so springeth from God that he abydeth still in God For Goddes nature admytteth no diuision And the word was God As the sentence beefore sheweth a difference betwene God the father and the sonne in their persons so thys teacheth an vnitie in substance For sith there is but one God the sonne beeyng God as S. Iohn clearely techeth that we myghte bee sure of the sonnes diuinite he must nedes be of the same substance that the father is of Els ether there should be sondri gods or the sōne shoulde not be naturally God But the wordes that goe beefore and these wordes and the words that folow which assigne to the sonne the makyng of all thinges proue that he is naturally God For what is eternall and without beginning but god what was wyth god beefore the world was made that was not god how coulde Iohn speakynge of the nature of a thing that was in the beginning affirme it to be god onles it were god For what substance could there be before any thing was made that was nether gods substance nor a creature For what so is not a creature and yet hath a being is surely god And whereby were all thynges made but by god For Esaie teacheth that god vsed no minister in makyng the worlde whan he saieth I alone extended the heauens by my selfe But he made all thinges by hys sonne therefore his sonne muste be hymselfe that is to saye of the same substance essence and being And that there can not be two gods we haue alreadi proued by gods propretes and all the scripture cōstantly affirmeth the same But it is most vehemently taughte in these wordes of Esaie is there a God besyde me Before me there was no god framed nor shal be after me The sonne than beyng naturally god must nedes be of the sāe substāce and essence that the father is of and so though the father be naturally God the sonne naturally God c. yet there bee not three Goddes but one God because the substance of those three is one These wordes also the worde was God choke another heresie in my opinion more subtile than the heresie of Arrius For Paulus Samosatenus and his scolars graūte that the worde was euer with God but by the worde they vnderstand not a substance a subsisting essence but only gods purpose which he had eternally to make the world and to make him a sonne out of the virgin Mary that shoulde bee a most excellent man and the saueoure of the worlde But how can a hare purpose to doe thinges bee called God whan it hath no subsisting and abiding nature Forther these wretches see not that by their strange and worse than Platonical imagination thei make trees and stones and wormes equall to Goddes sonne in eternite For they were euer in gods purpose And yet I thinke they wil sticke to call them gods But though thys sentence of S. Iohn be sufficient to holde their noses to the grinde stone yet take that with you also that is written in the .17 chap. of this worke glorifie me father with the glori which I had before the worlde was with thee What glorie coulde an onely purpose without substāce haue before the world was with God Yea how could he be before the world if he were in Gods purpose only For so was the worlde euer with God How could he reioyce before him whan nothing was yet made as Salomon teacheth if he were than but in hys purpose Nether could this be truly sayed before Abrahā was I am if he wer in the beginning but onely in Goddes purpose for so was Abrahā euer in gods purpose For God beginneth not newe counsels and purposes But his purposes are eternal altogether he nedeth not time to deuise purpose one thing after another which is mans weaknesse For he seeth all that he wil dooe at once with one sight whiche if we coulde doe we would not take one counsell after another But oure weaknesse compelleth vs so to doe whiche is farre from God and therefore all his purposes be in him together at once But sith his sonne was in him before Abraham it muste nedes be that he was otherwise in him than in purpose And in dede he that is euer in substāce and beeinge maye well be saied to bee before him that was onely euer in purpose and not in substance and verie beeing Thus thys heresye also laieth flatte vpon the grounde with out life or breathing This was in the beginninge with GOD. The Grekes haue a prouerbe that the thing that is faire and goodly maye bee repeted once or twise Saincte Iohn repeteth the verye thinge that he spake before And thys he dooeth not superfluouslie but vpon greate purpose For he will depelie printe in to vs that GODDES woorde is eternall withoute beginninge and no creature As if he would say thinke not that this fell from me inconsideratly whan I saied the worde was in the beginninge and saied not that it was made For that you may be assured for euer of my meaning and of the trueth of the matter I saye to you againe that the worde was in the beginning and had his beyng before any thing was made That the word I say was eternallye with God and is no creature For it was euer with God and had euer his beeing This is the diligence of our holy writers that whan a thing is of great weight and importance thei will beate it in twise that it maye sticke the faster Althinges he hath shewed vs the substance essence and being of the lorde Iesus nowe he teacheth vs to know hī by his workes For he sayth that al thinges ware made by him And if all things wer made by him thā he must nedes be god For God himself saieth in the .44 of Esay I am Iehoua the maker of al thinges I only extende the heauens and stretche forth the earth by my self But the Prophete Dauid saieth that the heauēs wer made and stablished by Goddes worde and this place testifieth that all thynges were made by it so Goddes worde must nedes be God forasmuche as God made al thinges alone by himselfe and yet by his worde Here we must beware of sondrye corrupters of the scripture For some peuishly and dronkenlye affirme that S. Iohn speaketh of God the father when he saith that al thinges were made by him beecause the Greke pronowne is indifferent to be interpreted by it or by hī the word logos being the masculine gēder But how werishe a thing were this howe farre beside the purpose if going about to teache what we shold thinke of gods sonne and of his nature he should write thus Goddes sōne was in the beginning with God and was God he was in the beginning with God and all thinges were made by him that is to saye by God the father what were this to his purpose which is to shewe vs what Goddes sōne is if he should tell vs that God the father
now greately blemished darckned yet the sparckes remaininge suffice to shew so much vnto vs of goddes sōne as maie iustly cōdēne vs of wilful ignorāce The beames of his glorie euer shined in dede yet do shine euerie where to the sight of al mē mā was so first made by him as he might perfectly see thē But he fondly folowinge Satās aduise wold see more thā was cōueniēt so lost the sight that he had or at the lest so blurred marred it that where before his eyes perced in to the glorie of Goddes maiestie cold wel abide the brightnes there of now thei be so blūt that thei can not entre so weake that thei ar streight waie daseld and blinded with so great glisteringe light Yet it hath pleased God to helpe this weaknes other waies thā by the sight of his wondreful worckes but most cheifely clearely perfectly by clothinge his sonne with mānes nature which thinge our Euāgeliste teacheth with like compēdiousnes shortnes of wordes saiynge the worde became flesh The heathē sette forth the meruailous conninge of Vergil in cōpēdious shorte speakinge whan he saide that Aeneas passed by the fildes where Troie was For with one worde saie thei he swalowed vp so manie houses tēples towers huge buildinges walles and left not so much as the ruines rubbish But if we wel cōsidre the matter we shal se that our Euangeliste hath comprehēded more thīges makīge to the purpose with as few wordes For by these few wordes the worde became flesh he teacheth that Goddes natural sonne so ioigned vnto him mānes nature that of two natures one person was made which thīge cold not haue ben vttered with other wordes so shortely so pithely to the purpose For if he had saied that Goddes sonne ioigned vnto him mānes nature it had ben truly spokē in dede but it had not so wel expressed the vnitee of person For an husbande ioigneth vnto him a wife yet thei grow not in to one person after such sorte as the soule the bodie make one person in a man For the soule is not one person the bodie another person but they both make one person namely a man But an husbāde not witstandinge his ioigninge of a wife vnto him remaineth one person the wife another person they be two persons not one Therefore the worde ioigninge shuld not haue so fully expressed the matter For this ioigninge is a special singular ioignīge For Goddes nature is so ioigned to mānes that one persō is made of bothe namely one Christ as of the bodie and the soule one mā is made And this is verie necessarie for vs to know For if we imagine the lordes māhod a nature a parte his Godhead a nature a parte with out such a singular cōiunction vnion that of both natures one person is made as the haeretike Nestorius did thā the lorde Iesus cold not be a mete mediator betwē God vs nor make a sufficiēt satisfaction redemption for the sinnes of the worlde For a mediator betwene God mā must be partaker of both natures And a sufficiēt redemer of al the worlde he can not be that is a mā only For how cā a mā satisfie the infinite iustice of God ouercōme Satā hel death and giue life Therefore the holie scripture teacheth that the lorde Iesus was not theophoros as Nestorius dreamed a mā in whō god was whom Gud assisted with whom God was presēt for God is also in vs but in him the godhead was so knitte vnited to his māhod as those twaine made one person And so it is wel truly saide that God purchased his cōgregation with his blood and that the lorde of glorie that is to saie God was crucified not that he suffred in his diuine nature but bycause those two natures ioigned vnspeakably together make one persō therefore that the one nature did and suffred is attributed to thother some times to bothe together that pertaīeth to one only Which colde not be if thei were two sondrie persons As if the soule were a person alone by it selfe the bodie a person alone by it selfe the soule shuld not so be saide to do or suffre that the bodie did ot suffred nor the bodie that the soule did de or suffred nor the hole man that one parte only did or suffred which thinges yet we now admitte bicause of the vnitee of the person We must know than this vnitee of person in the lorde Iesus God man which the Euāgelist meruailously teacheth in these wordes But where he saieth the worde became flesh he meaneth that the worde abode stil though it became flesh that the worde I saie was not chaūged turned altered from his awn nature in to flesh For some auoidinge Nestorius haeresie who made two persons in Christ fled the smoke rāne ī to the fier For ether thei turned the diuine nature in to mannes nature or mānes nature in to the diuine or so confused and mēgled the two natures together that nether nature remained perfectly as whan wine water ar mēgled to gether there remaineth nether perfectte wine nor perfectte water In our time also some Anabaptistes haue taught that the diuine nature was turned in to flesh for a time became felcable and that now the lordes flesh is turned in to his diuine nature againe and is no more flesh Which dreame is to to sonde For it implieth a plaine impossibilitee For it is as impossible for goddes nature to be altered chaunged as it is impossible for it to cease to be Goddes nature For what so euer maie be altered and chaunged hath an imperfection in it is subiecte to passiōs But Goddes nature hath no imperfectiō nor is subiecte to passiōs for that were not to be God so his nature cā not be chaūged We must therefore so cōfesse beleue the ioigninge to gether vnitinge of two natures in Christ that we mēgle thē not together nor turne th one in to the other but that eche remaine stil in his awne propre nature The Godhead is not the māhod nor the māhod the Godhead The Godhead is a nature by it selfe the māhod a nature by it selfe of those two natures ona Christ consisteth This vnitinge together of two natures Cyrille laboureth to teach weake vnderstādinges by a similitude though similitudes in this behalfe haue some imperfection These be his wordes Esaie the prophete saieth one of the Seraphins was sent vnto me he had a coale in his hande which he toke from the altar he saide beholde I haue touched thy lippes with this it shal purge thine iniquitee We saye that the fiere coale giuēth vnto vs a figure and image of the worde made mā Which if it shal touch our lippes that is to saie if thorough faith we shal cōfesse it it maketh vs pure from al sinne
⧠AN EXPOSITION OF A PARTE OF S. Iohannes Gospel made in sondrie readinges in the English Congregation by Bartho Traheron and now published against the wicked entreprises of new sterte vp Arrians in Englande He that beleueth in me beleueth not in me but in him that sent me And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me Iohan. 12. ¶ Imprinted Anno. 1557. ✚ TO MY MOST DERE SISTER ELISABETH P. THINCKE not to much good sister what you haue had but considre what you haue remembre not what you haue ben some tymes in the worldes eies but what you be now in goddes eyes Lamente not that you lost but ioie in that you haue founde Whan you were high you were surely low now that you ar low you ar surely high Let this sincke in to your minde that if wordlye thinges had not ben taken from you you shuld shortely haue bē taken from them and perchaunce if they had not ben so drouned they wold haue drouned you before death had remoued you from them If no aduersite had assailed you you had ben a ded sea and the patiēce other singular vertues which now shine in you had ben quenched ether in your selfe vtterly or touchynge the knowlege of anie other vnfrutefully And therefore Seneca truly saide that that person is verye miserable who neuer felt anie miserie The world ment to impouerishe you but God hath enryched you The world wold depresse you but God hath aduaūced you The world thought to ouerwhelme you with heauines but God hath filled you with tru ioies The world labored to staine you with infamie but God hath made your name both cleare and pure and also to sende forth a pleasant odor amonge his saītes You haue not thā lost somuch as you haue founde Only beware for the tyme to cūme for more remaineth to be laied vpon you for a farther trial Yea I know that Circe the sorceresse hath al readie wil more here after allure you with hir enchaunted cuppe But let not the swetenes of the cuppes lippes and the pleasantnes of the poison begile you Rather chose to drinke the lordes cuppe which though it haue a bitter tast in the first draught yet in the ende purging corrupte and noisome humors it maketh a pure and cleane bodie You know that as goddes goodnes hath made you my natural sister so his wrath hath giuen to vs both and to the rest of our brethern and sistern an vnnatural stepmother How vnmercifully and cruelly she hath delt with vs and how sharpely she hath whipt vs you can remembre and if she beginne now to smile vpon you she meaneth the more mischeife Take hede good sister a stepmother wil euer be a stepmother Giue yourselfe ernestly to readinge of the holie scriptures Holde fast the doctryne that our holye brother and eldest saue one religiously mainteined whom our stepdame laboreth to deface I trust in vaine Flie aswel al idolatrical as al Anabaptistical straūge opinions To which ende I haue dedicated this my litle trauaile vnto you as to my derest sister whom I most desire to be preserued pure and spotles in euerye parte I am not ignorāt that the better you shal be sincerer in treu religiō the more you shal anger our stepdames testie harte and the les fauor you shal finde in your iust requestes But I haue more regarde to the welth of your soule thā to the welth of your bodye And therefore I haue sent you this preseruatiue which our stepdame if she were as she can pretende shuld take in good parte But so that she maye liue in hir babilonical whoredome and droncken lustes and swille in the wine of Aegyptes errors I perceaue she passeth not much how other thinges goe Lift you vp your mindes eyes and beholde the glorious face of the lorde Iesus while our stepmothers eyes ar daseld with the glisteringe vaine glorie of the world toteth al daye in the deceaueable painted face of a monstruous man triple in head and double in herte O that she might be made better but see that you in the meane while be nor made worsse by hyr Let the frute of my worste parte that is with you see the frute of my better parte Commende me to him whom lawes permitte you to love to whō god graūte in heauen that he seketh in erth The lorde Iesus guide you euer with his holie spirite my entierly biloued Your Bro. Bartho Traheron THE FIRST READING I HAVE chosen this parte of the holie scripture wherein to trauail with you at this time bicause thorough goddes great wrath against sinne and the most despiteful malice of Satan against the truth the olde hainous heresie of the vngodlie Arrians is renued in our coūtree and as it were raised vp againe from hel These cankerd old Arrians that you maie undrestāde their heresie spake blasphemously of the godhead of our Lorde Iesus For the first autor of it Arrius vttered erroniously vngodly in the scoles of Alexandria in Aegypte that there was a time whā goddes sonne was not By which wordes he ment that he was not of the same beinge and substāce that the father is of nor of the fame aeternitie and so not the natural sonne of God and verie God in dede but an excellent creature of God whereby God made al thinges as by ā instrumēt as he him selfe opened in farther declaration of his mīde For he graūted that the Lorde Iesus was the first and cheifest creature the beginninge of al other creatures and gaue him also the name of God Howbeit he thought not that he had his Godhed by nature but by borowinge For trial of this matter the most noble and godlie Emperor Constātine the great called a general concile at Nice of thre hundred and eightene bishoppes of whom manie for singular lerninge and eloquence manie for great holines of life were compted worthie of euerlastinge remēbrance In this famous cōcile it was cōcluded out of the holie scriptures that goddes sonne is of the same aeternitee of the same substance essence beinge that God the father is goddes natural sonne and coaequal with the father as it appeareth in the Crede communely called the Nicene Crede Whereunto the hole assemble agreed and subscribed sauinge these fiue Eusebius bishoppe of Nicomedia Theognis bishoppe of Nice Maris bishoppe of Calchedon Theognis bishoppe of Marmarike and Secundus bishoppe of Ptolemais Which fiue bishoppes for their vngodlines by the emperors commaundement were banished out of their coūtrees But sone after their exile Eusebius and Theognis repented that thei had don so vnaduisedly and sent a boke of repentance to the godlie bishoppes wherin they vsed these wordes We haue agreed to the faith and after we had made inquisition of the meaninge of this worde cōsubstantial we were throughly quieted And in dede we claue not to the haeresie yea we subscribed to the faith but we subscribed not to the excommunication Not that we reproue the faith but we
and inestimable beautie Assuredly this can neuer be thought vpō this can neuer be wondred at inough ¶ AS RECEAVED They receaue him that acknowlege him to be Goddes son and that he became man in mannes nature died for the purgation and satisfaction of their sinnes breifely to receaue here signifieth to beleue as S. Iohan maketh the exposition him selfe in the wordes folowinge HE GAVE them power The idols men wringe this place to the maintenāce of free wil. For they vnderstande that choise hereby is giuen vs to be the children of God if we wil or to refuse the same But S. Iohan declareth forthwith in the wordes folowinge that Goddes children are not made by the wil of the flesh but whan they be begotten of God Goddes begettinge maketh vs Gōddes children and we ar not left to our choise with a power whereby to make our selues Goddes childrē but we ar Goddes children al readie whan he hath begottē vs. For he begetteth perfectly he begetteth not mōsters halfe childrē or a lūpe of matter where of childrē maie be made afterwarde And the greke worde that S. Io. vseth is not dynamis which signifieth power but exousia which signifieth dignitee auctoritee Here riseth a question if Goddes chosen were by predestination his childrē before the beginninge of the world how agreeth it that thā they ar made his childrē whā thei beleue For they were his children before beinge his chosen predestinate It is true that God made those his childrē that euer shulde be his childrē in his purpose thorough free electiō before the worlde was made But this thei fele nat vntil God by his holie spirite kendle faith in them and assure them of that that they were before And here also I wil giue you an other thinge to note S. Iohan saieth that as manie as beleue ar Goddes sonnes But none ar now Goddes sonnes that were not euer Goddes sonnes in his infallible purpose that is none ar Goddes sonnes but his chosen So thei that beleue in dede ar Goddes chosen therefore can neuer perishe For God can nether bē deceaued in his choosinge nor is a chaūgelinge to altre the thinge that he hath once purposed Nether hangeth he vpon mannes behauior suspendinge his determinatiō but al his purposes ar stablished to gether sure certaine thei stāde fast for euer beinge ōce for al decreed You wil graūte perchaūce that Goddes election is sure infallible but yet you can not be so one persuaded that al that beleue ar Goddes chosen For Simō Magus beleued and in the parable of the sower the lorde speaketh of some which haue faith for a time I aūswere that those such had neuer the faith of Goddes children But how shal we know wil you saie that we haue the faith of goddes childrē seīge there is another faith besides which maie begile vs. I aūswere that whā we haue such faith as brīgeth forth a felīge of the swetenes of goddes mercie in Christ Ies an vnfained loue towardes God we haue the faith of Goddes Children And ar and ar sealed vp by Goddes spirite and haue the sure and infallible ernest of euerlastinge life IN HIS NAME It is more liuelie and more ample and of greater maiestie whan it is said to them that beleue in his name than if it had ben saide to them that beleue in him The scole men in dede putte a difference betwene credere deum credere deo credere in deum Credere deum with them is to beleue that there is a God Credere deo is to beleue Goddes saiynges Credere in deum is to trust in God and to loue him And therefore S. Augustine saieth that to beleue in God is in beleuinge to loue him and in louinge to trust in him But the scripture obserueth not this distinction For in the 14. of Exod. we haue that whan the Israhelites saw the Aegyptiās ouerthrowen by Goddes power thei beleued BAIHOVA ou be Mosheh abdo i. in Iehoua and in Moses his seruant And againe in the .19 God saieth to Moses I wil cōme doūne to the in a thicke cloud that the people maye heare me speakinge with the and beleue ' BECHA that is in the c. But is neuer saide that anie beleued in the name of a mā For name to the hebrues signifieth power as whan S. Paule saieth that God gaue the lorde Iesus a name aboue al names he meaneth plaīly power aboue al power So to beleue in the name of Iesus importeth necessarely that he is God WHICHE neyther of bloude Some thincke that this is a figure called in greke pleonasmos wherby manye woordes are heaped together to signify one thīg For they saie that these wordes of bloudes of the wil of the flesh of the wil of mā signifie one thing namely carnal natiuitye generation so thei teache that mē beget carnall childrē onely God begetteth spiritual childrē And in deede mās generation makethe vs not Goddes childrē we muste be regēdred by God to be his childrē Other thincke that he numbreth vp by partes al that is excellēt in mā where in he maie seeme to haue some affiaunce to atteyne to the dignitie of Goddes sonne And that so he teacheth that by no auncitrie no priuilege of bloude by no holines of fore fathers nor anie maner of strēgth or faculte in mankinde mā atcheueth the place of Goddes sōnes Bothe expositiō is tēde to this end that we are not made holie by anie force of nature but by the grace and mercie of God regeneratinge and newe begettinge vs and that is plainely S. Iohās meaninge The wil of mā S. Iohā vsethe for the wil of anie mā for so the hebreus vse the word ish mā for euerie mā BEGOTTEN God begetteth vs whā accordinge to his aeternal purpose electiō he puttethe his spirite into vs and by his force plāteth faith in our hartes to embrace his worde reneweth our mindes frameth thē againe vnto true holines righteousnes God graūt that we maie al feele that we ar begotten of God that considering the high dignitie where vnto we are called we occupie not ourselues vnsemely in vile offices but trauaile al the daies of oure lyfe in suche thinges as aduaunce the glorie of our heauenlie father Amen ⧠The Fift READING VVith verie few but the same most pithie semelie apte wordes the Euāgelist hath declared vnto vs the diuine nature of the Lorde Iesus his power shewed forth sette abrode to the sight af al men by his most wondreful worckes For by this Godhead diuine nature of the Lorde Iesus bothe al thinges were first made of nothinge and now also al thinges ar preserued cōtinued in their state that they returne not to nothinge By it al thinges liue moue haue their beinge By it mā wherein he excelleth other liuinge creatures is furnished with the light of reason vndrestandinge which though thorough mānes faute it be
But as it were in an image we maie beholde in the coale God the worde vnited to mannes nature yet that he hath not cast awai that he was before but hath rather trāsformed the nature which he receaued to his glorie operation For as fier fixed in the woodde percinge in to it cōprehēdeth the wood though the wood cease not to be wood stil yet the fier sendeth his force in to it cōueieth it selfe in to it and is now thought to be one with it so vndrestāde of Christ For God beinge incomprehēsibly vnited to mānes nature hath in that kepte the same that he was he remaineth stille that he was but yet beinge once vnited he is compted as it were one with mānes nature makinge that that pertained to it his awne giuinge it the operation of his nature Hitherto Cyrille He vseth also in this matter the similitude of mannes bodie and soule ioign'd together which in dede expresseth it of al other most proprely For the soule is not turned in to the bodie nor the bodie in to the soule but ech retaineth his propre nature maketh one mā AND the word In that he saieh the worde became flesh not man he sheweth how far Goddes sonne hūbled and abased him selfe For the scripture calleth man flesh whan it wil signifie the pouertie vilenes and miserie of man As whan it is saide al flesh is grasse and he remembred that they were but flesh my spirite shal not euer striue in man for he is flesh But whā the Euangelist saieth the worde became flesh we maie not imagine that Goddes sonne ioigned to his diuine nature flesh only and not mannes soule as Appollinaris thought in his traūce that flesh and the Godhead made one person in Christ without mannes soule For he imagined that the diuinitee was in stede of a soule But so it shuld folow that the lorde Iesus was not a verie mā For flesh is not a man For the soule is the formal parte of a mā namely that whereby a man is a mā with out which a mā can not be And that the lord had a mānes soule beside his diuinitee he him selfe testifieth whā he saieth my soule is heauie vnto the death Nether cā Apollinaris aide him selfe with this place For whā the scripture calleth mē flesh it meaneth not that thei ar without soules For thā thei were no mē in dede Here we must know also from whens Goddes sonne became flesh For we maie not thīcke that he brought his flesh from heauē or made it in the aire For the holie scripture teacheth that he shulde cōme of the sede of Abrahā Dauid shuld be the fruite of his loines For such plaine wordes it vseth to assure vs of the truth of so necessarie a matter vtterly to stoppe the mouthes of dotinge mē And in the writers of the new testamēt it is most plainly sette forth vnto vs that he receaued flesh out of the substāce of the virgin Marie For. S. Mattheu hath these wordes to gar en aute gennethen that which is engendred in hir S. Paule genomenon ekgynaicos made of a womā the Angel in S. Luke ho karpos the frute of thy wombe The frute of a tree is of the same substāce that the tree is of That which only passeth thorough a thinge is not the frute of that thinge For water is not the frute of the cōducte pipe nor ale the frute of the spickette or of the kinderkinne Against this most manifest truth wherein the pith of our saluatiō lieth the franctike Anabaptistes brīge two prīcipal reasons I wot not whether more ignorātly or more vngodly For first thei saie that if the lorde receaued our flesh he receaued vncleane flesh But iudge you whether al the scriptures be they neuer so plaine must giue place to this their simple imagination or whether their simple imagination shuld giue place to so manie plaine scriptures But first I aske them whether God cold not make cleane our vncleane flesh or wold not If thei saie he colde nor they limitte his power ouer much If thei saie he wolde not we wil hisse them out For if God of his goodnes wolde make his sonne to die for vs he wolde of his goodnes make his flesh cleane for vs. Secondly laske them why God wold haue his sonne to be borne of a virgine not to be begottē betwene mā and womā after the commune course of the worlde Doeth not that teache vs that he mēt to make his sonnes flesh pure holie Yea doeth not the angel so signifie in Luke whan he saieth the holie gost shal comme vpō the the power of the highest shal ouersshadow the for which cause the holie thinge to gennomenō that is engēdred shal be called Goddes sonne But this their reason hath no weight bicause it is ōly forged in mānes braine Thother is takē out of the scripture For S. Paule to the Cor. writeth thus The first man was of the erth erthlie The secōde mā is the lorde from heauē In which place S. Paules purpose is not to speake of the substāce of our bodies or of the substance of the lordes bodie but of the qualities as the wordes folowinge declare hoios of what qualitee the erthlie was of that qualitie ar the erthlie of what qualitee the heauēlie is of that qualitee ar the heauēlie This thā is the sense The first mā was of the erth erthlie that is subiecte to sinne corrupte affectiōs which bringe death The secōde heauēlie that is ful of heauēlie qualities which thorough the power of Goddes spirite draw with them life immortalitte As we bare the image of the erthlie that is were sinful and therefore compassed with death so shal we beare the image of the heauenlie that is our spirites shal be renued to tru holines our bodies to immortalitee Wherefore whā he saieth the seconde mā is the lorde from heauē he meaneth not that he brought his bodie from heauen but that he is heauenly as he expouneth himselfe that is endued with heauēlie qualities Now to procede in our former purpose it shal be good to seke out the causes why Goddes sonne became flesh or as Sainct Paule speaketh why God was manifested in flesh And no man can shew vs thē more certainly than S. Paule hath don to the Hebru For there he teacheth vs that the cheife and principal cause was that by death he might destroie him that had deathes power that is Satan For Satan had power ov vs to punish vs with death bicause we were sinners And sinne cold not be purged but in the flesh of Goddes sonne If he had remained God only purgation and satisfactiō for sinne cold not haue bē made by him For the Godhead cold not suffre nor shew obedience But sith thorough disobedience sinne came in to the world it must be putte awaye thorough obedience which required mannes nature Howbeit if he had