particular Rites exactly observed whereof one was no small affliction though willingly born by them at the Lords appointment namely Yee shall abide at the doâ—r of the Tent of the Congregation day and night seven dayes and shall keep the charge of Jehovah that ye dye not Lev. 8. 33. This exact watch for that space of time being separated from their wives and families under the penalty of death was doubtlesse a time of affliction to them though as I said before willingly born at the Lords appointment 4 It is said in Heb. 2. 10. It became him namely it became God the Father that hee should consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions And it is also said in verse 17. That it behoved Christ to bee made like unto his brethren that he might bee a merciful and a faithful high Sacrificer in things concerning God and that hee might make Reconciliation for the sins of the people 5 In these two verses we may observe the execution of some of the Articles of the Eternal Covenant touching Christs Priesthood both on the Fathers part and on Christs part 1 It is said of the Father That it be came him to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions that is to make his obedience perfect through afflictions or else if the Devil had not had full liberty to try his obedience by afflictions hee would have objected thus against Christ In case I might have had full liberty to try his obedience as I had to try Adams obedience this seed of the Woman would have been disobedient to God as Adam was Therefore it became so perfect a Work-man as God was to declare that Sathan had full liberty to enter the Lists with the seed of the Woman and to do his worst to pervert his obedience Gen. 3. 15. And secondly It behoved Christ to be made like unto his brethren and to enter the Lists with Sathan not in his divine nature but in our nature and to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and therefore it is also said That it behoved
righteous servant in this conflict continuing obedient to the death according to all the Articles of the Covenant untill he had triumphed over all Principalities and Powers on his cross and so he won the prize namely the salvation of all the Elect. According to this way of punishment Christ suffered our punishments no punishment was due to him from the imputation of sin and therefore no punishment was inflicted on him from Gods anger as our punishments are We indeed do justly suffer according to that Court-language which Mr. Norton hath expressed but Christs punishments though they were as true punishments in sense and feeling as ours are and more sensible to his nature than to us yet they were not inflicted on him from the same compulsory ground and Law as ours are on us but all his were from the voluntary Law and Covenant as I have before declared And in chap. 12. at Conclus 1. I have shewed that any imputation of sin in the voluntary combate doth lose the prize But saith Mr. Norton in pag. 96. Christ is expresly said to be made a curse Gal. 3. 12. It will thence unavoydably follow saith he that sin was some way judicially upon Christ for we read of no curse inflicted according to the determinate and revealed way of proceeding with the reasonable creature but it presupposeth sin wherefore he could neither have been made a curse nor die since the onely cause of the curse and death is sin from which he was free but because he had taken upon him our sins Reply 9. Sin saith Mr. Norton was some way judicially upon Christ Why then is it not proved and made manifest by Scripture I find no other proof of it but Scripture mis-interpreted as I have shewed already and as for Gal. 3. 13. it doth clearly faile him as the Reader may see in my examination of his Conclusions from the Text. But saith Mr. Norton in pag. 55. God charged Christ with sin as the supreme Law-giver and Judge Christ accepts the charge as a Surety and so subjects himself to the satisfaction of Justice which is the part of a Surety And in the said page God cannot be just without a judicial imputation of the guilt and punishment of sin unto the Surety And in pag. 34 28 and 136. he saith It was requisite that Christ should be made sin i. e. that the guilt of sin should be legally imputed to him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Reply 10. These speeches and others do imply that God could not impute our sins to Christ unless he had been first a legal Surety in the same obligation with Adam but that hath been all along denied and disproved and therefore now except Mr. Norton can more clearly prove than hitherto that Christ was a true legal Surety in the same obligation with Adam All that he hath said hitherto about Gods imputing our sins to Christ will come to nothing As for his great proof that Christ was such a legal Surety from Heb. 7. 22. it shall have a full examination and reply in my Reply to his third Argument and touching his many proofs of imputation from 2 Cor. 5. 21. See more there But saith Mr. Norton pag. 70. Through anguish of soul he had clods rather than drops of blood streaming down his blessed body a thing which was neither seen nor heard before nor since The true reason thereof is Christ died as a sinner imputatively pressed under the sense of the wrath of God and conflicting with eternal death Reply 11. Touching his sweating clods of blood I have replyed in Luk. 22. 44. if it were clods of blood doubtless it was miraculous and if it were miraculous how is that a proof that it was caused from the pressure of the sense of Gods wrath But I beleeve his Agony was from natural causes namely because his pure nature did so much abhor that ignominious and painful death which he did grapple withall in the garden and I beleeve if Mr. Norton had made his Agony to proceed from the voluntary cause conflicting in his earnest prayers with Satans temptations and with the natural fear of death untill he had overcome that natural fear that so he might perform his oblation in all exact obedience according to Gods positive Covenant he had come far nearer to the true cause of Christs Agony than by making his Agony to proceed from the compulsory cause Being pressed under the wrath of God it seems his word pressing doth allude to that violent constraint that is used to press out the blood of grapes but yet it is also beyond it because he makes the wrath of God to press out clods of blood in Christ it makes me tremble at such expressions of violence from Gods immediate wrath against Christ But saith Mr. Norton in pag. 219. As Christ was guilty of our sin so also he was sensible of an accusing conscience and a little after saith he the question is not whether Christ be polluted with our sin inherently but whether he may not be said to be polluted with our sin imputatively Reply 12. In words Mr. Norton saith Christ was not guilty of our sins inherently but his arguing doth prove him a sinner inherently for his whole drift is to prove that Christ suffered the essential torments of hell and the second death and none can possible suffer the second death until they be first inherently guilty of the first death of sin 2 If he was polluted with our sin by Gods imputation as Mr. Norton holds then his death and sacrifice must needs be abominable in the sight of God But saith Mr. Norton in pag. 123. The Divine Nature was angry not onely with the Humane Nature but with the person of the Mediator because â—of sin imputed to him Reply 13. Mark the dangerousness of this Doctrine of imputing our sins to Christ for here Mr. Norton makes God to be angry with Christ because of sin imputed to him as to our Mediator in both his Natures and so all along he makes Christ as God Man to be our Surety and so sin to be imputed to him in both his Natures But Mr. Burges on Justific p. 176. saith That Christ as God Man was not bound by any imputation of our guilt And he cites Zanchy for this The fore-quoted Author saith he makes this objection to himself How Christ could be said to be freed from the guilt of sin who had no sin He answereth the person of Christ is considered two waies 1. In it self as God Man and so Christ was not bound by any guilt 2. as appointed Head and so representing our persons in this respect God laid our iniquities upon him Isa 53. My drift in citing this is to shew That such learned Divines as Zanchy and Mr. Burges is do deny that the guilt of our sins were imputed to Christ as God Man contradicting Mr. Norton therein Christ in his obeying saith P. Martyr in his Ser. on Phi. 2. became not less than his Father
that this speech in verse 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows doth intend so much but a judicious Reader may easily see that the scope of this Chapter is to set out the operations of the divine nature as well as of the humane and of several other things that belong both to the Person and Office of Christ and therefore the simple Reader may easily bee deceived by telling them thus That the Prophet in this Text by griefs and sorrows intends such sufferings by Christ as are due to us namely Hell-sorrows as is plain from the Chapter 2 He tells the Reader that this sense is plain by comparing of the fourth and fifth verses with 1 Pet. 2. 24. and thus hee doth winde in the fourth verse with the fifth verse whereas indeed the fifth verse only doth answer to 1 Pet. 2. 24. and so the Dialogue doth parallel it and explain and thus hee deceives both himself and the Reader by joyning both these verses together in one sense which in the Dialogue are handled asunder in a differing sense and the Dialogue gives this evident reason for it namely because the bearing away of our griefs in vers 4. is expounded by Matthew of his bearing away of our infirmities and diseases by the power of his God-head and to this very sense Matthew doth translate this verse of Isaiah saying That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses and besides the Prophet himself doth confirm this sense in the last clause of this fourth verse saying Yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted The Dialogue doth open this clause thus Though the glory of his God-head did shine in our eyes by his miraculous bearing away of sicknesses and infirmities yet we esteemed him but as a grosse Impostor and therefore put him to death as a vild Malefactor and then we judged him that had done so many miraculous cures to be stricken smitten of God and afflicted for his own deserved faults And thus the Reader may see the true sense of this verse to bee cleered by the context as well as by Matthews translation But if his bearing our sorrows had meant that he bare our Hell-sorrows then the last clause must have run thus And wee did rightly judge that hee was plagued and smitten of Gods wrath with Hell-sorrows But Mr. Norton cuts off this last clause with these words The rest saith he is either impertinent or uncontroverted so that it seems hee makes his last clause to bee impertinent for it is not uncontroverted And now let the judicious Reader judge of his Answer by my Reply SECT II. But Mr. Norton goes on to prove That Christ bare our very sorrowâ— as a Porter bears a burden in page 35. From the collation of the two Hebrew words used in this fourth verse For saith he Though Nasa he hath born be of more general use and doth sometimes signifie to bear as a Porter bears a burden and sometimes otherwise Yet saith he Sabal hee hath carried signifies properly to bear as one bears a burden This restraineth the sense of the former word and limits it to the received interpretation Reply 2. BY this Exposition of Nasa with Sabal Mr. Norten shews himself to bee a greater Scholar than the Evangelist Matthew For saith he Sabal signifieth properly to bear as one bears a burden and therefore saith he this restraineth the sense of the former word Nasa to the received interpretation by this hee tells the Reader that Matthews interpretation is not the received interpretation but that Mr. Nortons interpretation is the received interpretation They may receive it that please The blind will eat many a flye but I hope the Lord will help me to receive Matthews interpretation before it But secondly If Sabal doth signifie properly to bear as one bears a burden and doth restrain Nasa to the same sense then it follows that either Christ took the infirmities from the sick and bare them upon his own body as a Porter bears a burden or else that Matthew gives a wrong interpretation of Sabal And thus Mr. Norton hath put himself into a Dilemma and therefore now hee must either blame his own interpretation to justifie Matthew or else he must still blame Matthews interpretation of Sabal to justifie his 3 I conceive that Mr. Norton had reasoned more like a Scholar if hee had said that though Sabal doth ordinarily signifie to carry as a Porter bears a burden yet sometimes when it is joyned with Nasa it may signifie lifting up or bearing away as Nasa doth usually I am no Linguist yet with a little help from others I do sometimes make use of Kirkeroes Hebrew-Greek See Ainsw in Num. 6. 26. Lexicon and there I see that Sabal is twice used with Nasa in Isa 46. 4. in a metaphorical sense for Gods merciful delivering his people from Babylon and a metaphorical sense may bee compared with the litteral in some respects but yet such comparisons must not alwayes run on four feet I find also that the Seventy do there render Sabal by two differing Greek words and neither of them do signifie to bear as a Porter bears a burden and I find they do use it also in other various senses I find also that Sebel of Sabal is rendred by our Translators the charge in taking care for the well-ordering of things in 1 King 11. 28. But suppose that Nasa and Sabal do signifie that Christ bare our griefs and sorrows as a Porter bears a burden as hee did in his affections of compassion for it is after said when they brought diseased persons to him That he had compassion on them and in this respect hee took our nature with our sin-less infirmities that so hee might bee touched and might thereby know how to pity us Heb. 2. 17 18. But this bearing will not serve Mr. Nortons turn it is an amazing kind of bearing which Mr. Norton makes all the bodily sufferings of Christ to be Hell-pains Mr. Norton mantains namely That all Christs bodily sufferings were born as Hell-pains For saith he in page 107. the penal wrath of God or Hell-pains were either outward viz. such as hee suffered in body or inward viz. such as be suffered in soul Reply 3. By this Tenent of his it necessarily follows that Christ bare all his outward sufferings as a Porter bears a burden from his birth to his death as Hell-pains It is just with God that he that keeps not close to the Context when hee doth expound the blessed Scriptures especially when the sense is already made by conference of one Scripture with another as Isaiah is by the Holy Ghost in Matthew which is a sure rule of true Exposition that God should leave them to wander after their own vain fantasies Sentences of Scripture saith Peter Martyr must not bee more largely understood than the place it self wherein they are written may bear
desert of sin But suppose that God doth in some cases inflict punishments immediately on some mens souls by his supreme power without respect of sin yet that doth not answer to the Proposition of the Dialogue for the Dialogue doth not speak of mens souls but of Christs soul The Dialogue saith That Christs soul is not capable of bearing wounds from Gods immediate wrath But all Mr. Nortons proofs are of mens souls that are sinners But saith Mr. Norton in page 38. Sathan being a spirit may have access unto and consequently both may and doth afflict the spirit 1 Cor. 5. 5. Eph. 2. 12. 16. Reply 7. What though Sathan may afflict the spirit of a sinner yet still that doth not prove his Proposition which hee undertook to make good namely That God from his immediate wrath did afflict the spirit of Christ But saith Mr. Norton If Sathan cannot yet God can Reply 8. What God can do is one thing and what God did to the soul of Christ is another thing But still his Proposition to be proved is That God did inflict his immediate wrath upon the soul of Christ without any second means 2 For a more full answer to both the former speeches of In his Child of Light p. 52 53. 120. Mr. Norton I shall refer you to Mr. Thomas Goodwin hee saith that the soul of Adam in his innocency and the soul of Christ were privileged from all inward suggestions from Sathan and that Sathan could tempt them no otherwise but by his outward temptations only And I find other Divines to accord with him 3 He sheweth also that God doth not torment the souls of the damned by his immediate wrath but by second means For saith hee though God is to be feared because hee only can cast both body and soul into hell Yet saith hee this is not meant as if God were the immediate Tormentor of souls after the great day seeing they are to bee tormented by that fire which God hath prepared in common for them and the Devils 4 P. Martyr in his Com. pl. part 4. pag. 314. saith It is the property of God to command and not to execute things commanded And saith Baxter in his Saints Rest page 275. God afflicts mens souls not immediately but by instruments But saith Mr. Norton in page 39. Christ suffered not only in body but in soul Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul a sacrifice for sin My soul is exceeding Mat. 26. 38. sorrowful to the death Mat. 26. 38. Mar. 14. 34. His great heaviness sore amazement agony sweat as it were drops of blood Mar. 14. 33. Luke 22. 44. cannot bee looked at in a person that was Luke 22. 44. God and man as less than the effects of Soul-sorrows Hell-sorrows Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell Reply 9. I have shewed in Chap. 17. Sect. 3. and in Chap. 16. Sect. 3. That the soul of Christ in these places quoted by Mr. Norton are meant of his vital soul and not of his immortal soul 2 That Christ himself was his own Afflicter with soul-sorrows Chap. 16. Sect. 2. and Chap. 17. Sect. 4. Reply 15. 3 When all these cited Scriptures are put together they prove no more but this that Christ suffered much in his soul as well as in his body But where doth any of them say That his soul-sufferings were inflicted on him from Gods immediate wrath without any second means which is the very point that Mr. Norton undertook to make good But saith hee His great heavinesse sore amazement and sweat as it were great drops of blood cannot bee looked at in a person that was both God and man as lesse than the effects of Hell-sorrows c. Reply 10. Doth not Mr. Norton hold forth in these words that the humane nature of Christ was a true part of his divine person why else doth he say That his great heavinesse sore Christs humane nature was often purposely left of the divine nature that so it might be touched with the sense of our infirmities more than ours can be amazement c. cannot be looked at in a person that was God and man as lesse than the effects of Hell-sorrows as if Christs humane nature was not able to bear these sorrows without the powerful assistance of his divine nature It seems to mee he thinks that his Godhead by vertue of personal union did alwaies co-operate to the assisting of his humane nature to undergo his soul-sorrows as our bodies are holpen to bear our sufferings by our souls by reason of personal union But I shall joyn with those Divines that reason contrary for both ancient and latter Divines do often say That his divine nature did often rest that so his humane nature might bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities and this the divine nature might do because the humane nature was no true part of his divine person as our souls are to make our bodies a person but an Appendix only The union of his humane nature to his divine person was such an ineffable union that it cannot bee exemplified by any other union whatsoever Indeed if his humane nature had been a true part of his divine person as our souls are of our persons then it must have holpen his humane nature to bear his sorrows but I think it is no lesse than heresie to hold so but because it was but an Appendix to his divine person therefore the divine nature could put out his power to leave the humane nature to its self and to its own qualifications to bee touched to the utmost with thâ—â— sensible feeling of our infirmities and therefore I say That the perfections of his humane nature and the unction of the holy Spirit at his instalment was sufficient to support him and to regulate his soul-sorrows without the co-operation of his divine nature and doubtlesse as his humane nature was most perfect in spirits so it was to the utmost touched with the sense of our infirmities much more then our corrupt natures can bee But I shall have occasion to speak more of this in the Passion of Christ and in respect of his ineffable union his divine nature did leave his humane nature to act in his moral obedience and natural actions But saith Mr. Norton in page 39. The Curse is not only bodily but spiritual as we were delivered from our sin so hee bare our sin But wee were delivered not only from the bodily but also from the spiritual punishment of sin Therefore c. Reply 11. I suppose that Mr. Norton by this speech Wee were delivered from the spiritual punishment of sin doth mean that Christ hath delivered us from the spiritual death of Hell But I have shewed in Chap. 2. in Sect. 3. That the first death threatned to Adam and his posterity in case hee did eat of the forbidden fruit was a spiritual death in sin and that bodily death and eternal death was threatned after this as
as I said before that Christ did not desire simply at any time to be freed from death for that had been to desire to be freed from the performance of his Covenant but only from the cup of his natural fear from his present natural distrust of his ignominious usage by his ignominious and painful death and in this prayer and supplication of his he was heard and delivered Heb. 5. 7. and this request was of necessity to be obtained or else he could not have fulfilled his Covenant which was that he would lay down his life by his own free will desire and power even by the active power and joynt concurrence of both his natures Joh. 10. 17 18. and this command he could not fulfil until he had obtained a confirmation by his earnest prayers in the Garden against his natural fear of death And hence it follows that seeing Christ could not prevent his decreed death he was bound by his Covenant to be troubled at least for a time with the fear of it and that in a transcendent manner as much as his humane tender natural constitution could bear without sin namely until he had by his earnest prayers obtained a confirmation 5 Saith Zanchy as touching Christs divine nature there was De Tribus Eloâ—im part 2. l. 3. c. 9. And see Weams in his Portraiture p. 191 192. alwayes one and the same will of the Father and the Son concerning his death and Passion yea as Christ was man hee was alwayes obedient to his Father and therefore hee said I alwayes do the things that please him What meaning then saith he hath this That he prayed to be freed from death and from the cup He answers Naturally as man Christ feared abhorred and shunned death and his natural horror of death he called his Will when he said Not my will be done to wit this natural Will which I have as man yet neither doth this Will of Christ resist his Fathers Will for the Father would have Christ to bee like us in all things except sin and to that end would have him made man Therefore when Christ did naturally shun and desire to escape death hee did not contradict his Fathers will because the Father would have this natural fear and horror to bee in Christ as a * So Weams in his Portraiture of the Image of God in man p. 148. saith Christs Passions were a punishment but not a sin And saith Weams in p. 220. Christ had natural fear actually which the first Adam had not because there was no hurtful object before his eyes as there was before Christ punishment of our sins wherefore it is altogether false that Christs will in this was divers from his Fathers will But saith he if in respect of the same end the Father had been willing that Christ should dye and Christ had been unwilling or had never so little refused then their Wills indeed had been repugnant but in reference to the same end namely our salvation Christ alwayes had the same will that his Father had In these words Zanchy doth shew that it was absolutely necessary for Christ in regard of his true humane nature to bee inwardly touched with the natural fear of his bodily death and to evidence it outwardly but he makes no mention that Christ feared his spiritual and eternal death as Mr. Norton doth most unsoundly from the same Text. But saith Mr. Norton still in page 57. It hath oftentimes been the case of Martyrs to give up their lives with joy Reply 7. Hence he thinks it was not beseeming for Christ If there be any Martyrs to whom it is pleasant to die that they have from other where and not from the nature of death to bee so troubled as he was with the fear of his bodily death But saith P. Martyr in Rom. 5. 12. All the godly do affirm that in death there is a feeling of the wrath of God and therefore of its own nature it driveth men into a certain pain and horror which thing saith he both Christ himself when he prayed in the Garden and many other holy men have declared And saith he if there chance to be any to whom it is pleasant and delectable to dye and to be rid of their life that they have elsewhere and not from the nature of death In these words observe that P. Martyr doth make the bodily death of Christ to be the material cause of his pain and horror in the Garden quite contrary to Mr. Norton he doth never mention the Second death and Hell-torments to bee the cause of his horror in the Garden as Mr. Norton doth 2 Saith hee If there be any whether Martyrs of Christ to whom it is pleasant and delectable to dye and to be rid of their life that they have elsewhere and not from the nature of death 3 The Dialogue gives good reasons in page 52. why Christ should shew more fear of death then any Martyrs namely First For the cleerer manifestation of the truth of his humane nature And secondly For the accomplishment of the Predictions of his sufferings and therefore that mercy of his that made him to take our humane nature of the seed of the woman made him to take our natural infirmities and to manifest them to the uttermost in seasonable times as objects did present the occasion But saith Mr. Norton in page 69. You make Christ not only more afraid of natural death than many Martyrs but to shew more fear of death than any man And saith hee Your reasons are but deceptions Reply 8. If Christ had shewed no more natural fear of death than some men do it might well have been doubted whether hee had been true man or no seeing sundry Hereticks have called it into question notwithstanding hee gave such large testimony of it by his exceeding natural fear as hee did I find this excellent Observation in our larger Annotations on Psal 22. 1. We further briefly say That Christ was pleased to yeeld to sense or feeling so far 1 That he might shew himself a perfect true man a thing not easily beleeved as appears by the multitude of Heresies about this matter that sprung up soon after the first plantation of the faith there being no greater evidence to ordinary judgement at least of his perfect humanity than his being subject to the common infirmities of men Secondly To keep us from fainting and despair in the greatest trials combats and afflictions whether spiritual or corporal when God seems to forget us And thirdly As for them that think unpassionateness the Aulus Gellius a known ancient Writer in his 19. book of Noctes Atticae ch 1. 12. greatest evidence of magnanimity I commend the Disputes of two famous Philosophers recorded by Aulus Gellius Thus far speaks the said Annotation Fourthly this is observable That though many Martyrs have through the grace of constancy undergone the pains of death with joy or with little sign of their natural
should be more hard and difficult to be performed than Adams was by infinite degrees and that was first to enter the Lists with Satan and his instruments and not to bee disturbed in his patience but to observe the laws of the Combate in all obedience and at last when the Devil had done his worst he should then make his vital soul a sacrifice in breathing out his immortal soul by his own Priestly power and all this is comprehended in this sentence Hee shall break thy head and by this speech God did fully forewarn the Devil that he might use his best skill without any restraint to do what he could to disturb the patience of this seed of the woman either by his sinful imputations or by his ignominious usage or by his cruel tortures and so might do his utmost to interrupt his obedience that so his death might not be a sacrifice and that so by this means he might save his Head-plot from being broken and accordingly the Devil did often stir up his Arch-instruments to disturb his patience but especially when he entred into Judas to fetch a band of armed men with swords and staves to apprehend him as a notorious Malefactor and stirred up the Scribes to accuse him as a most sinful Malefactor worse than the murtherer Barabas and he stirred up Herod and his Souldiers to mock him and Pilate to condemn him to the most shameful cursed death of the Cross and all this evil usage is included in this sentence Thou Satan shalt peirce him in the foot-soals And in this Combate this is chiefly to be marked That the Devil did use all the foulest play that hee could devise to disturb the patience of this Seed of the woman that was compassed about with our true natural affections and passions and with a tender sense of every evil for the Devil knew that if he could by all his foul play but once have disturbed his patience that then he had perverted him in the course of his obedience and then hee knew that hee should have spoyled his death from being a sacrifice and then he knew that hee should have preserved his first grand Head-plot from being broken and then the Devil would have triumphed over Christ upon the Cross and over all mankind as he did when he first brought Adam to disobey Gods positive prohibition in eating the forbidden fruit 2 God was pleased further to declare That it was the plot of the Trinity that the second person should take unto him the seed of the deceived sinful woman and that he should enter the Lists with his enemy Satan in that nature as it was accompanied with true natural passions and not in the power of his divine nature and therefore it was of necessity that he must manifest the truth of his humane nature by his true natural affections and passions in fearing and sorrowing and abhorring his vilde ignominious usage by his Combater Satan and if it be marked Christ doth as much complain of his shameful usage as of his painful usage and that he saith in Psal 69. 20. Reproach hath broken my heart and yet still that notwithstanding all Satans vilde usage hee should continue obedient to the very last even to the most shameful death of the Cross and that hee should then make his vital soul a sacrifice of Redemption and Reconciliation for all the Elect. And thus as by the demerit of Adams disobedience to a meer positive Law The Many even the Elect as wel as the Reprobate were made sinners so by the merit of the obedience of the second Adam to Gods meer positive Law in his combate with Satan and in his death and sacrifice The Many are made righteous Rom. 5. 18 19. that is to say Rom 5. 18 19. They are justified from the condemning power of sin by Gods Reconciliation for the sake of Christs obedience in his combate of sufferings and in his death and sacrifice And indeed how else could his humane nature be better proved and exemplified than by his fear and heaviness at the nigh approach of his ignominious and must cruel unnatural deathâ— and how else could his obedience be better proved and exemplified to be most perfect than by his most perfect patience under such an ignominious and cruel usage and therefore by his constancy in his patience and obedience through the whole combate with Satan he got the victory over Satan and won the prize that was set before him by the Masters of the combate Phil. 2. 8 9. and this God declared first in Gen. 3. 15. He shall break thy head-plot In these words God declared that the Phil. 2. 8 9. Gen. 3. 15. Heb. 2. 10. All Christs greatest sufferings were by Gods appointment to bee from his combater Satan as in Reply 12. and 6. seed of the woman should be a victorious combater and conqueror of his enemy Satan by his patience and obedience through the whole combate And that Christs sufferings are set out by his combater Satan it is the Scripture phrase and language by which Christs sufferings and his victory is described and deciphered as it is evident by Gen. 3. 15. and so in like sort by Heb. 2. 10. he is there called the Captain of our salvation and it is there said that it became God to consecrate him or to make him perfect as he is our Captain in the combate through his victorious sufferings from his combater Satan and see also Exod. 32. 29. And Christ is called our Captain because all good Christians are called his Souldiers 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. And therefore in Col. 2. 15. Christ is said to have spoiled Principalities and Col 2. 15. powers and as a conqueror to make a shew of them openly and to triumph over them in it namely in his patient and obedient death on the cross and he is also compared to a victorious shepherd that ventures his life to combate with the fierce Lion and the ravenous Bear to redeem the poor Lamb from his prey as David did in Joh. 13. 11. and in Isa 53. 12. He is Isa 53. 12. Ioh. 10. 11. said to divide the spoyl with the strong because he poured out his soul to the death namely because he ventured his life with his combater Satan and because at last when he had fulfilled all his sufferings he powred out his vital soul to the death in the nature of a sacrifice when he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And therefore saith God He shall divide the spoil with the strong adversary Satan for though Satan at the first got the victory over Adam and thereby inwrapped all mankind under his power as his spoil yet now at the last Christ by his constant patience and obedience notwithstanding all Satans provocations hath got the victory again over Satan and by that means he pacified Gods wrath for the Elect and rescued them from being Satans spoil to be his spoil And thus you see
how Christ hath divided the spoil as David did when he conquered the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30. and this dividing of the spoyl is always done with joy for the victory as in Judg. 5. 30. Luk. 11. 22. These and such like Sciptures do fully declare unto us wherein the true nature of Christs agony doth consist namely in his combate with his ignominious answer from his malicious combater Satan both his inward agony in the Garden when he was surrounded with great fear and with great heaviness it was in relation to his outward agony by his combate of sufferings from Satan on the cross and also the true nature of his conquest is set out by that victorious weapon of righteousness his constant and exact patience and obedience and no Scripture doth mention his sufferings to be from Gods Judgement seat in the way of legal proceedings from Gods immediate wrath though the Devil took that course to make him a legal sinner before Pilats judgement seat 3 The Devil having had this open warning by Gods proclamation of an utter enmity namely that the seed of the woman should by his patience and obedience under all the difficulties of the combate break his head-plot he took the warning and therefore he neglected no time but took the very first opportunity to disturb the patience and to spoil the obedience of the seed of the woman even as soon as ever he was intrinsecally installed into the Mediators Office which was done at his baptism and then Christ also was led by the Spirit of God that annointed him and installed him with gifts for his Office into the wilderness on purpose to try Masteries with the Devil and there the Devil continued to tempt him by all the sleights he could devise for forty daies together and because he could not prevail in those forty days therefore when the said forty days were ended he grew to be more desperate than formerly in his temptations and according to the grant of his power which was unlimited over the body of Christ he took it up and carried it aloft to the Air and set it upon the top of the Pinacle of the Temple and truly it is no marvel that the Divine nature would suffer his Humane nature to be carried about by the Devil seeing he suffered Satan did first enter the Lists with Christ at his baptism when he was first extrinsecally installed into the Mediators office though more especially in the Garden and on the Cross his humane nature to be crucified by him But still the Devil lost his labor because Christs obedience was unconquerable for by his patience and obedience he resisted the Devil in all his temptations and after the Devil had spent his skill in these three notable temptations he is said to leave him for a season Luk. 4. 14. but it was but for a short season for in vers 16. when our Savior came to Nazaret where he had been brought up he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read and at last he said thus to them No Prophet is accepted in his own Country vers 24. And then all in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath for the Devil did now provoke their corrupt natures thereto and they rose up and thrust him out of the City and led him to the brow of the hill that they might cast him down headlong vers 28 29. and ever after continually the Devil did nothing else but raise up most vild slanderous accusations against him and often moved the Pharisees to take him and put him to death 4 The Devil did yet more eagerly enter the lists with Christ at his last Supper and so on to the Garden for at his last supper he said thus to his Disciples Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the Prince of this world commeth Joh. 14. 30. For just now Joh. 14. 30. he hath taken away Judas from our society to fetch a Band of armed men from the High-Priests to apprehend me as a sinful malefactor and therefore I fore-tel you that the Prince of this world commeth now to assault me more fiercely than ever heretofore So that hereafter I cannot talk much with you as now I do Of which more hereafter But because Mr. Norton doth make this Agony of Christ to be his conflicting passions with his Fathers vindicative wrath therefore it is needful ere we go any further to examine such Scriptures as are brought for the proof of it 1. The first Scripture I will begin with is in Mat. 26. 31. This Scripture hath been objected to me by some of note to prove Matth. 26 31. that God himself did smite Christ the Shepherd of the sheep by his immediate vindicative wrath The context lies thus When Christ was at Supper with his Disciples his true humane nature was much exercised with the thought of his ignominious and cruel usage which Satan was ready to bring upon him as it appears by his speeches to his Disciples All ye said he shall be offended because of me this night For it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered Matth. 26. 31. This I hath been expounded to me by some of note to be God and so it is but withall they expound it to be Gods smiting of Christs soul with his immediate wrath But this I deny for these words must be expounded from Zach. 13. 7. and then the case will be altered Zach. 13. 7. for the words in Zachary runs thus Smite thou the shepherd there the word Thou is put for the word I in Matthew and this difference is observed by Mr. Ainsworth in his preface to Genesis so that in Zachary God saith to Satan smite thou the Shepherd Smite him as a sinful malefactor and spare not do thy worst to disturb his patience c. God speaks thus to Satan in Zachary just as he did in Gen. 3. 15. Thou Satan shalt peirce the seed of the woman in the foot-soals as a wicked malefactor Weigh the whole Text in Zachary which runs thus Awake O Sword against my Shepherd That is to say rouse up thy self O Satan and bring a band of men armed with swords and staves against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow as we see he did in Mat. 26. 47. Smite thou the shepherd for I have given thee full liberty without any restraint to use thy best skill to make him a sinful malefactor and to smite him as a sinful malefactor that thou mayst disturb his patience if thou canst and so mayst make him a transgressor as thou didst Adam Or it may be read at it is in Matthew I will smite the shepherd For I God have given Satan full liberty to smite him that I may see the proof of his patience and obedience And in this form of speech God is said to afflict Job and therefore Job said The Lord hath
at all against me except it were given thee from above Joh. 19. 11. For God gave Satan leave to do his worst against Christ by all the wicked instruments he thought fit to imploy And Mr. Nortons sense that God delivered up Christ to be tormented by his own immediate wrath is confounded also by Peters exposition in Act. 2. 23 24. The fourth Scripture to bee examined is Act. 2. 23 24. and Act. 4. 27 28. Him being delivered saith Peter by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Yee the Devils Arch-instruments have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death Hence it is questioned what pains of death they were that God did loose The Answer is Not pains of the second death as some do most unadvisedly expound it But those pains of death Which Yee by wicked hands have made by crucifying and slaying his body on the Tree These are the pains of death that were made by the wicked hands of his Crucifiers and these pains of death were they that God loosed and healed at his Resurrection And these wicked hands are thus described in Isa 53. 8 9. Isa 53. 8 9. Hee was taken away by distress or restraint and by judgement and who shall declare his Generation Namely Who shall bee able to declare the extreme wickedness of that Satanical generation by whose wicked hands hee was taken away as a wicked Malefactor and restrained of his wonted liberty and brought as a Malefactor before the judgement-seat of the High-priest and of Pilate and of Herod and again before the judgement-seat of Pilate where hee was sentenced to be crucified First Some I conceive understand this Interrogation of his God-head Who shall declare the Generation of his God-head Secondly Others understand it of the Generation of his elect number Thirdly But I beleeve it must bee understood of his wicked Satanical Generation for John Baptist did call them A generation of Vipers Mat. 3. And Christ did call them A wicked and adulterous Generation in Mat. 12. 34 39. And so Dr. De Boate doth expound Isa 53. 8. And so Dr. Hammon doth expound Act. 8. 33. And History doth report That at this time the Priests and Scribes were exceedingly addicted to converse familiarly with the Devil And then it follows in verse 8. For he was cut off out of the land of the living which is thus expounded in Act. 8. 33. His life was taken from the earth And just according to this phrase Daniel saith That after sixty two weeks the Messiah shall be cut off that is to say Hee shall bee executed by the Devils Instruments for a wicked Malefactor Dan. 9. 26. But not for himself saith Daniel that is to say Not for his own sinful nature nor for his sinful life And to these two Scriptures do the words of Christ allude when hee said to his Disciples at his last Supper The Prince of this world cometh with a band of armed souldiers to apprehend mee for a Malefactor but he hath nothing in me Joh. 14. 30. no original Joh. 14. 30. corruption nor no actual transgression against the laws of the Combate Why then was he taken by wicked hands God doth answer by Isa 53. 8. For the transgression of my people was hee stricken wounded and bruised on the Cross God would have his obedience declared to be perfected by this means before he would accept his death as a sacrifice of Satisfaction and Reconciliation for the transgression of his people and then it follows in verse 9. That he made his grave with the wicked This Mark expounds thus Hee was numbred with the wicked Mar. 15. 28. and with the rich in his death for he was buried in rich Josephs Sepulchre These Scriptures thus expounded and many such like which might be alleged must have the same sense namely according to Gods first declaration in Gen. 3. 15. which will eminently shew how God is said to do all the afflictions of Christ namely not from his immediate wrath but because according to the voluntary Covenant and Council of the blessed Trinity he proclaimed a combate of enmity between Satan the arch-enemy of mankind and the seed of the deceived woman And secondly Because he gave the Devil a commission to do his worst to disturb his patience and so to pervert his obedience 3 God may be said to do all the soul-sufferings of Christ because he appointed him to take on him the seed of the woman and mans true natural affections and passions and so to be inwardly touched with the sence of Satans ignominious and unnatural usage and to manifest it to his Disciples in a high degree according to the most excellent temper and tender constitution of his nature above ours and his obedience thereto caused his inward agony in the Garden 4 It is further evident that God would have Christs soul to be affected with a deep degree of the dread of his ignominious and unnatural usage by Satan even to an eminent Agony Christ did not enter the Lists with Satan in the glorious power of his divine nature but in his humane nature as it was accompanied with our true natural infirmities dreading an ignominious death because he appointed him to enter the Lists and to combate with Satan in his true humane nature as it was accompanied with his true natural infirmities of fear c. and not as it was sometimes accompanied with the power of his God-head For by Gods declared will Christ might not take his utmost advantage against Satan by arming his humane nature with the assistance of twelve Legions of Angel neither might he put forth his omnipotent and absolute power to destroy or annihilate Satan neither might he shut up Satan in his everlasting prison to hinder him from his encounter for if Christ had put forth such a power as this against Satan the odds had been too great and such odds given to Christ could not stand with the wisdom of the supream Covenanters and therefore in Gen. 3. 15. God appointed Christ to take on him the seed of the deceived sinful woman and in that nature to enter the Lists with Satan by the well managing and ordering of which nature better than our first parents had done in their innocency he should prevaile against the stratagems of the old Serpent that had the power of death over our first parents and doubtless the Devil made full account to get the like power over the humane nature of Christ as he had done over Adams pure nature and to that end he did not cease to imploy his Instruments to tempt him and often times hee heaped upon him many grievous accusations and sinful imputations and at last he proceeded so far as to apprehend him condemn him and crucifie him as a sinful malefactor But still the deceiver was deceived for indeed Christ was such a wise servant and such a faithful Priest that he circumvented Satan
you answer me That it was for the fear of the pains of Purgatory Forsooth he that should so answer would bee laughed to scorn of all the world as hee were well worthy Wherefore was it then Verily even for the fear of death as it plainly appeareth after for he prayed unto his Father saying My Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Mat. 26. 38 39. So fearful a thing is death even to the purest flesh And saith he the same cause will I assign in Hezekiah that hee wept for fear of Death and not of Purgatory In these words you see that Friths judgement was That Christs Agony was for fear not of a spiritual but of a corporal death 11 Tindal translates Luke 22. 44. thus His sweat was like drops of blood trickling down to the ground and speaking of Christs last Supper hee saith thus The fear of death was the same hour upon him neither slept hee any more after but went immediately after he had comforted his Disciples into the place where he was taken to abide his Persecutors where also he sweat water and blood of very agony conceived of his Passion so nigh at hand 12 In Reply 18. I have cited Dr. Lightfoot saying In his Agony he sweat drops like blood These five last Authors you see are not for sweating of perfect blood though Tindal say hee sweat water and blood yet that is far from pure blood and farther from clods of blood 2 This is farther remarkable that Tindal and Frith do make the fear of his bodily death in the words cited to bee the cause of his Agony 3 This is still farther remarkable that neither of these two have a word in all their writings that hee suffered any other death but a bodily death though Mr. Norton is so bold as to condemn their judgement therein to be heresie 4 Saith Mr. Norton in page 67. These Authors I not having by mee cannot examine the Quotations their words therefore rather better bearing the sense of the Orthodox than the sense of the Dialogue Reply 25. The Reader may please to take notice of Mr. Nortons unjust prejudice of the Dialogue for the Author of the Dialogue cites their sense to his sense which is so clear and manifest that it stares him in the face and yet their words cited in the sense of the Dialogue he saith is orthodox and that the sense of the Dialogue is heresie Is not this plain partiality to favour the same doctrine in one as orthodox and to condemn it in another for heresie And saith hee Friths other writings call to have it so namely to mean it according to Mr. Norton Reply 26. It is an open wrong to Mr. Frith and to the Reader to make Frith of his judgement the words of Frith which I have truly cited him do cry shame upon him for saying so and in all his writings hee makes the death of Christ to bee no other but a true bodily death 12 I have cited Cyprian in Reply 8. to the sense of Frith namely to bee sorrowful unto death and for the exceeding grief thereof to powre forth a bloody sweat 13 Damasen saith thus Christ took unto him all blameless and natural passions for he assumed the whole man and all that pertained to man except sin Natural and blameless passions are those which are not in our power and whatsoever entred into mans life through the condemnation of sin namely of Adams sin as hunger thirst weakness labour weeping corruption shunning of death fear agony whence sweat and drops of blood These things saith he are in all men by nature Christ therefore took all these unto him that he might sanctifie them all Howbeit our natural passions were in Christ according to nature and above nature According to nature they were stirred up in Christ when hee permitted his flesh to indure that which was proper to it Above nature because nature in him did never go before his will for there was nothing forced in him but all things voluntary when hee would hee hungred when he would hee thirsted when hee would hee feared and when hee would hee dyed From this speech of Damasen touching Christs Passion and Agony in the Garden we see he held 1 That shunning of Death Fear Agony whence sweat and drops of blood which are in all men by nature and therefore saith he Christ took all these unto him that hee might sanctifie them all 2 That these were in Christ not only according to nature but above nature because nature in him did never go before his will 3 That nothing in him was forced therefore hee was far from holding as Mr. Norton doth in page 70. that he was pressed under the sense of the wrath of God Conclusion When the fulness of time was come that the seed of the woman Christ Jesus was to be bruised and peirced in the foot-soals with an ignominious torturing death by Satan and his instruments according to Gods declared permission in Gen. 3. 15. The divine nature might not protect the humane but must leave the humane nature to its self to manage this conflict in which conflict he was to manifest his true humane infirmities and therefore when the Devil and his Arch-instruments were to seise upon him he began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy and then he said unto Peter James and John My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto the death or it is surrounded with sorrow that is to say Every part of my body wherein I have my vital soul is in a quaking fear of such an ignominious death by such a malignant enemy as is armed with power and authority from Gâ—d to execute it on me and I do here manifest my true humane nature and the infirmities of it that you may record it to all posterity that I have took part with them that for fear of death are all their life time subject to bondage that they may be assured I am a merciful High-priest and that I am truly touched with the feeling of their infirmities not in a small degree for then it might be doubted whether I am so sensible of their condition as I am but in the highest degree according to the most excellent temper and tender constitution of my nature above the nature of other men But yet it is of necessity that I must overcome this natural fear because I have covenanted to lay down my life by my own will desire and power Joh. 10. 17 18. and therefore my rational soul must betake it self to prayer therefore tarry yee here and watch and pray that yee be not overcome by the many temptations that now are at hand to try you and then he went a little from them and fell on the ground and prayed That if it were possible that hour might pass from him namely that the dread of his ignominious usage might pass from him for so much the hour imports in Mark 14. 35 41. And his Agony was so
according to the propriety of the Hebrew word Azab of leaving off to fortifie when they came to the broad wall because that was done in former times and was still standing undemolished as the rest was and the like sense they give of Neh. 4. 2. and the like sense must be given of Azab in Isa 49. 25. and therefore as yet there is no contrary signification of the word Azab as Mr. Norton doth make his Reader beleeve to bewilder his understanding in the manner of Gods leaving or forsaking Christ on the Cross But for the better finding out the truth I will first give some instances of the various sense of Azab and then I will examine what sense it hath in Psa 22. 1. 1 It is used in a metaphorical sense for a Mart or Fair Ezek. 27. 12 14 16 19 22. And it is also used for Wares of Merchandize in Ez. 27. 27 33. And the reason is plain because in Fairs and Markets there is an usual and continual leaving of one thing for another by way of contract as of mony for Wares and of Wares for mony of one sort of Ware for another So in like sort the Hebrew word Gnereb which in propriety doth signifie the connexion or con-joyning of two or more things together is used by Ezekiel by a Metonymia for Fairs or Markets and for Wares of Merchandizâ— Ezek. 27. 13 17 c. Because of the connexion and conjoyning of sundry sorts of Wares to sell and because of the sundry conjunctions between men by contracts about Wares as I have shewed at large in my Treatise of Holy Time 2 As Azab is put for leaving one thing for another in Markets so it is put for any other kind of leaving either by way of agreement or disagreement As for example when it is agreed that two shall strive for the mastery there all friends must stand aside and leave their friend alone to try the mastery as David was left of his friends when he alone undertook to try masteries with Goliah 3 Leaving is put for leaving of a mans own business to help another in his necessity as in Ezek. 23. 5. afore expounded 4 Leaving is put for forsaking or leaving another that is helpless in their necessity Sometimes it is to leave in anger as 2 Chron. 24. 25. And sometimes not in anger but by necessity 1 Sam. 30. 13. And sometimes willingly and so Mary left Martha to serve whiles she attended to Christs Doctrine and in that respect Martha complained to Christ saying Dost thou not care that my Sister hath left me alone to serve Luk. 10. 40. There Sabactani is in the Syriack just as it is in Psa 22. 1. and in Mat. 27. 46. 5 Leaving in Hebrew is often used in mercy favor and kindness as in Ruth 2. 16. Jer. 49. 11. and so it is used in the Chalde in Dan. 4. 15 26. the word Leave there is in favor as ver 26 sheweth 6 Azab is applied to Gods leaving or forsaking of notorious sinners in anger 2 Chron. 24. 18 20 24. Deut. 31. 17. 32. 36. 1 King 14. 10 21. 21. 2 King 14. 26. Yea sometimes Gods hatred is joyned to his leaving or forsaking as in Isa 60. 15. But remember this that God never forsakes any in wrath but such as do first forsake him by provoking sins 7 Azab is used for leaving of a mans first love to the Truth in Prov. 3. 3. Let not Mercy and Truth leave thee or forsake thee 8 God left Hezekiah onely to try his heart 2 Chron. 32. 31. 9 Azab is put for a leaving of those that a man loves well to cleave to that which a man loves better as to leave a Father for a Wife Gen. 2. 24. Ruth 1. 16. 10 A man leaves a thing because he is forced Gen. 39. 12 13 15 18. 11 A man often leaves that he loves through haste Josh 8. 17. 1 Sam. 30. 13. 12 Hee leaves a thing through fear 1 King 31. 7. 1 Chron. 10. 7. 13 Azab is to leave or cease or rest from complaining and so the Divine nature did often rest or cease or leave the Humane nature to his own natural principles in his sufferings and combatings with Satan and his Instruments These several senses of Azab and many such like do shew the various sense of the word leaving 14 And this is worth the noting That though Azab doth often signifie such a leaving as is a forsaking yet it doth not alwaies signifie forsaking as it doth leaving For Azab is applied to sundry kinds of leaving which cannot with any fitness be called a forsaking as in Gen. 39. 6. Potiphar left all he had in trust in Josephs hand So in Gen. 50. 8. Their little ones and their flocks and their heards they left in the land of Goshen And so in Exod. 9. 21. 2 Sam. 15. 16. and so in Ruth 2. 16 Boaz commanded his Reapers to let fall some of their handfuls and leave them in kindness on purpose for Ruth to glean them So Job 39. 14. The Ostritch leaveth her eggs in the warm dust to hatch her young ones So in Jer. 49. 11. Mal. 4. 1. 2 Chron. 28. 14. Ezra 6. 7. And many other places might be cited to prove that Azab cannot so fitly be translated to forsake as to leave I grant notwithstanding that the word leave is so large that many times it doth most fitly agree to the word forsake in the largest use of it But ere long I shall shew the particular sense of the word left or forsaken Psa 22. 1. But saith Mr. Norton in the page aforesaid The meaning of the word leave or forsake was kept sound with Mr. Ainsworth but with you is not Reply 4. I grant that Mr. Ainsworth did hold that God forsook or left Christs soul in wrath but yet for all that he was far from holding as Mr. Norton doth namely that Christ suffered the Essential torments of Hell I received some Letters from him not many years before his death about the point of Christs sufferings And his Letters tell me that he held this as a principle that Christ suffered no other afflictions for kind but what the Elect do suffer in this life though in a far greater measure now seeing he held this as a Principle he could not hold that Christ suffered Gods penal and vindictive wrath except he had also held that the Elect do suffer Gods penal and vindicative wrath in this life But seeing all the punishments of the godly are called but chastisements even so the greatest Isa 53. 5. All Christs greatest sufferings are comprised under the word chastisements iâ— Isa 53. 5. of Christs sufferings on the cross are also comprised under the word chastisement Isa 53. 5. But yet I grant also that Mr. Ainsworth held that as the Elect do often suffer Gods wrath so did Christ and in this last point I differed from him for though I hold that Gods chastisements on his
Upon the word Alwayes he saith thus The ground of his gladness was Alwayes for as much as he saw God on his right hand Alwayes therefore his gladness thereon grounded was Alwayes And hence it follows saith he that his gladness was never from him no not when hee said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me or rather left me namely to the torments after mentioned in the Psalm And indeed saith he My God my God how could it bee spoken especially doubled and that of him who felt what he spake without the apprehension of that sound joy and gladness that is couched under and grounded on those words And yet saith he I go not about to lessen his pains I tremble to do so yea I tremble to think so but as Job saith Chap. 13. 7 8 9. Wee must not speak untruly for God nor talk otherwise than the thing is for him 6 Mr. Robert Smith whom the Dialogue through mistake calls Mr. Henry Smith a Reverend Divine though silenced through the iniquity of the times he drew up that Argument that is prefixed to the Table of the Dialogue against Gods forsaking of Christs soul in wrath 7 Mr. Wotton hath expressed to my self his dislike of their exposition that holds that God forsook Christs soul in wrath and Mr. Smith abovesaid concurred with his judgement 8 Jerom in Mat. 27. saith Marvel not at Christs complaint of being forsaken when thou seest the scandal of his Cross 9 Bernard de verbis Es Ser. 5. saith This was the dereliction that Christ meant in his complaint there was a kind of forsaking Christ on the Cross when there was in so great necessity no demonstrance of his power no manifestation of his Majesty or divine power 10 Lyra in Matth. 27. saith Christ was forsaken of God his Father because he was left in the hands of those that slew him 11 I have cited Christopher Carlile to this sense and others in the Dialogue page 60. I could also cite more to this Exposition But the judicious Reader will think it needless and therefore I forbear SECT II. Question II. Why did God forsake Christ on the Cross THis indeed is the most proper Question to be answered because Christ propounded this Query with a loud voyce in the audience of a multitude both of friends and enemies As if Christ had said I would have the cause why God hath left me into the hands of Satans instruments to be sought out and understood of all men God forsook Christ on the Cross because his humane nature might be touched with the feeling of our infirmities in all the afflictions that were written of him Reply 10. The cause in general was from the voluntary Contract and Covenant between the Trinity that so the humane nature of Christ might fulfil Gods Decree for if God had not forsaken Christ or left him in the hands of the Devil and his instruments how could Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel have done whatsoever Gods hand and counsel had determined before to be done Act. 4. 27 28. 2 How could Pilate else have had power given him from above to condemn him if God had not forsaken him or left him to his power Joh. 19. 10 11. For who is he that saith That any thing falleth out which the Lord commandeth not So Bro. reads Lam. 3. 37. 3 How else could the body of Christ have been passable and subject to tortures if the divine nature had not left the humane to its infirmities according to Covenant for Christ was not subject by Nature but by Covenant only to suffer afflictions and therefore the divine nature did by Contract and Covenant leave the humane that it might bee passable and that so his obedience to the Articles of the Covenant might have the condition of meriting Austin saith in his 60. Tract on John Christ was troubled not through any weakness of mind but of power Christ admitted the affections of fear c. and the infirmities of mans nature not for want of power to repress them but by voluntary obedience and humility that in him they might bee meritorious 4 Christ told Peter That he must not bee protected at this time against the Devil and his Instruments and therefore hee bid Peter to put up his sword and not to use it for his protection saying Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve Legions of Angels But said he how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that say Thus it must be Mat. 26. 53. 54. I must fulfil all that is written of my sufferings Mat. 26. 54. Act. 13. 29. Luke 24. 26 46. Therefore neither my Father nor I must countenance the use of the sword for my protection and therefore it is not my Fathers will to give nor my will to pray for twelve legions of Angels to protect mee from my sufferings from Satan and his instruments for I have covenanted to be the seed of the woman and in that nature to enter the Lists with Satan and therefore there is a necessity for my divine nature to withdraw that Satan may do the worst he can to conquer the patience and obedience of my humane nature that so he may thereby preserve his Head-plot if hee can from being broken namely in case he can prevail to disturb my patience and obedience 5 With a loud voyce Christ propounds this Query Why hast thou forsaken me seeing formerly till now thou hast ever protected me against the prevailing power of Satan and his Instruments 1 From the womb Psa 22. 9 10. 2 From the cruelty of Herod when I hung at my Mothers brest Matth. 2. 13 14. 3 From the manifold way-layings of the Jews to kill me Matth. 26. 55. Joh. 8. 59. 10. 39. The Answer is That the Scriptures may be fulfilled Matth. 26. 56. that say thus it must be Matth. 26. 54. And therefore Christ told his Disciples saying now the appointed hour and power of darkness is come upon me Luk. 22. 53. according to Gods declared decree in Gen. 3. 15. and therefore take notice of the true reason why God hath forsaken me For 1 Else I could not be thus used by the powers of darkness 2 Else I could not be touched so deeply with the sensible feeling of mans infirmities as I ought to be 3 Else it could not be known that I am so sensible of them as I am unless I did express it by crying out as a man in misery why hast thou forsaken me 4 Else it might well be questioned whether ever I had a true humane nature or no if I should not declare my sense of my present sufferings 5 Else I cannot make it manifest that I am a true mercifull High Priest except I make it manifest that I am eminently touched with a true sense and feeling of mans infirmities 6 Neither can I be a compleate consecrated Priest except the
the Jews to think that Christ was forsaken of God on whom they could execute their rage with such wickedness who most sâ—crilegiously deriding him said He saved others himself he cannot save These last words of Leo do most fitly agree to the Prophecy of Isay in chap. 53. 4. there Isay foretold the Jews that though Christ did manifest the power of his God-head in healing sicknesses and carrying away their manifold infirmities from them yet out of Satans malice they would esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted namely in Gods anger for his own sins and thus the Prophet doth blame their gross mistake by imputing his sufferings to be from Gods wrath for his own desert And thus much I think is sufficient to demonstrate the reason why the Divine nature did forsake the Humane and why the Humane nature propounded this Query with a loud voyce My God my God why hast thou forsaken me it was that so the humane nature might suffer all that was written of him from his Combaâ—er Satan according to Gods declared Decree in Gen. 3. 15. SECT 3. Question III. How did God not forsake Christ on the Cross Reply 12. IN two respects God did not forsake Christ on the Cross 1 He did not forsake his soul in respect of the comfortable fruition of the sense of the good of the promises 2 He did not forsake him in the formality of his death namely he did not suffer Satan and his Instruments to put him to death formally by the power of their tortures First I say that God did not forsake Christs soul in respect of the sense of the good of the Promises And for the better understanding of the word Forsaken in Matth. 27. 46. Consider these six sorts of Dereliction 1 By dis-union of person 2 By loss of Grace 3 By diminution or weakening of Grace 4 In respect of assurance of future deliverance 5 By withdrawing protection 6 By depriving his soul of the sense of the good of the promises Divines do generally account it a most impious thing to affirm that Christ was forsaken of God any of the four first waies 1 They affirm that God did not forsake Christ in respect of union they affirm that the personal union of the two natures was never dissolved 2 They affirm that he was never forsaken in respect of the loss of Grace 3 They do generally affirm That he was not forsaken in respect of diminishing or weakening of any grace in him The Geneva note on the word Forsaken in Psa 22. 1. doth make Christ a sinner inherently But yet some there are that do affirm that he was forsaken by diminishing or weakening of the Grace of Faith in him The Geneva note on the word forsaken Psa 22. 1. saith thus Here appeareth that horrible conflict that he suffered between faith and desparation Is not this a blasphemous note to say that Christ was in a conflict with desparation through the weakness of faith is not this an imputation of inherent sin to Christ Mr. Norton tels me in p. 215. that the Geneva note which I there cited with approbation to the sense of the Dialogue must not be understood in the Dialogues sense but it must be interpreted according to the Doctrine of Geneva I would fain see how he by the Doctrine of Geneva can make a good exposition of this note affixed to Psal 22. 1. if he mean by the Doctrine of Geneva the Doctrine of Calvin then I find in Marlorat on Mat. 27. 46. where he cites Calvins words on the word forsaken thus He fought with desparation yet was he not overcome thereby this Doctrine of Calvin and the Geneva note agree together and therefore in likelihood that Geneva note was taken from Calvin at first though his latter Editions are now somewhat reformed and Mr. Norton himself doth censure Calvin to be unsound in this point for in pag. 61. he blames Calvin for saying that Christ suffered the pains of the damned and forsaken men Now if Christ was in a horrible conflict between faith and desparation as the Geneva note speaks then it follows that he was a sinner inherently for if there be any conflict with doubting which is less than desparation it is a sin Mark 14. 31. Jam. 1 6 7. Matth. 21. 21. Truly it is a lamentable thing that this note hath been printed and dispersed in so many thousand Bibles to corrupt mens minds so that now many can hardly have patience to hear any reasons to the contrary but I must needs acknowledge that our larger Annotation on Psal 22. 1. hath made a good Reformation 4 Divines confess that it was not possible that Christ should be forsaken in respect of assurance of future deliverance and present support because he had faith in the full Sea without any ebb 5 That Christ was forsaken by Gods withdrawing of outward protection and not delivering of him from the rage of Satan and his Instruments untill they had executed on him all their rage is acknowledged by the Dialogue and by many Orthodox lately cited 6 The last sort of forsaking is that which is affirmed by Mr. Norton namely That God forsook Christs soul in anger as concerning the fruition and sense of the good of the promises But in Chap. 4. I have shewed that he doth oftentimes leave out the word sense and makes Christ to be forsaken concerning the fruition of the good of the promise And this last kind of forsaking is suitable to his main Tenent laid down in his foundation-Proposition Reply 13. This last kind of forsaking as it is asserted by Mr. Norton is opposed by sundry eminent Divines 1 By Mr. Robert Wilmot whom I have cited before in this Chapter at Reply 9. 2 Our large Annotation on Psal 22. 1. which I have cited at Reply 4. 3 I cited Mr Robert Smith and divers others at Reply 9. 4 I will now examine the word forsaken once more with the Christ was not so forsaken in his soul but that he stil had the sweet sence of the good of the promises on the Cross context for doubtless that is a sure Rule of a right interpretation 1 Christ doth interrogate in Psal 22. 1. Why hast thou forsaken me Is there not good reason that the Divine nature should forsake the Humane in respect of outward protection as I have shewed in Answer to the second Question but yet he did not forsake the inward man by any weakning of Grace nor in respect of the comfort of that Grace and this is evident by what I have cited in my Answer to the first Question from v. 11. and 19. And also I shall now add another reason by conferring it with v. 24. There Christ doth exhort all the seed of Jacob to praise God he hath not hid or turned away his face from him Hence it follows by good consequence that when Christ said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me he could not mean that God had hid
or turned away his face from his immortal soul for then he could not have exhorted the seed of Jacob to praise God because he had not hid or turned away his face from him This very Argument is also used by our larger Annotation on Psal 22. 1. though I did not see it till I had first made use of it for this exposition 2 Seeing it is generally acknowledged that Christ was not forsaken in regard of any diminution of Grace Thence it follows that these words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me must not be understood of any inward forsaking of his soul for saith Mr. Rutherford these words My God my In Christs dying p. 150. God was spoken with the greatest Faith that ever was a doubled act of beleeving My God my God 2 Saith he It is a word relative to the Covenant between the Father and the Son My God saith he is a Covenant expression that the Father will keep what he hath promised to his Son and relateth to the infinite faithfulness of the Covenant maker Object But here it will be objected as it was about Mr. Calvins words That Mr. Rutherford held That Christ suffered the pain of loss in his soul Answ I grant it yet I say also that that Tenent and these expressions do cross one another 4 I do once more propound to consideration what I have cited afore out of Mr. Wilmot at Reply 9. and in Sect. 4. And to that I will adjoyn a fourth Argument from him from his Exposition of the word alwaies in Act. 2. 25. where Christ saith thus I foresaw the Lord alwaies before my face Alwaies that is saith Mr. Wilmot Even in his sorest Agonies 1 Before his sweaty Agony his soul was troubled yet then he called God Father Joh. 12. 27. 2 When he was in the Agony he could still call God Father Luk. 22. 44. and prayed to him by the name Father And in Joh. 11. 42. he said he knew God heard him always and therefore even then he must needs have comfort 3 When he began to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most grievously tormented 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abundantly sorrowful or rounded about with sorrow yet then he could still call God Father Matth. 26. 37. 38 39 42. 4 When the betrayer was come and the Band had seized on him yet then also he uttered words of sure comfort and confidence in Matth. 26. 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father and he shall set before me more than Twelve Legions of Angels 5 When he was upon the Cross and cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me doth not the very fore-front of that speech ascertain us that he had even then comfort in his God Matth. 27. 46. 6 Had not he strong comfort in God his Father at the giving up of the Ghost when he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Luk. 23 46. If then through all his sufferings he could pray to his father as we see and knew his Father heard him ever yea even through all his sufferings he called him by this fiducial and cordial name Father we cannot imagine but that he conceived and applied the comfort contained in the name when ever he did mention the name else how conceive we that his heart and mouth did go together Thus far Mr. Wilmot This I have cited before in Chap. 16. But it is never a whit too often to the considerate 5 Seeing it is acknowledged that Christ was not forsaken in regard of any diminution of Grace but that he did always injoy his Graces in fulness even as the Sun in its strength How could he lose the light of Gods countenance or want the sense of the good of the Promises seeing he injoyed the full exercise of all Grace He was annointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psa 47. 7. and above measure Joh. 3. 34. That is saith Mr. Ball he had the whole Spirit all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in higher degree In the Covenant p. 310. than any creature men or Angels in full abundance for he that giveth bountifully or largely doth not measure or number what he giveth but poureth our copiously or as we say from the full heap with both hands And in pag. 111. saith he fulness without measure is like the fulness of the light of the Sun or like the water in the Sea which hath an unmeasurable sufficiency and redundancy And therefore hence it follows That seeing the oyle of gladness was alwaies in him in the highest fulness without measure and without the least diminution that he could not possible be deprived of the sense of the good of the Promises in respect of his inward man though he might be and was deprived of outward protection from the hands of Satan and his Instruments because it was so Decreed Covenanted and Declared in Gen. 3. 15. And therefore it behoved the Divine nature to withdraw its protection and to leave him to try masteries with his Combater Satan in his Humane nature as it was accompanied with our true natural infirmities that so he might suffer from his Combater Satan all that was written of him in Gen. 3. 15. But this weakness of his saith Austin was power because the Divine nature did exercise power to leave his Humane nature that so his Human nature might suffer in obedience to his Covenant But this is also to be well marked that when the divine nature rested or ceased to protect and assist the humane nature it did no way withdraw the exercise of his inward graces which he had received at his Incarnation and at his Baptism from the unction of the holy Spirit above measure as I noted before by which his soul was supported under all his greatest tortures on the Cross and therefore as Stephen and many other Martyrs had the joyful vision of Gods countenance and the sense of the good of the promises to support their inward man under their greatest outward tortures so had Christ though all of them wanted the vision of outward protection as well as Christ and in that respect they might all say as Christ said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And as John Hus and Amond de larâ—y said as I have noted it in the Dialogue In Fox tom 1. p 50 tom 2. p. 130. p. 58. In the conflict saith Ball on the Covenant pag. 284. his Faith was most firm not shaken with any degree of unbeleef And saith Dr. Sibs on Matth. 27. 46. Christ was not forsaken in regard of Grace as if Faith or Love or Joy in God or any other Grace were taken from Christ O no saith he he beleeved when he said My God my God Unto these words of his I put in the Grace of Joy in a parenthesis because he had said before in general That Christ was not forsaken in regard of Grace and thence I infer that then he was not forsaken of
his death he was the onely active Priest in breathing out or sending out his soul from his body But saith Mr. Norton in p. 84. And in this case Christ was his own Executioner which last saith he the Dialogue it self expresly rejecteth Reply 20. There is good reason to reject it for though God commanded Christ in his humane nature as it was accompanied with our infirmities to enter the Lists with his envious Combater Satan and also permitted Satan to enter the Christ was not his own executioner or self-murderer though he was the only Priest in the formality of his own death and sacrifice Lists with Christ and to assault him with a Band of Souldiers with staves and swords yet he did not command Christ to take any of these weapons from them and run them into his own body on purpose to kill himself that so he might be his own executioner â—â— Saul was to prevent the ignominious usage of his Adversaries this kind of killing is Diabolical and Christ might not be his own executioner in any such like manner therefore the Dialogue had good reason to reject that kind of Tenent The Dialogue saith thus in p. 102. Though he did not break his own body and pour out his own blood with nails and spear as the Roman Souldiers did yet he brake his own body in peeces by separating his own soul from his body by his own Priestly power And thus Beza makes Christ to break his body actively as well as passively But it is a prophane expression to compare the act of a Priest in killing a sacrifice to the act of an executioner that puts a malefactor to death and it is a like prophane expression to call such a death Self-murder or Homicide If Abraham had formally killed Isaack as he intended yet he had not been Isaacks murderer no nor yet his executioner according to the known use of the word neither was Isaack to be called a Self-murtherer or a Homicide being now thirty three years old and therfore able to have resisted his See Beza Annot on 1 Cor. 11. 24. And Haymâ— there also Father in submitting himself to be bound and to be laid on the Altar to be killed But in that act we see how God esteemed it for in that act Abraham should have been the Priest and Isaack the Sacrifice And so ought we to esteem of the act of Christ in his death in his Divine nature he was the Priest and in his humane nature he was the Sacrifice as the Dialogue saith or thus by the joynt concurrence of both his natures he was both Priest and Sacrifice But saith Mr. Norton in p. 84. Though Haman according to the true sense of the Text Ester 8. 7. be said lay his hand upon the Jews yet are the Jews no where said to be slain by Haman Abraham is said to have offered up Isaack yet Isaack is said no where to be slain by Abraham as Abraham did sacrifice Isaack so was Isaack sacrificed that is to say interpretatively or vertually not actually Reply 21. Those instances in the Dialogue in p. 100. are more clearly expressed than they are related by Mr. Norton and the intent of those instances was no more but this namely to exemplifie that though the Jews are said to kill Christ yet that they did not formally separate his soul from his body though they did enough to make themselves true murderers of the Lord of life but the last act was done by himself as he was the Priest in his own death But saith Mr. Norton in p. 85. How oft do we read in Scripture that Christ was actually crucified and put to death by the Jews Act. 2. 37. and 4. 10. 1 Cor. 2. 8. Reply 22. I grant the Scripture doth often say that the Jews did slay and murder the Lord of life but saith the Geneva note on Act. 2. 23. on the word you have slain The fact is said to be theirs by whose counsel and egging forward it was done By this note it appeareth that in their judgement Christ was not actually put to death by the Jews but vertually onely and so Isaack is said to have been offered up by Abraham in the Preter-tense so the new Translation in Jam. 2. 21. because he did really intend and endeavor to do it So then I hope the Dialogue saith true notwithstanding Mr. Nortons busling contradiction namely that the Jews did not put Christ to death formally But in case he was put to death formally by second causes then it follows that it was done by the Devil in the Roman powers for they had the power of life and death at this time and not the Jews as I have shewed at large in the Dialogue the Jews and Romans were true murtherers but not the Priest in the formality of Christs death and sacrifice This distinction of his death is contemned by Mr. Norton But it is a very harsh saying in mine ears to say That the Devil in the Roman powers was the Priest in the formality of Christs death and sacrifice as they must bee if they were the formal cause of Christs death and to me it is as hard a speech to say That the wrath of God the Father was the formal cause of Christs death as some say it was and as Mr. Norton saith also sometimes in true effect for in page 79 he saith That Christs death was joyned with thâ— curse made up of the pain of sense and the pain of loss and in page 70 he saith It is a fiction to assert any divine prediction That Christ should only suffer a bodily death and presently after he saith Christ dyed as a sinner imputatively pressed under the sense of the wrath of God and conflicting with eternal death Hence I reason thus If the wrath of God the Father did put Christ to death formally then the Father was the Priest in the death and sacrifice of Christ which is quite contrary to Gods own established order for by his oath hee made Christ an unchangeable Priest that so hee might bee the only Priest in the formality of his own death and sacrifice Heb. 7. 21. Christ was not by nature obnoxious to death nor to any other misery but by Covenant only and therefore second causes could not further work his misery and death than he gave way to according to his own voluntary Covenant he covenanted to take our nature and infirmities and in that nature to enter the Lists with Satan and that Satan should have full liberty to do to him all the mischief that he could even to the peircing of him in the foot-soals but he also covenanted that no man nor power of Satan should take his life from him formally but that himself would be the only Priest in the formality of his own death and according to this Covenant God commanded him to lay down his own life and to take it up again Joh. 10. 17 18. But the main Argument of the Dialogue
any of the Patriarchs Prophets or Apostles did say besides Jesus Sixthly Christ doth still make another addition to set forth the transcendent nature of his death This Commandement saith he I have received of my Father no other man ever had or shall have the like positive Command to be both Priest and Sacrifice in his own death as I have If Abraham had offered up Isaac in sacrifice by a formal death yet that Priest and Sacrifice had been in two distinct persons and so Isaac could not have been a compleat Mediator in his death But saith Christ It is my Fathers Commandement that I must bee the Mediator of the New Testament through death Heb. 9. 15 16. therefore I must be both Priest and Heb. 9. 15 16. Sacrifice in one and the same person and not in two persons This peculiar positive Commandement I have received of my Father it is proper only to my person and office as I am ordained to be the only Mediator between God and man in my death and sacrifice Christ saith Mr. Ball was Lord of his own life and therefore hee had power to lay it down and take it up And this See Ball on the Covenant p. 287. power saith he he had not solely by vertue of the hypostatical union but by vertue of a peculiar Command Constitution and Designation to that service Joh. 10. 18. And saith Grotius The death of Christ was not determined by any Law but by a special Covenant with his Father And hence is follows if there had not been a voluntary Covenant See Grotius in his War and Peace part 1. c. 36. preceding there could not have been any Commandement used by the first Person over the second Person and therefore this Commandement to lay down his life must not be understood of a supreme moral Command as Mr. Norton understands it for in page 103. he saith This act of Christ in laying down his life was an act of legal obedience And saith he in page 192. For the Mediator to suffer death as our Surety in a way of justice iâ— an act of legal obedience but by the Commandement which Christ received from his Father I understand the Decree of God that the conditions of the eternal Covenant should effectually be performed causing such a thing to come to pass effectually and so God is said to command his own Mercy and to command his own blessed Promises to come to pass See Ains in Psal 42. 9. and in Psal 105. 8. and in Psal 133. 3. and in Gen. 50. 16. and in Lev. 25. 21. Seventhly Put these two speeches together I lay down my life for my sheep Joh. 10. 15. And secondly I have power to lay it down and power to take it up again verse 18. and they do plainly shew that the true nature of my death is to be considered both as it is a Martyrdome from my malicious Adversary Satan and as it is a sacrifice in the formality of it by my own Priestly power And therefore Eighthly In both these consideration â—â— Father doth love me verse 17. and hee hath testified his loving acceptance both of my person and of this service of mine First By his own voyce from heaven at my extrinsecal Instalment Matth. 3. 17. And secondly At my Transfiguration when he seâ—â— Moses and Elias to inform my Disciples of my Departure which I should shortly after accomplish by my death at Jerusalem Then there came a voyce out of the Cloud saying This is my well-beloved Son in whose Combate and Sacrifice which he is shortly to perform at Jerusalem I am well pleased satisfied and reconciled for the redemption Luke 9. 31. 3â— of all the Elect Luke 9. 31 35. These eight Considerations taken from the Text and laid together do cleerly evidence That the manner of Christs laying down his life for his sheep is of a transcendent nature to the manner of Peters laying down his life in Martyrdome for Christ though Mr. Norton doth most unadvisedly compare the manner of their death to be alike without making any difference by which means hee doth beguile both his own soul and his Reader of the comfort of the full sense of this blessed Scripture of John 10. 17 18. And Tindal doth declare his sense of this Scripture by his translation which goes thus Therefore doth my Father love mee because I put my life from me that I might take it again no man takes it from me but I put it away of my self I have power to put it from me and power to take it again Hence I gather from this phrase I have power to put my life from me that he held as the Ancient Divines did That Christ put his life from him as a man puts off his cloaths for so the Ancient Divines use the comparison and saith Cyril Derecta fidâ— without constraint of any Christ of himself laid down his own soul for us It is evident that the Devil and his Instruments did use constraint as much as they could devise to force his soul out of his body But saith Cyril he laid down his soul for us not by their constraint but at his pleasure And saith Epiphanius Contra Ariomanitas Haeres 69. The Deity together with the soul did move to forsake the sacred body But saith Mr. Norton in page 162. Christ had less strength of nature left to bear his Torments than the Theeves had Therefore they compelled a man of Cyren to bear his Cross that is to help him bear it Reply 26. It is granted by the Ancient Divines that Christ had voluntary weakness but not necessary weakness of nature by the justice of Gods curse as sinners have 2 I have formerly shewed That Christ was not appointed to combate with Satan and his Instruments by the power of his divine nature but by his humane nature alone which he voluntary assumed together with our true natural infirmities of grief fear sorrow c. that so he might bee touched with the sensible feeling of our infirmities in all his sufferings from his proclaimed Combater Satan and therefore for the better manifestation of his said voluntary infirmities for necessary infirmities as we have he had none his God-head put forth a power to withdraw protection from his humane nature that so his humane nature might bee the more sensibly touched with the feeling of our infirmities And withall I say That though Christ had this voluntary weakness yet it did not decay his natural vigor by degrees as â—he like sufferings doth decay our sinful natures for the constitution of his humane nature was so perfectly orgonized and moulded that he could at his pleasure take our true humane infirmities for the accomplishing of his Combate according to the Articles of the eternal Covenant â—s he did in his Agony in the Garden And again at his pleasure he could re-assume his perfect strength of nature as hee did after his prayers in the Garden as I have formerly shewed more