ambiguous and quarrellous The whole propitiatorie sacrifice are words as doubtfull as the other for since Christ was the Priest who by his eternall spirit offered himselfe vnspotted to God and gaue himselfe for vs to be an offering and sacrifice of a sweet smel vnto God his innocence and obedience chiefly rested in his soule thence sanctified his bodie which suffered death for the ransome of our sinnes Though then all things in Christ were holie and acceptable vnto God and so sacrifices most meritorious yet nothing did fully satisfie the iustice of God for sinne nor make a perfect reconciliation for vs with God but his obedience vnto death For that which must satisfie for sinne must be death other ransome for sinne God neither in his wisdome and counsell would nor in his trueth and iustice could accept after his will once determined and declared It was the first wages appointed and denounced by God to sinne In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death or certainly thou shalt die the doubling of the word noting the inflexibilitâ—…e of Gods counsell and iustice The Apostle witnesseth the same when he sayth The wages of sinne is death Then as sinne was irreuocabâ—…e rewarded with death so must it necessarily be redeemed by death Which rule stood so sure that when the Sonne of God would giue himselfe for vs to redeeme vs he could not do it by reason of Gods immutable counsell and decree but by death Wherefore the Apostle calleth him the Mediator of the New testament through death for the redemption of transgressions And where a testament is there MVST BE sayth he the death of the testator He contenteth not himselfe to say there was but there must be the death of the testator before we could be redeemed A necessitie not simplie binding Gods power but plainly declaring his counsell to be fixed and his will reuealed Since then Christ was to taste death for all men that through death he might destroy him which had power of death euen the diuell and deliuer vs who were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne the point which indeed wee both must stand on is what death Christ suffered to redeeme vs from sinne and to reconcile vs vnto God whether it were the death of the damned which is the second death or the death of the soule or as I auouch the death of the bodie only Other parts of Christes person and beames of his vertues and kinds of his sufferings are not to this quâ—…stion â—…arther than they commended and presented to God Christes death which must ransome our sinnes but the scope to which all the rest was referred and the â—…lose which consummated all the rest was death and therefore no sufferings of Christ were parts of the propitiatorie sacrifice which ransomed sinne but such as ended in death or tended to that sorrowfull shamefull and painfull death of Christ which by order of Gods iustice was appointed to satisfie for sinne The fulnesse of which satisfaction consisted in death and therefore the death and bloud of Christ though they were not the whole sacrifice yet were they the full and perfect ransome and price for sinne because without them the rest could not preuaile and to them all the rest was directed If then you will deale plainly as you pretend or not forget your duetie to God and his trueth you must leaue cauilling with the words of the Holy Ghost and go soberly to consider not whether any other sufferings but whether any other death of Christes be mentioned in the Scriptures to ransome our sinnes besides the death of his bodie If you finde any other there professe â—…t in Gods name if you finde none but only that described or mentioned in the Scriptures leaue snarling at the depth and bredth of those words which the Spirit of God hath authorized and learne rather to vnderstand them truely than vainly to oppose against them In sense and substance there is no difference betwixt these words the death bloud and crosse of Christ the crosse noting the tree whereon Christ died a reprochfull and cruell death for vs and his bloud expressing the maner of his death by sundrie sorts of shedding the same as by whipping piercing his head with thornes boaring his hands and feet to fasten him to the crosse and hanging him thereon three houres by the sorenesse of his wounds till his soule departed from his bodie To make these iarre one with the other which the holy Ghost had knit together is the signe of a busie but not of godly wit and howsoeuer you and your adherents can flourish with figures of Grammar you were best take heede that you turne not your eares from the trueth of God The bodily death which Christ died to ransome our sinnes the holy Ghost doth note sometimes by his Flesh sometimes by his Body sometimes by his Blood and sometimes by his Crosse and these either ioyned or seuered and sometimes also by his soule or life laide downe or powred out vnto death for vs. We finde them ioyned when Paul saith It pleased God by Christ to reconcile all things to himselfe and to pacifie by the BLOOD of his Crosse through him both things in earth and things in heauen And you which in times past were strangers and enemies hath he now reconciled in the BODY OF HIS FLESH through death Seuered are they when Peter saith You were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a Lambe vndefiled Who by his owne blood saith the Apostle entered in once into the holyplace and obtained eternall Redemption And so when Iohn saith The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne As likewife Paul We haue Redemption through his blood euen the Remission of sinnes Of his body himselfe saith This is my body which is giuen for you and my flesh will I giue for the life of the world so are we sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once Likewise of his soule by which the Scripture meaneth his life for that life wholy dependeth vpon the presence of the soule in the body My Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my soule or life The sonne of man came to giue his soule or life as a ransome for many And Esay foreshewed that Christ should diuide the spoyle of or with the mightie Because he powred out his soule vnto death which seuereth the soule from the body and so made it an offering for sinne by laying it downe of himselfe that death might seaze on his body This then being the maine foundation of the Gospel which the Apostle receiued that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures the Question still standeth as I first set it What death Christ died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scriptures and not what sufferings went before or what other things ioyned with his death which is
by the infinite dignitie of his person able to support the one and abolish the other and that the rather because euerie part of Christes manhood was holie and vndefiled and so by the rule of Gods iustice no part of him could be pressed with spirituall and eternall death Which is a plaine proofe that the guilt of our sinnes tooke not hold on him For then as well spirituall as eternall death which both are due to sinne must haue fastned on Christ which we see to be false yea the death of the bodie could not wrest his soule from him but he must lay it downe of himselfe And if the desert of a corporall death did not binde him how should the guilt of eternall death be due to him which was the â—…ust wages of our sinne but no way due to his person since he did assume our sinnes to cleere vs from them and not to subiect himselfe to the guilt or filth of our sinne though he were content to make full satisfaction for them but not to defile himselfe with any pollution of them How could he be by God properly and truly punished and cursed for sinne but that he was sinfull hatefull Nay how could he either clense vs or reconcile vs to God if he were sinfull hatefull to God as well as we As we had Christ for our Redeemer because we weâ—…e hated of God for sin so if you bring Christ within the same danger displeasure with God he must haue another to mediate to God for him God respecteth not those whom he hateth nor heareth any that is sinful without some other to propiâ—…e for him And where you quote Scriptures to vphold your wicked follies and phrases they prooue the cleane contrarie The soule that sinneth the same shall dic saith God by Ezechiel But Christes soule did not die either by want of grace or losse of glorie which are the deaths proper to sinners Christes soule therefore by the verie place which you cite was not sinnefull Shail nâ—…t the Iudge of all the world doe right saide Abraham to God What right is there ment but that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked as Abrahams words before import Since then Christ was not destroâ—…ed either in soule or bodie but by death made conquerer of death and a Sauiour to all his what a venemous mouth haue you to match him with the wicked or to make thâ—…s destruction And heere the Reader may obserue how religiously you wrest the Scriptures to reproch the Sonne of God and where you can by no sufficient testimonie prooue Christ to haue beene sinnefull or hatefull to God as you dâ—…fend when he died for our sinnes you sort him with the reprobate and damned and then â—…ge the Scriptures against him that directly speake of them I wish you to leaue this lewd deuotion and not to thinke to shift off all this with a pretended imputation Our sinnes God did impute that is impose on Christ for â—…e bâ—…re them in his bodie on the â—…ee but this was right with God because Christ was both willing and able to beare them and an honour to the humane nature of Christ to be made l ord ouer all his enimies for the short affliction which he suffered at their hands and Sauiour of all beleeuers for the submission and obedience which he performed on the crosse in which Gods exceeding mercy towards vs and loue towards him did most manifestly appeare Did not God then hate our sinnes when he punished his owne Sonne for them If that ground of Christian religion could haue contented you that God throughly hated our sinnes which Christ assumed and yet so loued the person assuming them that the fauour he bare to the one ouer-rulâ—…d his anger due to the other and therefore after sharpe chastisement on the person least wee should thinke our transgressions to be lightly regarded with God and yet such as the sufferer willingly reâ—…ued to maintaine the iustice of his Father exalted him with infinite honour and gaue him all power in earth and heauen and made him onely Lord ouer all both men and Angels If this confession of true Religion had pleased you you neuer needed to haue defiled your pen with these sinfull hatefull and accursâ—…d termes But haâ—…ing itching eares and humorous heads you measure the greatest mysteries of our saluation by the similitude and proportion of humane reason and actions and thence deâ—…iue according to your fantasies that which Scriptures and Fathers doe vtterly disclaime It is written God sent his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flâ—…sh for sinne and condemned sinne in his flesh in which likenesse he stoode before God The Scripture teacheth that Christ was made like to his brethren in all things and did partake with them in flesh and bloud but the same Scripture addeth without sinne So that the likenesse of sinfull flesh excludeth all touch or taint of our sinne though it admit the likenesse of our flesh in Christ. And indeede betweene his and ours there was no difference saue the corruption of sinne which dwelleth in ours and did not in his You doe therefore learnedly collect out of the Apostles words that where he saith Christ was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh for that he had true flesh and no sinne you make Christ to be defiled and accursed with sinne for hauing the likenesse of our flesh But the Syriacke translation saith God condemned sinne in Christes flesh The condemning of sinne in the flesh of Christ was the cleansing and abolishing of sinne by the body of Christ which the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destroying and taking away of sinne by the sacrifice of himâ—…elfe The text doth notsay that God condemned Christ for sinne but contrarie that God condemned sin that is pardoned the guilt weakned the power remooued the sting and abandoned the memoriall of all our sinnes for the obedience and patience which Christ shewed in his flesh So that it is you and not the Apostle nor the Syriacke translator which would faine bring Christ within the compasse of condemnation for sinne where they say quite otherwise that not hee but sinne was condemned that is destroyed in or by his flesh Chrysostome saith rightly Thou seest sinne euery where condemned not the flesh which was crouned and obtained iudgement against sinne And Austen taketh libertie to expound the Text against your Syriacke translation By the similitude of sinfull flesh saith he which was Christes God condemned sinne in the flesh of sinne which was ours God made him sinne for vs that we might be made the rightcousnesse of God in him Other men read the Scriptures to learne thence all thanks submission and seruice to the Sonne of God for his vnspeakeable loue and mercie towards vs in taking the burden of our sinnes and laying it on his owne shoulders You thresh and winnow the Scriptures to catch vp chaffe
religious Prince aswell to examine the Scriptures with all diligence as to shew the confession and resolution of Christs Church long before our times that all the world may see I maintaine none other grounds of Faith nor sense of Scripture than haue beene anciently constantly and continually professed and beleeued in the Church of Christ for these fifteene hundred yeeres till this our present Age and the same allowed and ratified by the publike lawes of this Realme which your Maiestie in your most Princely wisdome and courage professe to vpholde and continue God for his holy Names sake blesse your most sacred Maiestie and prosper all your vertuous and Christian cares that as in learning and wisdome in clemencie and pietie he hath made you the Mirrour of this Age so in peace and prosperitie in concord and vnitie in all happinesse and felicitie he may exalt you aboue all your neighbour Princes and hauing vnited the two Realmes of England and Scotland in one subiection vnder your Princely right and regiment he will knit the hearts and hands of both to honour and serue you loue and obey you and your royall issue after you to the worlds end Your Maiesties most humble subiect and seruant THO. WINTON THE CHIEFE RESOLVTIONS OF THIS Suruey THe cleerenes and fulnes of the Scriptures in the worke of our Redemption is exactly to be reuerenced so as no man ought to teach or beleeue any thing touching our redemption by Christ which is not expresly witnessed in the sacred Scriptures much lesse may we distrust the manifest words of the holy Ghost to be impertinent or vnsufficient in declaring the true price and meane of our redemption The maine ground of the Gospell which the Apostles preached the faithfull receiued wherein they continued and whereby they were saued was this That Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and was buried and rose the third day according to the Scriptures Since then we are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne we must acknowledge none other death of Christ then that which he suffered in the bodie of his flesh after which he was buried and from which he rose the third day which death the Scriptures most apparently describe to be the death of Christs bodie If we were redeemed by the bloud of Christ and God proposed him to be a Reconciliation through faith in his bloud which was shed for the remission of sinnes we may not presume to appoint a new price of our redemption or new meane of our reconciliation since by the bloud of his crosse Christ hath pacified both the things in earth and things in heauen and the bloud of Iesus Christ cleanseth vs from all sinne The Scriptures doe no where teach nor mention the death of Christs Joule or the death of the damned which is the second death to be needfull for our redemption We must not therefore intrude our selues into Gods seat to ordâ—…ne a new course for mans redemption If the Spirit doe quicken and the iust liue by faith and he that abideth in loue abideth in God who is life it was vtterlie impossible but the soule of Christ in that abundance of Spirit euidence of Faith assurance of Hope and perfection of Loue which he alwayes retained should alwayes liue to God Life and death being opposed as priuatiues and so not to be found in one and the same subiect at one and the same time the soule of Christ alwayes liuing could neuer be dead Neither could a dead soule be pleasing to God who is whole life and therefore hateth death as contrarie to his nature when yet he was alwayes well pleased with Christ. Where some imagine extreame paine in Christs soule may be called the death of his soule that position is repugnant to the Scriptures for the greater the paine which the soule feeleth and endureth with innocencie confidence obedience and patience such as were all Christes sufferings the more the soule liueth and cleaueth to God for whose glorie it suffereth so much smart as appeareth in Martyrs whose soules do most liue in their greatest torments The late deuice of hell-paines in Christes passion is not only false but also superfluous for the true paines of hell neither are nor can be suffered in this life where by Gods ordinance extreame paine driueth the soule from the bodie much lesse can man or Angell endure them with obedience and patience as Christ did all his paines And what need was there of hell-paines in the crosse of Christ since God can by euery meanes or without meanes raise more paines in bodie or soule than any creature can endure Christs soule could not be strooken with any horrour of Gods displeasure against him since in his greatest anguish he professed God to be his God and his Father and by prayer preuailed for his persecutors as appeared after by their conuersion and gaue eternall life to the soule of the Thiefe hanging by him and beleeuing on him Now to giue life is more than to haue life and restore others to fauour he can not that himselfe is in displeasure Hell-fire which the damned and diuels do and shall suffer is a true and eternall fire prepared by the mightie hand of God to punish aswell spirits as bodies and this errour That the fire of hell was only an internall or spirituall fire in the soules and consciences of men was long since condemned in Origen by the Church of Christ. Reiection therefore desperation confusion horrour of damnation externall and eternall fire which are the torments of the damned and true paines of hell can not without blasphemie be ascribed to Christ. Christ therefore suffered neither the death of the soule nor the paines nor horrors os the damned or of hell Euery sinne is common to the whole man who is defiled euen with thoughts that be euill not only because the bodie is the Seat wherein and the instrument whereby the soule worketh but also for that the first infection of sinne commeth to the soule by the bodie and the first information and prouocation to sinne riseth from the senses and affections which are mooued with corporall spirits and all the parts and powers of the bodie attend the will with most readie subiection to haue each sinne which the soule conceiueth impressed on them and executed by them And therefore the suffering for sinne in the person of the Mediatour must be common both to bodie and soule in such sort that as in transgressing our soules are the principall Agents so in the suffering for sinne his soule was the principall Patient Christ would vse no power to assuage the force and violence of his paines though he wanted none as appeareth by his ouerthrowing them with a word that came to apprehend him but submitted himselfe to his Fathers will with greater obedience and patience than any man liuing could We may therefore safely beleeue That the iustice of God condemning sinne in Christes flesh proportioned the paines of his bodie in
which hee bare our sinnes to the strength of his patience and so both his paines and his patience farre exceeded all mens The rather for that Christes sense did not faile him by degrees as ours doth when the paines of death are extreamest which driue our soules from our bodies but hee did in most perfect sense feele the sting and bitternesse of paine to the last breath by reason he was of his owne accord at an instant appointed by his Father to breathe out his owne soule and so did to the great admiration of the Centurion that obserued it and consequently hee retained firmnesse of voice and exactnesse of sense all the while his paines were at sharpest The soule is punished in this life by her vnderstanding will affections and senses according as their obiects directed and strengthened by God make violent and vehement impressions the torment of hell-fire being the iudgement of another world Neither is God the tormenter of soules in hell with his immediate hand but by his wisdome and power hath ordained euerlasting fire as an externall Agent aboue nature to take vengeance of damned men and diuels according to their deserts No Scripture doth teach That God with his immediate hand tormented the soule of his Sonne on the Crosse or in the Garden notwithstanding Christes soule was full of feare and sorow in the Garden and of griefe and paine on the Crosse all which outward and inward passions ne did ne could peruert Christs will nor oppresse his power but they must all be voluntarie that they might all be meritorious and the more Christs power was to admit them when he would as he would and because he would the more his obedience was to the will and hand of God who forced nothing on Christ against his will but by that which was offered and suffered tried the obedience of his Sonne and accepted all from him as a most willing Sacrifice The wrath of God punishing our sinnes in the person of Christ was neither such as the Damned in hell nor as the Reprobate in earth doe suffer but rather common to the members of Christ who must drinke of this Cuppe haue fellowship with his afflictions and be conformed to his death though they neuer feele the true paines of hell nor haue their soules tormented by Gods immediate hand Neither was it any other wrath than such as might stand with Gods loue towards his Sonne who did not hate him for our sakes but loued vs for his and was Fatherly tempered to the strength of Christes manhood and graciously ouerruled and quenched by the fauour that God bare to the person of his Sonne And therefore the termes of meere and proper wrath if they meane proper to the damned are false and impious in Christes sufferings which neither in maner measure nor purpose did agree with the torments of the damned The true and full satisfaction for our sinnes must not be deriued from the singularitie and infinitie of Christes paines longer and greater than which the damned and diuels doe euery one suffer but from the dignitie of the person who being the only and eternall Sonne of God that made vs humbled himselfe in our stead and in our nature to restore vs and offered recompense for our sinnes which was his submission and obedience vnto the death of the Crosse more pleasing to God than our condemnation to hell could haue beene for in this ballance betweene the wrath of God against our sinnes and the loue of God towards his Sonne neither was his iustice neglected nor his loue ouer swayed but a sweet and wise temper of both was prouided for the manhood of his Sonne first to suffer with patience and then to raigne with glorie that all the sonnes of God might be the more willing and readie by his example to obey the will and abide the hand of God before they did enter into his Kingdome The Scriptures witnessing that the Sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit this might not want in Christes Sacrifice for sinne but he approching the presence of God with and for our offences lawfully might and exceedingly did feare the greatnesse and iustnesse of Gods anger against our iniquities and as deeply sorrowed that Gods holinesse was so carelesly despised and highly displeased with our manifolde iniquities Which inward sacrifices of feare and sorrow for vs and our sinnes in the person of the Mediatour were no lesse acceptable to God than the simple suffering of paine Since Gods power is despised where it is not duely feared and sinne is iustified where the displeasing of God is not thorowly sorrowed in presenting vs and our cause to God Christ was to yeeld for vs and in our behalfe that infinite submission and feare to the power of God prouoked and contrition and sorrow to the holinesse of God offended which we could neuer haue done And without these to offer to beare the burden of our sinnes was to make light account of our sinne against God and of Gods wrath against our sinne which was farre from the Sonne of God There might therefore in Christes sacrifice for sinne not without iust cause appeare exceeding feare and sorrow yet both religious and measured by the rules of obedience and humilitie though passing grieuous to the soule of Christ. Neither were these submissions and afflictions of Christs soule answerable to his perfection and our transgression if they did not reach to the highest degree of feare and sorrow that mans nature in Christ was capable of without distrust of Gods fauour or dislike of his iustice Christ did not pray in the Garden contrarie to his Fathers knowen will but made an expresse and speciall reseruation thereof euen in the first part of his prayer Neither was he amazed and confounded in all the powers of his soule and senses of his bodie as these Presumers teach but he prayed with faith and suffered with obedience both which require perfect vnderstanding will and memorie Manie things might concurre to increase Christes sorrow in the Garden as the reiection of the Iewes for spilling his bloud the dispersion of his Church all flying and forsaking him the continuall rage of Satan against his weake and fearefull members Christ now in his temptations and afflictions beholding theirs with great compassion and griefe of heart which is it that Hilarie saith Et tristitia de nobis est oratio pro nobis est Christ sorrowed for vs and prayed for vs. An Agonie is properly a vehement contention of minde to preuaile in that we vndertake rightly weighing and striuing to remoue the difficulties and impediments obiected to hinder the euent Christes bloudie sweat if it were naturall must proceed rather from zeale and intention of minde than from feare and sorow which coole the bloud and quench the spirits whereas the spirits must be mightilie kindled and the bloud much heated and thinned before it can issue forth by sweat And since by the words of Saint Luke Christ fell into an
because it is neuer inflicted but after the first death and likewise wrath to come for that the state of this present life is not capable of thâ—…se extreame torments which are reserued for another world And least I should seeme to make degrees and parts of eternall death out of mine owne head let vs briefly view whether the word of God do not witnesse the same There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth sayth Christ when you shall see Abraham Isaac and Iacob and aâ—… the Prophets in the kingdome of God and your selues thrust out at doores Many of those that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake sayth Daniel to perpetuall shame and reproch Their worme shall neuer die sayth Esay The Lord that willed his good and faithfull seruants to enter into their masters ioy when he came to the slouthfull and vnprofitable seruant commanded to be taken from him euen that he had and to cast him into vtter darkenesse The Iudge himselfe forwarneth he will giue this sentence on the wicked in the last day Depart from â—…e ye cursed into euerlasting â—…ire prepared for the diuell and his angels They shall be tormented in fire and brimstone sayth Iohn and the smoke of their torments shall ascâ—…nd euermore and they shall haue no rest night nor day This is that euerlasting perdition and vengeance of eternall fire which the wicked shall suffer in hell and this is the full and complete punishment and wages of sinne repaying the reprobate according to their deserts when their sinnes come once to that ripenesse and fulnesse that they may no longer be endured by Gods iustice the two former kinds of deaths in this world being such as are either despised or desired by the wicked For nothing is more acceptable to them than without all feare or care of God to follow their willes and pursue their lusts which iâ—… the death of the soule and the death of the bodie which they can not decline they labour to neglect and though they murmuâ—… at God for it as if man had beene framed at first mortall yet finde they no great hurt in it because they know not the sequel of it and perceiue it to be common to good and badde and to leaue no sense of paine behinde it And indeed the outward punishments of this life are by Gods bountie and patience so tempered not only with comfort to the godly but with moderation to the wicked that they warne all men to feare and flie the wrath to come and giue time and place for amendment The old inhabitants of the holy land thou Lord diddest hâ—…te sayth the Wiseman for they committed abominable works as sorceries and wicked sacrifices neuerthelesse thou sparedst them also as men and didst send the forerunners of thine host euen hornets to root them out not that thou couldest not destroy them with one rough word but in punishing them by little and little thou gauest them space to repent The Apostle sayth the same Despisest thou the riches of Gods bountie and patience and long suffering not knowing that the bountie of God leadeth thee to repentance but thou after thine hardnesse and heart that can not repent heapest vnto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and of the declaration of the iust iudgement of God who will reward euery man according to his works The wrath of God is also diuersly taken in the Scriptures sometimes for the inward dislike and hatred that God in his holinesse hath of all iniquitie sometimes for his iudgements threatned or executed against sinne whether they be tempered with loue or patience to worke or expect repentance as in his owne and in this life or proportioned to the deserts of wicked and impenitent sinners for substraction of grace as to the reprobate in this world or infliction of vengeance as to the danmed in hell Such is the holinesse of God that he can loue no wickednesse but by nature and of necessity doth and must hate all vnrighteousnesse in whomsoeuer Thou art not a God that loueth wickednesse sayth Dauid neither shall euill dwell with thee What fellowship hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse or what communion hath light and darknesse What fauour then and allowance should iniquitie finde with God that is the very fountaine and flaming fire of all holinesse To declare Gods perfect hatred against all sinne as well of the faithfull as faithlesse the Scripture witnesseth not only that his soule abhorreth the outrages of the wicked which are an abomination vnto him but also that he is displeased and grieued with the sinnes euen of his elect These things the Lord hateth sayth Salomon yea his soule abhorreth them All these are the things that I hate saith the Lord by the Prophet Zacharie The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all them that worke iâ—…iquitie sayth Dauid to God The Lord will abhorre the cruell and deceitfull man Yea God is displeased and grieued with his owne when they sinne against him The Lord saw it sayth Moses and was stirred to anger with the prouocation of his sonnes and his daughters When Dauid had slaine Vriah and taken home his wife the thing displeased the eies of the Lord sayth the Scripture Likewise when he numbred the people God was displeased with that deed Esay remembring the mercies of the Lord towards the house of Israel sayth hee was their Sauiour in all their troubles he was troubled and the angell of his presence saned them but they rebelled and grieued the spirit of his holinesse The Apostle confirmeth the same Grieue not the Holy spirit by whom ye are sealed vnto the day of Redemption Then as the loue of all righteousnesse is a naturall and necessarie consequent to Gods holinesse so the dislike and hatred of all sinne is rightly and properly appertinent to his diuine puritie neither must the godly take it for an improper kinde of speech but fully beleeue and plainely confesse that God is truely and greatly displeased with their sinnes lest in their hearts they bring him within compasse of liking or allowing their vncleannesse and when they repent they must not onely tremble at the prouoking of so righteous and fearefull a Iudge but chiefly sorrow for the displeasing and offending the holinesse of so gratious and louing a father This dislike and detestation of disobedience euen in his owne children which God of his holinesse hath the Scripture often expresseth by the name of Anger though no punishment follow The Lord was very angrie with Moses sayth the Scripture when he so long refused to goe at Gods appointment to deliuer the children of Israel out of Aegypt God was likewise verie angrie with Aaron and Miriam his sister for speaking against Moses though Aaron was not punished for it and Miriam quickely healed of her leprosie So God himselfe professed to Eliphaz the Temanite saying My wrath is
ouer to Christ by God and all things subiected vnder his feet because he hâ—…bled himselfe and was obedient to his father vnto death euen the death of the Crosse. Was it then wrath in God without loue that brought Christ to his death or rather vnspeakable loue in God towards his sonne which ouerruled his iustice prouoked by our sinnes and so highly accepted and plentifully rewarded the death of Christ that he made him LORD ouer all things and persons in heauen earth and hell to giue grace and peace mercie and glory to Gods elect by his meanes and merites and to inflict excecation destruction and damnation on the wicked both men and diuels by his iudgement and sentence If it were admirable loue and fauour in God towards Christs humane nature to ioyne mans flesh and spirit into the vnitie and societie of his Sonnes Diuine maiestie what inestimable honor and glory was it to put the whole gouernment of Gods kingdome in heauen and earth into Christs hands which is the reward that God hath allotted to Christs obedience patience shewed on the Altar of the Crosse So that the learned may soone perceiue I worke no deceit nor mistaking to the Reader through the ambiguitie of this word THE VVRATH OF GOD as you pretend but you wandring in the desart of your owne deuises haue fashioned to your selfe a fardle of phrases as Gods proper and improper wrath 〈◊〉 meere iustice and such like and vnder the generalitie and vncertaintie of these words you hide your head and when you are required to make some proofe and shew some parts of Gods wrath out of the Scripture which Christ suffered besides the death of the Crosse and paines thereof you answere to particularize or to specifie the parts of Gods wrath which Christ felt as I will you to doe what madnesse were it in men to attempt and what folly is it in any to require Indeede it would be madnesse in you to attempt it for thereby you should plainly disclose that absurditie and impietie which now is cloaked vnder generall and doubtfull termes but those that be godly will neuer suffer their faith to be framed by your phrases except you shew warrant of Gods word both whence you collect them and what you meane by them neither of which you doe nor can doe with any truth in these points now in question For first by what Scripture proue you that Christ did or must suffer the proper wrath of God or the punishment and vengeance of sinne I following the sense and words of the Scriptures and of Diuines both olde new which make shame sorrow paine and death in this life the effects of Gods wrath punishing sinne in Adam and his of-spring at his fall did by consequent a specie ad genus affirmatiue gather and in that respect confesse that Christ suffering those things on the Crosse suffered the wrath of God and due punishment of sinne in this life but you tell vs now the Scriptures in that point speake most improperly you haue found out that Gods wrath signifieth properly the paines of the damned and those Christ suffered for our sinnes True it is and long since by me auouched that Gods wrath against sinne extendeth to all the paines and punishments of Soule and body as well in hell as on earth and in comparison of the terrible torments of hell fier the paines and punishments of the faithfull in this life may be called and accounted rather the chastisements of a Father then the rigour of a Iudge but since you refuse that sense of Gods wrath which I collected from the Scriptures as very improper take no aduantage of my confession and let Gods wrath stand in your sense either for Gods displeasure against the person offending or for the vengeance of sinne executed on the wicked and damned I aske you now by what authoritie of holy Scripture can you prooue that Christ suffered Gods proper wrath or his wrath at all I recall not my former Resolution which I take to be sober and sound but you reiecting it as improper and deceitfull let vs see how you prooue by the Scriptures that Christ suffered Gods wrath which you so much presume and make the chiefe pillour of all your procedings In your late defence with shame enough you yeeld at last that this word HELL is not literally and expresly applyed to Christs sufferings in the Scriptures you must likewise yeeld by your leaue that this speech the wrath of God is not literally nor expresly affirmed of Christs sufferings in all the Scriptures That he was wounded for our transgressions and torne or trodden vnder feete for our iniquities and we healed by his stripes as also that he was afflicted and oppressed and bare our iniquities and poured out his soule vnto death the Prophet Esay witnesseth that he dranke of the Cup which his Father gaue him the Euangelists mention and the Apostle saith he was deliuered and died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures but none of these expresse or inferre that he suffered the proper wrath of God or full punishment and vengeance of sinne which are the phrases placed for the ground-worke of all your discourse though no way prooued by any shew of Scripture The words vsed generally by the holy Ghost to expresse Christs sufferings besides the former import that he gaue himselfe for vs to be the sacrifice the price and the ransome of our deliuerance All which wordes note no wrath conceiued against him nor vengeance executed on him but rather the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards him as the onely Sacrifice that God would accept the onely price that God did esteeme the onely ransome that God would receaue for the sinne of the world This Sacrifice was his body this price was his bloud this ransome was his death We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus once ‖ made ‖ priceâ—…th â—…th Paule that is yee were redcemed with the precious blood of Christ saith Peter For we haue redemption in him by his blood And he is the mediatour of the new testament through death for the ransome of the transgressions in the former testament So that by the sacrifice of his bodie price of his blood and ransome of his death he hath made a most full recompence satisfaction and redemption for the sinnes of the world and consequently the punishment which he sustained when he bare our sinnes in his body on the tree was the full perfect purgation and propitiation of our sinnes full not in the degrees and parts of condemnation and vengeance due to sinne which the damned doe suffer as you falsely and absurdly insinuate but full in price and force of Redemption and deliuerance from sinne for somuch as Gods holinesse is highly pleased with the obedience Gods glory greatly aduanced by the humilitie and Gods iustice fully satisfied with the
fetch your wood to nourish hell fire and see whether it make no more for the one then for the other Against Senacherib that proud and blasphemous king of Assyria the capitall and cruell enemie of Gods people and Church the Prophet denounceth vengeance in this wise The Lord shall cause the glorie of his voice to be heard and shall shew the stroke of his arme with the anger of his countenance and flame of deuouring fire with scattering and tempest For Tophet is prouided of olde it is euen readie for the King God hath made it deepe and wide the burning thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord doth kindle it as a current or riuer of brimstone Tophet was a place built by hand in the valley of Hinnom nere to Ierusalem made deepe and wide to containe whole Pyles of woode which the Priests of Molech with their deuices and prouisions could readily kindle and raize to huge and mightie flames to inclose and consume the children that were presented to their Idole To this place and vse the Prophet alludeth when he threatneth the King of Asshur and to comfort the Iowes that God had care ouer them he assureth them that Gods Tophet was prouided of olde and readie for the King of Asshur that it was deepe and wide to receiue him and all his retinue and the burning thereof as the fire of much wood the breath of the Lord kindling it as a flood of brimstone That Tophet was a place in the valley of Hinnom a part of Gehinnom BVILT HIE of purpose to burne children in the fire appeareth by Ieremie The store of wood heaped there and the rage of fire kindled there is euident by Esays comparison when he sayth The burning thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord as a Riuer of brimstone kindling it fire and much wood is the fire of much wood to which he compareth the burning of hell for wood without kindling maketh no fire And so the Chaldaie paraphrast expresseth it A flame of sire is there in hell kindled LIKE AS in much wood And to euery man meanely seene in the Hebrew tongue it is a knowen Rule that Caph the note of similitude is often vnderstood in the Scriptures and then specially when it is added to one part of the Periode for example Flie to your mountaine a bird that is LIKE a bird Zion shall be plowed a field that is LIKE a field A Lyons whelpe Iudah from the pray shalt thou ascend that is LIKE a Lyons whelpe All flesh is grasse and the glory thereof is as the flower of the field that is all flesh is LIKE grasse And in this place of Esaie it is so the rather because the aduerbe of similitude is expressed in the next member where it is said the breath of the Lord LIKE a streame of brimstone doth kindle it which argueth that the former part must likewise be vnderstood the burning thereof is A s a fire of much wood which in effect is a mightie flame This then being a comparison what reason haue you Sir Discourser to pronounce that the Scriptures shew no more true fire in hell then much wood since fire was the maine respect why hell was likened to Tophet wood was not and without fire hell is no more like to Tophet then it is to a bodkin which if it be thrust into a mans body will raize paine enough And therefore these amplifications must either vtterly be voyde and import nothing knowen to the Iewes or else there must be fire in hell as there was in Tophet and that like the fire of much wood which is violent and raging and as a torrent of brimstone which flameth all with fire if it be once kindled And since Christ called hell Gehinnam for the resemblance it had to the flames of Gehinnom as is before prooued what maruaile if the Prophet speaking by the same spirite compared hell to Tophet which was the place in Gehinnom where the mightiest fires to burne men were made in his time Or if we follow not the Chaldaie paraphrase to make wood a comparison but leane to the later writers who make it a metaphore and referre it either to the continuance of hell fire or to the sinnes soules and bodies of the wicked feeding and nourishing the fire of hell as wood doth our common fire what gaine you by that If one word in the sentence be figuratiue will you conclude all the rest to be figuratiue so may you as well anouch all the Articles of our faith to be allegoricall because sitting at the right hand of God is a plaine allegorie And are there no moe places in the Scriptures mentioning hell fire besides this of Esaie Or if there be as there be exceeding many which haue no similitudes nor metaphores in them will you allegorize them all because this place of Esaie hath one similitude or metaphore in it whether this haue any learning reason or sense in it let the Reader iudge And because I haue mentioned the opinion of the latter writers making wood a metaphore in this place of Esaie and yet confessing the fire of hell to be a true substantiall aud externall fire I thinke it not amisse to let the Reader see what diuerse of them in true religion and learning not inferior to any of our time haue professed touching either of these points Peter Martyrs iudgement of GEHENNA we heard before who maketh Tophet all one with GEHENNA and saith of Tophet Esaie in his 30. Chapter calleth that place of Gehenna Tophet and fire vnquenchable as hauing much wood and brimstone to nourish it The Prophet also setteth downe the breath wherewith the fire is blowne that it may flame the more siercely Munster in his Annotations vpon the 30. of Esaie saith Gehenna is here called Tophet Dicit habitaculum illud esse igâ—…eum That place or habitacle the Prophet saith is all fierie to let thee vnderstand that the torment there is euerlasting For the vncleane lustes of the mind which here are not purged by faith shall be the nourishment of that eternall flame IN STEEDE of wood and coales And also the conscience within shall afflict the wicked as a kind of fire Hell is perpetuall because the Spirite and will of the Lord giue euerlasting force of fire to it Bullinger in his 90. homilie vpon the same Chapter Our Prophet calleth hell Tophet as our Sauiour called it Gehenna And indeede Tophet or Gehenna did burne and flame with perpetuall fires deuouring their children which seduced with a diuelish error thought they offered them vnto God when they offered them vnto the diuell As then in Tophet wretched men were skorched with fire so in hell all the wicked are tormented with euerlasting fire Therefore hell is rightly called Tophet and Gehenna whose inside or burning is fire that is if thou aske what is in hell there is fire and burning or
only is your question or nothing Many shifts you haue sent vs in your late defence which sauour neither of learning nor religion but a slenderer then this you haue sent vs none For first this is not the chiefe doubt whether there be now in hell any true fire or no which you say is your ONLY QVESTION or nothing but what is the substance of damnation due to sinne and what vengeance for sinne all the wicked must suffer in hell not for a time but for euer and we should haue suffered had we not been redeemed this is the right maine point in question For this is the full waight and burden of our sinnes which you say must be laid vpon Christ before we could be freed from it and this is the proper payment and wages of sinne which we should haue payed had we not beene ransommed by the death of Christ and therefore by your owne conclusions Christ must and did pay the same which else we should haue payed That which the damned doe presently suffer in hell is not the full burden nor iust vages of their sinnes else the terror of Iudgement as well as the taking of their bodies were wholy superfluous if the true payment and full vengeance of their sinnes were executed on them before Iudgement But the reprobat as well men as Angels are Reserued vnder darknes vnto the iudgement of the great day and Vnto DAMNATION which sleepeth not though it be not already to the full performed on either Againe a great number of the wicked shall neuer trie the torments of the soule seuered from the body because the day of Christ shall find them liuing as the Apostle testifieth and not part their soules from their bodies but cast both ioyntly into hell fire so that the vengeance of sinne before Iudgement which you would so faine fasten on and make YOVR ONLY QVESTION commeth too short of all your owne conclusions and is excluded by the expresse words of your limitations in your late defence For you subiect Christ to all Gods proper wrath and vengeance so farre as was due generally for all mankinde to suffer But the fire of hell before Iudgement except it be the selfe same that also remaineth after iudgement belongeth not by Gods iustice to all men in generall by reason manie shall not suffer it but after iudgement It is euident therefore that the fire of hell before iudgement is not your maine question because it neither is the full wages nor vengeance of sinne nor generally due to all mankinde but the right and true question is touching hell fire after iudgement wherein body and soule shall burne feeling the torment and violence of euerlasting fire according to the measure of ech mans sinnes Howbeit if we marke well the words of holy Scripture this which you would so gladly make your question is no question at all For by the sentence of the Iudge it manifestly appeareth that there is but one aud the same fire prouided for all the damned both men and diuels and that fire not onely is euerlasting without end or change but prepared and made ready before the day of iudgement as the words of our Sauiour doe plainly import who will say to all the wicked without exception Depart from me ye cursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that euerlasting fire which is alreadie prepared for the diuell and his angels The article so often repeated suffereth the fire whereinto the wicked shall be cast to be none other fire but the selfe-same that is euerlasting and prepared for the diuels The Participle of the Preterperfect tence argueth the time when that fire was prepared for the diuell and his angels to be perfectly past before iudgement Of the first there can be no question Idem quippe ignis crit supplicio scilicet hominum attributus Daemonum dicente Christo Discedite à me maledicti in ignem aeternum qui paratus est Diabolo Angelis eius Vnus quippe ignis vtrisque erit sicut veritas dixit The same fire sayth Austen shall serue for the punishing of men and Diuels Christ saying Depart from me ye cursed into the fire euerlasting which is prepared for the Diuell and his Angels One fire shal be to both as the trueth hath spoken The second that hell fire is prepared before the day of iudgement and abideth euerlasting from the time of the preparation without any new creating or altering at the day of iudgement is as euident by the sacred Scriptures Esay who liued and prophesied more than eight hundred yeeres before our Sauiour reuealed this doctrine sayth of it as we heard before Tophet is prepared of old or long since the burning thereofis as the fire of much wood the breath of the Lord like a riuer of brimstone doth kindle it Our Lord and Master almost one thousand six hundred yeeres since made the soule of the rich man in the sixteenth of Luke to say of hell fire I am tormented in this flame And S. Iude proposing the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrhe sayth They are set foorth for an example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by suffering the punishment of euerlasting fire Where we see the fire which God rained from heauen on Sodome and Gomorrhe is called euerlasting and the inhabitants of those cities are affirmed by the Apostle euen then when he wrate to suffer euerlasting sire for an example of the iust iudgement of God It is therefore one and the same fire of hell that punisheth the wicked before and after iudgement which was prepared long since as Esay sayth and is euerlasting that is not ending or changing into another fire but increasing and kindling with greater fiercenesse at the day of iudgement that all the wicked both men and angels may receiue a damnation answerable to their deserts which in part they now feele but then expect a sharper and sorer torment than yet is executed on them which is the terrour of iudgement and fulnesse of damnation reserued for them Then notwithstanding your sleights and shifts Sir Discourser that Christ suffered the substance and essence of hell paines and that happily there shall be corporall fire after Iudgement yet now there is no true fire in hell we find it resolued by the Scriptures and auouched by all the ancient Fathers and the best learned Diuines of our time that the fire of hell so much threatned in the Scriptures to the reprobate is a true substantiall and externall fire and the same that was prepared for the deuils euen from their fall and doth and shal dure as well before as after Iudgement for euer into which the soules are and at the generall resurrection the bodies of all the wicked shall be cast there to burne with vnspeakeable and vnceaseable torments And though I thinke it not fit for any man to take vpon him to deliuer the quality or force of that fire further then the Scriptures
members and vitall parts is so weake that they are not able to sustaine the force which bringeth great or most sharpe paine Which Chrysostome also confiâ—…meth Name fiâ—…e if thou wilt the sword or wilde beasts and if any thing be more grieuous than these yet are these scant a shadow to the torments of hell And these when they grow vehement are easiest and soonest dispatch men the body not sufficing to suffer a sharpe paine any long while Your hell paines then are not very sharpe which the wicked may suffer so many yeres in this life and not forsake either food or sleepe Yet Christ did feele you say Gods very wrath and proper vengeance for sinne and that only you know though you câ—…n not expresse the maner or measure of his feeling it And it was discerned and conceiâ—…ed by Christ to be such and so did wound the soule properly yea chiefly though it were outwardly executed on his bodic The wrath and vengeance of God due to sinne and generally to all mankinde for sinne is spirituall corporall and eternall death with all the seeds and fruits of death that is the losse of all earthly and heauenly blessings in this life and the next and the depth of perpetuall miâ—…ery in body and soule here and in hell This is the true wages and full payment of sinne and though God of his bountie and patience do often remit to the wicked in this life a great part of this 〈◊〉 in things tempo all yet when he inflicteth on them the miseries and calaâ—…ities of this life he giueth them their due And as for spirituall and eternall death now and hereafter it is so proper and certaine to the reprobate that not one of them shall eâ—…cape eâ—…ther Spirituall death is blindnesse and hardnesse of heart working all vncleâ—…nnesse euen with greedinesse which sheweth men to be strangers from the life of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as past all sense and feeling of God Eternall death the Scripture calleth WRATH TO COME because no man suffereth the full force and waâ—…ght thereof in this life but as it is the second death so it followeth in men after the first death which â—…euereth the soule from the bodâ—…e Yee vipers broâ—…d sayd Iohn Baptist to the Pharises and Sadduâ—…s who hath taught you thus to flâ—…e from the wrath to come Iesus sayth Paul deliuereth vs from the wrath to come In this life the wicked may haue a fearefull expectation but no present execution of this iudgement there is a day of â—…rath euen the reuelation of the â—…st iudgement of God when euery man shall be rewarded according to his works and a violent fire shall dâ—…uoure the aduersaries This wrath by the Scriptures is reserued for the vessels of wrath for euer and shall be executed on them with indignation furie and fire not onely because the wrath of God against the wicked burneth lâ—…ke fire but for that it shall be powred on them with flaming and euerlasting fire The effects whereof are reiection malediction confusion desperation and such lâ—…ke which neuer accompanie saluation To say that Christ suffered this kinde of wrath which is the true and proper wages of sinne is horrible and hellish blasphemie which I hope no Christian man will aduenture From the spirituall death of the soule which is the wrath of God reuealed from heauen against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men and bringeth with it the losse of all grace and goodnesse in this life and consequently leaueth the pollution and dominion of sinne in the soule of man our Lord and master must be as free as from damnation the one being alwayes a necessary consequent to the other Displeasure and wrath against Christes person God neuer had nor could haue any Christ being his owne and only sonne and so deerely beloued that for his sake Gods most iust and most heauie wrath against the sinnes of all his elect did calme and asswage for Gods inward loue doth not admit contrarieties or changes as mans doth all Gods counsels wayes and wo kes being absolutely perfect and constant chiefly towards his owne sonne whom he naturally infinitly and euerlastingly loueth in the same degree that he doth himselfe and therefore no more possible there should be in god any displeasure or dislike conceiued of his sonne for bearing the sinnes of the world or for what cause soeuer than of himselfe And since the humane nature of Christ was by Gods owne wisdome will and worke ioyned into the vnitie of the person of his sonne and made one and the same Christ with his Godhead no cause nor course whatsoeuer could alter or diminish the exceeding loue and fauour of God towards the very manhood of Christ but as God did inseparably knit it to the person of his sonne so did he make it fully partaker of that infinite loue wherewith he embraced his sonne To confirme this to all the world God did often from heauen pronounce with his owne voice This is my beloued sonne in whom I am well pleased as he forespake by his Prophet Beholde mâ—…e elect in whom my soule delighteth This vnspeakable loue of God towards the person of his Sonne now being God and man is the chiefe ground of our election and redemption For wee were adopted through Iesus Christ and made accepted in his beloued by whom wee haue redemption through his blood euen the forgiuenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace So that we were neither elected nor redeemed but by the infinite loue of God towards his sonne for whose â—…ake we were adopted to be the sonnes of God and to whose loue the fierce wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes did yeeld and giue place neither may he beare the name of a Christian man that otherwise teacheth or beleeueth of our election and redemption Now iudge thou Christian Reader whether it were wrath or loue in God towards his sonne that pardoned all our sinnes for his â—…ake and accepted the voluntarie sacrifice of his bodie and blood for the redemption of the world through whoâ—…e death we are reconciled to God and cleansed by his blood from all our sinnes Then as in God there neither was nor could be any displeasure against the person of his Sonne nor against any part thereof for what cause soeuer nor any chaunge or decrease of the loue which God with his own mouth professed from heauen towards Christ incarnate so could not Christ without plaine infidelitie conceaue or beleeue that God was inwardly displeased or angrie with â—…im no not when he presented him â—…elfe to God his Father vnder the burden of all our â—…innes knowing that neither sin from which he was â—…ee being the innocent and â—…mmaculate â—…amb of God noâ—… Gods most holy dislike or iust pursuite of sinne could diminish Gods fatherly affection and most constant loue to him For though he were not ignorant that God in his holinesse did hate
being yet coherent Euen as Hippocrates sayd before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the lower iaw is broken if it be not cleane forced a sunder but that the bone is in some part coherent By which it is euident that as well ioynts as bones may be BROKEN and that either in part or in whole Klan then whence klômenon is deriued importeth not necessarily the breaking of bones in mans body as by your new Diuinitie you haue lately deuised to make way for your hell paines in the soule of Christ but it signifieth generally to breake as our English word doth and frango with the Latines likewise whether it be by bowing or straining that which is straight by losing that which is fast by bruizing that which is sound or by cutting and seuering in part or in whole that which is coherent And so much our English word BROKEN expresseth We say the necke or backe is broken when neither bone nor skinne is broken but the fastning of the ioynts is losed Likewise the head the face the shinnes are broken when the skin or flesh of these parts is by some violence razed or torne Yea the veynes are broken with a rupture and children are broken out when their flesh doth exulcerate And since the diuiding of that which was coherent which the Phisitians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the solution of vnitie or continuitie whether it be strayning cutting razing tearing or bruizing the bones or flesh of mans body in part or in whole is contained in the English word breaking and in the Greeke word Klômenon the Apostle spake properly enough when he said that Christs body was broken for so much as all the ioynts of it were losed in sunder the vaines and sinewes tornc with piercing and grating of Iron spikes the flesh and the skinne cut and rent with thornes whips and speare and bruized with staues though the bones were not broken which is your ignorant exception against the Apostles words But MEDVCCA in the Prophet is broken in peeces properly or crushed and broken to powder as these Scriptures doe vse the word likewise and all Lexicons doe confirme Your resolutions are so rash that no man will trust your report for the proper signification of words DACHA indeede is properly to bruize whether it be with hand or foote but not to peeces nor to powder without some other word added to expresse so much For your Lexicons to which you so confidently appeale consult that of Pagnine perused and augmented by Mercere Ceuattere and Bertrame and Printed at Lyons in Fraunce Anno 1575. or Forsters Printed at Basile Anno 1564. and see whether they do not plainly reproue your folly Forstere expresseth the theme whence MEDVCCA commeth by oppressione seu depressione contusus est to be bruized by oppression or depression neither doth he so much as mention the signification of frangere to breake in all the examples of that theme Pagnine declareth the force of that theme by conterere frangere contundere to beate breake or bruize but Mercere addeth as Forstere did oppressione vel depressione by oppressing and depressing And against your beating to powder Pagnine taketh speciall exception out of the Rabbins in the very same place of Numbers whence you would inferre it For vpon the words Numbers 11. verse 8. the people gathered Manna and BEATE IT in morters and made cakes of it He saith differt a SHACHAK secundum Hebreorum Doctores quod SHACHAK est minutatim contundere terere The word here vsed differreth from SHACHAK according to the opinion of the Hebrew Doctors because SHACHAK signifieth to beat a thing small or to powder which cosequently this doth not And though they had dissembled so much yet the Scripture it selfe doth conuince that your obseruation out of that place as out of all the rest which you quote for that word is starke false For Manna by the description of Moses was a small round thing small as the hore frost on the earth and fell in the night with the dew and melted away when the heate of the sonne came Now Manna being so moist that it would melt with the heate of the Sunne was not beaten in morters to bring it to powder as you boldly suppose since it would rather cleaue together then come to powder but by bruizing it betweene two stones which was their kind of Mill in the Wildernes or in a morter with some water they did worke it to batter or dough thereof to make wafers or cakes But were it so that Manna would come to powder which yet the text doth not infeâ—…re will you conclude because beating in a morter bringeth dry things to powder that therefore beating doth generally and necessarily signifie beating to powder And as that place is mistaken by you which only seemed to make for you so not one of the rest which you quote in your maâ—…gin doth conuince either beating to powder or breaking in peeces properly to which you so violently wrest the words of â—…say For where the Prophet saith the Nettes of Egypt shall be torne that is farre from beating to powder except you haue lately deuised the powder of Nettes to make a plaister of And if we should say they were torne to pieces what necessitie is there that either this tearing should be properly breaking which you admit not but in things that be stiffe and hard as bones and such like or that those pieces should be diuided from the whole and not rather be ruptures in the whole as we see in torne nettes which are not alwaies rent cleane a sunder The next and last place which you quote for the proper vse of this word it as wide from your purpose as West from East None wounded sayth Moses with any contusion â—…r abscission of his secret parts shall enter into the congregation of the Lord. Can thosâ—… parts of man be properly broken in pieces or beaten to powder They may be bruized or wounded as other fleshy parts may be but breaking to pieces properly or beating to powder were very strange in that case That bruizing was vsed as well as cutting to make men Eunuches appeareth by Paulus Aegineta where he sayth Huâ—…us reâ—… modus duplex est vnus collisione alter excisione absoluitur The way to do this is double one by bruising the other by cutting And since Moses compriseth both these wayes in his words it is euident that DACCA is a bruize and consequently the word may be properly applied to Christes bodie which was sorely bruized as well with the beating of sâ—…aues and whips as with piercing and grating of iron spikes These are the grounds on which you gather the Prophet could not by that word meane the wounding and bruizing of Christes bodie but because powder and pieces as you dreame are properly comprised in that theme therefore it must be referred to the soule of Christ. As if pieces and powder came
owne words and hereafter by your leaue tell you it is a plaine lye and a meere shift if you father your termes of Christs meere blood and single bodie vpon me as any part of the Question which I mooued or Doctrine which I defend Wherefore I pray thee Christian Reader once more to take notice that I be not driuen in euery page to proue one and the same thing against the Discoursers vnsauery childish and Idle phrases with which he would faine elude the Scriptures and delude the world Your confession both of my Sermons and conclusion Sir Descourser is this Sundry times you teach that Christ did suffer peculiarly and seuerally some proper punishments in his soule besides his bodily sufferings yea that this was a part of his crosse and the effect of Gods wrath on his soule as well as the suffering in his body Against my words so often witnessed in my writings and so openly confessed by your selfe you take vpon you by some secret reuelation belike to know my meaning that no more but the shedding of Christs blood MEERELY is the full satisfaction of all our sinnes which MEERE BLOOD of Christ the Scriptures meane not nor onely his body SINGLY and SIMPLY considered The MEERE blood and SINGLE and SIMPLE body of Christ with such like couerts of your cause are termes fit for such a teacher as you are to which if you could once conuert the Question we must haue as many Lexicons to bring vs out of these Laberinthes as there be leaues in your booke Keepe them therefore as whelps of your owne litture the faith of Christ and the word of God hath stood without them these sixteene hundered yeeres What I meane by the body and blood of Christ giuen and shed for our Redemption and the remission of our sinne I haue meetly well expressed I must not in euery section fall to fresh repetitions When I speake as the Scripture speaketh I meane as the Scripture meaneth They know not your new termes of the MEERE blood nor of the single and simple body of Christ but by his blood and death they meane that manner of shedding his blood and that kind and course of death suffered in the body of his flesh which the Gospell describeth no way excluding from Christ when he presented himselfe before God to vndertake mans cause the due consideration of mans infirmitie and iniquitie abounding or of Gods iustice therewith displeased nor his humble and voluntary submission to the mightie hand and righteous will of his heauenly Father to excuse vs from the heauie iudgement that otherwise did hang ouer our heads So much as the Scriptures mention in declaring the manner of his death and bloodshedding so much they containe in the name of his Crosse blood and death For as the description which the holy Ghost maketh is in no point idle so the comprehension of all vnder one word excludeth nothing formerly described This I take to be a sound and sure way to expound the Scriptures by their owne direction and intention For since the manner and order of Christs death was so carefully regestred by the spirite of God that we should not be ignorant of it whensoeuer the Scriptures speake of Christs Crosse blood and death they referre vs to all that which either by the Prophets was foretold or in the Gospell is expressed touching the order and manner of his death And so Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures as Paul addeth Then to take any thing from it which is mentioned in the Scriptures or to adde any thing to it which is not there expresly recorded is to depart from the word of trueth and to dishonor and deface the death and bloud of Christ with our inuentions This being my meaning euen from the beginning as my words declare I moued these two generall questions The first Whether in the crosse and death of Christ described in the Scriptures the death of the soule or the death of the damned were by any good warrant of the sayd Scriptures comprised Secondly Whether the crosse and death of Christ as the Scriptures describe them be not the full and perfect price of our redemption from sinne and reconciliation to God by the testimonie of the same Scriptures without the death of the soule or paines of the damned The Discourser finding himselfe inclosed with these questions speaketh directlie to neither and prooueth nothing in either but declining the enuie of these speeches the death of the soule and the paines of the damned which indeed are the points misliked and reiected he changeth the first question into the generall termes of suffering Gods wrath and the soules proper suffering which may import manie things besides those two and in the second he euery where beareth the Reader in hand that by the death and bloud of Christ I meane the MEERE bodily sufferings of Christ without anie sense or sorrow of the soule in her spirituall powers And lest the Scripture should stand in his way he casteth them all behinde him that any way witnesse the force and merit of Christes death and bloudshedding as figuratiue speeches because they name not the MEERE bloud of Christ nor only his body SINGLY considered But Sir all this while you forget that you haue proued nothing but onely supposed and auouched what pleased you and that in matters of faith you may not adde to the word of God without manifest apostasie The things questioned by me were the death of the soule and the verie paines of the damned as appeareth euidently by my words when I first mooued the question Of these you say nothing all this while which yet you must soundly fully proue before you may adde them to the words of the Holy ghost testifying the power vertue of Christes bloud and death Therefore howsoeuer you seeme to shift off the Scriptures as figuratiue speeches with your MEERE and SINGLE termes they will sticke faster by you than so For as there can be no doubt of my meaning comprising all in the death and bloud of Christ which the Scriptures report of the order and maner of his sufferings when he yeelded himselfe to die for the sinnes of the world according to the counsell of his Fathers wil so you may not presume any thing to be conteined in the death or crosse of Christ as requisite for our redemption which is not cleerely witnessed by the Scriptures Proue therefore by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which are the true paines of hell and then adde it to the crosse of Christ when you will Till so you do the Scriptures which I haue produced stand in their full strength against you For as they bind all Christian men stedfastly to beleeue that which is written touching their redemption by the death and bloud of Christ so do they straitly prohibit all and euery be they men or Angels to adde any other
his Resurrection as antecedent since he possessed not that immortall and heauenly life which now he hath but vpon his arising from the dead And so the Apostle placeth them Christ died and rose againe and reuiued into such power and glory that he was made Lord ouer dead and quicke And Cyrill who often times vseth this word he reuiued of Christ meaneth the third day after Christs death when the Scriptures affirme he rose from the graue So Cyrill and the Synode of Alexandria that ioyned with him in writing vnto Nestorius say of Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reuiued the third day hauing spoyled hell and so in his second confession of the true faith to the religious Queenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ spoyling death reuiued the third day And in his Epistle to those of Egypt Christ is said in the Scriptures first to haue died as a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after that to haue returned to life by that which he was by Nature If then he died not in the flesh according to the Scriptures he was not quickned by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he reuiued not againe So that Cyrill hath not any seeming words for the death of Christs Soule but saith as Christ said in effect before that the Sonne of man gaue his soule or life to be a ransome for the life of all and not for the Soule of all which in the singular number is neither good English nor good Diuinitie though to smooth it you put the plurall and say for our soules which is not in Cyrill The words of Ambrose will prooue that Christ offered his Soule for vs hoc in se obtulit Christus quod induit Christ offered in Sacrifice all that which he assumed Besides that you falsifie Ambrose by adding ALL to his words which haue no such thing in them you â—…est Ambroses words against Ambroses meaning For though it may well be graunted that Christ offered body and soule as a Sacrifice of holinesse and obedience vnto God and that Christs Soule likewise was laid downe vnto the death of his body to feele the smart thereof and to be seuered by the force thereof in which respect Esay saith that Christ powred forth his Soule vnto death Yet Ambrose speaking of Christs sacrifice for the sinnes of the people meaneth as the rest of the Fathers doe that part of the Sacrifice which was slaine which was by his and their confession Christs body and not Christs Soule Heare Ambrose him selfe In quo nisi in corpore expiauit populi peceata In quo passus est nisi in corpore Wherein did Christ sacrifice for the sinnes of the people but in his body wherein did he suffer death but in his body And so Theodoret Christ was called a Priest in his humane nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and offered none other Sacrifice but his owne body Athanasius nameth what Christ put on and what he offered The word of God that made all things was afterward made an hie Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Putting on a body that was borne and made which he might offer for vs. Nazianzene saith to Christ. Thou art a sheepe because thouwast a Sacrifice thou art an hie Priest because thou offeredst thy body Augustine also Sacerdos propter victimam quam pro nobis offerret a nobis acceptam Christ 〈◊〉 a Priest for the Sacrifice he tooke of vs that he might offer it for vs. What that Sacrifice was he sheweth saying Assumpsit a nobis quod offerret Domino ipsas diximus sanctas primitias carnis ex vtero virginis Christ tooke of vs that he might offer to the Lord we meane the holy first fruits of his flesh taken from the wombe of the Virgine Theophylact A Priest may by no meanes be without a Sacrifice It was then necessarie that Christ should haue somewhat to offer Quod autem offerretur praeter eius corpus nil quidpiam erat necessariò ergo mortuus est Now there was vtterly nothing that he might offer besides his body it was needfull then he should die This that Christ tooke a body to offer is most agreeable to Ambroses mind as well in the booke which you cite as in other parts of his writings Ex segenerauit Maria Marie conceiued of her selfe to wit of her owne body that what was conceiued of her might be the true nature of a body And alleadging Saint Pauls words that Christ was made of the seede of Dauid according to the flesh Rom. 1. and made of a woman Galat. 4. He concludeth Ergo ex nobis accepit quod proprium offerret pro nobis vt nos redimeret ex nostro Then Christ tooke of vs that which hee might offer as his owne for vs to the ende he might redeeme vs by that which was ours And declaring what he meant euen by the words which you bring Christ offered that in himselfe which hee put on Ambrose addeth Non igitur diuinitatem induit sed carnem assumpsit vt spolium carnis exueret Christ put not on the nature of his Diuinitie but he tooke flesh that he might put off the spoyle of his flesh when he should die Now if the flesh of Christ were subiect to all iniuries how say you that Christs flesh is of the same substance with his Godhead What else doe you in so saying but compare Adams slime and our earth to the Diuine substance Here Ambrose plainely confesseth what hee meant Christ tooke vnto him and offered for vs euen Adams slime and our earth whereof his body was made Which elsewhere hee precisely auoucheth saying Corpus suscepit nostrae mortalitatis vt pro nobis haberet quid offerret Christ assumed our mortall body that he might haue what to offer for vs. And least you should after your trifling maner aske whether we exclude an humane soule from the body which Christ tooke of the substance of his mother and which hee offered for vs to death on the Crosse I answere with Ambrose Cum susceperit carnem hominis consequens est vt perfectionem incarnationis plenitudinemque susceperit Nihil enim in Christo imperfectum Where as Christ tooke vnto him the flesh of a man it is consequent that hee tooke vnto him the perfection and fulnesse of incarnation for there is nothing imperfect in Christ. And what neede was there hee should take flesh without a Soule when as an insensible flesh and an vnreasonable soule was neither subiect to sinne nor capable of reward An humane soule was a necessarie sequell to Christs body which he tooke of the seede of Dauid and substance of his mother as it is to all ours before we can be men but the soule is not comprised in the name of the body much lesse doeth it receiue the same conditions and properties which the body doth Though then I make no doubt but Christ at his birth and
ioyntedst me Lo here the conception and formation of mans bodie in his mothers wombe most excellently described It followeth now in Ieb touching the soule Life and mercie thou hast giuen me and thy visitation hath kept my spirit Beholde life that is the soule infused of God into the bodie alreadie framed Therefore rightly and according to the Scriptures do we holde that mens soules are created of God and infâ—…nded into their bodies perfectlie framed before in the wombe Caluine God is the Father as well of the soule as of the bodie and the only Father if we speake properly yet because in creating soules he vseth not the seruice or worke of man after a peculiar maner by a kinde of excellencie he is called the Father of spirits Beza I thinke not good to dissemble this that the doctrine of traducing the soule from the parents seemeth to me verie absurd because either the whole or a part must be traduced If the whole the fathers of force must presently dic hauing whollie lost their soules If a part how can a part be cut off from a simple and spirituall substance Vrsinus We grant the soules of all men are created of God when they beginne to liue for they at one time are created and vnited to the bodie Zanchius That the whole soule is created by God I beleeue confesse and teach with the whole Church and auouch it may be prooued by firme reasons His reasons are largely deliuered in the fift chapter of the same booke and all that can be sayd for generation and propagation of soules against their creation by the immediate worke of God without any humane meanes is there learnedly and sufficiently refuted So that in respect of Austens doubt whether God deriue the soule from the soules of the parents when he putteth it into the bodie being first finished or createth it of nothing as he did Adams soule I did relinquish that in question but as for the soules rising in and by generation from Adam which you now catch holde of I neuer meant to fauor that fansie so much as to make it any question in matters of faith since with one consent Philosophie Physicke euident experience and the Scriptures themselues conuince that to be an erroneous and manifest vntruth I haue shewed before at large that your Minor is nothing true for pollution that is sinne and reall iniquitie is not in our flesh without a soule You said so much in effect before in your Treatise and if your word bee a proofe you haue shewed it but other proofe you bring none saue that which inclineth rather to heresie then Christianitie if you speake to the purpose and stand to your words as they lie either in your Treatise or in your Defence In your Treatise you say Let vs not bee curious in this hard point holding this most euident trueth that sinne is a proper and vnseparable qualitie of the soule and can not be found being in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting If you take the word sinne in his right sense as you ought to doe speaking of the propagation of sinne and so comprise in it as well originall as actuall sinne here are two grosse errors euen against the Christian faith For if sinne can not be found in any thing where a reasonable soule is wanting then can no sinne bee found in the deuils for they haue no soules Angels to haue soules I doe not remember that euer I read in the deuine and canonicall Scriptures saith Austen If Angels haue not soules then deuils haue none for they were holy and now are reprobate but still Angels as Christ calleth the deuill and his Angels Againe sinne being either actual or originall children in their mothers wombe haue not actuall sinne neither dispute we of actuall sinne when we talke of deriuing and inheriting sinne for actuall sinne is neither deriued nor inherited If then that which is conceiued haue no originall sinne so long as the soule wanteth since you content your selfe as you say with the opinion of the most at this present that the soule doth not passe together with the seede of our generation and conception most euidently you denie original sinne till the soule come to quicken the body and so contradict the expresse words of Dauid who saith Hee was begotten in sinne and conceiued in iniquitie No maruell then you stumble at Ambroses words that wee are defiled before we hauâ—… life as repugnant to your purpose when you spare not Dauids words who saith as much if not more then Ambrose I pray omit mens Authorities in this case and prooue by sound reason that which you would For pollution that is sinne and reall iniquitie is not in our flesh without a soule We were best to omit all learning experience and trueth that onely your conceits may stand vpright It hath pleased God in things naturall by sight and experience to leade Philosophers and Physitians to the trueth of his workes as farre as mans wit can reach and with one consent they resolue that the reasonable soule of man neither riseth in the body nor commeth to the body presently with the conception Mothers and midwiues doe certainely distinguish the time of quickning from the time of conceiuing and hee that would perswade them that the child quickneth immediately vpon the conception might as easily bring them to beleeue that the moone is made of a greene cheese But sound reason you require As if trueth of experience were not the soundest reason men can giue till God doe speake That the body is not straight way framed vpon the conception many thousand scapes in all femals and namely in women doe perfectly prooue The Physitians and Philosophers interpose many monthes betweene the conception and perfection of the body Iob himselfe declareth that we were first as milke when we were in seede then condensed as curds when we turned to bloud and after that clothed with skinne and flesh and lastly compacted with bones and synewes before we receiued life and soule from God The new Testament noteth these three degrees in forming our bodies to wit seede bloud and flesh and calleth our parents the fathers of our bodies but not of our spirits which God alone is If then nothing can be defiled with sinne as by your doctrine you resolue except it haue a reasonable soule of necessitie wee either had reasonable soules at the instant of our conception which is a most famous falsehood repugnant to al learning experience and to the words of Iob or else we were not conceiued in sinne which is a flat heresie dissenting from the plaine words of the sacred Scriptures and from the Christian faith Choose which of these issues you will you either way shew your selfe to haue little sense and lesse trueth But I must adde the word onely or else I say nothing against you No good Sir that shall not need
superfluous That you will say is the proper and strict signification of the word satisfie but you take it more largely For the abuse of words I will not greatly striue so you build thereon no impieties howbeit when I say that nothing might satisfie for sinne but death I take satisfaction properly for the last and full payment after which no more was due for sinne and that apparantly by the Scriptures was the death of Christ before which the rest was not sufficient and after which no more was required by the righteous will and counsell of God So that although the obedience and patience of Christ all his life long did tend to satisfaction and made way for satisfaction as his hunger wearinesse pouertie and such like yet none of these did satisfie for sinne or acquite vs from sinne by the verdict of the holy Scripture but Christ after all these must yeeld himselfe to suffer that kind of death which the iustice of God should appoint and ordaine before we could be freed from our sinnes His blood you thinke did wash vs from all our sinnes Because his blood was shed for vs euen vnto death therefore his bloodshed expresseth the manner of his death as likewise his apprehension buffeting reproches and shame which the Scripture describeth in the order of his death and therefore compriseth vnder the name of his death For by Christes death as I haue often said the Scripture meaneth that kind of death in all respects and circumstances which the Euangelists in their writings report Who will grant in proper speech that those are his death The name of Christs death in the Scriptures containeth all those things which were coincident and concurrent to that death which Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Neither shall we neede your figure Synecdoche by a part of Christs sufferings to vnderstand all that he felt or suffered from his mothers wombe that is a loose deuise of yours to make any thing of euery thing and so to confound the Scriptures that no man shall knowe either what to beleeue or what to beware For where S. Iohn saith the blood of Christ doth clense vs from all our sinnes by your Synecdoche you imagine that the wine which he dranke at his last Supper the water wherewith he washed his disciples feete the teares which he shed for Lazarus death the iourney which he tooke to Galilee the sleepe which he fetched in the ship the hunger which he sustained in the wildernesse and what not should doe the like since euery thing that befell our Sauiour small or great did satisfie for sinnes as well as his death and passion What els is this but to mayme and mangle the Scriptures which name the blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption and his death the meane of our reconciliation if euerie thing that Christ did or endured shall be of the same force and weight to satisfie for sinne that his bloud and death were His bloud you will say is not his death The shedding of his bloud vnto death which the Scripture intendeth by his bloud is a plaine description of his death This is my bloud sayd he which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And the rest which were appendants to his death expresse the maner of his death which the wisdome and iustice of God would haue to be full of violence iniurie reproch contempt shame and paine All which as they note the maner of his death so are they inclosed by the Scriptures in the name of his death and that I trust more properly being parts thereof than the naturall infirmities of his bodie as sleepe hunger and wearinesse or the voluntarie euents of his life as the rest of his actions and passions long before the houre came that he should be deliuered into the hands of sinfull men Why may not the proper sufferings of Christs Soule be as well admitted into the worke of Christs satisfaction although his SOVLE COVLD NOT PROPERLY DIE The sufferings of Christs Soule at the time of his death which the Scriptures mention we easily admit into the worke of his satisfaction for sinne but your satis-fiction of hell paines and of the death of Christs Soule we doe not admit because the holy Ghost so diligently describing the whole order and manner of Christs sufferings when he went to his death teacheth no such thing as you falsely collect from certaine words of his and chiefly from his bloody sweate whereof not knowing precisely the cause you surmise what best pleaseth your humor without all warrant of the word of God Prooue therefore by the Scriptures and not by your owne ghesses that Christs Soule suffered these things from the immediate hand of God which you suppose and we shall soone find a place for them in the worke of Christs satisfaction for sinne Till then giue me leaue to expound the Scriptures by themselues and not by your vnioynted and vntidie Commentaries confounding Christs life and death nature and will affections and punishments satisfaction and merits as if they were not different parts of our saluation to take our nature vpon him to worke all righteousnes in our names to suffer a shamefull and painfull death for our sinnes and to obtaine all spirituall and celestiall graces and comforts here and in heauen for vs. The first sinne committed by Adam and our continuall treading in his steps rest yet vndiscussed wherein we should not neede many words if you could or at least would rightly conceaue what is said and not ignorantly or purposely mistake and measure all things by your hastie humor To prooue that Christ must satisfie for sinne by the proper sufferings of his Soule and not with or by his body you brought this reason in your Treatise Whereby Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne by the same the second Adam Christ hath made satisfaction for our sinnes But Adam first did and we euer since doe most properly commit sinne in our Soules our bodies being but the Instrument of the Soule and following the Soules direction and will Therefore Christ in his Soule most properly made satisfaction for vs In my Conclusion to your obiections I first denyed your Maior or former proposition For though the Soule of Adam as also our Soules quickly might and worthily did die for sinne and by sinne wherein they were the principall agents yet the Soule of Christ by no warrant of holy Scripture did or could die the death of Spirits and so could make no satisction for sin by her death Now by the Scriptures without death there was no satisfaction for sin and therefore the soule of Christ must satisfie for sinne by the death of her body not by any death proper to her selfe And so much the Scriptures auouch teaching vs that we haue redemption euen the remission of sinnes through his blood are reconciled to God
by the death of his Sonne who bare our sinnes in his body on the tree that we might be deliuered from sinne and healed with his stripes And without satisfaction to God for sinne we haue neither remission of sinne nor redemption from sinne nor reconciliation with God Vpon this ground I then did still do reiect your maior as guarded neither with text nor truth but leaning only to your priuat liking as the best helpe to commend it From thence I came to your assumption or second proposition that Adam first and we euer since most properly committed sin in our soules our bodies being but the instruments of our soules following the Soules direction and will The which because it had diuerse branches one touching Adams transgression an other touching ours and likewise two parts the soule body in either I reserued for diuers answers In Adams sinne if you meant as your words made shew that his Soule and bodie were ioyned in transgressing Gods Commandement the Soule as the agent the body as the instrument That I said was MOST TRVE but repugnant to your intention and maine Conclusion For then as Adams Soule transgressed the Commandement with and by her bodie so in fatisfying for sinne Christs Soule must be punished by and with her bodie which was the thing you so much laboured to ouerthrow To this you now replie Nay the Conclusion will follow that the immortall part the minde was punished peculiarly and not by and from the body onely seeing in all euen outward sinnes the Soule sinneth both principally and also in a proper and peculiar manner by it selfe yea before the body sinneth Albeit the body sinneth also secondarily and in a manner proper to it selfe euen as the instrument as you say The principall and peculiar action of the Soule in sinnes that be common to the Body and Soule maketh no proofe that the Soule must haue a distinct and seuerall punishment from the body or that it may not be punished from and by the body The true and full punishment of all sinne in all the wicked is the casting of Body and Soule into hell fire where one and the same punishment is common to both euen as their sinnes were notwithstanding the proper and peculiar manner which the Soule hath in sinne by it selfe aboue the body The punishments of this life are likewise common to both For the Soule feeleth whatsoeuer greeueth the Body neither can any thing offend the Soule which doth not likewise disquiet the Body How beit the effects and impressions of one and the same punishment are different in Soule and Body not onely because the Soule is the chiefe patient and sentient in all paine as it was the chiefe agent and disponent in all sinne but also for that the Soule seeth and greeueth farder vpon feeling the paine then the body can doe For the Sense of the Body can onely iudge how tolerable or intolerable the paine is but the Soule reacheth vnto the cause continuance and consequence thereof which often times afflict the Soule as much or more then the paine it selfe This difference dependeth on the nature of the Soule which because it is endued with reason remembrance and intelligence perceiueth not onely things present and subiect to sense as the Body doth but things past and future together with their dependences and things spirituall as well as corporall and the losse of ioy and blisse no lesse then the anguish of perpetuall paine and miserie So that in all punishments of sinne which be common to the Soule and Body the Soule is farre deeper engaged in the griefe thereof then the Body can be But this is no reason to proue that Christs Soule must die the death of Soules or feele the paines of hell because his Soule considered better of his paines then his body could doe Two Rules of Gods Iustice in punishing the sinnes of men the Scriptures report Which though they be kept in all others yet may no man affirme them of Christ farder then the Gospell giueth euident Testimonie to them The one is the meanes the other is the measure of punishment As Wherewith a man sinneth by the same also shall he be punished and How much she exalted her selfe and liued in pleasure so much torment and sorrow giue yee to her Neither of these ruies could rightly fasten on Christ because he neuer sinned and therefore touching the meanes by which he satisfied for our sinnes the Scriptures and not your imaginations must be consulted Now they testifie that he dyed for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and that we were Redeemed by his pretious bloud which was shed for Remission of sinnes Here is the satisfaction for the sins of men which the Scripture deliuereth without any other death of the soule or of the damned which men must suffer if they be not freed from it by the death and blood of Christ but Christ neither did nor could suffer For the measure of paine which Christ suffered in the death of his body described in the Scriptures we must leaue it to God who only knew what proportion of paine in the person of his Sonne was sufficient for the sinnes of the world not therein trust the deceitfull ballance of your presumption who neither know what degree of pain Christ suffred on the crosse nor how much in the person of Christ would satisfie the iustice of God for our sinnes Only this we are assured that he learned obedience by that which he suffered his patience was thereby proued but neither of them ouerwhelmed or endangered And therefore that Christs paine on the Crosse was equall to hell paines or the very same which the damned do suffer these be your rash and violent intrusions vpon Gods iustice allotting to Christ out of your owne braine the same punishment as you call it in substance that the wrath of God inflicteth on the wicked and damned for their sinnes but in all these collections you rest on the rules of your owne reason without any warrant of the word of God which neuer sorteth our Sauior in his sufferings with the reprobate damned and contrary to the Christian faith which groundeth the waight of our redemption and strength of our Reconciliation to God vpon the infinitie of the person that died for vs and not of the paine that was suffered in our steeds Yea farder I meane that some sinnes the Soule acteth in and by it selfe meerely and therefore it suffereth likewise some punishments meerely in it selfe which touch not the body at all vnlesse it be by Sympathie onely and that onely when they grow vehement What you now meane vpon better aduise maketh nothing to the Conclusion which you would haue forced out of your former words Your assumption was that Adam first did and we euer since doe commit sinne most properly in our Soules our bodies being but the Instruments of our Soules In which words you speake of
admit the ransom which his own Sonne most willingly offered for vs when we were his Enemies or will conclude that Christ must iustly desâ—…e death because he did willingly die for vs You see now what I say to Christes death he died most iustly to God because most willingly for vs and yet most vndeseruedly because most innocently If Christ died not by Gods iustice then woe and thrice woe to vs for it can not be but Gods iustice must be executed If Gods iustice against vs were not satisfied by his Sonne and so appeased wo were it with vs but if any man be so madde headed that either the Sonne of God or himselfe must be euerlastingly damned for the full execution of Gods iustice against sinne then woe indeed to that hellish infidelitie and blessed for euer be Gods loue and mercie towards vs that accepted the death of his Sonne for our sinnes which Christ willingly offâ—…red as the price of our redemption when he could by no sentence of the law be thereto bound Therefore my Father loueth me sayth Christ because I lay downe my life for my sheepe None taketh it from me but I lay it downe of mine owne selfe And so the Prophet foretold of him If he will or shall lay downe his soule or life for sinne he shall see his seed prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands What if hanging on a tree were no necessarie part of the gâ—…erall curse it was neuerthelesse iust from God vpon him as well as his death Neither â—…th nor hanging nor any part of Christes punishment was iust from God as deserued by Christ either in respect of his nature or of his office but all was most iust with God euen on Christ in respect of Christs owne free willingnesse to reconcile vs to God with his death rather then we should perish And if both these were iust in Gods secret Counsell by reason of Christs good liking so to ransome man what is that to the sentence of the Law which Iudgeth euery man according to his works and punisheth only the transgressour out of which number Christ is excepted by the continuall Caueats of the holy Scriptures Still I meane iustly in respect of God alone And still I say iustly in respect of Christs willingnesse only which is nothing to the sentence of the Law For the law respecteth the euill desert of the Transgressour and not the good will of the Redeemer or Suretie You mislike that Christ should suffer iustly because he suffered willingly for vs which hindreth not at all Since that was most iust with God in his secret counsell whereto his Sonne was most willing I vtterlie misliked as the whole Church of Christ before me did that the Sonne of God should be thought to be bound to death who must be most free or deseruing death by the sentence of the Law punishing sinners because he was willing to beare our burden And if you looke well about you you shall find the second person in Trinitie vndertooke to ransome vs from our sinnes long before his manhood was borne euen from the foundation of the world and to lay any band vpon the Sonne of God besides his owne good will and pleasure aduise you whether it tendeth And since God would not haue the death of Christes manhood but as a sacrifice most freely willingly offered vnto him for sinne least there should appeare any constraint or necessitie layd on the person of Christ let the Reader iudge with what trueth you not onely bind the second person in Trinitie to be subiect to the sentence of the Law but taint the soule of Christ with the vncleannesse of our sinne because he suffered the punishment thereof in our steedes The voluntarie suertie beareth his penaltie iustly when he sustaineth that which the Debtour by Law should sustaine It is a penaltie to patience to heare you talke so vnwisely and vniustly of Iustice. Shall mercie and charitie in Christians that ease other mens shoulders or pay other mens debts be taken now with you for the iust desert of a penaltie How much lesse then may the loue and fauour of God redeeming vs with his owne blood and â—…aling vs with his owne stripâ—…s be called a â—…ust and well deserued punishment Mans law may exact the debt where the Suertie standeth bound to the â—…aw to see it satisfied From one freely offering to pay another mans debts the Law may iustly receiue it because he is willing but the Law cannot exact it because he is at libertie which is the true difference betwixt a Suertie bound and a free Ransommer and yet neither is guiltie of the prisoners offences You say no Law you are sure not Gods law alloweth a murderer or like offender to be shared and another that is willing to be hanged in his steede You haue all this while dallied with Gods iustice you now begin to play with Gods Law that where trueth faâ—…th you you may yet at least make some shew with wordes as all wranglers doe when they be driuen to the wall whereof the discreet Reader may take a sensible obseruation in this place You haue bene spuddling here and spending more then two leaues to prooâ—…e that Christ bare the true curse of the Law which was due to vs for sinne and that the Apostle speaking thereof Galat. 3. could haue none other meaning and therefore you resolued that Christ was hanged by the iust sentence of the Law which otherwise must light on vs if it were not laid on him What Law ment you all this while or what Law doth Paul dispute of in that place Not of that Law which accurieth and punisheth sinne That Law I said admitted no Suerties but reuenged the malefactours themselues and therefore by the sentence of that Law Christ could not be iustly accursed or hanged in our steedes Against this when you can say nothing you get you to the Gospell of Christ which proposeth glad tydings of our Redemption from the burden of our sinnes and from the curse of the Law by the most willing and innocent death of the Sonne of God for our sakes and by that Lawe you say Christ might and did die for vs as our Suertie I aske the indifferent Reader whether this be not a plaine running from the question and a resigning of all that you haue said before touching tâ—…e â—…es accursing of Christ as our Suertiâ—… For the Gospell I trust doth not pronounce Christ to be either accursed for our sinnes or defiled with our sinnes but shewed him to be the blessed Seede that bruized the Sâ—…pents head and the vndefiled and vnspotted Lambe that tooke away the sinne of the world with his most innocent and precious blood This shifting therefore which is so vsuall with you that as long as you can wrench a word you will not yeeld to the trueth will breake the necke of your cause in the end with all
to cast in his face And though there be neuer so manie old and new writers that would leade you to the true senâ—…e of these words you leaue them all and will needs by wilfull abusing the Scriptures haue Christ to be sinfull and defiled hatefull and accursed euen to God for taking vpon him to purge vs from our sinnes I shewed you the iudgement of Austen and Ambrose in my conclusion for the right vnderstanding of these words but you satisfied with nothing saue with your owne sense pasâ—…e surly by them and the rest as multitudes of men and preferre the proud conceit you haue of your selfe before them all Yet for the Readers sake that he may settle his iudgement with trueth and sobrietie he shall see the consent of all ages and writers how Christ was made sinne for vs and how he condemned sinne in the flesh Origen that Christ was made the sacrifice for sinne and offered for the clensing of sinnes all the Scriptures witnesse touching this sacrifice of his flesh it is said he condemned sinne in the flesh as the same Apostle else where sayth he appeared in the later times to destroy sinne By this sacrifice then of his flesh which was offered for sinne he condemned sinne that is he chased sinne away and abolished it Cyrill Christ is therefore made according to the Scriptures a sacrifice for sinne For this cause we say he is called sinne at selfe for so Paul writeth Him that knew no sinne God the Father made sinne for vs. We doe not say that Christ was made a sinner God forbid but being iust yea Iustice it selfe the Father made him a sacrifice for the sinnes of this world Ierom the Father made Christ who knew not sinne to be sinne for vs that is as the sacrifice offered for sinne is called sinne in the Law In Leuiticus it is written He shall lay his hand on the head of his sinne So Christ being offered for our sinnes tooke the name of sinne Augustine Christ then did no sinne but God made him sinne for vs that is as I haue said a sacrifice for sinne For if thou remember or wilt reade thou shalt finde in the bookes of the old Testament the sacrifice for sinne to be called sinne Againe God then made Christ sinne for vs that is a sacrifice by which our sinnes should be remitted because sacrifices for sinne are called sinne And so in the questions vpon Numbers It is said he shall offer a Lambe for a sinne because that which was offered for sinne was called sinne Whence it is that the Apostle saith of the Lord Christ him that knew no sinne God the Father made sinne for vs that is a sacrifice for sinne He that will see this more at large repeated and confirmed let him read at his leasure Saint Austen 120. Epistle cap. 30. the third booke and 6. Chapter against the two Epistles of the Pelagians his Enchiridion cap. 41. besides the seuenth Sermon De verbis Apostoli and the 48. Sermon De verbis Domini secundum Ioannem which I formerly alleaged Oecumenius the sacrifice which is offered for sinne is called sinne as the Prophet saith they eate the sinnes of my people that is the sacrifices for sinne So the Father made the Sonne a sacrifice to be offered for sinnes Primasius likewise the sacrifice for sinne is in the Law called sinne though it did not sinne as it is written and he shall laie his hands on the head of his sinne So Christ being offered for our sinnes tooke the name of sinne Sedulius obserueth the same words Beda Our Redeemer was made sinne that we might be the righteousnesse of God in him How In the Law the sacrifices which were offered for sinne are called sinne When the offering was brought for sinne the Law sayth the Priests shall put their hands vpon the sinne that is vpon the sacrifice for sinne And what els was this but Christ the true sacrifice for sinne Behold by what sinne he condemned sinne by the sacrifice which he made for sinne euen thereby he condemned sinne To skip Haymo Lyra and others the eleuenth Councell of Toledo in the confession of their faith Christ in the forme of man which he assumed is according to the trueth of the Gospell beleeued to haue beene borne without sinne and to haue died without sinne who aloâ—… was made sinne for vs that is the sacrifice for our â—…innes The new writers beare euen with the old To omit Erasmus Bullinger Peter Martyr Musculus Gualter Vitus Theodorus and others who doe follow the same steps Aretius vpon these words God by sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that is saith he All our sinne in our flesh God condemned by or for sinne to wit by or for the Sacrifice appointed for sinne Now Christ is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the world this Lambe is called sin because in the Law the sacrifices are called the sinne for which they are offered Hence is it that Christ who knew no sinne was made sinne by his Father Beza in his notes on the New Testament and on those words Him that knew no sinne God made sinne sayth Paul calleth sinne in this latter place the sacrifice for sinne after a maner of speech proper to the Hebrewes with whom the word Ascham is so taken as Leuiticus 7. 2. Tremelius the publisher and interpreter of your Syriack Testament obserueth the like vpon the same place Him that knew no sinne he made sinne for you that is a sacrifice for sinne which euery where in the bible is called Chattath by which name sinne also is called The booke of Homilies authorised in this Realme holdeth so fast to this exposition that it setteth it downe in the Apostles name as the Apostles true meaning S. Paul likewise sayth God made him a sacrifice for our sinne which knew no sinne that we should be made the righteousnesse of God in him The Apostle farder sayth the second time Christ shall appeare without sinne meaning that the first time he appeared with sinne Put the Apostles words vttered in the same place touching Christes first appearing with sinne to these which you cite and the sense is plaine and easie of it selfe In the end of the world Christ appeared once to put away sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe and vnto them that looke for him he shall appeare the second time without sinne vnto saluation Christes first appearing was with sinne that is either with an offering for sinne or with the infirmitie tentation miâ—…erie and mortalitie of sinne for such was the time of his humilitie when he came to purge sinne by the oblation of his bodie the next time of his appearing shall be in glorie that is without either sacrifice for sinne or any other infirmitie of sinners For sinne applied to Christ in the Scriptures may receiue a triple interpretation as Austen obserueth
might and did punish properly Christes soule also and yet neuer deuide his Godhead nor his loue from it The one standeth with Gods iustice and with the nature of man in Christ as well as the other A wanton colt when he winceth with his heeles thinketh he can batter walles and beate downe trees with a blow when yet the skittish thing doth but hurt it selfe Is this the reason which weakened all that I said in so manie sides against the death of the soule for of that I speake in all those pages which you quote Neede you a paire of spectacles so see the difference betweene the death of the soule and the death of the bodie that you so falsely idlely and foolishly match them together A verie drone would soone discerne that the death of the bodie innocently obediently and patiently suffered could no way separate Christ from the fauour and loue of God nor hinder the worke of our redemption though it depriued hiâ—… of life sense and motion in the bodie for the time which are the good blessings of God when they are vsed to his glorie and yet the death of the soule which leaueth neither action affection nor communion of grace trueth or faith in the soule seuereth both Soule and body quite from God and maketh them hatefull vnto God and altogether vnapt to reconcile others vnto God when they themselues are disioyned and parted from God And therefore notwithstanding your Crakes that you can blow mountaines afore you with your breath and your craft that shift the death of the Soule whereof I speake in all those places into a proper spirituall punishment of your owne framing you haue not auoyded any one Reason there nor offer so much as to come toward the matter in question but roue after your wonted manner with generall phrases proper to your selfe and then thinke that no man seeth you there are other punishments in the Soule besides death but none that can reconcile vs vnto God For b Rom 5. We were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne c 1. Cor. 15. I declare vnto you saith Paul the Gospell which I preached vnto you and whereby you are saued For first of all I deliuered vnto you that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Then you and whosoeuer else that preach or beleeue Remission of sinnes by any thing else but by the death of Christ you preach not the Gospell which the Apostle deliuered neither can you looke for saluation in Christ that leaue the maine ground thereof which is the death that he tasted for all and through which he destroyed him that had the power of death euen the diuell So that to step to any other spirituall punishments for the satisfaction of our sinnes and reconciliation to God then to that which the Scriptures call the death of Christ and the death of the Crosse is to renounce all that God hath ordained or reuealed for our Saluation and to create you new Sauiours after your owne conceits You must therefore be directly and plainly brought to this point whether Christ suffered for vs the death of the Soule by the Scriptures and not such giggers of proper punishments nor straines of improper speeches as you and your friends hunt after but fairely and fully according to the direction of the sacred Scriptures which must be heard and preferred before all your fansies as well touching the death of the soule as the trueth of our redemption by the bloud of Christ Iesus Wherein though I exclude not the sense and affections of his soule which felt the paine knew the cause and beheld the counsell of God in all those sufferings vndertaken for man through the tender loue that he bare to man yet none of those feares sorrowes nor paines which the soule discerned and receiued did any whit diminish the power of Gods spirit and grace in him nor the perfection of his faith hope and loue whereby the soule cleaued fast to God without any separation and consequently the innocence obedience and patience of Christes soule in his sufferings both outward and inward did confirme and manifest the life of his soule But of this more in due place d Defenc. paâ—… 90. li. 27. Then you addresse your selfe against another euen one of the chiefest reasons of mine which I make from the strange and incomparable agonies of Christ in the time of his passion You make no reasons from Christes agonie but assuming that for a shew which you do not vnderstand you inferre what you list by your rash presumptuous and manifest contradictions both to your selfe and to the Scriptures e Ibid. li. 30. These inuaded him as we reade principally at three times First in the foretaste of his passion Ioh. 12. secondly in the Garden a little before his apprehension thirdly in his very extreame passion it selfe on the crosse The Scripture mentioneth one agonie and you multiplie that to three In the twelfth of Iohn when some of the Grecians that came to worship on the feast of Easter were desirous to see Christ of whom they had heard much and made their desire knowen to Philip and he to Andrew and they both to Iesus Iesus answered them f Iohn 12. The houre was come euen at hand that the Sonne of man should be glorified by his death This therefore was not a time to shew himselfe when his heart or soule was troubled with other matters euen with the meditation and preparation of his death Now except you be so wise that you will make euery affection in Christ an agonie there is no cause to conceiue this to be an agonie He often times thought and spake of his death before where no man besides you doth dreame of agonies and this verie word is in other cases ascribed aswell to Christ as to others where no colour of an agonie doth appeare When he tolde his Disciples that one of them should betray him g Iohn 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was troubled in spirit and meaning to raise Lazarus from death when he saw Mary the sister of Lazarus and the Iewes that were with her to weepe h Iohn 11. he groned in spirit and troubled himselfe insomuch that he wept which yet was no agonie but a touch of humane compassion shewing the loue he bare vnto them The complaint on the crosse besides the words had no shew of an agonie and what sense they beare we shall after examine Verily he that would not suffer his owne Disciples to beholde his agonie in the Garden would neuer in the eyes or eares of his enemies with his owne deeds or words verifie their reproches and taunts against himselfe as if he were forsaken of God which was the thing they vpbraided him with And therfore you may deuise not three but threescore agonies if you will The Scripture expresseth one and that you neither rightly conceiue nor rightly vse i Defenc. pag. 90. li. 35. To all that
duely consider it appeareth so cleere as the Sunne at noone day that the paynes of his passion which plainly now he felt and feared because he knew he was to feele them further vnto death were the proper and direct cause of those agontes But we assume that such strange and lamentable things and behauiour in Christ were not the effects one lie and meerely of his bodilie paines and death Therefore Christ felt and endured more then his meâ—…re bodilie paines and death by the testimonie of the Scriptures which thinge you denie Your cleare Sun is the darke cloud of your owne imaginations your proper direct causes are the light and false coniectures of your owne braine your conclusion is a childish digression not onely from the thinges questioned by me but from the verie matters proposed by you onlie in the vpshot you hold your wonted course to strengthen your cause with a lie when trewth will not stand you in steed To beginne where you end you are not ignorant that I defend no such thing as meere bodily paines your selfe haue directly confessed the contrarie as I haue formerly shewed I say indeed Christ suffered no death but only the death of the body that you turne to a manifest vntrewth and say I denie that Christ felt any more then meere bodilie paines To what purpose then is your conclusion that Christ endured more then bodily paines What gaine you by that so long as Christ suffered none other death but the death of the body Christes feare and sorrow which the Scriptures expresse in the Garden were more then meere bodily paines and those though he felt you shall neuer thence conclude that he felt the paines of hell or of the damned l Defenc. pag. 91. Your assumption as you say I graunt and acknowledge and so your labour is the lesse but the proposition I gaine say in my whole discourse denying that the paines of Christes passion or the naturall feare of them was the proper and direct cause of those agonies or that the Scriptures implie so much If you looke well to my wordes they containe two things first that the n Serm pag. 17. li. 13. right cause of Christes agonie in the Garden is not n 14. determinately and o 15. certainely reuealed in the Scriptures secondly that the suffering of hell paines at that present was the least probable cause thereof if not altogether intolerable let vs now see how you impugne either of these p Defenc. pag. 91. li. 22. 14. 27. this your assertion I simply deny and then my proposition standeth firme that his paines inflicted on him by way of proper punishment and vengeance for sinne were the proper and maine cause thereof This is the cleerenes of your Sun-shining at noone day you deny my assertion and then your proposition standeth firme ergo the Scriptures doe certainly specifie the proper and direct causes of Christes agonie and those were the paines of the Damned which you call the proper vengeance for sinne Then if you list to denie any thing the contrary is presently prooued and concluded by you as cleere as the Sunne at noone day such proofes and conclusions which are nothing but strange and violent Imaginations your booke is full of and these twentie leaues and more which here you spend in examining Christs agonie haue nothing els in them but such meere falshoods and confusions Before we speake of the firmenesse of your proposition I would gladly know which of these three propositions which here you haue varied to shew the settlednes of your conceits is that which you offer to be examined In the first you say q Defenc. pag. 90. li. 37. the paines of Christs passion which plainly now he felt and feared to feele further vnto death in the second you say r Pa. 91. li. 7. those paines or the naturall feare of them in the third you say s Ibid. li. 26. his paines inflicted on him by way of proper punishment and vengeance for sinne these were the proper and direct cause of â—…hose agonies These and those these or those these alone and not those are childish and foolish contrarietiâ—…s with any wise man saue with you and yet all these are cleare and firme because you haue the witt to denie mine assertion Touching your proposition that the Reader may conceiue how you clutter things together to holde on your accustomed carriage he must marke that Christes agonie had many parts and circumstances some inward some outward some affections The parts of Christs agony some actions some apprehensions and all these had their causes efficient and adiuuant neere or remote sole or concurrent according to their differences The Scriptures expresly note in that agony which Christ had and shewed in the Garden the inward affections of sorrow feare admiration submission contention of mind in Christ. My soule saith he t Matth. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is on euery side sorowfull or compassed round with sorow euen vnto death And he began sayth Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be full of sorow and much grieued For so the Apostle vseth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what sense soeuer it beare with prophane writers whereof we shall not need to dispute u Phil. 2. v. 26. I thought it necessary to send vnto you Epaphroditus my fellow souldier and your messenger for he was very desirous of you all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and very pensiue or much grieued because you heard he was sicke S. Marke sayth Christ in the Garden beganne x Mar. 16. v. 33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be afrayd or astonied and full of heauinesse or griefe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth feare and admiration which so fixeth the minde for the time that a man neither speaketh nor vseth the vigor of his senses As for submission of mind Christes y Matth. 26. falling flat with his face z Mark 14. on the ground when he powred foorth his prayers to God sufficiently sheweth as much inward humiliation of the soule in Gods presence as this outward gesture of his bodie declared or required His ardent zeale in prayer and vehement contention of minde S. Luke noteth when he sayth An a Luc. 22. Angell appeared to him to strengthen him with a message from God Christ then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falling into an agonie prayed more earnestly or feruently and his sweat was like drops of bloud trickling downe to the ground Of this agonie you haue often spoken and here you spend no small time about it but I scant beleeue you know what an agonie meaneth much lesse what was the true cause of this agonie Though an agonie be sometimes abusiuely taken for feare yet properly it is aâ—…firmed b Etymologicon ex Orione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of him that is readie to descend into any combate or conflict with another as Orion a most ancient Grecian obserueth Damascene confesleth that 〈◊〉
on the Crosse was in the midst and extreamest of his paines now inherent and afflicting both soule and body You couple Christes agonie in the Garden with his complaint on the Crosse and yoke them together as proceeding both from one direct and particular cause which breedeth more doubt in my answer that should containe both in one than trueth in your argument that obiecteth both at once That the Reader may therefore perceiue wheâ—…eof we reason and so the better obserue the difference betwixt our assertions let meadmonish him that as euill to mans sense or reason dependeth on time either past present or to come so the impression that is thereby made in the soule of Euill past present or to come worketh sorow paine and feare in the souâ—…e of man man is either â—…orrow paine or feare Not that these wordes are not sometimes confounded and their causâ—…s conioined as sorow and feare haue paine in them that is a sense of â—…uill past or approching as well in others as in our selues and the continuance of paine may be feared euen whiles the present greeuance is suffered but that we can exprâ—…sse no truth nor admitt no speach of these things yf we keepe not their names distinguished as their impressions and passions are somtimes we make but two as timor and dolor feare and griefe and then we comprise the third which is sorrow for any good thâ—…ng past or lost in us or others vnder griefe which is the offence of mind that euill either presâ—…nt in sense or fresh in memory bringeth with it SORROVV then Sorrow I call the grieuous remembrance of our owne euils suffered or of their euils past or approching whom we loue FEARE is the doubt dislike of future euill to our selues Feare or others as also the declining of imminent euill and shrinking at the sight thereof Both thâ—…se are painfull affections and impressions of euill which according to their degrees and causes do often so farre oppresse and burden the soule in this life that they speedily part the soule from the bodie and both consist in the apprehension and estimation that the soule maketh of euill foreseene or suffered for some men feare that which others doe not and some regard not that which others exceedingly grieue at and so feare and sorrow require not onlie the cogitation and cognition but the iudgement câ—…nsure of the soule which PAINE doth not For paine dependeth neither Paine on the action nor imagination of the soule but is an absolute sense of present and inherent euill that naturally offendeth the soule for example in the paines of the bodie the soule naturally feeleth all offence rising within the bodie or violently offred vnto the bodiâ—… though she knewe not whence or how that paine commeth Therefore I make paine as it is distinct from feare and sorrow and riseth from neither of them to be a naturall and absolute passion and sense of euill present and inherent in soule or bodie q 1. Iohn 4. feare hath painfulnesse saith Saint Iohn and sorrow not only r 2. Cor. 2. swalloweth vp men but s 2. Cor. 7. causeth death as Paule writeth and experience teacheth yea t Prou. 13. hope differred afflicteth the soule saieth Salomon So that all our affections may haue griefe in them loue and ioy not excepted when they are disappointed and sorrow feare may be mitigated but not separated from griefe and dislike yet in neither of them is the euill present inherent nor the sense and feeling thereof absolute or meerely passiue but according as the mind conceaueth and esteemeth of the causes and obiects thereof so the griefe of feare and sorow increaseth or decreaseth Now touching Christes agonie in the Garden the Scripture auoucheth that feare and sorrow possessed and grieued his mind but that an absolute or inherent paine was inflicted on Christes soule by the immediat hand of god either in the Garden or on the Crosse this is a late and lew de deuice of yours it hath no ground nor proofe in the Scriptures And yf by paines you meane this absolute kind of torment impressed on Christes soule by Gods owne hand as you would haue it I vtterly denie that any such paines presently felt were parts or causes of Christs agonie in the Garden and so your proposition that you fained to be firme hath not one true word in it u Defenc. pag. 91. li. 27. Let vs trie your proofes for it and mine against it you meane no such matter as you pretend For first you tooke hold of Christs feare and sorrow which were painefull affections and when you haue thereby gotten the name of paine into Christes agonie you slide from his affections were they neuer so painefull and shuffle in your absolute torments of Christes soule from the immediat hand of god vnder the name of proper punishment and vengeance for sinne to be the true causes of his agonie yf you thinck I mistake you looke back to your iustified reason so lately iustled in and to the fathers which you brought to confirme the same and see whether I wrong you or no. your assumption and illation there were these Christ x Defenc. pag. â—…8 li. 2. succoureth vs in the feeling of the terrors of god and releaseth vs of the sorrowes vnmeasureable that rise thereof therefore Christ himselfe had experience of them Terrors are feares of thinges vnwoonted which make vs tremble and sorrowes are expresly named by you both which were affections in Christ as they are in vs. you cited out of Cyrill that y Ibid. li. 11. vnlesse Christ had feared and sorrowed at his passion wee had not beene quit from feare and sorrow and out of Ambrose that Christ z li. 38. in his agonie with the sorrow of his soule did extinguish the sorow of our soules As also that he caried about him our feares and our affections a Defenc. pag. 48. li. 17. minus mihi contulerat nisimeum suscepisset affectum Christ had done lesse for me if he had not admitted MINE AFFECTIONS Now when the affections of feare and sorow are confessed in Christes agonie you reiect that as absurd and will heare of no paines but of the torments of the damned from Gods immediat hand on the soule of Christ which though you neither do nor can prooue yet you hope with prating and wrangling to seeme to say somewhat b Defenc. pag. 89. li. 28. Before we come to proofs we must know that this your Resolution as you call it is first most vaine also directly contrary to your selfe and then altogether vnâ—…rue and presumed by wide coniecture as God willing I will presently shew Performe but one of these challenges to be true and take all the rest as granted for your small paines therein bestowed but your dreames are so violent that when you sticke in the mire you thinke you flie in the aire You will shew vs your owne erroneous and
time when he shall come to Iudge the quicke and the dead but now s Iohn 3. God sent not his Sonne to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saued t Ela. 42. A bruized Reede saith the Prophet shall he not breake and smoking flaxe shall he not quench So farre was he at this time from doing or delighting in any violence how certaine soeuer you make your selfe of his ioyfulnesse to see destruction executed on that Nation The words of Dauid that u Psal. 58. the Righteous shall retoyce when he seeth the vengeance licence no man to desire vengeance but to expect Gods time whose will we pray may be done and concerne those enemies onely that with implâ—…cable malice seeke the vtter ruine of the godly In which case the deliuerance of the faithfull being ioyned with vengeance on the wicked God will haue his me cies towards vs magnified though it be mixed with the destruction of the wicked Otherwise Christ hath commanded vs to x Matth. 5. loue our enemies to blesse them which curse vs to pray for them which persecute vs so that we may be the children of our Father which is in heauen But you haue found a Foxe or a ferne brake because it was said Let this Cup passe from me and not from them What if I answere you with Ierom Christ said not y 〈◊〉 in Mat Cap. 26. Let the cup passe from me but 〈◊〉 this cuppe passe that is of the people of the lewes which can haue no excuse of ignorâ—…nce if they killme since they haue the Law and the Prophets which daily feretell of me This Christ requesteth not as fearing to suffer but in 〈◊〉 towards the former People that he might not drinke the 〈◊〉 by them And with Ambrose z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Christ said take this cuppe from me not because the Sonne of God seared death but for that he would not haue them though cuill to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pe pernicious to them which should be healthfull to all And with 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 â—…n 〈◊〉 tract 35. For those then whom he would not haue perish by his Passion he said Father if it be possible let this cuppe passe from me that both the world might be saued and the 〈◊〉 not perish in his Passion And with b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ca. 〈◊〉 Bede who exactly followeth Ieroms words You will reply there is no truth in them but the more you vse such answeres the more pride and lesse wit you shew to thinke that all men 〈◊〉 absurd besides your selfe when you can seant speake one word touching vour new found faith without a sensible absurditie c Defenc pag. 94. li. 31. Your next supposed cause 〈◊〉 towards men containeth three 〈◊〉 causes here First for the 〈◊〉 of the Iewes Secondly for the dispersion of his Church Thirdly his zealous griefe generally for the sins of the world All these 〈◊〉 alwaies in Christ and The second cause 〈◊〉 to Christs agonte caused no 〈◊〉 alwaies heauines in him yet no more then a godly heauenly mind could and would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 digest and beare It is well that of your 〈◊〉 at last you see these six causes may be reuoked and referred to the two gene 〈◊〉 roots whence I said Christs agonie might proceed and so no reason but a meere desire to 〈◊〉 did lead you to demonstrate my disagreements by one two 〈◊〉 six which vpon your better aduise your selfe can reconciie within the space of a lease For as these three are contained in Christes compassion towards men or rather did procced from the astection of his loue to man so the rest are as easily reduced to Christs submission yeldâ—…d in pictie vnto God or to the same profession of charitie towards man or to both Touching the e three you grant they were alwaies in Christ â—…nd caused no doubt alwaies an heaâ—…ines in him but moderate such as a godly minde might cheerefully digest First then how come you so sodainly to fling of your former Resolution made not fifteene lines before that certainly Christ would haue greatly 〈◊〉 to see the execution of Gods deserued iustice on the Iewes would Christ both certainly and greatly haue reioiced to see the destruction of that people and citie and yet the foresight therof caused no doubt alwayes heauines in him These are not your contrarieties but concordance wherein you rightly agree with your selfe that neuer vsein your assertions to make one piece agree with an other How much Christ might grieue at those things we shall presently examine but that he grieued more at this time now in the garden for these respects then at any other time before you doe not grant because you see no reason for it Of Christs affections neither I can yeeld nor you may aske the reason they were voluntarie and rose within him when his will gaue place vnto them He saw Ierusalem often and knew of her desolation from the beginning Why wept he then but once ouer her why did he not the like for other Cities wherein the Iewes dwelt can you tell he was often tempted by the Pharisees and still saw the hardnes of their harts Why did he then but once that the Scripture reporteth behold them with d Mar. 3. anger and griefe for their obstinacie his passion he alwaies remembred and often fore told why then was he troubled with the thought thereof but once that we read Athanasius giueth this answere e Athanasius de incarnat Christi Now is my soule troubled this now was when he himselfe would Damascene f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ca 23. insisteth on the same words and maketh the rule generall that g 〈◊〉 li. 3. ca 20. 〈◊〉 affections and infirmities in Christ neuer preuented his will because nothing in him was forced but all voluntarie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he hungrea when he would he 〈◊〉 when he would he feared when hewould and died when he would Saint Austen obserueth the same h 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 49. Turbaris tu nolens Turbatus est Christus quia 〈◊〉 Thou art troubled against thy will Christ was troubled because he would He hungred it is true but because he would he slept it is true but because he would he sorrowed it is true but because he would he died it is true but because he would In illius potestate erat sic vel sic 〈◊〉 velnen affici it was in his power to be so or so affected or not affected The reason which he giueth is sound and the Scripture on which he buildeth is plaine i Ibidem Quiâ—… enim 〈◊〉 posset nisi 〈◊〉 ipse turbare vbi summa potestas est secundum voluntâ—…tis 〈◊〉 turbatur 〈◊〉 Who could trouble him besides himselfe where 〈◊〉 power is there 〈◊〉 is troubled according to the 〈◊〉 of the will And so the Scripture noteth k Iohn 11.
v. 17. 18. God willing saith the Apostle more abundantly to shew the stablenesse of his counsell bound himselfe with an othe that by two immutable things his promise and his othe wherein it is impossible that God should lie we might haue strong comfort So that howsoeuer you in your irreligious sophistrie doe say God Omnipotent may inflict damnation vpon men for others If you meane vpon his Elect such as Moses and Paul were whose examples and words you would seeme to follow you defend an open and exact Impossibilitie Note and heresie speaking of damnation as the Scriptures doe and as you doe in this place where you say those holy men Moses and Paul x Defenc. pag. 96. li. 5. Earnestly and constantly wished Gods eternall wrath might come vpon themselues that the Iewes might scape it Will you flie from the elect to the reprobate and say that God may inflict damnation on them for other mens sinnes Then are you cleane gone from your examples of Moses and Paul for they were no reprobates and as farre from all regard of Gods Iustice who eternally condemneth no man but for sinne permanent and inherent as in all the reprobate For though God doe saue without merite for his mercies sake yet he condemneth no man eternally but for sinne and that either committed or inherited y Genes 18. Be it farre from thee saith Abraham to God to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be euen as the wicked be it farre from thee Shall not the Iudge of the world doe iudgement If it be simply impossible for Gods elect to perish as our Sauiour witnesseth what hainous and horrrible falsitie and impietie is it to say The Sonne of God might be damned for sinners And though you shift sides and say z Defenc pag. 96. li. 29. Much rather then maâ—… God doe this to Christ yet if you hold either to your former examples whence you deduce this or to your words in this very sentence whence you draw this comparison you must say much rather then may God inflict damnation and his eternall wrath on Christ which whether it may not rightly be called one of your hellish mysteries I leaue to all Christian men to iudge Such wicked obseruations when you make from so weake and false foundations the Reader may soone see what a notable Diuine you are and how likely to teach the truth that pretend Gods power against his will for the vtter ruine os all Religion Christ you say was ordained for that purpose Christ was not ordained to be damned for vs. What to be damned for others or rather to beare the chastisment of our peace that we might be healed with his stripes The Prophet Esay saith he was wounded for our transgressions and bruized for our iniquities But you are the first supplanter of all Patriarkes and Prophets that say Christ was damned for our sinnes You will come in with your temporall and substantiall damnation to which you subiect the Soule of Christ But Sir if you beleeue and teach the same truth which the holy Ghost doth in the word of God Why swarue you so much from the words and grounds of the Sacred Scriptures Why doth nothing please you in mans Redemption but hell and damnation inflicted on Christ where you neuer learned any such lesson out of the Prophets or Apostles And here your abused and vnaduised examples which you pretend for this purpose import no such thing but rather the cleane contrarie For if it were not possible for Moses and Paul euerlastingly to perish because they were elected in Christ how infinitely more impossible was it that Christ should perish in whom all are elected And how Christ could perish but either by the dissolution of his person or else by the ioynt condemnation of the second person in the most glorious Trinitie to the fire of hell I doe not see since these are such blasphemies as hell neuer hatched the like a Defenc. pag. 96. li. 31. That which there you mention is the ordinarie and common rule The Soule that sinneth it shall die but in Christ this was extraordinarie and singular that the iust died for the vniâ—…st The wordes which I cited are sufficient to reprooue the first of your foure notable obseruations as starke false For there God sweareth by himselfe that the b Ezech. 18. Soule which sinneth that shall die and consequently the Sonne shall not beare the iniquitie of the Father neither shall the Father beare the iniquitie of the Sonne much lesse shall Moses and Paul beare the iniquitie of the whole people as you dreame they might And so much Gods answere to Moses importeth * Exod. 32. whosoeuer hath sinned against me I will wipe him and none other out of my Booke As for Christ since he was God as well as man his person could not be tied to the Lawes and Rules appointed for men but what he himselfe would admit in his owne person to that by willing obedience he submitted himselfe namely in his Manhood to die the death of the Crosse for our sinnes according to the Scriptures but not to be damned for vs nor to die the death of the Soule mentioned in the Scriptures to whose Doctrine we must stand and not to your deuices when we speake of Gods iudgements against sinne or of the purgation of our Soules Wherefore that God himselfe by his owne body would be the Price of our Redemption was indeed a thing proper and singular to the person of Christ wherein neither Moses nor Paul could be partakers with him or examples of him and therefore your fitting their prayers to his Passion to make your hel paines thereby possible is a thing far fet no way pertinent to this purpose c Defenc. pag. 96. li 22. I take it plaine enough that these sinned not in their desire and I suppose you take it so too in that you alleadge them and ground your Reasons of comparison vpon them They sinned not because their desires were conditionall submitted to Gods good pleasure with reseruation of their dueties otherwise if they thought that possible which they desired as you doe by their destruction who were the chosen vessels of mercie to excuse the reprobate from damnation deserued by obstinacie and infidelitie they not only erred from the truth but sinned in praying to haue their wils take place before and against the will of God But Moses in loue to Gods glory and care for his charge desired to be partaker of such temporall vengeance as should befall the whole people of God and Pauls words that are potentiall must be conditionall otherwise he needed not to haue said I could wish but I doe wish The which because he doth not but onely shew his desire were it possible and pleasing to God therefore he may be well excused from sinne though you condemne this in him and that in Moses as a d Defenc. pag. 95.
and bloudshed on the Crosse shewed in him no paines nor infirmitie but onely that voluntarily he made himselfe there the true Priest and performed the prefigured bloudie and deadlie sacrifice for the sinnes of the world As good reason altogether you haue to say so as to affirme it of his agonie No by your leaue for Christ did not actually offer two sacrifices the one ghostly suffering the paines of hell in the garden as you imagine the other bodily and bloudy yeelding himselfe to the death of the crosse m Heb. 〈◊〉 14 With one oblation he hath made perfect for euer them which are sanctified n vers 〈◊〉 and we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once made This sacrifice was presented and submitted to Gods will in the garden but finished and consummated on the Crosse which could not be without paines and infirmitie belonging vnto death In the garden where no Scripture saith Christ died I admit not the second death nor the paines of the damned which are thereto consequent And where you say I refuse all paines and infirmitie in Christes agonie it is one of your wonted trueths which in another were an open lie I admit not the paines of the damned or of the second death til you shew where the scripture teacheth that Christ suffered two deaths the first on the Crosse and the second in the garden and that afore the first Otherwise painefull affections of feare and sorow which were humane infirmities though voluntarily and religiously receaued by Christ into his soule I euerie where acknowledge and with Cyprian make them entrances to his oblation for the sinnes of the world o 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vt fieret voluntas Patris sacrificium carnis a timore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suberant victime desolatoriâ—… carbones quos obedientiae liquefactus adeps extinxit 〈◊〉 tâ—…e will of the Father might be donne saith Cyprian and Christ begin the sacrifice of his flesh with feare and sorow consuming coales of feare and sorow in the gardeÌ„ were puâ—… vnder the sacrifice which the sweet fatnesse of his obedience mâ—…lting did quench So that Christ beganne the sacrifice of his body in the garden offering that to be disposed at his fathers will for the life of the world and his entring to it was with feare and sorow the painfulnesse whereof his obedience abolished and so without all feare went to the rest of his suffrings before and on the crosse where he perfected and ended his oblation despising all torments and punishments that the wicked could deuice for him * 〈◊〉 ibidem 〈◊〉 vt sanaret inâ—…irmos timuit vt faceret securos Christ sorowed to heale our weakenesse and feared to make vs secure I beheld 〈◊〉 workes o Lord saith he and admire thee fastened to the crosse betweene two condemned Theeues now to be neither fearefull nor sorrowfull but a conquerer of thy punishments p Defenc. pag. 105. li. 6. You meane voluntarie in such sense that Christmas not also vrged thereunto by any violence of paines and feare procuring it in him naturally I meane by voluntarie that Christ had power enough to resist and represse the vehemency and painefulnesse of these affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his affections as â—…e saw cause in him selfe and therefore against or without his will they could not trouble him For 〈◊〉 did not preuaile or exceed in him as they do in vs against our wils but he must be willing to submit himselfe to each affection of feare sorow before they could take hold of him or be grieuous to him Our nature though he tooke in substance yet the corruption and distemper of our sinfull nature he did not take and therfore as before our fall the innocency and rectitude that was in man could guide and gouerne as well the rising as the inflaming of his affections so much more Christ who besides sincerity from sinne and libertie from corruption had the grace and power of Gods spirite aboue measure in his humane nature could so restraine and represse in himselfe all affections of feare and sorow that till he was willing and thought it fitte they neither did mooue nor molest his humane flesh or spirit And when he suffered mans nature in him to feele the same affections that are in vs they were holy and righteous in him declaring his obedience to his Fathers will and not disordered as we find in the corruption of our flesh And where you adde that Christ was vrged to his bloudie sweat by violence of paines or feare procuring it in him naturally you speake not only against the trueth but euen against your selfe For within one leafe after you grant q 〈◊〉 107. li. 16 it was aboue the course of nature led thereunto by Hilaries wordes that it was r Hâ—…lar de Trinitate li. 10. non secundum naturae consuetudinem not according to the accustomed course of nature And indeed how could it be naturall since feare cannot by nature cause a bloudy sweate and of all the men that you imagine did euer suffer the paines of hell you neuer read in the Scriptures or else where that any of them did sweate bloud Now if it were naturall to paine yea to your supposed paines of hell in this life to sweate bloud as many as you vrge suffered the same yea all the members of Christ to whom in these sufferings you make him like must needs at one â—…ime or other sweate bloud as well as Christ. Wherefore it is certaine that either you fitten and faine thâ—…se sufferings in other men or else Christ was not vrged NATVRALLY to this sweate by any â—…eares or paines of hell that oppressed him in the Garden s Defenc. pag. 10. li. 2. Of this Exposition with all the rest you pronounce that they are sound and well agreeing with Christian pietie Yet is it contrarie to your Resolution also yea it is contrarie to the Scripture expressing his feare and vehement sorrowes and discomfort to haue caused his Agonie Your words are of so small waight that a man would skant spare you Oyster-shels vpon your credit You know not the difference betwixt the occasion of Christs sorrow and sweate in the Garden and the exposition of his complaint on the crosse What I say of the one You more then negligently apply to the other As for my Resolution Pag. 290. prooue it contrarie to this position for exposition it is none since it concerneth the cause of Christs sweate and not the sense of his words and you shall after many failes and follies prooue somewhat Otherwise if these things in the Garden concerned Christs priesthood which is mine Assertion in this place I hope his Priesthood prooueth both his submission to God to whom he yeelded himselfe obedient and suppliant and his compassion on man for whose sake he refused not to make a bloudie and deadly offering of his owne bodie which is my Resolution in the Page
Creed how we were saued and what is the price of our Redemption specially the Scriptures going so cleare with them and they teaching so closely and soundly the trueth there expressed d Defenc. pag. 110. li. 9. These very sentences of the fathers I can easily admit if they import no more then that those outward afflictions on the Crosse were SOME CAVSES AND THAT NO SMAL of his complaint alwaies remembring that some greater cause also did concurre and was conioined with them Then by your owne confession haue the fathers spoken trueth and there was small or no cause giuen you to make so light regard of them As for your other greater cause when you prooue by Scripture as you intend that Christs soule on the crosse suffered the second death and the paines of the damned you shall haue a speciall reseruation that your fansies may be conioined with Christs praiers otherwise your reasons be like your resolutions they haue neither proofe nor strength besides your owne priuate and presumptuous perswasions e Defenc. pag. 110. li. 14. Your third sense if I conceiue it aright is that his being left to bodily death caused him thus to mourne which is but as the last before And yet you seeme to meane not only that but also because his flesh now should want all feeling of his heauenly comfort for that while that it should remaine dead A maruailous exquisite and farre fet cause The sense is neither mine nor so farre fet as you would make it I tooke it out of Tertullian Hilarie and The third sense of Christs complaint on the crosse Epiphanius whose wordes I produced to that purpose and howsoeuer you gibe at it after your scornefull maner I suppose it will prooue sounder then your hellish death which you haue so learnedly deuised out of their words The difference betwixt this and the former sense is not great For there the fathers ment Christ was forsaken that is not deliuered from the rage of his persecutors whiles he liued and these doe adde that he was left vnto death presuming death to be the greatest and most grieuous of all outward afflictions which in this life befall the nature of man f Defenc. pag. 110. li. 19. Yet me thinks as this crosseth your other expositions here so it is flat contrarie to the Scripture also If the expositions were contrary each to other so long as they be sundrie mens and repeated onely by me to shew how many senses haue beene deliuered in the Church of Christ by learned and auncient Fathers touching that complaint or praier of Christ which you would faine abuse to hatch your hell-paines what els note you by their contratiety but the diuersity of mens iudgements vpon these words all which conioined in this against you that Christes complaint on the crosse may diuersly be conceaued according to the different acceptions of forsaking and yet your paines of the damned haue no place in that variety or contrariety of â—…enses But this third sense you say is flat contrarie to the Scripture That were worth the hearing indeed if your foolish conceits were not farre more likely to crosse both themselues the Scriptures then iustly to controle the iudgements of so learned fathers But what is this great ouersight that is so much repugnant to the Scripture the Scripture g Ibid. li. 21. giueth after a sort to Christes dead flesh this LIVELY AFFECTION my flesh shall rest in hope The soule of Christ which was replenished with life trueth and grace as being personally vnited vnto God and of whose fullnesse we all haue receaued you affirme died on the Crosse and none other death then the second death and Christs flesh lying dead in the graue you imagine not only to haue life but to be a liuing spirit For you giue vnto it the liuely affection of hope which nothing hath that is not a liuing and reasonable soule or more You doe it you will say but after a sort That sort is absurd inough of figuratiue speaches in the Scriptures to make positiue doctrines For if you defend that the dead flesh of Christ in the graue had indeed any liuely affection of hope in part or in whole it is a brutish heresie denying that Christ was truely dead and that his body was truely flesh since a liuely hope impoâ—…teth not only life but vnderstanding and faith If you graunt these speaches to be figuratiue then doe you betray your folly to thwart the fathers assertions with figuratiue florishes as if they were proper and to pronounce their sayings flat contrary to the Scriptures because you can pike out a word that in outward shew soundeth somewhat strangely Hope in these wordes of Dauid is either applied to the soule of Christ in respect of the resurrection of his body which he beleeued and hoped for as most assured or if we apply it to the body it noteth safety from corruption and promise made by God of speedie resurrection which was the thing wherewith Christs bodie might be inuested But we shall haue mainer proofe for this matter h Defenc. pag. 110. li. 24. Is it likely is it possible that he should so dolefully mourne that either he should bodily dy or that his body should want the sense of his diuine presence so little a while when as in HIS MINDHE SPEAKETH SO TRIVMPHANTLY of his CONSTANT and CONTINVALLIOY IN GOD yea not excluding euen his body though dead from participating in some sort therein as we read in the former place at large I i Act 2. 26 27. BEHEID the Lord alwaies The Defender 〈◊〉 contradicteth his owne doctrine before me for he is at my right hand that I should not bâ—… shaken Therefore did mine heart reioice and my tongue was glad and moreouer my flesh shall rest in hope Now can a man in this EXCEEDING GENERALL and CONSTANTIOY so vncomfortably mourne in that sense as you vrge My God my God why forsakest thou my flesh it cannot be I would not thinke it likely nor possible if I did not see it before mine eies that such a pert Proctour should so proudly despise all auncient writers and fathers that fauour not his faction and yet so palpably confound himselfe and his whole cause with ouermuch prating For Christian Reader I pray thee take no more but his owne confession or assertion in this place by which he thought to ouerbeare all that stood in his way and obserue both how desperatly he contradicteth himselfe and how sensibly he subuerteth his whole doctrine and his deuice of this new found hell But the lease before he told vs peremptorily that k Pa. 108. li. 8. Christes Godhead as it were withdrawing and hiding it selfe from him for that season of his passion gaue him NO SENSE NOR FEELING OF COMFORT OR IOY in spirit soule or body Now suddainly whiles he eagerly hunteth after his hell paines he not onely falleth ouer head and eares into the myre of contradictions
from the body Take an example of this fire which we see and know If it be not possible without a miracle from the mighty hand of God for flesh to abide or life to dure in the paine of burning and flaming fire how lesse possible is it for the wicked on whom God sheweth no such wonders to liue and continue in the paines of the damned whiles they are heere fastened to the flesh b Chrysost. ad Theodorum lapsum epâ—…st 5. Hic quidem non simul contingit vehementia poenarum earum diuturnitas Altera enim cum altera pugnat propter conditionem corruptibilis huius corporis non ferentisea In this life saith Chrysostome the violence of paines and the continuance thereof cannot stand together The one fighteth with the other by reason of this corruptible body which cannot beare both And againe c Idem ad Populum Antioch homil 49. Name fire or sword or any thing that is more grieuous then these yet these are scant a shadow to those torments d Defenc. pag. 121. li. 16. And if hell paines in this world may be in any much rather may they be in Christ whom God purposely sent through paines and afflictions the extreamest that might be to be consecrated the Prince of our saluation If the true paines of hell might be in others here liuing yet in Christs soule they might not be since his soule had alwaies greater inward ioyes of the holy Ghost which you call heauen then any man here liuing on earth could haue except your learning serue you to put both the ioyes of heauen and the paines of hell at one and the same time in the soule of Christ. As for your proofe when you shew that the paines of hell are sacred and holy then bring them to consecrate the Prince of our saluation Till then refraine this apparent collusion to make Christ both obedient and astonished patient and ouerwhelmed in the paines of hell and learne that God tried the obedience and patience of his Sonne by the things which he suffered and so consecrated or consummated him to be the Prince of our saluation who must be conformed to his image to suffer with him not the pains of hell but the miseries and afflictions of this life with all obedience to the will and counsell of God if we will reigne with him e Defenc pag. 121. li. 14. 19. If you say yet thus it will follow that the extreamest paines of hell are not to be found in this world as the hiest ioyes of heauen are not likewise by my confession I answere I know not neither meane I to determine the measure and depth of sorowes which Christ in his Passion suffered Either you change mindes with the windes or he that wrote this wrote not that which went before In the 52 page of this booke li. 25. you prated apace that Christ suffered a sense of Gods wrath EQVALL to hell it selfe and ALL THE TORMENTS thereof And in the 15 page li. 16. you solemnly concluded whence it must follow that the paines of Christs suffering were the same in nature and ALTOGETHER AS SHARPE and as painfull as they are in hell it selfe Now you know no such thing nor meane to determine it It were good you tooke vpon you to know lesse of your hellish mysteries till you were more assured of them or better learned in them This floting vp downe like the waues of the sea shew that either diuers mens pens haue beene in your papers or that vnquiet buzzes are in your owne braines who sometimes can not nor will not and yet somtimes can and will determine and pronounce the paines of hell suffered by Christ to be EQVALL to hell and all the torments thereof and AS SHARPE as the sharpest in hell But your Reader if he be wise will see you more constant in your owne conceits before he giue any credit to them and lesse maruell that men fallen from the trueth thus reele to and fro f Defenc. pag. 121. li. 22. Only grant this plainly that Christ suffered in his soule the true effects of Gods proper iustice and wrath and we seeke no more Tell me first what you meane by the effects of Gods proper iustice and wrath and then from what Scripture you deriue it and you shall soone see what I grant Only say you no more than you haue expresse warrant of the holie Ghost to beleeue and I aske no more With the name of Gods proper wrath you haue plaied a long time and a number haue deceaued them selues For as it is most true that God would haue laid none of these things which Christ suffered on his owne sonne but displeased and angrie with our sinnes for which he was to satisfie the Iustice of God least our iniquitie should seeme a matter of dalliance and easily â—…uerpast so it is as true that God neither was nor could be wroth and offended with the person of his owne sonne in whom he was well pleased and for whose sake he was reconciled to vs but that the chastisement of our peace being imposed on him who for the innocencie and excellencie of his person was able to tolerate and mitigate the wrath of God prouoked by our sinnes he made the purgation of them by that kind of satisfaction which was conuenient both to the dignitie and safetie of his person and argued apparantly the loue of God towards him and his loue towards vs whiles he put him selfe in the gappe by his owne smart to auert and appease the iust wrath kindled against vs. Now what this chastisement was wee may neither of vs nor any man els seeke farder then the holie Ghost hath deliuered that g 1. Cor. 15. Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and h Philip 2. became obedient to the death euen the death of the crosse which is plainly described by the Euangelists and should not be questioned by any that is not more wedded to his conceits than to the word of God i Defenc. pag. 121. li. 31. Though Christ suffered all which he did suffer here in this world yeâ—… for any thing I can see there is cause why Christ should be an extraordinarie person in the case of suffering for sin in this life and that therefore as touching sorow and paine he might feele more than euer any els hath or could feele for the time He was an extraordinarie person indeed as being the true and only Sonne of God that is both God and man in one person bearing the burden of our sinnes in his bodie but appropriating or accounting the same to the dignitie of his person that by his death he might abolish him that had rule of death and restore vs to life by his humilitie and obedience which was so precious and glorious in the sight of God that he accepted it as a full sacrifice and satisfaction for all our sinnes and made him the authour of eternali saluation
death for which we must not pray But whosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not that sinne and so neither Christ who was the true Sonne of God nor any of his chosen who are the children of God by adoption can sinne that sinne nor die that death because he that is begotten of God liueth by God who is eternall life to all that know him and cleaue vnto him without separation If then the sinnes of the Elect be not vnto death but such as we in pietie may and in charitie must pray for consequently the death of the soule here meant by Saint Iohn is such as is not incident to any of the sonnes of God and so not the temporall hell which you communicate to Christ and his members Heere are your eight places of Scriptures proouing as you pretend the second death of the soule which you ascribe to Christ in euery one of which saue the first and second there can be no question but euerlasting damnation is intended and in those two the guiltinesse of eternall death which is due to sinne may be comprised in the name of death which the Apostle iustifieth when he sayth t Rom. 5. v. 12. The offence of one came on all men vnto condemnation which is in effect that he sayd before Death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned But that any of these intend your temporall hell brought into this life not by snares and feares working on the soules of men but by substance and essence and not eternall death in hell fire with the Diuell and his Angels you nor all your adherents shall euer be able by any ground of holy Scripture to make it appeare And therefore your presuming it vpon the bare shew of places concluding no such thing is a pestilent intrusion vpon the word of God whiles you sticke not to couple your conceits which are false and erroneous with his vndoubted and vndefiled trueth x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 31. First ordinarily and commonly it belongeth only to the damned wherewithall are the ordinarie accidents and concomitants desperation induration vtter darknesse c. with perpetuitie of punishment and that locally in HELL Generally and truely the Scriptures neuer vse the name of the second death but for the lake burning with euerlasting fire into which the Diuell and all the Reprobate shall be cast and whatsoeuer you otherwise pretend is your owne absurd deuice without the Scriptures and against the Scriptures to keepe your doctrine from open derision and detestation And since your selfe acknowledge that this is the ordinarie and vsuall doctrine of the Scriptures it shal be needfull for your Reader to hold you to that till you fully proue your extraordinarie deuice by the same Scriptures by which the other is euidenly confirmed and so much openly confessed by you y Defenc. pag. 135. li. 36. In this sense the Fathers generally do take it where they denie that Christ suffered the death of the soule and so do we If your cause haue so little holde in the Scriptures it hath lesse in the Fathers who in the necessarie worke of our redemption thought it sacriledge to say any thing that was not apparently proued by the Scriptures And as you light not on a true word when you come to deliuer vs the mysteries of your new hell so this is patently false that the Fathers generally take the death of the soule for eternall damnation only when they denie that Christ died the death of the soule They speake as the Scriptures leade them and confessing two deaths of the soule as the Scriptures doe which are sinne excluding all grace and the wages of sinne euen euerlasting damnation they generally denie that Christ died any death of the soule and haue for confirmation of their doctrine therein the whole course of the sacred Scriptures concurring with them x Defenc. pag. 135. li. 37. Secondly the death of the soule or the second death may be extraordinarily and singularly considered namely to imply no more but simply the very nature and essence of it You broach two apparent and euident vntrueths which you make the whole foundation of your presumptuous errour First that either Christ or his Elect in this life did or do suffer the very nature and essence of the second death Next that the Scriptures do singularly and extraordinarily reserue that kinde of second death for Christ and his members Shew either of these by the word of God before you make them grounds of your doctrine or els any meane Reader may soone conceiue you meane to teach no trueth confirmed in the Scriptures but a bolde and false deuice of your owne which you would extraordinarily intrude vpon the word of God a Defenc. pag. 136. li. 5. This is a death to the soule as before we haue shewed according to this sense the Scriptures and Fathers before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. When you glaunced before at the death of Christes soule you prayed vs to haue patience When the Defender shouâ—…d proue the death of Christs soule he sayeth bee hâ—…th proued it already till you came to the place where we should receiue a reasonable satisfaction and now you are come to the place where you should make iust and full proofe thereof you send vs backe againe and say you haue shewed it before What meaneth this doubling and deceiuing of your Reader but that you would seeme to haue many proofs when indeed you haue none and therefore you post vs to and fro to seeke for that we shall neuer finde In the 113. Page of this Defence you went about by your miserable misconstruing of certaine wordes vsed by some of the Fathers to enforce a shew of a death on the soule of Christ but against the haire as there I haue proued and therefore stand not on your former vnfortunate aduentures but either heere make proofe by the Scriptures that Christ died the death of the soule or leaue prating and publishing it so confidently as you and your adherents do for the chiefe part of mans redemption The Scriptures and Fathers you say before noted may rightly be vnderstood not to denie it in Christ. Is this all you haue to say for the death of Christes soule that the Scriptures and Fathers may be vnderstood not to denie it The Scriptures must affirme it before you can make it any point of Christian religion or part of our reconciliation to God b Rom. 10. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and not by not denying If that be your course to put any thing to the Creed which you list to say the Scriptures doe not denie you may quickly haue a large Creed containing all things which the Scriptures abused with your figures and wrested to your fansies shall not in expresse words as you thinke denie c Defenc. pag. 136. li. 9. Moreouer let it be obserued that if we had no proofes at all
in Scripture for this point yet our question is fully proued and confirmed by those other sufficient and pregnant proofs alleaged and iustified before Your palpable and pregnant follies are sufficiently seene before your proofs were none but bald and false presumptions conceiued by your selfe though otherwise voide of all reason and authoritie with such props you haue hitherto supported your Defence and now you be come to the maine issue whether the Scriptures or Fathers doe teach that Christ for our redemption died the death of the soule or the death of the damned which is the second death you would passe it ouer as a matter of no moment and here tell vs if you had no such proofe as indeed you haue none yet you haue played your part before which was to set a good face on an euill cause and to proue iust nothing d Defenc. pag 136. li. 13. For it is to be noted that no man setteth the question in these tearmes that Christ died in his soule neither doe we at all vse them very much in speaking of this matter The Scriptures themselues set that for the question First of all I e 1. Cor. 15. deliuered vnto you sayeth Paul that which I receiued how that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures Since then f Rom. 5. we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne and Christ is the g Hebr 9. Mediatour of the New Testament through death for the redemption of the transgressions in the former Testament and where a Testament is there must be the death of him that made the Testament The question riseth of it selfe what death the Sonne of God died for our sinnes by the witnesse of holy Scripture And hitherto for these fifteene hundred yeeres and vpward the Christian world both of learned and vnlearned hath beleeued that the Sonne of God by the death of his bodie on the tree ransomed our sinnes reconciled vs to God and vtterly destroyed the kingdome of Satan and that he neither did nor could suffer any other kinde of death as the death of the soule or the So that the reference of the Apostles words standeth thus he offered vp praiers and supplications with strong cries and teares to him that was able to saue him from all touch of death and was heard in that he prayed for and though he were the sonne and god was able to keepe him vntouched of death that is to make him the Sauiour of the world without tasting any kind of death yet such was Gods counsell and his owne liking that he learned or perfourmed the obedience of a sonne by the things which he suffered Whereby the Apostle teacheth vs it was neither want of power in God that Christ died for God was able to haue saued the world by him without his death neither was it lacke of fauour towards his sonne for God HEARD him in that he asked but to manifest in his person the perfect submission of a sonne to his father God would haue him obedient to death euen vnto the death of the crosse and so make him the author of eternall saluation to all that obey him As he obeied God his Father Those words then Christ offered praiers to him that was able to keep him from death prooue not death to be the cause of Christs feare nor the scaping therefrom to be the scope of Christes strong cries and teares but the Apostle thereby noteth that Christ neither doubted of his Fathers power nor loue when he praied so earnestly vnto him but was assured of both and enioyed both in such sort as might best stand with the honor and wisedome of God the father and of Christ his sonne And therefore all your collections and illations built on that false ground doâ—… fall of themselues as hauing nothing to support them but your idle and vaine supposals a Defenc. pag. 137. li. 6. Your owne selfe doe fully grant and affirme it with me yea you affirme farder then we doe or then the trueth is or possibly can be you say Christ heâ—…re thus feared eternall death and euerlasting damnation I must take no â—…corne to haue you wrest and wring my words to a contrary sense when you offer that course to the Apostles words The place which you quote for proofe of my meaning will conuince you to be a malitious falsifier My words a man would thinke are plaine enough and my exposition of that speach vsed by some men is such that no man of any intelligence or conscience would so grosly peruert it Thus I say pag 23. b Serm. pag. 23. li. 4. Distrust of his owne saluation or doubt of Gods displeasure against himselfe we cannot so much as imagine in Christ without euident want of grace and losse of faith which we may not attribute to Christs person no not for an instant And againe c Ibid. li. 17. I refraine to speake what wrong it is to put either doubtfulnâ—…sse or forgetfulnesse of these things in part of Christs humane nature And to the question thereon demanded d li. 20. Why then did he pray that the cup might passe from him I answere he had no need to pray for himselfe but only for vs who then suffered with him and in him What learning I cannot say but what lewdnesse is this to father that on me which I fully forsake and still to presse me with that which I so often preuent and repell I did not intend in my Sermons to note any by name nor sharply to censure their sayings but repeating as much as I saw I gaue the best construction or mittigation to their words that any trueth would endure Where then some men whom by your importunity you haue vrged me to name as the Catechisme of master Nowel which you would seeme so much to reuerence in plaine words auoucheth that Christ was e Pag. 280. 〈◊〉 mortis horrore perfusus perfused or plunged with the horror of etâ—…rnall death And master Caluin saith f Institutione li. 2. ca. 16. sect 10. Oportuit 〈◊〉 cum inferorum copijs 〈◊〉 mortis horrore quasi consertis manibus luctari Christ was to wrâ—…si â—…ith the powers of hell and with the horror of eternall death as it were hand to hand Their words suppressing their names I there taught might be tolerated if we tooke horror for a religious feare only trembling at the terror of hell and praying against it or did attribute that trembling and feare of eternall death to Christ in respect and compassion of vs that were his members and whom he ioined and reckened in his sufferings for vs as one person or body with him Which moderation of mine you euery where conceale and make your Reader beleeue that I fully grant and affirme that which I expressely denie And not content therewith you enterlace my words with your lewd additions as if I said Christ thus feared eternall death You meane with strong cries and teares and
day If you could take any hold I doubt not the sharpenesse of your teeth but your foolish conceits are caried like clouds in the aire they rest not before they vanish r Defenc pag. 139. li. 5. Then Luke where both spirit and flesh are not intended of Christ as our obseruation requireth but only the flesh Your obseruation is made to fitte S. Peters words to your fansie For there are not many places in Scripture where spirit and flesh are expressed and intended of the two natures of Christ though in other places some words adioyned doe prooue him to be God as well as man In that of S. Luke Christ doth not denie himselfe to be a diuine spirit for then he were no God since God is a s Iohn 4. spirit nor to haue an humane spirit for then he were no man but that which they saw with their eies he affirmed was flesh and bloud and not any apparition in the shape of a man And the words following t Luke 24. as ye see me to haue containe and note the other part of his humane nature which was his soule and spirit and consequently inferre that he was a man and had an humane spirit though compassed with flesh and bones as we haue u Defenc. pag. 139. li. 7. Then the Romans where I affirme that flesh signifieth the whole manhood of Christ according to the which he came from Dauid euen as well as Salomon or Nathan did who were Dauids sonnes in their intire and perfect nature Whether Christs body without a soule which was but a Carcasse be alwaies in the Scriptures intended by the name of Christs flesh this is not the question there is but one place in the new Testament where Christs flesh importeth his dead body as when Peter saith Christes x Acts 2. flesh saw no corruption but whether whatsoeuer is attributed to Christs flesh with comparison or mention of his diuine nature doe properly agree as well to his soule as to his body this is the thing in question betwixt you and me That the man Christ was borne of the Virgin and died on the Crosse there is no doubt but that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid and circumcised crucified as well as his body this is your error and for this you haue no shew in the word of God and therefore you seeke by rules of your owne making to draw it in by the heeles when you cannot by the head It is but a shift to saue your selfe when you tell your Reader that Christs whole manhood came from Dauid as well as Salomon or Nathan did The point is whether Christes soule were made of the seed of Dauid as well as his body was That I denie and haue the Apostle for my warrant that men are only the y Heb. 12. Fathers of our bodies and God is the immediate Father of our spirits Which if it be true in all men then Salomon and Nathan were the sonnes of Dauid not because their soules were made of the seed of Dauid but only their bodies and yet since they drew as much from their father as children by Gods ordinance do or may do therefore were they the sonnes of Dauid In Christ it is most sure which the Apostle saith that according to the flâ—…sh he was made of the seed of Dauid This by no meanes can be verified of his soule howsoeuer you would slubber it vp by calling his whole manhood the sonne of Dauid which I doe not denie Not that his soule was made of the seed of Dauid as was his body that is an open and an odious error but that his flesh made of the seed of Dauid which was the Virgins body was also quickened with a soule from God in due time that came not out of Dauids loines Euen so the whole man in Christ died on the Crosse not that his soule was depriued of life or left dead as was his body but that the coniunction of soule and body which maketh the whole man was dissolued by death his flesh lying in the graue without corruption and his soule remaining in the hands of God to which it was commended z Defenc. pag. 139. So likewise Christ was kinne to the lewes according to his whole humanity as well as Paul was When you can shew kindred in spirits as well as in flesh that is deriued from parents then say that Paul and Christ were kin to the Iewes according to their whole humanity till you proue that howsoeuer vse of speach may be endured which must be interpreted according to the truth you can neuer conclude there is consanguinity betweene soules as there is betweene bodies And spight of your heart if you will not maintaine vntrueths to vphold your credit as your maner is the Apostle teacheth you how to vnderstand those words that as we haue fathers of our bodies from whom our spirits come not but immediatly from God so kindred and consanguinity which commeth by the parents goeth by flesh and bloud receiued from them and not by soules infused from God S. Iohn leadeth you to the same rule that men are borne of bloud and of the will of the flesh and so by flesh and bloud commeth kindred God giuing soules to quicken their bodies Wherefore the Scriptures when they expresse kindred they note it by flesh and bone As when Laban said to Iacob Thou art my a Gene. 29. bone and my flesh So Iudah of Ioseph b Gene. 37. he is our brother and our flesh So Abimelech to his mothers brethren c Iudic. 9. I am your bone and your flesh And vsualy where kindred is claimed or yeelded the Scriptures expresse it by d 2. Sam. 5. 19 flesh and bones as Adam said to Eue e Gen. 2. This now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh So that howsoeuer you dreame or talke of the consanguinity of soules it is like the rest of your nouelties which haue no handfast but in your head and the exception taken by me will stand good doe you and your adherents what you can that in these attributes to the manhood of Christ you shall neuer prooue they properly pertaine to both parts but to the whole conioyned or to one part seuerally respected f Defenc. pag. 139. li. 21. Further that which you bring out of the Corinthians compared with this in Peter doth most cleerely open and confirme the same He was crucified touching his infirmitie but liueth by the power of God His soule had infirmities of suffering in it aswell as his bodie therefore his soule also is vnderstood here that it was crucified and died that is according to the condition thereof You proue not what you promise but pronounce what you please which if any man will suffer you to doe we shall soone haue a new Church a new Faith and all things new Afore you pretended rules at least though void of reason and trueth now you
you l Treâ—… pa. 78. li. 〈◊〉 butted both these as absurd and most false that Christ was made aliue either in his humane soule or by the same I replied that you refuted your owne position Foâ—… if in the former words of Peter his meaning were to say that Christes soule and bodie as you conceaue him were done to death then of necessitie Christ must be quickned and restored to life as well in his humane Soule as in his Bodie And this is so farre from being absurd and false as you proclaimed it that it is openly blasphemous otherwise to saie or thinke that Christ was neuer made aliue in his humane soule if once it were dead as you collected out of Peters words What course now take you to colour these incongruities You ment it was absurd to say that Christes soule was quickned as was his bodie Of the maner of death you speake there not a word but onely seeke to prooue that spirit in that place can not be taken for Christes soule because it is most absurd and false as you say that Christ was made aliue in his humane soule How you will iangle or iuggle touching your intent is not to this purpose you must answere for the sense which you would patch to Peters words The death which Christ suffered in his flesh by Peters assertion was it the death of the body alone or of both body and soule if of the body only then is your commentane which corrupteth Peters words absurd false and wicked Did Peter intend to teach that Christ died in both parts of his manhood that is in soule as well as in bodie then is it a necessarie trueth and point of piety to confesse and affirme that Chist was made aliue in his humane soule which you say is absurd and false Which way will your wisedome winde out of this grinne you ment it is absurd for the soule to be quickened as the body is You ment as best serued your turne but what ment Peter if he affirmed the soule of Christ died as you interprete him must not his words auouch that Christes soule was made aliue except you resolue that Christs soule once dead was neuer quickned againe and though you set a bold face on these contradictions and say you are farre from them yet ech meane Reader may soone perceaue how farre you were ouershot in them though heere you would outface them And where you now say that in such a sense you doe not denie but Christ may be said to be quickned in the spirit what is this but to grant that now which before you called absurd and most false m Dâ—…c pag. 140. li. 37. I hope it is cleere to reasonable men that Christes soule according to the Scriptures phrase may be said in some sort to haue tasted suffered death that is the extreamest feelings of Gods wrath for sinne and the most vehement paines of the damned but in a singuler maner and extraordinarie vvay And to the same reasonable men I referre it whether you haue brought one word or syllable out of holy Scripture concluding that Christ died the death of the soule or the second death The Scripture phrase you haue peruerted and distorted to your meaning but the words are farre from inferring any such thing euen in the iudgement of the meanest Your mittigations In some sort in a singular manner and extraordinarie way What argue they but your wresting of the Scriptures from their right sense since no such thing is there affirmed yea the death of the soule and the second death in the Scriptures are such as you dare not auouch of Christ but with these limitations which are no where mentioned in the Scriptures but are houels to shroud your absurd and false doctrine from the tempest of the word of God conuincing you of impiety and heresie if you did not thus delude the force of them But in vaine doe you seeke for these vnsound refuges when you be once driuen from your footing in the word of God For you must not only prooue by the Scriptures which you neither haue done nor can doe that Christ suffered the death of the soule and the second death as you say he did but you must shew also where these exceptions are written of Christ otherwise they are but shifts declining the maine and generall trueth of the Scriptures touching the death of the soule and the second death which can no more agree to Christ then sinne and damnation which you may as well defend IN A SORT in a singular manner and extraordinary way to be found in Christ as the other And therefore dally not with the word of God and faith of Christ your singular manner will not saue you from abusing the one and defacing the other except you can shew where your assertion as well as your exceptions be written in the booke of God As for the most vehement paines of the damned when you take the paines to prooue any thing otherwise then by the meale of your owne mouth you shal be answered The paines of the damned expressed in the Scriptures are reiection confusion worme of conscience and torment of hell fire which if by your cunning conueyance you cast vppon the soule of Christ you shall cough me a singular and extraordinary miscreant n Defenc. pag. 141. li. 6. Now besides the matter you gird at me in diuers places as where I say the death of the soule is such paines and sufferings of Gods wrath as alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God This geere deserued more then girding other men vse to blush at such falsehoods but shamefastnesse and you are parted When you had thus grossely thwarted the trueth as to say that the paines of Gods wrath which here you make the most o Treatis pag. 77. li. 5. vehement paines of the damned doe alwayes accompanie them that are separated from the grace and loue of God your Printer or Corrector ashamed of that more then childish ouersight would not take vpon him to altar your text and so to amend your error but with a marginall note bridled your wordes making an addition cleane contrarie to your text For where you said alwayes he said ordinarily which is not alwayes and so he giueth you the lie and yet himselfe is as farre from the trueth as you are For neither alwayes nor ordinarily much lesse alwayes ordinarily which is as much as alwayes sometimes doe the most vehement paines of the damned accompanie them that are strangers to the grace and loue of God and therefore this Laborinth is like your other riddles in religion neither Writer Reader nor Corrector can tell what to make of them nor how to temper them with any trueth But now you will make amends for all p Defenc. pag. 141. li. 10. Forsooth it is true they are alwayes wicked whom these paines do accompanie ordinarily It is the first time I heard you speake
of the Christian faith would any man in his right wits haue asked as Austen doth Who dare auouch it He discusseth the place of S. Peter and when he commeth to those words Christ was quickened in the spirit or by the spirit he resolueth this cannot be spoken of Christs humane soule because that which was afterwards quickened was first mortified and therefore we could not say that Christs humane spirit or soule was restored to life except we first yeelded that it was before subiected to death Now that Christs soule was euer dead who durst auouch it The reason why Christs soule could neuer die he rendreth thus for that the Scriptures acknowledge no death of the soule in any but sin and damnation to neither of which the soule of Christ could be subiect x August epist. 99. Certè anima Christi nullo mortificata peccato vel damnatione punita est quibus duabus causis mors animae intelligi potest Surely the soule of Christ was neither dead with any sin nor punished with damnation which are the two waies how the death of the soule may be possibly vnderstood This collection of S. Austins out of the Scriptures touching the death of the soule is most sound and cannot be shaken with all your shewes and shifts talke of ordinarie and extraordinarie as long as you will That standing good which yet we see immooueable for all your battery it followeth ineuitably that Christ ne did ne could die the death of the soule ne may any man defend it without apparent falsity and impiety What proofes you haue profered against S. Austins conclusion let the Reader iudge I must confesse my selfe very blind if he see any for I see none and therefore not only S. Austins words but his reasons out of holy Scripture stand firme and hold you fast to the grinding stone being no way as yet counteruailed or controled but with your vaine speaches and most vnlearned euasions y Defenc pag. 142. li. 2. Nay according to Austins owne definition of the soules dying it will easily appeare that Christes soule may be said to haue suffered some kind of death Mors est spiritus deseri a Deo The death of the soule saith he is Gods for saking of it but the Scripture saith God did forsake him for a season yea the Fathers also agree fully therevnto Therefore by Anstins definition largely and rightly taken Christ may be said in some sense to haue died in soule From your shifts you returne againe to your proofes and neither barrell is better herring The maior you thinke is Austins the minor is Christs owne words and what trow you should hinder the cōclusion This reason hath but three of your wonted flowers I must not say faults the maior is larger then Austen euer ment and the minor no way matcheth it except you quite alter the words of Christ and the conclusion commeth nothing neere to your purpose Examine them in order Not euery forsaking of the soule is death for the godly often in the Scriptures complaine as I haue shewed that they are forsaken of God when yet their soules liue but as life is repugnant to death and God is the life of the soule so till God haue vtterly forsaken the soule she is not dead Whiles she retaineth any fellowship of grace with God who is her life she is not dead because she partaketh with life As then death is the vtter priuation of life so God must vtterly forsake the soule before she can be pronounced to be dead and that kind of forsaking is indeed the death of the soule in this life So that your maior if euer you will come neere S. Austins meaning must be the death of the soule is Gods vtter for saking of the same And that thus you must conster S. Austins words appeareth euery where by his z In Psal. 70. in Iohan. tract 47. de verbis Apost Serm. 30. comparison with the death of the bodie which is not dead till the soule be vtterly departed from it For as the body which hath in it any power or presence of the soule is not dead but liuing so the soule that hath any communion with God who is her life can not be truely sayd to be dead but as yet to haue life Were you no Diuine but a plaine Sophister reason teacheth you so to vnderstand S. Austins words for where life and death be priuatiues as well in the soule as in the bodie the one hath no place till the other be vtterly quenched He is not blinde that hath any sight nor deafe that hath any hearing the priuation vtterly excludeth the habite neither is the soule dead that hath any force or effect of life in her and consequently not euerie forsaking but onely an vtter forsaking of God is the death of the soule heere in this life Your minor then should be that Christes Soule was vtterly forsaken of God which are not the words of Christ on the crosse nor any way consonant to them yea the verie entrance to that speech when Christ saide My God my God doth prooue the quite contrarie a Matth. 22. God is not the God of the dead but of the liuiug Then directly by the plaine wordes of Scripture when Christ said My God my God his soule confessing God to be his God was liuing and consequently the wordes following why hast thou forsaken me doe net prooue the death of the soule vnlesse you make the Sonne of God so vnwise as not to vnderstand what he said or so amazed that he marked not his owne speech which with you perchance is no absurditie but with me it is a wicked and vnchristian impietie Christes wordes therefore import that he found a kinde of forsaking but not that his soule was forsaken of the trueth grace or spirit of God these be blasphemies to auouch and no points of pietic nor that he was vtterly or altogither forsaken which onely is the death of the soule And against this wresting of Christes wordes from their right sense how many testimonies of scriptures and Fathers haue I sormerly brought all which you trippe ouer with a light foote and make as though you felt them not You haue beene told b Galat 3. the iust shall liue by saith So that if Christ wanted not faith he could not choose but liue in soule Againe c 1. Iohn 4. God is 〈◊〉 and he that dwelleth in loue dwelieth in God Christ then must either haue life or want loue for the loue of God is the life of the soule Farder the Spirit of God is the d Rom. 8. spirit of life that quickneth the soule yea then 〈◊〉 thereof is life and peace Then must you take from Christ the spirit of God with all the gifts and graces thereof before you can depriue the soule of Christ from life What an hellish heape of blasphemies are here before you can affirm that Christs soule was dead according to the Scriptures
according to Austins meaning who herein ioineth with the Scriptures Christ then lyâ—…ing in soule with perfect obedience and patience and assuredly knowing God to be his God his Father complaineth that he was left or forsaken that is either not deliuered from his troubles afflictions but left in sinners hands to do their pleasure with him or deuested of his power and left through weaknesse vnto death which should for a season seuer his soule from his bodie or lastly lest in this shame of the crosse anguish of body without any open or sensible shew or signe of Gods fauour towards him or care for him All these kindes of forsaking the learned and ancient Fathers acknowledge in Christ on the crosse and other forsaking of the soule they admit none howsoeuer you falsly pretend their full agreement Come now to your conclusion if you could euince that Christes soule was vtterly forsaken of God and depriued of life which you can neuer and to offer it will conuince you of hainous and wilfull heresie and blasphemie yet can you conclude no more but the death of the soule in this life which is either ignorance or contempt of God Hell paines you cannot inferre nor the torments of the damned which are the second death and so your great flourish out of Austen for the death of Christes soule is but a â—…aw And the Reader may see with what vnderstanding and conscience you read and alleage the Fathers that where you acknowledge e Defenc. pag. 142. li. 12. they doe denie this phrase generally that Christ died in soule yet you boldly and lewdly affirme the next line before they f li. 11. grant the thing in effect as if they denied that in wordes which indeed they knew to be a part of the Christian faith and were like you who shift and lie for life to support your owne Deuices But in all these shewes of yours the aduised Reader shall finde nothing but a carelesse and senselesse resolution to saie anie thing rather then to admit a trueth or to relent from the least of your conceits whereof he may haue a full proofe in your words next following g Defenc pag. 142. li. 16. Let this be the answer touching all your Fathers and Councels which you bring abundantly heere and there about this point of the soules death A short answer indeede if it had either trueth or sense in it It is right a colts tricke when he will not or can not endure the loade to cast the whole packe off at once That they generally deny the death of Christes soule you grant and with a brazen face and barren head you adde they meane otherwise they deny not the thing but onely the phrase What is this but to suppâ—… vp the trueth with a sadde countenance and to belch foorth your shame with open mouth had you examined their places your shifts sleights and vntrueths would haue loaden a carrect you haue better now prouided for your selfe with belying them all at once you haue incurred but one inconuenience But like is your Defence to your cause it entred first with aduantage of phrases and so it will end with a wind-mill of wordes Well that the Christian Reader may perceaue how auncient and vniuersally consented and confirmed by the church of Christ this truth hath beene which I teach that Christ died no death for our redemption but the death of the body onely to those Fathers which you say are abundantly brought by me already I will adde others that though there be no care nor conscience in you yet all men in whom there is any sense may see your deuice of the death of Christes soule and of hell paines and the most vehement torments of the damned suffered by him to be not onely a falsitie repugnant to the Scriptures but a noueltie against the maine consent and confession of all antiquitie If their testimonies be long and many thou wilt bâ—…are with me Christian Reader I hope the expence of a little paper to me or paine to thee is not so deare as the cause it selfe both for thy direction and for my discharge First then thou shalt heare that Christ died in bodie alone which is my assertion and withall that Christ died not in soule which is their conceit contradicted by all the Fathers and in the end we will shortly view whether these Fathers crosse their new found redemption in words oâ—… matter The places I thinke good to repeate in Latine or Grecke as much as shall need which otherwise I refraine of purpose to decrease the volume least it should be too great that the Reader should ncither distrust my translating nor make long search for the wordes themselues in ech Writer if happily he desire to see them Tertullian prouing the resurrection of our bodies by Christs example saith h Tertull. de Resurrect carmis ca. 48. Sine dubio si mortuum sisepultum audis secundum scripturas NON ALIAS QVAM IN CARNF aequâ—… resuscitatum in carne conced â—…ipsum enim quod â—…idit in mortem quod iacuit iâ—…sepulchro hoc resurrexit non tam Christus in carne quà m caro Christi Without Christ died no death of the soule by the iudgement of all the Fathers question if thou heare that CHRIST DIED that he was buried according to the Scriptures NONE OTHERWISE THEN in the flesh thou wilt grant that he was likewise raised in the flesh For that very thing which fell by death which lay in the graue that surely rose not so much Christ in the flesh as the flesh of Christ. And in the same place Dominus i Ibidem quanquam animam circumferret trepidantem vsque ad mortem sed non cadentem PER MORTEM The Lord though he caried about a soule fearing vnto death YET NOT FALLING BY DEATH Origen k Origen li. 5. in ca. 5. epist. ad Romanos By sinne saith Paul came death that death no doubt whereof the Prophet saith the soule that sinneth the same shall die whereof a man may iustly call this bodily death a shadow For whither soeuer that pierceth of force this followeth as a shadow doth the bodie If a man obiect that our Sauiour did no sinne neither was there in him the death of the soule by reason of any sinne and yet he sustained a corporall death we will answere him that where Christ owed this death to none nor was obnoxious to it yet for â—…ur saluation of his owne accord and by no necessitie he vndertooke this so aboue called shadow of death l Ibidem This common death then he did vndergoe but that death of sinne which raigned ouer all others he did not admit Athanasius m Athanas. contra Arianos oratione 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What els was that which was crucified but the bodie of Christ And againe Christs n Ibidem resurrection could not be without death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how could
And how come you now to put so great a difference betwixt alwaies and vsually where before you did interpret alwaies to be ordinarily but now you finde flesh and spirit together applied to men once to signifie meerely the body and soule Meane you in all the Scriptures or in the new Testament onely You call it the r Treatis pag. 136. li. 8. perpetuall vse of the Scripture and so must include the old Testament as well as the new except you will barre the old from being part of the Scripture What then shall become of that which Moses so often ascribeth to God when he saith s Numb 16. 27. O God the God of the spirits of all flesh Praieth he for the spirits of men or of beastes If you will straighten your wordes to the new Testament how insolent a bragger and negligent a Reader of the Scripture are you that first said it was alwaies so and now correcting your error say you finde it once otherwise where a childe might easily haue found it oftner The Apostle decreed the Offender at Corinth to be t 1. Coâ—… 5. deliuered vnto Sathan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saued in the day of the Lord. And to the Hebrewes he telleth vs u Heb. 12. We had fathers of our flesh which corrected vs and we reuerenced them Should we not much more be subiect to the Father of spirits In both which places the spirit of force must signifie the substance of mans soule x Defenc. pag. 144. li. 19. Finally to make an end with your Fathers and Councels I haue shewed before that your large claime prooueth a very short gaine For in substance and full effect they are euidently and generally against you and for vs. If thou thinke Christian Reader that I charge this man vniustly with impudent facing behold but these wordes and say what thou thinkest of them He that hath not brought nor can not bring one euident or pertinent word out of any Father for the death of Christes soule he yelleth out with open throatâ—… that generally and euidently they are in substance and full effect for him and against me It is no time heere to repeat what is past by that which is said thou maist easily iudge on which side the Fathers stand with full confession of the trueth and their faith Bragging is boies play where all performance wanteth y li. 24. As for their denying that Christ died in his soule I haue answered before With senselesse and shamefull shifts that Christes soule died not as the body did that he died not the ordinary death of the soule expressed in the Scriptures but an extraordinary newly deuised by your selfe and more then this in summe and substance you haue not said one word z li. 25. Further where you bring them in many places saying by his bloud onely he redeemed vs and he suffered onely in his body they are abused by you woonderfully not in their wordes but in their meaning You would faine change dying into suffering and haue your Reader imagine that I say Christes soule suffered nothing at all but these are now so stale tricks of yours that euery man reiecteth them as fast as I doe From death you 〈◊〉 to sufferings from sufferings to proper sufferings of the soule to which you à dde as a supplussage the paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God And so where you finde any Father affirme that Christ GRIEVED FEARED OR SORROWED in soule which are the naturall passions of mans soule common to good and badde you looke no farder but presently pronounce that Father maketh euidently with you But awake out of this ignorant lâ—…thargie there be many steps betweene their words and your wiles which you will neuer tread ouer with any the least shew of truth or proofe If I haue not abused their wordes in alleaging them as you confesse and I assure my selfe I haue not but where the Printer perchance hath made some fault which no man can auoid as pag. 81. August de Trinitate li. 11. the Printer hath set for lib. 13. and some such then haue I lesse abused their meaning whereof I make euerie Reader iudge and so referre my collecting to their censuring which is no abuse a Defenc. pag. 144. li. 28. They striuing against Arians and such other heretikes who would haue Christs Deitie to take part in his sufferings for our redemption the godly auncient writers doe heereupon say he suffered and satisfied for vs onely in his body not excluding the proper and immediate sufferings of his spirit Let the Authors themselues be viewed if you thinke 1 affirme of them falsely Against whom they write is not so much as what they write and how they confute those heretikes whom they vndertake The positions which they establish out of the Scriptures against such heresies are most to be regarded by their proofes you shall see their purpose To confound those misbeleeuers that would haue the Godhead of Christ suffer in his flesh or together with his flesh the Fathers do soundly oppose first that the Godhead is inuiolable impassible immutable and such like properties of the Godhead Secondly that the soule of Christ was subiect to no kind of death neither of sinne nor damnation which are not the death of the body as you wilfully but most absurdly would wrest it and therefore the Godhead was much more free not onely from this death of the bodie but from all touch of any kinde of death Thirdly to shew what it was in Christ that died since neither the Deitie nor the soule of Christ could die any kinde of death they prooue that that which died was a mortall bodie buried and raised againe the third day according to the Scriptures Which accidents and attributes belonging onely to the body of Christ It is most certaine by the sacred Scriptures that onely the body of Christ was yeelded to death for the redemption of our sinnes These be the chiefest of their reasons though they haue many others tending to the same issue which whether they truely and effectually exclude the death of Christes soule from the worke of our redemption I leaue it to their iudgement that shall peruse the former places by me cited or view the Fathers themselues in their full discourses And yet a number of these Fathers in the places by me alleaged doe not refute the Arians but handle professedly other points of our redemption saluation as Tertullian in his booke of the Resurrection of the flesh Chrysostom in his Homily of drunkennesse of the resurrection Augustine in his 99. Epistle those Chapters of his fourth Booke de Trinitate which I produced Gregorie vpon Iob Bernard in his Sermons to the Souldiers of the Temple Bede in his Homilies and Albinus in his questions these I say doe not there take in hand to refell the Arians but to deliuer what kinde of death Christ died to free
others that beleeue the words of Paul are sufficient declaring this to be the very ground of the Gospell which hee receiued and deliuered that Christ e 1. Cor. 15. died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that hee arose the third day according to the Scriptures Whence by a full and faire coherence I collect that whatsoeuer died in Christ according to the Scriptures that was buried and raised the third day according to the Scriptures But it is more then manifest by the Scriptures that the soule of Christ was neither buried nor raised from death the third day but onely his bodie It is therefore as plaine to me by the all sufficient word of God that the soule of Christ died not for our sinnes according to the Scripture Your f Defenc. pag. 146. li 23. section touching materiall fire in hell I haue sifted at large before I shall not neede to say any more of it Your hemming in all the world on your side g Defenc pag. 147. li. 25. not some nor the most or best but euen all and euery one both Churches and writers in the world who are Protestants leauing none to vphold the doctrine which I deliuer but Papists Iesuites and Friars is as I told you before and must tell you againe an egregious lie so loud and leud that all the belles in London if they should iarre together could not yeeld a more offensiue sound That euery new writer speaketh of some feares sorrowes temptations or painefull sufferings in the soule of Christ neuer was nor is by me denied neither doe I in my Sermons take vpon me to determine what feares temptations paines and sorrowes Christ might and did suffer in his soule onely I added that we must beware we diminish not his faith hope loue confidence obedience patience and other gifts and graces of the spirit of God in the soule of Christ which the Scripture cleerely maketh to be without want defect or measure in him Shunning those sands I left euery man to his libertie to speake or write of Christes feares and sorrowes as farre as any circumstance of holy Scripture did duely enforce but the death of the soule the paines of hell and of the damned and the second death if any sought to fasten on the soule of Christ whosoeuer they were they did it by their owne surmises they had no warrant for any of those in the word of God except they tooke the paines of hell figuratiuely for great and intolerable such as sometimes the Godly in their humane weakenesse thinke and complaine they feele or feare though they come nothing neere the true paines of hell which cannot be endured in this mortall life and flesh by the euidence of nature and Scripture This being my constant course as my Sermons printed doe apparently witnesse what folly what madnesse is this so egerly and often to chalenge me for contradicting the whole world when it is but your immoderate greedinesse or giddinesse to thinke that everie man who writeth any thing of the feares or sufferings of Christs soule doth presently teach as you doe the death of Christs soule and the substance of the most vehement paines of the damned yea the second death to be a necessary part of our redemtion which Christ must suffer before he could ransome vs To censure mens priuate opinions I take no pleasure some men otherwise very learned and laborious haue dipped too deepe in that die as your selfe proue and pronounce by reiecting and reselling the horror of eâ—… nâ—… death in the soule of Christ though Master Caluin say Christ CONFLICTED therewith and the Catechisme auouch Christ was therewithall Pâ—…VSED If you may thus renounce and refute the first deuise and spredders as you thinke them of your proper and spirituall temptations and torments in the soule of Christ giue others leaue to receaue them no farder then they concurre with the Scriptures and with the primatiue church of God I find diuers men speake diuersly but very few and these late that light on the death of Christs soule and suddaine touches of the essentiall paines of the damned from the immediate hand of God which is your fresh and new deuice yea many that are caried away with the generall termes of Gods wrath and horror of his dreadfull iudgements against sin no way like the death of Christs soule and by speciall words debarre all mention of the second death in the sufferings of Christ and those as well English as others How false and soolish your vaunt is of all and euerie church and writer in the world that are Protestants to be of your minde will soone appeare to any that will reade and waigh the workes and wordes of Zuinglius Musculus Martyr Bullinger Aretius 〈◊〉 new 〈◊〉 teach the sufferings of Christs soule without the paines of hell Zanchius and of sundry others as sound in faith as ripe in iudgement as diligent in reading and sufficient in all kinde of learning as the best you can name either broching or bowing towards your late conceits who though they teach that Christ suffered in soule and body as I doe yet they assigne farre other sufferings in the soule of Christ then your essentiall paines of the damned I may not stand to make new discourses touching new writers a place or two shall serue for all and so an end of this matter Bullinger vpon those words of Esay Christ layd downe or made his soule a sacrifice sor sinne saith h 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…3 To make his soule a sacrifice for sinne is to offer himselfe to be a sacrifice to Purge sinnes And he saith Christs soule and not his flesh not that the flesh of Christ was not offered for vs but that whole Christ body and soule offered himselfe to God and that willingly from his heart and of his owne accord and whole Christ was the expiation of our sinnes licet interim neque diuinit as sit passa neque anima mortua sed caro de quare beati Patres Vigilius Fulgentius contra Haereticos religiose disputarunt Though during that time neither his diuinty suffered NOR HIS SOVLE DIED but his flesh whereof the blessed fathers Vigilius and Fulgentius haue religiously discoursed against Heretickes Zanchius whose learned workes are to me in steed of many writers that are caried with faction and affection to vphold whatsoeuer some other men say though he could not for his often and great labours get time to finish his purposed treatise of mans redemption in that exact manner that he hath donne the rest yet commenting on S. Paules Epistles as occasion was offered he fully deliuereth the matter and manner of our redemption to be the only sacrifice of Christs body and bloud other propitiatory sacrifice for sinne then that he acknowledgeth none though he ascribe to the soule as well her sufferings as her sacrifice i Zanchius in ca. 2. epist. ad Philip. v. 8. All things
inuisible place expresly Paradise if that were so you must then confesse your hades is not common to good and bad and hath in it not only an heauenly place but an happie state which I trust you will not allow to the wicked and so hades and heauen to be all one with you which thing you so much disclaime But by your leaue it is not so your friends and you are ouerbold with Ireneus to make him say what you list Six and twenty Chapters before this he saith the elders which were the Apostles Disciples deliuered that such as were translated that is remooued hence with their bodies without dying as Enoch and Elias were translated thither euen to Paradise and there remaine they which were translated euen to the end shewing now a beginning of incorruption Againe he further sheweth that in the Scripture he taketh hades to be al one with death or the dominion of death where he readeth the text thus Vbi est mors aculeus tuus Vbi est mors victoria tua Death where is thy sting Death where is thy victory You shew your selfe to be well read in the fathers that cannot tell whether Ireneus wrote in Greeke or in Latin and therefore in steed of a most learned and most eloquent writer as Ierom calleth him you bring vs the authority of an vnknowen and obscure interpreter Were there no more but the very place euen now cited and abused by your selfe the parts whereof are found in Ireneus thrice after three seuerall interpretations as for example in Terra sepultionis in terra defossionis in terra stipulationis it were enough to shew the Author neuer wrote in Latine that varieth so much from himselfe and that the translator was verie seely but there are other arguments infinite the Greeke wordes expressing the conceits of heretikes aboue 120 euery where be retained the stile throughout exactly resembling the Greeke phrase the manifold citations thereof by the Greeke Fathers as 18. whole Chapters by Epiphanius 22. peeces and parts thereof by Eusebius and 14. by Theodoret besides Polycarpe his instructor and teacher euen in his youth who was altogether a Grecian But we shall not need to seeke reasons for it since Ierom so many hundred yeeres agoe when the originall was extant numbreth Ireneus amongst the Greek writers We shall seeme saith he to crosse the opinions of many auncient writers of the Latins Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius of the Greekes o omit the rest I will make mention onely of Ireneus Bishop of Lions And againe To name the Greeke writers and to ioine the first and last together Ireneus and Apollinarius Ireneus then writing in Greeke and citing the Apostles words likewise in Greek you cannot proue by the rude and late translation of his works which we haue how he read the Apostles text Gregorie Bishop of Rome more then 600 yeeres after Christ saith Scripta beati Irenei iamdiu est quòd solicite quaesiuimus sed hactenus ex â—…is inueniri aliquid non potuit The writings of blessed Ireneus we haue long and carefully sought for but hitherto nothing of his can be found he meaneth in Latin for before and after euerie Greek diuine as Basil Cyril Theodoret Occumenius Aretas Anastasius Damascen Procopius Nicetas cite Irenaeus workes and words The Latin translation of the Apostles words 1 Corinth 15 Death where is thy sting death where is thy victory I shall haue fitter occasion by and by to examine Tertullian doth likewise For speaking of Inferi which he taketh for the same that hades is he noteth it as the place quo vniuersa humanitas trahitur whither all mankind must goe and therefore of Christes going thither he saith Because he was a man therefore hee died according to the Scriptures and was buried according to the same also heere he satisfied the common law of nature by following the forme of mens dying and going to the world of the dead If you should not peruert both Tertullians wordes and sense neither would make for your purpose And though you gain not much by corrupting the coherence of his wordes yet are you so vsed to haue all to your liking that you cannot hold your hand from disordering other mens speeches Christ saith Tertullian being God because he was also man and died according to the Scriptures and was buried according to the same euen in this satisfied the law by performing the course of an humane death apud Inferos in the places below In steed of Legi the law you say the common law of nature apud Inferos you translate going to the world of the dead These bee your fansies added to Tertullians wordes and no parts of his purpose In the meane while you dissemble and therein abuse both your selfe and your Reader that euen in that Chapter and the sentence before Tertullian describeth Inferi to be a place vnder the earth whither the soules of good and bad descend after death the good to a kind of refreshing which is plainely Limbus so much refused by your selfe the bad to punishment His wordes in the fiue and fiftie Chapter which you quote precedent to those which you cite are these Nobis inferi non nuda cauositas nec sub diualis aliqua mundi sentina creduntur sed in fossa Terrae in alto vastitas in ipsis visceribus eius abstrusa profunditas Siquidem Christum in corde Terrae triduum mort is legimus expunctum id est in recessu intimo interno in ipsa Terrâ—… operto intra ipsam cauato inferioribus adhuc abyssis superstructo We beleeue Inferi to be no bare hollownesse nor any sincke vnder the world but in the gulfe of the earth and in the depth of vastitie and in the very bowels of the earth an abstruse profunditie For we reade that Christ was the three dayes of his death in the heart of the earth that is in an inward place within the midst thereof and couered with the earth and hollowed within the same and seated ouer mighty deepes below If this be your world of the dead let any man of vnderstanding iudge whether this be not a plaine euident description of that which the latter writers called Limbus and whether there can be any fuller delineation of it then a place vnder the earth and in the midst thereof euen hollowed in the bowels of the earth and couered with the same hauing vnder it mighty deepes And that in it there is as well rest for the good as torments for the wicked And the continuation of the very same sentence which you guilefully bring for your world of dead and the conclusion of both are deliuered by Tertullian in these words if Christ did performe the course of an humanc death in places below neither did ascend into the higth of the heauens before he descended into the lower parts of the earth there to make the
doth the like He retaineth in the same verse the word hawwito twice saying as Iunius rendreth it God raised him vp and scattered the sorrowes of perditien because it was not possible that he should be coÌ„quered of perdition Where Iunius plainly yeeldeth that this word in Arabicke answereth the Greeke word f hadou not thanátou which appeareth also in the 6 verse of the same chap. Thou wilt not leaue my soule phâ—… hawwito in perdition Which Saint Luke calleth hades and in the 10 Christ was not left in perdition So that Austen had some reason more then you knew to follow the first translator concurring with many Greeke copies that then were and yet are extant and with the Syricke and Arabicke translations who followed the same copies with the Latin church This text is cited in Ireneus â—… whom God raised sâ—…lutis deloribus inferorum quia non erat possible teneri eum ab eis loosing the sorrowes of hell because it was not possible for him to be held of them Cyprian thus expresseth it Impossibile quippe erat sanctam illam animam teneri ab inferis It was impossible for that sacred soule to be held of hell Fulgentius citeth it Solutis inferni doloribus the sorrowes of hell being loosed Bede taketh both for one in this place k Solutosper Dominum dicit dolores inferni siue mortis Peter saith the sorows of hell or death were dissolued by Christ. Since then both are found in many Greeke copies and neither can be reiected as false the name of death if you retaine it must be so expounded as it may not impugne the force of hades and death hauing a double power place and subiect as the death of the body heere on earth and the death of the soule in hell heereafter this later death and hell doe rightly match together the sorrowes of which were losed by Christ because it was impossible for him to be taken or touched by them You quarrell also with the translation which Austen followed for saying in illis in them though that be the right intent of the text and you sticke not to straine Peters words to what higth you list So that you keepe the words and alter the sense and Austen keepeth the sense though he vary somewhat from the words For that was loosed of which it was impossible Christ should be held and euen therefore was it to be loosed because he could not be held therein But the sorrowes of death or hell were loosed It was therefore impossible Christ should be held of them I meane of the sorrowes of either The sense then is rightly and aptly taken though the plurall be put in stood of the singular and Caluin himselfe in respect of the sense retaineth that change though the words doe somewhat differ from the text In this sense Peter saith Christ rose the sorowes of death being loosed â—…a quibus impossibile erat ipsum tenert of which sorrowes it was impossible he should be held Now if you or any man els can find vs those sorrowes after Christs bodily death we are readie to heare you for they were loosed when Christ was raised but if you cannot as in vaine you haue profered to doe then must the words be expounded that though the soule of Christ after death were in hades euen in the place of torment where it was not left nor forsaken yet the sorowes thereof could not touch him but he loosed and scattered them when he was raised to immortality and heauenly power and glory persuaded of this point heare him againe in the same Epistle Quamobrem teneamus firmissimè quod fides habet fundatissima authoritate sirmata quia Christus mortuus est secundum Scripturas quia sepultus est quia resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas cetera quae de illo testatissima veritate conscripta sunt In quibus etiam hoc est quod apud inferos fuit solutis eorum doloribus quibus eum erat impossibile teneri Wherefore let vs most firmely hold that which our faith hath being confirmed by most grounded authority as that Christ died according to the Scriptures and was buried and rose the third day according to the Scriptures and the rest of those things which are written of him in trueth most cleerely testified Amongst which this is also one point that he was in hell and loosed the sorrowes thereof of which it was impossible he should be held This is such a resolution that if you were soberly minded and not phantastically conceited as well in doctrine as in Discipline you would beware how you crossed the faith of the whole Church without more pregnant and euident matter then you haue any and not thinke it enough to shift with Poeticall fansies metaphoricall senses and palpable contrarieties and falsities such as few men would fall into besides your selfe And as for the exposition of Peters wordes which Austen leaueth indifferent if it dislike any man that concerneth the place of Peters first Epistle the third Chapter beginning at the 18. verse How Christ in spirit went and preached vnto the spirits in prison who were disobedient in the daies of Noe Which was the question proposed to him by Euodius to whom he wrote his 99. Epistle And of that he saith Consider yet least happely all that which Peter speaketh of spirits closed in prison which beleeued not in the daies of Noe omnino ad inferos non pertineat sed ad illa potius tempora quorum formam ad haec tempora transtulit pertaine not at all to hell but to those times which Peter compareth with these times And after large discoursing how that comparison might stand he concludeth with your words This exposition of Peters words if it dislike any or doe not satisfie quaerat ea secundum Inferos intelligere let him seeke in Gods Name how to fit the things there written to them in hell So that his exposition subiected to other mens liking did not concerne hell at all nor Christs preaching there but the preaching of repentance in the daies of Noah by the spirit of Christ and if any man liked not that exposition of Peters words he might seeke how to make Peters words agree with things done in hell if he could tell how to performe it Moe circumstances of this text Acts 2. do make affirmatiuely for vs first Peter plainly graunteth all this matter of Dauid as wel as of Christ. But that I am well acquainted with your pertinacie I should muze at this insolencie Peter doth exactly proue that this prophesie was neuer verified in Dauid because Dauids flesh saw corruption as was euident by his Sepulchre remaining with them to that day Since then it was not true of Dauids person that he saw no corruption he spake this as a Prophet knowing that God had sworne to raise vp Christ concerning the flesh to set him vpon his throne You
the hole that you would faine hide your selfe in To that intent which I set downe my reasons drawen from the Iewish sacrifices and Christians sacraments did and doe still stand effectuall For the olde sacrifices must figure and the new Sacraments must seale whatsoeuer death in Christ was the full and perfect ransome of our sinnes But they foreshew and confirme the bodily death of Christ onely they neither shew not signifie the death of the soule nor the death of the damned Therefore the bodily death of Christ onely is the full and perfect ransome of our sinnes the death of the soule and the death of the damned as they serued nothing to our Redemption so were they not suffered in the soule of Christ. Two cauils you offer against the first part of this reason touching the sacrifices of the fathers before and vnder the law One that they figured not the whole sacrifice as neither Christes Deitie his soule nor his resurrection the next that all the sacrifices of the Iewes did not signifie his bodily death because the Scape goate which was a sinne offering was not slaine Of trifling you talke much this is more then trifling it is plaine shifting Christes deitie could be no part of that sacrifice which suffered for sinne the diuine Maiestie can not suffer either paine or sorrow To what ende then come you in with Christes Godhead when you talke of his suffering for sinne His soule you say was not figured by those sacrifices The suffering death in his soule was indeed no way figured by them but that the mediatour should haue an humane soule to bee separated from his body by death before hee could make purgation of our sinnes that was more then figured by those sacrifices For since not the blood of beasts but of man and euen of the Sonne of God made man was by Gods promise to be shed for our sinnes It is euident that from life to death he could not come but by seuering his soule from his body And consequently he must haue a soule being a man which must be powred out vnto death before he could die euen as the powers of life in bloody sacrifices were parted from their flesh before they could be offered as sacrifices vnto God But I charge you vntruely when I say you expound your whole and absolute Redemption to be of all the fruites and causes of our Redemption you haue no such word nor meaning as fruites Your words are our whole and absolute Redemption and those I say containe the whole course of our saluation euen vnto the last step which is our glorification as I haue formerly prooued by Christes owne speech Againe if the resurrection of Christ which is your owne instance bee a part of that propitiatorie sacrifice because it was a necessarie consequent then all the benefites that Christ obtained for vs or bestowed on vs must be comprised in that his oblation for sinne For they are all necessarie consequents and effects of our Redemption and depend on these two branches his death to free vs from sinne and his resurrection to raise vs into a new and heauenly life now for euer He was deliuered to death for our sinnes and rose againe for our iustification From these two heads the Scriptures deriue not onely forgiuenes of sinnes but newnesse of life on earth and happinesse of life in heauen Yet you did not call them fruits Effects you called them and what is a ioyfull effect such as was Christs resurrection but a fruit and that as well in Christ as in vs When the Prophet saith of Christ he shall see the trauaile of his soule and be satisfied what meaneth he but the fruits and effects of Christs labour when for his obedience to death God highly exalted him and gaue him a name aboue euery name that euery knee should bow vnto him what is this but a fruite and reward of his humiliation first in his owne person then proportionably in all that be his Many of the Iewes sacrifices yea most of them did represent and signifie Christs bodily sufferings onely yet not all Therefore you may well deny mine assumption as you did before and affirme that certaine Iewish Sacrifices set forth the sufferings euen of the soule of Christ and not of his body only Did I any where say that all the Iewish sacrifices were bloudy or that all of them did represent Christs death and blood shedding Could I be ignorant that the Iewes had oblations made onely by fier as of flower wine and incense and also offerings of the first fruits and other things dedicated or presented to the Lord for the vse of his tabernacle and Temple Doth not the Apostle say Euery high Priest is ordayned for men to offer GIFTES and SACRIFICES for sinne Where gifts shew that things without life were offered as well as liuing beasts and birds which were slaine As then there was no cause nor neede I should so I neuer vsed the word ALL in that case vnlesse I added liuing or BLOODY Sacrifices For they by their life lost and blood shed figured the death of Christ Iesus But this ALL is your adding to my wordes that you may take occasion to pike some quarrell at them But you may well deny my assumption that no sacrifices of the Iewes did figure the sufferings of Christs soule I assumed no such thing neither did I meddle with the sufferings of Christs soule vnlesse they were the death of the soule or the paines of hell which the Scripture calleth the second death and I the death of the damned because none besides the damned die that second death but you plainly giue me the slip and conuey your selfe from speaking of the death of the soule or of the death of the damned which are the things in Question to the sufferings of the soule in generall of which I make no Question And though your meaning be vnder the sufferings of the soule to comprise the tormenting of Christs soule by the immediate hand of God with the selfe same paines which the damned do feele in hell Yet such is your cariage that euery where you suppresse your maine intent and make a faire shew with the sufferings of Christs soule as if you ment no more but that Christs soule must needs haue some sufferings proper to it selfe which you confesse I sundry times teach and yet you make your Reader beleeue I euer impugne You shall doe well to awake out of this slumber and call to minde that there are no sufferings of Christs soule now in question but the DEATH of the SOVLE or of the DAMNED which you dare not openly auouch and therefore you plaster them ouer with smoother termes of the sufferings of the soule to hide your secret mysteries till you meete with itching eares that will listen more to fansies then to faith Another peece of skill you shew in this place to ease your selfe of all proofe and thinke it enough if