he might haue a nature wherein he might suffer and might satisfie Gods iustice for the sinne of man in the nature of man that he might make vs of the sonnes of men the sonnes of God it was most expedient that our Sauiour should be man Thus haue you heard of the mediator that is betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus now are we to harken of the meanes by which this Christ recōcileth vs vnto God his father which is first in that he which knew no sinne was made sinne for vs secondly in that wee which knew no righteousnesse were made the righteousnes of God in him In that our Sauiour is saide to know no sinne his meaning is not that sinne is to him a matter strange a thing which he did neuer know for he taketh knowledge of sinne else how should he reproue the world because of sin how should he be the iudge of the world to giue to euery one according to his works But as it is saide of the virgin Mary which knew man and did conuerse and liue amongst them that yet notwithstanding shee knew no man that is after a carnall fleshly manner like as Adam is said to know Eue and Elkanah Hanna which was his wife In like sort it is said of our Sauiour that although he toke notice of sin did reproue it yet he knew no sinne as other men by louing and liking of it by being many waies polluted and defiled with it And therfore he saith vnto the Iewes which of you can reproue me of sinne nay although the prince of the world which is the diuel come euen to winnow and sifte our Sauiour yet he can find nothing in him for as the author speaketh to the Hebrewes he is holy harmeles vndefiled seperate frō sinners and made higher that is purer then the heauens And in deed how should he holy others which is vnholy in himselfe sanctifie other when himselfe needeth to be sanctified he needed not to be sanctified but for vs therefore that we might be holy euen as he also is holy he holied and sanctified himselfe Yea that he might purge our consciences frō dead works through the eternall spirit he offered himselfe without spot vnto God his father Thus he knew no sinne neither was there guile found in his mouth thus neither could the Iewes reproue him of sin neither the prince of the world finde sinne in him thus was he pure holy vndefiled separate from sinners and without spot And in truth so it behoued him for to be that so he might be made a sacrifice for sinne that is as the Apostle here speaketh sinne for vs. For as in the old law it behoued that the sacrifices for sinne should be most pure without spot and blemish so it behoued that he which gaue himselfe a sacrifice for our sinnes should be also without spot or blemish and as in the old law the sacrifices for sinne were called sin not because in their natures so they were but because they had sinne imputed to them euen so our Sauiour here is made sin not because he hath cōmitted sinne or sinne was inherent in him as in vs but because he was made not of man but of God a sacrifice for our sinnes which were imputed vnto him And therfore Austin when Christ was no sinner hee made him sinne for vs read the place diligently saith that father and least happily thy booke be corrupted or thy Latine interpreter haue erred looke in the Greeke and thou shalt finde not Christ to haue committed sinne but to be made sinne of God the father for vs that is a sacrifice for our sinne and a litle after for thou shalt find in the bookes of the olde testament the sacrifices for sinne to be called 〈◊〉 In this sence the calfe which was to be offered at the consecrating of a priest is in the English called a sinne offering but in the originall a sinne in like sorte if any of the people had wittingly sinned then he was to offer an hee Goate if by ignorance a she Goate and the partie that had sinned was to lay his hands vpon the head of the sinne offering to slay the sinne offering before the Lorde and the reason is added because it was a sinne offering In like manner the hee Goate in sundry places of the seuēth chapter of the booke of Numbers is called in our vulgar translation a sinne offering but in the originall sinne Now then if the sacrifices in the old law were called sinnes when yet in their nature they were not sinnes but sacrifices onely for sinne in like sorte may Iesu Christ the onely vnspotted and immaculate lambe of God in whom all the sacrifices in the law were but figures and in whom they had their end and accomplishmēt like as they were called also sinne especially when he is the onely sacrifice auailable for to put away sinne their was no power in al the sacrifices of the law to do away sinne but onely in this that they had respect and reuerence vnto him Thus then you see how that Iesus Christ which knew no sinne but was most pure and most holy and in all partes obedient to his fathers will is yet notwithstanding made sinne that is a sacrifice for sinne And in this that he which knew no sinne is yet notwithstanding made a sacrifice for sinne apparent it is that he was not made a sacrifice for the sinne of himselfe for he knew no sinne but was most innocent and free from blame but he was made a sacrifice for the sins of other and had not onely their sinnes imputed to him but bore the punishment of them in his most blessed soule and body From hence beginneth euery Christian to comfort himself in the mercies of his God when he seeth his sinnes imputed vnto Christ therefore cannot be imputed vnto him for when man had sinned that which was done could not be vndone yet such is the mercy of God shewed towardes man in the fauour of Christ that hee imputeth not vnto man his sinne but hath it in that account as though it had neuer beene so that although as the scholeman spake a thing done cannot be but done if we respect the act yet in the repute of God which neuer thinketh nor accounteth of it it is as though it had beene neuer done The which that the Lord our God might perswade vnto vs sometimes he saith our sins are bound in a bundle and cast into the bottome of the sea sometime that he hath put away our transgressions as a cloude and our sinnes as a mist somtime they are remoued from him as farre as the East is from the West sometime that he hath cast them behind him sometime that he will remember them no more that they shal be vnto him as though they neuer
were yea and that wee might the better conceyue of his goodnes towards vs concerning these our sinnes which make vs to hang downe our heads and to feare to come into his presence he sheweth that he hath crost his bookes in which our sinnes were written nay that hee hath cancelled the handwriting that was against vs that he hath acknowledged the receipt and giuen vs our quietus est Insomuch that now wee may safely walke abroad because we know he hath no writ to serue on vs or action to commence against vs. Thus the feare of Gods displeasure is ouerblowen and the sunne shine of his fauour resteth on vs because our sinnes are not imputed to vs. And to that end records the Apostle that heauenly note of that most kingly Prophet blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not his sinne and although it is true of man that he will repent him sometime of his kindnes the which he hath shewed and will seeke to call backe his former goodnes yet to the consummation of our comfort it is not so with God he will not cast vs in the teeth nor lay to our charge the things he hath once pardoned for whom he pardoneth once he pardoneth euer his thoughts are not as our thoughts neyther are our waies his waies he is not as man that he should lie or as the sonne of man that he should repent Wherfore we may with boldnes now lift vp our heades since we doe most perfectly know that our sinnes neither now are nor yet euer shal be imputed vnto vs. And if this be the first step by which we begin to grow into fauour with our God not to haue our sinnes imputed to vs surely thâ—se marchandizers of mens soules doe but abuse the world when they teach that they ought not to looke for this fauour of gods in pardoning our sins but to seeke to satisfie his iustice for our sin the which we are as wel able for to doe as to moue mountaines out of there places or to number the drops of water in the Ocean sea Nay this for to attempt is not onely to builde vp the babell of confusion vnto our selues but vnder the shewe and colour of peace to giue defiance vnto God and to make voide the means of that reconcilement which he hath offered in his sonne for if the Lord of mercy when he saw no other meanes to satisfie his iustice and to saue man sent his onely sonne who in his blessed body should satisfie his iustice for our sinne surely herewith not to be content is to despise the wisedome and counsaile of God to repute other their vaine satisfactions of greater merite then is the merite and passion of the Sonne They answere for excuse that they content themselues with the ordinaunce of God and rest in the merite and satisfaction of the sonne but they say all that he did was for their originall sinne and such sinnes which were committed before they were baptised but as for their actuall sinne which follow baptisme and those which they commit after they were entered into the couenant of grace for them they say Christ hath not satisfied but hath merited only that for them man himself by his fastings and praiers his watchings and almes deeds should satisfie the iustice of the father The which their most impious assertion how abhorrent it is from all Christian truth I pray you a while harken and consider for of whom spake the Apostle Iohn but of the regenerat and of what sinnes but of their actual when committed but as well after baptisme as before and who is then the propitiation for them but Iesus Christ the righteous if any man sinne wee haue an aduocate with the father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not onely for ours but for the sinnes also of the whole worlde Wherfore as this would giue small comfort to a Christian soule to heare that God would pardon one faâ—lt but not another so this would make but a little for the glorie of our Sauiour to heare that he saued from some sinnes but not from other wherefore herein they eclipse the glory of Christ and magnifie their owne for when our actuall sinnes both in quantitie and qualitie are farre more grieuous then is the originall in which we were borne The satisfaction for this one which is the lesse they ascribe vnto Christ but the remedie of the other they chalenge to theÌ„selues but beloued wee haue not so learned Christ But wee knew that he is a Iesus which saueth his people not from their sinne but from their sinnes euen al their sinnes as Iohn speaketh the bloud of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne if from all then from our actuall as well as originall from this which wee daily commit as well as from that in which we were borne So that as we find in scripture that Christ cured euery disease and infirmitie of the body and some of that qualitie which could not be remedied by the power of man euen so he cureth euery sicknesse of the soule hath made himselfe a brasen serpent to be stinged one soueraigne medicine for al. Descend therefore into this poole not of water but of the bloud of Christ not stirred by an Angell but by our Michaell who is as the Lord and although thou werst dead in thy sinnes yet stand vp and the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the worlde shall take away thine euen thine actuall and originall all that thou hast and leaue none to be satisfied by thee All this some of the Papists will confesse but yet that they may stil maintein this diuelish doctrine of mans satisfaction they are not afraid to say that although Christ hath satisfied for our actuall and originall sinne yet it is but for the guilt and filthines it is not for the paine and punishment of the sinne so that although they graunt that our sins by Christ in respect of the guilt are taken away yet they leaue our sinnes in respect of the punishment to be susteined and satisfied by vs. The which if it were so how is it that the Scripture saieth that hee was wounded for our transgressions broken for our iniquities that the chasticement of our peace was layed vpon his shoulders that he made his soule and offering sacrifice for sinne and that with his stripes we are healed Surely this wounding breaking chastising scourging infer a punishmeÌ„t which was inflicted not for his sinnes the which he neuer knew but for ours which were imputed vnto him And therfore S. Peter speaketh he bare they were a burden not his owne sins but ours and not the guilt onely but the punishment too for it was on his body whilst yet he hangeth on the crosse And alas that at so great a light wee should shut our eyes why was he buffeted and
scourged why was he nailed and pearced why was his head crowned with thornes himselfe crucified among theeues why was his soule sore troubled within and frighted with the feare of his fathers wrath why did he pray to his father to remoue this crosse from him and crie out as a soule that was forsakē my God my God why hast thou forsaken me but that the Lorde in his great mercy to vs warde but iustice towardes him did punish in his blessed soule body the sins of all the faithfull in the worlde surely beloued if we were to beare the punishment of our sinnes then hath not Christ suffered for our sinne if he hath then do the Papist accuse GOD of great iniustice that he would punish vs for such sinne he hath already punished in his sonne But God is iust let the Papist blatter what he will and because he hath said it shall surely stand for it is part of that new couenaunt which he promised to make I will forgiue their iniquitie will remember their sins no more if he forgiueth how doth he call them to punishment if he wil not remember how doth he require satisfactiō for them can a creditor forgiue the debt and yet require satisfaction for the debt no more can God be said to forgiue vs our sinne and yet seeke to punish vs for our sinne If any man sinne saith the Apostle wee haue an aduocate Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes not he saieth the papist but we now whether the Apostle or papist is to be beleeued iudge you And to speake to men whose eies affectiō hath not wholy blinded and from whose hartes wilful obstinacie hath not taken away all sense of reason is this rightly to cōsider of the weight of sinne and of his filth is this equally to ballance the iustice of the almighty the fiercenes of his wrath kindled against the wickednes of men surely if the punishment of sinne could so haue beene satisfied and the wrath of the father hath so beene appeased thou hadst not sent thy sonne O blessed maker neyther hadst thou needed to haue died for vs O Emanuell For we by our watchings fastings we by our hairie weedes and other penaunce we by our many praiers and consecrated water wee by hearing of Masses and going in pilgrimage will satisfie for all such punishment that is due for our sinne O foolish flesh that thus presumest before thy maker if God should deale with thee according to iustice the greeuousnes of thy sinne thou shouldest stand as a man wholy confounded not able to satisfie one of a thousand no not the least that euer thou cōmittest in thy life for when thy sinne euen the least of thy sins is infinite because it was committed against the infinite maiesty of thy God thy punishment therfore must be infinite and therefore not to be satisfied by thee in this finite life and if thou canst not satisfie for one how wilt thou satisfie for all especially when not onely in this that thou seekest to satisfie but also in the most holiest of thy workes and sorowest penaunce thou often sinnest and trespassess God Wherefore that which Cain spake in dispaire thou oughtest not onely to speake in the humblenes of thy soule my punishment is greater then I am able to beare but withal thankfulnesse to receaue the mercy of thy maker who hath giuen his sonne to beare in his body that which otherwise for euer thou shouldst haue borne in thine Looke therefore with the eyes of faith vppon this brasen Serpent which hath not onely taken away the stinge of the serpent which is your sinnes but euen all your swellings and rancklinges all your paines and maladies the punishment due to all your sinnes This also some of the papistes do acknowledge but yet not resting on the good word of God they distinguish betweene eternall and temporall punishments and they are content to confesse that Christ hath satisfied for their eternall punishment but as for the temporall they say that they must satisfie for it in themselues It cannot be denied but that God layeth on the sonnes of men many punishments in this life the which are to be reputed temporall because they are in this life which is but temporall but yet these temporall punishments endured by men in this temporall life or neither in part nor in whole any part of satisfaction for our infinite and eternall sinne For if we consider this as they are in the godly some say that they are not punishments for sinne but rather fatherly admonitions that they should not sinne because for their sinne Christ hath beene punished and hath satisfied not in part but in whole whatsoeuer the iustice of God could require for them or if wee consider these as they are in the wicked true it is that GOD sometime beginneth to deale roughly with them and to inflict in this life some part of the punishment which for euer hereafter they must in most grieuous manner suffer in hel But yet since there is no proportion betwixt a finite punishment and an infinit sinne since of the punishment and satisfaction of these no Papist speaketh but of such for whom Christ died and for whose eternall punishment Christ hath satisfied wee leaue to speake farther of these wicked ones and call now enquire whether Christ hath not fully endured all punishment due for the sins of the faithfull but hath left some temporall punishment as part of the satisfaction due for their sinnes to be endured suffered by themselues The which if it be so as the papist speaketh not onely blasphemy followeth our Sauiour because his satisfaction is made insufficient the sin of man of greater filth then the merite of his most blessed passion but also man speaketh with ouer great pride that he presumeth to satisfie where Christ hath not satisfied and to make perfect which he hath left vnperfect vnto vs or if it be true the which our Sauiour speaketh Consummatus est it is finished euen the worke of our saluation and redemption of the world if he as the author speaketh to the Hebrewes by one sacrifice not by many hath made perfect not left vnperfect and that not for a time but for euer and that not some but all which beleeue in his name why do we seeke to make vnperfect the satisfactiō of Christ or to turne away the destroying Angell by any other means then by the bloud of this immaculate Lambs sprinkled by faith on the dore postes of beleeuing heartes The Apostle Paule saith Christ was made a curse for vs that he might redeeme vs from the curse of the law now when the iustice of God did inflict vpon the transgressors of the law not only eternall punishment but temporall too and when Christ endured in his most blessed body euen all the punishment due to the transgressors of the law it must
needes follow there is no more temporall punishment to be suffered and endured by vs. And therefore Austin in his boke against Faustus discourcing on those words of the Apostle he was made a curse for vs saieth for Christ without all guilt of sinne tooke vpon him our punishment that he might from thenceforth do away the filth of our sinnes and made an end of our punishment The same Austin after many wordes Prorsus prorsus Christus dominus noster without all doubt Christ our L. Iesus our Sauiour our redeemer was made sin for vs that we might be made the righteousnes of God in him if thou aske how sayeth that father heare the lawe for in the law the sacrifices which were offered for sinne were called sinnes for thou hast that when the sacrifice for sinne was brought that the lawe said let the preestes put their handes vpon the sinne that is as he expoūdeth vpon the sacrifice for sinne and what is Christ else but sinne it is a sacrifice for sinne If Christ then be made sinne that is a sacrifice on whom the punishment of sinne was inflicted and so made sinne that he may put an end vnto our punishments without all question there is now no punishment for our sinne left to be endured and suffered by vs. Thou wilt say what are our inward griefes and torments of mind what the conscience of our sinne and feare of Gods iustice what the calamities and miseries of our friends what our sicknesses yea death nay sinne it selfe and a thousand other euils more common to the saints of God then other but punishments of our sinne I graunt whatsoeuer other saith that the Scripture calleth these the punishments of sinne after a sort they are because they are the very fruites and effects of sin although God sendeth not these to punish sinne in vs which he hath punished in his sonne But either to make triall of our patience as he did of Iobs or to shew how he hates sinne as he did to Dauid or to driue vs from our sinne as he did Manasseth or to winne vs to himselfe as he did the prodigall child or to make vs loth the world as he did the godly and to grieue that we cānot serue him with that puritie we should and as he requireth Wherefore as Chrysostome speaketh Why doest thou wayle that thou doest suffer it is a medicine to thee not a punishment a castigation no damnation But yet they reply that God sendeth miseries on his children for none of these endes but to punish sinne which they haue committed be it so as they say yet I denie as is before made manifest that which all the Papist do so greatly labour that these endured punishments make any recompence to God for our sinne or any whit satisfie the wrath of the father conceaued against them True it is that in the infancie of the Church certaine temporall punishments were inflicted on offenders canonicall satisfaction was required but yet not to satisfie God but the Church not to make due recompence for the sinne cōmitted but by this publike submission to declare their vnfained sorrow repentance for their sinne the which kind of discipline as then so now it is most behouefull for the church and house of God For by those means not only the Church is in some sorte satisfied which much grieueth at the fall of her children but the offendant himselfe is better occasioned to consider his wretched miserable estate and forced as it were to hate his sinne and to take held of the great mercy of his God And not onely is this discipline behoueful for these but for other also whereof some are in other out of the Church of God For they that are in the church by the punishment of other are made more wary lest happily that which they see in other should be also sāpled in thēselues they that are out haue no cause to slander the good word of God or to speake euill of his spouse because shee winketh not at the faultes of her children or proposeth vnto them liberty to sin but guideth their steps in the way of righteousnes punisheth thē when they goe awrie But to let this passe as a matter not pertinent to our purpose out of that which hath bin spokē you see that Christ Iesus hath our sins imputed vnto him that by his obedience blessed passion he hath deliuered vs not onely frō some sins but from all not from the guilt and filth of them but from the paine punishment too that not from the paine eternal only but also from all paine temporall in this life Now then as you haue heard how that he was made sinne for vs so now it foloweth that we should declare how we are made the righteousnes of God in him where not what the Apostle speaketh he was made sinne not a sinner but sinne nether was he made by man but by God and to what end that wee should be made we cannot make our selues for we are Gods workmāship what not righteous but righteousnes not of man but of God and that not in our selues but in Christ The which speach of the Apostle doth most manifestly declare the meanes by which wee are reputed righteous in the sight of God the father euen by the righteousnes which is in Christ not in vs yet by Gods mercy imputed to vs thorough faith receaued of vs neither is not this sence enforced on the Apostle besides his meaning but witnessed by most auncient catholicke fathers before this question of inherent righteousnes was euer moued and debated in the church And therefore Austin In the olde law the sacrifices for sinne were called sinnes the which sacrifice for sinne he that is Christ was truly made of whom the sacrifices of the lawe were but shadowes And after shewing how Christ was made a sacrifice for sinne he saith God to whom we were to be reconciled made him sin for vs that is a sacrifice for our sin by whom he might reconcile vs so to himselfe he therefore was made sin that we might be made righteousnes not ours but Gods not in our selues but in him euen as he that is Christ was made sin not his owne but ours not in himselfe but in vs. And in the end he concludeth this is that righteousnes of God not by which he himself is iust but by which we are made righteous before him So that as our sins cannot be said to be inherent in Christ but onely imputed vnto him no more is his righteousnes inherēt in vs but only by Gods mercy imputed to vs. Yet so that as he actually indured the paines of our imputed sins so shal we also actually inioy yea in part now do the fruite of his imputed righteousnes neither was this once barely spoken of this godly father but as the Apostle Paule in his