them and mystically of Lucifer But they sinne no lesse for the act which say in their hearts or presuppose in their implicit thoughts altissimus est similimus mihi the most high God hath determined nothing concerning men or Angel otherwise than wee would have done if we had been in his place They preposterously usurpe the same power which God in his first Creation did justly exercise who though not expresly yet by inevitable consequence and by implicit thoughts make a God after their own image and similitude A God not according to the relikes of that image wherein hee made our first Parents but after the corruptions or defacements of it through partiality envy pride and hatred towards their fellow creatures But of the originall of transforming the Divine nature into the similitude of mans corrupted nature I have elswhere long agoe delivered my minde at large And I would to God some as I conjecture offended with what I there observed without any reference or respect either to their persons or their studies had not verified the truth of my observations in a larger measure than I then did conceived they could have been really ratified or exemplified by the meditation or practice of any rationall man This transformation of the Divine nature which is in some sort or degree common to most men is in the least degree of it one of those works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came into the world to dissolve by doctrine by example and exercise of his power But what bee the rest of those works besides this All I take it may be reduced to these generall heads First the actuall sinnes of our first Parents Secondly the remainder or effects of this sinne whether in our first Parents or in their posteritie to wit that more than habituall or hereditary corruption which we call sinne originall Thirdly sins adventitious or acquired that is such vitious acts or habits as doe not necessarily issue from that sinne which descends unto us from our first Parents but are voluntarily produced in particular men by their abuse of that portion of freewill which was left in our first Parents and in their posterity and that was a true freedome of will though not to doe well or ill yet at lest inter mala to doe lesse or greater evill or to doe this or that particular ill or worse Originall sinne is rather in us ad modum habitus than an habit properly so called All other habituall sinnes or vices are not acquired but by many unnecessitated vicious acts But to distinguish betweene vice and sinne or betweene vicious habits and sinfull habits is to my capacity a work or attempt rather of the same nature as if one should goe about to divide a point into two portions or a mathematicall line into two parallels 6. Nor are these sinnes enumerated nor sinne it self formally taken the onely works of the Devill which the Sonne of God came to destroy but these sinnes with their symptomes and resultances For the Devill sinneth from the beginning in continuall tempting men to sinne although his temptations doe not alwayes take effect He sinneth likewise in accusing men before their Creator or solliciting greater vengeance than their sinnes in favourable construction deserve Now that neither his temptations nor accusations do alwayes finde that successe which hee intends this is meerely from the mercy and loving kindnesse of our Creator in sending his Sonne to dissolve the works of Satan The generall symptome or resultance of all sinne originall or actuall is servitude or slavery unto Satan and the wages of this servitude is death not this hereditary servitude onely but death which is the wages of it is the work of Satan Yet a work which the Sonne of God doth not utterly destroy untill the generall resurrection of the dead Nor shall it then bee destroyed in any in whom the bonds of the servitude and slavery unto sinne have not been by the same Sonne of God dissolved whilest they lived on earth Hee was first manifested in the flesh and forme of a servant to pay the ransome of our sinnes and to untie the bonds and fetters of sinne in generall Hee was manifested in his resurrection to dissolve or breake the raigne of sinne within every one of us For as the Apostle speaks He died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification And he shall lastly bee manifested or appeare in glory utterly to destroy sinne and death CHRIST saith the Apostle was once offered to beare the sinnes of many and unto them that look for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 9.28 SECTION 2. Of the more speciall qualifications and undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving the works which the Devill had wrought in our first Parents and in our nature and for cancelling the bond of mankindes servitude unto Satan CHAP. VI. Of the peculiar qualifications of the Sonne of God for dissolving the first actuall sinne of our first Parents and the reliques of it whether in them or in us their sinfull posterity 1. THe qualifications or undertakings of the Sonne of God for dissolving or remitting such actuall sinnes as doe not necessarily issue from our first Parents and for bringing them and us unto greater glory than they affected doe challenge their place or proper seat in the Treatise designed to his exaltation after death and his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Wee are now to prosecute the points proposed in the title of this Section and in the first place such points as were proposed in the title of this Chapter 2. The rule is universally true in works naturall civill and supernaturall but true with some speciall allowances Vnum quodque eodem modo dissolvitur quo constituitur Though the constitution and dissolution of the same work include two contrary motions yet the manner or method by which both are wrought is usually the same onely the order is inverted And wee should the better know how man 's first transgression was dissolved by Sonne of God if wee first knew how it was wrought by Satan or wherein the sinne it selfe did properly consist Infidelity or disobedience it could not bee for these are symptomes of sinnes already hatched Whatsoever else it was the first transgression was pride or ambitious desire of independent immortality Now the Sonne of God begun his work where Satan ended his dissoluing this sinne of pride by his unspeakable humility And to take away the guilt of mans disobedience or infidelity which were the symptomes or resultances of his intemperate desires the Sonne of God did humble himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse reposing himselfe in all his sufferings upon God The first man was the onely Favourite which the King of kings had here on earth the onely creature whom hee had placed as a Prince in Paradise a seat more than royall or monarchicall with hopes of advancement unto heaven it selfe It was a
probably said Conferebant gratiam ex opere operato The ceremoniall sinne was taken away by a ceremoniall offering From this knowen maxime concerning the law of Ceremonies or Legall sacrifices S. Paul takes his rise unto the high mysterie of the Gospel to wit that the offering which the Sonne of God did make upon the Crosse was more sufficient as well for making full satisfaction unto God for all sinnes committed against his Law as for purifying the conscience of offenders from dead works more effectuall to make men partakers of the true celestiall Sanctuary than the blood of beasts was for making them legally cleane Purification from sinne or sanctification alwayes presupposed full satisfaction for the sinnes committed To cleanse men from sins meerely ceremoniall or to sanctifie them according to the flesh the bloody sacrifice of bruit beasts was sufficient although they suffered no other paines than naturall albeit they felt no force or assault of any agents but meerely naturall much more is the blood of Christ of force sufficient not onely to make a full atonement for us but to cleanse us from all sinnes although he suffered no paines supernaturall although he had suffered no force or impression of any agents more than naturall All this is but a branch of our Apostles inference For albeit sinnes committed against the Morall Law of God doe in a maner infinitely exceed sinnes committed against the Law of Ceremonies onely yet are not the sinnes of the one kinde so much more hainous than the sinnes of the other as the blood of Christ doth for vertue exceed the blood of bulls and goats Nor is there that odds of difference betwixt sinnes Moral and sinnes Ceremonial which is between the Priests of the Law and the high Priest of our soules the Sonne of God And yet the maine ground of our Apostles inference doth not simply consist in the superexcellency of the high Priest of our soules or of the sacrifice which hee offered in comparison with legall Priests and their sacrifices but withall in the admirable union of our high Priest and his sacrifice For admit it as possible first that there might haue been some matter of sacrifice as pure and spotlesse as the body of our Saviour more pure and glorious than the Angelicall substances Secondly that this pure and spotlesse sacrifice had been offered by a Priest for dignity equall to the Sonne of God as by the Holy Ghost the third Person in Trinity yet his offering or service could not have been so acceptable unto God as our Saviours offering or service was because the infinite worth of the Priest or Person sacrificing could not in this case have conferred any worth or vertue truely infinite upon the sacrifice or offering made by him though as holy and glorious as any created substance can bee unlesse it had been so personally united to him that in offering it hee had offered himselfe as our Saviour did This is the maine stemme or rather the root of our Apostles emphaticall inference or surplus in the forecited place How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God 7. Answerable to this hypostaticall or personall union betweene our high Priest and his sacrifice was that union between his obedience to his Father and his mercy and compassion towards men Obedience mercy and sacrifice were so united in his offering as they never had been before his owne death was the internall effect of his mercy towards us and obedience to his Father the period of his humiliation of himselfe Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Crosse That we know was a cruell and servile death but no part of the second death not charged with the paines of Hell otherwise our Apostle would have mentioned them as the accomplishment of his obedience or of his service which without them did exceed the very abstract or paterne either of service or obedience Quid est servitus nisi obedientia animi fracti arbitrio carentis suo Servitude saith Tully is nothing else but the obedience of a broken or dejected minde utterly deprived of all power or right to dispose of it selfe or of its actions It is indeed dejection of minde a broken estate or basenesse of condition which make men willing to become servants unto others or inforceth them to resigne all their right and power unto their Masters will But it was no dejection of minde no want of any thing in heaven or earth but onely the abundance of mercy and compassion towards us miserable men which moved the Sonne of God to renounce this world before he came into it and to deprive himselfe of all that right and interest which every other man hath over his owne body and soule by voluntary resignation of his entire humane nature unto the sole disposing of his Father Other servants were obedient unto their Lords upon necessity or dejection of minde hee voluntarily became a servant to his Father that he might accomplish the office of a servant in the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit This was the internall effect of his service and obedience and this sacrifice thus offered was all-sufficient to make satisfaction for all the disobedience of men for the sinnes of ten thousand worlds of men CHAP. XIV That our Saviour in his Agony at least did suffer paines more than naturall though not the paines of Hell or Hellish paines That the suffering of such paines was not required for making satisfaction for our sinnes but for his Conquest over Satan 1 BUt albeit the bloody sacrifice of the Sonne of God were as God himselfe is all-sufficient to these purposes may wee hence collect that hee suffered no paines more than naturall or of no other kinde than his Martyrs Apostles or Prophets have done God forbid Betweene paines naturall and the paines of Hell there is a meane to wit paines altogether supernaturall in respect of the Agent and somewayes more than naturall in respect of the Patient and such paines out of all question the Son of God did suffer in the garden though not upon the Crosse Nor were these his sufferings superfluous though no way necessary for paying the full ransome or price of mans redemption or reconciliation unto God Most expedient they were if not necessary to other purposes As first for his absolute conquest over Satan Secondly for his consecration to his everlasting Priesthood Of his conflict with Satan in the garden a place sutable to that wherein hee had conquered our first Parents Iobs second temptation was the type or shadow His Father exposed him to the second temptation as he had unto the first temptation in the wildernesse and permitted Satan to exercise the utmost of his power against him onely over his soule or life hee had no power These were takē from him by the malice
Moses in those men which were excluded by oath from the land of Canaan Num. 14.20 21 22 23. And the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word But as truely as I live all the earth shall bee filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seene my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have tempted mee now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it All these which were all the Males of Israel above twenty yeares of age save Caleb Ioshua and Moses who was in part involved in this sentence did beare a true type or shadow of those who offending in like manner against Christ and his Gospel we call Reprobates yet not so true types of such a sinne against the holy Ghost as those which went to search the land of Canaan And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmure against him by bringing up a slander upon she land Even those men that did bring up the evill report upon the land after they had seene the goodlinesse and tasted the pleasant fruits of it died of the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the sonne of Nun and Caleb the sonne of Jephunneh which were of the men that went to search the land lived still and many happy dayes after that time Numb 14.36 37 38. 6. Very probable it is though I will not determine pro or con that the irremissible sinne whereof our Saviour and S. Paul speake for which there remaineth no satisfaction was if dot peculiar yet Epidemicall unto those primitive times wherein the kingdom of heaven was first planted here on earth by our Saviour and the holy Catholike Church was in erection by the ministery of the Apostles or in times wherein the extraordinary gifts of the holy Spirit were most plentifull and most conspicuous Even in those times into this wofull estate none could fall which had not tasted of the heavenly gift of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come and had not beene partakers of the holy Ghost Nor did such men fall away by ordinary sinnes but by relaps into Iewish blasphemy or heathenish Idolatry and malicious slander of the kingdom of heaven of whose power they had tasted God was good to all his creatures in their creation and better to men in their redemption by Christ of this later goodnesse all men werein some degree partakers The contempt or neglect of this goodnesse was not irremissible the parties thus farre offending and no further were not excluded from the benefit of Christs satisfaction or from renewing by repentance but of the gifts of the Spirit which was plentifully poured out after our Saviours ascension all were not partakers This was a speciall favour or peculiar goodnesse whose continued contempt or solemne abrenuntiation by relapse either into heathenisme or Jewish blasphemy was unpardonable not in that it was a sinne peculiarly committed against the person of the holy Ghost but because it did include an extraordinary opposition unto the indispensable law of justice or goodnesse which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are 7. Some sinnes then there be or some measure of them which being made up no satisfaction will be accepted for them It is impossible according to the sacred phrase that the parties thus delinquent should bee renewed by repentance But whether according to this dialect of the holy Ghost that grand sinne whereof our Saviour and the Apostle speakes be absolutely irremissible untill death hath determined their impenitency which committed it or onely exceeding dangerous in comparison of other sinnes I will not here dispute much lesse dare I take upon me to determine either branch of the maine question proposed As whether satisfaction were absolutely necessary for remitting the sinnes of our first Parents or their seed Or whether the Son of God could have brought us sinners unto glory by any other way or meanes than that which is revealed unto us in his Gospel It shall suffice me and so I request the Reader it may doe him to shew that this revealed way is the most admirable for the sweet concurrence of Wisdome Justice Mercy and whatsoever other branches of goodnesse else bee which the heart of man can conceive more admirable by much than wisdome finite could have contrived or our miserable condition desired unlesse it had been revealed unto us by God himselfe 8. For demonstration of this conclusion and for deterring all which pretend unto the priviledge or dignity of being the Sonnes of God from continuance in sinne no principle of faith or passage in the sacred Canon can bee of better use then that 1. Ioh. 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devill for the Devill sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the works of the Devill However the words which severall translations doe render one and the same word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee of different signification in point of Grammar yet is there no contradiction betwixt them upon the matter Our later English which I alledged readeth that he might destroy the former that hee might dissolve the works of the Devill Neither of them much amisse and both of them put together or mutually helping one another exceeding well Some works of the Devill the Sonne of God is said more properly to dissolve others more properly to destroy Sinne it selfe as the Apostle tells us is the proper worke of the Devill his perpetuall worke for he sinneth from the beginning And for this cause the man that committeth sinne is of the Devill the Devills workman or day labourer so long as hee continues in knowne sinnes Sinne the best of men dayly doe But it is one thing to sinne and doe a sinfull Act another to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phrase used by our Apostle a worker or doer of evill operarius iniquitatis Such workmen the sonnes of God or servants of Christ cannot be at lest so long as they continue sonnes or servants The points most questionable in those forecited words of S. Iohn now to bee discussed in this preamble to the manner how the Son of God did dissolve or destroy the works of the Devill are two The first from what beginning the Devill is said to sinne or to continue in sinne The second what speciall workes of the Devill they were which the Sonne of God did or doth undoe or for whose dissolution or destruction hee was manifested in our flesh CHAP. IV. From what beginning the Divell is said by S. John to sinne Whether sinne consist in meere privation or have a positive entity or a cause truely efficient not deficient onely 1 THe word Beginning is some times taken universally and absolutely
as it reacheth to the first moment of time or to the first beginning of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible which have beginning of being From this utmost extent of the word beginning S. Iohn in the beginning or entrance into his Gospel strongly inferrs that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word by whom all things were made was truely God without beginning or end of dayes because he was in the beginning that is had a true and reall existence when all things whether visible or invisible which were created by him did but begin to be But the beginning mentioned by the same Apostle in the forecited place 1. Iohn 3.8 may not be stretched so farre as to make it pitch upon the first beginning of time or of all things made or created First it is neither certaine nor probable that any of the Angelicall substances were created or begun to bee before all other creatures Secondly it cannot be certainely knowne whether the blessed Angels which keepe their station and the collapsed Angels were all created in the same instant or if it were certaine or granted that some of them were created before others though all of the same day yet could there be no certainty or probability that the collapsed Angel which is become a Devill or prince of Devils who S. Iohn saith sinned from the beginning was created before all other Angels or with the first that were created Most probable it is in my opinion that the Angels were all created in the fourth evening and morning together with the Sunne and Moone and the Starres of the Firmament two dayes before man was created Thus much those words of God unto Iob Chap. 38. ver 4. seeme to import Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the world c. or when the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy If by the sonnes of God in this place the Angels be meant then Lucifer by which name we commonly describe the Devill was then the sonne of God an Angel of light and did with the whole hoast of heaven praise laud and magnifie his Creatour whensoever hee was created God created him righteous and just 2. Now albeit he was the first of all Gods visible creatures that became evill though sinne it selfe did take its beginning from him yet undoubtedly he had a perfect being before sinne did begin to be in him hee did not he could not sin in the same point of duration in which hee was created Some therefore for this reason referre the beginning mentioned in S. Iohn to the beginning of sinne as if his meaning in their construction were thus Satan sinneth perpetually from the beginning of sinne which had its first beginning in him But though this be true yet if wee stretch the beginning of our Apostle thus farre it will not close so well with his collection or inferences For the Devill in the same place is instiled a sinner from the beginning especially if not onely with reference to those works which the Sonne of God was to dissolve or destroy But the Sonne of God did not manifest himselfe on purpose to dissolve the works which the Devill had wrought in himselfe or in the collapsed Angels his associats but the works onely which they had wrought in man For this cause saith the Apostle He tooke not on him the nature of Angels but hee tooke on him the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 As the Devill is a liar and father of lies since the beginning so he was a sinner not onely in himselfe but the beginner or begetter of sinne in man And since he first begot sinne in him he sinneth still as a worker or foster-father of sinnes in mans posterity 3. Whether our first Parents did sinne upon the same day whereon they were created is to me uncertaine and for this reason I will not dispute either upon the improbabilities or probabilities of the affirmative opinion which is maintained by many of whose opinion I had rather make some good use than move any controversie about it Most certaine it is that the old Serpent and his associats were sinners themselves before they seduced our first Parents to that first and hainous sinne of mankind Whether one or more of them had possessed the visible Serpent which Moses saith was subtiler then all the beasts of the field as the fittest instrument or organ for accomplishing their designe against poore innocent man his ruine was projected before hee or they could accomplish it Most probable againe it is that they had grievously sinned against their God and Creator if not before yet at least from the Creation or first beginning of man whose estate they envied yet whether they were irreversibly cast out of Gods gratious presence before the accomplishment of this their project against man is not so certaine More probable to me it is that the accomplishment of this wicked project which they could not hope to effect but by slandering their Creator did make up the measure of their former sinnes unto an unpardonable height unto an height more unpardonable then the sinne against the holy Ghost is in men during this life For wee reade not of any curse or wofull Sentence pronounced much lesse peremptorily denounced against the old Serpent and his associats untill God had convented this visible Serpent and the woman whom he had beguiled But the curse denounced against that visible Serpent did fall upon the whole Legion of uncleane spirits which had possessed it or used it as their instrument though perhaps possessed but by one 4. In this seduction of our first Parents if not before the Devill committed sinne no lesse then rebellion or high treason against his maker In this alone if not otherwise he proudly sought to be like God in that he made man of a servant or sonne of God to become his slave or vassall He was of Iulius Caesars minde or rather Iulius Caesar of his and more affected ro be Lord Paramount over earth and the visible creatures in it then inferiour or Compeere to any Celestiall creature And no marvell or matter of wonderment it is if this combination of rebellion against God and of envie against man by God appointed the supreme Lord of all visible creatures did make the breach of Satans allegiance to his Creator so irreconcileable that the true and onely Sonne of God would not vouchsafe to become his Lord Redeemer as hee is of men whom hee seduced But whether S. Iohns meaning in the forecited place be that the Devill sinneth from the beginning of sinne in man or from the beginning of sinne in himselfe From the one or from the other beginning hee still continueth to sin against God and man without end or intermission 5. But is sinne in man in deed and truth the work of Satan If truely and properly it bee a work it is something or more then something as being the work of him who doth not
are all the works of God whether they be visible or invisible What shall wee say then that God did create any naked substances and leave it free for Angel or other his creatures to invest them with what accidents or qualities they pleased No if God had created any substances without accidents they should have been morally neither good nor bad For all other natures besides the incomprehensible Essence who onely essentially is and whose essence is goodnesse it selfe though they were made actually good yet their goodnesse was mutable it was but an accident or quality no essentiall property What shall we say then to the proposed objection that sinne if it bee any thing either visible or invisible must be of Gods making not the work of Satan seeing we acknowledge God to be the Maker of all things visible and invisible 11. The punctuall answer is That this universall God made all things visible and invisible must bee extended onely to those things which are properly said to bee made or created Now substances onely whether visible or invisible are the immediate and direct effects and proper object of creation Accidents had their beginning as appurtenances to their subjects by resultance onely That goodnesse which God approved in man did result from his nature not quà talis but as it was the immediate work of God it had no making or creation distinct from the creation of man He that moulds a bullet or makes a materiall sphere maketh both round and yet we cannot say that he makes rotundity or roundnesse by any work or action distinct from the making of the bullet or sphere Factâ sphaerâ simul sit rotunditas That which the Artificer intends is a sphere yet cannot he possibly make a sphere but rotunditie will by resultance arise with it or from it In like manner when God made man he made him after his owne Image and similitude this was the mould in which he was cast and being cast into this mould he could not but be good 12. The humane nature as framed by God was like a musicall instrument exactly made and exactly tuned both at once not first made and then tuned That body of earth into which the Almighty Creator first inspired the breath of life was not first a man in puris naturalibus and afterwards adorned or beautified with originall justice That spirit of life which God inspired into him did so tune and season the whole masse or substance that his reasonable soule or spirit did forthwith hold exact harmony with the Creators will His inferiour faculties or affections held exact consort with his reason All this was the work of God and with this harmony was God delighted yet this harmony though most exact was mutably exact The goodnesse or excellency of this sweet harmony in the humane nature became the object of Satans envy and the mutability of this excellencie became the subject of his temptations a subject capable of inticements unto evill The onely mark which Satan aimed at was to deface or dissolve this work of God and in stead of this sweet harmony to plant a perpetuall discord in the humane nature a discord an enmity betwixt the soule and spirit of man and his God a discord an enmity or civill warre betwixt mans conscience and his affections Satan then did deface or dissolve the work of God and the Sonne of God was manifested to dissolve his works in man and to destroy his power CHAP. V. Of the first sinne of Angels and man and wherein it did especially consist 1 WIth the nature of sinne in generall or according to that extent proposed in the beginning of the former book I meddle not in these present Commentaries but have reserved them to another work already begun in a Dialect more capable of such schoole nicities or disquisitions than our English is About the nature or specificall quality of the sinne of Lucifer so it hath pleased the Ancients to stile that prince of the collapsed Angels some question there is amongst Divines and the like about the quality or nature of our first Parents sinne as whether one or both of them were pride or infidelity But infidelity in its proper use and signification is rather a symptome or concomitant of many sinnes precedent than any one sinne a distrust of Gods mercy for pardoning sinnes committed It is to my capacity unconceivable how the first sinne of what creature soever should be infidelitie or how the first degree of infidelity could find entrance into man or Angel without some positive forerunning sin But if by infidelity those Divines whose expressions in this point I cannot approve meane no more than incogitancie or want of consideration wee shall accord upon the matter For without the omission of somewhat which they ought to have done neither man nor Angel could have sinned so positively and grosly as both of them did Both were bound to have made the goodnesse of their Creator in making them such glorious creatures as they were the choise and most constant object of their first thoughts and contemplations But through want of stirring up that grace of God which they received in their creation or by not exercising their abilities to reflect upon the goodnesse and greatnesse of their Creator they were surprized with a desire of proper excellency or of greater dignity than they were capable of By this meanes that sinne which was begun by incogitancy or want of reflection upon the true object of their blisse was accomplished in pride For pride naturally results in men from too much reflection upon their owne good parts And whilest they compare themselves with themselves as our Apostle speaketh they become unwise or which is worse whilest they compare their owne good parts with others meane parts whether such indeed or to their apprehension they slide without recovery into that soule sinne of hypocrisie All men by nature that is from the unweeded relikes of our first Parents pride are prone to overvalue themselves and to thirst after greater dignities than they deserve or are qualified for This pride or ambition in the Angels was presently seconded with envy as soule a vice as pride it selfe and its usuall compeere and companion against the new and last-made visible creature man and envy did as speedily bring forth that malitious practice against our first Parents which as was said before in probability did make their sinne more unpardonable than the sinne of our first Parents was 2. But admitting both their first positive sins to have been for nature or specificall qualitie desire of proper excellencie whose branches are pride and ambition this position admitted will beget a new question or disquisition to wit What manner of proper excellency or what degree of pride it was for which their just Creator did punish them Some are of opinion that the height of that proper excellency at which the Angels at least one Angel did aime was personall union with the Sonne of God or God
himselfe But this opinion without prejudice to the Authors or abettors of it is very improbable because the mystery that the Son of God should become a creature or take any created substāce into the unity of his person was not for ought I have read or can gather from any passage in Scripture revealed either explicitly or implicitly before the fall of man or before his convention for his Apostacy from God which was not untill the first day of the second weeke at soonest when the world was as we say in facto not in fieri onely as it respectively was in the first weeke or seven dayes When this opinion that the assumption of any creature into unity of person with the Sonne of God or with any person in the blessed Trinity was either knowen or probably conceived by man or Angel before the fall of man shall be sufficiently proved I shall yeeld assent to their opinion as probable who think the first sinne of Lucifer was a desire or longing after personall union with the Sonne of God or God himselfe No question but the old Serpent had sinned more grievously in the same kind than our first Parents did when the woman by his cunning and malice and the man by her prevarication did taste the forbidden fruit in hope or expectation to bee made thereby like to Elohim or God himselfe 3. But was it possible that either the collapsed Angels or man by their suggestion should attempt or desire to bee equall with God or to bee Gods Almighty To bee in all points coequall with God was perhaps more than Lucifer himselfe did desire yet that even our first Parents desired to bee in some sort or other equall with God is probable from the Apostles character of the Sonne of God Hee being saith hee in the forme of God thought it no robbery to bee equall with God This to my understanding implies that the robbery or sacriledge committed by our first Parents for which the Sonne of God did humble and ingage himselfe to make satisfaction was their proud or haughty attempt to be equal with God at lest in knowledge of good and evill And yet as was said before the collapsed Angels had doubtlesse sinned more presumptuously before they tempted our first Parents to the like sinne Neither man nor Angel could have affected equality in any one attribute with their Creator much lesse in all or most so they had made his glory power or majesty the chiefe or principall object of their first contemplations But how farre the previal sinne of omitting this duty might let loose their strong and swift imaginations unballanced with experience or what entrance it might work for that desperate and positive sinne of Ambition or seeking to bee equall or like to God for power and wisdome God and they onely know if haply they now know or perfectly remember the maner of their first transgressions Many things many learned and wise men doe and attempt more through incogitancy want of consideration or ad pauca respicientes which by men of meaner parts would bee suspected for a spice of madnesse if they had taken them into serious consideration before 4. There is no Christian man I am perswaded this day living unlesse he be stark mad who if this interrogatory were propounded unto him in expresse termes whether doe you think your selfe altogether as wise as God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost but would answere negatively I am not And yet how many writers in our time through forgetfulnesse to put this or the like interrogatory to themselves when they set pen to paper have continued for many yeares together grievously sicke of our first Parents first disease whatsoever that were yet not sick of it in explicit desires or attempts to bee every way equall with God but in implicit presumptions that they are altogether equall with him in wisdome and knowledge at lest for the governing of this universe from the beginning of it to the end and for the dispensing of mercy and justice towards men and Angels before they had any beginning of being and for ever even world without end after this visible world shall be dissolved To give a true and punctuall answere to all their presumptuous contrivances or to accept their challenges in this kinde would require more skill in Arts then most men are endowed with and a great deale more time than any wise man or skilfull Artist can bee perswaded to mispend It would be a very hard task for the cunningest needle woman or other Professor of manuall or finger-mysteries to unweave or dissolve a spiders webb threed by threed after the same manner which shee did weave it And yet a meane houswife or childe may with a wing or besome in a moment undoe all that the spider hath wrought in a whole yeare And so may every Novice in Arts unbuble all that some great Clerks or Schoolemen have been twenty or thirty yeares in contriving or working as in setting forth maps or systems of the manner of Gods decrees before all times or disputes about election or reprobation as they are immanent acts in him with that common but usefull exception aut nihil aut nimium Their conclusions might for ought I know bee unanswerable and sound upon supposition that they are every whit as wise as God But this being not granted them or the contradictory being granted that the omnipotent Creator is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser then they are the most elaborate and longest studied Treatises which it hath been my hap upon these Arguments to see afford no document of greater strength or cunning than is exhibited in the spiders web The Authors of them tell us onely and herein we beleeve them what they themselves would have done if they had been delegated to make Decrees or Acts for the government of men and Angels or what God should have done if they had been of his privy counsell when hee made all things visible and invisible But what God doth hath done or will doe according to the sole counsell of his most holy will that they shew us not nor goe about to shew whilest they runne the cleane contrary way to that which God our Father and the Church our mother hath prescribed us to follow Now the way which the English Church from the warrant of Gods word to this purpose prescribes is to admire not to determine the equity of Gods Decrees before all times from contemplation of the manner of their execution or sweet disposition of his providence in time It is a preposterous presumption to determine the manner how they have been or shall bee executed by prying into the projection or contrivance of the Almighty Judge before man or Angel or any thing besides God himselfe had any being 5. He sinned grievously that said in his heart or secret unexamined thought similis ero altissimo whether this bee meant of Nebuchadnezzar or some other earthly Tyrant onely or literally of one or more of
without originall sinne as being made out of this substance after such a maner as the Messias or Sonne of God was made of a virgin Sit fides penes Authorem We know the blessed Virgin was the daughter of Abraham and the daughter of David but not by any portion of Abrahams or Davids body altogether exempted from such alterations as the Elementary vertues of which all mens bodies are made are subject unto Nor was the body of the Messias to be made of any such portion of Adam perpetually exempted from the contagion of sin original unto the time wherein the blessed Virgin was affianced to Ioseph The first exemption of any portioÌ„ of the humane nature or substance of Adam after his fall was granted and wrought by the immediate hand of God in the conception of his Sonne by the holy Ghost which was immediatly upon that sweet assent of the blessed Virgin unto the Angel Gabriel Ecce ancilla c. Capnio Vellem expressius audire an veteres Heâ— braeorum senserint matrem Messiae in peccat-originali concipiendam non fuisse Galatin Quamvis ex his quae diximus satis utarbi tror apertè colligatur hanc priscorum Iudaeorum fuisse fidem nedum opinionem hoc tamen manifestius ex verbis praedicti Rabbenu haccados habetur qui eodem in libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gale razeia cum ad septimam Antonini Consulis urbis Romae petitionem inter caetera dixisset propter matrem verò ejus scil Messiae ait David Psal 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est aâ—acum quam plantavit dextratua Dixissetque ei Antoninus Cur mater Dei comparatur abaco curve dicit eam a dextra Dei plantatam Respondit sic Ille Similis facta est abaco mater Dei Quandoquidem sicut aâ—acus est armarium quod Principes conficiunt ad collâ—canda vascula auri argenti ut gloriam suam atque opes omnibus ostendant Ita mater Regis Messiae erat armarium quod Deus construxit ut in eo sedeat ipse Messias ad ostendendam gloriam Maiestatis suae cunctis mortalibus Per id autem quod ait plantâ—tam esse a dextra Dei ostendit eam primam esse creaturam Dei in genere humano sicut dictum est Micheae Cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Et egressus eius ab aeternitate a diebus seculi Dicit enim egressus numero multitudinis Quiâ— sunt duo Messiae egressus Vnus Divinitatis quae est aeterna ideoque dicit ab aeternitate Alter humanitatis quae in sue matris extat substantia quae creata est ab hora creationis mundi Haec ille quem Iudaei Magistrum nostrum sanctum nuncupant Ad quorum declarationem notandum est Quod opinio quorundam veterum Judaeorum fuit matrem Messiae non solum in mente Dei ab initio ante secula creatam fuisse ut paulò superiùs dictum est verùm etiam materiam eius in materia Adae fuisse productam ipsamque gloriosam Messiae matrem principalem extitisse cum eius amore ut dictum est mundus creatus sit Nam cum Deus Adam plasmaret fecit quasi massam ex cuius parte nobiliori accepit intemeratae matris Messiae materiam ex residuo vero eius superfluitate Adam formavit Ex materia autem immaculatae matris Messiae facta est virtus quae in nobiliori loco membro corporis Adae conservata fuit Quae postea emanavit ad Seth deinde ad Enos deinde succidaneo ordine ad reliquos usque ad sanctum Iehoiakim Ex hac demum virtute beatissima mater Messiae formata fuit Et idcirco eam Zach. cap. 4. suae prophetiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est petram primariam recte appellavit Ex qua ut antiqui Judaeorum exposuerunt excidendus erat Messias Neque quidem abs re cum tempore gradu excellentia primaria futura esset Ex qua quidem opinione apertè concluditur carnem gloriosae matris Messiae non fuisse peccato originali infectam sed purissimam a divina prouidentia praeservatam Quocirca nec anima eius hujusmodi peccatum in conceptione contractura erat Petrus Galatinus lib. 7. per totum caput tertium 6 If it were lawfull to moralize such fables as I take this of Galatinus to bee no better the best moral I can make of it would be this However there had been many intermediat generations as many as S. Luke relateth if not more between our father Adam and the conception of the Sonne of God yet was our Saviour in some respects the immediat Successour of Adam the onely second Adam His immediat Successor not in sinne but of that purity of nature wherein the first Adam was created and yet withall immediat successor unto that curse which Adam by transgression had incurred but was not able to expiate nor to beare save onely by the everlasting death of himselfe and his posterity And for this reason if I mistake not the Sonne of God doth call himselfe as no sonne of Adam before him did The Sonne of man by peculiar title Yet was this a title as Maldonat well observes not of honour but of abjection of greater abjection than the like title given to Ezekiel not by himselfe but by the Angels And yet Ezekiel is called by the Angel not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the difference betwixt these two titles which are both exorest in our English by Sonne of man I referre the Reader to the 49. Psalme ver 2. and the Commentators upon it As the Sonne of God was immediate Successour unto Adam so he was the immediate heire unto the blessing promised to Abraham more than heire the Author and foundation of it He was likewise immediate Successor unto David and his kingdome the onely body in whom the shadow of Gods mercies unto David for the good of Israel and Judah was to be fulfilled If hee had been immediate Successor unto David onely this might have occasioned some suspition or distrust that hee had been the Redeemer of the Jewish nation onely or of the sonnes of Iacob Had hee been immediate Successor unto Abraham onely this might have occasioned the like surmise or fancy that hee had been manifested onely to dissolve the works which Satan had wrought in Abrahams seed according to the flesh which was much more ample than the seed of Iacob But in as much as the Sonne of God did in time become the sonne of man the immediate Successor unto Adam the onely second Adam though not the first or second man from Adam This giveth us to understand that he was the next of kindred to all men as they were men whether Jewes or Gentiles He to whom the redemption of all mankinde did by right of kinred without partiality or respect of persons equally belong And for this reason hee did not take any created party or person into
subject unto The slave acknowledged no more Masters than this one whom if it would please but to say the word his freedome might without difficulty be obtained if the Praetor of the City would but vouchsafe by his Masters leave to lay his white rod upon him and cause him to be turned once or twice about with some few other Ceremonies he could be turned out of a slave into a free Citizen in the space of an houre whereas if his Master had been turned round till his senses had failed him in case the Praetor would have laid his rod an hundred times upon his head hee could not have wound himselfe out of those bonds of servitude wherein his lusts had insnared him This slave had observed that his Master would often commend the frugality and temperance of the ancient Romans and often desire that hee and other moderne Romans might live as they did yet if any great man or good neighbour would invite him to a luxurious feast or if any foolish pleasures with whose excesse he had been formerly stung should proffer themselves he had not so much power to resist or restraine them as this slave had to neglect his designes or commands when they did displease him And for his Master to be drawne thus every day to doe that which in his retired and sober thoughts he did most dislike and condemne was in his judgement a greater slavery than any bodily servitude If the reasons which these and other Heathens often used to prove vitious men to bee the onely true slaves had not been the dictates of the law of nature written in our hearts or reasons unanswerable the Apostles of Christ yea Christ himselfe would not have used the like Know yee not saith S. Paul Rom. 6.16 as if it were a shame in this point to be ignorant that to whom yee yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants yee are to whom yee obey whether of sinne unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse And S. Peter tells us of some who whilest they promise liberty unto others they themselves were servants unto corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is hee brought into bondage 2. Pet. 2.19 So our Saviour saith Ioh. 8.34 Whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne And of him no doubt our Apostle S. Iohn learned that doctrine Hee that committeth sinne is of the Devill a servant of his 3. But albeit the wiser sort of Heathens did by light of nature know that every vicious man was a slave or servant to his owne lusts or desires yet the greatest danger which they apprehended from the servitude was but feare of satyricall censure for preposterous basenesse in subjecting reason to sensuality That their owne desires lusts or affections were maintained and cherished by a forreigne enemie as so many rebells to wage warre against their immortall soules or that their consciences being subdued by lust should bee everlastingly subject to so cruell a Tyran as the Devill is were points wherein the Prince of darknesse had blinded the eyes of the wisest Heathen And would to God wee Christians to whom the Lord hath revealed thus much could see or heare so much concerning this doctrine as would make us perfectly understand or lay to heart the inestimable danger wherein wee stand whether in respect of the fast hold which this Tyran by our corrupted nature and custome hath got of us or of the miserable usage which will follow if he and sinne finally prevaile against us But this is a common place for which every man may finde a fitter Text in his owne heart then any other man can chuse for him and matter of more ample and pertinent discourse upon it than reading of many books can suggest unto him All that I have here to say concerning this point is to request the Reader to examine his owne heart and calculate his non-performances of what I presume hee often seriously intended and perhaps hath vowed His duty it is to open the wounds of his conscience either to God alone in secret or to such as God hath appointed for the Physicians of his soule and conscience My purpose is to prepare the plaister or medicine and to informe him how to apply it CHAP. VIII The Sonne of God was properly a servant to his Father yet not by birth as hee was the sonne of his handmaid but by voluntary undergoing this hard condition for the redemption of man 1 TO free us from this miserable servitude unto sinne which alone doth wound our conscience the Sonne of God did freely and voluntarily take upon him the forme of a servant The parts of his peculiar service were in generall two The one to conquer Satan who was by right of conquest our Lord The other to reconcile us to grace and favour with God to make us first servants then sonnes and lastly kings and priests to his and our heavenly Father These two parts of his peculiar service unto his Father for unto him alone hee was a servant exhibit the most admirable paterne of justice mercie and loving kindnesse as well in God the Father as God the Sonne that the wit of man or Angels can contemplate First it was a paterne of justice never after to bee parallel'd for God the Father to exact satisfaction for our sinnes at the hands of his deare and onely Sonne Unto this unmeasurable act or exercise of justice upon the Sonne of righteousnesse his mercy towards us miserable sinners was fully commensurable For whatsoever hee suffered for our sakes was from his Fathers and his owne mercy and loving kindnesse towards us Againe so infinite was the justice of our gracious God that even whilest hee shewed his mercy and loving kindnesse towards us he did vouchsafe to give as we say the Devill himselfe his due and to observe the law of Armes or Duell with this Prince of Rebels his subject by right of Creation but professed enemie by resolution Albeit this grand Rebell after his revolt from God had conquered man and made him by treachery of Gods servant and sonne a meere slave unto himselfe the righteous Lord would not deprive this mighty Lion and greedy Wolfe of his prey by any other meanes than by right of conquest gotten over him by man Hee did not arme a legion of Angels nor summon the whole host of visible creatures against him nor use his omnipotent and absolute power to destroy or annihilate him or as then to shut him up in the everlasting prison The exercises of such power whether immediatly by the omnipotent Creator himselfe or by his creatures had been more than Satans matches upon equall termes or weapons Exercise of strength was not the first way in the wisedome of God to conquer pride ambition or vaine glory though these must bee quelled with the power and strength of the Sonne of God whom it pleased the Father at the first onset to weaken by laying our first Parents infirmities and their posterities upon
nature and will before it was sacrificed and whilst it was sacrificed was more obedient to his Fathers will than our first Parents senses or affections in their integrity were unto their reasonable soules When hee commeth into the world as our Apostle interprets the Psalmist he saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared or fitted for mee In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hadst no pleasure then said I loe I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to doe thy will O God This will of God accomplished through the sacrifice of his Sonne was that will of God by which we are sanctified and if sanctified then justified yet not justified without satisfaction before made Of the full meaning of this place and of the true reconciliation of the Seventy Interpreters whom the Apostle followes with the Psalmist or the Originall by Gods grace hereafter Thus much is pertinent to our present purpose that the body which the Sonne of God assumed to do that will of his Father which could not bee accomplished by any other sacrifices though numberlesse and endlesse was a body fitted for all kindes of calamities and crosses which are incident unto mortality a body more capable of paine or deeper impressions from the violent occurrences of all externalls which are naturall than any other mans body was or had been A body as it were moulded and organized of purpose to bee animated or actuated with the spirit of obedience and all manner of patience in suffering which can bee required in a faithfull servant Servants saith S. Peter bee obedient c. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure griefe suffering wrongfully CHRIST JESUS who was the paterne of all obedience required in servants not onely whilest he was to deale with malicious unreasonable men but in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Agony when his heart within him was become like melting waxe through the vehemencie of that fiery triall did set the fairest copie of that obedience which S. Peter requires should bee taken out how rudely soever by every servant of God under his owne hand Even in this Agony when his mortall spirits did faint and languish the spirit of obedience was much stronger in him than the pulse of paine and sorow It did not intermit or abate when his paines and anguish did increase Being in Agony saith S. Luke hee prayed more earnestly Luk. 22.44 These words I referre if not to the third yet certainely to the second paroxysme of his Agony one or more of which fits did wring blood from his sacred body being otherwise full of health But most probable it is from S. Lukes relation Chap. 22. ver 44. that hee sweat blood both in the first and second fit and that in all the three hee delivered his supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kneeling or falling upon the ground The forme of his prayer and maner of deportment in it as was said before exhibite a true document or demonstrative argument that besides his Divine will hee had a will truely humane a reasonable will in that hee did desire or deprecate the removall or asswagement of his present sufferings with greater fervency of spirit and devotion than any sonnes of Adam could deprecate the paines of Hell if they should be beset with them or feele their approach And yet withall hee wholly submits his humane body soule and will unto his heavenly Fathers will who by his consent had free power to dispose of them in life and death as hee pleased Out of this fervent spirit of obedience consecrated unto Gods service by his most devout prayers he was delivered from the paines and terrors which he both feared and felt in the garden 5. As for his sacrifice upon the Crosse albeit we subduct the worth of it in it selfe considered which infinitely exceeds the worth of all other sacrifices it was most properly and most really the sacrifice of a broken heart or contrite spirit For after his naturall strength was spent and his bodily spirits diffused with his blood hee lastly offers up his immortall spirit his very soule unto his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the ghost Luk. 23.46 The spirit of obedience did not expire with bodily spirits it did accompany his soule into Paradise it was not put off with the forme of a servant but cloathed upon with glory and immortality Shall wee yet doubt whether the sacrifice upon the Crosse being offered out of such unexpressible obedience were fully sufficient to make abundant satisfaction for all our disobediences albeit wee should subduct his obedience and patience in that grievous Agony in the garden 6. If any man bee disposed to move further doubt about this point the Apostles authority or rather his reason will put the point out of question Heb. 9.11 12 13 14. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the blood of goats and calues but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the uncleane sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The forme and maner of his dispute in this passage as in most others throughout this Epistle is allegoricall but allegories in true Theologie alwayes include arguments of proportion and are as firme as any Geometricall or Mathematicall demonstration The termes of proportion in this argument are especially foure First sinnes meerely ceremoniall that is such errors and escapes as are evill because forbidden not evill in themselves The second the remedy appointed for such sinnes and that was the blood of bulls and goats c. The third sinnes properly so called that is all offences or trespasses against the Law of nature or against the Law of God Things not evill onely because forbidden but rather forbidden because evill in their owne nature The fourth terme is the antidote or preservative against such sinnes as in their nature poison our soules and this soveraigne preservative is onely the blood of Christ The Apostle takes it for granted that the sacrifice of bulls and goats were sufficient to make satisfaction for sinnes merely ceremoniall and the blood available so farre to sanctifie the parties offending against the Law of Ceremonies as that they might be admitted into the Congregation or stand recti in curia after the sacrifice was once offered Of this purification concerning the flesh by the blood of such sacrifices that which the Romanists say of the Sacraments of the new Testament might bee more
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unknowne sufferings Such I take it as no man in this life besides our Saviour alone did suffer nor shall ever any man suffer the like in the life to come in which the paines of Hell shall be too well knowne unto many But that our Saviour in this life should suffer such paines is incredible for this being granted the powers of darknesse had prevailed more against him than Satan did against Iob. For the actuall suffering such paines includes more then a taste a draught of the second death unto which no man is subject before he die the first death nor was it possible that our Saviour should ever taste them either dying or living or after death This error it seemes hath surprized some otherwaies good Divines through incogitancie or want of skill in Philosophie For by the unerring rules of true Philosophy the nature quality or measure of paines must bee taken not so much from the force or violence of the Agent as from the condition or temper of the Patient Actus agentium sunt in patiente rite disposito The fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead nor the same upon greene wood which it hath on dry Or if a man should deale his blowes with an eeven hand betweene one sound of body and of strong bones and another sickly crasie or wounded the paines though issuing from the equality of the blowes would be most unequall That which would hardly put the one to any paine at all might drive the other into the very pangs of death Goliath did looke as big did speake as roughly and every way behave himselfe as sternly against little David as hee had against Saul and the whole hoast of Israel Yet his presence though in it selfe terrible did make no such impression of terrour upon David as it had done upon Saul and the stoutest Champions in his hoast And the reason why it did not was because David was armed with the shield of faith and confidence in the Lord his God a secret Armour which was not then to be found in all the Kingdome of Israel besides But a farre greater then Goliath associated and seconded with a farre greater hoast both for number and strength than the Philistines in Davids time were able to make more maliciously bent against the whole race of Adam than the Philistines at this or any other time were against the seed of Abraham was now in field And all of us are bound to praise our gracious God that in that houre wee had a Sonne of David farre greater than his Father to stand betweene us and the brunt of the battell then pitched against us For if all mankinde from the East unto the West which have lived on earth since our Father Adams fall unto this present time or shall continue unto all future generations had been then mustred together all of us would have fled more swiftly and more confusedly from the sight or presence of this great Champion for the powers of darknesse than the hoast of Israel did from the Champion of the Philistines when hee bid a defiance unto them All of us had been routed at the first encounter without any slaughter been committed alive to perpetuall slavery and imprisonment But did this Sonne of David obtaine victory in this Duel with the Champion for the powers of darknesse at as easie a rate as his Father David had done over Goliath No If wee stretch the similitude thus farre wee shall dissolve the sweet harmony betweene the type and the Antitype The conquest which the Sonne of David had over Satan and the powers of darknesse whether in the garden or upon the Crosse was more glorious then that which David had over Goliath or Israel over the Philistines David was Master of the field sine sanguine sudore multo without blood or much sweat The Sonne of David did sweat much blood before hee foiled his potent Adversary And the present question is not about the measure but about the nature and quality of the pains which the Sonne of David in this long Combat suffered in respect of the paines which David or any other in the behalfe of Gods people had suffered As the glory of our Saviour Christ is now much greater than the glory of all his Saints which have been or shall be hereafter so no doubt his sufferings did farre exceed the sufferings of all his Martyrs But all this and much more being granted will not inferre that he suffered either the paines of Hell or hellish paines poenas infernales aut poenas inferorum such paines as the power of darknesse in that houre of extraordinary temptation had cast all mankinde into unlesse the Sonne of David had stood in the breach Admit the old Serpent had been in that houre permitted to exert his sting with all the might and malice he could against the promised womans seed that is the manhood of the Sonne of God yet seeing as the Apostle saith the sting of death is sinne not imputed but inherent it was impossible that the stinging paines of the second death should fasten upon his body or soule in whom there was neither seed nor relique neither root or branch of sinne Or againe admit hell fire whether materiall or immateriall be of a more violent and malignant quality than any materiall fire which we know in what subject soever it bee seated is and that the powers of darknesse with their entire and joint force had liberty to environ or begirt the Sonne of God with this fire or any other instruments of greater torture which they are enabled or permitted to use yet seeing there was no fuell either in his soule or body whereon this fire could feed no paines could bee produced in him for nature or quality truely hellish or such as the damned suffer For these are supernaturall or more than so not only in respect of the Agents or causes which produce them but in respect of the Subject which endures them Satan findes alwayes some thing in them which he armes against them some inherent internall corruption which hee exasperates to greater malignity than any externall force or violence could effect in any creature not tainted with such internall corruption from which the promised womans seed was more free than his crucified body was from putrifaction The Prince of darknesse and this world could finde nothing which hee could exasperate or arme against him 4. In respect of Divine justice or of those eternall rules of equity which the Omnipotent Creator doth most strictly observe it was not expedient only but necessary that the Son of God should in our flesh vanquish Satan and vanquish him by suffering evills even all the evills incident to our mortall nature There was no necessity no congruity that the Sonne of God should vanquish this great Enemy of mankinde by suffering the very paines of Hell or hellish torments These properly taken or when they are suffered in
his Supper CHAP. XVI Of the King of Sions comming to Ierusalem and how the maner of his comming was for circumstance of time prefigured by the Law or rite of the Paschall Lamb and for other circumstances expresly foretold by the Prophet Zachary 1 AN Apostle hath said it and wee must beleeve him that our Saviour Christ was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi the Lamb slaine from the beginning of the world And other Scriptures abundantly testifie that he was to bee slaughtered in time to the end that hee might take away the sinnes of the world About the indefinite or illimited truth of both these propositions there is no controversie amongst good Christians The limitation notwithstanding of both these undoubted truths require some further disquisition the limitation of the later a larger Treatise The maine Quere concerning the former is briefly this From what beginning of the world our Saviour is said to be Agnus occisus the Lamb slaine as whether from the first beginning of time or from the first day of the Creation To stretch the beginning of the world thus farre is more than the rules of true Theologie will warrant For it was neither necessary or expedient that the Sonne of God should bee slaine or that any bloody sacrifice should have been offered if our first Parents had preserved or retained their originall integrity By the beginning of the world then in our Apostles meaning wee are I take it to understand the sinfull world as it is coevall or confederate with the flesh or the first entrance of sinne into it or rather into our nature From the fall of our first Parents at least from their convention before their Almighty Judge and Creator the Sonne of God was first destinated and afterwards consecrated to be the Lamb of God which was to take away the sinnes of the world And of his death and passion or other undertakings to this purpose as well the sacrifice which righteous Abel offered out of the flock as the bloody sacrifice of himselfe being butchered by his ungracious brother Cain were true types or shadows So was the Paschall Lamb which was solemnly offered every yeare once in token afterwards in memory of the Israelites miraculous delivery out of Aegypt The first institution and observance of this solemnity was given as a pledge or assurance unto Gods chosen people that the destroyer should not hurt one of them when he smote all the first borne of Aegypt both of man and beast The same solemnity was afterwards continued in memory of that mighty deliverance which Israel had from Pharaoh and his hoast Howbeit even this miraculous deliverance was but a shadow or typicall assurance of that great deliverance which the Sonne of God in our flesh and all Gods people in him and by him had from the powers of Hell and darknesse in that great Passeover wherein this true Lamb of God predestinated to this purpose from the beginning of this world was actually consecrated and solemnly upon his consecration offered 2. A question there is but soberly handled by some good sacred Antiquaries whether the Law of the Paschall Lamb delivered by Moses were to bee solemnized according to all the rites and circumstances which were enjoyned and punctually to bee observed at the time of Israels departure out of Aegypt One branch of this Law it was that every houshold which was capable of eating it should take it from the flock foure dayes before the offering of it This separation was his consecration and this rite or ceremony as some good Writers tell us was observed throughout the generations if not in the Lambs offered by every private family yet in the Lamb designed or chosen for the publique sacrifice in that great Festivall which was brought into the City foure dayes before the offering of it with great pomp and solemnity But bee it that the solemnity of bringing the Lamb foure dayes before the Passeover was to bee observed onely in Aegypt this will no way impaire the sweet harmony betweene the Legall type and the Evangelicall mystery but rather give it a better lustre For that Passeover which was celebrated in Aegypt was the most illustrious peculiar type of this great Passeover wherein the Sonne of God was sacrificed for the sinnes of the world Other succeeding legall Passeovers were but remembrances of that great deliverance whereof the first Passeover in Aegypt was the pledge or pre-assurance And we in like sort were once for all delivered from the powers of Hell and darknesse by the visible blood of the new Covenant of which deliverance wee are more strictly enjoyned to continue a memoriall untill our Mediator and Redeemer come to judgement Now to declare unto the world that JESUS the Sonne of God and of David was the Lamb of God ordained from the beginning of the world to effect this mighty deliverance and to fulfill the mysteries forepictured by the Passeover in Aegypt He came unto Jerusalem the place appointed for this and other grand Festivalls foure dayes before the Passeover wherein hee was sacrificed and was brought in with greater pompe and solemnity than any Paschall Lamb than any Prince of Judah at any time before had been His attendants were more and their respects and salutations tendered in more submissive manner and the titles given to him much loftier than either David his father or Solomon in all his royalty had been accustomed unto The history of his comming is very remarkable of it selfe and the circumstances as they are variously related yet without clashing or contradiction by all the foure Evangelists most considerable 3. For the circumstance of time which was foure dayes before the Passeover that is determinately and punctually set downe by two Evangelists and may be evidently inferred out of all foure The speciall occasions of a great concourse of people out of severall Nations or Provinces which at this last Passeover did expect his comming or went out of Jerusalem to meet him or wait upon him after another guise than at any the three former Passeovers since his Baptisme had been seene are most fully exprest by S. Iohn Chap. 11. ver 45. Then many of the Iews which came to Mary and had seene the things which Iesus did beleeved on him But some of them went their wayes to the Pharisees and told them what things Iesus had done John 12.9 17 18. Much people of the Iews knew therefore that he was there and they came not for Iesus sake onely but that they might see Lazarus also whom hee had raised from the dead The people therefore that was with him when hee called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead bare record For this cause also the people met him for that they had heard that he had done this miracle c. The originall occasion of this great concourse as appeares in these passages was the irrefragable testimony of his raising Lazarus from the grave wherein he had laid foure dayes The speciall
lived here on earth No type at all not so much as a shadow of Christs humilitie and patience in all his sufferings but rather a foile by his impatience to set a lustre upon the unparalleld meeknesse of this true Nazarite of God by an Antiperistasis Sampsons last prayers unto the God of his strength were that he would give him power at the houre of his death to be revenged on his Enemies for the losse of his eyes Jesus of Nazareth the true Nazarite of God when he came unto the crosse on Mount Calvarie the stage and theatre for his enemies sport and triumph over him in this solemne feast prayes heartily even for those that hoodwinckt him and bid him prophecy saying Who was it that smote thee And for the Roman Souldiers which were the Executioners of their malicious merriment he prayes for both in such a sweet and heavenly manner as no Prophet had ever done for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they doe He did not so much as either lift up hand or voice or conceive any secret prayer against one or other of his persecutors during the time of his lingring but deadly paines as knowing this was the time wherein his body was to be made as an anvile that he might doe the will of his Father by the Sacrifice of himself and sufferance of all other indignities more bitter to a meere man than twenty deaths though of the crosse The effect or purpose of Gods will in this sacrifice as our Apostle instructs us was our Sanctification But the will of God which he was now to doe was his will passively taken to wit for the body of CHRIST offered up once for all as our Apostle interprets the meaning of the Author or rather of the Holy Ghost who did inspire the Author of the fortieth Psalme with the spirit of Prophecie 2. As in perusing many other Psalmes so in this I cannot but bewaile the negligence of most Interpreters as well ancient as moderne for not inquiring more accurately after the Authour but especially the historicall occasions of composing it I had many yeares agoe sundry probable notions or conjectures that this Psalme though inscribed a Psalme of David or revealed to David for this inscription will well beare both senses as some other Psalmes which have the same Inscription were if wee may beleeve good Authors penned or paraphrased upon by Ieremiah for the peoples use in the Babylonish captivity But these conjectures and the perusall of such notes as I had then gathered concerning the Author of this Psalme I now wave or rather altogether omit But whether the Author of this Psalme suppose David did act his owne part as having some speciall Cōmission from the Lord to instruct the people that to doe Gods will in some peculiar service then required was better then sacrifice much better then burnt offering or whether he spake this divine vision or rapture in the person of the Messias alone this however is most certain that the 6 7 8. verses of that 40. Psalme do containe a concludent Prophecie of the abolition of legall sacrifices by the sacrifice of Christs body The argument or demonstration is most divinely gathered and irrefragably prest home to this purpose by our Apostle Heb. 10. from the 4. verse to the 11. It is not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sinnes Wherefore when hee commeth into the world hee saith Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared mee in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinne thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Loe I come In the volume of the booke it is written of mee to doe thy will O God Above when he said Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sinne thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the Law then said hee Loe I come to doe thy will O God hee taketh away the first that hee may establish the second By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of JESUS CHRIST once for all 3. The onely difficulty about the reconciliation of the Psalmist in the originall and the Translation of the Seuenty which the Apostle follows Heb. 10. and his approbation of it makes it to mee in this particular altogether as Authentick as the Hebrew or a better expression of it then moderne Interpreters without him could make The resolution of this difficulty will much depend upon the literall meaning or importance of the Hebrew phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Latine Interpreters render it thus aures perfodisti mihi others aures perforasti mihi others aures aperuisti mihi thou hast digged through boared or opened my eares And some of these conceit an allusion in the literall sense to the legall custome of boaring the eares of such as were content to continue perpetuall servants to their present Masters and not use the priviledge of the yeare of Iubilee But this conjecture is rejected by many moderne Writers and in particular to my remembrance by Pineda Aures perfodere saith the Tigurine Note upon this place symbolicâ oratione est in servitutem mancipare as much as to make one a perpetuall servant This Interpretation I take supposeth the former allusion to such as were made perpetuall servants by boring their eares But our Saviour although for a time hee tooke the forme of a servant upon him and was qualified for the performance of the hardest part of this service by opening the eare yet was he not made nor did hee become a perpetuall servant but shortly after to bee made both Lord and CHRIST 4. Ribera who doubtlesse had read very many and with great judgement saith Of all the Interpreters which hee had perused Genebrard comes neerest to the meaning of the Holy Ghost To exhibite Genebrards Interpretation in his owne words Aures mihi aperuisti id est corpus per Synecdochen e Paulo Heb. 10. Mihi aptasti corpus humanum in vtero virgineo Rabbini non satis perceptâ metaphorâ Aures fodisti sive aperuisti mihi ad tuae obtemperandum voluntati aurem revelasti retexisti ab aure abstulisti velum tegmen ut acutiùs audiret Effecisti ut te audirem ac tuae voluntati libens parêrem Me docilem obsequentem ad audiendum reddidisti Chald. Aures ad auscultanda tua praecepta formasti mihi Nostris congruenter Quia enim agitur de corporatione sive incarnatione Domini est metaphora simul Synecdoche ad quorum troporum difficultatem explanandam Apostolus appositissimè posuit Corpus aptasti mihi Est enim primùm metaphora a figulis qui manu fodicant ducunt argillam e quâ cupiunt vas aptare currente rota Quare Deus figulus fictor plastes nuncupatur ut alludatur ad Genes 2. quando ex humo humanum corpus duxit Est deinde Synecdoche pars pro toto aures
it stood uncrusht was not onely an abuse of things indifferent but the most preposterous idolatry which this rebellious stiffenecked people did at any time practice For in worshipping it they did worship him whose quality and person it did represent And for this reason Hezekiah was moved with greater indignation against it then against any other idoll statue or reliques of idolatry which came in his way Hee took away the high places and brake the images and cut downe the groves and brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made for unto those dayes the children of Israel did burne incense unto it and he called it Nehushtan 2. Kings 18.4 5. A name questionlesse implying much more then the meere grammaticall expression which most Interpreters use imports Nor had this good Kings words or fact beene worth the registring if hee had onely called a brazen Serpent broken to pieces a piece of brasse But the full importance of this word as of many others in the originall whether in the Greek or Hebrew will not be easily found in ordinary Lexicons or Nomenclators Every good Interpreter should have a Lexicon either of his owne or others gathering peculiar unto Divinity specially for words used in a technicall Emblematicall or proverbiall sense However Nechosheth signifies no more ordinarily then brasse Yet Nehushtan in this Emblematicall speech or fact of Hezekiah as I should ghesse imports no lesse then our English foule feend the old Dragon or Satanas As these Idolaters in Hezekiahs time did adore the picture or type of the old Serpent so this last generation having forsaken the God of their Fathers did chuse Barabbas the sonne of the Serpent and renounced the Sonne of God for being their Lord and so make up the full measure of their forefathers iniquity and brought a greater plague upon their posterity then any which did befall their Ancestors in the wildernesse whether by the biting of Serpents or other of Gods judgements or punishments 7. To this effect I took occasion to expound this fact of Hezekiah obiter and upon another text in a learned audience many years now agoe without the tax of any as farre as I could heare and with better approbation of some then present then I expected because the exposition was new and uncouth And yet as I have found since conceived before by a learned man though no profest Divine But as the proverb is by-standers sometimes see more then they who play the game And I must freely confesse that for the explication of many places in Scripture I have learned more or been better confirmed in mine opinions by the Lawyers then by the profest Divines of the French Nation one or two excepted The man to whom I am in this particular beholden is Hotman And that which in his history deserves to be had in speciall memory he demolished cast down the brazen Serpent which Moses by Gods command had set up in the Desert that such as were slung by the biting of Serpents might be healed by looking thereon when hee perceived the superstitiously-bent people thereunto idolatrously to attribute Divine honor For there was not in that Image any Divine efficacy but this being the time of Infancy of Gods worship Moses the Schoolmaster of the Hebrews by this Image did prefigure Christs triumph over the conquered Serpent when by the name of Serpent as is said at the beginning he intimated the subtill enemy of Mankind Quodque in ipsius historia singulari memoriâ dignum est serpentem aeneum quem Dei monitu Moses in solitudine statuerat ut qui serpentum morsu ulcerati essent eo conspecto sanarentur excîdit atque disjecit cùm animadvertisset populum superstitione imbutum divinos statuae honores tribuere Non enim ei simulachro vis ulla divinitus inerat sed cum haec divinae religionis esset pueritia Moses hebraeae gentis paedagogus eo simulachro futurum Christi de Serpente devicto trophaeū designabat cum serpentis nomine callidū ut à principio dictum est humani generis hostem significaret Hotman in consolatione è sacris literis petitâ de factis Ezechiae pag. 128. CHAP. XXXII That the Sonne of God should suffer without the gates of Ierusalem prefigured by the sacrifice of the Atonement 1 BUt before Gods people could be capable of this cure of their soules by looking upon him who did vanquish the old Serpent or before he came to be the Author of so great salvation he was to make full satisfaction for their sins whose waight had otherwayes pressed all Mankinde down to hell This full reconciliation or atonement betwixt the just unpartial Judge and sinfull men was made upon the crosse But some will demand in what part of Moses writings this was foretold or prefigured It was most exquisitely foretold and prefigured partly in the alienation of the primacy from the moneth Tisri unto the moneth Abib Untill the law was given Tisri had absolute precedency being the moneth wherein according to all probability the world was created But upon the deliverance of Abrahams seed from the tyranny of Egypt the moneth Abib by Gods speciall command had both precedency and preeminency Yet not absolute precedency but precedency in respect of that which was more preeminent to wit for the Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall account as for their accounts temporall September or Tisri did still retaine precedency And for this reason I take it our Saviour was first proclaimed the Messias by Iohn Baptist in the moneth Tisri but afterwards declared to be the Sonne of God by his resurrection from the dead in the moneth Abib At his Baptisme he had fulfilled one part of the mystery prefigured in the legall feast of atonement which was celebrated upon the tenth day of the moneth Tisri In his sufferings upon Mount Calvary he did fully accomplish that which was prefigured by the legall sacrifices in the day of Atonement and that which was inchoated by himselfe at the day of his Baptisme At his Baptisme he fulfilled the mystery of the scape goate bearing these peoples sinnes into the wildernesse and there vanquished the great Tempter who had first vanquished them and their forefathers At the feast of the Passeover in the moneth Abib he accomplished the mystery prefigured by the other goat whose blood was brought by the high Priest into the Sanctuary Thus much we learne from our Apostle Hebr. 13.10 c. Wee have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve the Tabernacle For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sinne are burnt without the camp Wherefore Iesus 2also that he might sanctifie the people with his owne blood suffered without the gate Let us goe forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach The true meaning or purport of this passage and the connexion of it with the former the Reader shall finde more at large in a