plot as malicious as cunning in Satan to dispossesse man of his present dignity and to throw him downe from this height of hope to hellish slavery to make him a creature more miserable than the earth water or other inferiour element harboured any Yet was his misery if wee found the very depth of it not commensurable to the excessive measure of his pride The ground or bottome of his pride was lower than the lowest part of the earth as low as nothing the height of it reached above the highest heavens Man who as St. Augustine saith was but terrae filius nihili nepos the sonne of the earth and nephew of nothing Man who if he had looked back to his late beginning might have said to the silly earth-worme Thou art my sister and to every creeping thing Thou art my brother became so forgetfull of his originall that hee sought by the suggestion of Satan to become like his Almighty Creator who out of the same earth had made him so much more excellent than all earthly or sublunary creatures as they were than nothing But let the first mans pride or Satans malice in hatching it and the rest of that sinfull brood receive all the degrees of aggravation which the invention of man can put upon them yet the medicine prepared by the Sonne of God will appeare more ample than the wound is wide and more soveraigne than it is dangerous Satans cunning in working mans fall doth no way equalize the wisdome of the Sonne of God in dissolving this work It is not probable as was observed before that Satan could so farre infatuate the first man as to make him affect to bee every way equall with his God but onely to be like or equall unto him in some prerogative as in the knowledge of good and evill and probable it is hee did desire that his immortality and soveraignty over other creatures might be the one independent and the other supreme Now these and all other branches of pride whereof wee can imagine the humane nature by the Serpents suggestion to be capable are more than countervailed every way over-reached by the first degree of the humiliation of the Sonne of God Hee was not onely like but equall to the Father not in some one or few but in all the prerogatives of the Divine nature Hee was saith the Apostle in the forme of God and therefore thought it no robbery to be equall with God Yet hee vouchsafed to become not like to man onely but truely man more then equall to other men in sorrows and sufferings 3. Whatsoever equality or similitude with God it was at which the first mans pride through incogitancy did aime it was not effected but affected onely by way of triall He could not out of a deliberate choise or setled resolution assure himselfe that hee should become such as hee desired to be But the Sonne of God who was truely God out of unerrable unchangeable infinite wisdome determined with himselfe to become truely man How man whilest man should become more than man truely God neither the wit of man nor the subtilty of the Serpent could have devised although by divine permission or grant they had been enabled to accomplish whatsoever to this purpose they could devise or imagine But the Wisdome and Sonne of God found out a way by which hee might still continue God and yet become as truely man as he was God a way by which the diversity of these two natures might still remaine unconfused without diversity of persons or parties Though mans ambition had reached so high as to aspire from that condition of being wherein God had estated him to bee absolutely equall with God yet his ambition had not been equall to that humiliation which the Son of God did not onely affect but attaine unto For although he became a man of the same nature that Adam was of or any man since hath been yet was he a man of a lower condition of as low condition as any earthly creature could be for as the Psalmist in his person complaines Psal 22.6 Hee became a worme and no man the reproach of men one whom the very abjects amongst men did think they might safely tread upon with scorne 4. For the Sonne of God to bee made man to be made a man of this low estate or condition whencesoever hee had taken his humane substance was a satisfaction all-sufficient to the justice of God for mans pride a dissolution most compleat of the first work that our first Parents suffered the Devill to work in our nature if we respect onely the substance of it But that no part of Satans work no bond or tie of circumstance wherewith hee had intangled our nature might remaine undissolved the Sonne of God was made of a woman and this was to secure the woman or weaker sex that hee came to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in them For as the Apostle saith The first woman was in the transgression not the man the man at lest not so deepe in the same transgression as the woman Shee alone for ought we reade committed the robbery in taking the forbidden fruit from off the tree her husband was the receipter onely And by swallowing it by the Serpents suggestions shee first conceived and brought forth death without her husbands consent or knowledge Her transgression was twofold Trust or confidence in the Serpents promise want of credence through pride to Gods threatnings To dissolve this work of the Devill so farre as it was peculiar to the woman the Sonne of God was conceived of a woman without the knowledge or consent of man Satan used the Serpent for his proxie to betroth himselfe unto our nature the holy Ghost by the ministery of an Angel winnes the blessed Virgins assent or accord to become the mother of the Sonne of God Seeing the first woman became the mother of sinne whilest shee remained a virgin though then a wife the Sonne of God would have a virgin for his mother yet a virgin wife a virgin affianced to a man And thus as the first woman being not begotten but made of man did accomplish Satans plot in working his fall and corrupting our nature so the Sonne of God being made man of a woman doth dissolve this work by purifying what she had corrupted and by repayring what the first man and woman had undone 5. There is a tradition concerning the Messias conception and his mothers father'd upon an ancient Jewish Rabbin by Petrus Galatinus but as I conjecture rather a Commentary upon his owne fancie or some Monkish Legendary whom hee was pleased to grace The abstract of this Legend with his Cōment upon it is thus There was one special part of Adams bodily substance priviledged from the contagion of the first sin and this propagated by one speciall line unto posterity untill it came to the mother of the Messias who from the vertue of this preserved portion of Adams nature was conceived
without originall sinne as being made out of this substance after such a maner as the Messias or Sonne of God was made of a virgin Sit fides penes Authorem We know the blessed Virgin was the daughter of Abraham and the daughter of David but not by any portion of Abrahams or Davids body altogether exempted from such alterations as the Elementary vertues of which all mens bodies are made are subject unto Nor was the body of the Messias to be made of any such portion of Adam perpetually exempted from the contagion of sin original unto the time wherein the blessed Virgin was affianced to Ioseph The first exemption of any portioÌ„ of the humane nature or substance of Adam after his fall was granted and wrought by the immediate hand of God in the conception of his Sonne by the holy Ghost which was immediatly upon that sweet assent of the blessed Virgin unto the Angel Gabriel Ecce ancilla c. Capnio Vellem expressius audire an veteres Heâ— braeorum senserint matrem Messiae in peccat-originali concipiendam non fuisse Galatin Quamvis ex his quae diximus satis utarbi tror apertè colligatur hanc priscorum Iudaeorum fuisse fidem nedum opinionem hoc tamen manifestius ex verbis praedicti Rabbenu haccados habetur qui eodem in libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gale razeia cum ad septimam Antonini Consulis urbis Romae petitionem inter caetera dixisset propter matrem verò ejus scil Messiae ait David Psal 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est aâ—acum quam plantavit dextratua Dixissetque ei Antoninus Cur mater Dei comparatur abaco curve dicit eam a dextra Dei plantatam Respondit sic Ille Similis facta est abaco mater Dei Quandoquidem sicut aâ—acus est armarium quod Principes conficiunt ad collâ—canda vascula auri argenti ut gloriam suam atque opes omnibus ostendant Ita mater Regis Messiae erat armarium quod Deus construxit ut in eo sedeat ipse Messias ad ostendendam gloriam Maiestatis suae cunctis mortalibus Per id autem quod ait plantâ—tam esse a dextra Dei ostendit eam primam esse creaturam Dei in genere humano sicut dictum est Micheae Cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Et egressus eius ab aeternitate a diebus seculi Dicit enim egressus numero multitudinis Quiâ— sunt duo Messiae egressus Vnus Divinitatis quae est aeterna ideoque dicit ab aeternitate Alter humanitatis quae in sue matris extat substantia quae creata est ab hora creationis mundi Haec ille quem Iudaei Magistrum nostrum sanctum nuncupant Ad quorum declarationem notandum est Quod opinio quorundam veterum Judaeorum fuit matrem Messiae non solum in mente Dei ab initio ante secula creatam fuisse ut paulò superiùs dictum est verùm etiam materiam eius in materia Adae fuisse productam ipsamque gloriosam Messiae matrem principalem extitisse cum eius amore ut dictum est mundus creatus sit Nam cum Deus Adam plasmaret fecit quasi massam ex cuius parte nobiliori accepit intemeratae matris Messiae materiam ex residuo vero eius superfluitate Adam formavit Ex materia autem immaculatae matris Messiae facta est virtus quae in nobiliori loco membro corporis Adae conservata fuit Quae postea emanavit ad Seth deinde ad Enos deinde succidaneo ordine ad reliquos usque ad sanctum Iehoiakim Ex hac demum virtute beatissima mater Messiae formata fuit Et idcirco eam Zach. cap. 4. suae prophetiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est petram primariam recte appellavit Ex qua ut antiqui Judaeorum exposuerunt excidendus erat Messias Neque quidem abs re cum tempore gradu excellentia primaria futura esset Ex qua quidem opinione apertè concluditur carnem gloriosae matris Messiae non fuisse peccato originali infectam sed purissimam a divina prouidentia praeservatam Quocirca nec anima eius hujusmodi peccatum in conceptione contractura erat Petrus Galatinus lib. 7. per totum caput tertium 6 If it were lawfull to moralize such fables as I take this of Galatinus to bee no better the best moral I can make of it would be this However there had been many intermediat generations as many as S. Luke relateth if not more between our father Adam and the conception of the Sonne of God yet was our Saviour in some respects the immediat Successour of Adam the onely second Adam His immediat Successor not in sinne but of that purity of nature wherein the first Adam was created and yet withall immediat successor unto that curse which Adam by transgression had incurred but was not able to expiate nor to beare save onely by the everlasting death of himselfe and his posterity And for this reason if I mistake not the Sonne of God doth call himselfe as no sonne of Adam before him did The Sonne of man by peculiar title Yet was this a title as Maldonat well observes not of honour but of abjection of greater abjection than the like title given to Ezekiel not by himselfe but by the Angels And yet Ezekiel is called by the Angel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the difference betwixt these two titles which are both exorest in our English by Sonne of man I referre the Reader to the 49. Psalme ver 2. and the Commentators upon it As the Sonne of God was immediate Successour unto Adam so he was the immediate heire unto the blessing promised to Abraham more than heire the Author and foundation of it He was likewise immediate Successor unto David and his kingdome the onely body in whom the shadow of Gods mercies unto David for the good of Israel and Judah was to be fulfilled If hee had been immediate Successor unto David onely this might have occasioned some suspition or distrust that hee had been the Redeemer of the Jewish nation onely or of the sonnes of Iacob Had hee been immediate Successor unto Abraham onely this might have occasioned the like surmise or fancy that hee had been manifested onely to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in Abrahams seed according to the flesh which was much more ample than the seed of Iacob But in as much as the Sonne of God did in time become the sonne of man the immediate Successor unto Adam the onely second Adam though not the first or second man from Adam This giveth us to understand that he was the next of kindred to all men as they were men whether Jewes or Gentiles He to whom the redemption of all mankinde did by right of kinred without partiality or respect of persons equally belong And for this reason hee did not take any created party or person into
bee farre from thee O Lord was the saying of Abraham to God Gen. 18.25 But farther surely it is and alwayes hath been from the Judge of all the world who is the eternall living rule of justice it selfe to put the innocent and righteous to the lingring and cruell tortures of an ignominious death for redeeming wicked and cruell men from deserved death or to purchase not the impunity onely but the advancement of willfull rebelle by the severe punishment of his deare and onely obedient Sonne This objection as was in the former Treatise intimated would pierce deepe if wee were disarmed of those Christian principles which these moderne heretiques have cast aside to wit the plurality of persons in the Trinitie and the Onenesse of person in the Sonne of God CHRIST JESUS God and man even whilest he was invested with the forme of a servant We beleeve and confesse as they doe there is but one God and yet in this God wee acknowledge as they doe not unum alium one person of the Father another of the Sonne another of the holy Ghost such a distinction of capacities that the Father not the Sonne exacts satisfaction for mans violation of the eternall and indispensable rule of equity and justice that God the Sonne not God the Father did become mans surety and undertake to make full satisfaction for all his sinnes 4. Now he that will make satisfaction to another must have somewhat to give of his owne so his owne as it is not the others to whom it is given What then had the Sonne of God to give by way of satisfaction unto God the Father or to the holy Ghost which was so his owne as it was not theirs Onely that part of our nature which hee tooke from the substance of his mother into the unitie of his Divine person In all other parts of our nature over all other parts of this universe God the Father and God the Holy Ghost had the same interest or right of dominion with the Sonne Now this part or our nature being thus assumed into the unitie of the Second Person The Sonne of God and the Sonne of the blessed Virgin doe not differ as party and party There is unum aliud one nature of the Godhead another of the manhood non unus alius not one person of the Godhead another of the manhood The Divine nature in the person of the Sonne is the onely party which undertooke our redemption the humane nature assumed into the unity of his Person was but his qualification an appendance or appurtenance no true part of his Person And as heretofore hath been observed albeit the flesh of the man Christ Jesus was Caro humana non divina flesh of the same nature and substance with our flesh yet were his flesh and blood more truely the flesh and blood of the Sonne of God than of the man CHRIST JESUS the humane body more truely and properly his owne than our bodies are ours Now our flesh and bodily parts are said to bee our owne not so much because they are parts of our nature as because they are appurtenances of our persons or because wee have a peculiar personall right or power so to dispose of them as to make them no parts of our nature Wee accompt it no unnaturall part in wise men to cut off any rotten or putrified member rather than suffer the whole body besides utterly to perish In some certaine cases publicke Societies or Communities of men none of which have the like peculiar authority over the meanest free private member as every owner of a body naturall hath over his teeth his toes his fingers or other lesse principall part necessary for some uses onely not for the preservation of the whole have by publique consent designed sometimes some principall members of the Communitie sometimes members lesse principall not condemned of any crime as sacrifices for redeeming others from present danger or for securing posterity from servitude or oppression And when outrages have been committed by great Armies the Authors or principall Incentives of the mutinie being unknowne or not convicted by legall proofe the expiation hath usually been made by decimation Every tenth man hath by wholesome discipline of warre been punished according to the demerits of the crime committed But albeit every tenth man since Adam had been by him and his successors consent devoted to death or lingring torture farre worse than death their execution could have made no expiatiō no satisfaction unto God for the transgressions of the whole Community The attempt of the medicine would have increased the malignity of the universall disease Yea albeit the Son of God could have been by man intreated to practice this cure which is used by private wise men for preservation of their naturall bodies or by great Commanders for preuenting mutinies or losse of Armies all this had not been sufficient to have redeemed the world or the whole Community of men from utter ruine and destruction or which is worse then both from everlasting servitude unto Satan Men by art or rather Artists by the guidance of Gods providence have found out remedies against venemous diseases by medicinall confections of venemous ingredients The poysonous bitings of the Scorpion are usually cured by the oile of Scorpions and of the flesh of some Serpents Physicians make soveraigne antidotes for preventing poison or for curing venemous diseases But the venome which the old Serpent had diffused not through the veines onely but through the whole nature of man was not curable by this course of physick The old Serpent was to be destroyed but not to become any ingredient in this Catholique medicine whereby the humane nature was to be cured That by the wisdome of God was taken out of the nature and substance wounded not from the substance which did wound or sting But this part of the nature wounded which was to bee the medicine for the rest was first to bee perfectly cured and throughly purified by personall unition to the Sonne of God And being thus purified and cleansed from all spot of sinne it was disfigured and mangled that the blood of it might bee as a balsamum and quintessence to heale the wounds and sores of our corruption If it were the will and pleasure of the Sonne of God to submit his most holy body unto the good will and pleasure of his most holy Father if with his consent and approbation it were bruised and mangled here was no wrong done to any man but on Gods part rather a document of his unspeakable love unto mankinde Love unexpressible on God the Fathers part that would suffer his onely Sonne to take upon him the true forme of a servant and undergoe such hard service for us Love unexpressible on God the Sonnes behalfe that did so willingly expose his humane body to paine and torture for our redemption Here was no wrong at all either to the Sonne of God from God the Father or
〈◊〉 in the forme of God the originall implyeth the very essence or nature of God As much as wee are taught to beleeve in the Nicene or Athanasius Creed where it is said Hee was of one substance with the Father c. He was so in the forme of God or so truely God that he thought it no robbery no usurpation of any dignity which was not his owne by right of nature to account himselfe equall with God It was no robbery so to account himselfe because hee knew himselfe so to be Yet saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did as it were empty himselfe or sequester this his greatnesse and became lesse or lower than the sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by taking upon him the essentiall state or condition of a servant being first made substantially man that hee might be for a time essentially and formally a servant For though every man be not a servant yet every servant must be a man Now the Son of God being thus found in the forme and garbe of a man and in the formall condition of a servant He humbled himselfe yet lower and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse And that was a kind of death unto which by the Roman Laws whereunto he yeelded obedience none but slaves or malefactors of servile condition were lyable And how ever many of this state or condition were put unto this ignominious death yet none besides the man Christ Iesus did ever suffer it out of obedience or willingly but for want of power to resist or eschew it Had it beene in the power of the most abject slaves that ever did suffer it to have called in but half so many Roman soldiers to their rescue as Christ Iesus could have commanded of celestiall Angels they would have sould their lives at a dearer rate than the Emperors did which were slain in battaile or mutiny 3. But the man CHRIST JESUS who was also the true Sonne of God and who in that hee was the wisedome of God did better know the horror or paines of a lingring death before he had experience of it as man than any creature man or Angell can doe when HE was afflicted and tormented yet he opened not his mouth but was brought unto his Crosse like a Lambe unto the slaughter and as a sheepe before his shearer is dumbe so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 This far exceeded all obedience of any man whether free borne or a slave His patience in all his sufferings did farre exceed the patience of dumb creatures of Lambs themselves of wormes or meaner sensible passives For none of them doth dye a violent death without striving or reluctance without endeavour to annoy such as afflict or torment them Whereas this Lamb of God to shew himselfe to be the mirrour of patience and obedience did pray for his persecutors after the pangs of death more then naturall had seized upon him after he had been buffetted spit upon scourged and every way most disgracefully abused whilst hee endured the lingring and cruell torments of the Crosse exasperated with bitter scoffes and revilings of his unrelenting persecutors uncessantly pouring vinegar in stead of oyle into his wounds gave not the least signification of discontent either by word or gesture towards God or man unlesse some haply will put a sinister interpretation upon that exclamation when he was ready to dye My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But of the purport of this exclamation by Gods assistance in its due time and place In the interim without prejudice to any mans person or authority I rest perswaded that this speech beareth no character of discontent much lesse of despaire To conclude this point As there never was any sorrow like to his sorrow in his sufferings so was there no obedience nor ever shall be any obedience like to his from the beginning to the end of his sufferings This did farther exceed all his sorrows than his sorrowes did the paines and sorrowes of other men CHAP. 2. That the dignity from which the Sonne of God had descended and unto which the Sonne of man was to be exalted were testifyed by many signs and documents during the time of his humiliation 1. VNto this admirable lowlinesse of obedience God awarded a correspondent degree of exaltation For so the Apostle inferreth in the words immediately following Philip. 2.9 c. Wherefore or for this cause God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father The same Apostle Rom. 14.9 tells us To this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living As man he was made Lord from his resurrection but as the Sonne of God and a distinct person from his Father he was Lord from eternity as to omit other places before cited our Apostles inference in the 14. of the Romanes ver 10.11 will make cleare to any Christian that can take it into due consideration We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ How is this proved or whence had our Apostle himself this revelation From the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 45. ver 10. For there it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confesse unto God Christ then not as man but as God was that Lord in whose name the Prophet speaketh this As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me 2. Had this Lord the onely Sonne of God taken our nature upon him though adorned even from the first moment of its assumption with such majestie and glory as now it is yet the assumption of it would have beene an humiliation of the Sonne of God not physicall but rather as I said civill or ad modum civilis humiliationis an incomparable and unparalleld affabilitie an incomprehensible loving kindnesse But for this Lord to be incarnate for us of a Virgin to take our nature upon him charged with mortality and infirmities to surcharge our ordinary humane conditions with the extraordinary estate of a servant to burden this hard servitude with paine and torture with disgrace and ignominies more than servitude humane is capable of This was that unexpressible humiliation and incomprehensible loving kindnesse towards us miserable men which our Apostle so emphatically setteth forth for our patterne in submitting our wills to his most holy will as he did his unto his Fathers And our Lord himself requireth that we should be humble as he is humble not according to the measure of his humiliation for that is as impossible for us as to be as perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect or as holy as he is holy Yet must we be truely holy as our
heavenly Father is holy and sincerely humble as the Sonne of God our Lord and Saviour was humble Our humiliation or obedience to his will though it must be true not hypocriticall yet in this life at the best and in the best of men is imperfect in comparison of the obedience of heavenly Angels though theirs be but finite But the depth of the humiliation of the Sonne of God is as he is immensurable truely infinite Higher than God he could not be but so high he was in glory and dignity from eternity yet lower than man than the most abject of the Sons of men he vouchsafed for a time to be that we might be at least made equall to the Angels even Lords and Kings unto God of slaves by birth and condition unto infernall Tyrans 3. But could hee not have thus advanced us without any depression or humiliation of himself could not we sonnes of men be made happy without the misery and sorow of the Son of God The answer to this Quaere will finde place hereafter That which for the present deserveth our consideration is that in all the severall degrees of his humiliation God the Father was still pleased to exhibit some visible documents or sensible manifestations of that glory and dignity whereof his Sonne for a time had devested himselfe and of that glory unto which as man for his faithfull service done in our nature he was to be exalted His birth we know was meane in the eyes of men his entertainement at his first comming into the world for lodging especially more despicable than the lodging or entertainement of poenitentiary Pilgrimes Yet then welcomed into the world by an hoast of Angels sounding out gratulatory Hymnes unto God for the comfort of us miserable men for whose sakes he who was their supreme Lord did vouchsafe to descend thus low and while they congratulate us they doe truely adore him But seeing the ditties of their congratulatory hymnes were heard onely by some few and those men of meaner rank in Jury God would have his glory proclaymed by those wise and potent men which had seene his star in the East and from the glorious appearance or secret significations made to them of it came in person first to Ierusalem then to Bethleem to tender that homage and service to this Infant which they scorned to performe to Herod or Augustus Caesar of whose greatnesse no doubt they had heard but did not admire or esteeme it in comparison of this late borne King of the Jews These and other glimpses of that glory which was due unto him perpetually as man though publiquely manifested did not so much affect the stubborne hearted Jews as the meanness of his ordinary condition or state of life did offend them No question but that voice which came from heaven at his Baptisme This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased was heard by more than by Iohn Baptist and both testifyed and proclaimed by him to them that heard it not and yet forgotten by most within three yeares space so deepely forgotten that they did not call to memory at least not lay it to heart upon the second publication of his glory For some few daies before his sufferings the like encomiasme of that glory which was due unto him as he was the Son of God was proclaimed from heaven upon his prayers to this purpose when his soule was heavy and troubled with expectation of approaching sorrows Iohn 12 26. c. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be If any man serve me him also will my Father honour Now is my soule troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this houre but for this cause came I unto this houre Father glorifie thy name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorifyed it and will glorify it againe This document of his glory was more publique than the former and the end and scope of it more solemnly avouched by himself ver 29.30 The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundred Others said an Angel spake to him JESUS answered and said This voice came not because of me but for your sakes 4. Yet even this gleame of his glorious brightnesse wherewith the peoples eyes were for the present dazeled was shortly after so overclouded with the ignominies and indignities done unto him at his attachment arrainment and execution that his very Disciples had almost quite forgotten it For so two of them give this and other glorious documents of his dignities for lost after they had heard the news of his resurrection We trusted say they that it had beene he which should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.21 And what reason or pretence had they not to trust so still Onely because the chiefe Priests and Rulers had delivered him to be condemned to death and had crucified him ver 20. A strange drowsinesse had fallen upon them in that they could not foresee that the day of his glorious Raigne over Israel thus foretokened by these and the like scattered rayes or dawnings was to be ushered by a troublesome night of sorrows and sufferings and with this stupidity himselfe upbraids them Then he said unto them O fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entred into his glory Luke 24.25 26. Now all the sufferings and other Eclipses of this Sunne of righteousnesse were as clearely foretold as his future glory both by expresse testimony and typicall matter of fact By expresse testimony Isaiah 53.1 2 3. Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a roote out of a dry ground He hath no forme nor comelinesse and when we shal see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefe and we hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and wee esteemed him not 5. But were those other interposed flashes of this day starrs brightnesse exhibited at his birth or first arising at his Baptisme and at his passion as clearely foretold as the Eclipse of it in his sufferings That the Angelicall song or service of Angels at his nativity were foretold by the Psalmist Psal 97.7 I ever tooke it following the paths of the ancient as a plaine case void of scruple untill Ribera stumbled me in my course with a criticisme upon the Apostles allegation of this passage Heb. 1.6 And againe when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him So our English so Erasmus and some of the most accurate Greek Interpreters according to the sense and meaning of our English But this learned Commentator renders it thus I must confesse verbatim according to
to the humane nature of Christ from the Godhead or Divine person of the Sonne rather all indignities and harmes which were done unto the man CHRIST JESUS by Satan and his instruments did redound unto the Sonne of God The humane nature was the onely subject of the wound and paine The Sonne of God was the onely subject if wee may so speake of the wrong the onely party or person wronged by Satan and his instruments but no way wronged by the Father much lesse by himselfe as having free power to put that part of our nature which he assumed unto what service soever his Father would require Concerning this last qualification of the Sonne of God I have nothing more to say in this Treatise save onely how it was foretold or foreshadowed The predictions that the Sonne of God or the Messias should become a servant are frequent in the old Testament and will here and there interpose themselves in some ensuing discussions of his undertakings for dissolving the works of Satan The next inquirie is how it was foreshadowed or typically foretold CHAP. IX Gods servant Job the most illustrious Type of the Sonne of God as hee was invested with the forme of a servant 1 THe forme of a servant which the Sonne of God did take upon him was foreshadowed by all those holy men Prophets or other which are by sacred Writers instiled the Servants of God A title not usually given to many Kings or Priests not once I take it by God himselfe unto Abraham though he were the greatest of holy men which were but men the father of the faithfull whether Kings Priests or Prophets the onely Prophet Priest or other which to my remembrance was instiled the friend of God Moses Aaron and David are sometimes instiled the servants of God by God himselfe Yet were these three respectively more illustrious types of the Sonne of God as he was to bee made King Priest and Prophet than of him as hee tooke the forme of a servant upon him Of CHRIST JESUS as hee was in a peculiar sort the servant of God Iob the most remarkable paterne of patience before this Son of God was manifested in the flesh is the most exact type or shadow not for his qualifications onely but in his undertakings Iobs conflicts with Satan and wrestlings with temptations are more expresly recorded and more emphatically exprest than any mans besides before the onely Sonne of God became the Sonne of man and servant to his heavenly Father Satan by speciall leave obtained from God but so obtained by God as challenger did combat or play his prizes with this servant of God at two the most prevalent weapons which his cunning and long experience upon all aduantages which the weaknesse of men from the fall of Adam did afford him could make choise of And these two weapons were hope of good things and feare of evills temporall which this great usurper did presume were at his disposall either by right of that conquest which hee had gotten over the first man or could obtaine by Gods permission to ensnare the first mans posterity The direct and full scope of all our hopes is felicitie and so is misery the period of all our feares Unto felicity three sorts of good things are required Bona animae bona fortunae bona corporis The endowments and contentments of the reasonable soule health with ability and lawfull contentments of the body competency of meanes or worldly substance which are subservient to both the former endowments and contentments of soule and body No misery can befall man but either from the want of some one or more of these three good things which are required to happinesse as the Philosophers conceived it or from their contraries All the evills which men naturally feare are either evills incident to the body as sicknesse paine torments death want or losse of goods or worldly substance losse of good name disgrace or ignominy imputation of folly which are no lesse grievous to the rationall part of man than paine or griefe are to the part sensitive more grievous by much to ingenuous men than losse of goods than want or penury For as an heathen Satyrist well observed Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se Quam quòd ridiculos homines facit The shrewdest turne that poverty can doe to any mortall creature is to expose him unto contempt or scorne By feare of all these three evills Satan driveth most men into his snare of servitude as many if not more as hee drawes into the same snare by hope of good things By every one of these three evills by the very least of them if we take them single hee had caught so many as hee thought sufficient to make up this generall induction That none could escape his snares or springes so hee might be permitted by God to take his opportunities for setting them 2. Iob was a man as happy as any man before him had been according to that scale of happinesse which Philosophers could hope for in this life or could make any probable ground of better hopes for the life to come There was a man saith the Text in the land of Vz whose name was Iob and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evill This is a fuller expression than any Philosopher could make of the principall part of happinesse that is of a minde richly endowed with all kinde of vertues moral and more than so with spirituall graces And there were borne unto him seven sons and three daughters these were more than bona corporis more than parts of his personall constitution which besides these was exceeding good His substance also was seven thousand sheepe and three thousand Camels and five hundred yoke of Oxen and five hundred shee Asses and a very great houshold or husbandry great store no doubt of servants which were part of his worldly substance so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East Here was a great measure of those things which Philosophers call bona fortunae goods of fortune or as we now say goodly meanes faire revenues Iob was a richer man for those times in respect of others than any man this day living is in respect of our times Yet this goodly Cedar in his full height was sound within and straight without unshaken by any blasts of former temptations untill the Lord himself appointed him to bee a Dueller with Satan The challenge made by Satan is very remarkable There was a day when the sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them And the Lord said unto Satan whence commest thou Then Satan answered the Lord and said From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and downe in it And the Lord said unto Satan Hast thou considered my servant Iob that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and
eares were filled with these and the like acclamations Hosanna to the Sonne of David He began to be troubled in spirit whilest the forme or nature of man did suggest one thing and the forme of a servant correct what the forme of man did suggest and sway him another way What shall I say Father save me from this houre So the reasonable soule of man could not but wish it could not but apprehend this houre as an houre of evill and evill as evill cannot bee desired by the will of man Reason cannot but desire or wish the prevention or removall of it But though he were the Sonne of God yet as the Apostle speakes Hee learned obedience by the things which he suffered Hee resolves not to doe according to his owne liking but as his Father should appoint him And hence hee instantly overballanced the former naturall desire or inclination of the forme of man with the serious consideration of his office or present calling as he had taken upon him the forme of a servant For as it were recalling himselfe he addeth but therefore came I unto this houre to wit that hee might suffer all the evills incident to man in this world 5. Afterwards when his agony came upon him his wonted naturall inclination of the forme of man or sway of the reasonable soule became more strong and hence he puts his former wish or intimation Father what shall I say save me from this houre into the forme of a prayer Father if it be possible let this cup passe from mee and yet overswaies this naturall inclination or desire as hee was man with a stronger desire or delight to doe the office of a servant and counterchecks that prayer which hee had conceived as man with a prayer which hee had conceived ex officio with a prayer of consecration neverthelesse not as I will but as thou willest as if hee had said Though it bee just and reasonable which I desire so just as thou wouldest not deny the like to any other man in my case yet seeing I am thy servant and the Sonne of thy handmaid in such a manner as no other man hath beene I wholly submit my selfe unto thy will and consecrate my selfe unto thy service how hard soever it shall prove Abraham wee know waxed bold with God by often reiterating and renewing the forme of his petition for Sodom First hee prayed that God would spare the Citie for fifty righteous men then for forty then for thirty and lastly descends to ten His boldnesse was grounded upon a dictate of nature or common principle of faith that it was farre from him who was to doe justice to all the world to slay the righteous with the wicked Suppose God had said to Abraham at his first petition thus Abraham at thy request I will for this time spare the men of Sodom upon condition that thou and such as supplicate for them will become their baile and stand between them and that storme of fire and brimstone which must shortly goe out against them from my fiery presence would this hard condition have been accepted by Abraham or accepted with patience Would hee not have opposed this former principle with greater vehemencie and passion To slay the righteous for the wicked that be farre from thee O Lord shall the Judge of all the world thus farre transgresse the rule of justice Yet may we not think that righteous Abraham though instiled the friend of God was so much lesse sinfull than the most sinfull man in Sodom as the man CHRIST JESUS was more righteous than Abraham And what then could restraine this just and holy One for making the same plea for himselfe which Abraham for himselfe might have made which without offence unto his Lord hee did often make on the behalfe of so many righteous men not as were but as he supposed possibly might be in Sodom Onely this the Sonne of God who is equall with God to the end and purpose that hee might dissolve the works which the Devill had wrought in our nature had taken our nature upon him had made his humane flesh and humane blood the flesh and blood of God himselfe though not as parts of the Divine nature yet as appurtenances of the Divine person and was not onely found in the fashion of man but was invested with the essentiall forme of a servant And it is the perfection of a servant not to doe his owne will but the will of his Lord. Now the body or humane nature of the Sonne of God was not a servant to his Divine person but to the person of his Father whose will hee was in the humane nature to performe whatsoever the performance of it should cost him For unto this purpose onely and no other did hee take both the nature of man and forme of a servant upon him that hee might in them and by them accomplish the will of his Father As for his body that during the time of his humiliation was in bonis patris the goods and possession of the Father as every servant properly so called is the goods and inheritance of his Master His sufferings in this nature were to be extended untill the full price of our redemption was paid The just measure of these his sufferings and full price of our redemption he did as he was man learne by experience CHAP. XII Of Christs full satisfaction for the sinnes of men and whether to this satisfaction the suffering of Hell paines were necessarily required And of the Circumstances of his Agony 1 THe undertakings of the Sonne of God for mans Redemption did for the most part consist in his sufferings Though he were a Sonne saith the Apostle Heb. 5.8 yet learned he obedience by the things which hee suffered Though he were alwayes a Sonne the onely Son of God yet suffer hee did not any longer than whilest he was in the forme of a servant Of all true service or Apprentiship obedience is the speciall property the greatest perfection whereunto the condition of a servant or one under legall command can pretend Now the perfection of obedience cannot by any meanes either bee better exemplified or approved than by patience in suffering Servants saith S. Peter 1. Pet. 2.18 19 c. be subject unto your Masters with all feare not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward For this is thanke worthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully For what glory is it if when yee bee buffeted for your faults yee shall take it patiently but if when you doe well and suffer for it yee take it patiently this is acceptable with God For even hereunto were yee called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that yee should follow his steps who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth who when hee was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth
prayer for himselfe Father if thou bee willing remove this Cup from mee The question is what Cup this was whose removall hee desired It was a deadly cup as all agree but of what death naturall or supernaturall death of body onely or of soule Had the Cup which he so feared to drinke been onely a death naturall or such as other men had or may taste of his serious reiterated deprecation of it would in some mens collections argue lesse courage or resolutiō in him than many others though generous yet but meere men have exhibited either at the approch or onset of death or in the very conflict with deadly pangs or terrors Or if Peter at this time had not been amazed with heavinesse of spirit hee might thus have crowed over his Master dulce bellum inexpertis when I forewarned you to bee good unto your selfe and not to let these things come upon you all the thanks I had for my paines was this Get thee behinde mee Satan for thou savourest not the things which are of God but the things which bee of men And yet now thou prayest unto thy Father that these things which I advised thee to beware of may not fall upon thee Wherein then I beseech thee did I offend unlesse it were in foreseeing or foretelling that in time it would repent thee of thy forward resolution But admit this Cup whose removall hee now prayes for were more than either the feare or feeling of a naturall death though accompanied with more grievous symptomes than any man before him had either felt or feared was it possible that the horror of it should not bee duely apprehended by him from the time wherein he had resolved to suffer those things which Peter counselled him not to suffer If he were ignorant how dearely his future sufferings would cost him why did hee undertake to make satisfaction for our sinnes by them For to undertake any businesse of greater consequence out of ignorance or out of knowledge in part commendable without due and constant resolution how ever the successe fall out doth alwaies prejudice if not elevate the just esteeme of the undertakers discretion The undertaker in this great businesse of mans Redemption was the Sonne of God whose wisdome no man can too highly estimate whose undertaking for us all men besides himselfe doe esteeme too low Shall wee say then hee was not ignorant of any thing that should befall him yet ignorant of them as man or that hee was ignorant of them in part in part did foreknow them Surely as hee was God hee did know all things before they were before they could have any title to actuall being For infinite knowledge such is the knowledge of the Deity and of every Person in it can neither be ignorant or nescient of any thing whether future present or past or of any thing possible to have been or possible to be either for the present or future If the least degree of knowledge of any thing past present or future could accrue or result de novo unto the Divine nature either in it selfe or in any person in it whether ab extra from occurrences which happen in the revolution of time or from the supposed determination of his owne will from eternity we should hence be enforced to deny that the wisdome or knowledge of the Divine nature or of any Person in it were absolutely infinite For that unto which any thing can accrue or bee added is not truely infinite for the present or in it selfe can be no otherwise infinite than by succession or by addition of somewhat to it besides it selfe If it were true which some avouch that God doth not or rather cannot foreknow contingents future otherwise than by the determination of his owne will this supposed determination of his will being indeed but a fancy or transformation of his will to the similitude of ours doth make his knowledge absolutely infinite being of it selfe onely capable of true infinity by this addition 5. That God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost is of wisdome and knowledge truely infinite not by occurrences ab extra from the Creation but in himselfe I firmely beleeve As for the manner how hee doth know or foreknow things future contingents especially is a point which I could wish were not at all or more sparingly disputed as being assured that this point of all others now questioned cannot possibly be determined by any man or Angel unlesse he be every way as wise as God or somewhat wiser God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost I verily beleeve did more perfectly know the degrees and qualities of all the suffrings of our Saviour in the flesh than he himself as man did either know or foreknow them Yet did not the Divine nature or any Divine person as Divine know them by experience or painefull feeling as the man CHRIST JESUS did but by a knowledge as supereminent to the knowledge of sense or humane reason as the Divine nature is to the nature humane or as ubiquitary being or immensity is to circumscriptive or locall presence The Divine nature whether wee consider it in the Person of the Father Sonne or Holy Ghost could learne nothing which they knew not before by the sufferings of the Sonne yet the Son himselfe as man did learne obedience by the things which hee suffered in the flesh Whatsoever may be thought or said of other knowledge communicated to the man CHRIST JESUS by the vertue of the Personall union yet his sensible or experimentall knowledge as of pains and sorrow whether incident to body onely or to both body and soule was not from his cradle infinite was not so compleat at his baptisme as at his last Supper nor then so exact as in the garden or upon the Crosse it was A growth or increase in this kinde of knowledge is granted by such of the Schoolemen as did not know or consider what it was for the Sonne of God to be in the forme of a servant but tooke this to bee all one as to bee in the forme of a mortall man But such as duely consider his peculiar estate or condition whilest he was in the forme of a servant will easily conceive his voluntary renouncing that full measure of knowledge which hee now hath as man and his obedient submission of his manhood unto the feeling of our infirmities to haue been a necessary part or rather the very depth of that humiliation or exaninition of himselfe whereof the Apostle speakes For it is one speciall good quality of a servant not perfectly to know his errand not to be too inquisitive after the particular contents of it before hee be sent but to expect instructions from him that sent him though it be in an Ambassage 6. If wee take it then as granted that our Saviour as man did from his infancy most clearly foresee or distinctly know that hee was to redeeme mankinde by tasting the bitter cup of death for them it will not
noster with the Lords prayer the Creed and the ten Commandements For I dare undertake to make good that there is not either branch or fruit blossome or leafe in that sacred garden of devotions which doth not naturally spring and draw its life and nourishment from one or other of the three former roots to wit from the Lords prayer or from the Creed set prayer wise or from the ten Commandements And hee that is disposed to reade that most Divine part of our Liturgie with a sober minde and dutifull respect shall finde not onely more pure devotion but more profound Orthodoxall Divinity both for matter and forme then can bee found in all the English Writers which have either carped or nibled at it Not one ejaculation is there in it which hath the least relish of that leven wherewith their prolix extemporary devotions who distaste it are for the most part deepely sowred But here I had ended my Treatise of the qualification and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works of Satan had not a new Quaere presented it selfe to my meditations in the latter end of these disquisitions and the Quaere is this 3. Why our Saviour in his Agony or his other sufferings upon the Crosse should not tender his petitions unto God in the same forme or tenor wherein the Psalmists or other holy men which were types or figures of him in his sufferings had done theirs in their anguish or distresse or in the same forme which he once and no oftner than once did use upon the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The ancient stile of prayer used by Gods servants or Ambassadors as well in their humble supplications as in their gratulatory hymnes but especially in their fervent and patheticall ejaculations for deliverance from present dread or danger was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my God and my Lord or my Lord and my God Besides the observations before made to this purpose out of Masius or rather out of the Liturgie of the Ancient Jews avouched by him and of the Primitive Church well observed by Faber many passages in the Psalmes which did respectively both forepicture and foretell his Agony and sufferings upon the Crosse are most pregnant Of the ingratitude of his people toward him of the indignities and cruelties done unto him by the Jews no Psalmist the Author of 22. onely excepted hath a more lively punctuall representation than that which is Psal 35. and 38.40 David in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or paroxysme of the grievances which he suffered from such of Sauls followers as he had well deserved of delivereth his petitions in this forme Avenge thou my cause my God and my Lord Psal 35.23 Iudge me according to thy righteousnesse O JEHOVAH my Lord Psal 35.24 and 38.16 whether David or some other were the Author of it Quia ad te expecto tu respondebis Domine Deus mi. And againe Psal 40.6 Multa fecisti tu JEHOVAH Deus meus c. 4. But when the houre was come wherein all these Propheticall ejaculations of the Psalmists were to be exactly fulfilled in our Saviour Christ and by him hee preferres his supplications stilo novo in a forme or stile unusuall before but familiar and usuall to him when his passion and death drew nigh as Ioh. 12. Father not Lord God what shall I say save mee from this houre c. And Ioh. 17. Father glorifie me c. Hee used the same forme in his Agony thrice Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me And in the last words which hee uttered in the forme of a servant hee said not My God my God or my Lord God But Father into thy hands I commend my spirit This variation betweene this most faithfull Servant of God and other holy men Gods faithfull servants in the forme of their supplications or gratulatory ejaculations conceived and uttered upon the like occasions suggests thus much unto us if I mistake not that of all Gods servants or holy men the man CHRIST JESUS onely was his true Sonne not by adoption as others were and wee now are but his Sonne by right of inheritance and yet being such a Sonne was for a time as truely his Servant as his Sonne He who alwayes had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God the Lord Hee whose title it was to heare his peoples prayers and unto whom all flesh shall come Psal 65.2 doth now tender his prayer not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that had been to preferre a petition unto himselfe whereas hee was now to preferre his petition unto his Father whose Servant he now was as man but did not thereby cease to be as truely his Sonne Had hee been his Sonne by creation onely or in respect of the admirable integrity and superexcellencie of his performances as man hee had doubtlesse tendred his petitions in the same stile or forme which other godly men and Gods faithfull servants before had used though much better than they did But however hee was the Servant of God after a more peculiar maner than any other had been yet he presents his supplications in such a stile as hath relation to himselfe rather as he was a Son than as a Servant The eternall Sonne of God was the party supplicant unto the eternall Father for his mortall servant For hee was a servant onely according to his humane nature and according to that onely as it was mortall whereas he still remaineth Mediator betwixt God and man not as man onely much lesse as a mortall man but according to his eternall person and his immortall manhood This his manhood is now dignified with the reall and actuall title of Lord. He was our Lord and Mediator before he assumed our flesh into the unity of his Person but then Mediator according to his Divine Person or as God onely When he is instiled by the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God the Lord this later title was more Propheticall than historicall and did import as much as that he who was then Iehovah our God at the time appointed should come to be our Lord by peculiar right of dominion purchased by his sufferings for our redemption And for this reason I take it his Apostle Thomas being convinced of incredulity unto the report of his resurrection supplicates to him for pardon in the same stile or forme as the Psalmist and other godly men had done in their distresse My Lord and my God which is the full and punctuall expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For now hee was not onely spe but re become both Lord and Christ SECTION 3. Of the harmonicall parallel betweene the predictions or types of the old Testament and the Evangelicall relations concerning our Saviours triumphant comming unto Ierusalem and of his entertainment there untill the institution of
Saviour suffer not them to perish which do hang on thee Thou art the Lord and owner challenge thy possession Thou art the head helpe thy members Thou art the King give us a reverence of thy Lawes Thou art the Prince of peace breathe upon us brotherly love Thou art the God have pity on thy humble beseechers be thou according to Pauls saying all things in all men to the intent the whole quire of thy Church with agreeing mindes and consonant voyces for mercy obtained at thy hands may give thanks to the Father Sonne and holy Ghost which after the most perfect example of concord be distincted in property of persons and one in nature to whom be praise and glory eternally Amen FINIS A CATALOGVE OF the severall Treatises heretofore published by the Author THe Eternall Truth of Scriptures and Christian beliefe in two Books of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed The third Book of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed containing the blasphemous positions of Iesuits and other later Romanists concerning the authoritie of their Church Iustifying Faith or the faith whereby the just doe live being the fourth Book upon the Creed A Treatise containing the originall of unbeliefe misbeliefe or misperswasions concerning the Verity Vnity and Attributes of the Deity with directions for rectifying our beliefe or knowledge in the forementioned points being the fifth Book upon the Creed A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes the first and second parts being the sixth Book upon the Creed The knowledge of Christ Iesus or the seaventh booke of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed containing the first and generall principles of Christian Theologie with the more immediate principles concerning the knowledge of Christ divided into foure Sections The humiliation of the Sonne of God or the eighth Book of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed A Treatise of the holy Catholick Faith and Church Christs answer to Iohns question or an Introduction to the knowledge of Iesus Christ and him crucified delivered in certaine Sermons Nazareth and Bethlehem or Israels portion in the sonne of Jesse And mankinds comfort from the weaker sex in two Sermons preached at S. Maries in Oxford FINIS * Phil. â— ver 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. * Psal 40. ver 6 7 8. * See the seventh book cap. 17. §. 5. * In the 7. Book and 28. Chap. * See the 7 book cap. 26. § 34. * In the 5th book of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed or a Treatise containing the originall of unbeliefe c. See the former Treatise chap. 44.45 c. a Mihi verò ratio cur ita sese vocaverit duabus ex rebus pâ—tenda esse videtur altera quòd solus ipse Ezechiel imo Daniel etiam aliquando ita vocetur ut Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 18 notavit altera quòd solus ipse se ita vocet Nam alij in novo Testamento nunquam cum filium hominis appellant Ex priore re intelligimus posse eâdem aut simili de causâ quà Ezechielem filium hominis appellari Cur autem Ezechiel ita vocatus sit cum multas illic opiniones reconsuerimus illam R. Abraham maximè probavimus vocari â—um filium hominis quia semper cum Angelis lâ—quebatur qui eum ut a se qui homines non erant sed videbantur distinguerent fiâ—um hominis appellabant Nec enim ipse sed cum Angeli ita vocant Simili fortasse ratione Christus quia Deus erat filius Dei quasi aâ—itâ—esi quadam cum de se ut homine loquitur fiâ—ium hominis vocat Non quod alâ—uâ— sed quod aliter filius Dei quia Deus filiâ—s hominis quia homo esset quemadmodum Augustinus indicavit Exposteri reprobabilem conjecturam ducimus â—um se non honoris sed abjectionis caâ—á◠ita vocare sicut apud Prophetam vermem opprobrium hominum appellat Psal 21. ver 7. Nisi enim nomen abjectionis esset alij etiam eum aliquando eodem modo vocavissent Sed observamus Ezechielem nunquam a se sed abalus Christum nunquam ab aliis sed a se filâ—um hominis appellari Ideo ergo se filium hominis appellat ut significet se cum in forma Dei esset nec rapinam arbitraretur se esse aequalem Deo exinaâ—â—sse tamen semetipsum formamque servi accepisse habitu inventum ut hominem Phil. 2.6 7. Maldonat in cap. 8 Matthaei ver 20. The 7. book of the Commentaries upon the Creed cha 25. §. 3 4 c. The 7. book of Commentaries upon the Creed Chap. 30. § 10. c. * Deut. 8.3 * Psal 91.11 12. * Ioh. 12.27 * Heb. 5.8 * Matt. 16.22 * Curaeus * Capta Dragonera Magio negotiuÌ„ datum ut Montemmarinum munitissimuÌ„ locum aggrederetur Igitur secuÌ„ ducto Augusto SaluciaruÌ„ principis notâ—o filio eò tendit evocatoque quasi ad colloquium praesidiariorum duce ab Augusto quîcum arctissima intercedebat amicitia Magius ex compacto superveniens eum comprehendi jussit ut locum dederet hortatus cum nihil proficeret postremo minas addidit ipsum vinctum quasi ad supplicium in oppidi conspectum deduci imperavit tam miserabili spectaculo victi oppidani ut ducem suum periculo eximerent deditioneÌ„ fecere 0bservatuÌ„ tam indignae mortis vehementi metu adeo concussum animo eum suisse ut sanguineum sudoreÌ„ toto corpore funderet Thâ—an lib. 10. pag. 221.1 * Cusanus * 2. Sam. 24.17 * Psal 40. Heb. 10.5 6 7. * 1. Pet. 2.18 19. * In his Paradoxes * Mark 14.35 c The 7. book of these Commentaries upon the Creed chap. 36. par 3 4 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ioh. 20.28 * Or sayed himselfe c. * The 7. Book of Commentaries ca. 6. c That is it should be a quiet habitation for bordering Nations or a mixt people * zach 9.9 * Vide Riberam in secundum Haggaei * Nunquam cohabites impiis eò quòd fieri non possit ut non ex illorum conversatione tu impius evadas Quod si mâ—raris Considera quid acciderit Iiphtah Gileaditae qui licet iustus esset tamen quia habitavit in tribu Epharaijm ipse ab eis ad impietatem pertractus fuit Cum enim videret quòd filios filias suas idolo Baal comburereÌ„t inde quoque ipse abiit similique modo filiam suam occidit Item cum videret eos operam dare homicidiis factus est ipse homicida abiens interficiens 40. duo millâ—a ob quod facinus tanquam impius punitus non meruit sepulturam juxta id quod dicituâ— Et sepultus est in civitatibus Gilead Iudic. 12. Qui locus Scripture docet di pâ—sa sinâ—e â—ossa ejus in omnibus civitatibus Gilead In quocunque enim loco videbant ejus ossa sepeâ—â—ebant ea Ben. Syrae Sentent Mor. 6. * Marke Luke in the forecited places and S. Ioh. chap. 12. ver 14. * Zach. 9.9 * Statius * Vide Hebraicum contextum Prov. 19.21 Quòd verò ponderibus resistat in adversuÌ„ incurvetur facere idem Iudices debent atque reluctabundi seductores pellacesque omnes detrectare neque mulieribus neque vioâ—etiae ced re Pierius in initio sui lib. I. de hierog inquit Aristot Si super arboris ejus lignum magnum quantumlibet pondus imponas Palma minime deorsum cedit nec infra flectitur sed adversus pondus â—esuâ—git sursum nititur in adversum fornicata Marke 10.48 * See Christs answere to Iohn In the 7. Booke last Chapter of the last section * Chap. 26. * Vide Genebrardum in Psal 3. * See Cap. 15. par 3. 4. * Ver. 69. * Matth. 26.64 * Sect. 3. Chap. 11. par 9 10. c. * See Jer. 45. ver 5. 39 Vide Nebrisensis quinquagenam C. 14. * Chap. 26 parag 4. * Zach. 11.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Septuagint * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gloriosum pretiuÌ„ quo appretiatus sum Zach. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the 7. book of CommeÌ„ts on the Creed S. Matthew addes and saith it was called the field of blood unto this day which argues that he wrote his Gospel a long time after S. Peter made his Comment upon the Psalmist See Psal 55.16 * See the 7. book of these Commentaries sect 3. cap. 28. sect 5. Mat. 27.50 Mat. 15.37 Gen. 22. * Ier. 32.42 * Scilicet in 3. Cap. ejus libelli * See Christs answer to John * Vide Chytraeism in hoc caput Sect. 2. * Vide Petrum RamuÌ„ in Commentariis de side Capite 130. de Christi sepulturâ Et Tremellium in editione Syriaci Testamenti See the 2. page of this Treatise
Saviour was crucified at what houre taken downe from the Crosse and of the mysteries ensuing his death 370 FINIS PErlegilibrum hunc cuì titulus est The humiliation of the Son of God c. in quo nihil reperio quo minus summâ cum utilitate imprimatur Ex Aedibus Fulham June 22. Sa Baâ—â—er R. P. Episc Lond Cap. domest Errata Page 27. line 7. for else be read else there be p. 60. l. 4. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 24. for the first way r. the fittest way p. 95. l. 27. for nor r. not p. 283. l. 21. for unto by him r. unto him by THE HVMILIATION OF THE SONNE OF GOD OR The eighth Booke of Commentaries upon the Apostles CREED THat the man CHRIST JESUS was truely and properly the Sonne of God not from his conception birth or circumcision but from eternitie That the Sonne of God was so made man in time that whilst the man Christ Iesus was conceived borne and circumcised He who was the Sonne of God and God our Lord from eternity was conceived borne and circumcised in our flesh hath been though not the entire subject yet the maine scope of a former Treatise Unto which by the assistance of this JESUS and his holy Spirit we now endeavour to annexe this present Treatise or Eighth Book of Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed the subject and scope whereof is to shew that the same God and our Lord who was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary c. did according to the Scripture afore extant suffer under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buryed c. Besides that which hath been delivered concerning this Iesus and our Lord all that we are in these Comments to prosecute or meddle with untill wee come unto the article of his comming to judge the Quick and the Dead and the accomplishment of a Treatise already begun concerning the Holy Catholique Church will fall under these generals The Humiliation The Exaltation And Consecration of the Sonne of God to the everlasting Priesthood Of his Humiliation his death and sufferings Of his Exaltion his resurrection from the dead his ascension into heaven and sitting at the right hand of God were the periods or accomplishments Of his CoÌ„secratioÌ„ to his everlasting Priesthood his Agony and bloudy death his rest three dayes and three nights in the grave and resurrection thence were the principall though not the onely parts To begin with his Humiliation SECTION I. Of the Humiliation of the Sonne of God and the end why he did so humble himselfe in the generall CHAP. I. In what sense the Sonne of God is said to have humbled himselfe 1 ALbeit the humiliation of the Son of God our Lord be not expresly mentioned in the Apostles Creed yet is it so emphatically exprest in Canonicall Scriptures whence the Articles of our Creed are taken by whose rules they are to be interpreted that no man which admits the Scripture to be a rule of Christian faith and practice can deny this humiliation of the Sonne of God to be a fundamentall point of beleefe and rule of manners and practice truely Christian As to omit other Texts for the present that one of our Apostle S. Paul shall suffice Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowlinesse of minde let each esteeme others better than themselves Looke not every man on his owne things but every man also on the things of others Let this minde be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the forme of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God But made himselfe of no reputation and took upon him the forme of a servant and was made in the likenesse of men And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse If we consider this humiliation of Christ our Saviour in its generall or abstract notion not as restrained unto particular circumstances of his death and sufferings it is in some sort more peculiar to him as hee was and is the Son of God than the matter of any other article following in this Creed For when wee say as we must beleeve that the onely Son of God was borne was circumcised did suffer under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried these and the like speeches can be no other wayes verified of him as he is God than per communicationem idiomatum That is the matters signified by these and the like speeches had their beginning and reall existence in his humane nature For that alone was really capable of weaknesse sorrow infirmity and of death Yet in as much as the whole humane nature it selfe was but an Appendix of his divine person no person distinct from it whatsoever Christ Jesus did doe or suffer in this nature was done and suffered by the eternall Sonne of God The Sonne of God was truely humbled in and according to this nature in all his naturall and more than naturall sufferings from his birth to his death Yet may we not say that this Son of God did humble himselfe onely in these or the like undertakings whereof the humane nature alone was really capable That exinanition or nullifying of himselfe mentioned by our Apostle Phil. 2.7 did not take its beginning from or in the manhood but in and from the divine person of the Sonne of God For it was no physicall passion or naturall affection no passion at all either naturall or supernaturall yet a true and proper humiliation more than civill though better resembled by humiliation civill than by naturall His obedience did not meerely consist in his patient suffering but in the submission of himselfe to his Fathers will before he suffered Most willing he was to take upon him the forme of a servant before hee actually tooke our nature upon him for our redemption before the Angell Gabriell was sent unto the blessed Virgin before the Psalmist had said on his behalfe Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a bodie hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifice for sinne thou hast had no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to doe thy will O God This unconceiveable manner of his unexpressible willingnesse to doe his Fathers will was the very life and soule of that most admirable obedience of his humane will to doe and suffer whatsoever hee did or suffered in our flesh That which gave the infinite value and everlasting efficacy to his everlasting sacrifice which was offred once for all 2. For taking a true though an imperfect scale for such is the best that man can take of his humiliation and obedience wee are to scan the meaning of our Apostle in the forecited place more particularly Hee was saith our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to the preamble which our Saviour used before the full ingruence or paroxysme of his Agony Abba Father all things are possible to thee take away this Cup from mee c. No man doubts but that his Father was able to save him from dissolution of body and soule that is from death it selfe whether it had come by course of nature or by violence But from this death it is plaine he did not save him Of this cup or kinde of death he tasted to the full in the utmost extremity upon the Crosse How then is it true which S. Paul in the forecited place addeth that after hee offered up prayers with strong crying and teares hee was heard in that hee feared Or as others reade for his piety Whether reading we follow this or that the just importance of our Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thus much at least that hee was delivered from that which hee so much feared though with a pious feare for out of such a feare hee offered up his prayers with strong crying and teares The Cup then which hee so earnestly prayed might passe from him was not the cup of violent death simply considered nor as accompanied with all the indignities done unto him by the Jewes Romanes and others the very next day For what then did hee at this time so earnestly pray for speedy release or deliverance from the heavinesse of soule or anguish of spirit which now had suddenly seized upon him The very first draught of this Cup had cast him into a bloody sweat and had hee been enforced to have taken a second or third deepe draught of it or if his present anguish had been for some few houres continued hee had prevented the cruell tortures of the Crosse and the indignities done unto his person by the Jews or Roman Souldiers This was that Cup which Peter counselled him not to taste of for whose removall hee never prayed as being fully resolved to pledge the utmost extremity of their malice with a farre greater measure of patience And for this reason when Peter drew his sword for his rescous as he intended he checks him againe as he had done Matth. 16.23 Put up thy sword into the sheath the Cup which my Father gives mee shall I not drink it Ioh. 18.11 But that cup which he so earnestly did pray might passe from him did certainely vanish with his Agony and his Agony did endure no longer than he offered up his supplications and prayers about the space of an houre There remained no signe or symptome of it after the Traitor had delivered him up into his enemies hands Or if wee ponderate S. Lukes relation of his Agony aright his prayers were heard upon the first or second uttering of them Seeing ease or deliverance from the ingruence of paines is all that they pressed for the present desires it is all one whether the burthen bee lessened or his strength to beare it be increased His ease and comfort is either way the same Admit then the heavy burthen laid upon the Sonne of God in the dayes of his flesh had continued the same or perhaps increased from his first entring into the garden yet his prayers were heard in that an Angel was sent whether to strengthen him or to comfort him Luke 22.43 The word in the Originall is often used for such internall strength as men recover by some comfortable refection when they are faint for want of meat or by gathering their spirits after they have been dissipated or dejected by sudden feare or amazement It would perhaps be accompted impertinent to make inquiry what Angell it was which was sent to comfort or strengthen the Sonne of God in that extremity of his Agony Yet many of the Ancients and of moderne Interpreters not a few are of opinion that it was the same Angel which did annunciate his birth and conception and that was the Angel Gabriel Who though perhaps hee did not take his name from his foreseene deputation to his function yet did hee never brook it better in any former acts of his ministery then in the performance of this present service His name imports as much as the strength of God and at this time hee strengtheneth the man CHRIST JESUS who then was and now is the Sonne of God as truely God as man Now if he who was the Sonne of God did receive strength or comfort from an Angel it is no paradox or soloecisme to say that hee learned obedience by the things which he suffered or that these present sufferings were unknowen to him as man untill he felt them For no reason can be to my apprehension conceived why hee who was the Sonne of God might not be capable of some growth in knowledge experimentall especially as well as in bodily quantity or strength of body Concerning the nature and quality of those sufferings wherein hee was strengthened or comforted by an Angel as whether they were naturall or supernaturall or if supernaturall whether they were the very paines of Hell or such as wee should have suffered without his satisfaction cannot be inferred either from the unusuall forme of his prayers uttered with strong cries or from his gesture in the garden 9. Some there be who take his bloody sweat in that grievous Agony to be a symptome of infernall paines But from what grounds either in Philosophy or Divinity I know nor If the paines of Hell or hellish paines so some distinguish be procured by the fire of Hell bee that materiall or immateriall bloody sweat can bee no probable effect of the one or other fire Nor is such sweat any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or demonstrative signe of paines more grievous than may bee inflicted by agents or suffered by patients meerely naturall For however in colder Countries bloody sweats bee as rare in mens bodies as showres of blood in the aire yet as a good Philosopher hath long agoe observed to sweat blood is not unusuall to Italians yet usuall onely as I take it to men of that Climate in some peculiar diseases The most remarkable instance which I have read of bloody sweat in a man not opprest with any disease is of a Captaine an Italian if I mistake not who being surprized by the subtilty of his Enemy whom hee had trusted too farre upon a tryste of Parly and thereby inforced either to yeeld up the Fort which he had stoutly maintained or otherwise to be presently hanged the consideration of this perplexity wherewith through his owne folly hee had intangled himselfe did make such deepe impression into his generous spirits that it squeez'd blood out of his veines Our Saviour no doubt as man had a more full apprehension of all the malicious disgraces and cruel indignities which his enemies could put upon him than this Captaine had The measure of his bodily sufferings and personall wrongs were in number farre more and for quality farre more grievous than ever were intended to this Captaine or to
little before his death My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The collections which many learned writers of the Romish Church have drawen from Calvins Comments upon these words are too plentifull to be here inserted and the imputations which they lay upon him and his followers unanswerable if he meant or spake as they expresse his meaning to wit that these words should argue a sensible experience of Hell paines or the worst symptomes of such paines as either despaire distraction of minde or discontent I should be very sory to reade them in Calvin or in any other writer of the reformed Churches very unwilling distinctly to call to memory some passages in late English Writers which to my remembrance incline too much this way All I can say in Calvins defense if hee peremptorily affirme that our Saviour did suffer the paines of Hell upon the Crosse is this If it be an heresie as the Romish Church doth make it and I cannot gainesay them if it bee stifly maintained the heresie was broached by a great and learned Romish Cardinall before Calvin wrote And when the Pope who is the pretended Judge of all heresies shall condemne his books for hereticall or his opinion in this particular for an heresie I shall be ready to perswade the Church of England as farre as I am able to doe the like The true importance of our Saviours exclamation or proclamation rather upon the Crosse for hee uttered it voce magna with a proclamatory voice will come to bee scanned in the next Treatise But if Satan either by his owne strength or by speciall permission from God the Father did tempt our Saviour upon the Crosse whether immediatly or mediatly by the malicious stratagems of the Jews and by the prophanesse of the Roman Souldiers so farre as to proclaime his owne despaire or diffidence of Gods favour towards him or to the least degree of impatience or discontent it would bee hard to make any construction of our Saviours prediction Ioh. 14.30 The Prince of this world commeth and hath nothing in me or as some have more fully exprest the Hebraisme nothing against mee As certainly he had no matter to work upon no occasion of solace either to himselfe or to his infernall associats as if they had moved him to the least degree of diffidence or impatience For our Saviour questionlesse was more then certaine by a more excellent certainty than the certainty of faith that he should be saved from the second death that he should never fall away from Gods favour nor be for a moment forsaken of him Otherwise he had been a lesse faithfull servant of God lesse mindfull of speciall revelations made to him as man then they are who beleeve their owne speciall election or predestination onely upon application of Gods generall promises to themselves in particular For besides the internall revelations made to him as man he had many publique assurances such as others besides himselfe did heare none of which hee did ever distrust or doubt much lesse could hee feare lest his Father should be so farre displeased with him as ever to forsake him Now his pains upon the Crosse were grievous and the indignities done unto him to flesh and blood intolerable yet his apprehension of celestiall joyes due unto him was never interrupted And out of this never interrupted apprehension or rather view of these joyes hee endured the Crosse and despised the shame as our Apostle tells us Hebr. 12.2 Not onely his apprehension of these but his most circumspect observance of all opportunities to doe his Fathers will and to see all the Scriptures concerning him fulfilled was neuer more conspicuously remarkable whilest hee was upon the Crosse than in his last conflict with death The fulfilling of the Prophecies concerning his sufferings requires a peculiar Treatise For his extraordinary circumspection about that very point of time wherein hee uttered these words Eli Eli lamasabacthani My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that is abundantly testified by S. Iohn who was an eare witnesse of his speeches Now there stood by the Crosse of Iesus his mother and his mothers sister Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene When Iesus therefore saw his mother and the Disciple standing by whom hee loved hee saith unto his mother Woman behold thy Sonne Then saith he to the Disciple Behold thy mother And from that houre that Disciple took her unto his owne home Joh. 19.25 26 27. CHAP. XIII The bloody Sacrifice of the Sonne of God was all sufficient to make full satisfaction for the sinnes of the world without his suffering of any supernaturall or unknowen paines 1 BUt however the former pretended conclusion concerning Christs suffering the paines of Hell or any of their symptomes cannot bee inferred either from his bloody sweat in the garden or from any speeches of his or any effect related by the Evangelists yet the favourers of this conclusion rather than they would give it over endeavour to prove it by reason drawen from the finall cause of all his sufferings The suffering of the paines of hell say they was necessarily required to the full satisfaction for all our sinnes which all good Christians confesse hee did beare both in his Agony and upon the Crosse But the very foundation of this assertion is very weak and the superstructive worse most derogatory to the infinite worth of Christs bloody Sacrifice First it is not required by the rules of equity whether Divine or humane that satisfaction for wrongs done should alwayes be made in kinde or by way of counterpassion It is in many cases more full and more sufficient when it is made by equivalencie than if it were made in kinde As in case a man in his rage should cruelly beate his neighbour or butcher his cattell to permit the party which suffered the wrong whether in his person or in his goods to exercise the like rage or cruelty upon his person or live-goods which did the wrong could be no true satisfaction either to the law or party wronged but rather beastly revenge The best satisfaction which in this case could be awarded to the party wronged would be to give him such contentment in one kinde or other as might in reason though not to passion be as beneficiall and usefull to him as the effects of his fury and rage which did the wrong were in just estimation hurtfull and yet such withall as should make the offender as unwilling to doe the like wrong againe as the party wronged or any in his case would be to suffer it This is the onely true satisfaction which in the same or like case could be justly made to the Law whose true intendment alwayes is to make all men willing to doe to others as they desire should bee done unto them unwilling to doe any thing to others which they would not have done unto themselves Our father Adam had wronged our common nature and all of us had offended
of men and by the death of the Crosse not by the immediate power of Satan That the conflict in the garden was extraordinary that in this houre the decretorie battle betwixt the old Serpent and the womans seed was to be fought at least the brunt of it the letter of the Scripture is to my apprehension very plaine As first from that speech of our Saviours after his Maundy Ioh. 15.13 Hereafter I will not talke much with you for the Prince of this world commeth with greater violence surely than at any time before had been permitted him to use For our Saviour uttered these words immediatly after Satan had entred into Iudas at which time his Commission to enter the lists with the holy seed of the woman was first to bee put in execution It hath alwayes seemed to me a mystery or secret whereof no reason can bee given in nature how Satan gaines greater power of doing mischiefes and harmes to men by secret compact with others of their owne nature as with Witches or other of his owne worshippers than is permitted him to use by his owne immediate power or strength Iudas though hee was no Witch yet was hee a worshipper of Satan one who had made Mammon his God for whose service he had resolved to betray his Master into the hands of his enemies It is pregnant againe frō that saying of our Saviour immediatly upon the cessation or intermission of his Agony and bloody sweat that Satans assaults were at this time extraordinary When I was dayly with you in the Temple you stretched out no hand against mee sed haec est hora vestra potestas tenebrarum But this is your houre and the houre appointed for the powers of darknesse to try their strength against mee But after they could get no advantage of him by grapling with him in the garden being not able to move him to the least signification of any impatience or overture of discontent as Satan had done Iob in his second temptation they leave him unto the malice of his mortall Enemies being assured they should get advantage enough over their soules and prevalently tempt them to cruelty and hatred towards this holy One more than naturall The houre of his terrible combat with Satan was but newly expiring when thus he spake to the chiefe Priests and Elders And howbeit this word houre sometimes imports more than an houre as wee say by the clock some larger indefinite time or season yet that in the forecited place it is to bee taken for a just houre and no more many circumstances of the Text perswade mee this especially when hee saith to his Disciples Could yee not watch with mee one houre As if he had said Of all the time that I have been with you this was the onely houre wherein your watchfulnesse and attendance on me had been on your parts most requisite and to me most acceptable And the effect of his petition as S. Mark expresseth it was thus that if it were possible the houre might passe from him This was the houre wherein hee tasted the bitter cup whose present bitternesse upon his prayer was if not altogether taken away yet asswaged and the houre it selfe wherein hee was to tast of it perhaps shortned 2. This conflict with Satan and the issue of it our Saviour apprehended at his triumphant ingresse into Jerusalem immediatly after his future glorification was avouched by a voice from heaven three dayes before hee entred into his Agony Now is my soule troubled and what shall I say Father save mee from this houre but for this cause came I unto this houre Father glorifie thy Name Then came there a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it againe c. Now is the judgement of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lift up from the earth will draw all men unto me Ioh. 12.27 28 c. In what sense or how farre the world at this time was judged exhibits plentifull matter of controverse Divinity not immediatly emergent from the positive points of Divinity now in hand And for this cause I must request the ingenuous Reader for the present to take a matter which before was proposed into deeper consideration The point is briefly this Our first Parents in the selfe same fact by which they became rebellious ipso jure committing high treason against their God and Creator did subject themselves and their posterity unto the tyrannicall dominion of Satan His vassailes and slaves all of vs were by right most soveraigne amongst the sonnes of men by right of conquest in Duel Now albeit the Conquerer was a Traytor and rebell against God although he did first commit or at least accomplish this his rebellion and treason by withdrawing our first Parents from that allegiance and obedience which by law of nature they and wee ought perpetually to have borne unto our Maker Yet so observant of all rules of equity and just forme of proceedings was he who is goodnesse equity and justice it selfe that unto Satan the professed Rebell against him and implacable Enemy towards man he did vouchsafe the benefit of the Law of Armes or Duel Now seeing Satan being not Omnipotent but of power force and subtilty limited had thus subdued our first Parents whom their Creator had endowed with freedome and power sufficient to dispose of their actions for the future good of themselves and their posterity his gracious goodnesse would not take us out of this Rebels hands by the Omnipotent power or irresistible force of his Godhead Man being conquered by his sometimes fellow creature was in the wisdome of Divine equity to bee rescued from this bondage by a Creature by a man of the same nature and substance subject to all the infirmities sinne excepted to which wee are subject as taking his substance from that man whom Satan had conquered As Satan did not appeare in his owne shape or likenesse when hee subdued our first Parents for so no question they would have been more wary to have closed with him but disguised in the similitude of a Serpent which was a creature more subtill than all the beasts of the field yet a creature every way farre inferiour to man So the Sonne of God did not enter this combat with Satan in the glory and strength of his Godhead but in his Godhead as it were disguised or clothed upon with the true nature and substance of man and of a man whom Satan upon triall before had knowen to be throughly subject to the infirmities of mortality Otherwise hee had more wit than to have entered the lists with him in the second conflict 3. How much dearer this conflict with Satan cost our Saviour than Iobs second temptation cost him hee onely knowes and this knowledge hee learned by patience and obedience in suffering these paines of what kind soever they were The ancient Greek Liturgies expresse them best by
kind are the proper fruits and necessary effects of Satans victory over sinners the finall wages of sinnes unrepented of or not actually expiated by the blood of our Redeemer In all other tribulations distresses or persecutions which are not the wages of sinne We are as our Apostle saith Rom. 8.35 37. more then Conquerers through him that loved us if so we endure them with patience But how more than Conquerers in these which are in themselves evill distastfull to our nature Therefore more than Conquerers because these afflictions suffered with patience doe testifie our conformity to the Sonne of God in his most grievous sufferings and the dissolution of the works of Satan in us doth seale unto our soules a full Acquitance from hell paines from which questionlesse our high Priest was free in that great Combat with Satan and his infernall powers Otherwise he had not been full Conquerer over hell and the second death which is no other than the paines of Hell or hellish torments Nor could the sufferings of such torments bee any part of the Sonne of Gods qualification for dissolving those works of Satan which cannot be dissolved but by the exercise of his everlasting Priesthood which was the last end or finall cause of his sufferings or consecration by afflictions CHAP. XV. Christs suffering of the unknowen paines or of paines greater than ever any of his Martyrs or others in this life have suffered requisite for his qualification as hee was to become the high Priest of our soules 1 THe Sonne of God was to suffer all the afflictions which wee in this world can suffer in a farre higher degree than we can suffer them to bee more strongly tempted by all the meanes by which wee are tempted unto sinne whether by feare of evill or by hope of things good and pleasant unto nature that hee might even to our apprehension bee a more faithfull and mercifull high Priest in things concerning God than ever any before him had been or can be But Satan we know tempteth no man in this life unto sinne either with the feare or sufferings of any evill or vexations whereof our mortality can have no experience Hee labours to withdraw no man from Gods service by giving them any taste or touch of the paines prepared for the damned in the life to come Such as are in the deepest bonds of thraldome to him would quickly abandon his service if hee should tender them such a true symbole or earnest of their everlasting wages or such a momentany taste of Hell paines as the Spirit of God in this life exhibiteth to some of his children of their everlasting joyes And it is questionable whether our nature whilest mortall bee capable of such paines or whether the first touch or reall impression of them would not dissolve the link or bond betweene mans mortall body and his immortall soule in a moment For as flesh and blood cannot inherite the Kingdome of God but this mortall must put on immortalitie ere we can bee partakers of celestiall joyes so it is probable that our corruptible bodies must bee made in another kinde incorruptible before they can bee the proper Subjects or receptacles of Hell paines But though no man in this life be tempted to ill or withdrawen from the service of God by sufferance of such paines yet in as much as many are oft times tempted to despaire of Gods mercies by the unknowne terrors of Hell or representations of infernall forces there is no question but the Sonne of God not in his Divine wisdome onely by which he knoweth all things but even as man had a more distinct view of all the forces and terrors of Hell more full experience of their active force and attempts than any man in this life can have to the end that he might bee a faithfull Comforter of all such unto the worlds end as shall bee affrighted or attempted with them If wee consider then onely the attempt assault or active force by which Satan seeketh to withdraw us from God unto his service not the issue or impression which his attempts makes upon us sinfull men there was no kinde of temptation whereto the Sonne of God was not subject whereto he did not submit himselfe for our sakes that hee might have full experience or perfect notice as man of all the dangers whereunto wee are obnoxious By that which was done against the greene tree hee knoweth what will become of the drie if it bee exposed to the like fiery triall It was requisite that this great Captaine of Gods warfare with Satan and of our salvation should have a perfect view of all the forces which fight against us that hee might bee a faithfull Solicitor to his Almighty Father for aid and succour unto all that are beset with them unto all that offer up strong cries unto him as hee in the dayes of his flesh did unto his Father and was saved from that which hee feared 2. The greatest comfort which any poore distressed mortall man can expect or which our nature is capable of in oppression and distresse must issue from this maine fountaine of our Saviours Agony and bloody sweat of his Crosse and Passion For whatsoever hee suffered in those two bitter dayes he suffered if not for this end alone yet for this especially that hee might bee an All-sufficient Comforter unto all such as mourne as having sometimes had more than a fellow feeling of all our infirmities and vexations as one who had tasted deeper of the cup of sorow and death it selfe then any man before him had done or to the worlds end shall doe It would bee a great comfort to such as have suffered shipwrack to have an Admirall a Dispenser of Almes unto Seafaring men who had sometimes suffered shipwrack or after shipwrack had been wronged by his neighbours or natives And so it would bee to a man eaten out of his estate by usury or vexations in Law to have a Judge or Chancellor who had been both wayes more grievously wronged a just or upright man whose heart would melt with the fellow-feeling of his calamities Experience of bodily paines or grievous diseases inclineth the Chirurgion or Physician to bee more compassionate to their Patients and more tender of their well-fare than otherwise they would be And for these reasons ever since I tooke them into consideration and as often as I resume the meditations of our Saviours death I have ever wondred and still doe wonder at the peevishnesse or rather patheticall prophanesse of some men who scoffe at those sacred passages in our Liturgie By thy Agony and bloody sweat by thy Crosse and Passion c. Good Lord deliver us as if they had more alliance with spells or formes of conjuring than with the spirit of prayer or true devotion Certainely they could never have fallen into such irreverent and uncharitable quarells with the Church our Mother unlesse they had first fallen out and that fouly with Pater
the Evangelists writing but will have the words cited by him to be the Prophet Ieremiahs owne words though no where extant in his own works which now we have Yet in some other works of his which no Christian living this day hath seene but of which S. Hierom had seen an Hebrew Copy as he himself relates but unto which it doth not appeare that he gave any credit it being imparted to him by one of the sect of the Nazarens The words of the pretended prophecy answer so punctually and identically to every apex or title of S. Matthews quotation or paraphrase upon the Prophet as we may more then suspect justly presume that passage which S. Hierom relates to have been squared on purpose to S. Matthews allegation after the publishing of this Gospel For such supposititious or bastard books were obtruded upon the Church before S. Hieroms or Origens dayes Amongst many Interpretations upon this 11. of Zachariah which Iunius in his parallels hath diligently recited he approves onely of one or two the one that Zachariah was binomius had two names Ieremiah and Zachariah a thing not unfrequent in sacred histories especially where their names whether they be two or more have but one signification or importance Now the etymologie of Ieremiah and Zachariah according to his Interpretation of them have the very same signification The other which after this Iunius likes best is that Zachariah had the Prophet Ieremiah for his Master or Instructer though not viva voce yet partaker of his spirit by tradition or undoubted relation of his propheticall predictions from such as had beene acquainted with Ieremiah during the time of Zedechiahs raigne or in the beginning of the Babylonish captivitie This good Writer was afraid lest Ieremiah should have lived too long if he had been acquainted with Zachariah upon his return from Babylon or about the building of the second Temple as some others before Iunius had avoucht whose opinion in the maine point he likes well of to wit that albeit the testimony alledged by S. Matthew be distinctly found in the Prophet Zachariah yet is ascribed by the Evangelist himself purposely to Ieremiah because Zachariah had learned it from Ieremiah as Daniel had done the end of the captivitie 4. For my part if I could be fully perswaded as I am not to the contrary that the reason why S. Matthew did purposely ascribe these words in the Prophet Zachariah unto Ieremiah was because the Prophet Zachariah had Ieremiah in this and many other Prophecies for his Instructer or guide I should think it no soloecisme to say that Zachariah had been acquainted with Ieremiah himself either about the beginning of the Babylonish Captivitie or that Ieremiah had lived untill this peoples returne to Jerusalem and to the Inheritance and possessions of their forefathers For that divers of that generation wherein Ieremiah prophecied and whilest the first Temple was standing did live so long as Iunius thinks it improbable Ieremiah should live is cleare from that of Ezra 3.12 Many of the Priests and the Levites and chief of the Fathers who were ancient men who had seen the first house when the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy Howbeit I am not of opinion that men in those dayes did by strength of nature make up so many yeares here on earth as this history implyes these many Priests and Levites did but rather that God by his speciall providence and goodnesse did at this time reiterate or renew that Covenant of life which once he made to Phinehas and Eleazar And Ieremiah and Baruch the sonne of Neriah had this speciall priviledge bestowed upon them that their lives should be given unto them for a prey in all places whither soever they went Againe it is very probable seeing Ieremiah during the time of his imprisonment did by the appointment of the Lord buy the field of Hananeel his uncles sonne and cause the Evidences subscribed to be put up by Earuch in an earthen vessell that they might continue many dayes that hee expected to see the returne of this people from captivity unto the possessions of their Fathers that hee himself did hope to enjoy the benefit of this his bargaine which hee made in a strange time as worldlings would think But so hee made it for the confirmation of this peoples faith in Gods promises that fields and possessions which then lay desolate should be repossest by this people and their posterity and Inheritances should bee sold and alienated to the next of kinred as this of Hananeels was to Ieremiah according to the Law 5. Maldonat in his Comments upon St. Matthew is very free and not afraid as Iunius and other good Writers are to admit of a misnomer neither occasioned by the Evangelists forgetfulnesse nor from mistake of letters or abbreviatures by the Transcribers but rather by a voluntary intersertion of the Prophet Ieremiah his name by some bold Transcriber or Interpreter when as the Evangelist had onely said The Prophet as his usuall maner is without any intimation what Prophet it was leaving that wholly to the diligent Readers search or observation For so he doth in that remarkable Prophecie Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne c. hee saith no more then all this was foretold by the Prophet without any mention or intimation of Isaiahs name nor doth hee name the Prophet Hosea when hee records the fulfilling of his Prophecie Out of Egypt have I called my Sonne Matt. 2.15 And in verse 23. of the same Chapter hee shall bee called a NAZARENE Hee giving the reason why Ioseph by the disposition of the Divine providence did divert his intended returne unto Bethleem where Christ was born and took up his dwelling in Nazareth saith this was done that it might bee fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets not so much as intimating the name of any one Prophet by whom this was foretold And if the curious Reader would observe his allegations of Propheticall testimonies throughout his whole Gospel he shall find the Prophets name whose testimony hee most faithfully records concealed or omitted three times as often as it is exprest And in those few places wherein the Prophets name whose authority hee alledgeth is exprest it may without any danger bee questioned whether they were so exprest or interserted by Interpreters or Transcribers For the addition of names or change of some vowels doth no way vitiate the divine truth of Prophecie though the custome of later Interpreters or Translators bee farre more commendable to expresse the Prophets name or the Chapter and verse to which the Evangelical story referres in the margin not in the body of the Text However the misnomers of persons or places inserted to the body of the discourse doth no way corrupt the true sense and meaning either of historicall or Propheticall truth the errour is imputable onely to the Transcriber or Interpreter
exclamation Whether he first said I am a thirst and then cried out with a loud voice My God My God why hast thou forsaken mee Or first cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee and then said I am athirst I will not dispute because I cannot determine The later of the two seemeth to mee more probable However neither his speech nor exclamation intimate any touch of impatience much lesse of despaire but onely a desire to give the world notice that this 22. Psalme was specially meant of him and that all which was meant of him concerning his humiliation or indignities done unto him upon the Crosse were now fulfilled and that there remained one or two sayings of the same or some other Psalmist to bee fulfilled before his death especially by receiving the vinegar For when hee had received it saith S Iohn he said Consummatum est It is finished as if he had said Now my sufferings and indignities are at an end Yet besides the bodily thirst wherewith hee was at the ninth houre more deepely touched then with hunger in the wildernesse there was a thirsty desire of his soule to be dissolved from the body and to be with his Father And in this his last extremity that other complaint of David was most exactly fulfilled I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soule thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land Heare mee speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that goe downe into the pit I remember the dayes of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on all the works of thy hands Psalm 143.6 7. David was delivered from the pit which he feared but our Saviour was speedily heard for that he prayed which was that his body might goe unto the grave and his soule and spirit unto his Father And albeit S. Iohn instructeth us that after he had received the vinegar and said It is finished he gave up the Ghost Yet S. Matthew and S. Mark tell us that hee cried againe with a loud voice and so gave up the Ghost The articulation of this loud voice or cry is registred onely by S. Luke 23.46 And when Iesus had cried with a loud voice hee said Father into thine hands I commend my spirit And having said thus hee gave up the Ghost And in this cry or speech another Scripture or prayer of David was exactly fulfilled Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength Into thine hands I commend my Spirit Psalm 31.4 5. But how was this fulfilled in him Surely as the Prophet or the Holy Ghost by whom hee spake did meane it How then was it meant of him Not meerely Prophetically but typically of the Psalmist and more really and punctually of him The Psalmist in his owne person or as acting his owne part did commend his Spirit to God his Redeemer in hope to be redeemed from death or danger of body intended against him The Redeemer of Mankind using the same words desired bodily death or dissolution of body and soule commending his soule or spirit by a dying wish into his Fathers hands 9. The 143. Psalme as the inscription of the Septuagint informeth us was composed by David when his Sonne Absalom with his complices did pursue him and the sixth verse I stretch out my hands c. is signed with a Selah a note or character as I take it not of musick onely but of some greater mystery to be fulfilled The mysterie in this particular was this that as David after hee had in his owne person prayed for deliverance and was heard so was the Sonne of David instantly after hee had received the vinegar delivered from the torments of death or bodily paines When Iesus therefore had received the vinegar saith S. Iohn hee said It is finished and hee bowed his head and gave up the Ghost 19.30 If we consider either the 143. Psalme or the 31. as literally meant of David there is no intimation of any distraction of mind in him much lesse was there any inclination to any distraction discontent or distrust in JESUS the Sonne of GOD in whom whatsoever was commendably acted by David in his distresse was most punctually and exquisitely fulfilled of this our blessed Saviour in all his sufferings His memory was most fresh and his patience most remarkable when his mortall spirits were expiring 10. That ejaculation Psalm 31.6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit was saith Maldonat meant of Christ in another sense then it was of David rather fulfilled of Christ in a more exquisite sense then it had been verified of David David according to the literall and historicall sense being in distresse commends the tuition or safety of his soule unto God directing his prayer for speedy deliverance from that bodily danger wherewith hee was beset unto Adonai Iehova unto the Lord of truth or the Lord God his Redeemer Pull mee out of the net that they have laid privily for mee for thou art my strength c. Thou hast redeemed me O Lord of truth Psal 31.4 5. The Lord God Redeemer of mankind directs his prayer unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit after hee had suffered all the disgraces paines and tortures whereof any mortall body was ever capable This delivery or surrender of his life and soule vivâ voce at the very moment or point of death into his Fathers hands did move the heathen Centurion to say Of a truth this man was the Son of God Mar. 15.39 When the Centurion saith S. Luke saw what was done he glorified God saying Certainely this was a righteous man Luk. 23.47 This is in effect the very same which S. Mark saith For in that the Centurion did acknowledge him for a righteous man he did necessarily in his heart acknowledge him to bee the Sonne of God because hee had so profest of himself That righteousnesse which the Centurion ascribeth unto him was the truth of his confession before Pilat when hee was examined upon this interrogatory Art thou then the Sonne of God now more fully proved and declared unto the world by the strange maner of his death 11. The confession of this heathen man was more Christian then the questions which some Schoolemen have moved upon the delivery of his soule vivâ voce into his Fathers hands For so some have questioned whether he were homicida sui or made away himself by actuall dissolution of his soule from his body before the violence and cruelty of the tortures whereto his Enemies put him could by course of nature work this divorce Surely if hee did any way prevent the death intended against him by the Jews or shortned his owne naturall life though but for a moment they had not been so true and proper murderers of him as the Apostle intimateth and we Christians beleeve they were For albeit Abimelech had received a deadly incurable wound by the
hands of a woman yet hee died by the hands of his Page or Armour-bearer And a certaine woman cast a piece of a milstone upon Abimelechs head and all to brake his scull Then hee called hastily unto the young man his Armour-bearer and said unto him Draw out thy sword and slay mee that men say not of me A woman slew him And his young man thrust him through and hee died Judg. 9.53 54. But as some Schoolemen have in the disquisition of this point gone too farre so others have acutely resolved the difficulty and elegantly reconciled the difference in opinions Mors Christi non fuit verè miraculosa erat tamen miraculum in morte Christi Christ did no way make away himself or die by miracle but by course of nature Yet was it a true miracle that his life and spirits being so farre spent he should have speech and memory so perfect as to make delivery of his soule into his Fathers hands viva voce at the very moment of his expiration The Jews and Romans did truely and properly take away his life and yet hee did as truely and properly animam ponere lay downe his life for his sheepe in that hee patiently submitted himself to their tyrannicall cruelty and more sweetly and placidly resigned up his soule into his Fathers hands at the instant of death by course of nature or perhaps a little after it than a sheepe doth his fleece unto the shearer or his owner In this resignation or bequeathing of his soule thus placidly into his Fathers hands in his inimitable patience in all his sufferings whether of torture or indignities there was a most exact concurrence or coincidence rather of all former sacrifices and obedience more then the quintessence of those sacrifices wherewith God was alwayes best pleased that is the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and broken heart not humbled but humbling it self unto death The most ful and proper satisfactory sacrifice that could be required by God or desired by man a sacrifice so compleat as no wisedome besides wisedome truely infinite could have conceived no person besides the person of him that was truly God could have offered or performed CHAP. XXX That the Sonne of God should be offered up in bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the intended death of Isaac 1 THat the Sonne of God should be thus offered as a true and proper bloody sacrifice was concludently prefigured by the sacrifice of Isaac intended by his father Abraham That the Crosse whereon he offered himselfe should be the very Altar of Altars the body which the legal Altars did foreshadow and that this Crosse should be erected without the gate of Jerusalem was foreshadowed by other matters of fact recorded by Moses To begin with the first type to wit Isaac The place appointed by God himself for the sacrifice of Isaac was either the Mount whereon the Temple stood or some Mount neer unto it if not Calvary it self And when Abraham came neere to the foot of the Mount which of the Mountains of Moriah soever it were he laid the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac his sonne Isaac then bare his crosse unwittingly and was afterwards willing by gentle perswasions to die upon the wood which he bare For if he had detested or abhorred the fact intended upon him hee was of years and strength sufficient to have resisted his father he being at least twenty five years of age and Abraham one hundred twenty five Now our Saviour as the Evangelists record went forth bearing his crosse unto a place called in Hebrew Golgotha either a place where the sculs of dead men were laid or rather for the forme or fashion of it like a scull But here some curious Inquisitor or one disposed to examine or scann the relations of the Evangelists as Lawyers doe later evidences by more ancient deeds would interpose this or the like exception Non concordat cum originali For our Saviour CHRIST as the Evangelists record was really sacrificed actually crucified and put to death but so was not Isaac as Moses tels us But all this will inferr no more then all good Christians must of necessity grant to wit that the Evangelicall records are more than meer exemplifications of Moses For that which was verified or truly foreshadowed in Abrahams readinesse to sacrifice his onely sonne and in his sons willingnesse to be sacrificed by him was to be really and exactly fulfilled of God the Father who had bound himself by promise to give his onely sonne unto Mankinde and in the willingnesse of this his onely sonne JESUS CHRIST to be offered up in sacrifice for the sinnes of the world Our Apostle is not afraid to say that Abraham by faith offered up his onely sonne that very man upon whose life or death the fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham and his seed did depend accounting or being resolved that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure Heb. 11.17 18. Isaac then was a true figure both of Christs death and resurrection And Abraham first in stretching forth his hands to slay his onely sonne and secondly in being prohibited by God from accomplishing his resolution did accurately foreshadow those fundamentall truths which wee Christians beleeve concerning the true and bodily death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Abraham by benigne Interpretation of the minde or resolution for the very fact or deed did both sacrifice his onely son and receive him from the dead 2. But was there no more then a tentation or tryall of Abrahams faith in that story of Moses Gen. 22 If no more then so the tempting or tryall it self might seem superfluous For God who knoweth all things aswell possible as determinate or future did most infallibly know what Abraham would do upon his command what hee would leave undone upon expresse prohibition This onely concludeth that the omnipotent and all-seeing Father of power did not stand in need of the determination of Abrahams will either to foresee or determine that which upon this actuall obedience of Abraham he did first binde himself by oath to performe That which long before he had decreed ad extra and in his generall expression of his mercy and loving kindnesse he had promised to doe We had his promise before Mankinde was actually propagated or multiplyed upon the earth that the womans seed should bruise the old Serpents head which had seduced her The like comfortable words were at sundry times interposed by God himself to Noah and Abraham 3. But upon this present fact of Abraham the same Lord interposeth his oath and it was the first oath which we reade that God did make for the fulfilling of the generall promise in one of Abrahams seed Because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thine onely sonne by my self have I sworne that in thy seed all the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed But did not
the conflict betwixt the Serpent and the womans seed continued As it is the property of some biting Serpents to make way or entrance by their venemous teeth for the infusion of more deadly poison from some other parts of their body so this generation of Vipers which persecuted the Sonne of God used the civill power of Pilat and the Roman souldiers to open his veines and lance his flesh that their tongues might instill the poison of Aspes into his glorious stripes and bleeding wounds But with the bitter taunts and indignities offered unto him even whilest he was upon the Crosse I am not to meddle in particular they have proper seasons allotted for their memoriall It sufficeth therefore to observe that the obedience and patience of the Sonne of God in these most grievous sufferings were so absolute that wee must borrow the patience of Iob not in the second temptation by bodily grievance but in his first temptation by losse of goods or worldly substance for a scale to set it forth In all his sufferings in all that his enemies tongues or hands could doe or say unto him this servant of God did not sinne so much as in word but offered the sacrifice of prayers and supplications with the sacrifice of his soule and spirit for his persecutors 3. Yet admit Iobs patience in his bodily afflictions had been more perfect than in the first temptation it was for losse of bodily goods and his obedience most compleat both without mixture of impatiencie without staine of disobedience the full measure of both had not been equivalent to the least scantling of the obedience or patience of the Sonne of God made man for those acts though otherwise equall are alwayes best which are done ex officio Prayers or solemn services officiated by a Priest and justice awarded by a Magistrate are more acceptable unto God and more beneficiall unto men than if the same Act or Offices were more accurately performed by private men without a calling Now Iob and other holy men became pro modulo in some sort the servants of God by obedience It was the greater measure of their obedience which made their service more acceptable But the obedience of the Sonne of God made man did result or issue from the forme of a servant which hee voluntarily and on purpose tooke upon him that hee might in it and by it performe obedience more than sufficient for dissolving the force and strength of that disobedience and rebellion which the Devill had wrought in the Father of mankinde which with its curse became hereditary to his sinfull posterity The first Adam was created in the image of God not in respect of holinesse onely but in respect of soveraignty and dominion The second Adam though he were the Son of God was molded in the forme of a servant even from his first conception For as the Apostle saith he who was in the forme of God did empty or annull himselfe taking upon him the forme of a servant This was the terminus ad quem the intrinsecall terme of the Sonne of Gods first humiliation for as was said before the Sonne of God did not humble or empty himselfe onely in his manhood or according to his manhood after it was assumed but in the very assumption of the manhood thus moulded in the forme of a servant His humility as man was the humility of a servant it was not affected but a native branch of his present calling His obedience was not forced by constraint or feare it was more than a branch the very essence of his calling For he tooke upon him the forme of a servant it was not put upon him against his will as it was upon Iob. Nor was his obedience as man more excellent than any other mans had been in respect of its root or originall onely as being the formall effect of his calling that is of the forme of a servant which he tooke upon him but most compleat in respect of the end or finall effect For having annulled himself by taking upon him the forme of a servant hee further humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even to the death of the Crosse Other servants may with their earthly Masters consent be set free and supreme authority may in some cases command their Masters to set them free But the forme of a servant was so closely united or wedded unto the Sonne of God manifested in the flesh that it could not bee cut off or divorced from him save onely by death and by the death of the Crosse which was a servile death and the accomplishment of his service But in what peculiar acts was the obedience or exercise of the forme of a servant which the Sonne of God tooke upon him most conspicuous or more remarkable than they have been in other men 4. It is a great deale more usuall to our Saviour than to any Prophet to any sacred Writer or other Messenger of Gods will to tell his hearers that hee came not of himselfe but was sent that being sent he came not to doe his owne will but the will of him that sent him that hee spake nothing of himselfe but as his Father had appointed him so he spake and so he did What was the reason that hee that spake as never man spake and did those works which none besides could doe should so often use these or like speeches to his Auditors Sure his speeches unto this purpose are neither apologeticall nor preventive as if his authority had been more questionable or his practices more suspitious than the authority and practices of the Prophets and other holy men had been And what was it then that gave occasion to this peculiar forme of speech or made the use of it so familiar and frequent All his speeches to this purpose are but the characters or expressions of the forme of a servant which hee tooke upon him His whole course of life his undertakings and encounters with this stubborne people or with Satan and his instruments might have testified to any considerate unpartiall man that no man being left free to himselfe would have adventured upon them out of the deliberate choise of an humane or reasonable will Specially his last sufferings were such as no wise man how godly soever would have undergone unlesse they had been put upon him by authority supreme and irresistable We may further observe how the forme of a man and the forme of a servant which had layed quiet for three and thirty yeares without any Crisis of their difference did upon the approach of his death and passion begin to struggle but without all strife or hostile dissention as Esau and Iacob towards the time of their birth had done in their mothers wombe Even in the height of that triumphant and more than royall entertainment which the multitude made him at his entrance into Jerusalem as if hee had then come to take possession of the Crowne of his father David even whilest his